Healing in La Pintana

Today was a big day for us.  We got up in the morning and headed out for La Pintana.  Next door to Casa Esperanza is a church, and Willie and Patti go to this church.  Willie told that pastor about how God has healed Dylan of autism (and many other things), Griffy of deafness and Wil of stroke.  He told the pastor that we minister to and pray for people that need healing (through Living Free Ministries).  The pastor asked us to come pray for the sick and hurting at his church.

We got there and were so warmly greeted.  The churches here are more welcoming than anywhere we've been.  The band was great - a bass player that could really rock and be the lead singer and worship leader at the same time.  Luckily the words to the song were up on a screen, so we could sing along.  After the sermon the pastor had all the people that were sick come to the front of the church.  There were probably 50-75 people in the church, and about 20 people came to the front.  Katti, Willie and Patti's daughter, translated how people wanted us to pray for them.  Wow, is she ever impressive!!  Such an incredible young woman (she's in college right now).  I must have hugged her at least 10 times, thanking her so much for doing this with us.

We got to pray for a man with cancer, a man who wanted to come back into relationship with God, a woman with diabetes and osteoporosis, a woman with back problems, a man with back problems (young guy that wanted to be able to play volleyball again), a man with stomach cancer, a woman with carpal tunnel syndrome, a woman with a tumor in her brain, a book that had prayer requests for the whole church in it, and many others I can't remember right now.  After the service we had more people come up to us and ask for prayer - a woman with lung problems, a young girl who had sleep problems because she gets great pain in her bones when she starts to fall asleep, a woman who has many health problems but doesn't know what is wrong and others.  Oh my goodness, this was such a powerful time.  People wept as we prayed for them.  The whole church was praying for them, in silence and out loud.  The prayers got louder as people we were praying for began weeping.

After the service at least 10 people came up to us to show us they were healed - they moved body parts that were too painful to move much before, they said all kinds of things in fast, excited Spanish that we couldn't understand and they hugged and kissed us.  It was nothing short of miraculous and incredible!!  We could have stayed there forever.  Before we left, Patti came out with sopapias for us.  Whenever we see her she sends us home with food.  As always they were the best.

When we got home we watched the US women's World Cup final game.  It was such an exciting game - went into overtime and then to a shootout.  The US women played great, but lost the shootout.  We went to the grocery store to get some more water and bread, and the Peru vs. Paraguay game was on (quarter finals for Copa America).  People were walking around in the street, waving the Chile flag and blowing loud horns.  A man at the grocery store taught Noah and Griff how to play their horns the right way as we cheer for Chile.  The Chile vs. Venezuela game started at 6:15 p.m., and Venezuela is up by 2-1 as I write this (with just 10 min. left in the game).  (The game is now over and Venezuela won.)

Thanks for your prayers for our day at church today - they were answered, people were healed!  For tomorrow please pray that kids' church at Hogar goes well and the girls learn how very, very special they are to God.

"The Lord Himself will go before you.  He will be with you; He will not leave you or forget you." (Deuteronomy 31:8)  Thanks for reading!  Love to you all!