We would like to share with you a bit of our story and the journey we have been on with God these past few years.
In 2001 we went to live in California because of Tom's job. He worked as an Electronics design Engineer and his company had a contract which would mean relocating to Los Angeles for a few years. At this time I (Marjory) was at a place in my life where I was seeking God in a new way. I wasn't satisfied with where I was and wanted more of God and a greater reality of Him in my life. I saw this as a real opportunity to seek him and I searched for Christians who were experiencing what I wanted to experience. I also emptied out the local Christian bookshops and read many books on a whole range of subjects ranging from Christian living to healing, prophecy and intercession, as well as testimony/life story books. I so badly wanted to have my own story and was inspired with the kind of things I was hearing about and learning.
Tom, on the other hand, was at a place in his life where he was questioning his faith, wondering what it was all about and if he even wanted to keep going. He came along to church with me but did not show all that much interest in the books I was reading or the experiences I was having. He was somewhat skeptical about Gods power to heal and as he looked at people in our church who were sick, he thought to himself "these people say they believe in healing - but this just shows its all nonsense". However, God was not finished with Tom and before our first year was up Tom began to have a change of heart and began to take an interest in the books I was reading and in seeking after God for himself. About this time Tom had a very vivid dream where he was in a meeting and the Holy Spirit was moving on people (but not him) then suddenly he was lifted up by his feet and held upside down over the meeting by God. He was then slowly lowered down to the ground. When he woke up he knew that God was showing him that He was going to turn him upside down!
In the space of a few months I suddenly had a husband who would grab me at night and say "we must pray". He was also trying to catch up with me in all the reading I had done and was keen to get his hands on teaching tapes and sermons. Something that particularly struck him was the fact that he was a "son of God" - in all his days as a Christian he had not fully realized the significance of that statement and it just became such a revelation to him from that point on. The next thing that happened was in the whole area of healing. Tom's friend gave him a series of talks on healing and he devoured them at a phenomenal rate! The bible opened up to him in a new way and his excitement grew as he heard these teachings. The talks were based on the teachings of John G Lake, a man whom Tom had previously never heard of. As he looked into the history of John G Lake he stumbled onto the "Healing Rooms" story and discovered that the original Healing Rooms in Spokane, Washington had recently been re-opened by a man called Cal Pierce. We got hold of the book which told the story of the re-opening of the rooms (called "Preparing the Way") and thought how great it would be if the Healing Rooms could come to Scotland.
In tandem with all this happening we were experiencing a great hunger and desire to see our home country of Scotland greatly impacted for Christ. We knew that at the end of our 3 years we were going to go back to Scotland as very different people and with a calling to use the things we had learned and experienced during our time away. We really didn't know exactly what these things would be, but we believed that God would show us in His time.
We arrived back in Scotland early in 2004 and got involved in a local church and found out as much about what was going on in Edinburgh as we could. We went to the occasional prayer gathering to pray for the city and spent lots of time just waiting before the Lord for what it was He would have us do. God did actually give us a bit of a clue in the very first week we got back to Edinburgh and He used a rather humorous way to do it.
In the weeks leading up to our return to Edinburgh we had asked a friend if he would buy a car for us to have when we returned. We gave him a rough specification and a price range and he duly bought us an appropriate vehicle. When Tom was going through the ownership documents to send away he suddenly called to me and said "you are not going to believe the name of the previous owner of this car" he then proceeded to tell me that the owners name was "John Lake"!! We were pretty amazed but didn't quite know what it meant, however we held onto it as a sign from God for what He was going to do.
Things didn't move as quickly as we had expected when we got back, and God took us through a time of waiting and persevering. He kept telling us not to try to birth something that was not of Him or in His time. After a year or so a couple of things happened quite quickly that were to lead us into the call that God had for us. The first thing was that a friend called Kent Roberts, whom we had met through our best friends in America, emailed to let us know he was coming to Glasgow to work at a bible school there. Naturally we invited him to come through to see us for dinner and a chat when he arrived. When we met him he shared that as well as helping with the bible school, one of the things he was going to be doing was helping to set up Healing Rooms in Glasgow, both as a trainer and a team member! Unknown to us it turned out that on a previous trip to Glasgow he had met with Steven Anderson (of Glasgow's Prayer for the City) and given him the Cal Pierce book called "Preparing the Way". Steven had been so impacted with this book that he ended up going out to Spokane, being trained and eventually released as the Director for Healing Rooms in Scotland. Our American friend was now going to team up with Steven to help run training and get things going. We were totally amazed that God should have connected us with the one guy in America who ended up over here in Scotland to do Healing Rooms. It was becoming obvious that something was afoot!!
The next thing that happened was that Tom's job became at risk due to the possibility of redundancy. We were really quite excited about that as we could see it would be the right time to get stuck into the things that God was placing on our hearts. However we felt that we should pray about it and see if God would lead Tom to take voluntary redundancy. Almost immediately Tom had a very significant dream where he felt like he was being shown that it would be God (and not himself) that would bring about the separation from work in the right time. So he didn't apply for redundancy and decided to wait and see what would happen. In a short space of time it became clear that he was going to be one of the people who would be asked to go and so we readied ourselves for the next step. The dream the Lord had given Tom also indicated that he should do nothing for 3 and a half months and simply wait to see what would happen at that time. This was a little difficult and the pressure to rush into something was always present. However, we were excited and really felt like we were being clearly led so the time passed fairly quickly.
During this time period a lady from church, who headed up the "Edinburgh Prayer Wall" mentioned she would be moving away from the city in a few months time. We didn't think too much about it, but one night Tom said he thought perhaps God wanted us to have something to do with the Prayer Wall. We both agreed that if this was God's idea then the lady would have to mention it to us herself. Up till then we had very little to do with the Prayer Wall and so we were not really the obvious people to ask. I personally shelved the idea thinking it just wasn't for us.
So after our 3 and a half months of waiting two interesting things happened within the space of a few days. The first was a meeting in Shetland (where we had attended a prayer conference). Kent and Steven Anderson were going up to carry out Healing Rooms training at the same time as we were also on the Island (another of those funny "coincidences"). We arranged to meet for lunch, and during this meeting we shared with Steven our story and our heart to see Healing Rooms come to Edinburgh. Steven simply said that if he was invited to come and do training in Edinburgh then he would come! The second thing happened a few days later whilst in a car with the lady who ran the Prayer Wall. She turned to me and said that she had been praying the previous night about what to do with the Prayer Wall after she left Edinburgh. God had shown her a strategy and given her a new name for the prayer network (the "Edinburgh Prayer Watch"). She then had asked who on earth could do this and God had given her our names!
Suddenly it seemed that we had two things on our plate - the Healing Rooms and a Prayer network! It felt a little daunting and yet we could see Gods hand in it all. So, feeling somewhat overwhelmed, we went out in faith and booked a place to run a training weekend and set about advertising it locally. We though that we would be doing well if around 20 folks turned up, but as the time approached for the training more and more people were calling us to say they wanted to come. In the end around 45 people (most of whom we didn't know) came to our first training weekend. A great time was had by everyone and the enthusiasm and energy of the people was so encouraging. In the end we had a committed team of about 20 people and these people formed the first of our Healing Rooms teams.
Of course there is more to the story, like how we got the current venues for Healing Rooms and all the twists and turns in that tale! But what I've shared is probably sufficient for you to see the wonderful way that God brought Healing Rooms to our City and used a couple of unsuspecting nobodies to do it! Of course that is just the kind of God we have. He loves to take that which seems foolish and unqualified and use it (or them!) to display His glory. The adventure continues, and we know that whatever we think it will look like it will most likely be exceedingly abundantly greater than what we could ask or imagine..!!
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.
Marjory Morrow - 20/02/06