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Healing Waters
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Lourdes Pilgrims at the Source |
Some weeks ago, Pope John
Paul II made a much-publicized visit to Lourdes, France
– a town of about 17,000 inhabitants located in the
mountainous region of Southwestern France. Each year,
from March to October, this small town is inundated with
religious pilgrims from Europe and around the world –
about 6 million annually – who come in search of healing
waters.
In 1858, a 14-year-old
peasant girl named Bernadette Soubirous claimed to see
visions of the Virgin Mary at a rock called
Massabielle in Lourdes. The vision told Bernadette
to drink the water of a spring that flowed from under
the rock, for it had been given healing power.
Bernadette’s claims were eventually accepted by the
Roman Catholic Church, and a shrine was built at the
cave. Today, more than 10,000 pilgrims come to Lourdes
every day to drink and to wash in this water, believing
that they can be healed.
As European society
becomes increasingly secular and the institutions of
European Christianity continue to decline, the pilgrims
in Lourdes show us that faith is not dead in Europe, and
that hurting people are still searching for the Healer.
The United Pentecostal
Church is laboring in France so that those who seek
healing may find it in the flow of the Spirit of God,
rather than looking for it in the flow of water from a
mountain source. Our passion is that the hurting may
find a cure, not just for the body but also for the soul
– a spiritual cure found through the healing waters of
baptism, and the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.
Bottles of the Lourdes
spring water sell for $125 a liter, but Jesus offers the
water of life freely to whomever is thirsty (Rev.
22:1,17). Jesus also promised that when we drink the
water that He gives, we will never thirst again (John
4:14). Pray with us that the Apostolic Message would
spread throughout France, and that the hurting would
find true healing through the New Birth experience (John
3:5, Acts 2:38).
Thank you
for your faithful support of our ministry in France.
Without your
partnership, we could not be here. We are
laborers together, working to bring hope to the hurting
in this vast Harvest Field!
Yours
for France,
The Schoberts
Steve,
Kristin,
Steven II,
& Rachel
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www.theschoberts.org
