Saturday we did a bit of necessary personal maintenance – shopping, getting fruit juice from my good friend Manuel’s amazing juice stall in Centro – the supposed ‘dangerous’ market area of the city, where I have many friends amongst the traders. The stalls in the street in like many in many countries – no running water (so no sanitaton – ‘Health and Safety’ in the UK would have apoplexy and lifelong nightmares), the electricity for the juice mixers is..er…borrowed I think, from other stores, eiter with or without their knowledge….but the juices are heavenly!! I’ve been taking my teams there for years: everyone eulogises over them. I’ve alwys made a principle of giving Manuel at least double the amount he charges, he works so hard: the quantity of fresh fruit alone is incredible. And he gives us, I reckon, at least 1500 ml of fresh made juice, in milk or water – has to be milk!! – for 2200 pesos (about 60 pence) – the flavours are amazing!! Fruits we never hear of in the UK or USA or Australia… slowly, people like Manuel and other traders are being ‘reeled’ in to the kingdom – when I reported on Egidio, the man with the fractured spine on Facebook (just realised I didn’t blog it, so I will!), 4 destroyed discs, who couldn’t walk, who was miraculously healed on the street, it was at Manuel’s stall, and we had quite a large audience as we prayed for him, including Manuel. The man who sells great watches (most people who come with me buy one! or more!!), Fernando, is a great friend: he’s actually asked a lot about our meetings, and is, in fact, coming tonight to the meeting, unless he gets cold feet at the last minute, but he dosn’t seem the sort to get cold feet (!) at the church of the lovely Pastors Angela and Jesus Mondragon.
Saturday afternoon, we were at one of my very favourite churches, pastored by the lovely Diego and Candy Ordoñez – Rey Jesus (Casa de Oracion) – King Jesus (House of prayer). I’ve known the church many years now, and God has done so many miracles there – especially for Astrid, who has been healed of 6 different cancers. When we arrived, she told me with great excitement it was the 7th anniversary of the healing of the last of those and that, since I last saw her, she’d een given the total and final ‘all clear’ from the doctors and was now totally a cancer free zone!
It was a lovely meeting: all the guys as usual spoke, Adrian and I shared a bit, and lots were healed of many things – some of the ‘territorial’ infirmities that seem to snake their way aound the region – gastritis, ovarian cysts, scoliosis (feeling the spine move under your hand while the ‘being healed’ person is feeling it from the inside, is just amazing! Three pairs of knees were healed, two of – you got it – osteoarthritis (!!), another pair as a result of muscle strain.
It’s STILL wonderful for me to see God heal knees – I seem to get endless ‘patients!’ with osteoarthritis: it’s truly no exaggeration to say that the vast majority are healed instanty, the rest within 24 hours or so. In Londonderry alone, the ‘knee count’ is very high!! I pray exactly the same way for mine as I do for theirs, but I have to say that I find praying for myself is hard – and frequently ineffective! – these old k**es of mine have been pretty grim since I tripped and fell back home about 6 weeks ago.
I keep asking the guys to tell me the testimonies thy have to tell from each night, but it’s like trying to get blood out of the proverbial stone! They’ll probably give me a load each just as we’re due to leave for the airport next Monday! Lots healed, then, at Rey Jesus: a wonderful evening, so lovely to pray with Diego, the pastor, for increased anointing for healing and ministry – very humbling – and I’d think, between us, we prayed for everyone in the meeting, about 60-70. I was sorry not to see Hanny (the pastor’s daughter), who normlly translates for me, or talk to her husband, Carlos: Hanny has a good excuse though, as she gave birth to Samuel only on Monday last week!
Looming on the horizon Saturday evening, was a 0500 get out of bed time, for an 0600 departure and 2 hour drive to Tulua: but I love Tulua so it wasn’t really an effort!
