Amazing meeting this evening at another of my favourite churches – ‘Casa de Oración Rey Jesús’ (House of Prayer King Jesus). More steel gone, scars disappearing, scoliosis….
And so God goes on blessing people, and, even more, I think, blessing us…. even after almost 30 years, I’m still amazed. It was a lovely meeting: the worship at this church is always really great, good band, good singers (not always the case in Colombia! – a bit like the old Morecambe and Wise sketch with Andre Preview ! – where Eric said ‘Of course I’m playing all the right notes, just ot necessarily in the right order!’). Colombian singing can sometimes be off key: if there are two singers, they’re often off key with each other, as well as the instruments!
Pete and Kerry both spoke really well – raised faith in the people there – and Caroline preached the main message. I often just top and tail ‘our’ bit with the appeal – though tonight I just wanted to share a word I felt God had given me. That it tied in perfectly with Caroline – even to the same chapter in Romans – was a blessing!
Loads of people for prayer, as usual in this church. First up, Astrid, who I’ve mentioned before in blogs: I’ve prayed for her a good number of times over the years, and 6 times, she’s been healed of cancer. Tonight it was prayer for her brother, who also has cancer. Then her son, Juan Andres, who I’d never met: countless years of chronic lower back pain that, he told me, always went for about minute after being prayed for…. a good 15-20 minutes later, he came back to me, and said he’d been totally healed, it had gone completely…
A lady with diabetes had a lot of pain in her feet as a result: it all went.
Abiu Jireth (a new name to me), is one of the keyboard players in the worship team. She’d had a bad accident where she’d fractured a bone in her wrist, and had surgery. There was, a long time after the event, extensive bruising up her arm, and down to her hand, and a scar. Ten minutes of playing the keyboard and her hand was agony, especially her fingers. She’d also had another accident where her ankle had turned, and broke so badly that she had screws in her foot and ankle…. the pain in her foot meant she couldn’t walk more than 10 minutes, and standing at the keyboard was also excruciating. Knowing a bit about excruciating pain in legs has changed the way I pray! Alejandra, translating for me, watched in awe as the discolouring/bruising in her wrist disappeared in just a few moments, and the scar had almost completely disappeared….then on to the ankle… I could feel the screws, so could Ale, and of course, so could Abiu. Then – as God has done a number of times this trip – he completely dissolved them. Abiu burst into tears… it was tremendous!
Lots of other pains went in people, and of course, there were always the ones you can’t see, like a lovely young lady, Jennifer, who’d got endometriosis (had?) – and had been told she’d neer hve children. I broke the fear off of her, and cursed that prognosis, and her face changed….
There are many lovely people in this church, the Pastors, Diego and Candy, have become good friends, as have their daughter and son in law, Carlos and Hanny. Alejandra is also a lovely friend. People hug me so tight when I go there: it’s such a beautiful blessing….
Up at 0545 tomorrow, for a busy, busy day: driving 2 hours to Tulua, four church services, the last one a church of 4-500 people (need to work out how to pray for the folk there as it could go on all night!!), and a conference for women, so Pete and I will get a breather in the afternoon!!
Monday is a national holiday here, and we’re off to Dario’s ‘finca’ – the tropical ‘estate’ high in the Andes, for the day, a barbecue, and doubtless loads of praying for people!!
