The mystery of healing and prayer

A neighbour of our church asked for prayer for a 2 year old niece who was seriously ill in hospital.  Some of us prayed and it seems she is healed.  We can not call it a miracle because she was receiving treatment at the same time.  It was certainly an abnormally quick recovery though.

The family are Moslems and were doubtless also praying but they credit the prayers of the church with being a crucial factor in the gift of healing.  We have now been asked to pray for another little family member.

Looking back over the years, we have seen a number of remarkable healings in response to prayer and I know some fellowships which would celebrate these much more than we do. and use them to “sell” the church and its message.

We do not dare to do this.  I even suspect that the Lord might not be able to trust us with such gifts in the future.  He is the Lord in these matters and I have never heard a completely satisfactory “theology” of healing which explains why some of these prayers are answered and others are not.  Let God do what is right in his own eyes.

Three Cunard Queens together in Southampton

Courtesy of Southern Evening Echo here is a picture of the three ships (from left to right QE2, QM2 and QV).
Click here to see BBC vid ofThree ‘Queen’ liners in Southampton

This aerial vid of QE2, QV and QM2 all together in the New Docks in Southampton gives an idea of the scale of these things.

Semper’s Granddad had a job managing security in the docks after retiring from the police well over 50 years ago. One perk was that he would take my brother and I into the docks and sometimes even on to the great transatlantic liners of that time. I remember the awesome size of the “Queens” (Mary and Elizabeth) in particular. Great buildings of steel higher than any then on land nearby. And corridors the length of the ships which were not quite horizontal so that the carpeted floor curved up to meet the ceiling in the distance.

The cruise business has breathed new life into this tradition of monumental ship building. How odd that the business of travel (by air, now) has been so separated from the pleasure of it (by ocean liner). Somehow neither is the same as real “voyaging” I believe.

FIEC annual assembly

So here is Jacob and myself ready to go at the FIEC general assembly. Chessington Evangelical Church (aka Kings Centre) gave well organised hospitality.

There were some stimulating seminars and a heartening sermon. Not many young people though and it was very white and suburban. This is not a criticism - just an observation that the FIEC’s strength needs building in areas like ours.

Rhinos and green beer

Grandson Tommy’s fifth birthday so we are off to the excellent open air zoo at Lympne in Kent. Lots of Rhinos, Gorillas and many others. On the way back we stop at the Chiltern Hundreds Inn Maidstone for no better reason than it was the the first food pub we saw after leaving the M20. The bright green beer from Stonehenge Ales was a novelty but very pleasant. Food was fine (go for the mixed grill).

Do you like this? I do.

I have been getting free copies of “Keep the Faith” mag and there was an article on Muyiwa - a gospel singer - so I thought I would check his Myspace album sampler and it seemed v good. OK, some is pretty standard fare but it seems a good mix to me. So here is a link so you can listen for yourself.