more on 'out there'
I was asked a great Q today that I thought might be helpful for you to have a look at too. Here is the comment...
'Would love to know more about how you guys go about doing this. Are you training your people in how to talk/pray with people? Are you just walking up to people and asking them while they are shopping and etc? Or is there a part of town where there's a high contingency of people living on the "streets" that are more open to prayer. Just wondering how that might play out here in the States...I live in the middle of suburbia where you're lucky to get eye contact from people passing by!'
Our town doesn't have the 'obvious' poor - there's no one living on the streets for example - but there are definitely people really struggling!!
So, it's into this context that we started doing healing on the streets every week almost two years ago. There is an area of town that is just outside the town hall - it's called the 'Diamond', and it's just an open space surrounded by shops. The team simply goes there, sets up 6 chairs in a row, and puts up a banner with the word healing on it. There's a small PA system that we use to tell stories of how God has already healed people, and some of the conditions they've been healed from. Then the guys on the team invite anyone who is sick to come and take a seat where they'll be prayed for. Other members of the team stand around the edges handing out leaflets that explain what we're doing, and give details of the church. It's amazing to watch pretty reserved people come and take a seat. It's even more amazing to watch their faces as they get healed!!!
We do train the team members in praying for the sick, and following it through - we never like to claim someone's been healed until they have it verified for example - because we live in a small town (there are only 25k in Coleraine), people do tend to come back and let us know how they are a week or more after they've been prayed for... they also come back to get more prayer if they've not been healed too.
If you'd like to hear some of the stories, why not check out: out-there.org
...it's a website that we've just set up to share some of what's happening on the streets. It's incredible what God has been doing - and it's wonderful to see people get healed, and some of them come to know Jesus too! It's life changing!!!
'Would love to know more about how you guys go about doing this. Are you training your people in how to talk/pray with people? Are you just walking up to people and asking them while they are shopping and etc? Or is there a part of town where there's a high contingency of people living on the "streets" that are more open to prayer. Just wondering how that might play out here in the States...I live in the middle of suburbia where you're lucky to get eye contact from people passing by!'
Our town doesn't have the 'obvious' poor - there's no one living on the streets for example - but there are definitely people really struggling!!
So, it's into this context that we started doing healing on the streets every week almost two years ago. There is an area of town that is just outside the town hall - it's called the 'Diamond', and it's just an open space surrounded by shops. The team simply goes there, sets up 6 chairs in a row, and puts up a banner with the word healing on it. There's a small PA system that we use to tell stories of how God has already healed people, and some of the conditions they've been healed from. Then the guys on the team invite anyone who is sick to come and take a seat where they'll be prayed for. Other members of the team stand around the edges handing out leaflets that explain what we're doing, and give details of the church. It's amazing to watch pretty reserved people come and take a seat. It's even more amazing to watch their faces as they get healed!!!
We do train the team members in praying for the sick, and following it through - we never like to claim someone's been healed until they have it verified for example - because we live in a small town (there are only 25k in Coleraine), people do tend to come back and let us know how they are a week or more after they've been prayed for... they also come back to get more prayer if they've not been healed too.
If you'd like to hear some of the stories, why not check out: out-there.org
...it's a website that we've just set up to share some of what's happening on the streets. It's incredible what God has been doing - and it's wonderful to see people get healed, and some of them come to know Jesus too! It's life changing!!!
posted by Kathryn Scott at 6:30 am
3 Comments:
Thanks so much for taking the time to go deeper into this! Greatly appreciate it!
hi kathryn,
i stumbled across your blog and have been really encouraged by the out there project. It just seems so Christ-like and it is so good to hear about people that are willing to give themselves in this way. It seems pretty obvious that God is in this and prayer is being answered :-) ... and in Coleraine too!!
Kathryn,
I absolutely love your song "Hungry". It is by far one of my favorite worship songs, and it's helped me through a lot of hard times. It's actually helping me through one right now.
I heard a praise group sing your song "Hungry" tonight at a revival I attended. One thing about their version, however, is that there is a third verse. I wasn't familiar with it so I tried looking it up on the internet, but couldn't find it. I was just wondering, is it your writing? Or did they add it?
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