Amazing evening this evening at a church I was at in July, ‘Community God with us’, right in the south of the city, in Valle de Lili. The pastor is a lovely man who is becoming a good friend, Rafael. The worship was, as always, loud(!) but good – with an amazing young trumpeter, and an outstanding young drummer. They were both amazing. Then Pastor William Castaño introduced us: I in turn introduced the lads, and Robert spoke really well, telling – among others thins – the unfolding story of his boys, and how God healed hi and others in his family, and is healing the boys of their autism.

Nick spoke really well, in Spanish, so I didn’t quite catch all of it! – then sang a song in English to the gathered throng, which was excellent. Simon preached again, he was terrific, and then we went into the ‘normal’ ministry mode – me with Nick, Simon with one translator, Cesar, Robert with another – Daniel.

Loads of people responded, needless to say. Tonight, Nick and I saw a number of people with really bad eyesight healed – glaucoma, cataracts both going, the people able to read from a pretty small print Spanish Bible. First up though was Alfredo: you might remember from a July blog from that church. An 81 year old, who wanted God to heal him so that he could begin to fulfil the vision for the new ministry God had given him. He could hardly walk, shuffling not even one foot-length at a time, voice almost gone, and really bad eyesight. This evening, he walked with strides to the come and sit with us, spoke in a good voice, and gave me a hug so strong for a relatively frail aged man it

was unreal! Nick & I had a lovely time chatting with him: then prayed for his eyes….within a few moments, he was reading from the Bible, which he couldn’t do before. He is such a delight, and it is an amazing blessing to see God touch someone like him, with passion and fire that would put most people half his age shame!

Rafael, the pastor, had extreme pain around his middle, and his kidneys, plus a very painful right shoulder. God did his stuff for both, healed in moments, free from kidney pain, which, if you’ve had kidney problems, is awful. A lady named Betty had terrible pain from her head, reaching down both arms, which she had in tight compression bandages…. it went completely, she was doing movements with her arms I’d struggle to do(!), and she took the bandages off with great speed.

A young lady, Karin, had extremely sore eyes, gritty sensations in both, with them both alternately weeping and drying up, so pretty obviously to us as non-medics, problems with the tear ducts. That’s what we prayed for: and the pain and grit went, leaving behind a lovely smile…..

A lady right near the end had glaucoma: God healed her, she could read again. Those of you who’ve red my blogs over the past year might recall that I met a guy last year, in a different church, who is a favela boss – a favela is a ghetto where police and army don’t go, and the law is enforce by the boss… That guy, Dario, is one of the people who I’ll never forget, as, with his (then) bodyguard Henri, I prayed for them and put my hands on their guns… Dario had been shot a few months before, comatose for 26 days, not expected to live, and with a throat to groin compression body stocking holding his body together. A lot of healing happened for him that night: not only physical, but spiritual, and a God-awareness came into his line of vision.

Hugging me as he left, he invited me to go on a tour of his favela…I so wanted to go, and my friend Edwin got his phone number, then deleted it because he couldn’t remember who he was! In July, I met his mum, who thanked me for praying for him, saying he’d have come to church but he’d been shot again, in the leg, and had to go into hiding. She gave me his phone number. Early in this trip, Wilmar called him, but you have to go through like a ‘menu’ of security guards around him, each one passing you on to the next when they felt safe to do so. Wilmar’s call ended in a promise that Dario would call him back, which up until tonight, he hadn’t….

Dario was in church. He waited until the end to chat to me: in some pain, still, in his leg, and returning pain in his body. That went: the leg pain reduced. AND…. TOMORROW…  2pm (7pm UK and about 5am Australia time), he’s coming to pick us all up to go to eat with him in his favela, pray for the family of the boss of other favelas, who committed suicide last week. Then he’s going to introduce us to his ‘leaders’, he wants them all to know God and meet Jesus.

Your prayers would be appreciated at that time! I’m excited and a wee bit daunted all at the same time, but God is doing something dramatic in that man’s heart, and, despite his ‘history’, is actually a lovely bloke….

So many more…. names and diseases already forgotten, hopefully God will bring back the memory of more tomorrow!

Robert’s Facebook post tonight:

I just lost this so you are going to get the very short version
Lady divorced an Aussie then used by a famous Cali preacher and dumped after she got an std off him, healed up. Mother and son with astigmatism healed. Guy with frozen shoulder, back pain bung eye and migraine healed. Another lady illiterate and astigmatism, healed eyes, no improvement on literacy. Ex drug addict with fried nerves, speech centre damage and stomach pain all completely healed (could hardly talk, then couldn’t stop talking). Lady with plantar fasciitis and gastritis. Healed of pf but can’t tell with gastritis until she eats. Lady with anxiety felt peace but only time will tell, mental health issues are awful. Guy with a bone growth in his leg didn’t get the growth gone but the pain went.