Monthly Archives: July 2017

Back in 1999, an American-produced video, Transformations, shook the Christian world, with stories of how God was revolutionising four very different parts of the globe. Kiambu, Kenya: Hemet, California: Almalonga, Guatemala: and Cali, Colombia. I’d been coming to Cali for a few years before the video hit the world (and it WAS a video, too, VHS: remember them??!!) – when I came to Cali after its release, I was asked ‘Have you seen it?’ and ‘What do you think of it?’.

The stories were thrilling: if you haven’t ever seen it, it’s worth watching, you’ll find it on YouTube, as I doubt it’s available commercially now. The section of the video is here:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBvxWl7jXr0

My answers to the questions seemed to be the right answers for the ‘locals’ – ‘yes, I’ve seen it’, and (sorry to my American friends!) ‘I feel it’s very American and it struck me as being overstated’…. there was a huge sigh of relief from the local Christians, who, of course, were involved in what God was doing, and what had been filmed… It gave the impression that Cali was in full-blown revival, that – across the board – the crime rate had dropped by half. It did drop amazingly – for the weekends that the stadium prayer meetings were being held. Crime rose again after the weekends…. What WAS happening wasn’t -yet – revival, but the foundations of revival were being laid with the unity of more than 300 pastors.

It also gave the impression that Julio Ruibal, the ‘trigger’ pastor for the unifying of hundreds of pastors, was ‘assassinated’ because of the ‘revival’. He wasn’t. It seems it was over a parking dispute with neighbours of his church, and one took out a contract on him as people from the church kept parking on his land.

Why am I writing this? Well, after the video came out, some pastors became ‘famous’ in the western world, and were invited to the USA, Europe, Australia…. some came back here with pockets loaded with cash, church bank accounts full to overflowing – and no longer needed the same level of unity as they could build big new churches, take on more staff, and so on…. and the revival never had a chance to ‘explode’ and transform the city. The rising move of the Holy Spirit began to wane. For a time, I wondered if it signalled the end of my time here, as the stadium meetings petered out to two a year, then one… and the wonderful growth in the churches slowed, as well as a demise of the pastor’s group.

BUT, then…an increasing number of pastors from smaller churches began to work together, and the rising influence of the Holy Spirit began to take prominence. There are some wonderful pastors who are shepherding the move of God here, including some of the bigger pastors. For me, it’s a real thrill to be involved a tiny bit in the ongoing surge of God’s move and presence in this previously devastated troubled city, the be here under the open heaven, for me – and those who come here with me – is a huge privilege. Pastors like William Castaño, Wilson Monroy, Jefferson Herrera, Mauricio Naspiran, Angela Mondragon, Diego Ordoñez, and so many more.

Far from cutting back the number of visits to Cali, I’m thinking of increasing them…. and praying about renting a ‘permanent’ apartment for my times here and for the teams that come with me. For many years I’ve rented short term, and the short-term rentals are getting more and more expensive as Cali, with it’s ‘ambience’ changing for the good visit upon visit, is getting more and more tourists now. The completion of a fantastic new international airport terminal happened a couple of months ago, so more and more visitors will be here. Short-term rentals are necessary as it is important to have the team together as much as possible, as to have them spread out around homes means maybe a 2 hour drive in the morning to pick them up with the traffic here being terrible, and the same to drop off: then pick up for the evening meetings…it can easily be 6 hours a day in a car just to collect and drop people off! It also means that as a team, we can really BE a team, working together more, praying together, sharing testimonies and problems, too. The average rental for a 5/6 berth apartment is around £800, sometimes even upwards of £1000 a week now – it used to be about £300 5-6 years back. It seems that there’s an apartment coming available in time for the October/November trip when I’ll be bringing a team (might need two apartments for that one, as there could be a dozen or so coming!), when Thanney will complete the construction of the street kids’ refuge and all the ‘cosmetic’ work will be finished: then it’ll be handed over to Mision El Abrigo Internacional. The apartment that will be available will be perfect in many ways – it’s directly above the apartment of Wilmar & Marlene and their family, so they’ll keep an eye on it when I’m not there! And for  month, it’s only 35% of the weekly cost of a short-term rental. I have lots of people who are telling me that they want to come here, so to have somewhere as a base seems right: and that it’s just above Wilmar – where apartments are very hard to come by, seems like a God-thing.

Wednesday’s meeting blog to follow!!

It’s easy to tell that I’m in Cali because everything to do with the internet is playing silly games! Virtually no signal from the internet in the apartment (same as the last visit!), incredible thunderstorms with torrential rain that took out all the electricity, and even Word Press (this programme that I use for the website and the blog, deciding it didn’t/doesn’t want to post to Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn…so here goes at another attempt to post the first blog from Colombia…

It was a good journey here, a little shorter than often, thanks to a good tail wind, but next to no sleep for either Thanney or me on the long haul flight. It was such a blessing to see Wilmar’s happy smiling face at arrivals in Cali airport – it really lifts your spirit to see him. We didn’t have a meeting Saturday, thankfully, so we kicked off at Wilmar & Marlene’s church, Mision El Abrigo Internacional. It’s always so good there: and so many really good friends after more than 18 years visiting the church. Thanney spoke really well from Job: it was so good I thought I could cut back what I had to say and not speak for long! I wanted to get to the ministry time, anyway…

I’ll just pick out some of the lovely testimonies that came from the meeting: Dora had been suffering extreme pain in her head neck, and shoulders – no known diagnosis, painkillers didn’t touch it, but God did, and she was healed instantly. Maria had torn muscle from bone in her shoulder and had very limited movement of her right arm, and a lot of pain. Lovely God healed her immediately, too. A lady with a serious stomach problem received instant relief from the discomfort and pain….

Cristian and Angelica came and sat with me – Cristian had been suffering from a virus, and as they are moving house this week, he rather wanted that healed. It was. They are a couple with an amazing testimony – the fact that they are moving – buying their own house with a mortgage – is a miracle. Two years or so ago, Peter McAvoy who was with me, got to pray for Angelica, who was in massive debt, and under 24-hour pressure from the bank to repay 24 million Colombian pesos – about £6000, US$7300, 7000 euros, AU$9000. That, to people here, is an impossible amount. Angelica had 2 million she offered the bank – if you know banks, they’re hardly likely to accept 8% of a debt in full payment! And they didn’t. Sunday, Pete prayed for her: Monday she had to come up with the whole amount.

Monday, ‘out of the blue’, the bank called her on the phone. Yes, they’d accept the 2 million pesos, and write off the remaining 22 million… As a result, 2 years on, no longer in debt, they qualified for a mortgage – and this week they move into their own home. Such a lovely miracle, and blessing from God.

A year ago, I posted a video interview with Olivia, and her daughter, Maria Jose. Olivia is one of Wilmar’s sisters: I’d had the joy of praying with her and Maria Jose 3-4 years ago, when Maria had been diagnosed with a very large and life-threatening brain tumour. It had affected many vital functions, from sight to speech to hearing to walking. She was 7 years old then. If you want to, check out the video from 11 months back  (   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNHmpmmQWPA   ), and then look at the video I’ll put a link to in a minute, taken on Sunday. The transformation is incredible. 3 years back, after receiving prayer, Maria was due to go for surgery: she never had it, because the tumour had gone. Various faculties started to return, and on Sunday, It was lovely to be able to talk with Maria Jose and Olivia – I asked Maria what she wanted God to do for her next, and she wants to jump and run better than she can at the moment…. It’s such a wonderful testimony of God’s redeeming and ongoing miraculous power.

Here’s the video link: it’s on my YouTube page, too:       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8O1s9zAw-QM

Thanney and Wilmar have been doing the rounds of builder’s merchants and suppliers yesterday and today, with a real blitz on the construction of the street kids refuge beginning tomorrow. Please pray that there will be a few volunteers from the church to help Thanney, that the rain will keep away, and that he’ll not only keep fit, but multiply what he can do, with God’s help!

If you have time in your praying, I’d really appreciate your prayer, as – yes, I’m back in Cali – the enemy doesn’t like it, and the damage I did to the muscles in my legs 5 weeks ago, is being seriously assaulted by him! We’re also a fair bit short of our budget for this trip, if you’re willing to pray for God’s provision for the construction. Thank you, bless you.