At the end of February, the next teaching trip took me to Matagalpa Nicaragua.
We received an invitation from 5 city churches to teach on the Healing Ministry of Jesus. This is a new step in the growth of the work for us in Nicaragua, as we move beyond the work with Vida Joven and into the city.
The Healing Conference
Over the course of a few days, nearly 100 people attended the conference. We taught on the five areas of healing that Jesus brings:
- Spiritual
- Relational
- Emotional
- Physical
- Deliverance
Most of the time was focused on Emotional and Physical Healing, given the context of the churches we ministered in. Each section had a prayer time associated with it, where we moved from theory to practice.
Lots of tears where shed, as Jesus brought significant healing to various people.
The stories are too personal to share here, but people gave testimonies of forgiveness they encountered, forgiveness they granted, freedom, and some reported physical healing as well.
Relational Healing
Sunday morning was my turn to preach. The church was packed, and the Lord had me focus particularly on relational healing:
- Between spouses
- Between parents and children
- Between friends
- Between pastors and leaders
The ministry time wound up being a time of surrender for people, inviting them to surrender their conflicts, seek forgiveness, and pledge to work towards a solution rather than destruction.
Sunday night
Sunday night was a healing service at yet another church, with nearly 300 in attendance. Some of our friends from Vida Joven ministered with us. Team member Sam Hale brought a message of faith and then moved us into a time of prayer ministry.
There was so much need for prayer that even 9 ministry teams were not enough. . .
My reflections
We are intentional not to be the North American superstars. Historically, I’ve seen a mentality that the “preacher” is the “anointed one” and all personal prayer must be done by this one person.
Instead, we teach how the Holy Spirit empowers each one of us to cooperate with the loving work the the Father wants us to do. Thus, we encourage local people to form the prayer teams and practice what we’ve been teaching.
Rather than a line of people seeking us out, there are multiple teams that can provide prayer ministry. This is intentional equipping on our part.
A second marvel for me is the cooperation of the 5 churches that brought our team to Nicaragua. Praise God for their unity and their sacrificial offering to help continue to spread the teaching in other churches in Latin America.
What’s next?
We’ve been invited back in the fall 2012 for another conference with these churches, and hopefully with more churches participating in the city. Planning is in the works.
Your gifts support this work and enable us to get airplane tickets for events like this.
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