A little team from our church has been going out onto the local high street every Saturday morning and offering to pray for anyone who wants healing. (Jesus seemed to heal more people outside the synagogue than in, so it seems like a good idea!)

It’s so interesting seeing people’s reactions. Despite my apprehensions, it turns out that all sorts of people are really glad we’re there and are beginning to come for prayer. The local rough sleeping alcoholics are gathering and feel like this is their church. They get fed and prayed for and there is always someone with a listening ear too. Some of the poorest are so glad that there is someone who will pray for them and their needs, and it’s all free! Then there are the ones who have come to the end of the medical expertise and want to know whether God can heal them. One man who had a shoulder injury and constant pain was healed instantly. He told us,‘This is a miracle, and I should know, I’m a doctor!’

Last Saturday, Ann-Marie and I prayed for a young woman who had only come because her boyfriend wanted us to pray for him. At first she said she didn’t have anything that needed God’s attention, and anyway she wasn’t a Christian. Then she told us about someone she knew who had stomach cancer, and asked us to pray for him.

As we stood in the middle of the high road and prayed together as a threesome, she said ‘I know I’m not a Christian yet, but I am spiritual, and I think there’s a fourth person standing here!’ Wow! It reminded me of the story in the Bible in which three men were thrown into a furnace for their faith, and onlookers saw four men walking around unharmed in it.

It seems Jesus is alive and well and on our high street! – and making himself known to all sorts of people. There’s no better place to be than where he is.