Category Archives: Testimony

The ultimate redemption! The notorious Rodriguez brothers owned many houses in Cali: they were Colombia’s biggest drug cartel after Pablo Escobar’s, and a house once owned by them is now the place redeemed by Christians, with God’s help, the home now of ‘Reconocer’ (To recognise) – the Christian Drug Rehabilitation Centre, run by a wonderful man, Enrique Leal. Yesterday was something of a quieter day, vital after the exertions of Sunday, there was a great meeting at ‘Reconocer’ , as there always is. Preceded by a meal with Pastor William Castaño and his lovely family, Reconocer was, for Chis, Paul, and Brian, this topped a great day, after they’d had to endure food shopping! And preceded a lovely evening blessing some of the people who bless us so much, with a get-together to give them food, and drinks.

Why only Chris, Brian, and Paul? Well, it was leaving the supermarket, pushing the trolley (which I redeem as a non-obvious ‘zimmer’ frame!), there was a slope which I didn’t see, so putting my foot down where there should have been concrete, meant that I jarred by knees down a bigger drop than anticipated! Wisdom ruled, as the last week here is very, very busy, and I WILL to do my full whack of the programme! Testimonies from recent years are coming to our attention: Enrique Leal, the WONDERFUL director of Reconocer, told Brian his eyes had improved since Bri prayed for them 18 months ago, meaning that he could pray for them more.

Astrid (I’ve mentioned her before) told me on Saturday evening that I’d no prayed for her 7 times for cancer, and she’d been healed every time. God is so amazing!

Today, I get the chance to pray for ‘shot’ Maria (from Saturday’s meeting) again, this time with reinforcements of the other 3 guys. It will be amazing when she gets out of her wheelchair. That’s at 3pm here – your prayers in the UK at 9 pm would be so valued.

A meeting this evening at ‘Centro de Alabanza’ (a new church to me, I think – Worship Centre. Quite a large church we’re told, and Paul is geared up to preach, with ‘us’ lurking cronies waiting for the ministry time! Another night of God’s power being shown, his kingdom coming to earth, and four guys figuratively with a building brick in their hands wanting to be kingdom builders….

The Internet here has been very intermittent. Apologies for the long post, but what with near exhaustion, and the lack of reliable wifi it’s been difficult. I can never remember names, of people or places so apologies for that too. Thanks for your prayers – they mean a huge amount.
It’s Monday morning here in Cali. The last 72 hrs have been non stop. Paul Goodman and I left London on Friday night, arriving at 4am local time. A quick flight later we were in Cali, met by Chris Spark, who had been here since the previous Saturday, and the wonderful Wilmar Gomez, Pastor, and all round “man who can”.
There was little time to catch breath, and we went “downtown” to try and sort some mobile phone issues. It’s not as simple as it might sound. Buying two Colombian sims and sorting out some mobile internet took around three hours, and involved visiting three different shops. I will never complain about queuing in the O2 shop again.
After lunch, We returned to the apartment where there was just time for an hours sleep, before we were collected for our first meeting.
The music was loud – probably due to the fact that the room was not much bigger than a living room at home, yet the amps were turned up enough to fill a church hall. That, coupled with lack of sleep left for a bit of a daze. Around 30 mins into the meeting, Chris and Paul G were collected to go to another meeting. This presented a bit of a problem, as Chris was due to preach. I spoke very briefly, before handing over to Paul B, then we got down to praying for people.
We had a translator each, and I know Paul saw some amazing healing in the process of becoming miracles. One lady, in a wheel chair, who had been shot, and told she would never move anything other than here eyes again, received movement to hands. We hope to go and pray for her again today.
I think that partly as I was so tired, and partly because the people that I prayed for asked for emotional issues, or family issues to be dealt with (often for family members who were elsewhere) it was next to impossible to confirm any immediate results. If I’m honest, I was a bit deflated, as I didn’t feel I had “hit the ground running in the same way as last visit.
Paul B and I were taken out for dinner after the meeting – bear in mind I had had approx 2 hrs sleep in the previous 48hrs, and got back to the apartment, and bed, around 11:30pm.
We were collected at 7am on Easter Saturday for what turned out to be a 17hr marathon. 11 of us, including plus two drivers, packed into a mini bus for a 3hr trip to another city Tulauoa). We stopped at a roadside “restaurant for breakfast. Scrambled eggs on bread. A significant improvement on the eggs we had on the plane.
There were two meetings at 10am, so we split into teams. Chris and I went to one meeting, the two Paul’s to the other.
Again worship was loud, but passionate (the drummer lead worship – video to follow) and I spoke on identity and what Jesus had paid for when he rose from the dead. It seemed to unlock something – Chris again saw lots of healing and breakthrough. But yet again there were lots of emotional issues to pray for.
The timings were tight – we needed to get lunch, and on to the next meeting so we prayed for groups rather than taking as much time as we would have liked with each person. Lots of people felt a peace depend on them – and they felt a lot more confident about the future. The last person I prayed for here was a 34 year old lady, who having had surgery for a brain tumour which had damaged the optic nerve, was blind. She reported feeling a heat in her head, during and after prayer. Whilst she’s didn’t see – it was clear that God was doing something amazing. It was a reminder that we don’t do this to see great stories to tell back home – we do it to model Jesus – because we have compassion for these people. When this lady receives her sight, (and I really believe she will) the chances of me hearing about it are almost nil.
Lunch was another “out of my comfort zone” moment. I ended up having a chicken soup, with potato, corn (still on the cob) and yucca. If I’m honest I wasn’t that impressed, and didn’t risk the
Yucca. This was followed by rices, chips and pork with a cherry sauce.
From here we went to. A drug rehab centre in a town around 20mins away. We had an hour only, so I spoke briefly about how God loves us the way we are, isn’t concerned with our past, and has plans for our future.
We then split into three groups to pray. There was only time to pray for about 3-4 people each. Unsurprisingly, there were identity issues and emotional trauma from the past. The first guy had been a drug addict for 40 years, and clean for 3, when he became a Christian. He was still tormented about the past. He also had a limp, which I hadn’t noticed before, and after praying for some others called him back to pray for that too. He hadn’t told us he was due for tests for a possible knee replacement on Tuesday. We prayed for a new knee instead.
I had to overcome my fear of feet next, as the next person had pain in her heels, had no arches, metal plates in various parts of her body following an accident, memory problems (although she had no trouble remembering a list of about 10 symptoms in great detail. We prayed for each one – and will have to wait for the breakthrough here.
Several photos and selfies later we we whisked away to the next two meetings where we split into familiar groups again.
Our meeting felt very different. There was an LED light show with green and red lights floating around the room. There was a dancer, dressed in gold, red, and orange. She had two gold flags, and a tambourine.
Chris spoke very well and then we got to praying for people. Chris reports that he found it very difficult to pray here – the music was very loud, there were people praying (into microphones around us) people were filming us on smartphones. Very surreal. I didn’t struggle as much, (with anything other than my hearing.) it was great to see people set free from pain, especially in bones. There seems to be lots of the same sort of issues in each church. Chris and I prayed for around 30 people each, and perhaps half of them had bone or joint pain, specifically mentioning the shoulder. There were also a number of polycystic ovaries. There were a number of people who left the meeting last night either pain free, or with a significant reduction in pain. Others said they felt peace. Still others reported a heat where they had previous pain. God is good.

We had to pray a general prayer at the end, as we had to go, pick up the rest of the team, and head back to Cali (3hrs again). It was at this point that we were informed that the entire meeting had been broadcast on the Internet, and there was a lady in Belgium (yes you read that correctly) who would like us to pray for her!!!
After picking up the eat of the team, we stopped for some snacks, and began the long trip back. We had a quick drink and debrief before bed.
Monday : supposed to be a free day, but already 3 meetings planned in the afternoon, including a visit to the drug rehab that I visited the last time I was here in the house previously owned by the Rodriguiez brothers.
This evening we plan to host a “party” with various friends, and their families. Can’t wait. All we need really is more reliable internet access. It’s been down all morning, so I’m posting this in its entirety as I don’t know when it will be down again.
Miss you all.

Thought I’d try a different approach with the title of the blog post today, as anything with miracles, healing, or superlatives in seems to be having a negative effect… the last post with some amazing stories, and video clips of people telling their own stories of what God did instantaneously for them, was looked at by 13 people over two days. Seeing as, once again, I was up into the night writing it, editing pictures to fit the blog requirements, and uploading video clips, was, for me, very disheartening, and not a little soul-destroying…

Saturday was a great day, with the arrival of Paul Goodman and Brian Louden to complete the team for this visit. It means that we can split up to pray for people, go to more meetings, and – hopefully – have a bigger impact even than the astonishing first week. Paul and Brian have been brilliant, after a full day nearly of travelling: they’ve come having hit the ground running, nd been brilliant in the middle of their jet-lagged-ness.

Saturday, in two churches – Brian with me, Paul with Chris: ‘Casa de Oracion Rey Jesus’ is one of the churches I love dearly. It’s a church where one lady in particular, has been blessed by God many times – Astrid, healed now seven times of different cancers, so lovely to see her looking so well! It’s just such a lovely blessing to be greeted like a member of the family in many churches now, this one especially. I preached, Brian shared his testimony: then he prayed for a good number of people, while I focused initially on one lovely young lady in a wheelchair, Maria. She was shot 8 months ago, paralysed: the doctors had said she’d only ever be able to move he eyes, and experience great pain. She was already moving more than her eyes but still – understandably – traumatised, and angry. Saturday, the pain in her hands was off the scale, and she looked full of hopelessness. A number of things happened for her: ALL the pain in her hands went, among other things, but what came – wonderfully – was hope. I suggested we’ll see his during this week to pray more: I have a real sense of hope that she’ll be walking… I prayed for a few others after her, and between us, Brian & I saw some lovely healing. Paul and Chris prayed for 17 people in their church, a Presbyterian church, and everyone was healed. Thank you Jesus!!

Yesterday, up at the crack of dawn to drive to Tulua for 5 meetings. Paul was with me. He preached brilliantly, and of the 200+ who were in he meeting, we must have prayed for at least half of them. EVERYONE was healed. It was a wonderful morning: maybe the name of the church had something to do with it! It’s called ‘Iglesia Hacedor Miraglos’ – Miracle Maker Church. Why don’t we call our churches something wonderfully creative and faith building like that? And the pastor is called Habakkuc…. It was a fantastic morning. Chris and Brian had a great time too.

In the picture above is our lovely translator, Sarah: brilliant! – and the lady to her left was the first one I prayed for. She had a broken arm, and was in great pain, but I’d seen her worshipping God wonderfully, raising the arm she COULD raise. God healed her broken arm instantly, off came all the protection, and away went all the pain….

Then on to the local Christian drug rehabilitation centre: prayed for everyone, there were many healings and so people delivered of spirits they no longer needed 🙂

Then two more churches: Paul & I were at ‘Iglesia Manantial de Agua Vida’ – Fountains of living water – soooo much nicer than ‘****** Street, ****** church(denomination)…. why doesn’t God ‘do it’ in the west? Perhaps part of the answer is in the names! As in the morning, Paul and I organised a ‘fire tunnel’ for the people to walk through: in both meetings, people were healed, filled with the spirit, healed emotionally, just as they passed through it. Prayed for many: all healed – some totally, others in process. A lovely lady in a wheelchair was so blessed, with pain going, the power of God pouring through her…she didn’t get up and walk out, partly because she’d had both legs amputated. I told her a Smith Wigglesworth story about a pastor with no legs to whom Smith told to go and buy new shoes the next day. He got legs as he put shoes on the stumps. I pray that this lady will do the same today.

Fabulous day, wonderful start for Paul and Brian: still this trip is on an upward ascent in terms of what God’s doing.

If the blogs keep going the same way, I’ll keep writing them, whatever time of night, however tired. If they don’t, well, I’ll then assume only a very small handful of people are interested in the testimonies of Jesus….and probably stop posting them.