I´ll quickly tell you some of the stories from the last days in Brazil. We went to a youth meeting one night. The youth had a full day at a school gym. They were worshipping, dancing, playing, praying. All the good stuff. We came in the evening and Chase preached to them. After that we all went around and prayed for them and blessed them. They were really really hungry! Many of them got very much touched by the Father. A lot of them ended up on the floor resting in His presence. It was good.
On our way our from that meeting, one of our interpreters, Paula, stopped me. It was only her and I left in there from the team. She had been praying for a man that had told her that his left eye was completely blind! She had me come over to pray for him too, and together we prayed for him. Sanna and Chase came back also and we prayed for him, about a minute or so. Then he opened his eyes again, covered up his right eye, and started reading a poster that was on the wall! Did you get that?! His left eye had been healed and he can see now!!! WOW! That thing right there makes me very very happy. Thank you Jesus for giving him his sight back. Great!

The next night Sanna and I went to preach in two different churches. That´s the first time we´ve gone to separate places to preach at the same time. It went well for both of us, but for us both it was also very different than what we´re used to. I love to preach a more evangelistic message, but that time God had me preach out of Malachi, on giving a good offering. That´s different! They probably expected me to jump around in there and preach up a storm. I asked God about it before I went to the meeting. “Hey God. This is not how Gary has asked us to do this. The church probably expect something completely different too. And I´m not used to preach about this thing.” Do you know what His answer was? “Well, are you going to do what I want you to do?” Oh yes, that´s what I wanted to do. I believe that the message came through well, but I also knew that there were people there who needed healing. So I did what Jesus did, and told them that if they didn´t believe the words that I spoke, at least believe the works that I do, so that you will know that the Father is in me. So I had everybody that needed a healing stand up and I prayed over them. About half of them got healed right there! One man came up and wanted healing for his leg. He was 80 years old! I´m not sure what happened to his leg but I noticed that he had hearing aid in both ears. I asked him to take them out and we prayed for him. He ended up hearing better without the hearing aids, than with them! Praise God. And he was 80 years old! A young boy had come to the meeting with pain in his left elbow. After we prayed, the pain was gone!

The best stories I remember from Sanna´s church was that 17 people got saved, and I two year old girl got baptized in the Holy Spirit and started to pray in tongues! Cool! Her parents came up and gave the testimony. The little girl had suddenly during the meeting, while Sanna was preaching, started to speak in a strange language that the parents didn´t understand. They were both happy

Monday evening the team flew home to the US, but Chase, Sanna and I was left in São Paulo, because we had booked tickets for the next day. By mistake. And it cost $250 to change each ticket. We stayed with Weslei Vianna, a local man that interpreted for us during the trip. He is really cool! A great man of God. He took us around the city, which by the way is extremely big, and also took us to visit his spiritual grandfather, Luiz Schiliró. Luiz has preached the gospel in 56 countries! He has been arrested several times for preaching. He was arrested for practicing medicine without lisence! And that was because he was healing people in Jesus name. So that time he was restricted from laying hands on the sick. Police officers came to the next meeting to make sure that he did as he was told. One of them came over to him and told him that his mother was very sick and asked him if he please could come and lay hands on her and heal her! Hehe, that´s really cool. We prayed for him, and he prayed for us and imparted to us. By the way, he is 90 years old now and he is still preaching. Two sermons on Sunday in a few days.

The car drive to the airport was something I will never forget! If I had videotaped it I could have watched it every Saturday with a bowl of popcorn. It was exhilaration! Weslei drove very fast through the city of São Paulo, and he was on the sidewalk, driving against the direction and darted back and forth. Half of the time he didn´t even know where we were and had to change direction when he saw signs street names that he recognized. And São Paulo is so big that it´s almost impossible to know the whole city! It was really cool though, and he got us to the airport in time. Even though it looked impossible. Sanna preached on having faith, while we were in the car and she kept giving us hope Wonderful woman

Brazil is great! God bless you.

It´s a little past 5 pm now and we´ve been to a meeting this morning. It was for pastors and ministers, and we´re going to have a meeting like that every morning this week. In a couple of hours we´re going to have meetings in three different churches. Gary Oates, Chase Turner and I are preaching and inviting the presence of our Holy God to come be with us to save the lost, heal the sick and free those bound by the devil. It´s going to be very good! Jesus is always good! Please pray for us. I´ll update this note later to let you know some of the things that is going to happen. Thank you all for partnering with your prayers. We love you all very much!

Hugs from Krister and Sanna

Update:
It´s been a fantastic evening! The meeting was very good. God showed up, the worship was glorious, people were hungry. I didn´t know what to preach on as I came there this evening, but Holy Spirit didn´t leave me speechless. He really came and thanks to Him there were many people healed tonight! Our team, consisting of Sanna, Jim (our faithful team member from the Colombia trip in January!) and myself did impartation with everybody in the church. It was great! It took some time because there was over 200 people in the church, but it was perfect. We want people to be able to step into the things that we preach. Since they believe they also can lay hands on the sick and see them recover. So that was my focus. To help them see who they are in Christ, and what authority and power they carry as sons of God.

I had a few words of knowledge and had people stand up for me to pray over them. God sovereignly healed 39 people of various conditions!!! Jesus you are the saviour of the world! It was so great! One lady used a walker and had done that for a couple of months because of a knee surgery that left her off worse than before. She couldn´t bend her knee… after I prayed over her and some other people that stood up she was able to bend her knee again and she came up using her walker. I asked her why she still had the walker and so she tried to walk without it; and she did! Glory to God! She walked back and forth, better for every step. In the end when she was going back to her seat, she just folded together the walker and lifted it up! It was so glorious!

One woman gave her life to Jesus for the first time, and two men that had been walking away from Jesus, rededicated their life to the Lord. Tears were streaming down their faces as they had seen the power of the only living God manifest in their midst. They wanted to come back and walk with Jesus again. Hallelujah, there´s a party in Heaven right now!

After the meeting we were invited out to eat pizza. The translators didn´t come so we ended up with 50 people from church, with nobody to translate! It was both fun and interesting. The pizza was very good, even though we couldn´t communicate very well with the people there. We left 12:30 am and went back to the hotel; tired, but full of joy. Thank you for everything you did tonight, Holy Spirit!

Sanna and I are now in Bauru, Brazil. It´s a city in Sao Paulo and it´s one of the smaller cities around here. From our hotel room balcony on 14th floor, we can see houses as far as the eyes reach..! It looks like a big city to me… The reason why we are here is to do a mission trip with Gary Oates Ministries. It´s 23 of us here with the group and we all look forward to see what God is going to do this week. We arrived this morning and drove 4–5 hours by bus to get to the hotel in Bauru.

Tomorrow we´re going to have a morning meeting in a church and then we will go to 3 churches in the evening. Gary will be preaching in one church and then two of the interns will take one intern each and a part of the team and go to the other two churches and preach. It´ll be great fun! There is always a lot of people saved, healed and delivered on these trips, and God shows up bigtime! Thank you Jesus for being with us!

Please pray for all of us. Sanna and I will probably preach once or twice each so please keep us in your prayers. Please pray that God will use us and that we will not be in the way of what He wants to do for His children here.

Thank you so much and God bless you!
Love, Krister and Sanna

MIRACLES ABOUND IN RIOHACHA, COLOMBIA

“This trip has changed my life forever. God has blessed me in ways I could never have imagined and I am more excited about my future than I would have imagined.” Sandy B.

Yes, the trip to Riohacha, Colombia was life changing — not only for the team who went with us – but for the countless precious people whose lives were so mightily touched by God.

Another team member said it this way, “The greatest part of the trip was the greatest miracle of all, the salvations and the ones that we will see in heaven because you were so faithful. The healings were beyond description…so many without pain. Many can speak and hear, walk and Praise God for what he has done.” Jim T.

A HISTORIC EVENT

“Nothing like this has ever happened in Riohacha. This is a historic event”, Pastor Loren said about the outdoor evangelistic meetings held on the main street by the beach. The police actually blocked off the street to accommodate the crowd of people! The place was electric with the presence of God as people came with great expectations. The local television station covered the event as well as the newspaper. The whole town was abuzz.

The first night attendance was somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000. The next night conservatively between 4,000 and 5,000 showed up. Amazingly, there are only 18 protestant churches in Riohacha (population — 169,000) with about 2,000 believers total! So a lot of non-believers showed up and hundreds responded and gave their lives to Jesus. We’ll only know for sure the total number when we get to heaven. By the way, the Police Chief was saved the first night and two more police officers were saved the next night.

On the last night, the event was celebrated with a massive fireworks display that could be seen for miles around. The crowd was screaming with delight. What a memorable experience!

PRISON & ORPHANAGES

In addition to ministering to the pastors and leaders in morning sessions, our team visited three orphanages. What a delight to minister the love of God to such precious children.

Some of our team went to a local prison and ministered to the inmates. At least 30 of them gave their hearts to Jesus!

THE TEAM DIVIDES

On Thursday and Friday evenings our team divided up to minister in different churches led by Rafaela Silveira (Missions Director for Gary Oates Ministries) and Krister and Sanna Turoy who are interns of GOM. The Holy Spirit was present to “confirm the word by the signs that followed,” (Mark 16:20). The response to the salvation call was outstanding as we watched 50% of the people present in the church rush to the altar to give their lives to Jesus.

The meeting on Friday evening was followed by remarkable healings as a woman testified that eight small cysts in her breasts had disappeared after a word of knowledge. Shortly after that the room was filled with an anointing to dissolve cysts and other people testified that their cysts had disappeared from their bodies.

That same night in another church, Krister prayed for 10 people with poor vision. All 10 were healed and could see perfectly! During the week there was a total of 25 people who were blind or vision impaired that received healing and can now see!

DEAF AND DUMB FROM BIRTH HEALED!

On the first night of the outdoor crusade, two deaf and dumb from birth were healed. The word spread and the next night five more came and were healed! Our team saw a total of 9 people born deaf and dumb healed! (A team member, Dawn I., prayed with 7 of them!) One girl was about 10 years old, the rest were from 21 to 44 years old! It emptied out the local deaf school! In addition to them, 9 more hearing impaired were healed, for a grand total of 18!

THE LAME WALK

A three-year-old boy was in an accident when he was 6 months old and was not able to walk with out braces. After prayer, his mom took the braces off and his legs were straighter. After more prayer, the boy was healed and ran into his mom’s arms.

A security guard was shot in the leg. The bullet went down the main artery of his right leg doing much damage. He had several surgeries but they could not restore his mobility. It was as though his leg died from the knee down. He was scheduled for another surgery in three days. The power of God came on him, he jumped up and ran to the front to testify and demonstrated his healing by twisting, bending, and dancing around. After the meeting a man interviewed him getting all the details for the local newspaper.

An eight-year-old girl with malformed feet from birth who found it very painful to walk was healed. She started jumping!

In all, 15 people who were lame or had difficulty walking were healed!

PARALYSIS HEALED

A worship leader who played the keyboard was healed of three paralyzed fingers.

A man’s paralyzed arm looked deformed. After prayer, he could move his arm as mobility was restored.

RIOHACHA WILL NEVER BE THE SAME!

This sleepy little beach town in the extreme northern part of Colombia will never be the same. The local pastors and leaders were overwhelmed by all that God did…and so was our team. They blessed us with an incredible display of love and hospitality. We look forward to ministering again in Riohacha next year!

On our stopover in Bogotá on the way home, we ministered in a church near the airport. That night 17 people came forward accepting Jesus into their hearts. There were many healings and deliverances. Several with hearing loss were healed, and one lady left the meeting carrying her crutches over her shoulder after being healed of an ankle injury.

These are some of the highlights that only scrape the surface of what God did in Colombia. What an AMAZING trip!

RIOHACHA, COLOMBIA MISSION TRIP REPORT
by Jim Tomlinson

Our team arrived at the Atlanta airport on January 20. We introduced ourselves to each other and waited to board our flight to Bogota. After boarding we enjoyed our 5 hour fight to Colombia. We had great anticipation as to what God was going to do through us. We are only vessels for him to work through.

After arriving at Bogota we had a snack and then we prayed over our rooms and went to sleep for the night. In the morning we had to be at the airport by 10 am. We arrived at our hotel in Riohacha around 12 pm. During our lunch we were briefed on what to do and what not to do. Gary then had a prayer of impartation for each of the team members.

Riohache is in the northern part of Colombia. Andy who is a friend and interpreter for Gary said it was also the most forgotten part of Colombia. It was around 80 degrees fahrenheit and the humidity was high. To the east is Venezuela and to the north is Panama. Our hotel was next to the Atlantic Ocean.

Wednesday night a 6:30 pm we had our first meeting in one of the churches. The pastor of this church was the lady that stepped out in faith and organized Riohacha for this week of meetings. On this night one of our team members prayed for a young girl that could not hear or speak since her birth. Our Lord Jesus healed her as the tears rolled down her face. Thank you Jesus. There were a total of 8 people that were deaf and mute from birth that were healed on this trip. God also did many other miraculous healing on our first night in Riohacha.

Gary had a couple of sessions of teachings for the Pastors and the church leaders of the city. He said that we need to seek the face of God and enjoy his presence daily to be effective as leaders. He said that as the leaders of the church go, so goes the church. People in the church know if the leaders are really doing what God wants and leaders need to be real. It is not what we say, but it is what we do that counts. Everything we do needs to line up with the Word of God.

Some of the team members went to the Prison in Riohacha. A man who had worked in the prison for 5 years, 3 times a week to bring the prisoners to Christ was the person that helped us with this visit. It has been very hard work for him. Around 30 prisoners received Jesus this day. Praise be to God.

We had the privilege of visiting 3 orphanages. Some young Indian girls and an Indian boy did a traditional Indian dance for us. One of the team members had brought some stuffed toy lions. The kids fell in love with these. Jesus loves each boy and girl. We pray that each one may reach the potential for which they were created.

A service goes as follows. Gary gives a teaching on the word of God. We then have words of knowledge and Gary then prayers for the people that stand up for these words of knowledge. Next the people that are healed give testimony as to what God did for them. Gary then comes to the most important part of the service. Those that want salvation are asked to come forward. The local pastor then leads them in the prayer of Salvation. Then team members are available for pray for individual needs.

God worked greatly while we were in Riohacha and one night in a Bogota church. There were many inner healings, many physical healings and much deliverance. There were many salvations, which is the greatest miracle. The miracle of salvation is also an eternal work of God. We were a small team that God put together. Each team member was different and gifted differently. However, we all wanted to see God work and he did. Praise, honor, and glory be to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Only to God does the Glory go.

All the team members thank Gary and his staff for there help and humbleness. We also thank the people in Colombia that organized all the details and prayed. Then there are the other believers and the people of these cities that were so hungry for God. We thank and love every one of them. Alleluia.

Today we have been in three different orphanages and we met some truly wonderful children and people who were helping them. It was wonderful! Some mothers had come with their children to the church who work with the last group we visited, and they were not christians. By the way, that was in the same church our group went to last night. I don´t know how many but some of them said yes to Jesus today! There´s a party in heaven today!

Also three women came and asked for us to pray for them in the second place we went to. One of them couldn´t see clearly and God healed her eyes and her stomach pain. Hallelujah! Another woman had colon trouble and she felt something good happen in her stomach when we prayed for her. The last one was healed from headache and a cold that she had. There is much witchcraft down here so a lot of them has some extra luggage that we have to deal with when they want to be healed… One woman that I prayed for last night told me today through an interpreter that when I prayed for her she felt something be removed from her chest and she is healed now. It is truly a blessing from God to be here. It´s His grace that enables us to do this.

We go out again to 3 different churches again tonight and Sanna will speak in the one we´re going to tonight. It´ll be great!

Here´s some more pictures from today:

She was so pretty, just kept looking at us

She reminded me of my nieces!

Andres to the right really made the children laugh

It was hard to say good bye to them…

This day has been totally amazing! We could never have expected all this. We had a meeting with the pastors in Riohacha, this morning. Gary preached about spending time in God´s presence and to make it a priority to take time with God every single day. The Holy Spirit came and the pastors and their wives got down on their faces and God moved on them. Some wept, some laughed, others were silent… the atmosphere was really good.

After lunch we went to the prison to minister to the inmates. Most of us didn´t know what to expect and I was a little nervous when we came in to the first group of prisoners. It was many of them. They had a christian fellowship in the prison and he that brought us in there had worked as a missionary in the prison for 5 years. Three of us shared testimonies with them and 15–20 of them received Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Hallelujah! It was fantastic! The second group we ministered to had made presents for us. They were very happy to get visitors. They gave us a big urn made out of cardboard, newsletters and coated with colored pieces of stones. It´s really beautiful. We´ll bring it back to Moravian Falls. They also made two pair of sandals that two of the women in the group got. The rest of us got bracelets that they had made. It was very powerful to be there with them and to hear some of their stories. God bless all of them.

This evening Sanna, me and Jim, an awesome man on our team, went to preach and minister in a church on the outside of the city. It was only the three of us and a translator named Orlando. When we arrived 6:30 pm it was only 5–6 people there. The meeting wasn´t supposed to start until 7:30 pm so we had time to pray and prepare. Sanna asked God to send angels to gather people to come to the meeting. When we started to church was packed!! People stood in the doorways and all the seats were taken. The worship was terrific! They danced, jumped, clapped their hands and were full of joy. It was the perfect place. After about an hour of worship and prayer I got up to preach and it was really fun. The people responded and I preached about the gospel of love and that Jesus went about doing good, healing all those oppressed by the devil. 4 people made the decision to receive Jesus in their hearts! It made me so happy to be a part of that!

I had some words of knowledge and several people got up. One woman came forward and testified that God had healed her from a bad hip. After that we opened up for prayer for all who wanted. It was awesome! We saw many many healings. Sanna prayed for a woman with very poor sight and after she had prayed for her a couple of times she could read the small print in the Bible, when she hardly could see the large text when they started! I prayed for a boy, about 10–12 years old, who was mute. I prayed for him twice and after the second time he spoke! Praise GOD! He said that his name was Daniel God is soo good! We also saw asthma, pain in the back, 4 others with poor vision and one with pain in her eyes healed plus many more. It was so many who wanted us to pray for them and we weren´t able to keep track of everything because we went from one to another. It was also 2–3 persons who got delivered from evil spirits today. Thank you so much, Jesus!

This was quite long and still it was only a little bit of what we have experienced today. Thank you for your prayers. You are truly needed and we appreciate all of you. This is as much your fruit as it is ours

God bless you and keep you! Love from Riohacha, Colombia

Sanna and I are now in our hotel room in Bogota. We´ll stay here tonight and fly to Riohacha, Colombia tomorrow morning. That´s where we´ll stay this week and minister in different churches every day.

This is just a short post to let you know that we´re safe so far and God is faithful and true to His word.

To all of you who pray for us, thank you so very much! I´m sure that we don´t even know the full impact it does when you pray. We need it very much down here! When we as christians agree in prayer, God will give to us according to our prayers as long as we pray His will. And we want to see many people saved, healed and delivered while we´re here in Colombia.

God bless you all and it would be awesome to hear from you during the week.

In Christ,
Krister and Sanna