And so…. having been upgraded Madrid to Cali (lie-flat bed seats….yeahhh!!!!!) I arrived to pouring rain, but the delightful Gomez family – Wilmar, Marlene, Sophie, and Sara – and Caroline, who’d stayed with them having arrived Thursday, were there to meet me, I arrived ‘home’ in Cali, for my 54th visit here. Bereft of Margrethe (only for a day or so more!), and with the Irish trio of Peter, Carly, and Grace, arriving Thursday, we’ll soon be complete….
Where I stay, with my many and varied teams, is one of the safest areas of the city: El Peñon, to the great apartment owned by now long-time friend, Alberto Sinisterra. I t wasn’t jet-lag, maybe it was adrenaline, but I couldn’t get to sleep. By 3am, I’d just dropped off to sleep, when extremely loud gunshots woke me back up…. about 5 or 6 of them. Caroline discovered in an online newspaper that four people had been shot dead, two each in two cars, by siccarios, the ‘cheap rent-a-killer’ motorbike young men… in all the years I’ve stayed in this apartment, nothing like that’s ever happened. Slightly earlier in the night, Saturday night….more gunfire. It’s strangely NOT unsettling when you’re on the 12th floor: but tragic, and does make getting back to sleep slightly more difficult. And, lo and behold, again last night, about 5 am….. hoping for a quiet night tonight!No news of who/what/why from the second and third attacks, yet…
It was just Caroline and I who went with Pastor William Castaño, to a frequently visited church in the south, Dios con Nosotros (God with us). William preached, as he was finishing a series there, but he asked if we could go, and pray for the sick. It’s so wonderful to go to a church in another country, and have people greet you like a long-lost friend….
Needless to say, lots of people responded: Caroline happy and confident to pray in her brilliant Spanish, me using friend Johan to translate, as the first couple of days back here, it seems my Spanish gets left in England! Quite a few people were healed instantly, which is so good of God to kick us off so early in the trip. But, in the meeting, a man named Fredy testified about a lovely healing when I was there in April: plantar fasciitis, 8 months in extreme pain, could hardly walk, put any weight on his foot, totally healed…. a lovely lad, Sebastian, about 8 I guess, had had chronic tonsil and throat problems since birth. Dad told me yesterday he was totally healed….
As always, lots of knee problems: pain went from all the ones prayed for…. Dario’s mum, Liliana, acute pain in both legs, back, and neck: it all went. In two people, you could visibly see depression lifting…. and going, to which they testified before vacating the ‘hot-seat’ for prayer…. back at the church on Wednesday evening, hopefully some real firmed-up testimonies….
Margrethe isn’t going to be able to join us, sadly… her passport arrived ok, so she called Avianca, the airline, to re-schedule her ‘flexible’ (now joke!) ticket…. only one seat available in the next week, still in economy, but a different ‘seat class’ (exactly the same seats, often next to each other). Yes, she could have it: for the princely ADDITIONAL payment of US$1630…..
