Monthly Archives: July 2015

Two churches last night, countless healings, miracles…

Caroline and Kerry went to one of my favourite churches, ‘Nuevo Nacer’ (New Birth, John 3:3) last night, while Pete and I headed off to a new church to me, ‘Tabernacle de Oracion’ (Tabernacle of Prayer). Right now, Kerry and Caroline are speaking (all morning and into the afternoon) at a conference for women, in a barrio some distance away, Alfonso Lopez: Pete and I can recall some of Kerry’s reports from last night, but I’ll blog again when she comes back – what we can recall is that she saw a hugely swollen thyroid go down, and felt it, as she had her hand on the lady’s throat, and someone with a lot of pain in their feet healed just as she touched the foot…

Where Pete and I were, everyone with a ‘discernable’ illness – they had pain, swelling etc – was healed. Pete had a lady with a steel plate in her wrist and up her left arm – the steel went. A whole family with varying degrees of gastritis, was healed. Arthritis went. Everyone with the ‘mosquito’ disease, chicunguña, was healed.

People I rayed for with Johan, included a lady who was so stunned that all her life-long pain had gone, didn’t want to move in case it came back! She’d had chronic back and leg pain for many years (she was quite elderly), couldn’t walk unaided. All he pain went, and I finally persuaded her to go for a little stroll across the front of the church, which she did, and all the pain had gone. A lovely young lady with severe scoliosis (a lot of that here), felt movement in her spine as we prayed… she and mum were both in tears, and her pain had gone… hopefully, somewhen, we’ll her that she’s been xrayed or scanned, and it’s dead straight…

Everyone who had pain was healed. A lady with severe lower back pain, cried as it went. A young couple, Frank and Angela, had two major problems, one financial, the other – Angela, formerly a ballet dancer, had been in a car crash, and had extensive injuries. In hospital, she got an infection that ate her fibia away – 11 cms – and that right leg was pretty deformed. Her deepest desire was to dance again: and she felt very strange sensations in her leg as we prayed. I’d love to tell you that it ‘fleshed out’ in front of our eyes: it didn’t, but something major was happening that I felt would continue overnight. They had a major debt, too, from a failed project, so we prayed that God would miraculously do what he did for a lady here last year – cause the bank to call and wipe the debt out….

A lady with athrosis – I’m still not sure if that’s the same as, or different to, arthritis – all down her right side, was totally set free from pain. At least three sets of knees got healed last night (perhaps explains why mine were excruciating while I was preaching! – I thought at one point I’d have to get Pete to carry me off of the platform!!). Three – maybe more – people with the awful chicunguña, were healed, including the pastor’s wife….

More testimonies to follow….

The healings and miracles are gathering pace, and as we move into our final weekend,our last 5 full days here, it’s going to be amazing to see what God does! At another church I love very much tonight – ‘Casa de Oracion Rey Jesus’ (House of Prayer, King Jesus), in the Santa Monica district…and then a massively full day tomorrow, in the city of Tulua, about 2 hours away: I’m told the last church of the day is about 500 people, so goodness only knows what time we’ll finish, let alone get home!!

Sight restored, spinal ‘surgery’, osteoarthritis healed, pain discarded….and another ‘wheelchair’ miracle in process….

Last night, we were in the church of Pastors Hector Rios and his wife Luz Dary Escobar. A lovely miracle happened while Caroline was reading some Scripture: a lady with very bad eyesight realised that her sight had ‘deteriorated’ further while reading her Bible, so she took off her glasses – and could see perfectly!!! I love it when God just shows every now and again that he doesn’t need us at all, does something like that for the lady: then he chooses to let us back into the game and do the praying!

Unusually in a church here, only a handful of people responded for prayer for healing. Normally it’s pretty much 100%. We ‘split’ into four teams – normally with about 80 people present it’s necessary, so Wilmar & I only prayed for a couple of folk. The first was a lady with a lot of pain down her left side, the beginnings of osteoathritis in her knees. Thank you, Lord, that all her pain went….

….a little bit of irony in that one, as I’d spoken for a short time after Caroline, to encourage people to respond for prayer. Being honest, even in that few minutes, my own knees went ballistic, and for a few moments thought I’d have to get Pete to carry me to my seat! I’m sure God’s sense of humour is in this somewhere, as – not exaggerating, honestly (ask guys that travel with me!) virtually everyone gets their knees healed – if they need them healed! – when I pray for them….

Then we had Alexis, a massively handicapped guy from an accident, I think 9 year ago, when he stepped out from behind a bus into the path of a fast moving car. He was brain damaged, and consequently unable to walk, use his hands, or speak coherently. His wheelchair had been home for those years after many months in a coma, and about a year in hospital. Like Leonardo, the night before, his voice began to get stronger after we started praying for him: and become more coherent. Pretty much a repeat of Leonardo’s story: strength came back to his arms and hands, and then he chose to stand up. The pastor, Hector, told us later that he was inherently lazy, so I don’t know how much progress he’ll make unless he can overcome that, whereas with Leonardo, he is utterly determined to get his lie back.

Tonight, in a church I know and love, Vision y Avivamento (Vision & Revival), it was probably 100% response for the healing invitation. It’s in the barrio, Retiro, one of the most dangerous in Cali, but I’d have to say I’ve never remotely felt threatened there in 2-3 years of going to the church, pastored by a fantastic couple, Jésus Mauricio Naspiran, and his wife, Sandra Torres Guañarita. Mauricio was wonderfully healed when I first visited the church early in 2013: another motorbike crash victim, he’d not only broken his arm, but had shattered his hand. One of his ministries/gifts is leading worship, playing the guitar, and he was devastated that he couldn’t even LIFT the guitar after his ‘recuperation’. A few moments’ prayer sorted that one, and he was miraculously healed: hes led the worship every time I’ve been there, since.

All the team spoke, spoke well, too, telling testimonies of what they’d seen God do, and Caroline spoke really well on the story of Nicodemus. A lady gave her life to the Lord, which is always wonderful.

Johan, translating, and I prayed together, with Pete: everyone who was sick, or in pain, was healed. First up was a lady with diabetes – only the next few days will tell, as always with diabetes, if she’s healed of that: but she had a lot of pain in her…..knee (!!) and feet, which went immediately. As Jesus, in the gospels, never partially healed people, I would say it’s pretty certain her diabetes went, along with the diminished eyesight as a result of the disease.

After two or three more people who wanted prayer for family, or emotional issues, or for prayer for an unborn baby, Joseph came for prayer. I guess about 13-14 years old: with an undiagnosed and accelerating deformity in his feet. Both feet had lumps (doctors said possibly cysts, but inoperable for some reason) on the outside, and the prognosis was that his feet would get worse and worse. He also wore fairly strong-lensed glasses. Pete prayed for his feet: I got him to take his shoes and socks off: the lump on the right foot went down as we watched: Pete prayed again, and the lump on his left foot shrank as well….. thank you, Lord!! As he was about to get up, I asked him if he wanted his eyes healed. I don’t think it had occurred to him! He had degenerative astigmatism: to read even a single word without his glasses, made him very dizzy. Prayer sorted that out, too, and I asked him to take off his glasses, and he read a number of verses from Johan’s Spanish bible with no problem. The glasses promptly went into his pocket….

Robert is a man I’ve prayed for three times in the past: first time, he was in a wheelchair, and he no longer needed that… he still had mobility issues caused by problems with his spine, and his legs and feet began to tingle. He walked a few steps unaided for the first time in some years….

Kerry and Caroline both had people healed, but rather than wake them, I’ll get their stories tomorrow!

The spiritual attack? Well, I gather everybody’s money, generally before we leave the UK, for their share of the rent of our apartment, then over some days, because of the limit on daily withdrawals, raid various cash machines and accumulate it. It’s never been a problem before, and the rent has always been paid in full…. but when we got back home this afternoon, I noticed the drawer beside my bed was open, and when I opened it further, most of the pesos had disappeared. They can only have been stolen… 🙁 – just on 4,000,000 pesos, about £1,000/US$1550/AU$2100 – I’m waiting for the guy who checks the CCTV film to let me know tomorrow if anyone ‘unusual’ entered our apartment, then I guess it’s the police.

You’re probably thinking, like I am, that they won’t be able to do anything. I leave next Thursday, and have no means of paying the rent now. The owner is the only other person with a key, but he’s been showing various people around the apartment as he’s hoping to sell it, and there have been tradesmen here concerning the internet, the electrics (we’ve been in darkness 2 or 3 times), and my bedroom door slammed shut with the breeze and locked itself, so a locksmith, too.

Please, if you can, pray that God will do a miracle, and provide what I need to keep the owner happy…. it seems he has no insurance on his rental properties (I only discovered that today), so there’s no recourse there….

Last night (Tuesday), it was a night of wonderful miracles. And a return visit to a church pastored by a good friend, Jefferson Herrera. I haven’t been to this church for 2½ years, and, as I mentioned in a Facebook post earlier, that meeting was where I met my (now) very good friend, Dario: that night, many, many were healed, including Dario from numerous gunshot wounds and the resulting internal damage they’d done. Dario wasn’t expected to live, and his body was -literally – held in place by a very tight elasticated body stocking. If he were to take it off, his body would have just collapsed… a bear hug after praying for him proved his healing (!), and the friendship stems from Jefferson’s lovely church.

Then, it was a ‘Cuadrangular’ church (Four Square – think Jack Hayford, or Google it!!). It’s now in  new location, and an independent charismatic church called ‘Hoy es Tiempo’ (Now is the time). Why can’t we call our churches great names like these? ‘Dios con Nosotros’ (God with Us); ‘Vision y Avivamiento’ (Vision and Revival); ‘Antorchas de Fuego’ (Torches of Fire)….maybe it has something to do with the reason why God does more here than back home, as the church names inspire faith. ‘Such and Such Baptist/Methodist/Presbyterian’ doesn’t have quite the same…effect? Agreed? Or not?

The worship was lovely, then Kerry shared really well – she’s been absolutely brilliant here, bearing in mind this is her longest ever away from home (she’s 18 years old), and only ever stood at the front of a meeting once before she came here. She’s taken to it like a natural, and really has got hold of praying with faith, commanding what God’s given us the mandate to command, with not too many words, either! Short prayers are all that’s necessary, if you look at how Jesus dealt with sickness and disease. I heard recently a brilliant comment from Bill Johnson (I think): ‘For us to beg God to heal someone is to assume that we have more mercy than he does’. Hmmm. Peter did a great job, too, both of them raising the ‘faith stakes’ telling of miracles they’ve seen God do here in these last 2 weeks.

Caroline, as always, preached really well – another who, until coming here last year with me, had had very little exposure in public speaking in church. That she’s a teacher, and used to being in front of a class, helps: but to confidently (and mostly without reference to notes – that applies to all three of my team) stand in a church and bring a word from God is a whole different ball game. I’ll add a blog tomorrow with the stories from the others, as I doubt they’d appreciate me waking them at 0247 am to ask them!

Yours truly tied up the end, with some encouragement on who we are in Christ, and some stories of miracles here in this ‘open heaven’ city. All through the meeting, I’d been aware of a middle-aged man in a wheelchair, and hoped he’d be first up for prayer. He was. Many years ago, being totally honest here, if there was someone in a wheelchair, I’d leave them until last, for a number of reasons:

• That I’d have generated some additional faith to pray for them
• That, being last, most of the congregation had gone home, and wouldn’t see the person leave the building still in their wheelchair
• That the person in the wheelchair would get fed up with waiting, and go home….

I like to see them first now, as, when someone in a wheelchair GETS OUT of their wheelchair, it raises faith exponentially. Leonardo, 45 years old, is a lovely man. Four years ago, he was struck down by Ataxia (a neurological sign consisting of lack of voluntary coordination of muscle movements that includes gait abnormality. Ataxia is a non-specific clinical manifestation implying dysfunction of the parts of the nervous system that coordinate movement, such as the cerebellum – thank you, Wikipedia!), in his wheelchair for those 4 years, unable to stand, and with total

loss of voice function. Remarkably, despite what the disease had done to his brain, he still understood English, as well of course as his native Spanish, so it was easy to speak to him, but only his sister – Jefferson’s wife – could understand his badly formed whispers.

Well….. within a few minutes, it was like someone turning the volume knob on an amplifier up! His voice got stronger, his words better formed. He said he felt a lot of heat in his legs, and strength flowing down through his body. Of his own volition, he moved his previously weak hands (boy, was his grip strong on my hands by now!) to the front of his chair, and began to pull himself forwards and upwards. We hurriedly moved the foot plates, applied the brakes, and Leonardo slowly got out of his chair, under his own steam (with Wilmar and Jefferson just putting their arms there for him to support himself…

I think one of the things I hate most is seeing people PULLED out of wheelchairs, and then pushed and pulled all over the floor.

Leonardo did it himself. He stood, just with minimal support, for some minutes, then sat again. It takes time, of course, for things like

inner ear balance, muscle tone, etc., to change: but a few moments later, he was up again, this time much faster, speaking reasonably clearly (!!) and with a huge grin on his face. Then he began to bend his legs as if to walk…. he turned, but didn’t – last night at least – run and leap out of the church. But it certainly raised the faith level in the church (spontaneous applause for dear Leonardo, and, of course, dear God!), and his dad, mum, sister, brother in law (Jefferson) were everything from over the moon to in tears to utterly gobsmacked…

Leonardo’s dad, Umberto, was healed of extreme pain all down his right side – early arthritis, exacerbated by the constant lifting and moving of Leonardo – and was in tears. Mum, Luz Dary, was released from much anxiety, sadness, depression – all understandable. She’s an intercessor, and had struggled with not seeing answers to her prayers for her son, and his wife. She was all smiles as we left.

Married couple Carlos and Marcella were both transformed: Marcella had a pretty serious ‘ladies problem’ which had had a big effect on their marriage – along with constant urinary tract infections. Both were noticeably changed. Issabella was healed of a lot of pain. Another lady -name forgotten already, I’m sorry – had cancer in her breast and liver. What a change came over her. Her private ‘investigation’ when she got home would tell her what God had done – she was filled with supernatural heat as Caro, Wilmar, and I prayed….

Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Oh what a night…

Praying for people, with all the emotion and compassion attached, is exhausting. Unless you’ve done it, following preaching even more so, it’s quite hard to explain how tiring it is. All four of us were exhausted after the intensity of Wednesday to Sunday’s meetings. So to have a ‘breather’ yesterday, as not many churches have meetings on a Monday, was a blessing. We spent a lot of the day with Wilmar, who was also exhausted, as he’s pastoring his church as well as being with us as much as possible. It was blessing.

In the evening, we were at the home of a lovely lady, Rosa Marie, and her children, Jonathan and Ana Issabella. Jonathan is the young man we prayed for a couple of Sundays ago, who is the professional salsa dancer: it seems Ana is too! Jonathan was miraculously healed of flat feet: so to bless us, Rosa Marie invited us for a barbecue. It was lovely – but it’s rare that you get invited somewhere here without the ‘rider’ that you pray for everyone in the house! The most ‘obvious’ healing was for Ana – suffering from this dreadful mosquito disease, chicunguña – especially in her ankles and feet – not good for a dancer, just like her brother’s flat feet – which are doing great, he told us last night.

We prayed for Ana: nothing ‘seemed’ to happen (it must have done, though, as God cannot renege on his promise to answer all of our prayers): the second prayer brought such a look of astonishment to her face as all the pain had gone….. thank you Jesus!!

Peter had taken a better photo of Eduardo, from church on Sunday morning, the man from the motorbike crash, with 20×5 cms steel plates in his massively swollen leg, ankle, and foot. This is about half the size it had been… and Eduardo was moving – and standing on – his foot and ankle, without pain…

I still haven’t caught up with a few emails that I need to, so I’ve ‘bailed out’ of a lunch invitation today, to prepare for tonight’s meeting: it’s an Assemblies of God church if I remember correctly: I’ve not been there for about 2½ years. The last time was when I first my my friend Dario, who came for prayer that night having had ’30 surgeries in 15 months’ following 26 days in a coma. I won’t say any more as to why he’d had that many surgeries or why he was in a coma: just to say that this is ‘backstreet Cali’ stuff!!! It was lovely to see him in church on Sunday, I’ll be seeing him a lot more in the next few days.

It feels like I’ve been here for years, yet it has also gone so quickly. More than half way through this visit, only 8 more days to go… 🙁

It’s pretty much a packed programme, even daytimes, for the next 8 days, with 4 meetings Sunday in the city of Tulua, about 2 hours away from here, where many wonderful things happened in April, and last year. And, of course, return visits to Ana Beiba, and – hopefully, tomorrow, to Ana Bustos and her street people’s ‘mealtime’…. emotions shredded again, and yet delight that God enables us to go and be with them. It’s more of a blessing to us, believe me, than we are to them: yet, if you were here, they’d tell you it’s wonderful we’re there, as ‘gringoes’ just DON’T go to those places…

Peter took the best of our pictures, too, on Saturday, on the street in Simon Bolivar. Multiply the number of people you can see by about 10, and that’ll give you a rough idea of how many were there…!

God willing, more to follow after tonight’s meeting!!!

Heart moving? Steel dissolving 🙂 Spine straightening…. God just blessed and blessed and blessed today….

Two churches this morning – at opposite ends of the city – meant for an early start. Kerry & Caroline went to the lovely church, Iglesia Mana, Pete and I went south to one of my favourite churches here, Dios con Nosotros (God with Us). It seems the girls had a storming morning, loads of people prayed for, one very unusual one for Kerry – a girl, about 8 years old, with heart on the ‘wrong’ side – on the right. It seems that there is nothing doctors could do, I suppose it’s nigh on impossible to move it, so Kerry prayed. The girl felt ‘something very strange’ happening in her chest, and it was hot… oh, if only in my luggage I carried an MRI scanner or whatever sort of scanner I’d need for that!….

…or this, though this is much more ‘testable’ by people! A lovely man, Eduardo I think his name was (often in one ear, and without warning, it drops straight out of the other!), had been in a terrible motorbike accident, and totally shattered his left ankle, three months ago, and on crutches. It was extremely swollen, discoloured, and his foot was about twice the size of normal. He had steel plates, 20 x 5 cms down BOTH sides of his shin and ankle, so there was absolutely no movement possible in his foot. After Pete had commanded it to dissolve for a couple of minutes, I asked him to move his foot – and he slowly began to flex his foot, and rotate his ankle. Edouardo said it was ‘hot – and getting hotter’ inside his leg… He still had some pain, so we prayed again, cursed the pain, and – he moved his foot without pain. I asked him if he’d stand up without his crutches. He did. And his ankle was able to bear his weight. He walked a fair few steps just holding onto Pete’s arm…. I don’t think he could believe it….nor the people around us!!

A lovely family, Julian and Johana and two lovely girls, had been in a bad car crash. The older of the daughters was suffering still from shock and trauma, dad had badly damaged his knee, and Johana had been left with a completely numb, and quite large, are of her skull. After praying for peace, and cutting the daughter, Juliana, free from fear, shock, and trauma, I prayed for Julian’s knee. It felt hot, he said: and a little unusual. I asked what movements had previously (like 5 minutes ago!) caused him pain: walking, and climbing stairs. Just by chance (!) there are stairs at the back of this church, and Julian came back have gone up and down a couple of times with no pain! God’s wonderful! Then, Johana began to get ‘sensation’ back into the right side of her skull, and then felt her fingers touching it….

Wilmar’s sisters came, with one of their daughters, a beautiful little girl, who’d got a large tumour at the base of her skull above her neck. I KNOW something happened, I felt it: but it’s difficult to get a child to explain exactly…. oh for that mobile scanner!!

My great friend Dario’s mum, Lileana, came for prayer – with Dario (great to see him again) with a great deal of pain in her left shoulder, and unable to lift her arm hardly at all…. she had it vertical in no time… she’s also due for exploratory surgery Thursday on her womb, and she – and all of us – felt that surgery wasn’t going to be necessary. Lileana felt something happen inside. She also had ‘relaxed’ bladder sphincter muscles: we’ll see her in the week to find out if surprise pees (remember them??!! – well, peas!!) are no longer part of her life.

The picture with the blog post and below, is the lovely young mum with her children – Romeo Manuel, her 8 month old son – was the baby she’d wanted but was told she could never have…. I prayed for her a year ago in March, and she and her husband immediately conceived…. she asked for pray for him in March this year, not for anything wrong, just that he’d stay so healthy and happy as he had been for his 8 months of life… Big hugs all round….!!