This Sunday, November 28, we attended Once-A-Month-Church in Haleiwa on the North Shore of Oahu! This church is a ministry to the homeless that buses in people from all over the island. Pastor Ron Valenciana has been leading this church for about 6 1/2 years now and it is a very unique church. Before any preaching takes place everyone who is in need is invited to shake Pastor Ron’s hand and receive a raffle ticket. Then they begin to give away huge quantities of food as the numbers are called. Today it looked like about twenty shopping carts of food, as well as half a dozen tables of assorted food products were on hand to be given away. About three hundred people were there for church and the raffle lasted a good twenty minutes, with at least someone from every family being blessed with a winning number!
I came to Haleiwa Beach Park this Sunday with my son Elijah and our friend Jesse. We met up with Louie and his two kids as well as Rick, who is also part of the staff at Once-A-Month. As the raffle was going on Jesse and I looked around for someone who might need to be healed.
The first person we saw was a young boy with a removable brace on his wrist. We like these kind because after you pray you can always ask the person to remove the brace and test it out to look for evidence of an instant miracle. This has happened to us in the past! We approached the boy and explained what we wanted to do. He was twelve years old and his name was “Hawaii”! He allowed us to pray but after we finished he refused to take off the brace because his Mom had told him not to. His cast had recently been removed and the brace was for extra protection. He said that as far as he could tell his arm felt good. So we told him that he was now recruited to help us pray for other people!
The three of us then looked around for a new target. I saw a man that had a cane and a hip condition that we had prayed for before. He was holding up two raffle tickets and was intently listening to the numbers being called out. I told Jesse and Hawaii that the Glory of God was upon us in such a way that just by us standing next to this man he would be blessed with a winning number! The man overheard me and smiled! Sure enough, a few minutes later near the very end of the raffle his number was called and we all jumped up and shouted in victory! He had won a big bag of rice! When he came back to his seat with his rice we talked with him about his hip and prayed a quick prayer for him. He thanked us for the prayer and also for the rice!
The next person we saw was a woman with an ace bandage on her wrist. We spoke to her briefly and she said that she had strained some ligaments in her wrist while weed-whacking. All three of us put our hands on her wrist and Jesse and I each said a brief prayer commanding healing in her wrist in Jesus’ Name, then we asked her to test it out. She unwrapped the bandage and began moving her wrist around. She said that it had been stiff and swollen before and she could tell that something had happened. She had greater mobility and much less pain! We prayed one more time to reduce the swelling and commanded ALL pain to leave. She thanked us and put the ace bandage in her pocket, while moving her wrist around in amazement!
Shortly after this Louie came up to us and called us to the Bible tent where Rick was posted. There we met a woman who was suffering from symptoms of fibromyalgia. About five of us surrounded her and several of us prayed. We could feel the Holy Spirit come upon us as a weighty presence and a tingling sensation upon our head and shoulders. After we prayed she stood up smiling! She said she felt much lighter and much better! We praised God as she hugged each one of us!
Soon after that we prayed for a homeless man who lived nearby in a tent who was leaning heavily on a cane because of pain in his left leg. He pointed to Louie, who was busy talking with someone a few feet away, saying that last month the pain had left him the moment that Louie had touched him! So we put our hands on his leg and prayed, expecting the same result. Jesse and I prayed and then I asked our young friend Hawaii if he wanted to pray. “What do I say?” he asked. I said, “Just say, ‘Be healed in Jesus’ Name!’” He said it and then we asked the man to test it out. He stood up without his cane and began to gingerly put weight on his foot. Then he began to walk around. “Yeah, just like last time,” he said. “The pain’s gone!” Jesse and I both looked at Hawaii and said, “See, there’s your first miracle, what do you think about that?” He just smiled and nodded, happy to be a part of what God was doing! For the rest of the day his little hand was right in there on every person we prayed for!
The schedule was full at Once-A-Month-Church. Pastor Ron gave a short message which left time for several different people to sing and for several different dance routines. Miss Hawaii 2010, Jalee Kate Fuselier, who is out at Once-A-Month every month, had a touching message and an uplifting song as usual. She is an amazing person with a giving heart who absolutely loves the Lord and we’re expecting her to become Miss USA in January 2011! A group of girls from Surfing the Nations also showed off a new hip-hop dance routine that was upbeat and had everyone grooving and laughing!
Eventually the time came for the best part of Once-A-Month-Church — the altar call. Each month dozens of people, after being blessed by the goodness of God as demonstrated by a handful of faithful and selfless volunteers, make the decision to follow Jesus Christ and enter into the Kingdom of God. Pastor Ron does not go overboard with the drama, he simply gives an invitation. Within minutes the area in front of the worship tent was crowded with people ready to give their lives to the Lord. Everyone formed a large circle and Pastor Ron led everyone in a short prayer of salvation. Then he asked if anyone was there who needed deliverance from addiction. A smaller circle soon formed within the larger circle. Pastor Ron then asked those who had just received Jesus to lay their hands on those in the middle who needed deliverance. The atmosphere became electric as Pastor Ron prayed over these addicts and commanded breakthrough and freedom for these people in the Name of Jesus. Many tears were shed and many lives were instantly transformed as these souls willingly gave up their idols, repented, and turned their hearts to the Lord. The presence of the Holy Spirit was incredible!
After the altar call the new believers are always invited to meet with volunteers on the side who give them Bibles and also pray for any specific needs. I prayed with one woman and she was blessed and thanked me wholeheartedly. Then I met with a couple who I could tell were in a spiritual battle. The woman was showing obvious signs of “tweaking” or coming down from a crystal meth high. My heart went out to them both. I prayed the best I could and I prophesied holiness and righteousness over their lives. The tears in their eyes showed me their appreciation. Then I was introduced to an older man who was dying of liver failure. His eyes were yellow and he seemed unfocused and lethargic. I grabbed Louie and Jesse and some other friends and we prayed healing and life over him in Jesus’ Name. I prophesied to him and to his daughter that we would see him again in January and that he would be jumping up and down praising Jesus!
Once-A-Month-Church always includes an offering, but the church doesn’t take an offering it gives an offering. Pastor Ron hands out $2 bills to everyone who wants to stand in line. Then the last thing given away at Once-A-Month is a car (sometimes more than one). Today a woman was the lucky winner of a used car in good running condition. After the drama of this final drawing the church was dismissed to line up for lunch. Salad, rice, chicken, and beef stew — the best beef stew I’ve ever eaten!
There were many miracles on this day at Once-A-Month-Church, and I’ve only related a few. People were saved, healed and delivered, and the Gospel was preached to the poor! But not every prayer was instantly answered. For instance, there was a man in a wheelchair who had one leg four inches shorter than the other and we failed in our attempts to get it to grow out. However, we choose not do dwell on what God didn’t do, but on what he did do. And we will keep pressing in to Him, expecting His love and power to continue to increase in all of our lives. We’re not gonna stop! Jesus is King over Hawaii, and we’re gonna do our best to prove it, wherever He calls us to go!