I pray to angels

I spoke to Julie, a friend of mine, this morning who is an Occupational Therapist working with adults with mental health problems.

The clients live in houses, with a few people to each house, and 24-hour care. One of the clients is a young man in his 20's who suffers pretty severe paranoia. Sarah has been taking him on outings with others as part of her work.

One of the staff, a housekeeper, has known this particular client a long time and had noticed a change in him. So she commented to Sarah that she noticed his behavior had improved significantly and that he was helping out with chores, which he did not normally do.

The housekeeper said to Julie:

"It's down to you taking him out"

Julie's reply was simple and straightforward: "I think it's more to do with the fact that I have been praying for him".

To her surprise the house keeper then said to her:

"Don't think I am strange or anything, but I have not told this to anyone...but I pray to angels."

Julie listened on:

"I have had a rough year with one thing and another and one night I saw brightly light orbs at the bottom of my bed. I know they are angels"

Julie responded encouragingly with: "That's great, because God sends angels to look after us. You can even pray to Jesus who made the angels"

This little conversation has opened up a regular chat about prayer and God and angels. The next week Julie showed the housekeeper these words from time just after Jesus had live on earth and some of his early followers were being persecuted for their faith:

"Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation"
(from Hebrews chapter 1 verse 14).

Julie is continuing to want to impact this client (and his family) and is having regular conversations with the housekeeper.
As part of her job she has been able to take the bold step of starting a 'spirituality group' (which is a bit of a buzz word in the health care professions at the moment) and has invited me to come and speak with the group in the New Year!