The Spirit is Moving...

by Mike Oliver

Over several years Maria Pia and I had struggled to get a group established in our parish in Abingdon. For a couple of years it was just the two of us, and for the next few years there were four or five of us meeting once a month. Things improved when we ran CaFE but after a while the numbers declined again and the group never really took off. But suddenly things are starting to changeagain. The numbers have doubled, even tripled, we have seen a number of miraculous healings, and more prayers are being answered.

Looking back the seeds of change were sown when Pauline Edwards and Fr Laurence Brassill came to the parish last year to hold a Healing Weekend and this had a major impact. There were many healings and the power of the Holy Spirit was amazing. Following this we set up our own Prayer Ministry team and we now hold Healing Masses every few months, which are always well attended from our parish and the surrounding parishes. But our prayer group seemed to be lacking power and did not attract new members, most people in the parish were not interested.

Pray therefore the Lord of the Harvest to send out labourers (Lk 10:2)

Earlier this year we began praying that the Lord would send more born-again people to our parish; soon afterwards our group started to grow, with new faces at each meeting. There has been a large influx into the area, in recent years, of Poles, Africans and other nationalities, many of whom are born-again, and in the last few months some of these have started joining us, rejoicing to find a Charismatic group in the parish. And they were not satisfied with monthly meetings so we have started to meet twice a month.

The praise is now really powerful and more and more prayers are getting answered. During the meetings we usually offer prayer ministry and there have been a number of healings. Here are a few examples:

* A young woman from our group was suffering from severe depression and was in tears during one meeting. We prayed over her for healing and also asked the Lord to provide her with a job. The next morning she woke up to find the depression had completely lifted; she 'phoned saying “I'm happy again!”. A week later she received a job offer.

* A young man had been suffering from severe abdominal pains which were getting worse and his doctor was unable to find the cause. After prayers for healing the pain disappeared and he has been well since.

* During our time of intercession we prayed for a new-born baby who was seriously ill in hospital with a life-threatening condition. The baby is now home and flourishing.

* A grandfather asked for prayers for his baby grandson after doctors said he would die. He has now fully recovered.

We have been joined by a Dominican priest from Blackfriars in Oxford and this has been a real encouragement to the group. He also celebrates our Healing Masses and helps with the prayer ministry. The Lord has been calling our group to be Ecumenical and we have been blessed by the presence of a couple of people from other denominations.

Let the children come to me (Mt 19:14)

One or two of the African ladies in our group bring their young children with them and this has proved to be a great blessing as they really enjoy joining in the praise and dancing. The meetings can be quite lively at times! At a recent meeting, when there were five children present, one of our group said that he had never been to a prayer group with so many children, and we gathered them in the centre and prayed over them to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

At New Dawn this August Michelle Moran spoke of the Latter rain before the Harvest and how she sensed that a new move of the Holy Spirit is beginning. Certainly this is what we are experiencing in our group, and we wonder what the Spirit has in store for us.

Mike Oliver, who is married to Maria Pia, lives in Abingdon, Oxfordshire and maintains the Goodnews website.