Author Archives: Paul Bennison

Where do I begin, again, to write about Ana Beiba, and her home for Abandoned Old People? It’s not a case of repeating myself, because she’s always got new plans to take in more old people, extend this faith ministry further and further….

We arrived to be greeted by the ‘usual’ very loud clapping and cheering from her 120+-strong lovely residents: it’s really incredibly humbling – every process with Ana Beiba is humbling – to be greeted like returning heroes, when truly it’s a privilege to be involved with such a ‘Mother Theresa’ like lady, who loves her ‘babies’ more than her own life. What was immediately evident was that Ana Beiba was in excruciating pain as she walked, and with a limp that I could honestly describe as worse than mine when mine was dreadful…

I sat and chatted for a while whilst Andreas and Kristin had a guided tour: they were amazed at how organised, orderly, and tidy it was: not enough beds, but often they sleep two to a bed. That has to be significantly better that sleeping under wet cardboard under a bridge or in a gutter in the rainy season…and this week has some amazing rain….a massive storm blocked major roads with lakes: took out the traffic lights…and, by Colombian’s standards, it’s not been warm (29°C+ day, 22°C at night!!). Many people as yet not rescued by dear Ana will have died.

I asked her about  her vision: the double-fronted ‘shop’ on the corner (large building, but rat infested, with many other creatures that provide significant threat health wise to her babies) is up for sale. It’s attached to her houses, so could be knocked through to make one huge place, and, probably, accommodate 200 more. She’s offered to buy it… 150,000,000 pesos (GB£35,000, so around US$55,000, AU$72,000)…November and December are the two worst months, she told me, for homeless old people, as families turn them out to finance Christmas, and hospitals want accounts settled by the end of the year…. I guess I don’t need you to tell you what I want to do….??!!

Handing over the cheque for 50,000,000 pesos  (approximately GB£12,000)  to complete the construction of her second house (the one above will the numbers 3 and 4), instantly produced a typical response: arms raised to heaven, thanking God, praying….no singing this time as I think her hip pain muted her a wee bit. But no…she fell to her knees (osteoarthritis and kneeling down I know all about!!), and came, on her knees, to hug me, strangle me, suffocate me….we were both in tears. Getting her up off the floor was a major exercise, involving Andreas, Kristin, Wilmar, and me… thank you, thank you, thank you, to a certain dear friend back home in England who has facilitated the building project (over the last 2 years, £33,000 more, too)….

I asked her about her walking problem: acute osteoarthritis of her left hip (God’s sense of humour and osteoarthritis and me is still something I can smile about…just hope I can KEEP smiling until he finally blesses me with my turn for healing!). Ana has many stairs in her home, including a difficult main staircase that is narrow steel with a sharp bend…she has to lift her babies frequently, and it was proving more and more difficult. I’ve been involved with Ana and her project for 4-5 years now: God has healed her three times of ‘terminal’ prognoses for cancer, so we set to on her hip on Thursday. Within moments, she was up, bouncing up and down on both legs, and THEN the one leg that had been crippled, dropping to her knees, getting up straight away unaided… thank you, Jesus!! She was deliriously happy….so was I….if, at the same time, having to ‘fight back’ the tiny, tiny twinge of ‘please, Lord…?’ for my healing….

Time passes quickly at Ana’s….and then we were en route for, what I was told by a taxi driver, one of the most dangerous barrios in the city – a new one to me, Compartir (To Share’ – most like with guns to the head!!). It’s a long way ‘into’ Agua Blanca, long drive, on lakes even longer! A new church, pastored by a lovely man, Orlando. The small building was packed: Kristin shared something God had given her, which was great: Andreas shared testimonies he’s seen God give to people…I think we prayed for just about everyone. At least two – maybe more – deaf people heard: as always, osteoarthritis reared its pain and went(!!), a man involved in a motorbike accident, with a smashed knee was healed, his wife, a young mum, injured in a different accident – severely broke both arms in multiple places, her arms were filled with steel plates, and had very little movement in any direction… God started by removing/dissolving the largest steel plate on the top of her right forearm, and a smaller one under her wrist in the carpal tunnel area… she began to laterally and vertically move both arms, which meant – it could ONLY mean, with the movements she made – that the steel had gone…

Many more testimonies which I’ll get Andreas and (they’ve been absolutely brilliant, fantastic to have here, and so on fire for God) Kristin to write about….and back to the apartment after a long, emotionally draining day….

At 7am Friday morning, my lovely Swedish friends were up, and at a school to speak for an hour or more…. children are just not my ‘calling’ (!!), so I felt it prudent to rest my recently injected and treated legs with a bit of tlc…. many kids prayed for…they had a great time!

Legs growing out in a down-town shopping centre… a lady healed when Andreas prayed for her in church on Sunday, rushing over to us when she saw us by her tienda…then she brought others to be prayed for who were powerfully touched by God, and healed/in process of being healed, in Centro Commercial La Fortuna…
The day began in in hospital, though, when I delivered my left leg to the lovely doctor who stuck huge needles in my right knee Thursday… just in case you’re wondering, the enemy’s been having a right go at these ‘objects’ halfway down my legs… but worse has been the knock on effect of what’s happened to the muscles: stretched, twisted as a result of the ‘ministry of silly walks’ that has become my modus operandi of the past few days…
So to get some ‘stuff’ inserted the knees helped: but bless him, the lovely Dr Ramirez, gave me a prescription for more stuff to be injected with big needles, to relax the muscles….then the lovely Maria Helena, a nurse from Wilmar’s church, came to the apartment, armed with syringes, to stick another big needle in my backside… I have to say it’s the first time I’ve dropped my trousers or anyone in any of the churches here… or anywhere, come to that!!
So, with knees less pained, and muscles and iliotibial bands relaxed, I’ve temporarily – hopefully longer – resigned from the ministry of silly walks with effect from late afternoon!
When I first started coming to Cali, no one would ever let me go to ‘Centro’ – the downtown market area, with ‘market style’ shopping centres, because it’s ‘too dangerous for gringoes’… being the obedient boy that I am, I soon got round that ban, and, over the years, have built up some good friendships with many ‘tienda’ (stall-like small shops) owners… not the least being Manuel, who makes the best fruit juice drinks on the planet, I’m convinced. So it was time for Andreas and Kristin to experience Manuel’s marvels… the consensus was agreement with me…. Pineapple in water, Pineapple in milk, Borojo in milk, and my staple, strawberry in milk….
A hug from Manuel on arrival was great, and ‘usual’…then into the centre, to have people from many stalls greeting me like a long lost friend… first stop the video stall of Ricardo, always a fruitful visit!
As we entered the centre, Estela, the lady from church Sunday, rushed over to Andreas (well, he is quite recognisable at 14 feet 9 inches or 500 cms!!) – she’d been healed (I’ll have to remind myself by asking Andreas from what)… would we pray for a lady who worked for her son’s watch shop…

Which, of course, we did… Therese was very afraid, having been diagnosed with tachycardia and – it seems – quite severe thyroid problems. I love to declare over fear 1 John 4:18 – first cursing the fear and tell it where to go, as it is whipped out of a person’s life by the perfect love of God… her heart became regular, fear went, peace consumed her, and only time will tell about the thyroid. I’m often in the mall just chatting to the friends I’ve mentioned, so I should be able to find out…

Then Andreas a young lady, 18-20 we reckoned, standing at the tienda, one leg shorter than the other… so Estela went over and asked if she’d like prayer. One of the myriad amazing joys of this country is that people so rarely say ‘no’ to prayer. She came and sat down, backside nice and square against the back of the chair, feet on the palms of Andreas’s hands…. it WASN’T back trouble, which leg length issues frequently are: it was oxygen deprivation at birth…which had left her with back problems, major problems with her right arm – it was virtually useless, and her fingers pretty ‘clawed’, as well as epilepsy, as if she needed anything else.
Well, down came the left leg… she felt ‘very different’ as she stood and walked… she was in a hurry as her mum was waiting outside the mall in the car, and you just don’t ‘stop’ in those narrow streets, so I quickly ‘attacked’ the back, arm, hand, and epilepsy in about 30 seconds… my belief is that, in a situation like hers, when Jesus heals one thing, he’s not going to leave someone half-healed. He never did in the gospels: you don’t read ‘I’ll grow your leg, but you’ve got to live with the epilepsy/deformity/pain’…. Or ‘I had the anointing for epilepsy healing yesterday: tough, you’re a day late!’ …or ‘Can’t do anything, go and see a doctor’… so, she walked out having to learn from scratch how to walk properly with even-length legs…and, I believe most definitely, the other issues, doubtless connected to the oxygen deprivation, on their way out, too….

There’s a short video of Victoria’s leg growing….a good centimetre of more… here:

It’s wonderful, just wonderful, to ‘do the stuff’ in a shopping mall…. All the people from tiendas nearby were watching… and most said ‘goodbye and thank you’ to us as we left….for what JESUS did, and his banner is now hoisted high over Centro Commercial la Fortuna…

God turned up wonderfully in the church Filadelfia, Sunday morning. The deaf received their hearing, the blond received their sight, the lame walked…and much more!

As I mentioned in the previous blog, it’s a church pastored by an incredible lady, Pastora Fanny, 88 years old, so short she came up to Andreas’s waist(!), but a woman burning with Holy Spirit passion, fire, energy, and her church reflect just who she is. She’s an apostle to a good number of other churches in the city and the state of Cauca, an incredible testimony to anyone who thinks 65 is a ‘good age’ to retire. Fanny will never retire, of that I’m sure: it’s been a privilege to know her for a number of years now.

The worship was passionate, Fanny fired everyone up with just a few short words, Andreas and Kristin both shared testimony – very, very well, too: their words added to the fire, an so it was easy to get up and speak after that.

It’s great when you know that you’ve heard something from God: in the morning, about 7am, I’d got my sermon ‘sorted’ in my head. We were picked up for church at 9am by lovely Pastor William Castano – but for me, that meant William would be at the meeting….as he’s perhaps the nations’ most respected Bible teacher, it’s a wee bit daunting to preach with him there! As we were about to leave for church, God changed my sermon, with no time left to prepare (maybe that’s better in my case!!) – even more daunting! – on 2 Corinthians 3:18. Above the church’s platform was the church’s ‘motto’ text’ – 2 Corinthians 3:17! Then, I felt I could just go ‘on a roll’… thank you, Lord!

Loads of people – probably most of the congregation, came forward for prayer for healing, and there were many healings – miracles, too, if you call neck to ankles chronic osteoarthritis being healed instantly, a miracle! I know I do…. It included the lady’s knees, par for the course when I pray for people these days, and she was walking, bending, squatting – with no pain at all.

Many chronic pain infirmities went: gastritis: a man with no more than 50% hearing in both ears and 50% sight, received total healing for both instantly. A lovely little boy, Juan, seven years old, had a chronic, very rare eye disease, and his vision was no more than 20%, and one of his eyes constantly moved of its own volition – not ‘lazy eye’, something significantly worse. He could read, but only with a paper/book no more than 6 inches/15 cms from his face.

In moments, he was reading the text over the platform: reading posters on the walls, all from distance, totally recovered and restored.

Everyone with something ‘tangible’ – they could feel the change – wrong with them, was healed. Even a man with – I’d guess by his attire a street guy, who’d only been saved a few days – with acute bi-polar, felt the ‘switch’ in his head and left, looking and feeling very, very different.

It was the same story for Andreas and Kristin: many physical healings, and emotional stuff that people knew had ‘changed’… I’m trying to persuade them to write their own reports for the blog here, but I need to keep working on that ;)!! They were both brilliant, into praying ‘command’ prayers from the start: with translators they didn’t know – no, Andreas had long-time friend, Johan – but their praying was wonderfully effective right from the ‘off’.

Yesterday – Monday – was a national holiday here – so we spent time with people, so Andreas and Kristin could get to know them, and also, as is always the case with all of the teams who come here, recover from the ‘exhaustion’ of praying for people for some hours.

The photo of the church folk afterwards was fun: I tried to manipulate it so that Pastora Fanny stood in front of Andreas….if she’d head-butted him, he’d have had a hernia and needed hospitalisation… J

And I’m sure this NEVER happens to any of you….! – mostly I’m pretty good with names, but there are just SOME people, however well I know them, however many times I see them, their names are magically erased from my hard-drive…. On the left of the picture of pastors/leaders, is Hugo: I’ve known Hugo at least 15 years…. It’s NOT a hard name, an easy one to remember, when I’m not with him, I can picture him, and know his name without any hesitation. When I’m with him – like Sunday, when he helped me with translation for praying for people – his name is gone L – bless him, I love the man, and once again I had to ask him to remind me of his name…. Is it an ‘ageist’ thing…?!?!