"He was wounded for our transgressions, He was 
bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our 
peace was upon Him and with His stripes we are 
healed". (Isaiah 53:5)   

    Preacher Returns to SKID ROAD!
Testimony of Evangelist Allan O'Soupe

Allan O'Soupe pitched his large gospel tent in Edmonton's skid road district for the second year in a row recently, just a block from where he almost died 17 years earlier.

A lot of needy people came to hear his message of Bible deliverance, and a number of salvation and healing miracles have since been reported. I was glad to hear his good news because Allan and I hail from the same district in Saskatchewan.

Allan was raised by his grandmother and grew up at the Key Reserve about 10 miles south of Norquay.  Our family lived 1/2 mile west and also farmed north of town.  In 1959 - a few years after my conversion to Christ, I had the privilege of preaching in the 'Key Indian Reservation.'

And about the same time, my boyhood friends - Delwyn & Lloyd Anderson - who were renting the O'Soupe farm - started bringing little Allan to the Covenant Church's Sunday School.

Unfortunately, Allan heard the Bible stories, but did not allow Jesus Christ to change his life.  When faced with Satan's snares and temptations - like so many others - he went astray.  Heavy drinking, drug abuse and street life brought Allan down to the lowest.  He spent three long years living on the streets of Regina, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and Seattle.

Many times his life was at risk, sleeping in alleys, doorways and under bridges, while drunk, on drugs or passed out!  Only by the grace of God is he alive today to help others with the message of hope.

While attending a 1979 revivial meeting - conducted by Walter Stevenson, an Indian evangelist - Allan was saved and set on fire for the Lord!  God's call gripped his heart and in 1984 he entered the gospel ministry.  He has not looked back, and continues tirelessly trumpeting the good news.

Together with his wife Carole, a school teacher, he faithfully dispenses the Word of God!  Carole regularly ministers to "down and out women" in Saskatoon, while holding a full-time teaching job at a local college.

She also was an alcoholic before her conversion and like Allen has a 'heart'  for those enslaved by substance abuse.

I feel a strong affinity to the O'Soups because the preacher who led Allan to Christ was Walter Stevenson.  And Walter "came to the faith" through the preaching of his brother, Rev. Clark Stevenson.

It was my joy and privilege to rescue Clark Stevenson and his family from a life of drinking and debauchery in the early 1970's.  And to be his pastor for several years before his call into God's holy ministry.

RUSSELL BRASS ENJOYS 8 YEARS OF SOBRIETY BEFORE HIS HOME-GOING

I remember the day - in the 1980's - Allan brought his great-uncle (his father's 1st cousin) to our gospel crusade.

Allan states, "My uncle, Russell Brass had been an alcoholic for 45 years, consuming about a gallon of wine daily all those years.  When he received Jesus Christ into his heart and life, all that changed!"

"When Pastor Max prayed for him, that was it.  He was born-again and stopped drinking - totally.  He never touched another drop of alcohol.  God gave him eight glorious years of peace, joy and a total freedom from booze.

All the praise, honor and glory belongs to God. 

GOD'S HEALING COVENANT 

"And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I AM the LORD that healeth thee." (Exodus 15:26)

NONE OF THESE DISEASES

One of the most helpful books in print today is the classic, 'None of These Diseases' by Dr. S.I. McMillan.

The author, Dr. S.I. McMillan, a prominent medical doctor uses humor, common sense and a biblical perspective, in dealing with the causes and cures of today's diseases.

"It is lamentable that peace does not come in capsules", he utters in failure as he remembers the thousands of patients who left his office with "nothing but a prescription for a bottle of pills that would only relieve the symptoms of their illness but not attack the diseases.

The good doctor laments that he now wishes he had rather prescribed his book, 'None of These Diseases', so that a permanent cure could have been affected!  According to Medical Science, between 60 and 100% of all diseases are caused by nervous tension, emotional stress and strain.

Dr. McMillan states that emotions such as fear, sorrow, envy, resentment and hatred are responsible for the majority of our sicknesses and diseases.  And that emotional stress can cause high blood pressure, toxic goiter, arthritis, migraine headaches, apoplexy, heart trouble, gastro-intestinal ulcers and other serious illnesses and diseases.    

And recently (about 1996) the American Medical Association released the findings of a nation-wide survey of tens of thousands of their medics. One of the questions dealt with their success ratio in treating patients.  The answer is shocking - Only 10% of patients had received any lasting help through their medical procedures! 

  MEDICAL SCIENCE HISTORY RESTS ON SHAKY FOUNDATION

Having any problems with falling hair?  What do you do to cover up that bald spot and receding hairline?

Probably the only solution is to massage your head, comb your hair forward, get a toupee or just simply let it fall.

CRAZY CURES FOR DISEASES 3500 YEARS AGO

If you had lived about 3500 years ago you would have gotten very different advice - not from a therapist but from your physician.

He would have quoted from the famous medical authority of that day, Papyrus Ebers.

"When it falls out, one remedy is to apply a mixture of six fats, namely those of the horse, the hippopotamus, the crocodile, the cat, the snake and the ibex. To strengthen it, anoint with the tooth of a donkey crushed in honey."

THE PAPYRUS EBERS - AN ANCIENT MEDICAL WORLD GUIDE - REMEDIES FOR DISEASES 1552 BC

The Papyrus Ebers was published about 1552 BC and occupied a dominant position in the ancient medical world and was one of the leading guides for practicing physicians for a long time.

There are literally hundreds of remedies for diseases in this book, such as lizard's blood, swine's teeth, putrid meat, stinking fat, moisture from pig's ears, milk goose grease, asses hooves, animal fat from various sources, excrete from animals, including human beings, donkeys, antelopes, dogs, cats and even flies.

THROUGH MOSES, GOD MADE HIS HEALING COVENANT WITH THE JEWISH NATION

Moses was born about the time the 'Papyrus Ebers' was written in Egypt.  He was educated in their highest schools of learning - scholars think he was also a physician - as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

But when God called Moses to lead His people out of Egyptian bondage, he did not borrow from the "occultist clap-trap" in their medical books of disease remedies.  He rejected the highest, most respected medical authority of that day.

Moses' directive was "Heed the voice of God, do right, obey His commandments, keep His statutes and I will heal you".  

God did not borrow medical advice from the 'Papyrus Ebers'. His advice to Moses was contrary to the most highly respected medical thought of that day.

THE CHURCH WAS INSTRUMENTAL IN STOPPING THE BLACK DEATH DISEASE

Millions of Europeans died of the disease Leprosy for hundreds of years.  Some physicians thought the cause of the disease Leprosy was eating hot food or the meat of diseased hogs.  Others blamed the disease Leprosy on malign conjunction of the planets.

Approximately 60 million people died from the BLACK DEATH disease in the 14th century.  Dr. George Rosen of Columbia University writes: "Leadership was taken by the Church, as the physicians had nothing to offer.  The Church took as its guiding principal the concept of contagion as embodied in the Old Testament.

DISEASE OF LEPROSY - PEOPLE AFFLICTED WITH THIS DISEASE WERE QUARANTINED

"Once the condition of leprosy has been established, the patient was to be segregated and excluded from the community...it accomplished the first great feat...in methodical eradication of disease."

Possibly, the Church needs to investigate measures to insure that the AIDS epidemic does not leap from high risk groups to the general population, since governmental and medical bodes are again "doing nothing"!

For centuries in Europe, multitudes perished from deadly diseases because of improper hygiene, sanitation and sloppy hospitals.  In many villages, human excrement and waste was dumped into the streets, bringing deadly diseases, creating epidemics of typhoid, cholera and dysentery.

GOD HAD GIVEN INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE BURYING OF WASTES 3500 YEARS AGO

The solution to the problem that was causing these deadly diseases, the burying of wastes, had been given by God 3500 years before (in Deuteronomy 23:12-13).

HYGIENE CUT MORTALITY RATE - GOOD HYGIENE STOPPED DISEASES FROM SPREADING

Vienna in the 1840s was famous as a medical center.  One of the most famous teaching hospitals of that  day was Allegemeine Krakenhus.  In its maternity ward, one out of six women died.

Dr. Ignaz Semmelveis discovered that if doctors washed their hands well, after doing autopsies and before examining expectant mothers, the mortality rate dropped drastically.

Dr. Semmelveis was not applauded by the Medical Profession.  However, he was ridiculed by his peers, discredited, lost his position and eventually succumbed to the pressure, dying in a mental hospital.

Moses had given the same advice many centuries before (in Numbers 19).  If wasn't until 1878 that the method of cleaning hands and instruments was introduced by men like John Tyendall, Louis Pasteur and Sir Joseph Lister that the mortality rate began to drop.

The New York State Department of Health, in 1960, issued a book describing a method of washing the hands very similar to that found the BIBLE - Numbers Chapter 19.

JOHN WESLEY, FOUNDER OF THE METHODIST CHURCH DECLARED IT WAS GOD'S WILL FOR MIRACLES TO BE IN THE CHURCH, BUT THE MIRACLES HAD BEEN LOST DUE TO UNBELIEF

It's interesting to note that John Wesley - founder of the Methodist Church declared that it is God's will for miracles to be in the Church, for the entire Church age, but have been lost to the church because of UNBELIEF!

He further stated, "The only method of physics employed by the Early Church for the first 400 years, was the prayer of faith."

Medical science has come a long way since Papyrus Ebers was published in 1552, BC and even since the 1840's in Vienna, but I still think that when your family physician advises you to get a second or third opinion about an operation, its a good idea.

Now if anyone wants to try the remedy for falling hair, don't let me discourage you. But then where would you find a hippopotamus these days?

As for me and my house, we will Trust the Lord and serve Him only!