‘Ordinary’ missionary sees hundreds healed in Colombia
By Martin CollinsA British itinerant missionary says he witnessed hundreds of healing miracles during his recent ministry trip to the Colombian city of Cali.
“In just over four weeks hundreds received miracles, lives were revolutionised, existing
relationships strengthened and great new relationships formed,” says Paul Bennison, who is now based in the US. “What can I say, other than God is at work in an increasingly powerful way in Cali.” Paul has made more than 25 visits to Colombia - the bulk of them to Cali, the cocaine and violence capital of the world - and has witnessed first hand the amazing ways in which the power of God moves in that land.
Accompanying Paul on his trip in September were Paul Silvester and John Crowder, pastor of Restoration Christian Centre in Newport News, Virginia, USA, which is now Paul’s home church.
Paul’s schedule was typically busy with meetings in churches, home groups, prisons and hospitals. Hospital authorities gave permission for Paul and the team to visit and pray for any who were interested.
Many were healed including Juan and Anna de Dios, who had received back and neck injuries in a car accident. After prayer all injuries were gone and they were dancing.
Albertoo had been released from prison to attend hospital as he had become paralysed from the waist down. After the team prayed for him, astonished prison staff took him back to jail completely well.
A woman saw this happen and asked Paul to pray for her father who was lying paralysed on a trolley. He was suffering from liver failure and was unable to speak.
Paul quoted words from Scripture, “You shall run and not be weary; walk and not faint”. He then moved on to another patient. Minutes later the daughter came back to ask Paul to come and see something. When they got back to the (empty) trolley, she said that her father had suddenly sat up and said, “I have to run!” which he did – straight out of the hospital.
On the medical ward he met Jose who asked Paul to pray for him. Paul obliged and moved on. Hearing a loud commotion, he turned to see Jose’s sister calling urgently for him to come and see her brother who was walking. He’d been paralysed from the waist down for more than a year.
By the third week, 90% of the beds contained new patients as the previous occupants had all been healed. Some were cured when they met a previously paralysed man in the toilet – he told them what had happened to him and they were healed on the spot.
“I went to Cali with an expectation of God doing the extraordinary, and I was not in any way disappointed,” says pastor John Crowder. “There was this sense that anything was available if you had the faith to believe for it.
“On several occasions I saw Paul in a different light as one exercising his God-given authority in speaking life over people he prayed for. He spoke what they needed and many responded to that word by leaving that hospital healed.”
Following the hospital visits and prayer sessions, 30 ex-patients phoned the local radio station to report on air what had happened to them.
One of the smallest meetings Paul attended was a home group of 20 people. He spoke briefly of his experiences of God and was astonished when 13 members who were not Christians all made commitments to Christ.
Paul was also allowed to go into Colombian prisons to speak to the inmates while they are exercising in the yard. In Villa Hermosa he spoke to 350 of some of the most dangerous men in Colombia.
Paul invited the men to receive prayer for forgiveness and the prison chaplain counted 200 who became Christians, one of whom was Luis who asked Paul to pray for wisdom to run the yard as Jesus would.
On the last Saturday Paul had planned to relax following a morning meeting before speaking in the evening. As he settled into the garden of the house where he was staying, 120 sick people turned up asking for prayer. All were prayed for and one lady who was totally blind can now see perfectly.
Paul is an ordinary man. If you met him you wouldn’t think there was anything unusual about him. Indeed, there isn’t, except his willingness to go where God tells him and speak of his love, power, mercy and grace. But Paul does serve an extraordinary God who is doing extraordinary things.
Paul has neither job nor income, except that which is given by individual supporters, yet somehow he manages to finance his trips around the world and God uses him wherever he goes.
Paul Bennison’s home church is Restoration Christian Centre in Newport News, Virginia, USA. His ministry is accountable to eight Christian leaders including his pastor, Rev John Crowder, Rev Eric Delve, vicar of St Luke's, Maidstone and Rev Dr Russ Parker, Acorn Christian Healing Centre. For more information e-mail paulbennison1@gmail.com
- Look out for more stories from Paul Bennison’s trip to Colombia in a future edition of Inspire Magazine.
