Its a Small World!

This was the second training and practical session for Treasure Hunting which I have run, and this time I was in a team with two lovely ladies, one who had been out once and it was the first time for the other one.  They were great and their clues were brilliant! There were three prominent Treasures in the morning, the first one was a lady called Phylis who had a Purple Coat and a black fur lined hat, Joyce and Vanessa were friends of hers and she suffered with Insomnia.  She was the most lovely lady and we were able to chat to her for a bit and then we offered to pray for her, she accepted but then her family turned up and she had to go, so it ended up being just a quick prayer for peace for her to be able to sleep.  But it was a real encouragement to the two with me who hadn't done a lot of Treasure Hunting. 

The second person who stood out from the morning was a lady called Barbara who was wearing a Purple Coat and was outside Boots.  We started a conversation with her only to find that her Husband was an Evangelist and that she was a Christian.  So we asked if there was anything we could pray for her about and to begin with she said no, but after a little while she told us about a situation with her Son which we were able to pray into and ask for wisdom for her.  We chatted for a little while longer and she said something about living in Lapford and the lady in my team who was taking the lead in talking to the lady said that she lived in Lapford as well!  As the conversation went on they found that they knew loads of the same people and that Barbara also knew the church leaders of the church which my team member went to!  Its a small world when you are Treasure Hunting.  

The third person was a real character of a man.  I had spotted him coming up the High Street and thought, before we had even seen if he matched our appearance clues, that he looked like Treasure and sure enough he was!  One of my team members smiled at the man and he stopped immediately which slightly took us aback and then we noticed that he had a thick gold chain around his neck.  He was so smiley and kind, with the most amazing teeth - it is strange the things you notice when you are talking to someone! We chatted to him for a while and found that he was Polish and that he hadn't been in Exeter long, but was there because his Wife had died and his Daughter and Grand Daughter lived here.  We went through the clues with him and he said that he suffered with depression at times, and that's when the misunderstanding began.  We asked him if we could pray for that and he said 'Why would you want to?'  which we thought was a bit of a strange response, especially as he had told us that he loved God and knew that Jesus had died on the cross for his sins.  He went on to say that he was OK really and then I noticed that he had hearing aids in both ears and I mentioned them and again offered to pray for them.  He gave us the same response again and said 'Why would you want to, I use the NHS?', it was then that I realise that he thought we had said PAY and not PRAY! Whoops - our accents let us down!  When he realised we meant pray and not pay he accepted, even though he wasn't sure it would do any good.  We prayed, but he wasn't keen to take out his hearing aids to test his ears but I hope he was surprised when he took them out when he went to bed. 

Well done you new Treasure Hunters - we had great fun with our Daddy God today and spoke his love to people.

Seven new Treasure Hunters and lots of treasure!

On Saturday I ran my first training session on Treasure Hunting along with some time out on the street putting what had been learnt into practice. I had seven people come who had never done any Treasure Hunting before but were very excited, and nervous, to give it a go and see what God would do through them! I spoke for a while and then we separated into smaller groups and began to get our clues. It was so amazing to see God speaking to everybody really clearly, one group of three all got the clue Rainbow which I thought was fantastic and real confirmation to them that they were hearing from God, and the other group of three all got clues about Army/Soldiers, so they knew what they were looking out for and my fellow Hunter for the morning and I both had the clue John so we set out!

We came back after an hour and the stories of treasure they had found were amazing and really thrilled my heart to listen to. Here are a selection of them :-

One group had the clues Army/Soldiers so they headed to the Army Surplus Store which was nearby and as they came to the shop they saw a man walking towards them with an Australian Hat on (not the one with corks, but a leather bush style hat - if you know what I mean!), they stopped them to have a chat and they offered to pray for the man but he asked if they could pray for his wife instead, who was with him. They didnt want to say what was wrong but just that she was ill, so they prayed and the lady began to cry. The man said that they used to go to church in South Africa (they were here on holiday) and after this encounter they were going to go back to church as soon as they returned home. It is so amazing that they have travelled half way across the world and they had a God encounter on the street of Exeter, when they were least expecting it.

Another Treasure which was found was a lady who was wearing black boots, a beige bag with brown trim, and had a blue back pack on, she was walking past the Army Surplus Store as the team were returning to the office after thinking they had finished their Treasure Hunt. She was really steaming up the hill, so they had to run to catch her up, when they finally caught up with her and they began to show her the clues and how they applied to her, she was completely blown away! She was so excited because she is attending an Alpha Course at a local church and she just knew that the whole thing was God. The team had words from God for her and she couldn't believe it and couldn't wait to go to Alpha to tell her group about what had happened. What a confirmation for her - I would love to know what happens to this Treasure, maybe we will.


We had the clue head to toe in cream, we really didn't know how this was going to look, until we saw it! Coming towards us as we walked towards the High Street was a little old lady in a cream rain coat that came down to her toes! She was definately head to toe in cream, so we stopped her and another clue was crooked and this lady was bent over. We chatted to her for a while and she told us she was a Christian and that she went to a local church, and we offered to pray for her neck, she said yes. I would love to say that she straightened right up, but she didn't at that instance, but she said that it had been a privilege to have met us and who knows what happened as she walked away. We thought we were done with the head to toe in cream, but God hadn't finished with that clue. We headed to the back of M&S, and there was another little old lady walking towards us all dressed in cream to some description. She was also carrying a black leather bag, so we approached her and she was lovely! We chatted for a while and we asked her if any of the clues meant anything to her and she said she had a problem with her eyes. She told us that the Doctors didn't know what it was, but the retina in one of her eyes had dropped so they had filled her eye with oil and now everything was blurry. So we offered to pray and she happily accepted. We sat on the wall and we prayed for her and as I watched her, eyes began to water for no reason. We asked her if there was any change and she said she didn't think that there was, but she didn't know why her eyes were watering, I offered to pray again but she said no. She was another Christian lady and we were able to share some words from God for her.

The team with Rainbow found their treasure, but she didn't want to talk, she was outside McDonalds and had a Rainbow jumper on. She was definitely Treasure and it is disappointing when you know you have found the person God wants you to talk to, and they don't want to talk to you. But we have no idea what she may have got from the encounter or if she may be treasure again. All we can do is get clues and go and find the people and see what happens from there. I still think it was great that all three of them had Rainbow as their clue.

There were lots of other stories but maybe that is enough for now :-)

I am going to be running another training/practical Treasure Hunt on the 13th November and then regularly each month from then onwards, on the second Saturday of the month. Come and join us - never before has street evangelism been so much fun and so rewarding!