Mission Report Argentina 2015
We would like to say a big thank you to all those who gave financially and supported us in prayer for this mission. We give all glory to God for what He did. Here is a report:
Friday 6th-Sunday 8th March – Agape
Our first weekend was spent ministering at Agape to the Nations, a church that is experiencing phenomenal growth led by Pastor Carlos Sanchez.
On the Friday night there were a few hundred people present and I ministered on “The Wave Of God’s Goodness”. We had a great start with many first time decisions for Christ, deliverance and people weeping as they received prophetic words.
I must have prayed for hundreds of people and went home very encouraged by all God did.
On the Saturday afternoon I taught on evangelism to a small group of around fifty or sixty people. All of them responded to the altar call wanting to be used by God as soul winners. Paul Bendele shared on his heart for mission, and ten people came up at the end wanting to be used as missionaries in the future. Although this was the smallest meeting of the weekend, the potential impact could be huge!
Saturday night I preached on “Seeing Jesus” and we saw at least sixty people respond to the gospel. It was wonderful to see so many coming to the altar. That night we saw an amazing miracle as I prayed for an eight year old girl, blind in one eye from birth. Within moments, her sight was totally restored. In floods of tears her testimony was simply “Jesus has healed me forever!”
On Sunday I preached to hundreds of people in three back to back services. In the Sunday morning, we again saw around sixty decisions for Christ and another wonderful miracle as a woman who had had pain in her back, legs and kidneys for over ten years was healed. The pain in her body had been so bad that at times she had been unable to work. As we prayed, she felt fire all over her body and before long she was testifying that she was now pain free!
The final service at Agape was to a bumper crowd of over seven hundred people. I spoke on “Bartimeus” and nearly the whole church ran to the altar for an encounter with Jesus! It was an incredible sight! We saw loads of first time decisions and the fire of God fell in what was a mighty move of God.
Monday 9th – Wednesday 11th March – Wider Cordoba ministry
During these few days we were able to support several smaller ministries in Cordoba, which is the second largest city in the country. On Monday we met a dear couple who have a wonderful ministry to street children. Thanks to the kindness of our partners we were able to bless them financially. The next day, we met with their church and another smaller church for a midweek meeting. Both congregations have gone through tough times in recent years and speaking on “You Are The God Who Sees Me” we saw the presence of God move in a wonderful way. The Holy Spirit manifested in such a strong way and God gave us prophetic words for many people, with many being in tears, broken and prostrate before God.
The following night, we ministered in another needy church and again God’s fire fell. It was great to see many children respond to the gospel in this meeting.
Also, during this time it was good to fellowship with many Assemblies of God pastors at their regional meeting.
Thursday 12th-Friday 13th March – Chancani
We first visited Chancani in 2012. It is an incredibly small, needy place, isolated from the rest of the province. To give you an idea of how remote it is, we travelled for over an hour on the main road there and only passed one other car the whole time!
In 2012 God told me that He was sending me to that village to reach one person with the gospel. That person was Barbara, and what a joy three years later to see that her life has been totally transformed! She is full of joy and with a real hunger for God. This time, she was able to give testimony in the meeting about what God had done for her.
This time around, we saw God touch more than just one person however! The first night was fairly quiet, we gathered in the town square and just began to preach. We had a decent response, with about seventeen responding to the gospel. What was amazing though was to see so many people from the town watching and listening from across the road. As I led people in the sinner’s prayer I wasn’t prepared for what happened next. As we laid hands on people, they began to fall under the power of God! This created quite a commotion and suddenly those who had been watching, rushed over to see what was happening. The following day the town was full of rumours of visitors with “magic powers” who had come to visit!
That evening we had a bumper crowd of over two hundred people with around seventy responding to the gospel. Over the two nights that means there were around one hundred decisions. For a town with a population of around five hundred that’s a pretty big deal!
Following the preaching of the gospel, the fire of God fell on those who had responded. We saw a boy healed who had bad eyesight and several other healings too. One of those healed was a lady with terrible back pain. As I prayed she fell face down on the floor. She had a top on that exposed her back, and I watched in amazement as I saw the bones in her back moving back into place. She got up totally pain free. Glory to God!
Saturday 14th-Sunday 15th March – Back to Cordoba
We travelled back to Cordoba for a second weekend of ministry in the city. On the Saturday night we ministered at a youth service where I preached on the Holy Spirit. Every single young person responded and we were able to release several prophetic words over people. The presence of God was so strong in that meeting with many young people crying and broken before God. After the ministry time there was a wonderful holy hush as young people carried on praying for one another long after I had officially finished ministering.
On Sunday morning we were honoured to minister for David Saint at his church in Cordoba. The glory of God turned up into a mighty way and nearly everyone in the church wanted prayer. There was one wonderful moment where a couple in the church who had been going through marital difficulties were reconciled and movingly embraced one another following a prophetic word from one of the team.
On Sunday evening we visited an amazing church in Carlos Paz. This place was packed and the people were so hungry for God. The fire of God fell in that place and it was incredible time of encounter. Many people were touched with the joy of the Lord, while even some of our own team were totally undone in the presence of God.
Tuesday 17th-Wednesday 18th March – Mina Clavero
We spent two days ministering in the town of Mina Clavero. The first night was quite a tough night and I had to really preach through what I felt was a strong religious barrier (it is a very strong Roman Catholic area). Praise God that we saw around fifty salvations that night and the next night the heavens were opened and we enjoyed a wonderful move of the Holy Spirit with more salvations plus healings, prophecy and people being touched by God. It was especially wonderful to see the three sons of our host pastor, all being powerful touched as they re-dedicated their lives to Christ.
Whilst in Mina Clavero we got the opportunity to share the gospel on secular radio and also meet the mayor who attended near the end of the second service. This Roman Catholic walked in just as the fire was falling during the altar call! After he said he had never seen anything like it, except on TV! After the service we got the chance to share a few words with the local pastors and pray for them, another great move of God’s Spirit.
Thursday 19th-Saturday 21st March – Crusade time
Our biggest meetings were reserved for near the end of the trip as we spent three nights doing back to back outdoor crusades in the city of Villa Dolores.
The first two nights we had around six hundred people in attendance. I preached the first night on “God’s Judgement”, a hard hitting message on sin, hell and repentance. Around two hundred came to the altar, with many weeping under conviction of sin. I refused to pray for the sick that night as I made it clear that salvation was the greatest need and the greatest miracle. It was a great joy to have a young boy come up to me at the end and say “when I grow up I want to preach the gospel!”
The second night we again saw well over a hundred people respond to the gospel as I preached on “The Blood Of Christ”. We saw many children powerfully touched this night. This was the night we saw another outstanding miracle as we prayed for an eighteen year old girl who had been born with a severe spinal condition that left her unable to walk without leg braces. As I laid hands on her she fell under the power of God. As I then placed my hands on her legs I heard bones cracking and moving back into place. Within a few moments she had taken the leg braces off and was walking unaided for the first time in her life!
That night, two young girls who had been victims of sexual abuse responded to words of knowledge from two of our team members and were both powerfully touched. We believe God set them free from the trauma they had gone through.
God gave us great favour in Villa Dolores, opening up the doors to meet the mayor and pray with him and also minister on the radio. With the evening meetings being outdoor we were also able to minister to people who hadn’t actually come to the meeting. The second meeting was held on a couple of basketball courts surrounded by children’s play activities. We heard the testimony of one man who had taken his children there to play, stopping what he was doing and listening as the gospel was being preached. He said he had never heard anything like it before!
On the last night, we had our largest crowd of around two thousand people. Again, there were many hundreds of people responding to salvation and also a call for prodigals to return home. We prayed specifically for children and later pastors that were in attendance and the Holy Spirit touched both sets of people. Tears fell as we ministered to those responding to the gospel for the first time. What a mighty three days we had!
Sunday 22nd – Tuesday 24th March
On our last Sunday morning in Argentina, I preached at Bethel church, a Messianic congregation led by Omar Francia, who had been overseeing all the meetings in Mina Clavero and Villa Dolores. I preached on mission and evangelism and it was awesome to see nearly the entire church responding to being committed to fulfil the Great Commission in their area.
At the end of the meeting a young girl who was blind in one eye asked for prayed. I prayed for a few minutes but nothing happened. I prayed again and again she was still unable to see. I told her to keep trusting God and then turned away. As I did, the girl broke down sobbing in her mother’s arms. I felt such compassion towards her and refused to believe that it was God’s will for her to remain this way. I grabbed her and asked her straight “do you believe Jesus can heal you?” In a flash she responded “yes” “Then go and lay hands on your own eye and come back and tell me what happens”. She came back a few minutes later with a huge smile “I can see!” This is Jesus!
While I was preaching here, Scott Bottger was preaching in another church with the rest of the team. I spoke to the host pastor afterwards and he was very happy with what God had done in the meeting. God’s fire had fallen in a mighty way!
Sunday evening was our last official meeting before the team went home. We ministered at a packed church in a place called Mirlo. This church is very open to the Holy Spirit and so we ended the trip with a real outpouring of the Holy Spirit! A great way to finish. Only not quite…
After the team had returned home I stayed in Argentina for an extra two days. Our translator Milcah Jago, who had done such a superb job took me to her father’s church for their Tuesday night service. I was honoured to be asked to share for a few moments, and I was able to bring what I felt was a prophetic word to the congregation and also release a few prophetic words for individuals. Now the mission felt truly complete.
And next?
On the last night in Villa Dolores I spoke with Pastor Omar and several other pastors about when we may return. They were all in agreement that we return as soon as possible. The venue in Villa Dolores seats twelve thousand people, and they dream to fill it. They feel that going at a different time of year and with a little better organisation on their part, they can get even bigger crowds than this time. Pastor Omar also wants us to continue what God did in Mina Clavero whilst we always have an open invite to Chancani.
In Cordoba, we ministered in so many different churches which was wonderful but also time consuming. I asked one of the pastors who has real influence about the possibility of bringing several churches together in a large venue for a city wide evangelistic crusade. He said this was certainly possible.
So right now we are in the planning stages to return to Argentina in August 2016. We are excited about the doors God has opened in this nation and expectant of an even greater harvest next time round. Please pray for us as we start to organise this trip. And if God leads you to sow a seed into our missions work please click the link below.
Also, please watch this short teaser of some highlights of the mission.
God bless, Andrew