PRAYER CHANGES THINGS!

Hello everyone

I hope you are well and at peace.

In February I had a trip planned to Texas to speak at
a mens conference, but about 1 month before I was
due to go there I found out there was a mix up with
the event. The only problem was I had already booked
my flights. At first I was simply not going to bother with
the trip but as I prayed about it I really felt that God was
asking me to go anyway, even though there were no speaking
engagements planned!

So I decided to contact two good friends of mine who
have connections in Texas to ask them if they knew
anyone who would like me to speak while I was over
there (even though it was very short notice) I began
to pray asking God to open any doors he wanted me
to walk through. Amazingly there ended up being a
talk almost every single day I was over there.

I spoke at a life teen event to about 350 teenagers
and it was a very blessed evening. One girl emailed
to say that she had been going through a very painful
time after her parents had split up and she was
beginning to lose her faith. She had been invited to
come to the life teen event but she really didn't want
to go. Yet somehow she ended up going (someone
must have been praying for her) she received a deep
inner healing as she listened to my story and Jesus
showed her that she was precious in his eyes and
he was so close to her in her suffering. There were
many similar emails from young people who were
going through dark times and trying to make sense
of where God was in their lives.

I met some wonderful people on that visit including
a lady called Elizabeth who arranged for me to do
a parish mission and really looked after me while I
was there. At the mission it was uplifting to see many
people going to confession and telling how much
God had touched their lives.

I ended up travelling down to Tampa in Florida to
speak at a men's conference at which 800 were in
attendance. These events are so anointed and I had
some great chats with some of the guys and you could
see that God was moving in a powerful way. I would
love to see more of these events in Europe!

Next I travelled to Wales where I spoke at a youth
2000 retreat, which for me is always a pleasure because
it is through these retreats that I came to experience God
in a deep way in my own life. It was nice to see some
familiar faces and meet up with some old friends,
including Fiona who is doing a fantastic job running
youth 2000.

After this I flew to Ireland and ran two Parish missions
in Dublin and Coalisland and during the missions I
spoke in the local secondary schools.

Following this I went to visit my very good friend Fr
Frankie Mulgrew who has now been ordained to the
priesthood for around a year. He is in a parish in
Lancashire and he arranged for me to speak to about
800 students in the local secondary schools over the
course of two days and to speak at all the weekend
Masses in his parish and finally to do a talk on the
Sunday evening.

The thing that impressed me was that Fr Frankie would
rise at 6am each morning and pray for two hours before
the Blessed Sacrament and had been interceding for
these talks for a long time and had offered Masses for
these intentions. Because of this you could see how
God was touching many hearts and I felt there was a
tremendous openness in all the people I spoke to.

This just reminded me that prayer is the secret and that
through intercession and perseverance God really can
work miracles, first of all in our own hearts and then
in the hearts of all those we meet.

You are very much in my prayers, please pray for me.

God bless you in his deep love
John Pridmore