Tabitha

Hi stranger! My fault ... not yours! I just want to thank everyone who prayed for Josiah. He was discharged from hospital on Saturday morning and since then his eating has improved, he is gaining strength ... and he certainly has his singing/shouting voice back again! He is a real character ... a wee comedian!

Been down in Manila and the Scottish Team are well and truly home now. We had a great couple of weeks and my two kids loved having other Scottish kids around. We had a really good programme organised for them - a mixture of ministry time, kids time and learning time. I will write a blog with a report on all the great things that happened.

In the meantime, I want to totally inspire and encourage you by an amazing story that happened here this week. As you know, one of our ministries at Cornerstone Church is our Hospital Ministry every Wednesday morning. I asked the Lord, "If you came to Santiago, where would you go?" I felt in my spirit that He would go to the place where there is the most helplessness and need ... the local Government hospital. A terrible place. Every time we go there, desperation hits us in the face.

For example, the lady at the bottom of this blog was in a desperate situation. She had to have a cesarean as there were complications with her twin babies. She had the operation and the kids were healthy. She, however, was not. She had an infection that was so severe she was at the point of death. Listen to this .. when we talked to her she told us that she had to sell one of her twins just to pay the medicine to keep her alive. Tragic. This week, Pastor Danny said that she was not there. We don't know if she is even still alive.

I have been challenging the leaders, and myself, not to pray 'safe' prayers - "Lord, I pray that by this time next week he'll be out of this hospital" or "Lord guide the hands of the surgeons" or "may she wake up tomorrow feeling better". Know what I mean. We are excellent at safety. Keep our pride and dignity at all costs.

But ...we need the Peter & John anointing - right here, right now. In the Name of Jesus ... walk, be healed, blind eyes open, asthma be gone, high blood pressure become normal, heart disease flee etc. I have been challenging the leaders to ask "How do you feel, what is happening" after they pray. These people literally need a miracle now. Some of them are teetering at the edge of life and death ...

There was a little boy called Joshua, only 8 years old from Santiago City. He cut his thumb on a piece of rusty iron and it became infected. In the UK, tetanus jab, no problem. In the Philippines ... life threatening. His thumb became black and septicemia began to run through his body. Two weeks ago Pastor Danny, Pastor Winston along with David & Grace Strachan from Peterhead prayed with the boy and his family. David left a card with a verse on it to encourage them.


Last weekend, wee Joshua's conditioned worsened and his family was called to the hospital. They watched helplessly as the poison took the last breath from the little boy ... he died. The Doctor pronounced him dead and the family were distraught.

Five minutes after he died something amazing happened. Joshua's grandmother began to hold this boy in her hands and began to cry out to the Lord. She said that she began to 'pray the same prayers as the Cornerstone people'. She rebuked the sickness and cried out "God, if you are there ... have mercy on this boy and hear my cries."

Whenever she prayed this prayer, Joshua's eyes opened. He was back! Over the next few days the poison in his body began to disappear and last Wednesday his grandmother was waiting to tell our pastors the amazing story. Look at the picture at the start of this blog. His thumb is completely healed! No puss. No black poison. Our God is a healing God. Hallelujah! The book of Acts is still being written ....

Well, that's OK in the Philippines... but it wouldn't really happen in the West. Really? Who prayed? Who had the faith? Who believed against the odds? An old grandmother in the depths of despair. She wasn't a member of a Pentecostal Church. She wasn't in a cell group. She isn't even an evangelical. But she thought ... only Jesus can hear me.

In Scotland, England, Ireland & Wales .. in the USA or Australia ... wherever you may be, God is searching for those whose hearts are fully committed to Him .. so he may strengthen them. Why don't you ask the Lord, "Lord, if you came to my town ... where would you go?" or "lord, can you use me?"

It will open your eyes and change your life. In the meantime, there are people in hospital right now who need the same miracle as Joshua; they need love' ... they need to know someone cares. The church MUST break out of her four comfortable walls and begin to walk the streets. For there you will find needs you never knew ... and at the point of need you will find a saviour waiting for His people to speak faith into the most helpless of situations.

Got a cup of water? An old jacket? An extra meal? A bit of time? A letter of encouragement? An shoulder to lean on? A prayer of faith? (Please read Matthew 25:34-46)

Go ... the world is waiting for you. If you won't go ... what will happen to the Joshuas of your generation? Miracles are waiting for you ... only believe.

Selah

"And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward." Matthew 10:42