Liphook Community Magazine - Autumn 2015

I Love India
We’ve just started a “healing hour”. It probably sounds a bit
weird to most! But this is an hour during the week when anyone,
whether they have faith, or not is able to come and receive very
simple prayer for healing. We’ve had all sorts through the door,
the old, the young, those who are really unwell, some who are
less so. I don’t know anyone who has regretted it, and we’ve seen
some incredible “coincidences” afterwards.
A Bore well – fresh clean water all year round
ever since he’s been so much better, the swelling in his stomach
has gone down significantly and he looks happy and relatively
healthy. The family needless to say joined the church!
A Baptism, James and Prasant
Baptise a new Christian
It all started, really in India. I found myself there a few months
ago supporting a church based in Andra Pradesh. The church
runs some amazing projects - an orphanage, a free health clinic,
bore well drilling, but we weren’t there to help with any of that.
We were there to help pastors in the Indian countryside.
Before I went out, I had to take my wife to the Osteopath, she
was in such acute pain from her back and neck. But there are no
osteopaths in the remote villages of India. So when people come
to the pastors in acute pain from their back braking work in the
rice fields, all the pastors can do is pray for them. It sounds desperate
doesn’t it! The odd thing is that it works. Call it the placebo
effect, or group psychosis or anything that we care to mention
from our materialistic western standpoint. When these pastors
pray for their flock, they have a habit of getting better.
Take Pastor Benjamin for example. Pastor Benjamin is immaculately
groomed and looks like a Bollywood star. Almost as soon as we
got there we went to his church, which was a large square of
tarpaulin in the middle of a village. This church started when a
family came to Benjamin in despair for their son, who was 10,
who had a really bloated abdomen and who wasn’t going to live
according to all the doctors. Pastor Benjamin prayed for him, and
I saw this myself, time and again. There are many dramatic stories
I could tell that you might struggle to believe, but one of my
favourites was the lad who came to us with a headache. I asked
him how long he had had it for. He said three years. Imagine it,
with no paracetamol, or ibuprofen, constant pain. So we prayed
for him, and the headache went, and he was astonished.
Church in India – over 40 of us were
crammed into this small building
This brings me back to the UK again. We love praying really simple
prayers for people who are sick, we’ve seen just the same answers
to prayer over in the UK as we have in India - the only difference
is that our Indian brothers and sisters seem to be more open
minded! So if you are unwell and would like prayer do contact
our church & give it a try - as a friend of mine likes to say what’s
the worst that could happen!
Valentine Inglis Jones
P O S S I B L E V I S I T T O T H E
Somme Commemoration Event
2 9 T H J U N E 2 0 1 6
Leger Tours are running a trip to France on 29th June 2016
for four days, pickup point Guildford. Bed and Breakfast
accommodation double or twin is just around £400 per person.
Single rooms are at a horrendous premium so I advise singles to
join up with another to share a twin.
I have a particular wish to attend as my father was gassed on the
Somme in July 1916. Mentioning this to friends, I have been
asked to include another nine of them in the trip. Should
anyone else wish to join us, please do let me know a.s.a.p. The
deposit required is £100 per person, everyone must have
insurance (which I believe Leger will provide) and we must
accept which crossing of the Channel they decide upon
(depending on the services offered at the time.)
Should we ultimately have twenty people or more, we will
constitute our own tour, and we may be offered a financial
discount, but I would try to negotiate the cost to include evening
dinner.
Stella Fells - thefells@bands172.plus.com
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