Monthly Archives: October 2013

Probably all wrong Spanish, but, with only 48 hours until my lovely mate Brian Louden and I are on the plane from Heathrow 5 to Madrid, and then on to Cali, Colombia, the delight and excitement mounts. What makes it even more special is that Brian is so, so looking forward to it, and – er – apprehensive at the same time(!) – it’s his first time there, AND his first time away with me. AND, we know it’s going to be a great trip, because of the hassles leading up to it! Last week, Brian was at an astonishing 2-day conference on power ministry, led by Joaquin Evans, from Bethel Church, Redding, California: whilst there, he heard from the airline that they’d cancelled his (long-booked) ticket…… thankfully, they’ve rectified their blunder, and he’s on the plane Friday! The last couple of weeks for me have been, in a word, horrible in so many ways: and the times I heard that ‘little voice’ say ‘Don’t go! It’ll all stop!’ have really hacked me off…..so, more determined than ever, Friday, Heathrow 5, here we come. Six days later, the lovely Robert Hall arrives in Cali, from his 35 week-journey to get there (no, that’s an exaggeration, honest…. but it is about 2.5 days), bringing his fantastic Aussie humour, his recently acquired (2 years) AMAZING faith for healing, and countless fart jokes and farts….

Then, on the 4 November, sadly Brian heads of to the airport, and the equally lovely Simon Allaby and Nick Harding arrive. Simon only got home last Sunday (3 days ago) from 2 weeks in Pakistan, which has blown him away, and this’ll be his third trip to Cali. Simon’s a great preacher, I wish I could preach like him rather than ramble on like I do(!), and he’s been ‘right there’ for healing in Cali since arriving, 2 years ago, straight into a meeting from the airport, for me to say ‘Hello mate – can you pray for that lady there!’ – he did, she was INSTANTLY healed…. non-stop since then. Nick has been a dear, dear mate for (I always forget!) since er….2001…2000….2002…1999? – from his days when his spoke at his YWAM school in Argentina. Nick’s friendship has meant the world to me since then, and his lovely wife Sarah – whom I met on HER YWAM school in New Zealand in …er… 2004….2005? Their adorable sons have much in common with me, too – Milo (a very popular chocolate drink in Colombia!!), and Ralph…middle name Bennison…months on, I’m still utterly humbled by that…..

For those of you who DON’T know…. Bennison (though with one ‘n’ in those days) is a middle English word for ‘blessing’: and in French, again with one ‘n’, is from the French verb ‘Benir’ – to bless (Nous benison – we bless: nous vous benison – we bless YOU)…. I know, totally inappropriate to me, but for lovely Ralph to be called Blessing is wonderful…. Nick is a Chaplain in the detention area for illegals at Gatwick Airport (I think – not the airport I think – the job, I think!). He has the utter blessing of speaking Spanish fluently – though after 12…or is it 11…or 13 years since he spoke it, he might have to recall a few bits from the depths….. So, so looking forward to being with them ALL.

By the way, the header of the blog… is ‘my land, my country, my people’…. I’m an honorary Colombian, in my mind anyway! 21 days… amazing, amazing people in that historically troubled and battered land, some of the friendliest people you’ll find anywhere on the planet, and so, so hospitable. AND…. under an OPEN-HEAVEN.

So, God with us, I’ll attempt to blog and tell stories of the miracles – salvations – healings – every day…. I’ve got people who are ‘techhy’ so who knows, even without the lovely Lee Prior-Collier, I might still get some good photos, videos…. I thank God that the last couple of days my knees have been reasonable: after the last couple of weeks’ onslaught, they were terrible last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday…. but I sorta need them over the next 3 weeks, as I – and my four lovely fellow-wanderers – enjoy the presence, power, and miraculous intervention of the Creator of All Things in the lives of countless people.

God willing, too, I’ll meet up with Dario, the ‘favela’ boss: for a tour (ooer!) of his favela….we’ll go to the prison, hospitals, churches, homes… hopefully! I’m already ‘booked’ to ‘do’ a healing conference – that’ll be the first time I’ve done one there, so that’ll be exciting. 51st time, here I come….

Quite a response to yesterday’s blog, and very encouraging to me it was, too. God must weep when he sees his church blowing itself apart over Gifts for which Jesus died and rose again (among many other wonderful reasons!), in order to leave them with us… another comforter…. the huge explosion going on in the USA right now with “respected”(? hmm) and “influential” (sadly) famous leader and pastor John McArthur condemning everyone who believes in the Gifts of the Spirit today, to hell…. if you don’t believe me, look it up on Google. His new book ‘Strange Fire’ sends me, and 500 million or more Charismatics, to hell….all because we believe that the Gifts are alive and well today, even if we don’t use them…. Even the Pope has jumped on that particular band-wagon….

To say it’s exploded a hornets nest would be a gross understatement! I have to say – personally – that I wonder where people like them will spend eternity…. A while back, I heard Bill Johnson (I think) say: ‘In heaven, there are going to be a lot of two noises: ooohhh (in an upper register) – I wasn’t expecting to see YOU here! – and ooohhh (in a lower register!) – I WAS expecting to see so-and-so here…’ If the Holy Spirit isn’t active today, then no one can get saved….as it is the Holy Spirit, surely, and ONLY the Holy Spirit (unless such preachers/writers believe that they have the power to persuade) who convicts men of sin.

John 16:8 (Jesus speaking, of course) – The Holy Spirit Promised …7 “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. 8” And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me;… How do people like McArthur ‘cherry pick’ this action of the Holy Spirit for today, but deny all the others…? Guess that’s a rhetorical question! And, as I thought through more about yesterday’s blog, I thought about comments in that magazine article about ‘certain’ people not being allowed up for prayer – is it FEAR in some of these ‘big platform’ preachers NOT to pray for the extreme cripples or critically ill? – Just in case it doesn’t work…?

What I understand of the healing ministry is simply this: It’s my job – my obedience – to PRAY, and COMMAND: it’s God’s job to HEAL, or do a miracle. I can’t heal a piece of paper without sellotape, successfully, let alone heal a cold, cancer, a stroke, or whatever… BUT, I CAN have  FAITH & CONVICTION that God WILL answer prayer, will fulfil all his promises. All I can do is MY job….

And I went on thinking about the ‘money’ thing, which, of course, was BIG in that magazine article in yesterday’s blog, and is often big when people tell me I should ‘charge’. Matthew 10:7 – ‘Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons, raise the dead. FREELY YOU HAVE RECEIVED, FREELY GIVE.’ THAT IS THE KINGDOM, according to a certain Jesus of Nazareth….charging, to me, means that if you’re poor, impoverished, live in a poverty-stricken place, you’re not worthy for God to heal you….

And while I’m on my ‘high horse'(!!), I can’t stand the ‘pushers’, ‘shouters’, and exhibitionists…. you know, I’d STOP someone falling over rather than have them fall because THAT’S WHAT THEY’VE BEEN CONDITIONED TO THINK is what should happen when you’re prayed for, and if you don’t fall, you’re not blessed…. pardon me for this, but – BOLLOCKS! Pushers and shouters – it’s so easy for a ‘minister ‘ to make that happen: hand on the forehead, hand in the small of the back, then a loud sudden shout in ear-vicinity, and they’re over…. what happened to engaging with people? What happened to gentleness? OK, sometimes Jesus spoke – what seems to be harshly – to people, like the bloke at the Pool of Bethesda (‘Do you WANT to be healed?’) – but Jesus knew – and often-times I know – when someone needs to be motivated out of apathy and self-pity. Mostly, though, I find that sitting with someone, often in speaking in broken Spanish, finding out a little about them, and then commanding their healing, is far, far better. And the hug you get when THEY know that YOU care is worth everything…

Again, I’d say that yes, of course, I have to live. Fares, food, rent, clothes, petrol – have to come from somewhere – and that’s where I’d encourage (rather than demand) churches to come into the REAL world of costs and expenses. Long time friend Nick Page has a very good page(!) on his website about expenses, and I’m going to ask him if I can nick(!) his page – ho ho ho – to incorporate it into my website. Of course, he’s famous, a prolific writer, amazing speaker: but his demands are so, so reasonable. I know people who charge thousands a day for international stuff, plus business class, and posh hotel…. oh God, please, please, please, keep me from going down that road. A few thousand here and there would be lovely, but like I said yesterday, a few thousand (pesos! – 3000+ to the £) is as much to me as a huge cheque from a rich church. No, it’s MORE, far more. And as I’ve said before, I’m not anorexic through not charging, by any means… 😉

Church, let’s just be obedient to the Kingdom call in Matthew: not worry about McArthur sending us to hell (who knows, maybe we’ll be waving to him, from a place close to Jesus, looking down….), let’s love people back into life, wholeness, and healing, with the authority and the Gifts that Jesus DID give us when he went back to be with his dad, and let’s begin – PLEASE! – to not just believe, but be CONVINCED that God will do everything he’s promised…. and that he’ll carry it through until the day that Jesus returns….

I LOVE what God’s called me to. Sure, it attracts criticism, anger, rejection, hostility occasionally – but so did Jesus. And yes, it gives people HOPE: but I know, that if I’m dying, I’d rather die hoping than die hopeless…..

This is a letter sent out recently to try and raise the final ‘capital’ payment on the big extension to Ana Beiba’s ‘Home for the Abandoned Elderly’ in Cali, Colombia. I’ve received some help, but I’m still a way short, and if it’s something you could help with with, then – thank you!

HOME FOR THE ABANDONED ELDERLY

Thank you for all the love and generosity you have shown to Ana Beiba, the amazing lady who began, and runs, this incredible ministry in Cali. Last year, with your help, I was able to give her the money to buy a second house, next door to hers, to extend this ministry. I was back there in April, with a small team, and then again in July, with dear friends Alan & Barbara, from here in Bangor, Northern Ireland.

Ana had increased her intake of people to mid-seventies by July. I had the wonderful privilege of being photographed with her two most elderly residents (photo attached!) – one 99, the other 97. The 97 year old has been with her for (now) a year. The oldest, 99, she found living rough on the streets at Christmas, last year. As you can see, they – and the two houses (you can see the ‘cage’ door that once separated them, now always open of course) – are spotlessly clean, the house immaculate. I asked Ana what the next stage of her dream for her ministry (The Mercy of Jesus Foundation for Abandoned Old people). She produce a sheaf of papers, with well listed estimates and quotations, for extending the ‘new’ house up a floor – maybe two. That will mean she can then take in over 100 old people, she informed me.

The estimate for materials was for 25,000 Colombian pesos (current exchange rate: about £9000). Quite miraculously, someone had been in touch with me prior to my going in July, and had made a donation of £8000, which, of course, I gave her. The quotation for labour, to build an ‘upstairs’, was for 10-12,000 pesos (£3500-4500). The gift in July meant, of course, that she could begin the work.

I’m going back to Cali this Friday, 25 October, for 3 weeks, with a great team, including Simon from England, and Robert from Melbourne, Australia, who have both been to Ana Beiba’s home. I have, thankfully, once again, been given a little towards her needs (£1500), and Simon & Nick (who, with Brian from Maidstone isgoing with me for the first time, wonderful friends) are doing a pub quiz just before they leave, to raise some more much needed money.

As you can see, I’m a little (!) short – (£3000) – to cover the cost of the whole upper floor. I’m just ‘putting this out’ to you as people who have been moved by Ana’s incredible ministry: if you can help, please would you? All the ‘usual’ ways of helping are available:

1. www.stewardship.org.uk a/c 20028331 in my name – or by mail to them, at PO Box 99, LOUGHTON, Esex 1G10 3QJ. Stewardship are great: if you send anything to them, could you add this in any comment box, or letter, please? –    “Support the work of Healing ministries, worldwide.  worker:  Paul Bennison”.

2. Internet transfer – I can send you details

3. Good old fashioned cheque to 61 Belfast Road, Bangor, Co. Down BT20 3PW.

If you didn’t see the short interview with Ana Beiba that my friend Lee shot in Cali in April, here’s the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QP-zaWbZUxI

If you can help, and your gift is going via Stewardship, could you let me know please, as it’s often a week to ten days before I her from Stewardship! It’d just help me to be able to get the gifts ‘collated’ and the total worked out. (paul@paulbennison.com) . Thank you, and bless you.

With my love

Paul

I constantly tried the ‘Do you speak English?’ question last week in France… fortunately some did (mostly the ex-pats!), but this video clip is very funny – well worth 90 seconds of your time, especially if you’ve travelled to the….er…. United States…. as a frequent visitor there in the past, and with friends who’ve told me occasional stories too, I often found people – particularly in shops, would ask me to ‘please say that again’ – ‘Why? Didn’t you understand me?’ – ‘Yes, but I just lurve your accent’. ‘But I don’t HAVE an accent – you do! It’s called English that you speak…. invented in England, where I’m from!’.

Friends have had people make statements like ”Ahm soorry, I don’t understand yooo I speak English!’ – when ordering food, and, perhaps the best of the lot, from the deep south, where every word spoken seems to have an extra ‘y’ in it – ‘Myan, you tyalk so fyasy, I don’t even think thyat fayst!’

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=570080703046796&set=vb.451367291584805&type=2&theater

I’m convinced the language of heaven is going to have to be English (or tongues!), as a vast number of Americans will be silent for eternity 😉 – is that a blessing, or not…????!!!! I’m hoping it might be Spanish now I’ve dusted off my book of 501 Spanish verbs, and am about to set loose on the Rosetta Stone ‘Latin American Spanish’ teaching course! I can get by there, often with a lot of laughs from the Latinos, but they really appreciate you having a go at their lingo…

I love to pray for people for healing in Spanish, and some time back, when my Spanish was somewhat worse than it is now, I was praying for a lovely pastor, Umberto, in Cali, Colombia, who needed both hips replacing, with a knock on problem of extreme pain in the major bones in his legs (I know that problem now from the old knees!). With a crowd gathered round, I began my prayer in Spanish: bizarrely I could remember the word for ‘hips’ – carreras…so ‘en el nombre de Jesus, yo ordene nuevos carreras (in the name of Jesus, I command new hips)… and as I was about to embark on phase 2 of the prayer, realised I’d forgotten the word for bones…. somewhat flustered, I whispered to my dear mate Diego, often my translator, ‘What are bones in Spanish?’ ‘Huesos’ he replied… so, off I went again, still a bit flustered, but then the problem due to my mental aberration was that ‘huesos’ and ‘nuevos’ (new) are kind of similar…. ‘en el nombre de Jesus, yo ordene nuevos huevos ahorra!’ I said with as much boldness as I could muster – at which point everyone fell about laughing….

‘What did I say?’ I asked Diego. ‘Er…. you’ve just commanded him to receive new eggs’, he told me….aarrgghh! ‘Does that have any…er… other connotations in Spanish?’ I asked. ‘Yes….to do with a totally different non-bone part of the male anatomy!’ – at which point, Umberto whispered something to Diego. ‘What did he just say?’ I aske. ‘He told me to tell you that his wife will be very happy with you!’…. I went scarlet…. but a year later, in Palmetto Plaza, I was with friends, and heard my name bellowed from a way away…. It was Umberto, and his lovely wife…. he was walking totally normally, no sticks, no limp…. a big bear hug from him and ‘Hey, Paul, look!! Nuevos carreras!!!!’

His wife, with a wicked grin on her face, gave me a ‘thumbs up’ sign, and say…. ‘Y nuevos heuvos tambien!’ (And new eggs, too…!). It’s so much fun…. I don’t know if this will work, but thislink SHOULD take you to a photo of Umberto.. http://www.flickr.com/photos/elastichamster/8661849448/in/set-72157633251245649/ in the brown t shirt… his wife is in pink well hidden by Edgar!

One of the things I love about life is that there’s never a point you reach where every duck is in a row and you’ve mastered this thing called living. Of course, the same is true, on an even grander scale, where our faith is concerned, as the more you learn about God the more you realise you have yet to learn…..

But on a practical level, things change and develop in our lives, don’t they? Unless you’re in a rut…. ( 🙁  – someone once described a rut as a coffin with the ends knocked out…), you change, things change. Many of you know that sleeping wasn’t a ‘friend’ of mine for much of my life: I’d always been dead envious of people who could put their head on a pillow and go straight to sleep. For those of us who can’t, it’s not always a blessing to hear that! BUT…. like I realised, when I first came to Ireland, that I actually had no real idea how to rest, and have asked God to show me – He has! – so the same has happened with sleep.

Until the odd physical issue slowed me down a bit, I was constantly ‘on the go’…. when I came here, under ‘instruction’ to rest and relax, from those I listen to, or I’d be dead (not just emotionally, but physically… and I knew that was right, I was pretty close to burn-out after the ‘initial’ US immigration saga. I’d sit down, put on a video, or watch some sport on tv – and after 5 minutes, pause it, and go and do something….then watch 5 minutes, pause it…well, you’ve got the message! For me, then, it was a blessing to have the pause facility on live tv, as I could pause football or cricket! Gradually, though, asking God to teach me – I needed to be taught! – relaxing and resting between trips became a pleasure.

Apart from tonight (!) – which is unusual now – my sleep patterns have changed too, in the past 6 months, after 50 years of fighting sleep, going to bed later and later in the hope that I might sleep. It wasn’t, then, unusual for me to go to bed at 3 am, and still be lying awake at 5am… so I’d end up with about 3 hours sleep. My body learned to function on that (Maggie Thatcher, it used to be reported, only needed 2-4 hours a night ever), and my body got into that routine. Maybe once every couple of months I’d ‘pull a 6 hour night’, but it was rare. Praying into that, big time, a few months back, has changed that. Yeah, ok, I’m up now, its 5.15 am: BUT, I did stop watching tv at about 9.45 pm last night, and head for bed. Bed at 10 pm?? Man alive, that’s revolutionary…. I know NOW, too, that when I go back to bed, I’ll sleep again.

I would love to encourage non-sleepers that it CAN change: non ‘resters/relaxers’ that it can change….and when it does, it’s such a blessing. I LOVE bed now, whereas before it was a necessary evil! When I can, I don’t set an alarm any-more, either: and I live on a busy road, a main road between Belfast and Bangor, so it’s hardly ‘quiet’ at any time of the day or night, and just the other side of the road is the main Belfast-Bangor railway line….God DOES answer prayer, especially for practical issues that are part of his created plan for us…. ‘In repentance and rest, is our salvation, In quietness and trust is our strength’ (Isaiah 30:15): ‘In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat– for he grants sleep to those he loves.’ (Psalm 127:2.

Until recently, those were ‘proof’ texts I’d pray for people who’d come forward for prayer saying that they couldn’t sleep, their minds always on the ‘go’ – and while praying, say, as I often say to God, ‘God….don’t forget me in that one!’. He hasn’t….he won’t forget you, either.

On a much lighter note, perhaps this is one of the reasons why the world might think that the church is just to be poked fun at… and that ‘church’ itself invites that reaction…. 🙂

I saw the quotation from David Livingstone on Facebook the other day, and it really hit me – I think it’s hit me hard many times over the years, but as I get older, and the blessings from God increase, and the onslaught of opposition from an enemy who hates people who take this sort of stuff literally, it hits me harder and harder each time I read quotes like it. People like Livingstone are a rarity, and would, doubtless, were they (he) alive today, be severely criticised by fellow Christians, for ‘forsaking all’ – as would men & women like C T Studd, William Carey, Gladys Aylward, Hudson Taylor, a massed army of Chinese and Eastern European pastors, and so many living today, not just in the past. Jesus’ tough, tough statement in Luke 14:26 – ‘”If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters–yes, even their own life–such a person cannot be my disciple’ is an anomaly to most people in most churches today. To ‘hate’ (forsake some versions say) mum, dad, kids, sisters, brothers – is so alien to the teaching of 21st century church, and it’s a flipping hard commandment to believe or understand, let alone follow…..but it IS a commission from Jesus. How can we acept some of his commandments, and ignore others…?

What Jesus is saying is to tell people plainly that they cannot both follow him as well as listen to other voices which might tell them not to follow Jesus.  Verse 26 is very clearly a command for those people who hear Jesus’ Words, to count the cost of following him, namely the forsaking of all the most important natural relationships.  If someone wants to follow Jesus, they have to be willing to leave – forsake – the people in their life who they have previously loved the most…parents, spouses, children and siblings. Wow…. over the last 30 years or so, whilst (thankfully) I have countless people who have encouraged me in the calling to which I (and plenty of others at the time!) believe God has called me to, I also get pretty heftily rebuked for giving up what I know God asked me to sacrifice way back in 1979, and then again in to a much greater degree, in 1987. Nine prophetic words in 6 weeks, all from different people, all unconnected, conformed that. I’ve recently had a conversation with people who think that, with what God has done with me, but far more especially THROUGH me, I should be more ‘famous’, and that my desire to remain ‘under the radar’ is the equivalent of choosing to be an ‘anti-hero’. I guess that’s a discussion that will, at some stage, continue, but until then, my ONLY desire is to know Christ and make Him known, and continue to go to places many others would never go to, not as a thing to boast about (in the past I’ve taken people with me to places that are dangerous, and they’ve made a big deal of ‘walking into danger’ – they haven’t been away with me for a while, nor in the future!) – I genuinely love the poor and tough places, especially in Colombia, and have no desire for fame except in heaven…..

Perhaps, just perhaps, we’ve missed in the ‘modern’ western church, with the emphasis we’ve given on ‘staying’ rather than going, on family rather than the totally unequivocal call of Jesus, and the Apostle Paul, to ‘forsake all’. I love people like Livingstone, Studd, and men like George Chen, Wang Ming Dao, Samuel Lamb (all Chinese pastors – though Wang is with Jesus now). Of course, family is vital. But where would Africa, India, and other nations of the world be, without men like the ones I’ve mentioned. Someday, it’d be my dream to mentioned in the same breath – or even right at the end of the same paragraph! – as some of those people…. having spent a large part of my 61 (almost!) years living around Brighton, I would often stand on Brighton seafront, looking at the very beach where Hudson Taylor shouted ‘GOD!! Give me China or I die!’ I’m quite sure I’m not in his league, by any stretch of the imagination, but a week today, I’ll be in Colombia – Cali, to be precise! – again, third time this year: and my heart’s cry, in unison with my many Colombian friends, pastors and lay-people, is the cry of Hudson Taylor for that wonderful yet very damaged nation.

How can we consider, as Livingstone quotes here, regard an ‘accolade’ or a ‘commission’ from an earthly king an honour, when we have the commission and the calling from the ‘Heavenly King’ which, so often, we ignore, as the ‘stuff of life’ consumes us, and days roll into weeks into years, and we make the most dangerous choice of all: what’s that? ‘The most dangerous risk of all – the risk of spending your life not doing what you want on the bet you can buy yourself the freedom to do it later’….