The Salvation of ‘Napalm Girl’

From The Wall Street Journal-

You may not recognize me now, but you almost certainly know who I am. My name is Kim Phuc, though you likely know me by another name. It is one I never asked for, a name I have spent a lifetime trying to escape: “Napalm Girl.”

You have probably seen my picture a thousand times. Yes, that picture. The image that made the world gasp. Some called it a turning point in the Vietnam War—a Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of me in 1972, age 9, running along a puddled roadway in front of an expressionless soldier. I was photographed with arms outstretched, naked and shrieking in pain and fear, with the dark contour of a napalm cloud billowing in the distance.

My own people had dropped bombs on Route 1 in an effort to cut off the trade routes for the Viet Cong rebels. I had not been targeted. I had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

More here-

https://www.wsj.com/article_email/the-salvation-of-napalm-girl-1513899109-lMyQjAxMTE3MDIwMjYyOTI5Wj/

Historic Philadelphia church takes new approach to serving the oppressed: healing trauma

From ENS-

As the lunch crowd dwindled, three men stood in a huddle and pulled out white boxing gloves. The Rev. Renee McKenzie-Hayward emerged from her office and greeted them.

Soon, the priest was gloved, taking practice jabs and right hooks — and laughing.

“Fighting for the life of this community, we want to maintain the African-American rich cultural history. The Advocate is central for that. It’s a hub for that,” McKenzie told Episcopal News Service the day before, as she sat in her office painted in African violet. “People can come here to organize, and I say you come here to get stronger and then go out to work.”

You have to be tough, yet warm and welcoming, to do McKenzie’s job at George W. South Memorial Church of the Advocate in North Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In that northern area, the church sits in the Cecil B. Moore neighborhood, named after the civil rights activist and local NAACP president. The neighborhood is predominately African-American and Puerto Rican residents who grew up here, but the ever-increasing influx of college students from nearby Temple University is changing the landscape. A Temple graduate herself who values what the burgeoning college population can offer the community, McKenzie has watched the gentrification change the fabric of the neighborhood. She’s also the university’s Episcopalian chaplain.

More here-

https://www.episcopalchurch.org/library/article/historic-philadelphia-church-takes-new-approach-serving-oppressed-healing-trauma

Why God Doesn’t Heal People We Love? [Brutally] Honest Psalms #3

From Ann Voskamp-

Why, in the name of all things holy, do You cherry pick one person to heal and another person to die?

Why in the world does one baby get to recover and go home to laugh loud and inhale life and another baby gets covered with 6 feet a dirt and hunk of granite gravestone?

You tell us—- Why does this cancer patient get to tout that You heard their prayers and that cancer patient gets a morphine pump for the devouring pain and an unwanted visit from hospice?

When The Picked and The Healed audaciously celebrate: “God heard our prayers!” — are the unpicked and the unhealed really supposed to assume that You plugged Your ears and flat-out refused to hear their wildly begging prayers?

More here-


http://annvoskamp.com/2017/10/why-god-doesnt-heal-people-we-love-brutally-honest-psalms-3/

Forty years after death, Kathryn Kuhlman still inspires a small but steady flock

From Pittsburgh-

Even now, pilgrims make their way in small but steady numbers beneath the soaring gothic vaults of the historic First Presbyterian Church in Downtown, seeking out the unlikely shrine to a one-time tent revivalist, hoping to pray where she preached.

When she died 40 years ago this week, Kathryn Kuhlman was the most famous woman evangelist in the world. Time magazine called her a “one-woman shrine of Lourdes” for the miracle cures she and her devoted followers claimed at her mass revival meetings — even as she scorned the label of “faith healer,” which stalked her through life and into the headline of her obituary.

More here-

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/region/2016/02/14/40-years-after-death-Kathryn-Kuhlman-still-inspires-a-small-but-steady-flock/stories/201602140012

Churches host national conference on healing in Titusville

From Florida-

Father Rob Goodridge has seen the flow of pain from sickness up close, from the bodies wracked with cancer to once limber men reduced to wheelchairs because of back pain. And in each case the spiritual leader of St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church in Titusville has turned to an ancient formula of laying on of hands and anointing with oil as symbolic gestures of the soul-healing power of faith.

"It's healing of the body, mind and spirit," Goodridge says. "But what is greater is that people come to know Jesus, often in a new way. What you find is that people don't need him when things are going great but then, when things are broken, that's when we cry out."

More here-

http://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/2014/10/15/churches-host-national-conference-healing-titusville/17324605/

Reading church makes commitment to healing ministry

From Reading PA-

There has been a rise in interest in spirituality across the nation.

Responding to that, Christ Episcopal Church in the city has made a commitment to a healing ministry, a so-called one-on-one spiritual direction practice and an upcoming workshop that will tackle the journey toward forgiveness.

"This is a very ecumenical movement and outreach to all people," said the Rev. John Francis, 57, of Christ Episcopal, 435 Court St., which boasts about 400 members and an average weekly Sunday attendance of 170.

He cited today's changing and more ethnically diverse human landscape as reasons for embracing a spiritual ministry, noting that many people come from many different religious and ethnic backgrounds as well as no particular faith background at all.

In the case of Christ Episcopal, he said, about half of the congregation is longtime traditional English, but the other half represents a newer influx of people whose heritage stems from Latino, African and Caribbean countries.

More here-

http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=510938

Pakistan: Open-air services bring healing to Peshawar Christians

From ENS-

The healing ministry of the Diocese of Peshawar in Pakistan organized an open-air two-day healing services program at St. John’s Cathedral Church lawn at the end of August.

These healing services were jointly organized by the Rev. Samson Anwar, who is in charge of the diocese’s healing ministry, and Pastor Anwar Fazal from Isaac TV, Lahore.

The basic theme of the program was taken from the parable of the courageous woman, a widow who kept on seeking justice from an unjust judge. Eventually her resistance against injustice, her hope, and waiting meant she was rewarded with justice (Luke 18:1-8).

The priests during the healing services encouraged people to keep on praying continuously, saying, “Jesus assures his followers that God will do justice in the end.”

Hundreds of people attended the services; large crowds of the faithful came from all over the province to hear the word of God.

A good number of non-Christians were there as well, seeking His blessings and were looking forward to receive healings, and to witness the miracles in the Holy name of Jesus Christ.

More here-

http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2013/09/03/pakistan-open-air-services-bring-healing-to-peshawar-christians/

Ilion prayer service provides healing to the community

From New York-

The Ilion Council of Churches conducted an interfaith prayer service of healing and remembrance at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church Monday evening.

Father John Bassett, rector of St. Augustine’s, was joined by Deacon Jim Bower of the Church of the Annunciation and Reverend Victor McKusick, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Ilion. Representatives from the First Baptist Church of Ilion and other area churches were also in attendance.

As people entered the church candles were given out as a sign of hope in the wake of the tragedies that struck Herkimer and Mohawk last week.

On Wednesday, Kurt Myers, 64, of Mohawk, shot four people in Mohawk and two more in Herkimer. Four men died, and the survivors are still in the hospital.

Bassett said the simple service with the theme of resurrection and healing was designed to bring the community together at a time when healing is needed.

More here-

http://www.herkimertelegram.com/news/x898151117/Ilion-prayer-service-provides-healing-to-the-community

New views, ancient rite – Episcopalians reclaim healing ministry

From ENS-

Although Jesus commanded his followers to go out and preach the kingdom and heal the sick (Luke 9:2), the Rev. Nigel Mumford wonders if the Episcopal Church has only gotten it half-right.

"The church has done a great job preaching the kingdom, but not a very good job of healing the sick. That's 50 percent of what the Lord told us to do," said Mumford, 57, director of healing ministries at Christ the King Spiritual Life Center in Greenwich, New York. "Why is it that we're not doing it?"

Healing prayer is such a strong evangelistic tool, he said. "If we would just do it, the church would grow. We would breathe new life into it, literally."

All it takes is six simple heartfelt words, according to Mumford, that can be offered by everyone, anywhere, wherever and whenever, and as often as possible: "How may I pray for you?"

More here-

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79425_130334_ENG_HTM.htm

Dog blessed: Roberta Beach returns the favor after a dog helped her through hard times

From Missouri-

As Roberta Beach recovered from a fourth cancer surgery, a friend came to live with her and changed her life. The friend, a beagle mix named Oliver, came home with Beach at the suggestion of her mother, who said she thought the dog might help her daughter's recovery.

Between 1985 and 1998, Beach intermittently fought squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue, neck and jaw with radiation therapies and multiple surgeries. After one surgery, she was left unable to speak for a period of time and breathed through a tracheotomy tube for over two months. Beach said at one point, she had a free flap surgery which took bone from her leg to reconnect her jaw. "I can say my leg bone is connected to my head bone," she now says with a laugh.

(snip)

In April, her rescue became a division of Safe Harbor Animal Sanctuary in Cape Girardeau County. Beach is the board secretary at Safe Harbor and also volunteers there weekly. An important aspect of Beach's life, and her work as a rescue director, is her faith, she said. Beach is also a licensed healing minister at a local Episcopal church. "An important part of who I am is prayer," she said.

Prayer and talk of creed at her church helped Beach develop her personal motto: "Dedicated to God, serving in prayer, healing and animal welfare." Several years ago, she said, she visited monasteries to see if she was suited to become a member, because she has felt since her teenage years that she would lead a solitary life. Instead, she decided to live with an emphasis on daily prayer. She said she prays for her patients and could not do her rescue without the assurance of prayer and a personal belief that "all will be well."

More here-

http://www.semissourian.com/story/1661950.html

Belief in healing through prayer is at the core of his ministry

From Albany-

The Rev. Nigel Mumford: Director of healing ministries for the Albany Episcopal Diocese, based at the Christ the King Spiritual Life Center in Greenwich, Washington County.

Background: 55. Originally from Plymouth, England. He was a drill instructor with the British Royal Marines. Visited the United States in the 1970s and immigrated in 1980. He was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Church in June of 2005, and was later ordained to the priesthood in December 2005. Has been at the center in Greenwich for five years.
He has written several books on healing ministries including "Hand to Hand: From Combat to Healing" and "The Forgotten Touch." He lives in Greenwich with his wife, Lynn, and has two grown stepchildren.

How does your ministry work?

We have a healing service once a week on Tuesdays and a soaking prayer service on Wednesday where we pray over those who need healing. We also have a prayer team of 37 people who pray for those who need healing.

How did you come to the healing ministry?

My sister had dystonia, which is a very unusual disease. Her body was crippled and stuck in the fetal position, but eight times a day, all her muscles would spasm. She was expected to die, but a man prayed for her and she got better almost immediately. Witnessing that miracle changed my life.

Read more:

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=911233&category=SARATOGA#ixzz0i3kY3mOS

Good Stuff in TEC: New Jersey

St. Stephen's Episcopal Church Healing Hand Of Christ To Hold Meeting

On the second Thursday of each month, following the healing service, a group of Christians meet at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church and learn how to become Christian healers.

They study the healing passages of the Bible, read modern books on healing, learn from each other how healing is done and practice praying for healing.

All of this is done by the members of the Healing Hand Of Christ, their chapter of the Order of St. Luke, the Physician. The chapter is open to anyone who feels they are called to be a healer.

The convenor (leader) is Bernice Neuman, a long-time member of the order.

http://manchestertimes.micromediapubs.com/news/2009/0218/community_news/043.html

You can see all of the Good Stuff posts by clicking on Good Stuff in the labels below.

Good Stuff in TEC: Alabama

New Bible study, healing class set at Christ the King

A new topical Bible study will start Wednesday at Christ the King Charismatic Episcopal Church near Sharpsburg.

Theme for the study will be "God's Purpose and Plan for Us!" Sessions for the 12-week study will start at 7 p.m.

Topics will include:

* the blessing to God's people now in and in the life to come

* tools for effective Bible study

* the unconditional promises of God

* the Kingdom of God

* the Government of God

* the real conflict in the earth

* this present age

* the full inheritance of Christ's followers.

There is no fee, but participants are urged to bring their Bibles. The class will meet in the church's parish life center.

A course on Healing, sanctioned by The Order of St. Luke the Physician, will also be held starting Feb. 4 at Christ the King. OSL is an interdenominational healing ministry.

http://www.times-herald.com/religion/New-Bible-study-healing-class-set-at-Christ-the-King-637086

You can see all of the Good Stuff posts by clicking on Good Stuff in the labels below.

More good stuff happening in the Episcopal Church

A story from Galveston Texas about Michael Gemignani, associate rector at La Marque’s St. Michael’s Episcopal Church - he offers a vision of church a little different from the many mega-church models.

“I pastured an Episcopal church in Freeport for some 16 years,” he said. “Within two or three years after arriving, I gave a series of sermons on healing. And I offered the laying on of hands and anointing for healing within our regular Eucharistic services. “I thought only a few would come forward. Everyone came up. And they kept coming up each first Sunday, year after year, and were still doing so when I retired. I was told we had some physical healings, but people came again and again because they sensed God’s power in the sacrament of healing. Deep healing was taking place and people felt it or they could not have continued to come again and again. Lives were changed.”
http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=da87b4b692658559&-session=TheDailyNews:42F941281418400D74tOQ146B6DE

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