Category Archives: Personal

Wow…. it’s like Christmas here today! After 2½ weeks of having to take my laptop to McDonalds (thank you, McD’s for free wi-fi!!), I’ve got internet where I’m living here in Romania!! Yeahhh!! Feels like the shackles have come off, especially as my laptop battery is completely shot, and, when fully charged, completely runs out in about 55 minutes… :(. But, no more! I’m plugged in, switched on… It’s been a good trip here, so totally different to Colombia, (where, as I haven’t been able to update my diary on the website, you might think I am!). I’m NOT in Colombia, for those who missed any of the last couple of months’ saga, because the advice of my doctor was not to do any long-haul flights at least until the new yer, after my (massive) pulmonary embolisms of 9 weeks ago… I’m still taking copious amounts of rat poison (Warfarin) each day, to keep my blood thin and un-clottable (yeah, I know, I’m a clot!!): and if you don’t know, long distance flying is a major cause of deep vein thrombosis – blood clots in the legs – so it does seem sensible to listen to the medics, especially as I have so many options of places to go, a lot nearer home! Like Romania…. ….if you know me well, you’ll know that Romania has been high on my list of places to minister from the day of the massive revolution they had here on December 16th, 1989. From that event, God gripped my heart and spirit with this country, and within 4 weeks of the Ceausescu’s execution, on Christmas Day, ’89, I was here with many trucks with supplies that Romania needed desperately. I fell in love with the country: it is breathtakingly beautiful in many parts, and with unbelievable ‘grinding’ poverty and tragedy in others. My ‘ministry’ here has been – in the early days – with small churches in rural areas – and for the last goodness-knows-how-long, more on a one-to-one level with individuals. This trip is in the latter camp, and it’s been good and profitable so far. To minimise the travelling, I’ve been here 2½ weeks, and have about the same period to go. But… ….I have a clear sense that, having had a 4 year ‘sabbatical’ from Romania, up until September this year, that God wants me here more often. I’m still waiting to hear from him what ‘more often’ means! Highly respected – and accurate – prophet, Chuck Pierce, had this word to say today:

My sincere apologies at not blogging for a few days. Many reasons, not the least of which has been extreme exhaustion at the end of the day, with countless numbers of people both prayed for, healed, or the happy recipients of a miracle – and there have been quite a few of those…. When you get Caleños – people of Cali – saying that weather is very hot, then you know it’s just not us pasty, sunlight-stricken Brits, for the most time, that are finding it draining. Generally, at this time of year, the mid-afternoon temperatures are 28-32C. This time, they’ve averaged around the 36-38C mark. Not a huge difference, you might think, until you come to do anything. Normally by now – 2 weeks into a trip to Cali, I’m pretty well adapted, and not finding it a hard to keep moving. This time, it’s a whole new ball game!

There are other contributing factors to the lack of blogs. I can’t go into any detail, obviously (as you’ll see why when you finish this paragraph!), but a ‘situation’ arose during the April visit which was, to say the very least, unfortunate, one that should never have happened, and, I pray, never happens again. No details, sorry, but a church in this lovely south-west part of Colombia, has ended up devastated, it’s like a human earthquake hit the church, and it’s going to take a long time for that church – to recover. As the ‘leader’ of the teams that I bring here, I felt I needed to do two things: firstly, to apologise to my dear friend, Pastor William Castaño, who organises much of my (excellently and packed) programme here, and to offer not to return here again myself, or with teams, as ultimately I’m responsible, having invited people to join me, even though the actions of others can never be accounted for. Secondly, to see the Pastor of the church, with William, and Pastor Wilmar Gomez, to offer the deepest apologies possible, and I made the same offer to him, to step away from Colombia.

William nailed his colours to the mast, on my account, by asking me to speak that morning, before going to the church, to a fantastic group of pastors. For me, it was such a blessing, to know that a man of William’s stature in the Christian world here and in other parts of South and Central America, effectively ‘endorsed’ me. It was a great way to begin what were going to be a tough few hours. There must have been 25 pastors present: Wilmar translated for me, and prayed, as we saw God instantly heal about a dozen of them, from osteoarthritic knees, backs, ankles: carpal tunnel syndrome: chronic back pain, and all the usual suspects….

Then to the church: the first little while was tough, the sorrow and devastation of the Pastor & his wife, evident in their faces. I did the only things I could do, as I’d done with William. Both were graciously considered, and no, I didn’t need to quit as the situation appeared so cut and dry. It was with a huge sigh of relief that I sat in the back of William’s car on the way home, and sadness both for the victims of the situation – the church – and got those involved in it. I’d only heard from Wilmar about this situation the night before I flew to Cali.

In the last blog, I mentioned I’d had – or rather, my amazing team had mentioned – a strange ‘turn’ that I’d had last Friday. Subsequent conversations with my dear friend, Lee Collier, who’s been here two or three times before with me, and is a doctor – as his his wife Katy – suggested something different: Lee was concerned enough to ring, and, actually, Id wondered the same thing as the ‘turn’ was happening: to suggest it just MIGHT have been a TIA (transient ischaemic attack – a mini stroke…. I haven’t yet checked it out with a doctor, and nothing even remotely similar has happened since…..but it was most definitely an attack of the enemy, to rock the boat even more than it had been rocked by the events of April. Sleep became an increasingly distant friend as my head could not put the April situation down (I slept 29 hours in my first 14 days here), it was, although resolved with the necessary people, it still ran around in my head… I do think now, in the light of sleeplessness, heat, and ‘busy-ness’, along with an enemy who is not in the least pleased with what God’s doing here, that everything combined together to try and ‘side-line’ me. I ain’t having that!!!

I want to say more about this amazing team I’ve got here this time in another blog, but I am absolutely blown away by who they are, how they’ve been, what they’ve done, and their sheer adaptability not only to an ‘alien’ city, the heat, and the altitude, but to what God is doing in them and through them. I’m blessed, as always, to have great people with me!

Oh yes… nearly forgot… the old weight is still continuing, after 45 years of failed diets, to still fall off me….! 37 kgs, a tad under 6 stone in proper money: the heat’s combining with every else to do me a favour!! Yeahhh!!!

My apologies to anyone who has missed my blogs for a couple of weeks – apologies to both of you! ;-). One of the many things God has wanted me to learn in recent months and years, is this amazing thing called ‘rest’: I’ve said here before, I’m sure, that I didn’t really know what real rest was, I certainly had an inability to do it, thinking that it was a couple of days of only doing stuff at home before heading off again.

God beat me up over that one! I’ve had to ask him to teach me how to rest, showing me that it’s much more than sitting down for five minutes, pausing a dvd to go and do something else, returning to the dvd for 10 minutes before doing something else. You probably all know this, it’s only me – but having begun to learn the resting process, and its benefits, I have to say, I’ve never felt better in myself for many, many years. What’s more, every trip has been better and better, as I don’t begin it exhausted…. my greatest concern, as a life-long poor sleeper, was that, if I couldn’t sleep when I was so, so tired, how on earth would I sleep if I wasn’t tired. I’ve slept better this past year than at any time in my life.

So these few days, coming back from a busy, wonderful, whistle-stop tour of south east England, I’ve managed to keep pretty much ‘sacrosanct’…. My little study/office is upstairs, but of course with wi-fi, you can take your gadgets anywhere. I’ve learned to leave everything upstairs, so that when my phone rings, or Outlook makes a noise to say there’s new emails, I can’t hear it…. it’s wonderful! My landline phone is downstairs, but there’s this wonderful ‘filter’ called caller display and answering machines, my great mate Colin Enticknap often rings, and says, ‘So it seems the drawbridge is up again!’.

In England, I preached a few times – all really, really lovely meetings, and then I did something I should have done many times over the years, and intend to repeat it a few times a year now, as it was such a blessing. That was to start to visit people whom I know pray for me often: without them, I’d be completely powerless, and to visit people who support me, so that it isn’t just ‘newsletter & blog’ information for all of them. It gave me a chance to pray with them, too, and I was blessed out of my boots by everyone I saw. I’ll be doing it again, so if you didn’t see me last week, and would love a ‘catch-up’, send me an email, or a Facebook private message (not the profile/news feed!!), and I’ll sort something out with you. Guess the next trip will be the south and south-west, as logistically it’s difficult to go from Devon to Kent to Cornwall!!. Last week was also a lot of driving – I did over 1200 miles, but it was so worth it.

Some of the people I’d sort of allocated an amount of time I thought they’d a) want to see me for, b) only have time for, in a busy diary, and c) have other things crop up that would possibly shorten any longer time. Some, for whom I’d thought an hour/hour and a half – turned into 6-7 hours, so I think they were happy I was there!!

So, from Friday June 13, it was people…. lovely, long-time (30 years) friend Mary Long: it was Mary, and her recently gone to be his dad husband Denys, who were so wonderful during – and in the 29 years since – my time at a ministry training school, which is where we meet. Mary is just short of 90: one of those ‘breed’ of intercessors it is getting harder and harder to find. Then to Eastbourne, Addlestone, Bolney, Worthing, Maidstone, Pembury, Tonbridge, Cornwall, West Hoathly, Crawley, Worthing again, Eastbourne again, and back to Addlestone, where I leave my ‘England’ car, to fly back back on the first flight Tuesday morning.

It was – for me, and I hope the people there! – lovely to speak at King’s Church, Addlestone, led by my lovely friends Richard and Louise Fox. I’ve been involved with them since around 1986: it blows my mind to think I’ve known the church 28 years, and they STILL want me back! :). A few came forward to ask for prayer for healing: Mike Tricker, who got saved THROUGH Facebook after conversations with my my friend Hugh Southon (all you ‘anti social network people take note!! – I’ve prayed, in writing, for people on Facebook and Skype, and they’ve been healed), had only been a Christian 5 weeks. Deaf in one ear, only 40% hearing in the other, began a process of healing (we all want to se the instant miracle, but God doesn’t always do it that way) that will continue: here’s what he wrote to me:

• Paul since our prayer I think my ear has got a bit better and my thinking a about it a 100 times better

Clear thinking, and a measure of healing have got to be worthwhile! A lady, Marjorie, had long-time chronic back pain from half way down her back to her pelvis. I think at first she was reticent to say it had gone in case it came back(!), but later on, she told me the pain had gone completely.

I won’t go through a list of all the people I saw – it’d mean nothing to 99% of you! – but the opportunity to pray again for my lovely friends David & Gail, David with cancer everywhere (he’s a doctor, so it must be so much worse to know what’s going on, and to – taking God out of the equation – what happens next. I love David & Gail dearly, and I’m still praying, even more since the joy of spending more time with you than we’ve ever had! A lovely lady, Barbara, also with cancer, came to their home: and I think we’re all in faith – and believing – that she WILL be totally restored.

I spent some lovely time with Martin & Dave, Elders of The Vine Church, Maidstone: it was good to get to know them better, and Martin & I, along with my great mate Brian Louden, who’s in their church, went to pray for Will, a 9 year old with really serious Class 1 diabetes. The faith level, as we prayed, was high: and wait to see what God did, but more, what he is doing, and what he does….

Seeing my sister and brother in law, Vivien and Derek, was lovely: it’s worth the drive to almost as far as you can go in Cornwall to see them. My concerns about holiday traffic and Cornwall (notoriously famous!) were unfounded: as was my thought that it was the Glastonbury Rock Festival weekend. that WOULD have been a nightmare on the the A303!! It’s this weekend, fortunately!

On to West Sussex, to some of my best friends anywhere – Nick & Sarah Harding (the ones who named their second son Ralph Bennison Harding, last year: well, in middle

English, and in French – the verb benir – Benison means blessing…. a lovely thought, but doubtless inappropriate where I’m concerned!!). Nick had got their pastor, a great guy, Phil Johnston, to invite me to preach at their church, Crawley Elim. A wonderful church, fantastic worship, the presence of God there in bucketloads, naff preacher, but God still deigned to turn up for the ministry time…. he’s so faithful to me…. loads of people came forward for prayer. People play tricks on the pray-er, as they sit where they were until the queue’s almost gone, then come and bump it back to a large number again! Just as you think you’re almost through, you get a double blessing! I prayed for so many, three who testified in the evening to being healed (and a lot who didn’t testify!) – to be perfectly honest, there were so many I can’t remember what I prayed, and for who….. if you read this, and you were healed, can you tell me your story in a Facebook message or email, and whether or not you’d be willing to let me put it on here, and in the testimonies page, please? Nick, Sarah, Phil….if you know of anyone, let me know, would you?

The meeting had begun at 11 am, and I left the church with dear Phil, his lovely wife Elaine, and Nick, at 4.15 pm…. to be back there at 7 pm, for a specially organised and advertised healing meeting. The church was, again, pretty full, but I was blessed that some great praying friends – Sasha, Brian, Myrtle, Alex, Karla, Dave & Carol…and any I’ve missed out!… had come, so the praying ‘load’ was lightened as they, and people from the church, prayed. Many were healed, including a couple, Rod and Laura, not-yet-convinced-Christians, the mum and step dad of Christine, one of the brilliant group of people Phil has got together: her husband, Paul, is one of the worship

leaders, and had led in the morning.

I’d seen Laura from the front: boy, did she look ill, pain lines in her ‘drawn’ face, and a real fear in her eyes. She almost had to be carried to the front for prayer: and, as I asked her what her name is, and what’s wrong, a genuine fearful near-hysteria began, she was shaking like she had extreme Parkinson’s disease….I just held her hands and prayed for God’s peace and presence to impact her, and, as I began to pray, we (about 10 people around, including Paul & Christine) just watched the transformation. Here’s what Christine wrote to me this week, with her mum and step dad’s permission: (it really is quite amazing, and remember, it’s not me writing this bit, for any who think it’s been ’embellished’!! and Laura asked me not to include the swear words!!!):

• Was such a blessing to be in Gods presence, what a great eve it was. Still buzzing! So the sharing;
• Paul B firstly prayed for my Mum who has physical illness in the form of cancer and secondary issues from chemo and rheumatoid arthritis causing her much pain. More impacting than this was probably her spiritual/emotional self which has always been fragile at best, and psychotic at worst. My step dad and mum have been having marital problems for years, they almost live in separate halves of the house – mum in the bedroom never getting up and dad downstairs with his list of jobs. Needless to say it didn’t work for either of them. My step dad turned more and more to alcohol and has had repeated debt issues so the resentment between them was tangible. As they arrived at my house to come to the meeting they couldn’t be in the same room together!
• The prayers Paul and his pal prayed with mum centred around her physical healing and encouragement that the years that the enemy had taken would be restored. She, with guidance told the devil to do one (go ‘off’ somehwere, preceded by a usual word of four letters, including an ‘f’! – not in so many words 😉 ) and you could literally see her face change to relax and her body stopped physically shaking and was still. She had been sitting beside me for the previous hour with extreme stomach pain and that disappeared. She has since told me she had the best nights sleep in years!
• Paul then prayed for my step dad (while Mum practically skipped round the church) and prayed about there being no condemnation in Christ and he listened to his confessions and encouraged him to repent and let it go and he was really released from that bondage of failure.
• So we watch this space with excitement! Although both have prayed the salvation prayer before I don’t believe they were baptised in the spirit and that night I know they had a wonderful encounter with Jesus. That in itself will encourage them jointly but in the prayer and the stripping away of that root of bitterness that was entwined in them personally and in their marriage I believe that it was dug up and throw well and truly out! Hurrah.
• Christine

What the enemy had spent many years destroying, God put it all back together in next to no time…. he’s so amazing. It was such a privilege to see what he did for Laura and Rod, and many others….

So, the 7pm meeting ‘ended’ at 00.15am! – but when God’s moving, time is immaterial, and for me, after a day like that, the adrenaline is still pumping….but staying at Nick & Sarah’s for a couple of nights was a real blessing, too: their two sons, Milo and Ralph, are adorable…..and another bairn is on the way in the not to distant future!

Monday, and more people – with the opportunity to pray for a lovely lady, Janie, who is suffering from pancreatic cancer. My dear friend Phillip, with whom I was having coffee with (in theory – it turned into lunch!), asked if we could pray for her. It was a wonderful time: no instant ‘it’s gone’ words from Janie, but in my spirit, I’m so sure that God is well in process healing her: sending the Holy Spirit to the ‘new body parts warehouse’ in heaven for a new pancreas for her.

With a visit to Eastbourne after that, it was then back to Addlestone to give the car a bit of breather, and me too, for a 4 am wake-up to get to Heathrow.

Thursday, I had the real joy of having lunch with Ronnie and Janece: the lady with cancer everywhere, with whom I had the privilege of praying 3 weeks ago, at St Hilda’s Church, Seymour Hill (Dunmurry). Even over that first weekend, the transformation in Janece was obvious to everyone: this week, not unrecognisable but huge changes in her face and, it seems, in her body. The major problem she has now is from a spinal surgery to remove lesions and insert titanium rods. I’m praying that God dissolves the steel, totally removes all pain, again sending the Holy Spirit to the warehouse for a new spine….

They then took me round to her mu and dad: mum home that morning from the hospice, neither of them saved, but, because of the transformation they’d seen in Janece, were happy for me to go and pray for them. That, too, was a lovely time, and I’m looking forward to hearing more and more as the story of the miracle unfolds.

Tomorrow, I’m speaking at a small home church, for people who’d never been seen dead in a church, in what would, during Northern Ireland’s ‘troubles’, have been a bit of a troubled area. So looking forward to seeing what God’s going to do there!

And then – (trumpet fanfare!!) – Thursday evening, over to Heathrow, Friday….CALI, COLOMBIA!! Yeah!!!! With a great team….of the 5 going with me, the nearest in age to me is 28 years younger! – but it’s likely that my lovely friend Beny Osorio, from Mexico City, will arrive on the 15th, so the gap will then only be 24 years! It’s going to be a great trip, I know it: the enemy’s already tried to sideline Peter McAvoy, who tore his meniscus (cartilage in his knee – join the club mate!!) during the week. The doctors told him to rest it for some weeks, but they don’t know Pete…. 🙂 Nothing’s gonna stop us now…. thank you for that song, Grace Slick, and Jefferson Starship!!

Doubtless, there’ll be blogs most days, even if it’s 2 in the morning….

Well, it was such a joy to be back at St Hilda’s Church, a Church of Ireland, just a day and a half after my first visit! The Vicar, David Boyland, is such a lovely man, so honouring, and generous in giving his ‘pulpit’ to little old me…. there’s a very ‘sweet’ spirit in that church, it’s not just a lovely building, the love and the presence of God emanates from it, into what is – and certainly what WAS, during the ‘troubles’ in Northern Ireland, a tough area. It’s an area that is responding to David & Glynis’s hearts of love for the people. If you don’t love people, and are in any way biased, or ‘closed’ in your attitud towards any category of people, you’ll never make an impact. But a pretty full church, with many involved deeply in the community, is demonstration enough that the love of God is there, and flows from there.

David was lovely in the way he introduced not only me, but my ‘style’ of praying for people: I know I’ve said this before, but I can’t, just can’t – and won’t – ever simply

have a line of people, walk along tapping them on the head saying ‘be healed’ – or worse still, hand on the forehead, other hand in the small of the back, then a loud sudden shout and push to get people on the floor…. it seems to me that Jesus ‘connected’ with many that he healed: talked to them, moved by compassion not only to heal them, but to make them feel valued.

So, I sit down, and, if people want prayer, they know, often, they might have to wait a bit, as I love to connect, build a bridge with them: when people come for prayer for healing, it’s obviously not always physical healing, there’s a lot of ’emotional’ stuff, depression, you name it…..and in talking to me, they make themselves open, and more’s the point, vulnerable, to the pray-er, and they deserve time.

So, Friday night’s prayer time was 2¾ hours(!), today’s considerably shorter (not!!) – perhaps a mere 2 hours. There was a lovely testimony from Janece, whom I wrote about Friday: she’s got – and is paring company with – incurable cancer, which began in her breast, but had spread, into her spine, the oncologist reckoned it was in her bones, and in some organs… Friday, she could hardly walk from her seat to the one next to me, her husband had to hugely help her to do that. She’s a lovely looking lady, but her face showed the pain, the ravaging of that foul, despicable disease. She left, on Friday, saying she felt ‘lighter’, was walking better: and, her report this morning, was that in the car on the way home, she was laughing, before realising that she hadn’t done – or been able to do – that for a long time. I’d felt to say to her that she’d wake feeling significantly different yesterday. Ronnie, her husband, looked at her, and said her face had filled out to it’s ‘pre-cancer’ appearance, and said it was like someone had put a bicycle pump in the back of her head, and blown her head up! This morning, she got up early – that doesn’t happen in recent experience: and there are so many changes going on in her that I feel it’ll only be a matter of days before she’s fully restored….

A lady named Barbara,who’d had – to put it mildly – a rough last 40-50 years, very low, with depression…..was another facially and spiritually transformed. Others who couldn’t be there this morning had sent messages to say they’d been healed, or were well on the way to being healed…. and this morning, God touched people in a lovely, gentle way, removing, or diminishing pain – some with arthritis felt an instant change….

I can never say enough what a privilege it is to be given access by people, who don’t know me, or have just got to know me a little, into their lives. I love it, I really do. A good number WILL be healed over the course of the next day or two, of that I’m sure, as well as those who’ve already experienced God’s healing.

Then it was back to the home of the Eric and Elizabeth Lewis: I’ve known them for some years now, and our friendship is getting stronger and deeper, which is a great blessing. Not only that, Elizabeth’s a great cook…. :). Lunch was with their daughters, one of the husbands, and a whole army of grandchildren! Louise, one of their daughters, I had the joy of praying for some time back, as she longed for children. I must have said that it would happen: and even (probably, knowing me!) within a certain time scale. She’s got the daughter we prayed for: but not in the way we naturally expected it! She brought their gorgeous daughter Annie Marie today, who was adopted when very, very young, like 3-4 months if I remember right. That is SO unlikely these days, as most children ‘up’ for adoption are heading towards, if not already in, their teens.

Elizabeth said something to me this afternoon (lunch ended when I had to leave at 6pm!!), that blessed me so much, she has no idea. She said that that she’s never seen so many men laughing so loud in church as my ‘odd’ humour got to them whilst making a very important point or statement…. I really do love to use humour: it’s an ice-breaker, and a great ‘tool’ when story-telling. I sometimes wonder what some people thin, but Elizabeth laid to rest today any thoughts I might have (I haven’t yet!) about being ‘more serious’, but really, that just ain’t me….

Another thing that made this weekend such a blessing: when God ‘wrestled’ the control of my diary away from me when I came here (I’d normally be booked up 2 years ahead), in a way, it my security blanket being taken away from me. I felt ‘assured’ and ‘secure’ that people ‘wanted’ me. The wrestling went on until I finally let go of my diary, not having anything in it at the end of any given year, apart from knowing that somewhere in the coming 12 months, I’d go to Colombia and Mexico a couple of times. Booking so far ahead was like a straight-jacket, though, as people would often ring, or email, inviting me to their church/ministry/country, and I couldn’t go, for at least two years.

This weekend in Dunmurry was ‘booked’ last Monday, and so I want to thank God here, for fighting me for control over my bookings…. this weekend has been SUCH a blessing.