Café Church

When I arrived at The Gathering's premises on Thursday afternoon I was feeling fine, but when we left at 6:45 after our soup kitchen had finished I was limping quite badly on my right leg. I have no idea what happened to my leg or why it started hurting, but it was very painful.

On Friday morning my leg was feeling OK again and I gave it no further thought until the afternoon when the pain was back with a vengeance. The pain was like an electric shock running down my leg but deep inside the leg. That night I couldn't sleep at all, so in the morning Paula took me to see a GP.

The Dr was mystified, especially when she touched my thigh and saw it spasm. So after a big injection of anti-inflammatory pain relief I felt a bit better and was a bit more mobile. However the drugs were simply masking the pain.

The pain had severely knocked my sermon prep for Sunday so rather than drop the responsibility on someone else we decided to have Café Church (a low key informal gathering with God at the centre), in which church members were free to share a testimony or a word that God had been speaking to them. As ever The Gathering rose to the challenge and went well beyond anything we were expecting.

During our Gathering they all laid hands on me and prayed for healing in my leg and boy did their prayers work! Immediately mt thigh felt much looser and I was able to put weight on the leg. For the rest of Sunday the pain just kept diminishing. Thank you LORD!

We were also blessed by an old friend joining The Gathering for the morning and he brought a friend with him which was brilliant.

Paula wrote this on Facebook about our Gathering:
"I really love mornings like this morning when everything seems to be conspiring against us and yet God shows Himself supreme and more than able! Dean's unexplained injury and his inability to move and reaction to the pain relief meant that he couldn't complete his sermon so we planned a last minute cafe church. Then our car problems leaped up a gear (excuse the pun!) as the Jetta refused to even start leaving Paula stranded at home. However, when The Gathering finally met we joyfully received a dear friend visiting us for the first time and enjoyed the most powerful and wonderful time of worship, prayer and testimony after our tea and cakes! Dean is experiencing extensive healing just hours after prayer; the grace of God was key amongst our testimonies and one of our newest, transformed families testified to how 3 years ago God had told them that He would send people from the UK to help them through their immense difficulties and into a renewed life. We had no idea and there was enormous power as she tearfully rejoiced at how faithful God is to His word. Awesome!"