It’s been a tumultuous week in many respects! There was a point, prior to heading towards Heathrow Airport a week ago Saturday, that I thought the week might just get hijacked by these wonderful creations, my knees. Walking through airports seems to be a particularly stressful time for them, perhaps….because the enemy knows that good things are going to happen, and wants to arrest my progress? Maybe: or maybe I just have osteoarthritis, though I have to say that every time I get prayer for them, there’s improvement, and when I stand up to preach, anywhere, I don’t even FEEL my knees for the duration of it….so it suggests to me that God’s grace is there for those special ‘time-frames’, and it means that long-term healing of them wouldn’t be a problem, so I’m just learning to keep the faith (cue Bon Jovi!) and wait…
A wonderful thing that I forgot to mention in recent blogs… my lovely mate, John Pressdee, fellow Rhino, prayer-walker extraordinary, 71 years old, two massive heart attacks, still prayer-walking, and being re-envisioned by God for the future (that doesn’t SEEM to include retirement!!), also suffered from osteoarthritic knees. I stayed with John & Yvonne, his amazing prayer-walking-organising wife (could YOU organise a walk from Berlin to Moscow, for instance, with a team of 20 or so, and all the accommodation en route? They’d already previously walked London-Berlin, London to Istanbul and so much more…I know I couldn’t, and I used to be an Administrator!!) last Sunday and Monday nights. John’s knees were bothering him quite a lot Monday night, so I prayed for him, and Yvonne, as she’s got some pretty severe arthritis and pains. I’d just gone to bed when John came into my room and told me that all the pain had gone, and that he’d ‘glided up the stairs’ two or three times without pain…. I love poking the enemy in the eye where knees are concerned!
More knees were healed Sunday in Catford, Orpington, and, on Friday, in Childswickham…. even after 30 years of ‘doing this stuff’ I’m still excited and blessed and bowled over by every healing, however large or small.
Jesus said ‘In this world you WILL have trouble’ – so along with triumph came the various turbulent emails and phone calls concerning, once again, the USA…. this time as you’ll have read, with the moving/shipping companies… not resolved yet, it may be tomorrow, if nothing has changed, that I have to report the matter of fraud to the police, both where companies and individuals are concerned: I’d much rather NOT do that, if I’m honest, as these days, a quiet life, between trips, is my preference…
Sadly, the moving company that was ‘engaged’ by ‘friends’ to get some items of personal value to me, back to the UK, is a company run by a christian (I was told once, that is), yet it seems without too much doubt I’m the victim of fraud by that company, possibly (also pretty much without too much doubt) by the folk who first told me about the company….it now involves considerable sums of money, as my stuff is in Liverpool, but won’t be released until the shipping company have been paid by the moving company. You might be appalled to know that shipping companies charge the earth for storage in these situation – my stuff arrived there on 20 May, and, to date, the bill is just a tad under £3,000: plus the fact I might have to pay the USA-side shipping company AGAIN (already paid the moving company $3950 (£2,633), which is where the fraud began….and every day it doesn’t get paid, my ‘bill’ in Liverpool increases by £156….. so police and lawyers might be the only option.
It’s been a lovely day today, as, because of God’s grace to me, and his provision, I’ve been able to give a car away, to someone who desperately needed one, and was utterly blown away by it…. it’s a lovely feeling to be able to bless other people, ain’t it…??!
