On June 29, 2013 I took a team of 8 middle aged adults (including myself) to San Pedro Sula, Honduras. We were off on a short-term mission trip in what has been labeled as the most violent city on the earth for the last two years. Drug trafficking and turf wars have led to several early deaths in this city. Pastor Wilmer Godoy from Honduras had invited us to come and minister in this city, saying that the people were hungry for God. I'll be honest, I don't remember being fearful during our time in Honduras. I think the hunger displayed by the people of this country overwhelmed any concern I had for safety. Not that we weren't cautious - we were.
I had spent the months ahead of this trip praying for our team's safety and for God to help us. I had asked all the questions I could think of prior to going, but you just don't know what will happen until you get there. I had never been to Honduras, although I've been to a few different Central American countries on short-term mission trips. My team consisted of mature, well-grounded christians but not very experienced in mission trips.
When we had made the decision to go to Honduras, none of us had the funding in hand. But The Lord was so good to us. He provided for all the expenses for each team member, and the funds to host a large crusade meeting. This is now the ninth mission trip I've been on, and the funding has never been the same twice, but always provided and always enough. God is so good! We had to raise over $15,000 in total and it was provided in big and small ways.
During our 8 days there, we ministered in 5 different churches, the San Pedro Sula prison, the San Pedro Sula hospital, the Choloma town square, a neighborhood near the crusade grounds, a market, an orphanage, held a crusade meeting, and held an impartation service for 300 pastors and leaders. In all we ministered to around 5,200 Hondurans in all these ministry times. The Lord was moving in all these times as we saw evidence of more than 500 people healed or set free from demonic oppression. We saw blind eyes opened, the deaf hear, the dumb speak, the lame walk, tumors shrink, knees healed, stomach ailments healed, demons flee, people set free from oppression, arthritis leave, backs healed, and so much more. It was truly amazing! And more than 100 people gave their life to Christ! We passed out over 500 ministry manuals for activation in healing and deliverance ministry and we saw several leaders being used to minister healing after impartation.
Above: Mission team Below: Worship service Friday Night
At our first meeting a woman came in a neck brace, having had surgery on her neck a couple weeks before. As we ministered to her, her neck pain gradually left and stiffness left. By the time the meeting was over, she had removed her neck brace (not our counsel) and was dancing without any restriction in movement. God had healed her that day!
On Sunday June 30th, we went to the San Pedro Sula prison. This was unlike any prison I've ever been to. There are no guards inside the walls of the prison, and both men and women intermingle in the prison. When you walk into the prison there are vendors everywhere, barbers, food vendors, and small items like drinks or things you can get in a convenience store. It really looked more like a small village that a prison. There were more than 2,000 prisoners in this space built for 1,500. It was crowded and out of control and unusual. Later we found out that the prisoners here could be serving time from simple robbery to murder and everything in between.
We made our way to a large open area where the prisoners eat and hold church services. The church in this prison is a little less than 2 years old and has quickly grown to over 300. The night we were there had around 500 prisoners attending. In this meeting, God gave me some words of knowledge regarding blindness, deafness, knees, and wrists among other things. One prisoner came up who had lost sight in his left eye through what looked like a machete fight, he had a scar from the top of his forehead down to his jaw right over the eye. The eye was cloudy and he couldn't see out of it. That night the team member praying for him literally saw his eye turn from cloudy to clear. And he could see again out of that eye! Another prisoner had lost use of his left hand, having a tendon snapped in his wrist from police interrogations. That night he came running up to the platform for prayer, and God healed him! He was able to move his wrist around. He was scheduled for surgery that next week, but now he won't need that! Praise God! Two other men were healed from deafness that night, giving testimony to God's healing on the platform.
Monday we visited a children's cancer unit and a children's care unit at a local hospital in the morning and held a pastor and leader conference in the evening. We prayed for more than 100 children and many of their parents. 15 of these children had some form of cancer. We prayed for children aged 1 month old to 18 years of age. Several of the children felt heat as we prayed for them. Some of them felt electricity moving in their body. One young man threw up as we cast a spirit of cancer out of him. One young girl hadn't used the bathroom on her own for 14 days. A few minutes later her bowels opened and she could go! Two small babies jumped when casting out the spirit of infirmity, even though they were asleep!
In the pastor and leader conference we taught on Words of Knowledge, Healing, and Deliverance ministry. Afterward we prayed for Impartation. The people were so hungry for The Lord! Several were weeping uncontrollably as we prayed for them. Several went down under the power of the Spirit. Afterward several come up for healing prayer and received healing! At the end of the meeting the lead pastor of the church we were at came up and said he received a vision as we taught on Words of Knowledge...it was instruction on how they should respond to move in what we were teaching. The lead women's pastor had a young boy come up and give her a word of knowledge and it was exactly what she had been waiting on The Lord to show her! Another woman was healed by a young man who stepped out in faith to pray for her! So the activation of what was taught started immediately after the Impartation service. Praise The Lord!
Tuesday night we went to a church in a neighborhood near Choloma. We danced with the people during worship! What fun! During ministry time there were dozens of people healed...from female problems, to migraine headaches, partially blocked ears, depression, asthma, knee and joint problems, hip issues, back problems, demonic oppression, near sightedness, and so many other things. The presence of The Lord was so intense that it reminded me of the scripture in Luke 5:17b (ASV) "the power of the Lord was with him to heal." There was at least 40-50 healed in this church of 150 this night, but it was too much to keep track of as we tried to keep up with what The Lord was doing. People were falling under the presence of The Lord, you would begin praying and the intensity of the presence of God would be so weighty that several began weeping deeply and trembling. It was intense!
A deaf and dumb young man was healed Friday, and a 70 year old woman who had been deaf in one ear and had 20% hearing in the other from birth was healed that night. Her mother had been praying for her healing since she was a child and that night God healed her!
Ministry time during Friday's Service
Saturday, July 6th was crusade night. Having never done a crusade meeting, I wasn't really sure what would happen. We arrived at the crusade grounds around 6:30. It is an old soccer field in Choloma. Pastor Wilmer told us that they had never performed a crusade event in Choloma. The stage and the platform and the sound tent were ready to go. The crowd quickly swelled to around 3000, it may have been more, I'm not an expert in guessing crowd sizes. The local churches had organized buses and transportation. They came with expectation because of the earlier meetings in the small churches and all the testimonies. The music was great. Pastor Wilmer and his young team lit the place on fire. He is so gifted. The praise music lifted the atmosphere to the heavens. He had the whole field pulsating and jumping and dancing.
We began with testimonies of the previous days to encourage them and raise their belief. We had a word from The Lord before we left the bed and breakfast that morning that was just like the message Jesus sent to John the Baptist in prison. "Tell him what you see. The blind eyes are open, the deaf hear and the lame walk" we already had the blind and the deaf and dumb healed, so we were expecting the lame to walk tonight.
The morning before I flew to Honduras I had been praying and telling The Lord how thankful I was for the miracles we were seeing in Costa Rica, but I asked Him if we could go to the next level and have the blind see, the deaf hear, and the lame to walk. No later than 10 minutes after I had prayed this Mercedes Bush had emailed me a prophetic message that the church was entering a season where the blind would see and the deaf would hear. I hadn't told anyone what my heart's cry was to The Lord. I took this as a sign that God had given us access to this and I decided to act on it tonight!
We began with testimonies of the previous days to encourage them and raise their belief. We had a word from The Lord before we left the bed and breakfast that morning that was just like the message Jesus sent to John the Baptist in prison. "Tell him what you see. The blind eyes are open, the deaf hear and the lame walk" we already had the blind and the deaf and dumb healed, so we were expecting the lame to walk tonight.
I gave a salvation message to begin with and then invited people to come and receive The Lord as savior. Pastor Wilmer led the crowd in the sinners prayer. Somewhere around 75 souls came to The Lord this night!
The morning before I flew to Honduras I had been praying and telling The Lord how thankful I was for the miracles we were seeing in Costa Rica, but I asked Him if we could go to the next level and have the blind see, the deaf hear, and the lame to walk. No later than 10 minutes after I had prayed this Mercedes Bush had emailed me a prophetic message that the church was entering a season where the blind would see and the deaf would hear. I hadn't told anyone what my heart's cry was to The Lord. I took this as a sign that God had given us access to this and I decided to act on it tonight!
I gave a few words of knowledge for people with blindness, deafness and inability to walk to come over to our prayer team. We were believing God was going to heal these conditions. Several people...at least 100 quickly went over to the team. They were swamped. I then began calling out other words of knowledge and instructing them that God can heal right where you are. I had the crowd place their hands on their bodies where they needed a healing and then we invited the Holy Spirit to come. I used commanding prayers and called out other WOKs. We had the people wave their arms above their heads if they were 50% or more healed after the prayer. Around 75-80 were waving their hands that I could see. I then felt led to tell them about more testimonies of people healed over the past week as well as the woman healed of tachycardia in Costa Rica. We prayed again and invited the Holy Spirit to come and heal. This time I asked them to wave their hand if they had 80% or more healing in their body.
I then went down to pray for people with our team. Shortly after going down to pray, the flood gates of testimonies started pouring in. Pastor Wilmer ran down to tell me that a woman came up to give her testimony that she was healed of a rapid heart beat as I was giving the testimony of the woman healed of tachycardia in Costa Rica. The testimony of The Lord is the spirit of prophesy. What Jesus has done before He will do again! Just believe!
We saw so many healings as we laid hands on people and asked the Holy Spirit to minister to them. There were at least a dozen people healed of cataracts or blind eyes this night. A little boy around age 5 who never walked before was brought in a little wagon by his mom. He came out of his cart and walked for the first time! Another boy around 10 years old who was deaf and dumb was healed as one of our team members snapped his fingers next to the boys ear as he was passing by. His mother broke down crying as she spoke into his ears and he tried to repeat her sounds. Wow!
Crusade Night!
The ministry was very difficult because of the sheer number of people and the loud music. one thing I've noticed in all the hispanic churches i've been in...they only have one setting for the volume...High! There was every kind of condition imaginable and we had to work as fast as possible. We estimated at least 150-175 healings and deliverances occurred this night overall. I know it could have been so much more, if we had more people to pray and believe. The one thing I noticed throughout all these meetings is that some will be healed only as you lay hands on them and pray...maybe that helps them or maybe the Lord likes it to be this way because it makes it more personal and love is an awesome conduit for ministering healing.
I know I will never be the same after experiencing what happened in Honduras. Already we've had requests to go to several other countries since that week.
We saw so much hunger and desperation for God that is so lacking at home. These people worship so passionately it makes our American worship times look so weak in comparison. They all sing and participate in every song and hang on the words of the message. We hope to bring this fire and this hunger home with us and impart to others what we have seen and experienced. The people of Honduras blessed us so much. You know I never felt any danger while we were there. I know it exists there, but we were so loved and accepted by everyone we came in contact with. Please be praying for Honduras and their people. On July 20th the president of Honduras dedicated the nation to Christ. I can only dream that would ever happen in the States.
Thank you to all that prayed for us. Your reward is just the same as those of us who were in Honduras. Without your awesome intercession, and the precious blood of Jesus being shed for us, none of this would have been possible. The team that we had was so wonderful, each of us laying hands on people and being used by Papa! God Bless You Bob Wyant, Judy McCrea, Dean Addams, Mercedes Bush, Terry Devlin, Kevin Riordan, and Jehaida!
David Bates
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