Monthly Archives: February 2014

No meeting last night, which was probably a good thing having had dozens of needles stuck in my knees!!! It’s really lovely, actually, as the doctor of the family, Jois, has so much concern for my well-being, and on Wednesday morning, insisted I have loads of things tested, so needles in my arm with vampires attached took out all of my blood… the great thing here, unlike back home, is that by early afternoon Thursday, he had the results, sheets of them, showing that I don’t have diabetes, or anywhere near it(!), that my daily deposit standing at the loo every day – or more than once at my age! – is perfectly ok, my thyroid is ok, and much more….cholesterol slightly up but I knew that from back home, and – whatever these are – my triglycertites are a bit high. So, he plans to resolve those….yesterday, I had stem cells implanted in my knees, and – Jois agrees with me that my metabolism is that of a dead slug – so some stem cells to rectify that… Tomorrow morning, 9.30 my time, he’s checking up on my liver and kidneys with ultrasounds…it feels so lovely to be cared for by this family, I’m so grateful to God for them.

You won’t recognise me soon…! Slim, handsome…well, that’s an exaggeration….I wish he could give me a pill that would make me 6 inches taller! I’m not fussed about the hair! So my knees are a wee bit sore today from multiple stabbings, and a quiet 24 hours ends with a cell group for my great friends’ Alvaro and Vicky Dader’s church tonight. I’m always so glad to spend time with Alvaro, Vicky, and their family. Stories to follow, I hope!

Luz a las Naciones – that’s what the title of the blog says! – is the name of my friends Danny & Paty Ortiz’s church, last night’s cell group the same – tonight we had a terrific meeting, and I’m back there again on 23rd February for a healing meeting. So tonight, I really felt that I should share the ‘middle bit’ of Romans 8 – the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings, and the glory of the Lord…. the world waiting with eager expectation, groaning…. and told a slightly truncated version of the Cali story from last November, with Dario et al. The result was more than I could have hoped for – in that it looks like Benny and Danny will go to Cali with me, Chris, and my lovely French contingent, in April. That could be some team!! Benny and Danny went on to elaborate on my challenge to people about the waiting world very well, and a great night was rounded off with excellent tacos and tortas!

During the day, Jois, the doctor, began his ‘challenge’ not only on my knees – there’s a load of injections to look forward to tomorrow! – but also believes that weight is a problem of a metabolism similar to that of a dead slug (as I feel, too), and so I gave blood by the truckload this morning, and then a CAT scan on my knees: all being well, all the results tomorrow, then the the jabbing begins!

The old knees have done pretty well for a week on the road, and I know that so far, it’s prayer and medical expertise (last August), and that great partnership will continue tomorrow…..

One of the things that has never bothered me is ‘numbers’. Historically, numbers were always a ‘proof’ that a church was doing well, and if we were in small churches, for me at least, as a leader of one, it was occasionally embarrassing! I remember, donkey’s years back, when I was in a church of about 60, being at a conference with a lot of international speakers and delegates, when, horror of horrors, the speaker at a seminar told us to talk to someone we didn’t know….as most of the delegates were pastors, the imminent threat of numbers was bound to rear its head…

I was sitting a couple of seats away from a man with his name badge suggesting he was Spanish – Miguel Escobar – and as I wasn’t aware of ‘much going on’ in Spain at that time, I felt that threat was less of a problem. But, he got in first with the hello, how are you, where are you from stuff…. then ‘and how many people are in your church?’. Always, before admitting to numbers, the excuses – reasons? – for smallness came first. Then it was my turn. Where are you from? Chile. Phew! Can’t be much happening there, I’d studied Chile for Geography A level, and, apart from it’s bizarre shape (over 2500 miles long, and an inch wide!), all I could remember was that they exported seagull droppings. Phosphates, to be more accurate, and with such a long coastline comes a lot of seagulls. What city? Jotabeche. Even better, not Santiago, the capital. What sort of church? Methodist. Wow! I’m ok!! Methodist. Can’t be much happening with methodism in a pretty much catholic country…. How many people? 450,000…. the feeling of utter insignificance, ignominy, and embarrassment was intense.

I determined after that – more accurately when I began to travel, that numbers would mean nothing. One year I had a ‘team’ of 4 come here – to discover that we were speaking to a YWAM school….of 3! Great couple of weeks!

Tonight was a home group – cell group, whatever your fancy: about a dozen. Lovely evening, it really was. Three were healed, including a lady, Rebecca, who’d got arthritis in her lower spine, and that in turn caused extreme pain in her left leg. All the pain went, which suggests that the spine was healed, too. Another lady, Linda, suffered – among other things – with an inner ear balance issue: she was very dizzy and unsteady as she sat down. She was healed. Some will know tomorrow, others only when they’re next scanned or tested, but one was a lady with thrombosis in both legs: I’m totally convinced she’s healed. And another, who’ll know tonight when she does her diabetes test….

So, so lovely. Informal, calm, and the Presence of the Lord.

Wonderful to be here again in the utterly astonishing metropolis that IS Mexico City…. the city expands so fast, it is hard to keep up with numbers, as whole villages get ‘swallowed up’ as the city grows.

It was a good journey here, too, so hats of to British Airways, whom I’ve not always been a great fan of, but the fact that it’s a direct flight, and not having to fly via Toronto or Madrid, and change/hang around in none-too-special airports (and do a lot of walking/hobbling!), was a great blessing. What’s more, whilst I didn’t make it to Business Clas, I did get upped to World Traveller Plus, which means much more legroom, wider seats, and far superior food! And… to leave bang on time, and arrive 2 minutes early after 11 hours 40 minutes in the air, is pretty good. Well done, BA!

So, so lovely to see my great fried Benny there at the airport: our friendship goes back 18 years, I had the privilege of preaching at his and Paty’s wedding just before Christmas 2001. Today, I had the lovely privilege of catching up with Paty, and her and Benny’s beautiful 3 month old daughter, Natalia Paola.

Blissfully today’s been ‘quiet’, so good recovery time from yesterday’s exertions and a 6 hours (behind the UK) time change. Slept like a log and doubtless snored like a chainsaw!

I’ve got a meeting tonight, in the church – a home-group, to be exact – of Daniel and Paty Ortega. Full of expectation for this trip, after that great weekend in Worcester: and the miraculous healing of Alejandrina last August, who then had 2-3 days to live, Benny told me about in the car. She’s doing wonderfully, and, it seems, others in her family! They’ve invited me, Benny & Paty, for a meal, so I’ll try and remember to take my camera! To hear of such an amazing healing from cancer is great: especially so close to death. But to met the person is something else…. Come on, Lord, lots more like that for this trip please!

Fantastic start ‘back to work’ for me this weekend – such a privilege to be involved in the great work of City Church, Worcester, and see God turn up…. Their school, The River School, was the start point: I had the privilege, again, of speaking to each of the four senior year groups, telling them stories of God’s wonder-working power, fielding some excellent questions from them, and then having them pray for each other of those who were unwell, or who had family members unwell. To see, in the last group, a bunch of 11-13 year olds, laying hands on the classmates, and praying for them, was immensely moving.

Saturday I was given a guided tour of Worcester’s very flooded city: many main roads closed through the city, and the county cricket ground, and adjoining rugby ground, under feet of water. The water was almost up to the crossbars of the rugby posts…. The afternoon was spent watching my adopted country Ireland thrash my dad’s homeland, Wales, at rugby, and then watching my homeland thrash another adopted country, in Edinburgh, was great!

The evening was brilliant: I spent a lovely few hours, over a fantastic curry, with my 35-year long mate Gary Gibbs. We haven’t really caught up for years, apart from about 20 minutes in Terminal 1 at Heathrow a few months back, when we bumped into each other. Gary’s an amazing guy: I always loved him to bits, still do, and it was just like carrying on a conversation where we left off, even though it was yonks ago…. and the Indian meal was even more memorable for sharing a ‘regular’ peshwari naan – which was about 18 inches long and a foot wide!!! We didn’t beat it, sadly: it beat us!

This morning, a terrific meeting, great worship, the presence of God very real: my bit we split into two so that the younger church members, and their leaders, could stay in to hear some of the miracles that have happened…..then some more worship, then me again. Knowing that the hall had to be vacated by 1 pm, I finished at 12, but the line of people wanting prayer was, well, very long! Here’s one story, from a lady named Val, who had a slipped disc on her spine, and in great pain, her husband David registered blind with macular degeneration:

•               Thank you for coming back to Worcester, good to see you at City Church this morning! Great message, thank you for praying for us ( Val & David) you prayed for my back, I can put my socks on which I haven’t been able to do for months! Praise The Lord! Can’t wait for David to look at himself in the mirror & his sight restored in the morning! Will keep you updated. I’m praying for complete healing for your knees! Also for many signs. & wonders as you return to Mexico. May God richly Bless You. Many Blessings, val

A lady who was completely deaf in her left ear, with an appointment on Tuesday to be be ‘measured up’ for a hearing aid, heard… a man named Phil, who’d come to church with an asthma attack in progress (God bless him!!!! So many can’t go to church for a healing meeting ‘cos they’re not well!!) – he was healed whilst I was speaking, came up to tell me, and for confirmatory prayer… my belief is that that was his LAST attack, his faith making him well….

Others had pain go, which sounds so ‘little’ when you write it in a phrase like that, but as someone who has – and still does (for now!!) lived with pain at 10 on a 1-10 scale, that is a major blessing from the Lord. And when someone writes this sort of thing to you on Facebook, it is a very wonderful encouragement! –

• Jean Heath Paul thanku sooooooo much for this morning….wow !!!!! Come Lord Jesus…..soooooo excited about the rest of my life !!!!!!!!  God bless u even more abundantly Paul xxxxxx

It’s funny, but after having those wonderful weeks at home, working all the ‘backed-up’ tiredness out of my system, when my lovely mate Alan came to take me to the airport on Thursday morning, I really didn’t want to go…. the rest had been so good, and the thought of ‘gearing up’ again was a tough mental choice! But I knew that, once at the airport, the desire to see God do stuff would begin to drive me, and so it’s been a great start!

So, now back in easy reach of Heathrow for a 1240 pm flight tomorrow to Mexico City: 11 hours 40 minutes non-stop, praying for an upgrade!!! Still, I’ll suffer for the Kingdom in 25C+ temperatures, whilst eating wonderful tacos and chilli…. I’ll be thinking of you all! Can’t wait to see Benny, Paty, Ceci, Pablo, and brand new Nicoleta, and Mimi, and Jois, too!

I bet, like me, you’re singing the blog title in your head as you read this…!

My lovely break of a few weeks, the first I’ve ever taken in my ‘ministry’ life, comes to an end this evening. For someone whose life has been fairly non-stop for 35 years, I was concerned that I’d ‘get bored’, ‘get itchy feet’…. none of it! It’s been wonderful. In the past, I’ve done crazy things like… speak in Romania for a week, go straight to speak in Kenya for a week, then, via one day in the USA, speak in Colombia for 3 weeks….4 continents in 9 days, all busy… I used to set myself little ‘private’ goals – it began as ‘I’m going to go right round the world’ in one trip…. that’s happened a few times now! – then it became ‘go to all the continents in a year’, then that became 6 months…. they happened, too, but now, having stepped off the moving walkway for a few weeks, I’ve REALLY appreciated what rest is: I’ve caught up with sleep – funny thing about sleep: I never used to sleep well, I sleep much better now, but, on this break, the more I slept, at the start, the more tired I was. I reckon it was years of ‘backed up’ sleep finding a way ‘out’!

As well as letting go of my diary to let God have more freedom to move in it, I’ve also recognised his voice in telling me that every few months – especially now I’m in my 60’s – I ned a few weeks, here and there, to just STOP. I do get countless invitations: that’s not a boast, just a fact. Once, I’d have tried to fulfill all of them (and often did, like the 4 continents in 9 days trip!): once I came here to live, and begin to learn that in repentance and rest is my salvation, and in quietness and trust is my STRENGTH, I realised that my ‘packed diary’ was actually more to do with my own ‘insecurity’ if you like, just wanting to know that for at least a couple of years ahead, I’d got a full agenda: I also felt that I neded to keep going in order to honour the faith of people who support me financially. I know that was my own mind game: me telling myself I had to justify their faithfulness. I think I can do that better, now, taking more time out than I used to.

It’s meant that I’ve been able to make a very ‘small‘ start at emptying my container of stuff from America: but that has had to involve rearranging my home of 4½ years here , so pretty much a full house(!) to fit part of another house in…. being a bookaholic, a filmaholic, and a musicaholic has meant lots of shelves – and more needed! – but it’s been fun trying to rearrange it. I’ve also had a great time starting to list some of the stuff I don’t need now it’s back here, for sale, on Amazon, so it might even bring me a bit of dosh!

So, tomorrow, I head off to England again: to Birmingham, to my long-time great mate Tim Herbert: we’ve been mates for about 30 years now, and Tim has a brilliant missionaries ministry, having been a missionary himself in Mozambique and Zambia (www.syzygy.org.uk), he loves music, beer, and curries, so I won’t give you too long to work out what tomorrow evening might involve! Then down to Worcester on Friday morning, firstly to The River School, to spend the day speaking to all the students about the great things God’s doing, to spend the weekend with my lovely friends Graham & Ann Coyle (also friends for 30 years), and pray for Ann’s cancer to get out of her once and for all, to catch up with even longer time friend Gary Gibbs, the Evangelism bigwig of the Elim church movement, we’ve known each other nearer 40 years… oo-er!!! Strangely, Gary and Graham like curries too….preach at City Church, Worcester on Sunday, and then drive back to be near Heathrow to head for Mexico City Monday.

I first accepted the invitation to go to Mexico (1996) as part of a ‘really hot chilli eating challenge’ laid at my door by a Mexican I met in Ghana, Hugo Jimenez. Through that challenge (which I’m proud to say I won, as a Brit over a Mexican!!), I met the family who have been part of my life, my family, and me par of theirs, since ’96. Benny & Paty Osorio led a network of churches – Mundo de Fe, World of Faith – and this’ll be somewhere between my 25th and 30th visits… nearer 30 now, I think. Benny’s a great mate, and (I said this in an earlier blog, but I’m getting older so you have to put up with me repeating myself!!) I had the joy of speaking at the wedding of Benny and Paty, just before Christmas in 2001. Two of the children – they have just had a 3rd – have my name… Pablo, and the new baby, Natalia Paola. Of course, Benny likes spicy food too… as well as curries, I have a penchant for tacos! 2 weeks there, and doubtless some miracles and healings, and salvations….

To be honest, I’m not looking forward to the flight, 11½ hours non-stop (me….with British Airways: now, there’s a miracle!), but once I’m at Heathrow, the adrenaline kicks in, and I’ll long to be there. Especially as having checked the weather, the daytime temperatures are only around 25C…. 🙂

Hopefully, I’ll be able to populate the blog with more wonderful stories of what God is doing in these coming weeks! 11 days after arriving home from Mexico, I’m off to Seaford, East Sussex (at about 24,000 people (2011 census), a wee bit smaller than Mexico City’s 37 million estimated! A couple of meetings with Fresh Springs Church there, and then 2 weeks in various cities in Sweden. 10 days after Sweden, comes 3 weeks in Cali, Colombia: never a burden, that one, either! – and then, 15 days later, over to the Vendee, France, to speak at a conference. After that, I think I’m going to take one of my newly-planned breaks!

With the wind lashing rain against my bedroom window, when my alarm went off at 7.15am, the last thing I really wanted to do was get out from under my duvet….but I had to, as I had a full Ulster fry breakfast ahead of me, before speaking to a good number of guys at Christian Fellowship  Church, Holywood’s men’s breakfast. If you’ve never had an Ulster fry, I suppose your waistline might heave a sigh of relief, but you’ve missed a treat….being a ‘normal’ bread fried bread lover, soda bread ad potato bread are rather tasty And somewhat more-ish….

my good friend John Gault had asked me to speak about November’s trip to Colombia, and the astonishing story still to really unfold concerning the ‘favela’ and cartel guys…..thrown in, of course, were a few healing and miracle stories! My great delight is story-telling! John also asked me to talk a bit how i got to where I am today, as, though I’ve spoken at the church before (though It was probably 3 years ago), there were a lot there who don’t know me, including guys from their new CFChurch in Newtownards. I love it, too, when a meeting is thrown open for questions: I love the ‘unexpectedness’ of them.

I had a chance to pray for a good number of guys, involving  a few men who wanted to get join in with the praying, and was blessed by a great young man, David, who wanted to pray for me, and is so passionate for people, healing, and seeing the Kingdom of God established, and not just ‘another church’. His heart hit a chord with mine, as I’m a passionate ‘Kingdom’ person. My theory is this: if you want to plant a church, you have a church. If you want to establish the Kingdom, you’ll see thousands of churches. That’s why so many churches ‘happen’ in countries where Kingdom people want transformation of their community, like China (where the last figure I heard, on good authority) is that 35,000 are saved and filled with the Holy Spirit every single day of the year, and in Mozambique, where Rolland and Heidi Baker just love people, with no strings attached (like – if you get saved you must come to my church, or God will heal you if you come to my church) – where I believe, now, they’ve sen over 12,000 churches begin in not much more than a decade….

So, it was a great morning: and tomorrow, I’ve been asked to tell the same story (!) at Cafe Church, one of the ministries of West Church, Bangor, which – when I’m home and able to go to church – is my home church. Paul the Presbyterian… 😉