On March 7, 2010, the Mason City Christian Church led by Pastor Joe Briseno hosted a miracle service geared to the community and surrounding areas.  The main objective of this service was to invite people, namely nonbelievers and unchurched folk, to have their needs prayed for, be they spiritual, emotional, physical, relational, or financial.  The turnout was staggering!  “We had to have a couple of new rows of chairs placed at the back of our new sanctuary (with a seating capacity of 350),” says, Pastor Joe.  With a packed sanctuary, and a palpable sense of expectancy, Joe, his associate pastor, the church prayer leaders and the elders began praying for needs.  “The response to the call for prayer was overwhelming!  We had lines of people three deep at the altar area and long lines down both aisles in our church auditorium.”  The atmosphere was charged with God’s tangible presence.  People were weeping.  Others were reverently soaking it all in.  God had done an amazing work in their midst! 

Though there were a number of instantaneous healings that took place the Sunday of the miracle service, only the weeks following would truly reveal the work that God had done through the service.  “Several people testified of depression having been broken off them, of relational restoration, of healing of a cancerous growth (the doctors checked out the person prayed for the week following the service and confirmed the healing), of a lady who had had bypass surgery 13 years ago and needed more work on her heart, God literally grew three new bypasses in her heart!  After a heart catheterization, the doctors gave her a clean bill of health!”  These were but a sampling of what God did and continues to do at Mason City.

A lot of prayer and planning went into this service.  The church had a couple of prayer and praise gatherings leading up to the miracle service.   Pastor Joe, the church elders, the staff and worship team had spent many hours organizing, planning for, and advertising this event.  “We wanted to show people who normally are not acquainted with the supernatural, but have an interest in it, that a church doesn’t have to be over-the-top weird or disorderly for God to manifest His power.  We wanted to, above all,” says Pastor Joe, “demonstrate that God is interested in the totality of people’s lives, and that He has the power to touch them at the point of their need.