Travel Archives - Page 38 of 40

Miracles, healings, Dario, & a favela visit!

Posted on November 7, 2013 by Paul Bennison Posted in Journal, Random Thoughts, Testimony, Travel 1 Comment

Amazing evening this evening at a church I was at in July, ‘Community God with us’, right in the south of the city, in Valle de Lili. The pastor is a lovely man who is becoming a good friend, Rafael. The worship was, as always, loud(!) but good – with an amazing young trumpeter, and an outstanding young drummer. They were both amazing. Then Pastor William Castaño introduced us: I in turn introduced the lads, and Robert spoke really well, telling – among others thins – the unfolding story of his boys, and how God healed hi and others in his family, and is healing the boys of their autism.

Nick spoke really well, in Spanish, so I didn’t quite catch all of it! – then sang a song in English to the gathered throng, which was excellent. Simon preached again, he was terrific, and then we went into the ‘normal’ ministry mode – me with Nick, Simon with one translator, Cesar, Robert with another – Daniel.

Loads of people responded, needless to say. Tonight, Nick and I saw a number of people with really bad eyesight healed – glaucoma, cataracts both going, the people able to read from a pretty small print Spanish Bible. First up though was Alfredo: you might remember from a July blog from that church. An 81 year old, who wanted God to heal him so that he could begin to fulfil the vision for the new ministry God had given him. He could hardly walk, shuffling not even one foot-length at a time, voice almost gone, and really bad eyesight. This evening, he walked with strides to the come and sit with us, spoke in a good voice, and gave me a hug so strong for a relatively frail aged man it

was unreal! Nick & I had a lovely time chatting with him: then prayed for his eyes….within a few moments, he was reading from the Bible, which he couldn’t do before. He is such a delight, and it is an amazing blessing to see God touch someone like him, with passion and fire that would put most people half his age shame!

Rafael, the pastor, had extreme pain around his middle, and his kidneys, plus a very painful right shoulder. God did his stuff for both, healed in moments, free from kidney pain, which, if you’ve had kidney problems, is awful. A lady named Betty had terrible pain from her head, reaching down both arms, which she had in tight compression bandages…. it went completely, she was doing movements with her arms I’d struggle to do(!), and she took the bandages off with great speed.

A young lady, Karin, had extremely sore eyes, gritty sensations in both, with them both alternately weeping and drying up, so pretty obviously to us as non-medics, problems with the tear ducts. That’s what we prayed for: and the pain and grit went, leaving behind a lovely smile…..

A lady right near the end had glaucoma: God healed her, she could read again. Those of you who’ve red my blogs over the past year might recall that I met a guy last year, in a different church, who is a favela boss – a favela is a ghetto where police and army don’t go, and the law is enforce by the boss… That guy, Dario, is one of the people who I’ll never forget, as, with his (then) bodyguard Henri, I prayed for them and put my hands on their guns… Dario had been shot a few months before, comatose for 26 days, not expected to live, and with a throat to groin compression body stocking holding his body together. A lot of healing happened for him that night: not only physical, but spiritual, and a God-awareness came into his line of vision.

Hugging me as he left, he invited me to go on a tour of his favela…I so wanted to go, and my friend Edwin got his phone number, then deleted it because he couldn’t remember who he was! In July, I met his mum, who thanked me for praying for him, saying he’d have come to church but he’d been shot again, in the leg, and had to go into hiding. She gave me his phone number. Early in this trip, Wilmar called him, but you have to go through like a ‘menu’ of security guards around him, each one passing you on to the next when they felt safe to do so. Wilmar’s call ended in a promise that Dario would call him back, which up until tonight, he hadn’t….

Dario was in church. He waited until the end to chat to me: in some pain, still, in his leg, and returning pain in his body. That went: the leg pain reduced. AND…. TOMORROW… 2pm (7pm UK and about 5am Australia time), he’s coming to pick us all up to go to eat with him in his favela, pray for the family of the boss of other favelas, who committed suicide last week. Then he’s going to introduce us to his ‘leaders’, he wants them all to know God and meet Jesus.

Your prayers would be appreciated at that time! I’m excited and a wee bit daunted all at the same time, but God is doing something dramatic in that man’s heart, and, despite his ‘history’, is actually a lovely bloke….

So many more…. names and diseases already forgotten, hopefully God will bring back the memory of more tomorrow!

Robert’s Facebook post tonight:

I just lost this so you are going to get the very short version
Lady divorced an Aussie then used by a famous Cali preacher and dumped after she got an std off him, healed up. Mother and son with astigmatism healed. Guy with frozen shoulder, back pain bung eye and migraine healed. Another lady illiterate and astigmatism, healed eyes, no improvement on literacy. Ex drug addict with fried nerves, speech centre damage and stomach pain all completely healed (could hardly talk, then couldn’t stop talking). Lady with plantar fasciitis and gastritis. Healed of pf but can’t tell with gastritis until she eats. Lady with anxiety felt peace but only time will tell, mental health issues are awful. Guy with a bone growth in his leg didn’t get the growth gone but the pain went.

The district of the Oranges….and God’s there, too!

Posted on November 3, 2013 by Paul Bennison Posted in Journal, Random Thoughts, Testimony, Travel Leave a comment

It’s been a few years since I went to Los Naranjos, a barrio right in the far north east of Agua Blanca. Naranjos, of course, means oranges, a more unsuitable name for the place would be very hard to find! It’s close to the dangerous areas we’ve already been in this past week – Los Lagos, Mojica, Ciudad Cordoba, and is, itself, a place where the astonishment of the pastors, Carlos and Leonore Vergara that grongoes would go to their church, spoke volumes!

Robert is visibly ‘relaxing’ in his second visit here when we go to places like it! He doesn’t take a change of trousers anymore! The church is called ‘Ministerio de Restauracion el Alfarero’ – that doesn’t really translate into English sensibly – Restoration the Potter – but it’s one of those places where you’re driven to the steel cage door of the building, ushered quite rapidly inside, and then padlocked and bolted in….

I reckon there were somewhere between 75-100 there, and there was a lovely atmosphere – a real sense of the Holy Spirit and God’s Presence – during the worship. Robert shared for

Robert doing his stuff... — Robert doing his stuff…

about 10 minutes, very, very well. He spoke about the miracle God is unfolding in his family, with his terrific sons. As for me, I’d gone with about 5 messages in my head, and, of course, used none of them! – but really sensed that God was saying stuff that hadn’t been in my head and that I hadn’t had time to ‘process’ out of existence, or chicken out of saying. When I think back nearly 30 years, reading word for word the notes I’d prepared in Filofax paper (remember Filofax??!), reams of pages, these days it is so much easier….though far more nerve wracking and challenging!

Another odd pose... ! — Another odd pose… !

The moment I made the appeal for people to come forward for healing, the usual tsunami of bodies surrounded us. Initially, the first couple of folk didn’t ‘seem’ to have anything major happen for them, though they felt ‘heat’ and ‘fire’ as Rob and I did a joint praying session for them. And then we saw God go ‘on a roll’…. As always, knees got healed(!) – one young lady’s knee was moving around under my hand as we prayed for her. Another guy had all his pain go, but was left with a joint ‘click’ – which disappeared instantly.

A couple of people – one a young lad, the other an older man – both deaf in one ear – heard: the boy for the first time in his life, as he was born deaf. The smile on his fast when Johan whispered in his deaf ear, and he heard, was worth the airfare to come here! , so gA lady with breast cancer felt intense heat and was sweating profusely: I guess only a ‘private’ examination back in the quiet of her own home will determine that the tumour has gone. Another lady, who’d had cancer, and survived, was having real trouble with her blood, the haemoglobin level was far too low: she began very cold (temperature, not attitude!), and in seconds was basically ‘on fire’ and feeling really well. She’d looked pretty pale and ‘drawn’ before we prayed.

One lovely bloke, a truck driver called Jhon, had trouble from head to toe, it seemed: especially lower back and legs, not good stuff for a trucker! What’s more, he’d gone to renew his truckers drivers license, and they’d failed him on his eyesight, his right eye below 30% vision. His other eye wasn’t brilliant, and he couldn’t read…. but only for a few moment,s then he read from translator Johan’s Bible. He was over the moon as God then healed his back and his knees!

Countless headaches, mostly migraines, and with the sufferers in church with them (how many people in the western world would stay home because they’d got a migraine?) had them disappear instantly. Asthma – at least a couple of people were healed of it, and knew it: a young man with acute sinus problems was healed…. and so it went on – and on – for four hours of praying! That, after a 1½ hour meeting, then lunch, kindly provided by a lady from the church, who’d had her eyesight and leg pain healed. By the time we got back home, the ‘meting’ including the drive, was just a tad over 7 hours…. we were knackered, but poor Johan, the translator, was well ‘out of it’ by the end of lunch. I so, so admire translators: they work so hard, and Johan is great.

So, it’s Brian’s last evening with us: doubtless we’ll go out and eat somewhere, just to celebrate what for him, has been an amazing week, way beyond his wildest expectations and imaginings! Brian had a great time at Wilmar’s church, his post is on my page, so blessed that Brian’s moved from ‘halting, anxious’ testimony to preaching for 20 minutes without notes this morning. It blesses me more than I can ever tell you when people who come with me not only see the raw power of God in action, through miracles and healings, but having shifted paradigms in what they thought they could do…. I love that. Maybe it’s the only legacy I’ll ever get to leave…..

Into the lion’s mouth….and finding the Presence of God

Posted on November 3, 2013 by Paul Bennison Posted in Journal, Personal, Testimony, Travel Leave a comment

Not being able to find your way in a car in the depths of Agua Blanca, is always an interesting experience, just as it was this evening! The problem with the place, if you don’t live there, is not knowing where one barrio ends and the next begins: and such things as posts with street names/numbers on, are non-existent. The only way to tel where you are is to look for the tiny little ‘plaques’ on some house which tells you it’s number, and that relates to which street forms a junction with which road…. here, calles (streets) go like north to south, and carreras (roads) go east to west. Then somewhere, every now and again thrown in, is the occasional ‘avenida’ (hopefully self-translatable!

So, my lovely mate Wilmar is driving us into one of the most dangerous barrios this evening – ‘us’ being him, me, and Sandra, who was translating, and is Dutch, so, to Colombians, therefore, also a gringo: two gringoes in one car could well be like all your Christmases coming at once, if you happen to ask the wrong person for directions!

Wilmar is amazing, how he knows his way around, even barrios he’d rarely go to if it wasn’t for lunatics like me who love to preach there, and love to see God move there. The blessing it is, too, to pastors in such districts, that a foreigner would a) go there, and b) WANT to go there, is worth the sweat-bringing, bowel-moving experience of going there. Tonight was no exception. We found the church after a few ‘stop and ask the way’ moments: and were directed by the pastor to park up on the grass with the car doors as near to the church door as possible….

Mauricio & Sandra Naspiran are the pastors of ‘Iglesia visión y avivamiento’ – Church of Vision & Revival. He’s young, but is doing a wonderful job there. He was at the church in Los Lagos earlier in the week (Wednesday 30th blog), and wanted prayer for healing then, but there were so many people waiting he gave up…. then Wilmar contacted him and asked him if we could to his church. I think he was overjoyed! At first, it seemed it might only be two or three people there – no problem to me, it’s just a blessing and an honour to be asked to preach in someone else’s church. I guess the final number was somewhere between 15 and 20. And God delighted to presence himself there….

Sandra was great translating: it’s a remarkable gift, translating, as it’s not just the ability to speak English – or whatever language – it’s the speed of thought to contextualise, remove colloquialisms, and translate, in a split second. And Sandra, who’s Dutch as I mentioned, was translating from second to third languages.

Many wanted prayer. Some, nothing (noticeable or instant) happened for: including a lovely guy, Jhon, who was pretty much blind in his right eye (saw light) with glaucoma, and had no left eye at all. So longed to see God give sight and create a new eye: I feel it will happen, but sometimes God just seems to want to remind me that he’s the healer, and that the glory is his, and he won’t necessarily share it with me to my order!

Jhon, Mauricio, y yo! — Sandra, Mauricio, y yo!

Roberto had a wrecked spine, collapsed lung, and wrecked left side rib cage, from an accident at work, when a 250 kilogram weight fell on him….I reckoned he was blessed to be alive, have a spine intact…. but he was in immense pain, which he reckoned on a 1-10 scale was 8+ before being prayed for. That was down to 5 as he walked away…. I’m convinced it will be less in the morning….. Catalina, in awful pain with a very damaged hip, and referred pain in all the bones in her left leg – plus bad circulation problems, due (for her) very expensive physiotherapy. All her pain went: total, and she walked away with a huge smile and in ease…

Mauricio’s prayer for healing, as worship leader as well as pastor, related to being hit by a motorbike some months back: little seemed to happen at the time, but very soon, he was in great pain with his carpal tunnels, and the balls of his hands, one extremely swollen, to the point where it was excruciating to play the guitar. He was healed instantly, and burst into tears…. when he’d tried to play earlier on, a string broke, so I just wanted to add to his blessing by giving him the money for a new set of strings!

Brian & Robert had an equally great evening in Ciudad Cordoba: I’m pretty certain that by the time I post this, Brian & Robert’s posts will be on my page!

God going up through the gears….hang on to your hats!

Posted on October 30, 2013 by Paul Bennison Posted in Journal, Random Thoughts, Testimony, Travel Leave a comment

Last night, Brian & I went to an area of Agua Blanca, the most poverty stricken, and dangerous quarter of the city, that I went to last year, with Glyn. I don’t always hear right the names of places we’re going to, or perhaps mis-hear them is better, often to do with the accent! A couple of nights ago, we’d had a wonderful night, fantastic blessing from God, and, as we left, I asked – again! – ‘what area is this?’. Then, I was told it was Antonio Nariño. It was in that barrio two years ago that me and my little team had done a meeting (literally) out on the street, outside the house, which was the church: the lady pastor had told me, when there was no-one there as the meeting began, ‘They’ll come when they hear English voices’ (they had a large P.A. system on the streets for that purpose) – and boy, they came: loads of them. When we’d finally prayed for the last person, and were just 3-400 yards up the road in the car, we actually witnessed a ‘street disagreement’ (slight understatement there!) and watched, dumbstruck, as we saw two men shot dead on the pavement.

Last night, once we were in the church that I recognised, suddenly was aware we were in Los Lagos – the Lakes (nice, eh? – er….slightly worse than it sounds! – a VERY dangerous area indeed)…. but the Pastor, Wilson Monroy, is an absolute gem, and it’s a wonderful church. God blessed us there last November: last night, God ratcheted up the gears by about 100 fold in terms of blessing…

Terrific worship, even though it was mostly songs I didn’t know (I know a fair few in Spanish now), and Brian knew one, in English… it really doesn’t matter what the lingo is when the Presence of the Lord is in the place: the atmosphere lifts you to a new dimension. Last night was like that.

Brian spoke very well again after a lovely introduction for both us, by Wilmar, who’d driven us there. I feel utterly humbled by some of the things people say – embarrassed, even – but it is such a blessing to know that, after 51 visits, many pastors still feel the way they do about me and my love for this city. I’d got an outline sermon in my head, and my usual pile of scraps of paper and well-worn post-it notes, and right early on was nowhere in what was in my head or on my bits of paper, speaking something totally different…. Twenty minutes into the worship there must have been 50 there: 10 minutes later, at least double, and perhaps treble that number.

There was a Kevin Costner film, some years ago, which sums up the meeting last night, and the one on the street two years ago – and all the other meetings this week. ‘Field of Dreams’: a phrase in that film stayed with me, even though I can’t stand baseball (just corrupted cricket, that’s what it is: and it’s more exhilarating watching the grass growing than the game!). ‘If you build, then he’ll come’ – Costner built a baseball stadium on his farmland for a legend named Shoeless Joe Jackson to come to.

God really had me on a roll last night, and I know that HE built the platform for just about everyone in the meeting to respond to. The meeting began at 7 pm: we left at somewhere between 11.30 and 11.45 pm, totally exhausted and drained, but unimaginably exhilarated….

Brian & Johan (translator) prayed together, and Wilmar and I did the same. It sounds so much less than the reality on paper, or on a screen, after the event, but it was astonishing. For Wilmar and me, probably 95% of the people were immediately healed or miracled…. and the other 5% with noticeable improvement. For me, it included three blind people – two blind in one eye, one totally blind in one, with 30% sight in the other (and he drives huge articulated/18 wheel trucks for a living!!). Both the one blind eye people saw within moments – I can only remember the name of one, a young lady named Leidy (pronounced Lady!) – and the smile and look of astonishment on her face would have made the whole evening worthwhile if nothing else had happened. A similar story with the other one…. the truck driver – his 30% was up to about 75% before he moved away from us, and the totally blind eye, which had been almost completely closed and obscured by his eyelids, was open, and he’d begun to see ‘trees walking’ (that’s my interpretation of his saying ‘shadows moving’)…..

A lovely young guy – 30’s – had a similar problem to Pastor William’s dad, yesterday: compressed vertebrae, from a fall at work some years ago, causing extreme back pain, but even more extreme left leg and knee pain, due to trapped nerves. All his pain went, his back straightened. I askde him what he COULDN’T have done 5 minutes earlier: bend to touch his toes and squat? He did both – no pain. Totally healed. I was running out of tissues/kleenex by now!

A lovely girl, who’d come forward with her dad, had been born with her left leg turned outwards 30 degrees. We watched as it began to straighten, then Wilmar did the ‘leg-lengthening’ routine as her back realigned and her feet equalised. Healed. Another boy, Daniel I think, had one leg considerably longer than the other, obviously giving him walking/running problems, and expensive shoe problems for desperately poor parents. He was healed.

Two ladies with the pain of damaged ovaries – and cysts (I’ll obviously never know THAT pain!) were both healed. A couple came forward with their daughter for a variety of issues: mum and daughter were both healed, and dad, bless him, struggled to tell us that he’d got erectile dysfunction issues (and man, did he look like David Walliams!!)…. he felt God doing things down below, and we laughed as I hugged him and said ‘go home and have some fun!’….

What else did God heal last night…? Gastritis, asthma, 2 hernias, and oh so much more: I really ought to write each one down as they go away, because the enemy (I’m sure) has targeted our memories to forget much of what God does, even moments after it has happened. Brian’s story was pretty much the same from last night, with a vast percentage healed, and others in progress. Wilson and his wife were over the moon. So were we, and totally knackered with it….

The lovely little girl in the picture, Sarah, was born with massive problems, similar to Jose Luis 2 years ago: no fontanelles, or sutures. She was given an hour to live. She’s now 3 years old, and last night, God did some lovely things for her, as she’d not been able to walk, and she did, albeit holding on to a chair as she did so… she is so,so beautiful! And God’s going to continue to do the miracles in her, I know…

This morning, early start to a Social Security Hospital: a lady with severe blood circulation problems causing massive issues with burst varicose veins in her leg and foot, in intense pain. She felt ‘heat’ as the pain (at least partially) instantly subsided. The hospital manager is in Wilmar’s church, so we’ll catch up on stories at the weekend when Brian preaches there, and the following week when I do….

Now, tonight, right up north in the city… and the expectation and conviction that God is going to do it again….

And just to celebrate.... ;) — And just to celebrate…. 😉

Mind-blowing evening yesterday… more to follow

Posted on October 30, 2013 by Paul Bennison Posted in Travel Leave a comment

Last night’s meeting was just wonderful.. started at 7pm, we were back home by not much before 12.30am, and just to tired to blog…. this morning, just now (8.15) waiting to be picked up to go the a hospital to pray for people…..so will blog later on!

Asombroso tres horas…. Amazing three hours

Posted on October 29, 2013 by Paul Bennison Posted in Journal, Personal, Testimony, Travel Leave a comment

High on a hill (stood a lonely goat-herd? Nah…!) – actually, it’s a mountain in the Andes, stands the huge statue of Cristo Rey: Christ the King. He overlooks this wonderful city of Cali, arms spread wide (very similar to Christ the Redeemer, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), facing directly two of the worst areas of the central city area – Siloe (pronounced Sil – o -ay), and the Calvario (pronounced Cal-bario) – which means Calvary….

Cristo Rey, Christ the King, standing over the city of Cali, Colombia

I’m always breath-taken by the statue, especially being here in this city, and though it’s only made of stone, it brings hope to a city that, until the last 10 years, has been so terribly broken and damaged by violence, drugs, and poverty. I remember quite a few years ago now, hearing tremendous American preacher Bill Johnson preach on ‘When heaven invades earth’, which became the first of his books to be written. That message’s impact on me was profound, and the total belief that we can see – as we’ve all prayed for countless generations – ‘your Kingdom come, your will be done, ON EARTH as it is in heaven’. Jesus’ prayer is, of course, well-known to a vast percentage of the world’s population: and for those of us in the Christian ‘camp’ – whatever label we wear – we believe it.

But how much do we believe it? It’s back to Paul’s profound comment to Timothy – I know what I have believed, and AM PERSUADED that He (God) is able…. But if we’re brutally honest with ourselves, whilst we believe it, do we REALLY believe it….convinced/persuaded by it. I was so blessed today to receive this message to my blog inbox, from long-time friend Jennifer Acklam:

“If the disciples had had blogs in the early church, I think this is how they would have read! Amazing, Praise God!” Jennifer Acklam, Church of Scotland Pastor’s wife ”

Cali, for me, and for many of the people I’ve brought here over the last 17 years, inspires faith, and Jesus on the mountain inspires the belief in me that this city is under an open heaven now, after it’s years of horror. Today, I thought Brian & I had the day off. We’d been invited for lunch at the best steak house on the continent (Leños and Carbon) by the totally lovely Pastor Wilmar Gomez. Wilmar and his adorable wife Marlene, great, great friends for all the years I’ve been coming here, have for most of the pastoral lives, had only income from God, supplied by their faith. So to be bought lunch by Wilmar was far, far more than a double blessing: it was sacrificial on the part of the Gomez family. Then, we were due to meet the almost equally as lovely Pastor William Castaño: I put a quote on Facebook earlier, about humility. These two men epitomise totally the humility of Jesus, it is reflected by their words, deeds, and in the faces.

Irene just in the process of God doing his stuff!

William wanted to show us his ministry office: he is an extremely highly qualified Church Leader, a Doctor of Theology, a senior professor at the Baptist Bible University, so highly regarded and respected, and yet he delights in organising my agenda here… and counts it a privilege to chauffeur me and my friends whenever he can. If only he knew that the privilege was the other way round: just to be with him draws you into the presence of God. His ministry, offering pastors extremely high quality teaching, is provided at very little cost, and is called ‘Ensenañza’ – simply, ‘Teaching’. It is a faith ministry, as the ‘fees’ bear no reflection to the cost of running the ministry, and I fe;t today that I want to do all I can to help him.

And then, this is where the blog title came from: William’s dad has been chronically sick with compressed vertebra at the top of his spine. The spine had been so badly damaged by them that the nerves inside it had been trapped, and caused loss of use of hands and fingers, and his legs to feel incredibly ‘heavy’. He’s not been able to move for 2 months. No feeling in his hands and fingers. Intense pain in his neck and shoulders. And it was just getting worse, to the point where the specialist doctors had said that the compression was going to get worse, was unstoppable, and that, very soon, he’d be paralysed, and in intense pain. Heart trouble, too….86 years old. Not a pleasant prognosis. Joel had himself been a pastor, for 48 years.

Joel Castano, after his incredible miracle

William’s dad (Joel (pronounced Ho-el), and Irene (I-renni) are just lovely. I talked to dad, with Wilmar’s help more often than not(! – the Spanish was fast and possibly more colloquial that I’ve learned yet!), and then prayed for him. I held his hands as I prayed: and instantly he began to move them, the pain went in his neck, and the vertebra effectively ‘freed’ themselves. He grabbed my hands and hand them so tight, then waved his arms in the air, then got up and walked. He hadn’t walked for some months. All his pain had gone, strength was returning, and mobility was back instantly. Irene, Joel, Wilmar, Brian, and me – were all in tears….tears of joy, amazement at the wonderful grace, mercy, and power of God, and the Living Lord Jesus…..Irene had terrible blood circulation problems, causing her arms and hands to be virtually useless, and in extreme pain, and her face had terrible pain in both cheeks, and her jaw. God healed her instantly, too…..

If you've not walke for months, with the prospect of never walking again, and you're healed, why not squat and jump??? — If you’ve not walked for months, with the prospect of never walking again, and you’re healed, why not squat and jump???

We had amazing, strong, powerful hugs from Joel, laughter, tears, and thankfulness for what God did for him and Irene. On the way ‘home’, we stopped at the home of Lucy, one of William’s staff, and a professor at his school. Her mum, Elizabeth, hadn’t walked for two weeks with a seized back, was bed-ridden, couldn’t even move in bed, and if she did, she screamed. She had the worst varicose veins in her legs I’ve seen, and immense pain in her back…she hadn’t left the house for 4 months, except to be taken to hospitals. Chronic blood circulation problems, too, and dangerously low blood pressure, which was partly the fault for her inability to walk. Well, within moment of praying for her, I asked how her back pain was…. it had gone. Can you sit up, Elizabeth? She did…. Lucy was in tears: hadn’t done that without screaming for many weeks. Can you walk? She did: first time, without pain and screaming, in weeks. So that had to mean the low blood pressure had righted itself, and her circulation was back, up and running… ALL her pain went, and later this week, goes to the hospital to have the dressings changed – removed??! – from her varicose veins, in both legs. When I prayed for her, I prayed that God’s joy would fill her, and, of course joy IS strength if we are to believe the promises of God. Joy came back into face: it was transformed. Lucy told us that many, many months ago, she had lost – and given up on – her joy. Words of knowledge, even simple ones like that, are wonderful, eh?

Elizabeth, previously pain- ridden and bed-ridden: healed!

Brian, me, Edgar, Elizabeth, er...someone else!, Lucy, William — Brian, me, Edgar, Elizabeth, er…someone else!, Lucy, William

Lucy: would we pray for her high blood pressure please? Of course. And my terrible lower lumbar region pain? Yes… Brian went after that one. It went. As I prayed for her, I just knew I had to pray for her spine, so commanded it to be straight from the base of her skull to the coccyx. As soon as the prayer stopped, she told everyone that, as I’d prayed, she felt her spine moving in various directions as it straightened: it was only then that she told us she’d HAD – no longer, now – scoliosis. Another ‘unwitting’ word of knowledge, but no less effective!

We then got to pray for Lucy’s younger brother, Edgar: known to William, of course, as his sister works for him. A former serious addict, God just blessed his boots off as I prayed for him, which turned into a prophecy, and the heaviness in his face and persona completely changed…. What a marvellous 3 hours, indeed.

Day off? Who needs them? Well, I do, sometimes, and as far as I know, we’ve got tomorrow morning off! But you never quite know in this city…. a lay in might happen though 🙂

Brian blew me away earlier in the day, when he posted on his Facebook page, and onto mine, a quote from John Paul Jackson, the wonderful prophet/teacher/ preacher/ dream interpreter from the USA. It had me in tears, as I don’t deserve it, so I’ll just leave it with you, as I’m just humbled by it…. A great leader will make more opportunities for others than he makes for himself.” John Paul Jackson. Paul Bennison is exhibiting such qualities. #grateful #humbled Brian Louden

Wow…..just wow….

Posted on October 28, 2013 by Paul Bennison Posted in Journal, Personal, Testimony, Travel 1 Comment

What an amazing day here in Cali, Colombia…. so, so busy, picked up at 8.30 am and finally dropped off home at 11 pm… Lovely church this morning in the district Alfonso Lopez (I think!) ‘The Life’. Brian spoke very well again after a great time of worship, slightly lower volume than last night, which was a blessing to the eardrums! – after I’d done my bit, we prayed – again – for just about everyone in the meeting (50-60 prayed for), and, like last night, just about everyone who was prayed for was healed…. some in progress, but many instant miracles. Five pairs of knees completely healed today – that makes 8 so far – not that I’m keeping a record of knee healings especially…. 🙂

A lovely (slightly) older lady, who was in chronic pain, osteoarthritis from head to toes – literally – had all her pain go. A lady named Adriana, who’d had a ‘testing’ history, was completely deaf in her left ear, after much abuse and neglect from parents in her childhood and youth. She’d been deaf for – if I recall right – 13 years. And then, only for another few moments, as God instantly ‘opened’ her deaf ear…. and another lady, Marlene, was also deaf in her left ear – and she, too, received instant miraculous intervention…. isn’t God just amazing???

Marlene, deaf in her left ear until this morning.... — Marlene, deaf in her left ear until this morning….

So many people immediately lost all their pain: it is just astonishing how quickly God does his stuff here. A whole family – all with different illnesses, diseases, ailments, were all healed in the same moment. A lady with gastritis and a hernia (there seems to be an epidemic of hernias here this visit!!) was healed of all pain, and she could feel her hernia gone…. Brian’s story was pretty much the same, everyone was healed in process, or instantly. Hopefully this will work, but here are three of the people Brian recorded, including Adriana and Marlene, giving their testimonies at the end of the meeting, with my lovely translator friend Johan speaking the English so you can understand it!

I have no idea how to make it work if it doesn’t….help Lee, if it doesn’t work!!

So many people healed this morning…. wonderful. The pastor, Dario, was over the moon: open door to go back to his church any time. Here’s one for Robert Hall – the guy giving testimony on the recording was miraculously healed when Rob prayed for him last year, and his testimony is to that effect! Can’t recall his name, but here’s his picture, Rob, and everyone else! –

Robert's healed guy November 12 — Robert’s healed guy November 12

Then, a VERY brief return to the apartment, at which point some long-time friends turned up (we’d got 50 minutes at home before being collected for a 5 ½ hour ‘double’ meeting…. a 2 hour teaching session on healing, followed by questions (lads! – and not all easy!!), then straight into what really did just turn into a healing melée…. about the same number prayed for tonight, some very interesting ‘different’ stories tonight, including a fair bit of physical pain as a result of emotional damage…. more knees healed, a lovely little lad name MiguelAngelo (Michael Angelo – cute, eh?), with a fairly marked leg-length discrepancy: Brian did the stuff, and instantly the legs ‘equalised’… he was up and running telling his mum and dad it was ok now….

A man with chronic back and lower lumbar pain, excruciating if he bent down…. so I got him to bend down…. cruel man! – and all his pain had gone….Brian’s already gone to bed, so I’ll add what he can remember to a new post in the morning – my brain is scrambled!

Quiet start to tomorrow, fortunately, then the afternoon ‘busies up’, culminating in a visit to Pastor William Castaño’s dad, who has such severe spinal problems he can’t move or speak…. so please, God, start on him now…..

Cali, Cali, Cali

Posted on October 26, 2013 by Paul Bennison Posted in Journal, Personal, Random Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment

Well, 8.40 am here in the warmth of a South American early morning…. arrived late last night, safely, to be met by the lovely Pastor Wilmar and his daughter Sarah, with him smiling the the cat cat that has found the cream! – up until the last few weeks, Wilmar has wonderfully chauffeured us around in his 33 year-old Fiat, this time picked us up in a gleaming relatively new Chevvy, the answer from God to his and Marlene’s prayers for a long time. God’s good! And to us, too, as it was steaming when we arrived, after the usual fears about luggage not arriving (Brian’s were just about the first two bags up, mine just about the last two! – that horrible moment when you wonder how many days you can make your boxer shorts last(!) among other things!), and Wilmar’s new car has got air-conditioning!

What’s more a couple of days before flying out, I got from Wilmar and Pastor William Castaño, a full, printed schedule of all the meetings organised, with names, churches, addresses: it was then I realised what a relief it is to have a programme ahead of a visit, especially when 4 other guys, who want to be busy here, are coming with me – Rob turns up from Australia in a few days, then Nick & Simon.

So, we’re here… lazy day, meeting tonight, and then big time tomorrow! It’s so wonderful to be here again…..

Leaving on a jet plane – again….

Posted on October 14, 2013 by Paul Bennison Posted in Journal, Personal, Random Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment

It’s funny, but when that song (Leaving on a jet plane) was such a massive hit in the 60’s, I was then sub-teens in a family that had neither the inclination, but more importantly, didn’t have the money, to go anywhere…. holidays for my family then were a week in Cornwall in May half-term break, and the last week of August, (both when the holidays were cheaper!), in self-catering accommodation…. that was partly, again, due to financial restraints, but perhaps more that it meant my mum could organise the first few hours like a military exercise.

We’d take with us all our own sheets, pillow cases, towels, etc., and we’d have to strip our beds of the holiday homes’ stuff, and re-make them with ours. Then to the loo, bath, and basin, with bleach and disinfectant, then to the kitchen, to wash all the crockery and cutlery. It was only after my dad died that mum ventured anywhere exotic – Jersey – to a VERY Christian hotel, but it did mean I got on a plane…..

…..and so the die was cast! I liked planes, I decided. BEA was the company – I proudly spent most of my holiday money on a BEA holdall (lol – held nothing: you want to see my luggage now!). A BAC111 plane. Neither exist anymore: I think BEA was swallowed up by British Caledonian was swallowed up by British Overseas Airways Corporation, which morphed into our beloved (??!!) British Airways.

Tuesday, at about 6.45 am, I’ll be on my way to the airport again: ok, this time it’s only for Rhinos, out Tuesday morning and back Thursday night, for two days of vital friendship, fellowship, laughter, wine, and farting (we’re all mature full-time Christian ministers, you understand of course?!), but then…a week later… Friday 25th, I meet up with the lovely Brian Louden, a micro-biologist (I know all about micro-biology, so our plane conversation will be awesome!), but more importantly, a radical, spirit-filled adventurer, at Heathrow, to fly to Madrid ready for the long-haul to Cali, Colombia…. we’re like the ‘advance’ party, as the fantastic Robert Hall, from Melbourne, Australia, arrives 5 days later after – what I guess will be – another 60 hour journey (my long-haul is NOTHING compared to his!), another spirit-filled miracle believing Aussie…. then a few days later, lovely mates Simon Allaby (currently being blown away by what he’s seeing, and seeing God do, in Lahore, Pakistan), and Nick Harding, a recent 2nd time dad (Ralph Bennison Harding, you might recall!) and ripping the guts out of a dilapidated house, but still finding time and money to go and blow people away, and more importantly be blown away by God – what a fantastic team….

Importantly, and to make my translating life easier, Nick speaks Spanish…. phew!

So, leaving on a jet plane, 28 years ago, quite unexpectedly, and totally against anything I wanted to do, became my life. I look back now, and thought it’d only be about a year or so before God realised he must have been so out of his mind sending off on this lifestyle, and he’d see sense…. Hmm. Dream on: now, I wouldn’t (couldn’t) do anything else. I wish I’d known then, as I boarded a plane for Accra, Ghana (what a virgin I was in the 80’s – who THEN would have flown Ghana Airways?), what I know now: and I’d have kept all my boarding passes. I tried to work out, a while back, how many miles I’d flown – with no income, no money, and initially no desire(!) – and reckoned it wasn’t far short of 4-5 million….that’s why ‘dem Gold Cards you get when you fly a lot are so useful….

Cali, Cali, Cali….mi tierra, mi pais, mi ciudad, mi amigos, mi hermanos…. ok, ok….my land, my country, my city, my friends, my brothers…. visit 51 in 17 and a half years…still some way to catching up Romania (127 times) and the USA (over 100, despite the last 4-5 years!). DOES God meet all of our needs, according to his riches in Christ Jesus???? Too right he does, afer all those flights, and I hardly pass for anorexic, either….

More Aussie good news!!!! Surgeons baffled – scan ‘wrong’ (lol!) – more reliable to be prayed for now, eh??!

Posted on October 11, 2013 by Paul Bennison Posted in Journal, Personal, Testimony, Travel Leave a comment

Back on September 28, I posted this message, from a lady, ‘D’ who wanted to remain anonymous…..

From Robert Hall: Paul, this is from one of the many shoulder people we prayed for.

Hey Rob, I have some extraordinary news. The MRI I had showed that I’d torn my tendon off the bone which meant I’d be in a sling for 6 weeks with months of rehab but when I had it op’d on yesterday the tendon was only frayed from a bone spur in my shoulder which means a sling for only a week & then it’ll be ok. The surgeon couldn’t explain why the MRI was different to how the shoulder actually was & I’ve just realised I think it was due to Paul. So I just wanted to say BLESS YOU for without you I would not have this wonderful outcome, you made me let go & let God & I can’t thank you & Paul enough. Please let him know. D

Yesterday, I wrote and asked her how it was doing and WAS the sling only a week….? Here’s my message and her reply:

Hi D! Just wondering how your shoulder is doing after your doctor’s surprise a couple of weeks ago! Are you sling-less yet? Still praying for it! Love Paul

D: It’s doing very well, was out of the sling within a few days just had to wear it if I was out & about. I’ve told everyone about you & how you fixed it & they all look at me like I’m mad. Went for post-op check up yesterday & told surgeon about you & he also said it was definitely the scan that was wrong. I don’t care I’m a believer, you are awesome & have renewed my faith. Take care & thanks once again. All the Best, D

Two surgeons trying to explain away miracles! I LOVE it!!! ‘The MRI was different’ (LOL!!) and ‘The scan was wrong!’. If that’s the case, it doesn’t exactly give you a lot of faith in a scan if it can be wrong – so….we’re moving into a generation where it’s far, far safer, and much more reliable, to pray, and let God do it!!!

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