God thank you for the wonderful ministry of Jesus Loves Kzoo and the lives it is impacting. I never thought that I would be on the streets on a weeknight, holding hands with perfect strangers, and praying over them, our families, and our country, but You led me there and blessed the ministry we were doing. Thank You!
God healed a woman of sickle cell anemia after JLK “red shirt” people prayed for her last year at LaCrone Park! Wow!
“A guy showed up on two crutches, his knee wrapped up and his sprang ankle in pain and wrapped up. A friend and I prayed for healing for his knee and ankle. With in just a few minutes he was saying he felt no pain, unwrapping his knee, unwrapping his ankle and was able to walk without the crutches! Yep his girlfriend carried his crutches for him cause he told her” I don’t need those crutches” Yes! God is a healer!!!
“On Thursday we went to New Village apartments off of Gull Road. Our team was sent to Spring Valley park. We walked around picking up trash as there was no one in the park. We walked along time and we came upon a parking area where two ladies were standing. My friend and I approached them and asked if we could pray for them. God gave me a word for each of them. As I spoke to them and prayed for them I could see joy all around us. One asked for our church address (which is not in Kalamazoo). We said goodbye and went back to the grill site. Sunday morning they both came to our church! And they are coming again next Sunday!”
“Our last stop on street ministry was at a home where there were 20+ people gathered in the yard. We walked up and one young man wanted prayer. Shari and I went to pray and suddenly there was a circle of people wanting to pray with the JLK team.”
During Catalyst Week 2014, 763 Contact Cards were received, 713 prayer requests were gathered, 165 individuals requested follow-up phone calls, 59 people requested personal follow-up visits, 51 would like to be part of a church family, and 28 people gave their lives to Christ!
At the Eastside Grill Site, I spoke to a 27 year-old resident who said he had “never seen anything like this before”…and that it’s “a wonderful thing!”
“Tonight I was at LaCrone Park and had witnessed to a couple of teens and prayed for their family members when a young woman walked through the gates of the park and past me. I watched her walk by me and the Lord said “Tonight, that girl is feeling as alone as she has ever felt in her life. Go talk to her and tell her she is not alone.” So I obeyed. I followed her half way across the park. She sat down all alone under a tree. I asked her if I could sit down and talk with her. She agreed to let me do so. I sat down and introduced myself. Her name was Natasha. She was 14 years old and had just gotten into a huge fight with her mom. She had a plastic grocery bag with her and it was sitting next to her on the ground. We talked and I revealed to her what God had told me. I also told her that God had told me that she was contemplating running away from home. Come to find out she had just gotten into a huge fight with her mom and she came to the park to figure out a plan on running away from home. I got to pray over her and talk with her about her dreams and future. We went and got food together and talked some more. By the end of the evening, she promised me that she would not run away from home and said she was going home to give her mom a hug. She also was smiling from ear to ear when she left. She has been attending one of the larger churches in the area and said she didn’t have any friends there but she was going to trust God to bring new friends into her life.”
A woman that was prayed for during the Catalyst Week Prayer & Grill night on E. Main asked us to pray for healing from the leukemia that she had been battling for 6 months. As Natosha prayed over her, she physically felt the power of God pour through her hand! A few weeks later the woman received a completely cancer-free report! Doctors were amazed! All Glory and Honor to JESUS our HEALER! “As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.” ~ Matt 10:7-8
Praising God for this recent testimony from two churches in the Portage area — The Bridge and Fresh Start Church. During the Catalyst Week grill night at Colonial Acres Trailer Park, they noticed there were many potholes that needed repair and were a burden to the community. Yesterday, the churches partnered together to send a crew of about 15 people who filled A LOT of potholes and shared smiles and love in Jesus’ name! They reported “The manager and owners were thrilled and lots of people stopped to say thank you to us!” Whoo Hoo! WAY TO BE THE CHURCH and putting FAITH into ACTION (James 2:14-17)!
Two years ago I got a small list of people to pray for, prayer requests from street ministry I assume, from JLK 2012. Kristy Aukeman had encouraged me to KEEP praying for them. I went with my dad an delivered a letter to one house in particular but no-one had answered the door. Then, when I was doing street ministry, we ended up going to that same neighborhood, and even that same house. When I was taking down prayer requests on the front porch of these peoples’ home, I recognized the lady’s name, and found out she was the one I had been praying for!! Her daughter said “Mom, it’s cuz of those prayers that you’re still sane!” Sounds like she’s had some tough times, but we were able to connect and she was encouraged to know I’d been praying for her, and we are now hoping to get together over ice-cream! God was so good to put us together like that!
This year we decided to cover more sites with local prophetic artists from various churches. At OneWorship, I felt led to create a compass rose to prophetically proclaim healing, salvation, deliverance and restoration to the four directions. That it would ripple out from the park, in the spirit, to the nation. At LaCrone Park, I ended up creating a spur of the moment piece to declare the healing from the two major tragic events that have hit Kalamazoo earlier this year making national news. It has been a challenging season for many of us personally as well, but as we stepped out believing in faith once more Jesus met us each step of the way. To him be all the glory!
“A man who still had bullets lodged (from a shoot out back in the early 90’s) around his knees had greater mobility and flexibility after our team prayed for him. Another man was able to walk up and down his stairs a couple of times after we prayed for his legs. (His movement was greatly improved!) and even his friend noticed how much improved he had become. We had many opportunities to pray for people and share encouraging words from the Lord for them. We kept hearing, “Wow…it’s like you know me. Are you psychic?” We would respond, “No, we are not psychic. It’s Jesus within us.”
“We met a woman named Tiffany who was wearing a JLK wristband from last year. She told us she has never taken it off. She wanted prayer and she praised Jesus the entire time we prayed.”
“Two of our team prayed for a woman named Mary as I talked to her friend who told me how glad she was that Mary was being prayed for as she was an atheist! She wanted follow up from JLK365!
Then we prayed for a man named Richard. He was in a wheelchair and had some crippling of his extremities. We prayed for him– Heat and electricity flowed out of him and we felt it. We also felt extreme joy flowing.”
In partnership with Impact Kalamazoo, Edison Neighborhood Association, and His Kingdom Housing we were able to see more than 2,675 hours of volunteer service invested in the Edison Neighborhood last week! Praise God for the many homes and lives that were touched by the love of Jesus through tangible acts of service!!
I spoke with a resident at Interfaith who said they had “never seen the place so peaceful before” as on the grill night.
I had the opportunity to drive through the Northside on Saturday after the end of Catalyst Week distributing leftover buns. I gave buns to a BBQ restaurant on Paterson (FooJay), their residential neighbors, a family having a picnic/reunion, the Baptist Church on Paterson, families on N. Church Street (who also received prayer), several young men on Burdick St. (while gambling on the sidewalk), and my favorite, the auto-detail business “kitty-corner” to Vanguard North. All received the bread with gratitude.
On Wednesday, 5 of us went as a team on street ministry. None of us had ever met before, and all of us were from different churches. We worked as ONE for Christ and showed God’s love!
A woman on the Eastside shared that God answered multiple of her prayers: that she would get a new car paid for, and that she would no longer battle depression!
I am part of the Bridge Army connections team and I talked today with a lady we had on our list. The day she met the street ministry team, she had been crying all day and then was so blessed by the people in red shirts. She appreciated it when she was in such a low place. Her prayer request for a house has been answered, she is moving in the next few days. She wanted me to share that God heard the prayers and He is moving. She’s a born again Christian. She was choked up and I was able to pray for her and then she prayed for Jesus Loves Kalamazoo, that we would grow and grow and reach more people. It was amazing!
A friend of mine went out to Interfaith and did on-site ministry Thursday night. She ended up spending a while with two moms in particular. She was talking with them and asked them what the church can do to help them. They said ‘having these grill sites is really good. If you weren’t doing this, there would be men out here fighting.” They also said they wish people from the church would come and visit Interfaith more often-offer a service with some teaching ie…someone coming by with a guitar, a Bible, a gentle heart and the Holy Spirit.
“During Catalyst week, we met a young lady during street ministry and found out she paints nails amazingly. We set up a time for her to come and paint our nails, and it was a wonderful evening. Our nails look amazing, and we had great time with her. Towards the end she asked if we were gonna pray together. We went around and all shared a prayer request, and then spent some time praying. Praise God!”