Last night was AMAZING!  My friend Cindy, me, and several others from my church spent the day at the Rosarito safe house for adolescent girls that have been rescued from child prostitution.  The purpose of organizing yesterday’s trip was not to bring supplies or preach to the girls, but I planned this particular trip just to bring people who would bond with these girls (inevitable) and have specific names and faces to pray for.

The trip was a raging success.  We played volleyball all day, gorged ourselves with carne asada and homemade cookies, and man did we ever bond!  From the day I met these girls, I teased them and forged an immediate friendship.  I can’t ever wear a hat without them immediately stealing it and then playing “keep away” with it.  Yesterday, we also went to the beach.  While there, they ganged up on me and threw me into the ocean, clothes, shoes, and all!  It was enormous, exhausting fun!

While at the safe house, my pastor texted me, asking me to join him in praying for the sick at a church in Tijuana, Mexico where he was preaching.  My friends Cindy and Diana went with me.  The spirit of God could tangibly be felt as we walked into the church.  I just KNEW God was going to do something amazing.         

Me and Cindy before the service

 Before Pastor John started to preach, he got a “word of knowledge” from the Lord that someone had a problem with their left leg.  He asked who in the room had this affliction; a very old man raised his hand.  John brought me, Cindy, and Diana to the platform and explained to the crowd that the three of us had been trained in workshops on spiritual gifting and that we were going to assist him in praying for the sick.  While praying for this man, he started exclaiming something in spanish and then started dancing around…showing us something he could do with his leg that he was not able to do before!  It was awesome!          

 After his sermon (where two men asked for prayer to receive Jesus Christ), Pastor John brought us back up to the platform and announced that anyone with any illness should come forward for healing.  Many people came forward and this session must have lasted for at least an hour.  As the healings transpired, one after another, I began giggling.  I also had tears as these people were miraculously healed, but I just couldn’t help giggling.  It was the coolest thing to watch God set the captive completely free!       

The neatest thing is that God used the three of us to work together in a unique way.  Cindy would get prophetic images for these people as we prayed, and her images were very encouraging.  Diana would translate, and I would be the giggling spaz…proclaiming healing as the spirit of God filled me with confident faith.      

Here is a mere sampling of what occurred…          

• An elderly woman reported a neck injury (resulting from a fall), trouble hearing, and diabetes.  After praying for her, nothing happened.  We explained that Jesus had to pray twice for the blind man, so we were going to pray again.  After praying a second time, she began WEEPING!  I asked Diana to translate what she was saying and found out that the pain had completely vanished!  She also grabbed her ears and exclaimed that her ears were healed!  After thanking God with her, she cried some more.

Me (to Diana):          

What is going on?      

Diana:      

Her eyes are healed!      

Me:      

We didn’t pray for her eyes.      

Diana (crying):      

I know.  Some problem she had with her eyes is healed too!         

This woman was so filled with faith and joy that I told her (through Diana) that her faith would transfer to others and to pray for others in the room.  Later, as I would pray for others, I would see this elderly woman going from one person to another…praying and weeping and thanking God.  It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever witnessed.      

• A woman whose neck cracked whenever she turned it, showed us that she could move it over and over again with no cracking.

• A family carried a little 4-yr-old boy to us, informing us that he was born premature and was almost completely deaf.  Touching his ears, we prayed.  To our fascination, at the mention of the name of Jesus, the boy abruptly turned to look all around.  My pastor made soft sounds near each ear (from behind, where the boy could not see him) and the boy turned to look each time.  We believe he is healed.

• A woman who had been in 3 car accidents had severe back pain that was an “8″ on a scale from 1 to 10.  After prayer, her pain went down to a “1″.  She wept.

• A woman with a thyroid issue felt sensations in her neck as we prayed and she was convinced that she was healed.

• Cindy prayed for a woman with a tumor who “felt (her) tumor fall off” of her body.  While that sounds odd, we are dealing with the supernatural and well, odd things happen.  After the service, Pastor John asked her if she could go to the doctor and have the doctor do an examination of the tumor.  She said she was already scheduled to go.  John asked her for a copy of the medical report and she agreed to provide it.

      UPDATE 2/5/11: I spoke with Pastor Mario (who is the pastor of the Tijuana church) today and he confirmed that when this woman went to the doctor, NO TUMORS WERE FOUND!!!

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  Claudia

  One woman named Claudia was wearing a neck brace.  She looked pregnant.  She told us that she was not pregnant but has a stomache issue, and as a result, has been on heavy medication for three years.  The doctors don’t understand what the problem is.   

I had Cindy put her hand on Claudia’s neck and Diana put a hand on Claudia’s stomache.  After we prayed, Claudia started coughing as though she was going to cough something up.  The pain immediately left Claudia’s neck!  No more neck brace!

As Diana prayed for Claudia’s swollen stomache, she said that she could feel her stomache “shrinking in a weird way” beneath her hand!  By the end of the evening, her stomach was completely flat!!!  This healing was so incredible that we videotaped her telling the story in spanish.     

Because at one point Cindy, Diana, and I split in three different directions to pray for more people, there are other testimonies of healing that I know are not recorded here.  I can only say that it was an incredible night of God’s power and mercy…and it strengthened my faith something fierce.   

Me:        

I don’t want to ever go back to my normal way of life.          

Pastor John:         

This is SUPPOSED to be your normal way of life.          

Me:         

Thank you.