Today was very special. It began with the ‘remnant’ of my team here,Gerard, Lydie, Elisa, and me, praying for each other, a very lovely time of healing, blessing, and affirmation. I’m not a great ‘believer’ in ‘in-depth’ ministry times on trips away, for a number of reasons: often in (many) years gone by, teams have had long ministry times ‘to get right with God’ – when you’re on a ministry trip, the getting right with God should be done before you go, or stay home! Trips are often intense, and very busy, so my ‘style’ is to relax, enjoy each others’ company, go to a cinema, or a nice restaurant, relax, laugh, have a beer or a glass of wine (or both, preferably!), not fight internal angst that should never rear its ugly head while you’re away…. but today was so relaxed, not long, but a great blessing.
A quick dash to the supermarket as we had no food of any description in the apartment, and then, late afternoon, heading off to two different meetings: the French posse to Wilmar and Marlene’s church for their 20th year Church Anniversary thanksgiving: me to another tough barrio in Agua Blanca, Retiro, to the lovely church pastored by Mauricio Naspiran, a real lovely guy whom I met last year and had the privilege of praying for. He’d been ‘broadsided’ while on his motorbike – there are tens of thousands of them here, mostly hairdryer on wheel engine types… 🙂 – by another motorbike ignoring a red traffic light.
Mauricio Naspiran, Pastor, healed of a badly damage hand
Mauricio, whose passion – after God, his family, and his church! – is playing the guitar and leading worship, was sent flying through the air, and really shouldn’t have survived, but he got up, with only his left hand damaged. That he lived was a blessing, but for a guitarist, your leftie is a tad important for the music! The pain increased, until in time, his left hand wasn’t really much use. God wonderfully, instantly healed him on my first visit there, and it was a joy to go back tonight, the church has grown, Mauricio plays better than ever, and his left hand is stronger than it was before it got crushed… his story is here:
- https://www.youtube.com/user/rocker543212000
Lots of people to pray for, the first five healed instantly, including the now-obligatory arthritic knees! Four arthritic people all received God’s healing tonight: Mauricio’s dad, with a lump in his throat (not cancer, thankfully) which affected his speech and gave him a lot of discomfort, was healed. His mum, too, of pain in her back, and leg… as always here in Cali, there were diabetics, whom I encouraged to go home and do a sugar test straight away…. I’m convinced they were healed, though I may never know definitely, but one had arthritis, and God healed that, and as far as I’m aware, in the gospels, Jesus – nor any other of the ‘big guns’ – Paul, Peter, etc., left people half healed. They were totally healed.
So a great night…. topped off with a lovely surprise, one that I’ve been praying for and longing for on this trip: initially a phone call from my friend Dario, who invited me to go for a meal with him and his family… I couldn’t, as my meeting went on longer than expected, and I have the only key to the apartment and couldn’t leave La Francaises outside!
15 minutes after I got home, the doorbell rang, I answered expecting to see Gerard et al: but it was Dario, Erica, Michelle, and Joshua. I was over the moon, as I’d not got his current contact info and someone had given his mum the wrong phone number for me…. 🙁 . They stayed for over 3 hours, got on like a house on fire with my lovely team, and we had a wonderful time of prayer with them….and seeing them for as much of Monday and Tuesday as we can….
