Treasure Hunting in Church, Kathy’s Story

Jan 16, 2011

Over the past few years, the Lord's healing has manifested in much of my body.  But pain kept returning in my right hip, knee, the bases of my thumbs, and my right foot (due to a bunion), plus the cataracts in my eyes had not yet cleared up.  Also, earlier in the week my husband and I had just found out we had water under our house and were given an estimate for $20,000 in repairs, plus our whole upstairs needed work which would amount to about $10,000.

Dave came to me last Sunday on a treasure hunt.  When he showed me the clues--word of knowledge--the Lord gave him and his partner, all NINE described me--including "house damage"!   My heart leapt when I realized that the Lord spoke to them specifically about me and that He wanted to bless me with more healing.  Immediately, the pain in my bunion--which was at about a 7--went down to around a 2.  And they hadn't even started praying yet!

I told Dave and Julie how the pain went down in my foot, so they started praying for the bunion first.  Soon the pain left completely.  As they continued to pray, I felt a gentle warmth and mild tingling sensation travel from my feet up my legs and into my hip.  The bunion joint had been stiff for months, and I hadn't been able to bend it forward or backward much without shooting pain.  After a few more minutes of prayer, the best way I can describe it is that the first toe joint felt "alive" and I wanted to wiggle and bend it.  So I did, and now I was able to bend it all the way forward and back with NO PAIN whatsoever!  Then I noticed that a mild nagging pain at the base of my thumbs was gone. 

The Lord's gentle warmth was still saturating my legs and hips, and I could now do deep knee bends without knee pain or needing to hold on!  Praise the Lord!  When we were finished praying Dave gave me a printed piece of paper with his blog address on it.  I could read it without my glasses!  My cataracts were a little bit clearer!  They are not completely clear, but they have noticeably improved.  Glory to God!   As I was traveling home, I realized that God strengthened my right hip during the prayer, too, because I was able to leap up stairs carrying a backpack without even holding on!   All thanks and praise to God! 

One other Word from the Lord was on Dave's list:  "lonely."  I had been trying to find fellowship and a church that believes God for His Word and acts on it.  In my home town, He has given me a prayer partner (which is why we have received so much healing these past few years), but that is all.  "Are we the only ones in this area?" we have often wondered.  A month ago I walked into Columbia Foursquare and found people who genuinely believe God's promises, and I started to get to know some of you wonderful people.  When I came for the second time last Sunday, I felt very much connected to this body of believers, and the loneliness disappeared.  Even though I don't live in the Tri-Cities and come here only once a month, the Lord has given me a church home full of strong believers to connect with.  God is Good

“There’s My Eagle!”

Jan 15, 2011

“There’s my eagle!” exclaimed Colby, the 10 year old boy on our treasure hunt team. He had spotted a bald eagle head on a ladies coat as she and another lady drove past on motorized carts. We were in the Kennewick Walmart store. We finally caught up with them in an isle of the grocery section. After they stopped we approached the lady with the eagle picture on her back and told her we believed she was on our treasure map. After explaining what we were up to, I started going through the rest of our clues (words of knowledge). I asked if she had hip pain. She said he hips were killing her. “How about knee pain”, I asked. Yes again. I also had the clue of joint pain. Her sister in the cart following her then said that they both suffered from osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint disease. Both of them were in pain.

After asking permission to pray for them, Colby was up. It was his clue that led us to this lady with the eagle clue, so I had him pray for her. He commanded the pain to go and prayed for healing to come in the name of Jesus. I then asked the second lady if I could pray for her. She asked prayer for her neck which was in extreme pain. I asked her, from a scale of 1 to 10, what her pain level was. She said it was a nine. I laid my hand on the back of her neck and command the pain to leave in Jesus name and invited Holy Spirit to come. I had her check it out by moving her neck around. She reported the pain level had dropped to a two. After praying one more time, the pain was totally gone. Yea God!

About that time, her sister in the other cart reported that all the pain had left her back! Awesome! There is no junior Holy Spirit. Colby’s prayer had been answered as well.

They then asked for one more prayer. Would we pray for their other sister? She had been diagnosed with brain cancer. I took both of their hands in mine and we had church right there in the grocery isle of Walmart.

Holy Spirit had led a 10 year old boy to Jesus’ hidden treasure and then poured His healing love on them. Just think of it; the God of the universe lets his people partner with what He wants to do, LOVE.

…. call 911

Dec-2-2010

It’s Art Walk night in downtown Kennewick. It’s been a month since we went out so I was really looking forward to what God was going to do. Because the Bridge Church and Healing Rooms were closed tonight we decided to meet and pray at Roger and Terry’s home before going downtown to share the gospel of the kingdom. I even had Walmart as a clue tonight. It was going to be an awesome night. You won’t guess where we all ended up; the emergency room at Kennewick General Hospital.

While Terry and I were getting clues (words of knowledge) for our treasure maps, Roger went up on the roof of the new shop he was building to spread out a couple of tarps to keep any more snow and ice off of it. Terry mentioned to me that she didn’t feel good about him going up on that roof in the dark, with all the ice and snow. A couple minutes later she got a call on her cell phone from Roger for her to call 9-1-1. He had fallen from the roof and injured his back. All hell broke loose and chaos changed all our plans. I called for an ambulance, called for prayer support for Roger, called family, and we all headed for the hospital. The last thing I did before I left for the emergency room was to put my treasure map in my pocket.

One thing about an emergency room, you will find sick and hurting people there. While taking turns visiting and praying for Roger, I started looking at the people there. I noticed this young couple waiting their turn to see the doctor. I realized that they matched 2 of the clues on my treasure map: red/black and black hair. He had a red sweat shirt, she had a black one, and she had black hair. I watched them for awhile, took a step over my chicken line (got my courage up), and walked over to talk with them.

I explained what I was doing, and asked if either of them was suffering from pain in the head? The woman was there because of a severe migraine headache. I asked if she had a problem with her stomach area as well and she said she was suffering with nausea from the migraine. I had five clues for this couple and they said “Yes - pray.” I laid my hands on the lady and commanded the migraine to leave and invited the kingdom of heaven to invade that emergency room. I shared the love of Jesus with them and asked her how she was doing? There was no instant change in her pain level but I watched how they were doing as I went back to our group. Within 30 minutes they got up and left the hospital. Thank you Jesus! The seed of the kingdom had been planted!

As for Roger: He had broken three vertebrae in his back and was in much pain. He came home in two days with just a back brace to wear until he’s totally recovered. However, he had prayed for the ambulance driver and two different nurses during his ordeal. Even in the midst of chaos and pain, God’s kingdom was there.

Take Some Risks And Watch What God Will Do

Nov 4, 2010

Art Walk in downtown Kennewick is starting to taper off for the winter.  Not as many businesses were open to display an artist’s work nor are there as many people here to view the art.  However, there is no lack of God's presence.  If God's people show up, He shows up.  Tonight, Roger and I were the bookmobile (Treasure Hunters) while Julie stayed in the library (Healing Rooms) and an awesome time was had by all.

After a short time of prayer, Roger and I wrote down the clues (words of knowledge) that Holy Spirit gave us, took a left turn out the front door of The Bridge Church and took a stroll in downtown Kennewick.

A half block to the west, were two guys taking a smoke break outside of a pub.  One of these guys matched Roger's clues of blue and black.  He was wearing a black top with blue jeans.  Two other clues were storefront lights and the name David.  Right above where these two guys were standing on the overhead storefront lights was the name David.  What are the odds of that?  He also suffered from lower back pain, another of Roger's clues.  This guy’s back pain ran all the way to his foot via the sciatic nerve.  He said his foot felt hot because of the nerve in his back.  We laid our hands on his shoulders and commanded his back to be healed.  We asked him so move around to check out his back. He said that his foot was now feeling cool not hot.  The Great Physician was doing something in his back.  Then he opened up and asked for prayer for a job.  We prayed and got to share to the good news of the kingdom with him for another 10 minutes or so, then he headed into the pub.  The seed of God's kingdom had been planted.

Earlier, Roger had dropped his iPhone and it had stopped working.  Across the street from the pub is a cell phone repair shop and Roger knew one of the guys who works there.  The store happened to be open tonight so we went in and he took a look at Roger's phone. In about two minutes the iPhone’s loose antenna was fixed.  While repairing Roger’s phone, he told us that he had a doctor’s appointment the next day. He was going in to have some tests done to find the cause of pain he was suffering in his abdomen.  Before we left we asked if we could pray for him and he said, “yes”.  We laid hands on his stomach area and invited Holy Spirit to touch him and commanded the cause of the pain to leave. We had him check it out to see what God was up to.  He felt around in the painful area and discovered that the pain was gone! He also told us that the lump where the pain was located was gone.  God had done it again!  This guy was not even on our treasure map.

Heading back down the street we stopped into the church to see how my wife Julie and the healing room’s people were doing before heading out again.  Just as we were heading back out, I glanced in and saw her looking at the paintings on display.  She was a young lady wearing a plaid top, one of my clues.  I motioned for Roger come back in as I approached the young lady and her friend.  I told her, "I've been looking for you for an hour!"  She had a puzzled look on her face until I explained what we were up to, treasure hunting.  She was from The Bridge Church in Richland and had heard of treasure hunting.  Her friend had not.  That's when Roger noticed that the girl in the plaid top had red hair; another one of my clues.  Her name was Ashley and her friends name was Logan.  I had of two name clues that started with the letters L and A.  Another one of my clues was joint pain.  I asked them if either of them joint pain, like maybe in an elbow.  Logan said that was her.  She had a bad pain in her left elbow, right in the joint.  Julie joined us in prayer for the two young ladies and guess what happened?  After praying twice for Logan, all the pain left her elbow.  God had done it again!  Yeah God!  We then prayed and prophesied for Ashley and God touched her mightily.  Wow!

If you're a Christian and don't see this stuff once in a while, get out of your church building, take some risks, and watch what God will do.  Talk about fun!

Wow, That Feels Good

Men’s Encounter, 10-09-10

Twice a year my church, Columbia Foursquare Church, has encounters. These are a weekend retreats where the participants press into God for deliverance and healing of events in their pasts that effect their present lives and their relationship with Father God. It is a very powerful time of worship, teaching, prayer, and encountering the living God. I had the privilege of teaching one of the sessions called “The Movie of Your Life” on Friday night. I also came back Saturday afternoon for the ministry time.

During the ministry time two or three leaders have up to an hour of prayer with each participant for a time of personal prayer just for that one individual. I was teamed with John D. and Jim K., two awesome men of God.

During my Morning Prayer time that morning I decided to seek God for some words of knowledge for the men I was going to pray with later that day. Using a small square of paper I wrote down my clues, creating a mini Treasure Map. One of the four clues I received was “arm”.

Simon was one of the men I got to pray with. What a awesome time that was. Holy Spirit was heavy in the room and all four of us were encountering Him. During the course of our prayer time together I asked Simon if he had a problem with his “arm”, using the word of knowledge I had received earlier that morning. He said that he suffered from a severe rotator cuff problem in his left shoulder and pain travels all the way down his arm. He could not use his arm for any type of throwing motion because of it.

John, Jim, and I laid our hands upon his shoulder and arm and commanded his shoulder to be healed. We invited the kingdom of God to come into Simon’s arm. After a time of prayer, while our hands were still upon him, there was a loud “pop” which you could hear in the room and we could feel under our hands. Simon said, “Wow, that feels good.” The kingdom of God had just invaded our earth!

We had just gotten whacked by God’s love. MORE GOD!!!!

15 Minutes

Treasure Hunt 10-14-10

Before we left the prayer time at the Healing Rooms to hit the streets of downtown Kennewick, my sister Terry asked the Lord to let us lead someone to salvation in Jesus. That was the cry of her heart for tonight; she just wanted to see someone get saved.

She didn't tell Roger or me about this prayer until about 15 minutes later.  That’s because in 15 minutes, God answered her prayer by healing and saving two teenage boys.

They were sitting just outside of a club waiting for their ride home to Pasco.  They both matched our clues of white and black.  One had a white shirt and shoes and a black shorts, while the other had black shirt and shoes and white shorts.  On my stick man art, I had clues of problem/pain in the knee/leg area and throat/neck area of the body.   They both had leg pain and the youngest of the two had pain in upper neck in the area of his throat.  He gave me permission to lay hands on him and pray.  I commanded the pain to leave and invited the kingdom of God to come.  I only prayed for about 30 seconds, and then I asked him to check out his pain level.  There was a very surprised look on his face as he said, "The pain is gone."  I then tried something I had never done before; I had him lay his hands on his friend and command the pain to leave - in Jesus name.  The pain left that young man's legs as well.

Terry's prayer was answered.  I asked them if they would like to invite Jesus, who has just touched their bodies, to come into their lives.  They both said, “yes” they wanted to.  I explained the gospel to them, led them in prayer, gave them some literature to get them plugged into a church, and then their ride home arrived.  The timing was perfect!

That was the start of an amazing evening.  The Lord led us to seven more people in addition to these two young men. We found them with an eclectic mix of clues, like white truck, the letter “S”, black and white, high heeled boots, names that started with J and R, and skin condition.

Bringing The Kingdom Of God to Earth Is So Simple

Sep 30, 2010

Downtown Kennewick is starting to get dark at 7:00PM and it was hard to read the clues on our treasure maps. We may have to start earlier, go into the pubs, or start going to the mall or Walmart as we head into winter. Change is good.

It was just my wife and I tonight on the Treasure Hunting team.  After an awesome time of prayer with the Healing Room's people we sat at one of the tables and wrote down the "words of knowledge" Holy Spirit gave us.  Our clues contained an eclectic mix of colors, art work, things, and prayer needs. I have given up trying to figure out how this works – it just does.

The "treasure" I want to share about was Susan.  Across the intersection from The Bridge Church is a fountain with two evergreen trees.  A woman walking her dog was right next to them.  As she crossed the street towards us we noticed she was wearing a green top.  Two clues already; could she be one that God wants to touch?  After she arrived at the corner where we were waiting, we struck up a conversation with her.  At first she thought we were on a scavenger hunt when we tried to explain what we were doing.  Then Holy Spirit opened the door of her heart through the clues He had given us.

"Do you suffer from headaches?” I asked.  "Yes, I do".  "Do you get pain in the shoulder/neck area?"  Yes, again.  The next question we asked her broke the dam, and the tears freely flowed.  "Do you have any legal problems or have to go to court?”.  "I'm getting a divorce and I have to go to court next week" she said.  The other clues on our map now made sense.  They were relationship problem, sadness, heart, and pain.  Susan was the one Father God wanted to love on tonight.  She was leaving an abusive husband and had four young children.  She felt alone and the overwhelming pain and stress was causing her to have severe tension headaches.

The three of us had church on the corner, in downtown Kennewick, as cars stopped at the intersection just a few feet away.  I believe God shines the light of His love brighter, in the darkest places, outside church walls.  I felt the presence and power of Holy Spirit as He touched this young lady.  We laid our hands on her, prayed for her, and shared Papa God's love for her.  She was not alone!  God loves her so much, and he used me and my wife to show her.

Papa God had set this whole encounter up. Holy Spirit led us right to Susan and let us partner with what He wanted to do.  After many tears were shed, Susan gave both of us a big hug and thanked us.

Bringing the kingdom of God to earth is so simple.  All we have to do is listen and obey; He does the rest.