Oxted Church Treasure Hunt

Dear All,

Below is a selection from the many testimonies from our recent church treasure hunt.
I have included everything... good, bad and ugly!

There were 14 of us that went out from Oxted and we think that we spoke to around 70 people in total. Only 3 of these people were negative and huffed and puffed a bit. About another 20 were quite happy but didn't want to talk/prayer.
The other 50 were happy to talk and many opened up about God and/or struggles in their lives and we managed to pray for a good number of these fifty.

We were out and about for 1 hour 15 minutes.

1 - Two ladies standing under flag outside Chanterelle - had a problem with her left knee and also with her right hand and fingers. Received prayer. Knee healed partially - no longer clicking or painful - prayed again - completely healed! Could not move thumb over onto palm of hand and nerve damage meaning if wrist touched three fingers involuntarily bent.
Received prayer. Afterwards, thumb could move quite freely - her friend said "Christ!" and we said "Precisely!" (She then said "sorry!").

2 - Black woman with headdress - we believe she was the treasure but she was resistant to receiving prayer although clearly had a church background as she wanted to know whether we were Pentecostal, Assembly of God or whatever. She said she might try out our church. We pray God will keep working on her heart. She seemed troubled.

3 - Policeman putting air into his tyres at the petrol station. Mildly depressed. Disillusioned with the violence in society - just finished two weeks back from being on a Murder Squad; still finding it hard to get over the grief of having lost his Dad suddenly 4 years ago. Happy to receive prayer. Whilst praying for him – birdsong started - was able to show him on list that we had birdsong and that I believed this was God's confirmation that he was special and that God wanted him to know that.

4 - Lady wearing a blue jacket, was by the station and was pushing a pushchair. She was very nice, although a little wary. Her nana has a heart condition. She let us pray for her in the street.

5 - One of our unusual clues was 'heart-shaped'. At the cricket pitch we met a young lad named Jack wearing a black t-shirt with a red heart on it. He found sore knee on my list and said that his left knee had been sore for a while. He was quite happy for me to pray for his knee. When we'd finished Danni noticed that he was looking for something and he admitted he had lost a black LG phone. Kate and Josie rejoined us and we all started helping him to look for it, all I'm sure praying hard that we would find it for him. He became a little embarrassed after a while, wanting to rejoin his friends and said goodbye and wandered off. Kate and Josie recognised him from Oxted School and said that they would make a point of asking him how his knee was when they next saw him at school. At this point Jack came rushing up and said he'd found his phone. Someone had handed it in as missing! Praise God!

6 - Well, we were walking along near the station and close to the taxi rank (which is similar to a car park) when I saw a girl crossing the road wearing a fluffy jacket. Two of our group of four had already had their first encounter and I was eager to point out this new treasure… However, when it was suggested that I go up to the girl, I quickly mentioned that I actually hadn’t got any of those clues myself….. (coward, I know!) and the fluffy girl headed off in the opposite direction to us… Moment lost… This was the second time I had chickened out of going up to someone already and I was actually really cross with myself and told myself that I might just as well go home if I wasn’t actually going to take part…..
We proceeded as a group of 4 to go to the other side of the station, close to a coffee shop, and were just coming up to the Morrison’s car park when who should be walking just in front of us but the very same girl with the fluffy jacket!!!! Even more incredible to me because she was on the other side of the station now and this was only 5 minutes after we’d seen her heading off in the complete opposite direction. Well, I couldn’t miss this again. Jo and I dashed after her and Jo explained what we were doing and showed the girl her list. Incredibly, she was suffering from a knee problem and her mother’s name was Fiona. Her mother was dying from cancer and so we offered to pray for her. (I had forgotten to show her my list because I was so amazed that she fitted 6 of the clues already!) We asked her what her name was and she said Denise. I couldn’t contain my amazement when I said that that name was on my list and showed her it written down. Even she said it was an unusual name. A few weeks previously, God had told me in a letter that “I should not be frightened to try new things, as He would surprise me”! Boy, was I surprised!! After praying with her, she shared how her mum was a Christian and her mum’s friends were sure that it was faith that had kept her mum from dying – the doctors had told her 3 years ago that she only had 6 months to live. It was incredible to think that this lady had probably been praying for her daughter for years and here was a divine appointment. Only God knows what will happen next for her… Funnily enough, I saw her again later walking a bit ahead of us… It was as if God was showing me that even if I had chickened out again the second time I saw her, He would have brought her across our path again.

7 - There were two encounters with young women in black v necked jumpers and each received truth and prayer and one a tract. Again it was seed time not harvest but we know that God will answer the prayers we prayed in agreement and faith.

8 - We approached a 90 year old lady at the top of a hill who was wearing a blue top and holding a walking stick. She was very puffed out and struggling to climb the hill. She explained that it was the first time she had been out for a walk for over a month.
We got chatting with her and she was open for prayer. After we prayed for her, she appeared to become completely energised and I would even say she had a spring in her step!

9 - I was walking along with my group and I saw a mother and child and Jen and I chatted to them. They were going to be moving house and we prayed for them.

God bless.

Dale Barlow
Kings Church, Tandridge