THE SANCTUARY MESSENGER WHC is a registered United Kingdom Charity No 232409

Website & Webcam: - www.world-healing-crusade.org.uk

Contact Brother Roy: Roywhc@aol.com & www.broroy.com

Dear Friend

One afternoon last week I bumped into one of our crusaders as she was leaving an optician clutching a brand new pair of spectacles.“I feel quite ashamed of myself, Brother Roy,” she admitted. “For months now I’ve been putting off getting reading glasses, simply because I didn’t want to admit that I needed them, and then I realised just how silly I was being.”

“Here I am, lucky enough to live in an age where not only spectacles are readily available, but there are also plenty of wonderful books from the Sanctuary to read, and electric light to see them by. It would be ridiculous to reject so many blessings just out of vanity.”She smiled sheepishly. “I think my new glasses are already beginning to help me see a lot of things more clearly!”

Well said, Sister. We should all try to open our eyes to the joys of everyday miracles.

Bro Roy

BOOKS By

Brother Mandus

Why not treat yourself to a good

read and order one of the following Books:

‘Power Thinking’

In this book Brother Mandus devotes chapters to ‘The

Creative Power of Prayer.’

‘For Women Only, with Mankind in Mind’

This book tells you why women are ‘Queens’ of the

Earth and should aspire to the God-given role that is theirs.

‘The Grain of Mustard Seed’

This book shares the good news about the gospels of Jesus Christ.

‘The Divine Awakening’

This book was written to authenticate Brother Mandus’ adventures in faith. Read about the medically certified

cases of divine healing as witnessed by him.

All the books are available from the Crusade’s online

bookstore at: http://www.world-healing-crusade.org.uk/ Or you can order from the Sanctuary. Price £6.00 plus p & p.

November

This is the time of year when

trees are bare, their summer

foliage stripped by shrewd

winds under dark skies. No one

can pretend that life is easy on

cold or stormy days and in the

long and often wild and wet

nights.

Some of my most happy memories have been of this time

of the year. My family and I would often go on skiing

holidays. The experience of walking through deep snow

on a starlit night with the surrounding countryside

appearing to be covered in white glistening jewels gave

you an understanding of how such a beautiful hymn as

„Silent Night‟ could have been inspired to be written.

I have many times sat by the riverbank under dark and

heavy rain clouds and enjoyed the best fishing ever. Then

arrive home after a good soaking to be met by a

welcoming bowl of hot soup eaten in front of a roaring

fire. And to have then lain in bed at night, all snug and

warm listening to the sound of rain on the windowpane.

At this time of year we celebrate Halloween, Guy Fawkes

and then that most important date in our calendar

„Christmas,‟ which celebrates the birth of our Lord Jesus

Christ.

I am often asked about answered prayer and how does prayer work. Prayer is about relationship more than about answers. Our earnest prayers do not convince a reluctant God to act on our behalf, but rather, they provide an opportunity for us to open ourselves to God and to get to know Him. As we pour out our hearts and tell him our hurts, we find that He listens. In reading the Bible we receive his comfort and guidance. In our weakness we learn to depend upon Him. Prayer is God’s answer to our poverty, not a power we exercise to obtain an answer. The right function of faith, in prayer and in life, is to open us up to God and to deliver us over to God.

I’m reminded of a small boy who ran to his father with a broken toy. "Fix this for me, Dad," he demanded. He was still of the age when a boy has absolute confidence that his father can fix anything. And being of an impatient nature, he wanted it fixed now. One day this wise father said, "Stay awhile, son, and watch me. Let’s fix this together." Day after day, as they were working on the broken toy, heads together, talking softly, father and son got to know each other better. As the boy fetched screws and nails for his father and held certain parts while his father hammered and glued, he learned some important skills for his life’s work.

God is like that father. He desires for us to bring our broken dreams, broken relationships and broken bodies to Him. Often He does not fix them for us now but invites us to spend time with Him in a loving relationship and in so doing we experience the comfort of His healing presence. And in the process we learn that our prayers are answered not when we are given what we asked for but when we are challenged to be what we can be.

When God heals now, give Him praise; when God does not heal now, give Him praise. No matter what the answer, know that God has acted in love and wisdom toward you. And in eternity all will be healed.

Hope Shines

Out Of

Despair

It was winter 1956 and a little boy sat all alone on a bench in a

small park. It was a bleak and grey winter‟s day, all the trees in

the park had lost their foliage and their branches looked like

gnarled outstretched fingers that reached up into the sky. They

seemed to be trying to grasp the heavy dark leaden clouds as they

scurried past overhead. The park was empty apart from the

occasional visitor passing through; who would quickly glance at

the little boy as they walked passed and then would hurry on

their way. If they had bothered to look closer at the child they

would have seen the tears welling up in his eyes and the

uncontrollable sobs that shook his body from the tremendous

emotional pain that he was experiencing at that moment. He had earlier that day suffered a severe physical beating from

one of his guardians, which over the years had grown to become

a regular experience that he had to endure. He had been told that

he was no longer loved or welcomed anymore, he was given a

badly worn little cardboard suitcase which contained a few of his

meagre possessions and was physically thrown out of his home

and told to go and never return. He was only 8yrs old, the tears

just flowed and they felt warm on his cold cheeks. He felt very

cold due to both the shock of his experience and the fact that he

was not properly dressed for the winter season.

His badly worn shoes were lined with cardboard to try and keep

the water from getting through the many holes in the soles. He

wore short trousers and a shirt and knitted jumper, but he did not

possess a coat. He had no money so he wondered the streets until

he came to the gates of the little park which thankfully were open.

He had nowhere else to go, so he entered the park and found the

empty bench where he now sat alone.

He was cold and hungry but the emptiness he felt was not that of

his stomach but of his heart, he had been told that he was no

longer loved and that nobody wanted him anymore, he felt total

despair, “surely someone loved him” he asked himself. As he sat

there shivering huddled on that lonely bench it slowly came to

him, he remembered the stories he had heard at Sunday school

about God and Jesus.” Surely God must love me,” he again asked

himself. That day he learnt that one must never give up hope, he

started to pray. He prayed for only what a child in his situation

would pray for, to have a home where he would be welcomed and

feel the warmth of a parent‟s love for him. He prayed long and

hard that day and when it started to get dark his guardians, who

by this time had a change of heart, came and found him and took

him home.

The lesson I learned that cold winters day whilst I sat alone on

that bench for nearly seven hours with very little clothing, was

that while I was praying to our Lord I felt His warm presence

around me. That day He gave me hope in my moment of

despair…. Brother Roy

In early June I visited Eyam, a village in Derbyshire England that was badly affected by the Great Plague of 1665. Even though the disease is mostly associated with its impact on London, the sacrifices made by the villagers of Eyam may well have saved cities in northern England from the worst of the plague. At the time of the plague, the village had a population of about 350. The most important person in the village was the church leader - William Mompesson.

In the summer of 1665, the village tailor received a parcel of material from his supplier in London. This parcel contained the fleas that caused the plague. The tailor was dead from the plague within one week of receiving his parcel. By the end of September, five more villagers had died. Twenty three died in October. Some of the villagers suggested that they should flee the village for the nearby city of Sheffield. Mompesson persuaded them not to do this as he feared that they would spread the plague into the north of England that had more or less escaped the worst of it. In fact, the village decided to cut itself off from the outside would. They effectively agreed to quarantine themselves even though it would mean death for many of them.

The village was supplied with food by those who lived outside of the village. People brought supplies and left them at the parish stones that marked the start of Eyam. The villages left money in a water trough filled with vinegar to sterilise the coins left in them. In this way, Eyam was not left to starve to death. Those who supplied the food did not come into contact with the villagers. Eyam continued to be hit by the plague in 1666. The rector, Mompesson, had to bury his own family in the churchyard of Eyam. His wife died in August 1666. He decided to hold his services outside to reduce the chances of people catching the disease. By November 1666, the plague was considered at an end. 260 out of 350 had died in the village but their sacrifice may well have saved many thousands of lives in the north of England and Mompesson did survive. Sometimes we are all called upon to make great sacrifices and the village of Eyam was prepared to make that sacrifice.

THE DAFFODILS

It was on a lovely day in

April this year that I went on a coach trip around

the Lake District and visited the resting place

of William Wordsworth who wrote some 70,000

lines of verse, 40,000

lines more than any other poet. He died on

23 April, St George's day, 80 years after his

birth.

He and his wife Mary who died 9 years later have a simple tombstone in the churchyard of St Oswald's

Church in Grasmere, now one of the most visited

literary shrines in the world.

THE DAFFODILS

I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

I believe we can all recite that bit of the poem. The

Daffodils all around where now past their best, but it

was a glorious day and everything else was then coming into bud and bursting forth and I realized

that in such a moment we could all be inspired.