Skaters surprised on the Street

Whilst handing out flyers on Northumberland Street as part of the Healing on the Streets team I noticed a group of boys hanging around one of the chairs and talking to a couple of the team. They were fairly young, probably between about 12-14 years old and were all carrying skateboards. After slowly just striking up casual conversation by way of introduction, the conversation veered to the spiritual with one of the team asking the boys if any of them had any pain and explained why we were there. After a minute or so, when the obvious, expected giggles and jokes slowly subsided, it became a game of who would dare sit down and let the religious freaks pray for them. One of the boys, either courageously or curiously sat in one of the chairs and told them about a problem he had with his foot whilst the others jokingly looked on. The injury wasn’t particularly clear but one thing was clear in that it was painful and obviously posed a problem to his skateboarding. A couple of the team prayed and the question was asked “How is it now?” Somewhat sheepishly he answered “It feels like its tingling a bit” Whether his response was intended to avert the answer we wanted, (ie, whether the pain was gone), it nonetheless seemed to get the other kids interested and another quickly piped up with news of an arm injury he recently suffered. Being young skateboarders, and obviously as a result being more prone to injuries than most members of public, we knew that if the healings started to prove successful, we might well be there a while. One by one the boys sat in the chairs with knee, foot and arm injuries being the common affected areas. After prayer, each boy without prompting confirmed to the others, either slight improvements or at least experiencing the same ‘tingle factor’ as the first.

After ten minutes or so it was mentioned of another boy that was brother to one of the group named Ryan. He wasn’t with the group at the time but was the same age and had a long standing injury to his knee. They explained how a pocket of swelling was over his right kneecap and as a result he could not fully bend it and if God could heal him they would be really impressed. Well, soon after and much to our surprise, Ryan actually showed up, announcing his arrival with the usual assortment of cursing and expletives as is expected of twelve year olds these days. Luckily however being as open minded as he was open-mouthed, it didn’t take much persuading to get him to sit down for prayer. He duly obliged and the team set to work. Pain was commanded to go, as was swelling and full restoration was spoken out over the knee. This time though, when the question was asked “How is it?” little Ryan almost leapt off the chair in utter astonishment after bending his knee. He then jumped, twisted, pulled, pushed and did just about everything else you can do to try and locate any pain. Wide eyed and with an obvious mixture of shock and excitement we almost had to drag him back to the seat to hear the improvement and give him the letter necessary consisting of contact information. We prayed once more briefly to ensure 100% healing and full movement and Ryan even rolled his leg up to reveal the absence of all swelling which was met with a collection of ‘Oohs’ and ‘Aahs’ from the other kids. No sooner did this happen that the same kids once again filled up all the seats, this time more noticeably with ‘childlike’ faith and a greater expectation for healing. God was most definitely with us.