Testimonies of the God Who Answers

The Church of Maimón opened its doors and its heart to us. By day we went into the streets and the surrounding villages with the gospel; by night the church filled with praise, and people came in from the small towns around — and many gave their lives to the Lord.

One day the road to a remote village crossed a river. Halfway through, the truck struck a rock and stopped — the current pressing, the water rising. We prayed with steady faith, and the Scripture the Lord had prepared weeks before rose up: “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee.” Suddenly the tires caught, the rock released us, and we climbed the far bank without a single mechanical issue. There was no human explanation. And the Lord spoke: “Thou shalt see greater things than these.”

In the village, people first watched us with suspicion. But as we played with the children, lifted up praise, and preached that salvation is in Christ alone, hearts opened wide. Many gave their lives to the Lord that day — and the same faces that had eyed us warily embraced us in tears, asking us to come back.

On Father’s Day we were led into a military fortress in Cotuí that houses a prison of nearly a thousand men. The Spirit of the Lord had gone before us. As the gospel was preached, the cry came back from the men themselves: “We’ve heard enough — we want Jesus.” Twenty-one souls came to Christ inside those walls.

The fruit remains. Since the campaign, the Church of Maimón has nearly tripled and is opening new places of meeting — shepherded by its own local pastors, long after our team flew home.

“When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee.” — Isaiah 43:2 · KJV

In Medellín we served alongside a local church that goes every week into the hardest streets of the city — food, prayer, and the gospel for men and women the world has written off — walking them from addiction into rehabilitation, and on to repentance, baptism, and a church family. On our first night, twenty-three men stood in that sanctuary — every one of them delivered from addiction, clean, and baptized. When the gospel was preached and the call was given, all twenty-three rose to declare Jesus Christ as Lord. The Chainbreaker was in the room.

Later that week we were brought to a small house that had once been used to pack and move drugs. Today it is a house of refuge where women being rescued from the streets worship the living God. A testimony was given — the story of a dead man made alive in Christ — and at the cry “¡Levántense!” — “Stand up!” — every single person in the room rose to their feet. Praise broke out. Tears fell. No striving, no show — only Jesus, showing the wonders of His love in a city under siege.

From Medellín the road climbed into the mountains of Antioquia, to the pueblo of Peque — coffee fields, tin-roofed sanctuaries, and the unmistakable presence of God. We preached in the town, taught the children how a young man keeps his way pure by taking heed to God’s Word, and celebrated four weddings in two days as families were set in covenant before the Lord.

Even the interruptions preached. On a mountain road we met a man who had just chased his runaway turkey down the hill — and before the bird was home, the gospel had been preached, the man had repented and received Jesus Christ as Lord, and he was pointed to the church nearby to be discipled. Our God wastes nothing.

On the way back down, a landslide had closed the only road. Buses and trucks stood stranded in both directions. Two shovels came off a bus, and the digging began — and while hands worked, the gospel went bus to bus, soul to soul. Young men who had stood by laughing gave their lives to Christ, then picked up shovels and dug beside us. And the moment the last person the Lord was after had heard the gospel, the bulldozer arrived and the mountain opened. Todo es Cristo — all is Christ.

“Blessed be the LORD: for he hath shewed me his marvellous kindness in a strong city.” — Psalm 31:21 · KJV

In Córdoba, a pastor of a congregation of fewer than ten members asked for help — he could not grow his church, and he was humble enough to say so. So we came. For days we went deep in the Word of God with him and his family: on the love of Christ, and on making room for the Spirit of God to work — because the church is built on Christ’s love before it is built on any method.

Then we labored together: an evangelism boot camp, pastoral strengthening, and out into the streets side by side. In two hours, seventeen souls came to the Lord — and every one was invited into his congregation for discipleship, so that in time baptism would be their own confession before Christ.

Jesus left the ninety-nine for the one, and He does not despise the day of small things. The God Who Answers will serve any church or group of believers, of any size — to strengthen them, train them, and labor beside them. We plant and water; God gives the increase.

“For who hath despised the day of small things?” — Zechariah 4:10 · KJV

The team landed at dawn and was preaching by ten that morning — at a Christian school nearly nine thousand feet up in the Andes, among a people whose indigenous heritage runs deep and unbroken, and who are precious to the heart of God. When the call was made, eight children gave their lives to the Lord. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, the accuser was silenced.

Then the prisons — four of them across seven days, three for men and one for boys. Overcrowded and largely forgotten, thousands of men inside a single wall. This is exactly where the Lord sends His church, for He Himself was numbered with the transgressors — and He goes in. We did not go in empty-handed: food and drink for the body, and fifty Bibles for the Bread of Life.

In the hardest of the four, we found what we will never forget. Two prisoners who had come to Christ had raised a church inside the walls — their own hand-made sign over it, a Pentecostal congregation in a place that forgets men’s names. And it was these two brothers who led us, the free men, in worship — on Andean cane flutes, in Spanish and in Quechua. Then the gospel was preached, and men wept and cried out in repentance. This is Pentecost: the Spirit poured out on all flesh, building a church no wall can hold.

In the juvenile center, more than twenty boys gave their lives to Jesus with tears running down their faces — and when the call went out for those who would give their lives to serve the Lord, more than thirty came forward. Hands were laid on them, and the Spirit of God moved in power.

Before the week was over, 139 people had made decisions for Christ — 109 of them behind bars — and every one was entrusted to the local pastors who remain. Three local churches were strengthened, believers were trained through an evangelism boot camp, and at a pastors’ conference, ministers with decades in the field poured into young pastors and missionaries in their teens and twenties. On the last day the team stood in a circle at the church compound and prayed that it would be a fire lit in the Andes — and that every time the enemy came to stamp out a fire, ten more would erupt in its place.

“And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.” — Acts 16:25 · KJV

The invitation to Cuenca came from a Baptist pastor. The God Who Answers is non-denominational: we labor gladly with any church that professes Jesus Christ as King, as Savior, and as the only way to God — one Lord, one faith, one baptism.

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Together we carried the gospel where people were hurting most — drug rehabilitation centers, a cancer ward, a seniors’ home, young men in juvenile facilities, and the open streets — sharing the love of Christ and praying for the sick. More than 130 souls said yes to Jesus, and every one was entrusted to the local pastors who remain.

And the congregation itself was strengthened — not by argument, but by beholding the Holy Spirit moving in power, so that faith would rest not in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

“…in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” — 1 Corinthians 2:4–5 · KJV

In Cali the Lord built homes on the Rock. Over two days, “The Architecture of Marriage” laid biblical foundations under couples and families — Christ-centered homes built to stand when the rain descends and the floods come.

The teaching did not stay in the room. On Saturday the gospel went out to the streets of the city; on Sunday the Holy Spirit moved powerfully in the house of God, and new souls surrendered their lives to Christ — each one welcomed into the family of the local church that remains.

“And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.” — Matthew 7:25 · KJV

Orlando is our sending base — and it is also a mission field. Through ongoing evangelism across the greater Orlando area this year, more than twenty people have given their lives to Christ and been planted into local, Bible-believing churches.

In an apartment-building lobby we prayed for a woman whose arm was in a cast. The next day we saw her again — the cast was gone, and she told us she was healed. She said she had grown up overseas, raised in religion, and never knew this was possible. We told her: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever — and He desires to know her personally, through His Word and His Spirit, not through religion. The Lord has confirmed His Word with more healings besides.

A young man who had taken part in shamanic rituals abroad was being tormented by a demon. In the name of Jesus Christ he was set free — and one week later he surrendered his life to the Lord and was baptized. The chains are real; the King is stronger.

“And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.” — Mark 16:20 · KJV