A rerun of a great, short video example of ordinary attempts, by Ken Sweers.

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This would be well beyond the scope of “ordinary” for most of us, but I thought it was worth sharing because the story didn’t end like these usually do, and Paul and his posse seemed ok about that.

Me and some friends have been hitting some city projects lately just seeing if we could pray and minister to people. My wife saw a girl sitting on a porch and asked if she needed prayer. While she was speaking with her, her boyfriend came out of the house I began to talk with him and ask if he needed prayer. It turns out he was totally deaf in his right ear.

We told him like Jesus said “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (ref. Luke 10:8). He looked at me kind of strange and I began to explain that means God’s kingdom is right here in our midst. He let us pray for his ear when we ask if it felt any different he said he was feeling pressure in his ear. He also shared he didn’t have an eardrum, we were encouraged figuring if God put a new eardrum in you’d feel some pressure.

We prayed again and then he started to say I can totally hear out of my ear. We were all pretty shocked because we had never witnessed a deaf ear healed. It was awesome. He began to tear up saying he didn’t know why God would do something like that for him. We just shared that it’s because God loves you so much. He wasn’t ready to give his life to the Lord but he was totally blessed. We were able to follow up on them the next few days so that was very cool getting to know them.

–Paul

Note: Asking strangers if you can pray for them can sometimes come across as patronizing, arrogant, or self-righteous (I’m ok, you’re not).  This is a practice that requires a high degree of sensitivity to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Like any spiritual practice, if it’s just a technique to make you feel better about YOU, it’s bogus. But if you’re paying attention to the Spirit…well, almost anything can happen!

by Kristal Gadsby

Today I went for lunch at BPs. I had the most delicious buffalo chicken sandwich. I never steer away from it and try anything else, it’s just too good. It’s a very large sandwich and I usually eat the whole thing. I just can’t stop eating it. But afterward I hurt and immediately regretted my impulsive decision. Today I ate only half of it and boxed the other half.

Today I also met Hank. Well Hank is his street name he says. His real name is Henry. I met him walking home from school. He stopped me and asked for a quarter. I did my usual, “Sorry I have no money” but we continued to talk. He told me he’s a lone ranger, originally from Battleford. Between his slurred speech and drooling he also told me he’s 57 and I also heard the word “hungry” somewhere in there. Perfect, I thought! I have half a sandwich. I gave it to him and he seemed excited. But he told me not to worry about him because he’s a survivor. He went to a Residential School, been through two divorces and traveled all over alone. When I asked if he had kids he immediately broke down and cried, telling me he had a son but the police found him frozen just outside of Saskatoon ten years ago. My heart sank. I asked him if I could pray for him and he tried to brush me off, saying he was fine. But he never left. He then let me pray for him and in the middle of the School Division parking lot, as people walked past, I prayed for him. We kissed and hugged and talked some more and said good-bye a hundred times but never seemed to be able to leave.

Half of what is mine is yours.

John was speaking to a crowd, and after he called them all vipers, they asked, “What should we do then?” John answered, “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.” (Luke 3:11)

People interpret this many ways. But I say, if you have a whole buffalo chicken sandwich, half of it doesn’t belong to you.

(Many thanks to Jason VanBinsbergen for passing this wonderful story along to us.  Canada rocks.)