Near the end of Friday evening Street Outreach, our team noticed a group of guys blocking the road with their cars, in a heated argument and gearing up for a serious fight. We stopped at a safe distance and prayed for God to intervene, to bring peace and reconciliation, within seconds the situation turned around completely, they were shaking hands and getting back in their cars, total peace.

So we went on, really happy at what God had done, and met two more “street guys” - we gave them clothes and food, and blessed them. Now it was REALLY getting late but we saw someone way down the road and felt we had to go see him. He lives in a squat with three other guys so we gave him all the food we had, along with socks, gloves etc for all four of them…THEN he told us he had “prayed to God” while sitting on the street that God would send someone to give him food as he was really hungry. We were so thankful to God that his prayers were answered bigger and better than he had expected!

Part 1 - A new member of staff started work last September. She’s a lovely lady and I had a few chats to her and made her feel welcome. A few weeks later she said this to me: “Sometimes I question whether I actually fit in with all the others, and it bothers me more at some times than at others.” She then went on to say that I had encouraged her to be herself and be different because she sees me being myself and happy and comfortable to be different (my children would describe it as me “being weird”!)

Part 2 - We were chatting on the Christmas Do and she asked me if we could go out sometime, so that we would have longer to chat than the bits of time we could snatch at work. We went out for the day last Saturday and had a brilliant time sharing our lives with each other. God’s clearly working in her already - she loves the Jesus songs we sing in school, she is interested in the staff prayer meeting that has just started (called ‘God at work’ and an answer to prayer in itself!), she has asked us to pray for her sister recovering from an operation, and even wants to come to church sometime!

Around seven years ago I had an X ray on a kidney stone that had moved to my bladder. During the X ray one of the people looking at the results said, “oh dear”, which I can’t say I was overly chuffed about! It turned out that the inside wall of my bladder had burst through the outside in nine places. If you picture a silhouette of Mickey Mouse’s head, but add an extra ear three times the size in between the first two, then add six more smaller ones around his chin - well, that is pretty much the way it looked.

I have basically been on and off antibiotics for around seven years. Nothing leaves the pockets and really nasty, rather painful infections start. Last year I had nine infections in eleven months.

Over the last few years I have been prayed for numerous times and have often gone through long periods without infection, Praise God. But it gets even better. About three months ago after several rather nasty scans, an ultrasound scan and lots of prayer from friends, I went for yet another scan. This one showed just three large pockets clumped together and that was it… six had disappeared. I was puzzled and then amazed, thank you God again, praise Jesus!

Bizarrely, the doctors didn’t seem overly concerned about the lack of six pockets but as a result were now happy to operate on me to get rid of the remaining three. For a while I wondered why the last three were still there - maybe my friends are bad at prayer! (Just kidding.) The thing is, if the last scan had shown zero pockets then the doctors could quite easily have written off the pockets as faults with the scans. Also, with the other six gone I could then be operated on without removing too much bladder. Plus, of course, I get a cool scar! I might never know the exact reason why things happened as they did and I don’t mind at all.

I told the surgeon after the op that six smaller pockets disappeared through prayer. He said, “Ok”, paused for a few seconds and then said, “Your operation went very well. We removed the three pockets and,  just so you know, one of them was so big that it could fit on your head like a swimming cap!” I am not overly comfortable with the thought of how they know that. 

Basically I just want to say thank you, Jesus; thank you, God for being Awesome. Thank you for healing me, thanks to the doctors, nurses, and surgeons for fixing me, and thank you to everyone who prayed for me. It works!

The family of a little boy I’ve been working with are atheists, but are happy for him and his brother to be at our CofE school. The boys haven’t really joined in prayers and similar activities, but are very polite and say how they believe in science etc. However, since I have been working with the younger one, I have found out that his mum is happy for him to go to the local lively church youth club. They recently had a Christian rock band come and do a workshop, where my little boy played his guitar with them and his mum even went to watch him play in the Sunday service! The Bible says ‘do not despise the day of small beginnings’ so I’m expecting a lot more!

Here is a testimony from chats at the school gates!

I have been getting to know one of the mums at my childrens’ school. We recently sat next to each other at the Harvest service in the church attached to the school and had an amazing conversation about church and faith. I shared an encouragement I felt Jesus was showing me and she really opened up to me about her life, work and hopes for the future. Since then I kept seeing her and chatting mostly about her job which she was frustrated with, involved time-consuming travel and some unfair treatment. I offered to pray for her and shared that I felt like God wanted to provide for her and give her good things. She said she often believed good for others but not for herself.

She ended up getting made redundant from her job just before Christmas so we prayed she’d get a new one. I saw her last week and she was brimming with excitement to tell me she had a new job near to school, with better hours and pay and that she wondered if I’d been praying for her. She felt like she was beginning to realise God had good things for her and that she could come to him with her needs.

We had a blessed time out on the streets on Friday and wanted to let you know. I went out with K and my husband, I. K was already very encouraged as she had brought someone to the Lord on her way to the Beacon. We saw about 8-9 men whilst out of which all but 1 accepted prayer. K was bold in asking if they would like to pray the prayer of salvation. Three men prayed  the salvation prayer, one did so after a prophetic word; a further person asked us to pray for peace for him. Amazing!

We were asked by a passer-by how he could get involved, we didn’t have any cards about church so  I mentioned our website.  We met a small group of non church people, in their twenties, who’d come out to give food because it was so cold. They wanted to know what we gave out. It was great to talk and bless them.  I also know that the other team witnessed a person giving his beautiful warm coat to a homeless person. God is on the move and has filled these people with compassion.

Although it was very cold it was an amazing evening. We give glory to God for his love and grace.

My Grandad was taken ill over Christmas, he was having some serious problems with his bowel and was admitted to hospital. He wasn’t feeling particularly hopeful, but despite this, along with his usually nominal faith, he asked me to pray with him. So I did.

A little while later I got a call from my Grandad saying that he’d had a very strange experience. He said that he had seen fine white sheets appear in front of him (in his private room) falling from the ceiling. He couldn’t see them when his eyes were open, but when he closed his eyes he said he felt they were so real that he could reach out and touch them. Through tears he then told me that he thought it might be angels. Now my Grandad is cutler from Sheffield, not someone who is easily persuaded that angels are with us, so you can imagine how gobsmacked I was to hear him say this. It was amazing, and I told him that I felt Jesus was letting him know that he was there with him.

The great thing is his faith seems to have really shifted, to the point where he’s asking us more and more to pray for him, and that he himself is praying every day as well - for other things in the family as well as his illness. For me, it’s just really encouraging to see him getting better and his trust in God rising, but also so comforting to know that God is directly involved - He Himself is reaching out to my Grandad and bringing him hope.

I’ve been coming to Vinelife for about five weeks now and God has really moved in my life. When I came to church I had a problem with alcohol and went for prayer; now I’m 24 days without a drop of alcohol. I could not do this on my own, thank you Jesus! I love Vinelife, I pray it will become my home with a real family. 

We’ve started to see a real breakthrough in healing in our church over the last week. On Sunday during worship, Phil shared a word of knowledge about people who were suffering from long-term injuries sustained in accidents. One lady had had pain in her shoulder for nearly twenty years, but then a group of ladies prayed for her and all the pain completely disappeared! The next day in the Vinelife Office, one of the staff members suddenly got a sharp pain in the joint of their knee which left them unable to bend or put any weight on it. A few of the other staff eventually decided it would be a good idea to pray, and within a few minutes all the pain had left and full movement was restored! Praise Jesus. Be encouraged in stepping out in praying for healing this week - God is on the move!

A couple of weeks ago, at lifegroup we prayed for my sister and my parents who do not yet know Christ. The following Sunday I skyped my sister who lives in Canada, and it turns out she has been going to a church for the past three weeks and seems to be enjoying it. YES God. God is so good!!!