We were talking to a young man who asked us which church we were from and when we told him our team came from 49 different churches; he was keen to confirm that these were Christian as he had had some uncomfortable contact with a false religion. We assured him we were all Christians and asked him if he would like us to pray for him, which he was keen to do. As we prayed he felt a physical “flutter” inside which really impacted him so we explained that that was because Jesus is real. Before we left, we offered him a “Knowing God Personally” booklet which he gladly accepted.

We phoned the Prayer Pastors to pray for him and walked on. 5 minutes later he was back, keen to know if it was ok to pray to Jesus as well as God; was Jesus God or should he pray only to God the Father? We explained that praying to either is fine but that any prayer he might pray really ought to begin with “Sorry Lord……..” and should continue with “…….for all the things I’ve done wrong……”, naming all the things that came to mind and asking God’s forgiveness for them. “Like the prayer in that book you gave me”? he asked, “I prayed that”. Then delighted, we began to explain that it was important to mean the words of the prayer from the heart, not just to say them, but he finished the sentence for us, assuring that he had meant every word. “Do I need to pray that every day”? he then asked. It was our privilege to tell him that Jesus had already paid the penalty for his sins on the cross and that as he had sincerely prayed the prayer, they were forgiven and no, he didn’t need to pray that prayer every day. Naturally we could have given him all sorts of advice but it felt right to then just say that the next steps would be explained in the booklet. He was happy with that and went off smiling and thanking us again. Naturally, we were elated and have been praying for him since