One of the ‘regular’ churches I have the pleasure of going to speak at is Brownhill Road Baptist, Catford, London SE6. I’ve been going there for many years, and some dear friends are part of the leadership team there. Dave and Pat Bridle and I met in 1980 (wow….36 years ago!! – I must have been about 3 years old, and Dave and Pat maybe 4!!) when Dave was part of the counselling team at Spring Harvest. As we got to know each other, we discovered a lot in common – the love of football, music, similar humour (!!) – and in the years to follow, got involved with an annual camp from the church, for young people, ‘Camp Challenge’. Friendships made with some of the leaders, and the (then) young people continue to this day, too.
There was a whole new ‘feel’ about BRBC last Sunday: in part because they’ve had big changes, with the Pastor retiring, and the appointment of a new young Pastor, Armind, a converted Moslem, from Kosovo. He’s great guy, from just that one meeting with him, and I’ve got a feeling I’ll be in Kosovo and Albania with him before too long! The ‘change’ is always likely with the advent of a new pastor, and it’ll be great (assuming they still want me to go to visit!!) to see how the church evolves from here.
It’s a church of about 80 people, from a wide range of nations, which I love, and many responded for prayer of Sunday morning – perhaps many more than usual. It was a blessing to have my great mate, Paul Goodman, with me: Paul lives relatively locally to the church, and was just brilliant to have with me in Colombia at Easter 2015. Paul, like so many I take me with me on trips, prays and blesses people in the same way that I try to, and I was so glad to have him last Sunday, as we finished praying for people at 2.30 p.m. I reckon I’d have been there until about 5 p.m. if I’d been on my own!
It’s such a privilege to see people who are sick healed: to see people who are ‘struggling’ blessed, and leave with a smile: and people who are searching, for whatever they need from God, finding an answer or two. One lovely man, John, who Paul prayed for, was pretty much deaf in his right ear: God is SO good, as John left with ultra-loud sounds in that ear – not that they WERE loud, they just seem it when you’ve been deaf and can hear again! As always, I got a number of people with arthritis – seems to be my forte! – and everyone prayed for testified to pain going, or reducing markedly. There’s always such a wide variety of sicknesses, ailments, and problems: last Sunday they included many ‘regulars’ – cancer, diabetes, asthma – that are only quantifiable as being healed either because of hospital visits, or time (diabetes, asthma), but a lady with fibromyalgia received instant relief from pain from God, another with severe sciatic pain. A number of people want prayer for financial issues, and family problems – and it’s great to see God’s peace flood them just as you pray asking, and pray using some of the countless promises of Scripture.
Paul prayed for a good number of people: I haven’t heard from him about the others apart from the deafness, but when I hear, I’ll report….!
