TESTIMONIES

We were on a medical mission trip in very poor villages in the Yucatan and the houses were approximately 20’ x 20’ and consisted of just 1 room. The corner posts were limbs from trees and the walls were made of the stems of palm branches nailed to the wood posts. The roof was corrugated tar paper nailed to 1” x 3” sticks cut from palm trees. As Mike went around inviting people to the free medical clinics, some invited him into their homes. He noticed that there were no beds, just pieces of cardboard lying on the dirt floor for them to sleep on or sometimes a hammock was hanging from the wood posts. Occasionally he would see a table and a few chairs but nothing else. There weren’t any bathrooms or kitchens or any walls that separated into different rooms. Meanwhile Kim was working in the pharmacy part of the mission separating the medications to hand out after the people had their doctor’s visit. Before they received their medications, we had everyone pass through the prayer team where they shared the Gospel message and offered prayer for healing. A mother came through the clinic with 3 of her children and her 5-year-old daughter was paralyzed on her left side. The prayer team quickly went to work praying for God to heal this little girl. The team erupted in shouts of praise as the little girl raised her left arm. The leader of the prayer team looked at the mother and her face hadn’t changed at all; she was still looking downcast. When they asked her why she said, “She still can’t walk.” She was right. The prayer team got back to praying for the young girl and in almost no time at all, the little girl ran over to mama! Now the team really was shouting, and mama was now very happy. The next day, the Governor’s wife was holding a grand opening for a new kindergarten facility and this mother was there with her children. One of the missionaries that lived down there was walking by the facility and when the mother saw him, she grabbed him and pushed him toward where the Governor’s wife was standing. She interrupted the event and said, “You need to give this American some land with a building so they can have a medical clinic here. I took my daughter to your clinic last year and they said they couldn’t do anything to help her. Yesterday I took my daughter to their clinic and look at her! She can walk, move her arm, and play with the other children just like all the other kids. The Governor’s wife looked at the missionary and said, who are you and what are you doing in ‘my’ village? The missionary explained we were holding free medical clinics and had secured permission to hold these events. Instead of being happy for the woman and her daughter, she became infuriated and made a quick call. Soon, we were surrounded by 6 Military Humvees filled with soldiers and armed with machine guns. They watched us intently as we continued with the medical clinics. We passed the word around for everyone to pray and just continue doing what we were doing and show no signs of fear or intimidation. So, the clowns continued to walk around and hand out candy and we did more dramas for the children. After just a few hours, they packed up and left! That night we held an open-air crusade with generators, lights and our music group playing and singing praises to God. The whole village came out for the event and hundreds of people were in attendance. We preached the Gospel Message and many of them came forward to receive Christ as their Savior!

One day a member of our church who had been delivered from a life of alcoholism named Chucho was walking by the church in Llano largo and a man was sitting in a chair just around the corner. As Chucho was walking by the man, he motioned for Chucho to come over. This man’s name is Jaime and he had suffered a stroke and was now paralyzed on his left side and couldn’t’ talk. He could only make noises trying to speak and Chucho understood that he had suffered a stroke from the symptoms that he could see. Jaime was trying to communicate that he wanted Chucho to pray for him. Jaime lived right next door to the church but never came to church. As a matter of fact, he would make fun of people who went to church and mocked them. Today, the tables had turned, and he needed God. Chucho laid his hands on him and prayed for him and then went on his way. The next day as he walked by, Jaime motioned to him to please stop by and pray for him again, so he did. The next day when Chucho was walking by Jaime was able to speak a few words. Chucho shared the Gospel message with Jaime along with his testimony of how God had healed him. Jaime accepted Christ into his heart and just a few days later was completely healed of any symptoms that he had suffered a stroke. The next time we were in the church in Llano Largo, Jaime came over to us and greeted us and we talked about the goodness of God and how He was gracious to him and healed him of the stroke.

Pastor Nolberto’s daughter’s wedding was quickly approaching so he and his family were making last minute preparations for the grand event. Every father wants to make sure his daughter’s wedding will be an event to remember, and every daughter wants everything to be just wonderful as well. It was the day before the wedding and Pastor Nolberto wanted to do some last-minute painting in his house to make everything look just right. He was using a makeshift home-built ladder to paint the high places on the stairway that leads up to the 2nd floor. His son had just been up the ladder but didn’t feel comfortable reaching the highest places, so Pastor Nolberto volunteered to take over. As he was stretching to reach the last few places remaining, suddenly the ladder snapped, and he came tumbling down the ladder backwards. He landed upside down directly hitting his head and shoulders on the concrete steps. His wife Aida had been holding the ladder steady for him and she screamed as she lunged to grab him as he tumbled down the ladder but was unable to soften the blow. She quickly asked, “Nolberto, are you alright?” He wasn’t able to say a word and only muttered a few noises. The rest of the family was nearby, and they all came running to his aid. They picked him up and carried him to the couch and began to pray for him. Suddenly his eyes rolled back, and he went into convulsions. They grabbed a towel and tried to keep his mouth open so he wouldn’t swallow his tongue, but they were unsuccessful. His body went limp, and he sank back into the couch. The family was frantic, not knowing what to do next. They grabbed a bottle of rubbing alcohol and poured some on the towel and put it up to his nose to get him to respond but all the efforts seemed hopeless. He had stopped breathing and he laid there not moving a muscle. They began to shake him and call his name, Nolberto! Nolberto! Wake up! Wake Up! But there was no response. They all began to pray as they were also crying, “Lord, bring Nolberto back to us!” Nolberto had left his body. He was now in heaven and found himself talking to other family members who had gone on before him. He was surrounded by the beauty of heaven and as he was taking it all in, he heard them say “What are you doing here? You can’t stay, your family needs you.” The next thing he knew was he could see his family gathered around him praying for him and he realized he was back in his house looking down from above. They were earnestly praying for him and suddenly he took a deep breath and opened his eyes, and his family broke out in thanksgiving. “Nolberto, you’re alive! We thought we lost you!” Now that he was stabilized, they loaded him into a car and took him to the hospital where he was examined by the medical staff and treated for his injuries. He stayed there several days recuperating from the fall. Besides his concussion, he had torn muscles in his shoulder but he made a complete recovery!

Pastor Carlos’ brother Tello married late in life and the Lord blessed he and his wife with a little girl, however she was born with several diseases and each of them were life threatening. The first disease that surfaced was Encephalitis, which is inflammation of the brain. There are several causes, including viral infection, autoimmune inflammation, bacterial infection, insect bites and others. They weren’t able to detect which type of the disease she had, but her head had swelled abnormally, and they were embarrassed to take her out in public because of the looks they got and the questions that were asked. They would put a hat on her head whenever they took her out in public to try and hide the effects of the disease. People made comments that hurt their feelings and soon they did not even want to take her to church. Natalia had other life-threatening diseases that were crippling her. At the young age of 20 months, she wasn’t crawling or rolling over or trying to sit up. She was very weak physically and she appeared to be anemic and undernourished. Her body wouldn’t always hold her food down or digest it properly. Her condition continued to go downhill so they took her in to see a specialist and found out she also had a heart problem and a blood disease. His prognosis didn’t paint a good future for Natalia and when we found out about it on one of our trips, we made sure that we stopped by to pray for her. They had her in a bed and she was lying on her back. They told us of everything the doctors had said so we began to tell them everything Jesus had to say! She will live a healthy life. She was not born to be a burden to you or be crippled or just lay in this bed for the rest of her life. We are going to pray for her, and God is going to do a miracle! Mike and Kim prayed for Natalia, but they didn’t stop there. Faith requires action. Kim said, let me show you what to do to exercise your faith. First of all, we speak what God says about her. She is healed by the stripes of Jesus. He died on the cross for every disease she might have. What he bore she need not bear. Secondly, you encourage her to do what she can’t do. She’s not going to just lay there, and you are not just going to sit here and look at her. You do what I do. Kim began to speak over Natalia and say what she could do. “Natalia, you are going to roll over. Natalia, you are going to sit up. Natalia, you can crawl.” As she said these different actions, she would roll her over, put her hands by her feet and gently nudge her legs, and rock her back up toward a sitting position. We stayed there with them for a few hours encouraging them with the Word of God. They had faith but they needed to see how to use their faith and put it into action. Kim said, “You speak over Natalia what she should be able to do, and you put your hands on her and show her how to do it and watch what God is going to do.” Our trips are only for two weeks, and we had to leave to go back to the states, but we gave her parents and grandma their faith assignment. Grandma had already been healed of cancer and she had faith in her heart and was completely on board for God to heal her granddaughter. When we came down 3 months later, we stopped in to see how Natalia was doing. She was thriving! She was stronger and responding to the prayers and coaching that her parents were doing. She was still in bed but was able to roll over and start some basic moves toward crawling. Kim worked with her some more to try and help her sit up. It was a labor of love to speak God’s Word over her and tell her what God was going to do! “Natalia, you are going to sit up. Jesus healed you! You can do this.” Then Kim would put her hands behind her and demonstrate how she should work to sit up. We spent a few hours with them again just speaking God’s Word, giving them scriptures to stand on and speak over Natalia. Mary, (Natalia’s mom) and grandma were standing strong in faith and were 100% on board that what God has promised He is also able to perform! We had to leave again to go back to the states but assured them that we are standing with them, and God’s got this! They were going to his brother’s church, (Pastor Carlos) in Tres Palos and we encouraged him to be sure to take her to church and we’ll be praying for Natalia. Tres Palos is one of the churches we visit first on our trips, and we will never forget what we saw when we walked into church that day. There was Natalia sitting up on the tile floor in the middle of the church with a big smile on her face. When she saw us, she scooted towards us still in a sitting position. She couldn’t stand up and walk yet but what an improvement! Her parents were beaming. We told them that the next time we see them she will be walking . . . and that is exactly what happened. On our next trip down when we walked into the church at Tres Palos, Natalia ran over to us and gave us big hugs. Today, Natalia is 10 years old, goes to school just like every other child and oh, we forgot to mention that she looks completely normal. The Encephalitis completely disappeared as well, and the shape of her head is completely normal.