When I was in the southern-Philippines, the Holy Spirit told me to extend my stay.
I was housed with a Pastor and his family who were looking after me freely - so after some time I started feeling increasingly uneasy that I might be imposing on them, despite their wonderful hospitality.
So I asked the Lord to bless the Pastor: and I asked the Lord to let the Pastor know that the reason He was blessing him was because he was looking after me. That way maybe I wouldn't feel so bad.
Soon afterwards the Pastor's helper happened to meet the captain of a fishing trawler on two-way radio. He was complaining that for a long time they'd hardly caught anything - and his boss was threatening to close down the business.
I said to ask him: "Would you like me to pray for you, to catch a lot of fish?"
"Okay," he said - but I don't know if he thought it would really work.
I prayed. That night within one hour they'd caught so much - 5000kg they said - they had to come straight back to shore and unload.
The next night, same again - 4000kg, they said.
Usually the trawlers would stay at sea up to weeks at a time, another vessel would go out to meet them, they'd regularly offload their catches of fish, then that vessel would bring it back to shore. But this night they caught so much in a single haul, they came straight back to shore themselves.
To celebrate they sent a young lad to our house with a box full of fish - more than enough for the Pastor's whole household for weeks! The Pastor even gave bags of fish away to other members of the church.
The fishermen started consistently making good catches - so much so the captain of another fishing-boat in the company noticed, and asked the skipper why he was always catching so much fish while he still wasn't.
"Because of John's prayers," he answered.
"Well what have we got to do to get him to pray for us too?" he said.
From then on it seemed the captains were trying to outdo one another in how much fish they could send to our house!
Whenever we ran out of fish, another supply of fish would be delivered to the house - usually the very same day.
The Pastor told me the captain told him "it's really a miracle," because the variety of fish they were catching could usually only be caught deep beneath the surface of the ocean, but they were catching it close to the surface.
And it was a variety of fish which attracted a good price at the market. So the next time I visited the fishermen, some of them were wearing jewellery I hadn't noticed before!
They were happy for a team from the church to visit their village regularly and conduct outreach meetings.
One day, after having eaten one particular variety of fish for a while, I said to the Lord:
"I think I'd like Tuna this week."
That week when a box of fish was delivered to the house, one large tuna was sticking out of it.
"We were surprised when a Tuna jumped into the net this week," the young lad told us.
After several months I moved out from the Pastor's house to a different city. That very week the fishermen stopped sending fish to the house - yet neither the Pastor nor I had told them I'd left.
The Pastor phoned me long-distance, a few weeks later:
"When are you coming back? I've learned that the Lord blesses me because of looking after you!"
Jesus "...commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse: But be shod with sandals; and not put on two coats" (Mark 6:8,9).
I was housed with a Pastor and his family who were looking after me freely - so after some time I started feeling increasingly uneasy that I might be imposing on them, despite their wonderful hospitality.
So I asked the Lord to bless the Pastor: and I asked the Lord to let the Pastor know that the reason He was blessing him was because he was looking after me. That way maybe I wouldn't feel so bad.
Soon afterwards the Pastor's helper happened to meet the captain of a fishing trawler on two-way radio. He was complaining that for a long time they'd hardly caught anything - and his boss was threatening to close down the business.
I said to ask him: "Would you like me to pray for you, to catch a lot of fish?"
"Okay," he said - but I don't know if he thought it would really work.
I prayed. That night within one hour they'd caught so much - 5000kg they said - they had to come straight back to shore and unload.
The next night, same again - 4000kg, they said.
Usually the trawlers would stay at sea up to weeks at a time, another vessel would go out to meet them, they'd regularly offload their catches of fish, then that vessel would bring it back to shore. But this night they caught so much in a single haul, they came straight back to shore themselves.
To celebrate they sent a young lad to our house with a box full of fish - more than enough for the Pastor's whole household for weeks! The Pastor even gave bags of fish away to other members of the church.
The fishermen started consistently making good catches - so much so the captain of another fishing-boat in the company noticed, and asked the skipper why he was always catching so much fish while he still wasn't.
"Because of John's prayers," he answered.
"Well what have we got to do to get him to pray for us too?" he said.
From then on it seemed the captains were trying to outdo one another in how much fish they could send to our house!
Whenever we ran out of fish, another supply of fish would be delivered to the house - usually the very same day.
The Pastor told me the captain told him "it's really a miracle," because the variety of fish they were catching could usually only be caught deep beneath the surface of the ocean, but they were catching it close to the surface.
And it was a variety of fish which attracted a good price at the market. So the next time I visited the fishermen, some of them were wearing jewellery I hadn't noticed before!
They were happy for a team from the church to visit their village regularly and conduct outreach meetings.
One day, after having eaten one particular variety of fish for a while, I said to the Lord:
"I think I'd like Tuna this week."
That week when a box of fish was delivered to the house, one large tuna was sticking out of it.
"We were surprised when a Tuna jumped into the net this week," the young lad told us.
After several months I moved out from the Pastor's house to a different city. That very week the fishermen stopped sending fish to the house - yet neither the Pastor nor I had told them I'd left.
The Pastor phoned me long-distance, a few weeks later:
"When are you coming back? I've learned that the Lord blesses me because of looking after you!"
Jesus "...commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse: But be shod with sandals; and not put on two coats" (Mark 6:8,9).
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