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How to Lose 35 lbs in 10 days and other miracles: The Jesus Healing Festival (10 photos)

A faith healer claims to channel the powers of God; powers that have the supposedly cured the blind, straightened spines, and helped one woman lose 35 lbs in 10 days

Believers assembled at the Days Inn this weekend as travelling faith healer Father Klaus Saari came to North Bay, bringing with him what he says is the ability to channel miracles.

The Jesus Healing Festival, a three-day faith healing event put on by the Sudbury-based pastor and his wife Nicole along with local Pastor Matt Suopera, had people speaking in tongues, waving their hands in the air, and falling to the ground in what believers will tell you are intense moments of connecting with God.

“You’ve got to have faith in God’s will. If you have any doubts or hesitations . . . you’re going to have a problem receiving,” said Saari on Saturday during the final night of the festival which consisted of three evening gatherings.

Each night, after music and a sermon, people were asked to come to the front of the room. That’s when the healing began.

Father Saari and other figures went from person to person placing their hands on them, saying prayers, and trying to channel the healing power of God.

Many in attendance were asking to be healed of specific ailments.

For example, one woman had a heart problem, another man had a hip issue, and a couple of people had problems with their knees.

“I command you to be healed in Jesus’ name!” said Father Saari loudly at one point in the sort of preacher tone a person might hear in movies.

Saari is often smiling and telling jokes in a Finnish accent (he grew up there).

He's very likeable.

Although some would be skeptical that real miracles are happening at his assemblies, he seems sincere about what he is doing.

“I know it’s very hard to believe but I can’t deny it when it happens. It affects me, every time God does that. I know I can’t heal them but God can.”

While father Saari is trying to be a conduit for God to work through, he is trying to get the people in his congregation to have absolute faith in God so that the healing rituals will work for them.

According to Saari, if people have enough faith they will have all their needs, no matter how big, fulfilled.

He is hoping to help them get rid of their doubts, hesitations, and even questioning about God saying that if people can do that they can set themselves up for not just one miracle but perhaps a life of miracles.

“If you have a million-dollar need (God) will supply that. If you have a ten-thousand-dollar need he’ll supply that.”

Saari said he has preached in the jungles and cities of the Philippines, made three trips to India, and in Canada he has preached as far north as Baffin Island and Garden River, Manitoba.

He is now based out of Sudbury and often travels across Northern Ontario, making frequent visits to Sault Ste. Marie.

He told the Saturday gathering that North Americans seem to have a much a tougher time getting the miracles they are looking for because we have too many other options diluting our ability to have faith.

“I always wondered why when I got to the Philippines and India there are more people getting healed . . . I think it’s because those people have to believe in whatever they do to survive because they don’t have OHIP or any benefits and they have to put their whole life on the line . . . and as a result of that they get results every time; they get healed every time,” he said.

But ‘miracles’ do happen in Canada as well, says Saari.

Saari recalled several stories. Like the time at one of his healing assemblies in Thunder Bay someone was healed so that they could speak again after three and a half years, or the time in Elliot Lake he healed a person who had been certified blind by the CNIB.

He recalled a particular memorable miracle that happened 10 or 12 years ago at the Calvary Christian Centre in Sault Ste. Marie.

He said a woman got up and asking to be healed and the next day she came back to the church with her chiropractor who then attested that she was unexplainably cured of a “basketball-sized” curve in her spine.

On Friday and Saturday, many of those who attended the Jesus Healing Festival looked eager for their own miracle.

After having hands laid on her, one woman attested that her hands, her heart, and her back were all completely healed at the event.

Another, who had just attended a 10-day healing festival at Saari’s Sudbury church, The Abundant Life Healing Centre, said that at that festival she had been cured of metabolic issues and intense food cravings that had caused her to gain weight.

She said that in the 10 days time since then she had lost 35 lbs.

However not everyone at the festival did get one.

A few people were overheard saying they couldn’t feel a change in their particular ailment after being healed.

One 88-year-old man limped up to the front with his cane hoping to have his hip healed but afterwards had said that, at least this time, there was no change.

“All in the Lord’s good time,” he said, after the event.


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Jeff Klassen

About the Author: Jeff Klassen

Jeff Klassen is a SooToday staff reporter who is always looking for an interesting story
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