Monthly Archives: November 2020

Forty-two years ago this week, I knew that I knew that I knew God was telling me to quit my career in banking and start in full-time ministry, a decision was that painfully hard (in that moment) but that I’ve never regretted. It cost everything – salary (not been paid one since), career, pension (though some years ahead, like now – I don’t have one!), subsequently home, possessions (in total 5 times – still never an easy sacrifice), friends, family security… Two weeks tomorrow (14th) I’m 68 years old, and while ‘Covid19’ year 2020 has been like a ‘preparation time’ for retirement, it’s never my plan to retire unless my body has other plans!

Many people told me that I was crazy (I still am but a little less to give up now!) when I told them I was swapping a good future with one of the big banks to go salary less with Youth for Christ in East Sussex. Still crazy after all these years, though somewhat slower these days as my knees have got a lot older than I have…

But while it’s been a sacrifice in so many ways, it’s been an incredible ‘journey’ seeing God move in miracle power and with countless people healed and saved. And if I’d ever known 43 years ago what God had in store, I’d have said ‘Never! Not me. I’m too shy, don’t like foreign food, and I don’t ever want to travel’…

For a few years, I didn’t have to travel too far, as I was UK based, though I had the privilege of spending time with people I used to love hearing preach – Clive Calver, Tony Campolo, David Pawson, and many others. The massive surprise came in 1986 when God spoke very directly through nine different people that I would travel to the ends of the earth praying for the sick and preaching the gospel. Not me! Not going… God can be very persistent, and when I gave in, I said ‘O.K, Lord, anywhere except Africa or India’. – needless to say, my first invitation came – from Ghana, a nation I fell in love with within 24 hours, and through Ghana, a whole continent. It was the same with India in 1992.

Some funny things have happened, some incredible things – like the big car crash in 1994 when I and Kathryn (driving me to the airport) should have died, another in 1996 in Mozambique with missionary friend Tim, visiting 109 countries (some only once, many multiple times – Colombia 89, Romania 129, Mexico 30, France I’ve lost count…), having the Inland Revenue telling my (then) accountant in 1994 that they were writing me out of the tax system (I never earned enough) because ‘Mr Bennison doesn’t have a job, he has a hobby’!!

A travelling ministry that has stretched from China/South Korea to West Coast USA, Christchurch New Zealand to Buenos Aires Argentina, Northern Minnesota/Montana USA to Melbourne/Sydney Australia, has been demanding in terms of travel, climate changes, food, accommodation, and expense, but I can truly say I’ve never regretted any of what it has cost, and as 2021 beckons, hopefully covid-free, airports will once again become home from home!

God spoke to me when I began a life of ‘ministry’ – whatever that means – that I was never to seek fame/ a ‘platform’/ or income. And for the last 42 years, I’ve spent my life largely in poorer countries, or poor communities in wealthier countries. It’s been my privilege to hold and hug people dying with contagious diseases like AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, typhoid, and more, and pray for them while letting them know they’re loved… many times in the past, yes, they’ve died – BUT some have been healed not because of ‘superpower’ on my part but because of sitting with them, holding them, hugging them, getting covered with their snot, saliva, tears… and you know what? I’ve NEVER caught anything that they have been afflicted with.

The video here was on Facebook today, and features someone who achieved massive success – Tim Tebow, a great American football player, a committed Christian, whose life was impacted by a photograph. A photograph of a starving child that won the photographer the Pulitzer Prize that year. I’ll let Tim Tebow tell the story in the 5-minute video.

Over the 42 years I’ve been serving God as a travelling missionary, it has changed my life many, many times from the person I was when it began. I’m grateful that God spoke those words to me back in 1978, as I could never have survived many of the things I’ve seen, and with God’s help, done. There have been many times, though, when I know that I failed to have more significance because of fear, insecurity, doubt – especially in the early years. I hope and pray that as the years have passed, I’ve grown out of the fears and into a place of wanting to see God move mightily – and genuinely to see Jesus increase as I decrease.

Over the years I’ve met many who were more on the ‘success’ track – I’ve taken a few with me on teams due to my own lack of judgement, and, and have learned the hard way about those in ministry with the wrong motives. I was hugely influenced by a wonderful talk I heard many years ago (I blogged about this some time back) by the late Ken McGreavy, ‘Do you want prominence, or do you want significance?’. I know – and I’m glad – I’ll never be famous, though I love reading reports of people who preach to mega-thousands and see huge results. I love what God has called me to do, though it has its downsides in that the ‘big’ names have a big ‘drawing power’ for raising support.

This isn’t an excuse for me to make a financial appeal, though these ‘pandemic’ days have been something of a nightmare with no preaching opportunities, so no offerings to bolster the regular support, which has taken a big ‘hit’ this year due to the huge fears of the virus with lost donors, humanly understandable, but devastating this end with no offerings!

The wonderful thing is the fulfilment of knowing lives change, even over the internet or phone, and I’m still sure that God has a future and a hope for me in ministry, and that the promised help I’ve been waiting for, which will mean a home of my own, will come, one day. It’s not about ‘success’ or ‘your best life now’ – it’s being significant even when it’s not a world-changing way – just in a life-changing way for many people.

This video clip is well worth watching – Tim Tebow was a hugely successful American Footballer, but his message here is about someone very different – a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer.

This would be my goal – as John G Lake is quoted below – count the cost, pay the price… not make the profit, of seeing people set free. I heard recently a ‘faith preacher’ (no name mentioned) who said that Jesus went to see him and told him he’d be the first billionaire (US$) preacher. He’s only currently worth a ‘modest’ US$760 million – his glee on the video was obscene. I don’t believe Jesus would do that personally…but to this person, it was the ultimate ‘success’. God preserve me from ever falling into that deception…

So after no blogs for a while, two in an hour! We’d say it’s a bit like waiting for a bus in the United Kingdom – you wait and wait, then two come along at once!

It’s been some time since I posted a blog – maybe explanations because of CoronaVirus/Covid19 are unnecessary as it seems to have brought much of the world to a juddering stop. When your job is to travel to countries to do mission work that are closed to everyone in and out, it makes life a little challenging in more ways than one!

I do pray that, if you’re reading this, you have evaded the virus and not been afflicted by it: or if you have, that you’re one those who have recovered from it completely. If you have issues from it, my prayer is that you’ll recover totally. As we head for the first ‘unknown’ Christmas, I pray that you’ll stay well, and be blessed during what will still be a very special season.

For me, it’s been a year of battling with personal mobility as well as aviation mobility – the knock-on effect from having had an assault with DVT late last year, which carried over into this year – and dovetailed with the arrival of lockdowns, and the increased inactivity this has produced has meant the knees have suffered.

I’m based here in Wales, still lodging with wonderfully patient friends, who – like me – thought I’d be here for a couple of months – a year ago in August! – while waiting for the means to get a place of my own. That still hasn’t – yet – materialised, and I’d be dishonest if I said that the waiting game hasn’t been stressful. It has, and those of you with existing extreme pain will know that stress doesn’t cause many blessings to your body…

It’s been a privilege to be able to keep praying for people – for that I’m very thankful as it’s like the air I breathe to me – for that the internet has been a godsend, though my way of praying for people tends to be personal and individual, with an arm around people which is a problem over wifi! But God isn’t limited, and there have been people healed regularly of everything from Corona to cancer to osteoarthritis. I’m longing for the day when God says it’s my turn for the latter to be healed in my knees!

Not knowing when the pandemic will end, it’s a bit hit and miss planning in the near future, but if things do change, my lovely friend Thanney and I are provisionally thinking of going to Cali, Colombia, in March – for me, because of the limitations of DVT and the pandemic, it’s been the longest I’ve been away from Colombia in 20+ years. I think I’m experiencing withdrawal symptoms!