Paul Poulton runs London Marathon for RSVP

The marathon went really well, thank you to everyone who sponsored me, the Rwandan orphans and the RSVP Trust will be blessed by your willingness to give and I'm sure the Lord is pleased.

Marathon day was a hot day, in fact I heard it was the hottest London marathon ever, so most people were running slow, which meant we were running for a long time, almost 5 hours. It was hard to get past people and you have to go with the flow, quite a lot slowed right down.

One in seven people were treated by the medical people for heat related problems. But the crowd support was excellent and very encouraging: "Cam on my san" as they say in London.

There were a lot of bands playing music along the way and some church bands were playing songs too. At one pub there was a very realistic Elvis singer, I enjoyed that, and a hot blues band at another, the music helps to spur you on, so many different styles of music, the Sikh drummers were fabulous, the Jazz bands and brass bands all helped, Music is such a great encouragement that God has given to us.

I met some great people as we all ran together, I got talking to one guy from New Jersey, he was doing his one hundred and first marathon.

The marathon is run over 26.2 miles, and because we were running so slowly my legs started to hurt around mile 13, the last 6 miles were tough but the Holy Spirit was with me, the Parakletos: "One who draws alongside to help". The Holy Spirit kept me going as He drew along side to help me.

My legs hurt little bit more with every successive mile, but I managed to keep going without stopping to walk which I was glad about. There's also no doubt about it, people who had sponsored me also kept me going, I was also thinking, "I hope these Rwandan kids appreciate this".

It's quite emotional too, the crowds really get behind the runners, and when you cross the finish line, it's easy to see how some runners collapse as emotional wrecks.

Running the marathon is a great parallel to running the race of faith, keep going, it gets hard some times but the Holy Spirit will draw alongside to help. Be aware that He is there and call out to Him, till we all get to that finish line. I'm also grateful for the scripture verses that people reminded me about, that helped too.

The day before the marathon Lorraine, Isaac and I spent some time in London and we had lunch at some beautiful fountains that people could walk in and out of, I noticed that there was a plaque at the fountains that quoted Psalm 1:3 "He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers." I thought about those words and trusted God to prosper me, and get me to the finish-line.

Paul Poulton

Eyesight restored by prayer!

Don Egan has been travelling round the UK recently. On one weekend at All Saints Anchorsholme, near Blackpool, Don preached about healing and held a series of meeting with the ministry team.

On Sunday, Don preached at both services - morning and evening. The evening meeting was a healing service and many came from other churches to hear Don speak.
After the ministry time, several people said they had been healed instantly of various pains and sickness.

Perhaps the most remarkable is the story of a lady who had lost her sight 20 years ago and as she went out of the meeting, she became aware that her sight was returning. (See letter below).

On another weekend, Don and Hazel visited Surrey and their friend Anthony Delaney at St Mary’s West Horsley. At the traditional 9am service, most of the congregation came forward for healing, including the whole of the robed choir.

At the second service- a contemporary service in a school hall, Don again preached on healing and many came forward for prayer. One man with a very painful knee injury, said the pain all went as Don prayed. Others told of healings of various pains and sicknesses.

Dear Don
Just a brief note. At Sunday evening’s service, I asked for people to report back on the previous Sunday. Irene got up and gave testimony to her healing.

She is a woman in her 60’s who has only partial sight. She can see, but not detail of people’s faces. This happened to her suddenly nearly 20 years ago. She told me that she woke up the morning after her baptism and she could no longer see. Since that time she said that she’s not seen her daughter’s face or anyone else. She has built up a mental picture from people’s voices as to how she imagines they look.

As she left the healing service a week ago, she was able to see someone’s face. At first she didn’t believe it, but over the week her vision has got better. She spoke very movingly in the service of how she saw her daughter’s face for the first time in nearly 20 years, how she could go shopping and read price tags, how she read 20 pages of one of your books while before she’d struggled to read a single paragraph of anything. And she said how she was now seeing people for the first time who she only knew by their voices! Praise God.

Rev Peter Nunn
All Saints Anchorsholme.