Healing on the Streets in North Finchley

|PIC1|Among the shoppers making their way down the High Road in North Finchley are those seeking a different kind of fulfilment than what the stores can offer. Some of them are physically sick. Others have taken a few wrong turns in life and need help to find their way back. Some are just looking for that reassurance that there is someone taking care of them beyond what they can see or touch.

As many Saturdays as they can, a team from nearby St Barnabas Church makes its way to the High Road to bring exactly that kind of reassurance through prayer under the banner of Healing on the Streets.

The get-up is modest: a few chairs, a loudspeaker playing praise music, a simple banner with the word ‘Healing’. The triangular crossing they’ve made the home of their outreach over the past months, meanwhile, is surprisingly quiet and spacious given the amount of traffic on either side.

The response has far exceeded all expectations, says Wendy Harrison, a member of St Barnabas and a regular on the Healing on the Streets rota.

“At the beginning we were fearful and didn’t know how it was going to go but the more you are out here the less scary it is and now we know there really are people out here who want to be prayed for. They want to know more and we have seen people healed,” she says.

It is not uncommon for people to already be waiting for prayer when the team arrive at the junction to set up. On the day the author of this article joined the team, one lady turned up for the third time to ask for prayer to heal her of the cancer and muscular pain she suffers from.

Dabbing at her eyes as Wendy and another member of the team pray for her, she is visibly moved.

“She’s coming for physical healing but it is touching her a lot deeper than that,” says Wendy. “She doesn’t really understand what’s happening but I think she felt the presence of God.”

If someone wants to know more about how to become a Christian they are given a pack containing a booklet on Jesus and information about prayer and church services. If someone feels the need for deeper prayer, that can be arranged at the church.

Wendy said there are now 10 people coming to the church regularly either because they were healed through the team’s prayers or because they struck up a conversation with a member of the team on the street.

One such person was a homeless and alcoholic who had come regularly to see the team. Another woman was from a Catholic background and went to church in her earlier life but had failed to make any real connection to it. Now, thanks to the prayer, she has started coming to services at St Barnabas and is attending the Alpha Course.

In another instance, one member of the team was praying for an Iranian man on the bench when she felt God was saying to her that he had a problem with his hip. When the man confirmed it, she prayed for him and he was healed in that moment, says Wendy. He gave his life to Jesus and now comes to church.

“For some people we are like family. We just engage in conversations,” Wendy explains. “It wasn’t like that in the beginning but we have watered the ground with leaflets over the last few months and it’s changing the environment.”

It’s also changing the impression locals have of the church, Wendy believes.

“One person said to us, ‘Oh, you are doing what Jesus did in the Bible because he didn’t stay in a building but he went out and healed people on the streets.’ We are trying to come out rather than expecting people to come to the church.”