From Singapore
 
The Potta-Divine Experience
 
The Euphoria of a Spiritual Experience
 
It happend on the 3rd day of my retreat at the Divine Retreat Centre in March 1998. While Fr Augustine Vallooran was celebrating Mass and praying for the anointing of the Holy Spirit, I had a vision of the Lord Jesus.
 
He was on a cross with light above his head and a man kneeling in front of him, praying. Thinking it was mere imagination, I asked the Lord to affirm my vision with my eyes closed. With my eye lids shut as tightly as I could, I saw the same vision and many others. There were white doves flying, white angels and also two visions of men shaking hands .
 
Tears of joy rolled down my cheeks profusely. My body began to sway from left to right. The motion lasted for about two minutes when a sudden surge of weight and heat descended onto my head.
 
As the sensation penetrated within me, the heat was transformed in to a cool fluffy feeling that engulfed my entire body and soul. I was floating in the air even though I was still seated on the chair in the prayer hall. How I wished the feeling could last forever!
 
While the Holy Spirit was touching my soul, I was totally conscious of the songs that my friends were singing but afraid to lose the divine touch. I didn’t even dare to move. At the end of the Mass I could feel a cool breeze gradually drifting away from my body.
 
I knew that the Lord had anointed me with the Holy Spirit. Each day was a different experience altogether. One day I felt an angel holding my hand and flying with me across the ocean. Besides the anointing of the Holy Spirit, my spinal cramps and knee pain have all been healed. They were ailments that numerous doctors could not cure.
 
I praise and thank God for showering such forgiveness, mercy and the touch of love on me. I pray that my brothers and sisters who are attending the retreat at the Divine Retreat Centre may be touched by the Lord as I was.
 
Doris Nar Puay Kin,
Hougang Ave ,
Singapore
"O give thanks
to the Lord,
for he is good;
his steadfast love
endures forever!"
(Ps 118:1)
 
I just got back yesterday evening from India! Yes, the land of beauty and love, the poor and the rich, the healthy and the sick. It was a sudden trip with no prior planning. Nor I did have any time to talk about it. No! I went to see a lady who read astrology with the help of cards. I had been seeing her once a year for the last three years. I went to her three weeks ago and she told me about the trip to India and asked me to go along with her and 14 others. I said, "Let me think about it. It has something to do with Christianity, doesn't it?"
 
Although, it was a short-notice-trip, I got ready and everything fell into place without a hassle.
 
Once at the Divine Retreat Centre no one is allowed to leave the place until the next Saturday. One week to go! Oh boy! Although I kept thinking, "What am I doing here?", I told myself. "Have a break and pretend it's a holiday". It turned out to be the best holiday I have ever had. There were only 3 Singapore Indians and the rest were Chinese and others. Four of us were non-Catholics.
 
They were lots of people who came to give their testimonies of how their lives had changed. It was amazing-the love and healing, not only of the heart,but also of the body. On the last two days of the retreat the number of healings increased . A man who had been walking with pain for 19 years with the help of a stick, was now walking without it and with a smile of happiness on his face.This was just one out of several cases.
 
I saw a vision of a baby with chubby cheeks and lovable lips and it smiled at me. It was a blurred vision of Mother Mary and I got the message to serve her and to speak about her. I was confused but happy. I also started to talk in tongues. And I saw peoples' faces here and there in my vision. I asked them to bless me and whenever they did, they mentioned that Mother Mary would be with me and that I should share my thoughts with others. I have been feeling the Holy Spirit guiding me during my return to Singapore and even heard father Augustine's voice when I was in the plane. I pray and hope the Lord will be with me forever in my heart. I am still rather skeptical about the whole thing but have been praying to God every morning at 6.00 am before I go to work to give me wisdom and to fill me with the Holy Spirit at all times. Let me not lose the happiness I am feeling today, dear Lord!
 
Vasuke Tangavelu,
Singapore
Dr Jesus Healed my Poliomyelitis
 
"He sent
out his word
and healed them"
(Ps 107:20)
 
I am 53 years old and had polio since birth. Consequently I walked with a pronounced limp as my left leg was shorter than the other. In 1957 I had a major operation which fused my ankle at a fixed 120 angle. Still the left leg remained shorter. The post-operation walk was no better. With the fused ankle I could not run anymore. I still walked with a bad limp. Walking up a gentle slope meant tip-toeing on my left leg.
 
During the Bible Festival at the July 13 1997 Mass, just before the Archbishop’s final blessing, the Potta Team conducted a healing session.
 
Suddenly my hands and my left leg vibrated involuntarily. At that moment, I asked the Lord to heal my mother’s left foot. But the Lord distinctly spoke, "I’m healing your leg." Focusing on my fused ankle, I told the Lord, "How can it be possible? But if you say so, then I claim your healing, Lord!"
 
From August 8 Friday to August 10 Sunday 40 members of our Singapore SFX charismatic team attended a 3-day Ministry of Preaching and Healing at Majodi Centre, Plentiong, Johor, Malaysia.
 
To help "Mother" Monica, a 75 -year-old Chinese lady, suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and bow-legs to forget her pain in the leg, I would loudly sing in Malayalam "Suth dhi Natha, Alleluia" or "Praise be the Lord, Alleluia" with her.
 
She had complained to my wife, "When is the Lord going to heal my leg?" Going to and fro during almost every preaching session, I would grasp her hands and walk, crazily dance and sing "Suth dhi Natha, Alleluia" causing many participants to comment on our joviality.
 
On Saturday morning, August 9, I told "Mother" Monica that Jesus was going to heal her leg and I would like to book a dance with her in the evening. She laughed it off as a joke. At 14.30hr, after lunch break, I asked her if she had made an appointment with Dr. Jesus to heal her leg. She said, "I have done that but it is no use. Jesus does not listen to me." I told her, "I have made a hot line to Dr. Jesus, don’t worry!"
 
I remember the time when I brought a cup of tea and a piece of cake in a tray to "Mother" Monica. The cup was 3/4 full; by the time I reached her, the cup was only 1/2 full and the cake soaked in tea. That was how I would wobble before my healing.
 
During Mass, Fr . Tardiff announced that three persons were healed of their leg problems. "There is a person with a walking stick; she must stand up and try walking in faith without the walking stick". "Mother" Monica started to walk to the rostrum without the walking stick; she felt no pain. I shouted "Praise the Lord" and "Monica, we have a dance."
 
After Mass, I rushed to her to congratulate her. I requested her to dance with me. Then I noticed that I was walking with lightness and a bounce. There was no pressure on my left leg. I walked very fast and asked all my friends to comment on my walking. Praise God! I was walking with an "unnoticeable limp" a very "steady", and "good gait".
 
I found that my left leg had also lengthened and the gap between the left and the right leg was only 1-2 mm vs the previous 12 mm gap. Fr Tardiff explained to me that when the Lord stretched out my left leg, he also loosened some nerves and relocated others. So I walked much better! He asked me to daily pray for the strengthening of my left leg.
 
While helping the old lady, "Mother" Monica, to forget her painful left leg, and singing and praising joyously to the Lord, Dr Jesus became my orthopaedic surgeon. Praise the Lord!
 
My company doctor Teo Kian Tong, of Jurong Centre Clinic, who has been annually examining me for 18 years could not explain how I could walk better with a fixed fused ankle specially on a slope; how my left leg could lengthen; how a new bone-formation called "spur bone" confirmed by an X-ray, was not giving me pain when I walked; how my "Donald-duck" backside was straightened and how after 1-month exercise my left leg calf- muscle could slightly twitch when I clenched my toes whereas for 52 years there was no reflex feeling! Praise be the Lord, Alleluia!
 
"For the Lord
is good; his
steadfast love
endures forever,
and his fathflnessto all generations"
(Ps 100:5)
Matthew Ta Kim Huat
Kingswear Avenue,
Singapore