Gloria a Dios en Peru! (Glory to God in Peru!)

By Elizabeth Murray, a 2009 RHEMA Bible Training Center graduate

Jesus is alive and touching people all over the earth. He was present to heal the people of Peru when 18 of us from RHEMA visited the church pastored by Rev. Jim and Faye Andrews in Lima and helped assist their sister churches in that city and others.

Jesus showed up on the streets and in the marketplaces, neighborhoods, churches, hospitals, and orphanages. Acting as His hands and feet, we laid hands on a thousand people during our visit.

A young girl with a belly bloated by cancerous cysts on her ovaries sought us out and asked us to pray for her. After I laid hands on her, her distended belly subsided considerably and she told us that she immediately felt better. I asked her if she believed that Jesus had healed her completely, and she nodded yes.

I realized that Christ was present to heal her because it’s His nature to heal—just as it’s His nature to seek and save the lost—for He is “the Lord Who heals you” (Exod. 15:26). And He said of Himself, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10).

After we visited the church pastored by Rev. Andrews and his wife in Lima, we traveled south to Chincha. In another town, San Miguel de Flores, we hit the streets to tell people that Jesus was present to heal and save them. Julius Caesar, my 16-year-old translator, told me he felt great peace the first time he went out on the street to evangelize. After seeing Jesus heal people miraculously, he knew he was called to share the Gospel. His total surrender was inspiring.

God operated differently each time He ministered through us. The next morning four of us headed into the crowded marketplace, weaving around enormous sacks of corn and rice and past raw chicken carcasses, their blue-green meat hanging in the morning sun. Praying silently in the Spirit the entire time we were in the marketplace, we stopped to minister as the Spirit led.

My brother in Christ, Matthew, stopped to speak to a grandmother and her grandson. The boy, about 4 years old, looked arthritic, and his bowed legs were rigid. Matthew asked if she knew Jesus Christ as her Healer. She said, “No.” He asked if she believed that Jesus could heal the boy. Never taking her eyes off of Matthew, she nodded, “Si.”

Matthew laid hands on the boy and we all prayed. Afterward, he asked the boy to move his legs, take a step, and then walk. He did. He nodded “yes” when asked if he felt better. Then his grandmother accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior right there.

Two days later, we visited a local hospital. Sam and Linda Wilcox and I went with Nelly, our interpreter, into a room where a 65-year-old woman lay in bed with AIDS and cancer. The temperature in the room was about 85 degrees, with no air conditioning available. Her hands were dirty, and so were her bedsheets. Nelly asked her why she thought she was in the hospital. She said it was the will of God. I asked her what she thought the will of God was for her life. She said, “to die here in this hospital bed.”

Nelly explained to me that the woman knew nothing about healing. The Holy Spirit led me to tell her about Mark chapter 5 and the woman with the issue of blood whom Jesus healed. Together we prayed for her miraculous healing and a long life with her grandchildren.

After our prayer, her face visibly softened, the worry lines in her forehead disappeared, and she broke into a smile. She, too, accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior. Though I wasn’t there to see it, I believe the woman on the bed received her healing and will return home to her family. The Word says, “They were healed as they went” (Luke 17:14).

We visited a housing development, walking door-to-door asking people to come out to an open field to hear the Good News. Nobody showed up at the appointed time, so we split into two groups and started playing a pick-up game of soccer. Slowly, people came out to watch—children first, followed by curious parents. One scrappy, competitive youngster joined right in the game.

After 20 minutes of hot, dusty play, the teams joined several small groups who were ministering to people throughout the neighborhood. Gazing across the open lot, all I could see in my mind’s eye was the grapevine of Jesus (John 15:1–5). As believers, we on the missions team were all connected to our Source, Jesus, and the groups, like branches on the vine, were reaching out to touch clusters of people. The scripture that echoed inside me was, “. . . apart from me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5 NIV).

As the Lord worked through the members of our team, people in Peru were delivered from shame, religious tradition, alcohol addiction, abuse, fear, cataracts, scoliosis, tumors, blindness, and deafness. In the Bible, Jesus asked us to preach the Gospel and demonstrate His power (Mark 16:15–18). And in Lima, San Miguel de Flores, and Chincha, He was faithful to His Word, as signs, wonders, and miracles were a daily occurrence.

Odele and Jason, RHEMA USA graduates who assist Rev. Andrews, were our dedicated guides and champion exhorters. As a farewell treat, we stopped for ice cream in an upscale part of Lima before the night flight back to the United States. The towering sea cliffs and stunning views of the Pacific below them were mesmerizing. The lush, green grass and vibrant flowers demanded attention, as did an oversized, illuminated, white cross set against blue-grey hills across the water. This symbolic finale was not lost on our group of pilgrims.

As we were leaving, Eduardo, one of our great interpreters, turned to me and said, “You have no idea how the word of faith has changed my nation. Brother Hagin’s word of faith message has penetrated the heart of my country, and Rev. Andrews’ vision and commitment to teach it to our pastors over the past two decades have transformed the way they think.” Jesus is real.