Benny, Katie, Lee, and Chris headed off this morning with Walter, Lupe (pronounced Loo-pay), and some others from their family, to the Canas Gordas Country Club, for a morning (theoretically! – Walter got them back to the apartment at 4.30 pm!) of tennis, racquetball (I think we Brits would call it squash…), swimming, jacuzzis, steam rooms, and more… (I suppose someone has to do it!).
For reasons I have no idea of, I didn’t sleep until almost 4 am: I think some of that was turning over and over in my mind the time we had with Anabeiba, battling with my ‘dichotomy’ over Jefferson, and just the fact that I really don’t sleep well…. So I stayed back at the apartment, spent some time with the apartment owner, Alberto (Beto), who has truly become a good friend over the years, and settling up the rent with him, whilst talking about dates to be back in October & November. A brief foray into the market ‘centro’ area to get one my stall-owner friend Manuel’s most amazing fruit juice drinks (where could you get at least a litre of fresh fruit, milk – and a large spoonful of sugar! – ice-cold, for 60 pence? I counted at least 8-10 strawberries go into the blender, too…. this is an area of the city not safe for gringoes, supposedly: Manuel, Rodolfo, Jhon (no, not a mis-spelling!), Marie-Helene, Gustavo, and more – all stall owners – greet me with hugs, and occasionally discounts! It’s a wonderful way to know people, the culture, lose fear, and – when people ask what you’re there for, and you say ‘preaching, healing etc.), they often come to meetings.
What was more wonderful was the great relief of pain in my knees, just the fact that now, I’d CHOOSE to go downtown. It would be wonderful to say ‘God’s healed them’ – which, in effect, is part true: as Katie, General Practitioner Doctor had fairly recently been on a knee-injection course (who on earth would want to do that, but I’m so glad she did!!), assaulted my knees – gently, but it’s a totally indescribable ‘pain & discomfort’ experience – by draining them of excess fluid, and then stopping me from ever running in the Olympics again by putting steroid/cortisone in…. Perhaps we should have had Lee video it so I could post it here…? So her God-given skills alleviated a few days/weeks of extreme pain while God heals other people’s knees all around me, whenever I pray for them, and I wait, in faith believing for the miracle…
She was brilliant (as was her doctor husband last year). The joints feel more bruised than painful, due to big syringe assault (you can buy all that stuff, including the drugs, over the counter in a pharmacy!): today the bruising is less…. thankfully I can walk without biting my bottom lip all the time now!
Then, to the House of Prayer, King Jesus, at 5 pm. One of my great joys is bringing people on trips with me, whom I KNOW can do stuff they might not have done before, as well as people like Benny, who IS a great preacher. So, I just introduced the crew, and then Benny, and boy, he went like a prophetic Exocet missile into the life of the church! It was excellent: huge response. People healed, people freed, people crying in repentance… and all I had to do was tag along in the praying time and pick up the blessing!
Tomorrow, we’re in 4 different churches, which is always a logistically interesting experience, especially as we’re north west, south east, central, and south, trying to get everyone back together, on Colombian time, at the same time….:). Value your prayers, as all the churches are very different!
