Another long day yesterday, back at 0015 Monday morning, the day having started with being picked up to go a church at 8.30 am Sunday. When I got home, I was utterly wiped out, spiritually, mentally, and physically, I started to write the blog, but just couldn’t stay awake.
A ‘Mundo de Fe’ church, in Oriente, was the reason for the ‘early’ start, the lovely Pastor Richard (Ricardo) Vasconcelos and his lovely, English speaking daughter, Brenda. It’s a long way away from where my ‘home’ is! It’s quite a big church, when everyone’s there about 550, but there probably 450 there this morning, as it was the last day of the Mexican school holidays, so people were on holiday. It’s a marvellous place – they meet in a huge, open-sided tent on a football field, one of the church people described it as a tabernacle… great worship time, followed by yours truly, then the ministry….
And that’s where God of Wonders comes in….astonishing morning (and evening, but I’ll get to that!), we reckoned about I prayed for about 250 people, after I’d finished speaking. A young man in a wheelchair, Abraham, sat right in the middle of the aisle the whole service, so right in my line of vision. He was clearly extremely disabled, and I made a point of going to him first in the ministry time. He was brain damaged before birth, now 30, and he’d never walked a step in his life. I talked to him for a while, despite the hordes waiting to be prayed for, and asked him did he want to walk. Some don’t: Abraham, bless him, did, so I asked him to get up and do it…. he did, a few steps, a short rest in his wheelchair, and the up again. His legs had never,ever been straight, so walking with buckled knees on unused muscles and bones was hard work…. he walked about a dozen steps in all, and shouted into the microphone for the whole church to hear that he’d never taken one step before, let alone more…. he’ll be doing it again today, I’m sure…
Hector was totally deaf in his right ear: he heard. His son, born deaf, also Hector, began to hear for the first time – with him, it was wonderful, as a young lady, Claire, who I later learned was the youth pastor, had asked me to pray for her for the gifts of healings and miracles, which of course thrilled me to bits, so when Hector Jr wanted prayer, I got her involved, she was the one who prayed first – a pretty wonderful start in a new ministry alongside her existing one! A few minutes later, I prayed with Claire for a lady with what I understood to be an exploded vertebrae, chronic pain: as we prayed, I felt her spine moving, Claire felt intense heat, and the vertebrae went back into place, and all the lady’s pain went….
Another, with scoliosis, felt her spine straighten, and her pain go. Three people with osteoarthritis in their knees were all healed: one knelt down for the first time in years. I LOVE it when God heals knees! I’d stood to preach, obviously, and first two of the three hour ministry time, I stood, so by the end of the day, my knees really didn’t want to walk anymore, but I decided, in pretty severe pain myself, that if the cost of God healing them was to miss out on what happened yesterday, I’d keep my knees just as they are. That doesn’t mean I’ve given up hope on God healing them (I’ve said before, that when I’m preaching and praying, I really don’t ‘feel’ them – though after 2 hours yesterday I was grateful when someone offered a chair to sit and pray for the last hour!), but I’m willing to pay that price to see God keep doing these amazing things if that’s what it costs.
At least 75% of the people I prayed with yesterday told me they’d been healed. I ran out of Kleenex very quickly, as their tears of joy overwhelmed them – and me.
The long drive back to meet up with Benny and Daniel Ortiz, meant that there was no break to recharge, as the second meeting of the day was 5 pm! A wonderful church – ‘Centro familiar Restauracion y Vida’ (Family Centre for Restoration and Life’: Daniel & Paty had planted it 3 years before, and then handed it over to the current pastors, Federico & Esperanza. Wonderful band, amazing Spirit-presence, like the morning meeting. It was good to be back with Benny translating – he’d been at his own church in
the morning, a lovely pastor, Laura Enns (leads another church with her husband Cameron, in Chalco de Diaz, Coverrubias – aren’t the place names wonderful??!!)) had translated brilliantly in the morning.
I think everyone in the church was forward for ministry after the preach! An elderly lady with arthritis from head to feet, and a severe pain in her chest, was healed completely. A lovely man, Pablo, who’d had a bone spur on the sole of his foot all of his life (I guess he was in his late 60’s), testified to the church that it had gone, and that he could stand with his feet on the floor for the first time in his life…. more arthritic knees were healed, lots of people with migraines, and headaches there and then, were healed. Benny prayed for a boy who’s sight was extremely poor: he saw perfectly within minutes, as did a man I prayed for, who’d been told he’d be blind soon. A lady with a torn retina saw perfectly. A lovely young lady, I think her name was either Essy (Esther) or Issy, wanted God to give her the gift of healings and miracles. He did: so I got her praying with people with me, and the first person with severe pain in her neck and shoulders, was healed instantly. Others she prayed with were healed, too. Her sister had terrible pain from ovary problems, including cysts: the pain went instantly…..
My memory of them all is dimming already, it’s amazing how quickly they go from your mind when you have loads of others to pray for! – but it seems that the vast majority of people we prayed for, at least 80%, went away totally healed. And again, if you think there’s exaggeration here, any cynics reading the blog(!), remember Benny, Daniel, Richard, and loads of others read this, so there’s accountability there!
I said yesterday that I find it very humbling, and an immense honour, to be invited to churches to preach: it’s something I’m always blown away and blessed by… Richard wants me back to his church, Laura wants me to their church in Chalco, Federico wants me back, Enrique wants me in his church, the only reason I wasn’t there yesterday was that he wasn’t going to be there, and I personally much prefer it when the pastor is ‘in residence’ – his church has three meetings on a Sunday just to get people in, and it’s a large auditorium!
