Without exception, when I come here with teams, I ask if the wonderful church, Dios Con Nosotros (God with Us), can be included in the list of visits, only to discover that it is already on the schedule! The Pastor, Rafael Eduardo Giraldo Rincon, has beome a dear friend, and walking into the church, past the greeters, and the people in the church, is running the gauntlet of huge smiles, big hugs, and kisses on the cheek. It’s wonderfully affirming: maybe on this trip, God knew that I needed fresh affirmation from Pastors and churches – it’s been wonderful eveywhere so far….
I’m in my 21st year of coming to Colombia: this is, I think, to Cali alone, my 79th visit, and, while I feel so ‘at home’ here, I do wonder sometimes if local people might think I’m past my ‘sell by’ date (my insecurities poking their heads out, I hope!!). Rafael is just wonderful: his own story one of incredible redemption: and he’s the Pastor who is alongside my dear friend Dario, another story of redemption (and still in progress), helping him and his family as they move towards total freedom in Jesus.
Rafael’s greeting to me was so affirming – ‘this church is your family, Paul’ – and telling the church of the healings and miracles that have gone before….Wednesday evening in the church as no different. I sometimes feel that, in telling the – often repeated in different situation testimonies – that perhaps you get bored reading them: yes, of course, lots of people’s sicknesses and diseases ARE repeated, and yes, God DOES repeat the healing, the miracle…
Thanney spoke really well, about how and why he’s here (it was his first time to Dios con Nosotros) – the building, but also what God through him last time with the miracles – that are being replicated this time, too….
….Thanney had some young couples, or just one of a couple – come for prayer as they couldn’t have children: one young mum to be who’d seen the testimony of Carolina, on Facebook/here, from Sunday, and who wanted just what God has given Carolina and her husband. Thanney’s fast earning the reputation of being, on my teams, the number one gynaecologist/fertility wizzo! I had the ‘statutory’ osteoarthritis cases: in each case, pain went, and heat inside the crippled joints affirming that God was on the move.
One surprised me who came to ask for healing: a lovely little girl, and while waiting for her mum, I asked her her name, was so expecting her to aanswer in Spanish, I didn’t understand it when she answered me…until Johan, translating, had to inform this old geezer, ‘She’s speaking in English!’. Her names is Jennifer, aged 9, came up on her own for prayer (God would heal just for that, I’m convinced!) – and had lived, it turns out, for some time, in Perth, Western Australia (so her English was great – she hadn’t learned it in the States!! lol!!). I’ve been to Perth a fair few times, so she loved that I could talk about it with her – the Swan River, King’s Park… she’d got a horrible allergy cough that was pretty much constant, that the doctors couldn’t pin down to allergy of anything specific. Along with it, she had (hr description) constant ‘electric shocks’ in her chest, arms, and legs, again, no diagnosis. I wondered if it was all part of the same allergy… In praying for her, and talking with her, she didn’t once cough, nor have any of the strange sensations in her body. I’ll try and find out from Rafael how she is before I leave here….
A lady with scheduled surgery for a replacement right knee had all the pain go. Another, waiting for the same surgery, had a surge of heat go through her knee and the muscles of her leg…. both walked away pain free, and walking well….
Great night…. and good days, too, for Thanney at the kid’s foundation, with the trusses being constructed, and pretty much all systems go to getting the roof on and sides up next week…. how he gets that pile of steel (a couple of tons at least, I think!) into those welded shapes, is totally beyond me….
