This leg of my South American trip lasted ten days and was very different from everything I had been doing. I spoke, prayed, encouraged, strengthened, and brought the philosophy of Total Life Pursuit (John 10:10, 2 John 3) as usual. However, I was part of a team of translators and Americans who ministered to the city of Bucaramanga. Bucaramanga seemed to be a relatively typical Latin American city set within the mountains of Colombia. The team had all worked together before except for my roommate and me. Not being “the guy” was different, but I learned many valuable lessons on this trip. This team’s purpose was to activate churches to heal the sick, evangelize, and start Bible studies. After training, we spoke at many churches, gave the Biblical framework for everything, and then had the church practice on each other. The beauty of this is an amazing amount of healings and salvations. The team had 17 people, and we went to churches every night to teach, train, and activate, and we enjoyed watching God move supernaturally. This team keeps records of everything. The final tally of known healings that people could demonstrate and salvations is:
· Physical healings – 1263
· Salvations – 181
· Bible studies started – 33
Paul Rapley, the leader of this ministry, uses a very simple explanation of how we are to heal and evangelize. Everyone can rap their head around, and as I witnessed repeatedly, we were able to do with some great results. I came on this trip to receive what he was doing. I not only wanted to learn how he approached healing and evangelism, but I wanted to walk under his anointing and have some transferred to me. So often, we see someone doing what we would like to do, and it seems to me, both in scripture and practically, that we need to be around these people and have them pray for us and release it on us. From the first night, I witnessed people being healed at a high rate at the church where I spoke. I also witnessed eight people receive Christ. (I think that was the number). The simplicity of the message and the activation portion is critical. Activation means you have the people do it as part of the training. Then you encourage them, or go with them to the streets, or door to door, and do it. The first night, a woman was healed of 4 different ailments and received Jesus as Lord. She came in with a cane, and she carried it out. It was amazing. One night, we prayed for the wait staff in a restaurant. The young woman I prayed for had pain in three places in her body, and all of the pain left.
I then led her to Jesus. There are so many stories of God moving. The team and I got to be a part of it. The last night, we were in a cab when the translator asked Bart, my roommate, who was in the front seat, to pray for our cab driver. He said he had allergies, and after a quick 10-second prayer, he felt God's presence and sensed something was changing in his body. Bart then led him to Jesus. He was weeping as he was driving. The sweet young man was healed and saved in a cab through a simple process. We all prayed for him, and he gave us his contact info for follow-up. Honestly, it was more than incredible. He was ripe fruit; all he needed was someone to dare to pray and explain the gospel in 1-2 minutes, then pop the question. I look forward to using what I learned and received from heaven in my ministry.
As the holidays are upon us, this is my last known ministry trip for this year. But you never know. The one thing I know is I go where God sends me. My prayer for you is that you, too, will go. It may be to another country, or it may be next door. That is our privilege.
תגובות