In 2001 we all (by all I mean myself, my wife Marjory and daughter Beth, 18 months old) moved to Los Angeles and this gave us the opportunity to experience lots of new things. One thing I found out was that God was a lot bigger than I thought and very real! Initially we tried some different churches before being led to a small Vineyard church, where we met some amazing people who are now lifelong friends.
Marjory had taken the opportunity, whilst being a stay home mum with a toddler, to read lots of new books from the Christian book shop. To be honest I thought this was just a waste of time! However, after a while I started reading these same books and that is when I found out that what I had thought was true wasn’t necessary the truth! The books gave me an appetite to find out more and so I started on a journey of discovery.
It was also about this time I had a dream in which I was at a kind of home group meeting and God was touching people. I was standing feeling that I was missing out when suddenly God picked me up and turned me upside down! I made so much noise that I woke Marjory up, she thought I was having a nightmare! To reassure me she put her hand on my leg and I woke up. I said to her “God just turned me upside down!” and she just smiled and thought “great, my prayers are being answered”.
To help you understand where I was at the time, I was very much a doubting Thomas! Doubting that there was a God and if there was he wasn’t pleased with me and he certainly didn’t do anything miraculous anymore – especially heal the sick. So when I started getting interested in the ‘gifts of the Spirit’ the one that intrigued me the most was healing.
During our time at the small Vineyard church I had made friends with a guy called Doug Van Der Wayde, who for a brief time, went to work at another church on their PA system. Whilst working there the church had a weekend of teaching on healing by Curry Blake from John G. Lake Ministries. So when I mentioned to Doug about my interest in the gift of healing, he offered me the 15 sessions of teaching he got at the church he briefly worked at. So, whilst sitting at my computer at work with a set of headphones on, I started to listen to hours of teaching on healing.
This teaching was to literally turn my understanding of things upside down and give me a true understanding of what the Bible says on healing. It also gave me a better understanding of who I am, that I am a child of God – loved very much by a good Father. Also in the teaching Curry Blake mentioned a man called John G. Lake and I found out more about him by researching him on the internet. This is also where I stumbled across Healing Rooms, which I found I really liked the vision of.
So with a renewed relationship and a fuller understanding of God, we finished our time in the States. It had been very impacting and we were now returning to our home country not sure what the next step was, but keen to do something with what we had. We felt God wanted us to do something with healing and specifically Healing Rooms. We loved the model of a place people could come easily and that people from different churches could get involved. We liked the fact that it was not centred around one person or one church, but focused on Jesus and his Body doing the work.
Upon our return to Scotland, I asked a friend to find me a car. Steven started looking for something within our budget and our requirements. Almost the first vehicle he went to see (spotted by his brother, Neil, in the Auto Trader) was a Renault Espace. It was just what we needed so he bought it and prepared it for our arrival. When we got back to Scotland one of my first tasks was to register the vehicle in my name and that is when I spotted that the previous owners name was John Lake!! I think God was confirming my desire to get involved in Healing Rooms!
We also had another confirmation through a bizarre set of circumstances. Whilst we were in California our good friends had introduced us to Kent Roberts who had been helping a ministry in Glasgow, Scotland and had finished his time there. He visited us one evening and we had a great time chatting about Scotland. We then visited him at his church to hear him speak and enjoy a further afternoon together. After being back in Scotland for a year we got a message that Kent had returned to Scotland, so we invited him to dinner.
During the evening Kent shared that although he had come to help at a Christian college, because it wasn’t fully up and running yet, he was spending his time helping at Healing Rooms. This intrigued us and so we asked more about his involvement. Apparently during one of Kent’s previous times in Scotland he had met a guy called Steven Anderson and they had got chatting about healing. Kent gave Steven the book ‘Preparing the Way’ which is the story of how Healing Rooms were re-started in Spokane, American in 1999. Steven read this book right away and knew that he was supposed to get Healing Rooms started in Scotland. We then shared our story with Kent about how we wanted to see Healing Rooms getting started in Scotland, not realizing it was already happening. Obviously when this information came out we knew it was a ‘coincidence’ only God could ordain!
In the next few months after the dinner with Kent things started changing in my life. The company I worked for needed to reduce the workforce. They asked for volunteers, so I prayed about it and God gave me a dream which I felt said don’t apply for voluntary redundancy but you will leave the company. A few weeks later I was called into the office and told my job was one of the ones at risk. They offered to look for opportunities in other departments but I said it was OK, as I felt this was my time to leave.
I still wasn’t sure what my involvement would be in Healing Rooms and so tried to encourage others to catch the vision. I took a group to a Healing Rooms training event in Glasgow and also organized a meeting with Steven and others from Edinburgh. But no-one felt they should start Healing Rooms in Edinburgh, although many people were keen to help.
Later in the summer we went to a conference in Shetland and after the conference we stayed on to see some of Shetland. We found out that Steven and Kent we coming up to do a Healing Rooms training event while we were still there so we decided to meet for lunch. While at lunch we asked Steven if we could run Healing Rooms in Edinburgh. We hadn’t asked before as we felt we weren’t the right people as we had no background in church leadership. Steven responded he had been waiting for us to ask and he felt we were the right people to lead it in Edinburgh. So with Steven’s backing we returned to Edinburgh with the task of organizing training and inviting people to get involved.
After that weekend training in 2005 we got a group together to start Healing Rooms in Edinburgh and in January 2006 opened our rooms there. Since then we have seen God do amazing things through ordinary believers working together for His Kingdom.
Thank you for your interest and patience in reading this story. May God bless you and lead you on in your own wonderful adventures with Him!
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