Healing Hands bring relief

Craig Prichard - 1 May 1988

— Waikato Times 10 May 1987

With a magician-like sleight-of-hand, British faith healer Melvin Banks delivered joyful smiles and apparent cures to many who queued for his healing at Hamilton’s Assembly of God Church last night.

One of the first, 19-year-old arthritis sufferer Michelle Hall, wept while Mr Banks laid a hand on her head and called: “In the name of Jesus Christ let her never feel the pain again.”

Michelle said later the pain was “not all gone but it was better”.

Others were more emphatic.

Anne Perry, who said she had been partially deaf in one ear for six years, afterwards said she could now hear her watch ticking.

Jenny Knauf, of Hamilton, said she suffered from a stiff neck and legs. After she left Mr Banks at the stage she jumped about and ran up a flight of stairs.

Lyle Muncaster, 12, of Te Kowhai, lay apparently unconscious on the floor during his healing.

Lyle said his toes had been crippled since birth. When he awoke, and his shoes were removed, his toes were straight.

“Something just came over me. All the evil had been drained out. I did not know where I was when I woke up,” he said afterwards.

Crippled accident victim Ralf Oppert, of Hamilton, found he could straighten his right leg. “It felt choice,” he said.

Jessy Walton, of Hamilton, said she normally read with a magnifying glass and after the healing was picking out words without her glasses.

Mr Banks said later that 70 to 80 per cent of the 30 or so people who went forward for healing responded positively.

Giving comfort and peace was also important, he said.

A small crowd of around 150 attended the healer’s third rally in the city last night. Organisers said numbers were small because another evangelist was also holding a meeting in the city.

Mr Banks, 50, a former bricklayer from Wiltshire, said he had a specialist gift for healing that only five others in Britain had.

“The divine power from heaven flows through the gift in me and into people,” he said.

He said God threw him into his job 32 years ago when he healed one or two people while the regular preacher was double-booked at another church.

Mr Banks will continue his crusade in the city each night until Saturday and then at 10am on Sunday at the church.