Last weekend 26-28 October 2018, Koinonia John the Baptist met at Vuleka Centre in Bothas Hill for a course entitled Evangelising with Power . As we drove through Hillcrest , the village nearby , I remembered spending time in those streets during the Evangelising Course , and wondered what practical experience we'd learn on this course, which we would be required to put into practice over this weekend! The loving warm welcome and joyful meeting of Koinonia John the Baptist community as we arrived with the greeting "Christ is Risen!" And we with Him! which made the sisters and brothers we'd never met before feel like family straight away. A really amazing grace to experience the love as in family, in this new extended and multilingual Community! Altogether about 50 bookings were made for the course, some people were present for only parts of the course and some were joined family members on the Sunday for Mass. The course Evangelising with Power was facilitated by Fr Olivier and a Koinonia team of co-facilitators, prayer praise and worship leaders. Over the weekend we sang , danced, rejoiced and asked for more of the Holy Spirit and shared the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit of our Risen Lord .
It was an experience where you leave feeling the same, but forever different from when you arrived! You leave refreshed , happy, docile, loved and loving, and filled with hope. I think it could be described as drenched in the Holy Spirit. During the course Fr. Olivier invited us to pray for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He invited us to reflect on Jesus ministry, how, if we tore out the pages of the New Testament which were concerned with Jesus healing ministry, we would only have 20-30 % of the pages left. Healing was a big part of Jesus ministry. Jesus healing drew people to come to Him, they wanted to be healed by Him and to know how to follow Him. Fr Olivier said the gift of healing is a Messianic sign. A sign that Jesus is alive and involved in our ordinary lives. In Mark 16;15-18 ‘Jesus said to them,’Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who believe; in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages. They will pick up serpents [ with their hands] , and if they drink any deadly thing it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick , and they will recover.' And still today , when people experience Jesus healing in our lives, we want to know Him more, share Him more ..It is evangelisation with power. Whenever someone experiences Jesus healing, and they are invited to come forward to give testimony about their healing, it gives glory and thanks to God. It draws those who hear the testimony closer to God and it gives encouragement to trust Jesus and search to know Him more. Fr Olivier gave us many testimonies of people who have been healed when he stepped out in faith and prayed for them. He said he wants us to have all the charism and more, to be able to bring healing to the world and bring Jesus light into a struggling world. He said that we are Jesus hands and eyes and ears in the world today, that Jesus has need of our hands . He said that Jesus calls all of us, who presented ourselves for this training course to make ourselves available for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit and to share in this ministry. Fr Olivier invited us to make it become a habit, to love those around us . To be available and aware that healing happens also in the street and in our homes as well as at healing services . He said the Lord can’t use us if we re always in our comfort zone, we can be used by trying and failing and trying and being effective. We re to remember to always ask the Lord .’What do you want to do right now?' If we want to walk with the Lord we will see that He will sustain us. We all give thanks with grateful hearts for a beautiful retreat and watch and pray as the Holy Spirit moves us out of comfort zones. Maryse
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