Newsletter 2005: Healing Love of Christ, Volume 5 Issue 2

The year started without any great fanfare. Indeed, as has been reported, a part of the house fellowship moved away, and that was very sad. But as the year progressed, the hand of the Lord was upon us for good, and things steadily improved. Just as restoration came in the areas hit by the Asian tsunami, and life moved on, so also with the ministry. All the areas in which we have operated in the past are still fully operational.

We have always made the basic focus of our ministry the meeting of needs on a 24-7-12 time frame. This involves praying for hurting people on the telephone, visiting them or having them visit us, as individuals, family or church setting, locally, nationally and internationally. The needs we attempt to meet, with the resources God makes available, include physical, emotional, relational/emotional, behavioural and spiritual and from time to time, even financial ones.

Both my wife and I are involved in all aspects of the ministry. We therefore owe our Father God an endless paean of praise for the enormous, or shall I say incredible flow of grace that flows from Him to us-ward. He has not only kept us healthy and sane, but He has also continuously supplied us with the energy (physical, spiritual and intellectual) and other resources required to carry on this task.

I want to specially emphasise that my wife has carried the brunt of the telephone ministry in addition to running the home with the almost boundless energy that God has given her. This is the more remarkable, since, from September, she has taken on the Christian home schooling of Olushakin, our youngest daughter. In spite of the almost unbearable load she carries, her love of the Lord, as well as her considerable anointing has continued to increase. This has made her much sought after, particularly by the Women’s Aglow chapters all over the UK, and by her counselees (by phone) from all over the world.

For me, the more specific responsibilities have not changed. In addition to leading the fellowship that meets at our house, my wife and I were asked to be trustees of the Rugby Chapter of the Redeemed Church of God pastored by Mrs Ola Hayden.

This has taken me out to Rugby twice to preach and minister, and has brought the members of the Board of Trustees of that group to meet at our house. I have continued to go many times a week to open the chapel at Ring’s End for any who may need to drop in for counselling and to have worship there on Sunday evenings.

The centre has been shut from time to time, for example, when an ASBO (Antisocial Behaviour Order) was served on the youth of the village, but that is in the nature of the work there. My wife and I have also needed to visit the sick in hospitals or in their homes, and conduct deliverance sessions for people under demonic attack. The only church gathering I have visited during this period (apart from Rugby) is the Woodland Community, pastored by Pastor John Abolarin and his wife in Scafell Road, Liverpool in March ending. I, however, also led a Healing Group from Watton (they had been meeting for 25years) for a healing weekend at Overstrand, near Cromer from February 18 to 20.

I have had two journeys outside the United Kingdom this year. The first was to Nigeria for the last two weeks of July. It was an emotionally charged and busy fortnight, but because the Lord’s hand was upon it, it was yet very fruitful. My first host was mortally ill in hospital when I arrived at Abuja on the evening of the 14^th July, but the Lord raised him up and I had a glorious time of ministry in his church. Apart from the innumerable personal ministrations, I preached and taught at the Assemblies of Christ in Ibadan, and had a special session with the CMF (Christian Missionary Foundation) in Ibadan.

I was fortunate to motivate many towards missionary work and to commission a senior bank manager, who was leaving everything to go to a francophone West African country (Mali) as a full-time missionary. In all these outings, there were innumerable healings, some of them incredible and outright miracles. The second journey was from August 8 to 18 to Andra Pradesh in a team led by Richard Shipp and hosted in Tenali by Sudheer Kumar.

We visited tsunami-affected villages, some of which were also affected by the monsoon floods. We were involved in ministering to orphans, destitute elderly folk, prostitutes and teaching institutions. We dedicated bore holes for water as an adjunct in a soap, soup and salvation outreach. Because of the intensity of the ceaseless prayer required, I experienced a personal revival, and I saw two cripples and two deaf and dumb individuals healed by Jesus in a 10-day period.

As you can see, we owe God a debt we can never repay for his mercies. In June, I was myself at the receiving end, because I attended a revival conference titled ‘And The Fire Fell’ in Hunstanton. After one of the talks, I responded to an altar call for ministry with regard to my goal of seeing the eradication of public corruption in Nigeria. As one of the Argentinean speakers ministered to me, he prophesied that I needed to write to dignitaries that the Lord would show me for collaborative help. I have done this, and yet this remains my major prayer need – to see God deliver on this my lifelong goal.

Finally, please continue to lift up my family for the coming year. Since we live by faith, every single step in our lives depends on the guidance and outworking that the Lord gives in directing our lives. Our dependent children (three teenagers and one four-year old) have each gone one step further. One has a gap year after a brilliant success at A-levels, the next did well at AS level and visited Nigeria for the first time in 11years, and the third just became a teenager, and is alone in boarding house. Olushakin (a. k. a. Wawa) has just started home schooling, with its peculiar challenges.

My older children and grandchildren also need prayers. My grandson, Tayo, who had a peculiar stroke at the age of one, has made tremendous progress. There are various needs, emotional and relational in my large family. If you simply ask for God to continue to sustain and unite my large family (twelve children and fifteen grandchildren – one more on the way), God, who has infinite resources, will meet their needs and will reward you mightily for all your support.

December 2005