Green shoes and loads of other clues!

On my most recent Treasure Hunting adventure we really only found one treasure - we let some slip away as we discussed the actual colour of their shoes, but I am sure they will be treasure another day, note to self, just go for it!

We headed to Burtons and just as we got there we saw a man with green shoes on walk past, he was a very tall man with very long legs so we had to really move to catch up with him!  When we finally stopped him, we explained what we were doing and asked him to look at our clues and so many of them matched with him.  His middle name was Anthony, his wife's name was Lousie, she had  fertility problems in the past and had been on IVF, he sometimes suffered with Asthma and had lower back pain and had just come from the Osteopath! We asked him if we could pray for his back and he accepted, but he said it wasn't hurting at the time so difficult to tell what healing had taken place.  But then we chatted with him for a bit and asked him about his beliefs and he was a really interesting guy, very open.  The interesting thing for us was that he had a Christian friend who he had quite a lot of conversations with, so it seems like we were just another step along the way for this man and his journey to find God. We have been praying that his eyes would be opened to see God, we may never know what happens but it is great to be a part of the bigger picture.

I am also trying to venture off the map when we are out, so if someone catches my attention, to go and talk to them and offer to pray for them.  It is a little more scary as you don't have the clues to fall back on, but it is exciting all the same! So we approached a Big Issue seller, she was lovely!  She told us that her boyfriend was getting out of prison on Friday and asked if we could pray that he gets a job, I said we would and then I asked her if there was there anything she would like prayer for and she began to tell us that he Son had been taken away from her 5 years ago and that she wanted to have him back.  So we began to pray for those two things.  She was really thankful that we prayed and seeing as I see her most shopping trips, I will be able to speak to her again.  It always amazes me what people will tell you about and how open people are and also how genuinely touched they are that someone has prayed for them.  Prayer to us, seems like such a simple thing because we are approaching our Father but to those who don't know God it is a wonder! It is like giving someone a gift.

Leg Warmers and a Spotty Umbrella

It was quite a different experience Treasure Hunting this week as we were being lead to very different sorts of people and I was being pushed out of my comfort zones.  I think up until now we have been lowered in gently and only really approached older people or respectable looking men and women but yesterday wasn't like that. 

The first person we approached was a young guy who was sat on the Cathedral Green with his three mates.  He had the hugest amount of curly brown hair we had ever seen, so after much deliberation my fellow Treasure Hunter and I went to talk to him.  I have to say, they weren't too forth coming at all and not many of the other clues match up with them, but for me it was more about the going up to them than anything else and it was good to do it.  As we turned around to go to our first location I saw a man in a red top and seeing as he was on the Cathedral Green as well we thought we would approach him.  When we got closer I was really excited to see that he was a Postman which was one of my 'unusual' clues.  He was much more friendly and we chatted for a while and we found out that he suffered with back pain but didn't want prayer for it.  But we said that we really felt he was God's Treasure and he said that we had made his day. 

One of the other more prominent Treasures we found was a lady who was outside a shop which had Leg Warmers by the door and the shop next door which had a display of Spotty Umbrellas, she was also wearing a light green jacket. I was very pleased to see that she had a Fish symbol on a necklace so I felt we were on more familiar ground. She was lovely and we showed her the maps and Bob was her Husband and she had back pain due to curvature of the spine. We offered to pray and she accepted, I had a real sense that she was going to be healed.  But during the middle of us praying her phone rang and she left us quickly to speak to her daughter.  I felt quite disappointed but we don't know what happened in that short time we were praying for her or in the time afterwards.

The last person we approached was a man on a mobility scooter, this was out of my comfort zone as well but he had a red top on so we thought we would go and chat to him. He looked quite dubious about us but after a little chat he told us he had Parkinsons and accepted prayer.  We prayed, but it was only as I opened my mouth to pray that I realised that I didnt really know what Parkinsons was so it was hard to come against it.  After we had prayer we spoke to him and he explained that Parkinsons is to do with insufficient Dolpamine in the brain so I offered to pray specifically for that but he refused but he said a heart felt thank you for praying previously.

I think I learnt a lot today, I learnt that teenagers and young men aren't that scary, and can be quite open, I also learnt that you need to read the situation you are in and the person you are talking too well, and not to push to much, however well meaning it is. I also learnt the importance of finding out specifics about an illness before praying and but last but in no means least, I learnt that mobile phones really do go off at the most inopportune moments!