In Carmen de Viboral

(Photo by Jen)

Time has really flown!  it doesn't seem like it was a month ago, Saturday, November 22, that our Colombia mission team went to the small town of Carmen de Viboral. It takes two or three hours to drive there from Medellín, but it was a beautiful drive.  It's a nice little city that felt fairly safe in comparison to some of the places we'd been in Medellín earlier that week.

When we got there, we had a morning devotion and then made plans for the day.  We were going to pray for church members that morning.  In the afternoon we would do street evangelism and advertise a special church service, and then we would attend the service.

We went around the neighborhood and prayed for the members of the church.  This church is a church planting of Christian Faith Community Church in Medellín, but only a few people go to it.  These people mostly ran businesses on one side of one street about a block or so away from the church location.

Karen and I pray for one of the church members as Bibiana translates. (Photo by Jen)

Dave prays for a man's hands as Carolina translates. (Photo by Jen)

There were many needs that we prayed for.  Some of our group prayed for a house that was apparently haunted.  Our team members prayed for the people who lived there and that the demonic spirits causing all the trouble would leave.

At least six people were physically healed and four of them gave their lives to Jesus as a result that morning.  One of those six people was already saved.

Karen and I prayed for a business owner on the other side of the street.  We knew that this lady probably wasn't saved and that she was fairly new to the neighborhood.  After we prayed for her, she told us in Spanish, "At least one good thing happened to me on my birthday."  Of course we sang "Happy Birthday" to her in Spanish.  We bought her a cake and a balloon and came back to her establishment and again wished her a happy birthday.  We saw her again that night at the special service.

After lunch, we went around the neighborhood again, but this time for street evangelism and to advertise a special church meeting that would happen that night.  We gave out Spanish Scripture promise boxes, prayed for people, and led some to Jesus.

Jeifer talks to a man in Spanish about the special service that night.  Because our translator was helping someone else out, Dave and I prayed for the man in English without a translator afterward. (Photo by Jen)

We saw some impressive results.  Dave V. A. led someone to Jesus in the sinner's prayer for the very first time; it was a really special moment for him.  I led a married couple to Jesus.

Dave V. A. poses with the first person he's ever led to Jesus in the sinner's prayer.

At the special service that night, they had more people in attendance than they've ever had.  Literally, there was only room to stand inside that small room.  One of our translators, Carolina, sang a special song, "Oceans," and then Jim T. preached in Spanish.  Although I don't know much Spanish, I could tell he talked about John the Baptist.  Our mission team prayed for the people after the message.

I was thrown a little bit of a curve ball because I didn't have a translator at first.  Fortunately the guitarist on stage could translate and together we prayed for people.  I led an entire family to Jesus—parents and kids.

I'm sure that my other team members have some surprising stories to tell about the service too.  It was pretty awesome.

That night, we rode back to Medellín in our private bus very happy at how God had worked in Carmen de Viboral.