Saturday, January 30, 2016
1-18-3 subhead goes here and goes here and goes here
By LINDA M. LINONIS
BOARDMAN
Attendance and participation in healing services at Good Hope Lutheran Church convey to the Rev. Robert Quaintance that they are meaningful and help people.
Pastor Quaintance said the services began about 18 years ago – maybe longer. “The response was so positive,” he said. Because of that, it took a long time to pray with each person. So, the church now has three healing services – winter, fall and summer. This Sunday, the healing services will take place at 8 and 11 a.m., which are traditional services with oragan music, and at 9:30 a.m., which is contemporary with the Praise Team. Good Hope is at 98 Homestead Drive.
Because of the number of people, Pastor Quaintance said he enlisted the late Jake Schriderer to help pray. Now, he has one assistant at the 8 and 11 a.m. services and two or three at 9:30. The healing service basically grew out of the caring attitude of its congregation and prayful place that personify Good Hope, the pastor said. “People showed concern for one another and the need for prayer for others,” he said.
The healing services address issues including health, family, death of a loved one, grief and other circumstances.
Pastor Quaintance said the service involves laying on of hands and anointing with oil by making the sign of the cross on a person’s forehead. Each person who wants prayer may come up to the altar and take a turn. “People come forward and sometimes tell a name or reason needed for prayer,” Pastor Quaintance said. “We pray that a person may be made whole.”
The laying on of hands, the pastor explained, “is the physical manifestation of sensing the touch of God.” The anointing oil, he continued, is a sign of the Holy Spirit. The two are a powerful connection to healing.
Pastor Quaintance said he usually includes passages of Scripture that relate to healing. Among them are Luke 4:31-44; verse 40 reads, “Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.”
The pastor also noted he ties his sermon to the healing theme; this week it will be “For I Am With You.” “I want people to know that God cares deeply for us,” he said.
“Suffering is a universal experience,” Pastor Quaintance said. “The healing service is a way to touch people ... and turn despair into hope and the darkness to light.”