Thursday, November 4, 2010

Praying with the Publican

We’ve been running God at the Pub at our neighbourhood pub for six or seven years now. Through all this time, the pub owner (let's call her Lydia) has been our host.

In the first session we did, the pub was having a rough time. The smoking bylaws were in flux; while Lydia was (at great expense) renovating the upstairs of the pub as a smoking area, the law changed again and the bylaw officer told her she could not allow smoking in that space. Meanwhile, two large pubs in the neighbourhood were allowed to have smoking areas, so all the smokers were going there. As Arthur and I cleaned up one night, Lydia told us that she was having trouble making the rent. Arthur asked if we could pray for her; she said that she would really appreciate that, and we put our hands on her shoulders and prayed that business would turn around. I think that God was so surprised to hear a Baptist pastor and elder praying for the prosperity of a pub that He couldn’t say no! Soon after, the smoking laws changed so that no pubs could allow smoking, and "our" pub came out with a new menu. Now Lydia is run off her feet and doesn’t have any worries about making the rent!

We’ve become good friends over the years. She will sometimes sit in on a session if she isn’t too busy. And every once in a while she mentions with fondness the time that Arthur and I prayed for her -- and how things turned around so quickly after that!



A few months ago, Lydia was in a lot of pain from shingles. We told her that the following week was the Alpha healing evening and suggested that maybe she’d like to come. When the healing evening rolled around, I had forgotten completely about her shingles or our invitation. While we were praying for others for healing, Lydia came upstairs and was puttering around the bar while we were praying. I thought it was strange – normally she tries to be extremely quiet while we are having discussions or praying. (Okay, I’m slow.) We were going a bit late, and I thought she wanted me to settle the tab so she could go home. As I got up to pay, Linda Ruth suggested I ask Lydia if we could pray for her. I paid and asked if she would like prayer – she said that she would, but that she was late to meet someone. I said that it was okay and we could pray for her without her there. She said, “No, I really like it when you put your hands on me to pray!” So she stayed and the small group of us laid hands on her and prayed that God would heal the shingles, take away the pain and let her get some rest. You could tell that she was deeply touched – we all were. And I’m still praying madly that God will show himself to her through healing.


I wrote the above last spring. God gave Lydia immediate relief from her pain and she is now completely healed. At the end of the course, she came to our final Alpha evening in one of the leader's homes. She knows that God had a hand in her healing, but she still has some hurdles to get over before she makes that step into the Kingdom - keep praying!