I returned safely from Bogota, Colombia, on Aug. 29, flying over Tropical Storm Ernesto as it slowly made its way toward Florida. Thankfully the weather did not delay my arrival home. It was an amazing five days. Here are some of the highlights:

** About 2,500 people attended the women’s conference, which was held in a large charismatic church in the southern sector of Bogota. The group sponsoring the event is called CEDECOL, an umbrella organization representing many churches in Colombia. Some of the leaders had heard me speak in Dallas last year and they wanted to bring me to Colombia to preach at this event. The main organizer, Igna Suarez, is an anointed apostolic woman who has wide influence in the nation.

** I preached three times in the conference and the Lord met us each time. In one service hundreds of women came to the altar for healing because of abuse or abandonment. Colombia has a huge crisis caused by fatherlessness. Women who were raised as orphans were healed from the painful void they feel because their fathers abandoned them. An almost tangible wave of the Heavenly Father’s love descended on the crowd on Saturday morning.

** One of the other speakers at the conference was Silvia Comacho, who pastors the 25,000-member Ekklesia church with her husband in La Paz, Bolivia. During a break on the first day we taped a segment for her television program, “Fragile Glass,” a daily show aired in many Latin American nations. Silvia has asked me to come to Bolivia next year to do a conference for women in that nation, where there is an epidemic of domestic violence.

** Also at one point in the conference I asked Igna to come to the stage, along with two other women apostles—Maricela McMillan and Silvia Comacho. Maricela is a Colombian woman who married an American missionary, and together they have started more than 30 churches from their base in the city of Cali. I was able to honor these women publicly and to declare that women apostles are arising in the land. I gave them each a large nail that represented the weapon of Jael, the woman in the book of Judges who defeated the enemy by driving a tent peg in his skull. I also gave them each a bouquet of roses that represented the healed women of Colombia. (P.S. Did you know that Colombia exports more flowers than any nation on earth?)

** A real highlight for me occurred on Monday, when I spoke twice at a special gathering of pastors from the city. I told them from the beginning that I was not there to lecture them, scold them or impose American culture on them. In fact I started one of the sessions by washing the feet of the two leaders of the pastors’ association. Then I shared my heart about the problem of machismo, the abuse of women, and the problem of domestic violence in the Latin American church. When it came time for an altar call I did not have to beg for a response. Men began to quickly walk to the altar, many of them in tears. Out of 300 pastors in the audience, more than a third came forward to admit that they were physically abusing their wives. This was a huge breakthrough for Colombia. Abuse is rarely discussed in the church, and I challenged them not only to repent of their own sin but also to begin addressing the issue with the men in their congregations. That is the only way the cycle of abuse will stop.

** I am finding I Peter 3:7 to be very helpful in confronting abuse. This verse says that if a man does not treat his wife with understanding, God will not hear his prayers. A man who is beating his wife has no authority with God. The pastors were convicted when they heard this! Praise God that He is restoring leaders into a place where they can begin to walk in true spiritual authority.

** I prayed for every man at the altar that day and it was obvious that the Holy Spirit was doing surgery on them. Some were crying. Others had to lie down on the floor because God was dealing with them. I had to just hug some of them because the real reason they struggle with abusive tendencies is because their own fathers were cruel to them. They need to feel the Father’s love.

** On Sunday I spoke at both services at The Place of His Presence, a 3,000-member church in Bogota that is reaching large numbers of young people. It was so awesome to experience worship that morning. They had a teenage praise team along with a dance team made of young men and women who were dressed in fatigues with camouflage face paint. The place went crazy as they did their hip-hop routines during the worship time.
I was able to adapt my message for a younger audience, pulling some kids on the stage with me to act out the story of the creation of Adam and Eve, the fall, and how Jesus restored men and women into right relationship with Him and each other.

** I ended my visit by speaking at another growing church in the city pastored by Alfredo and Imelda Barrios. Their son, Andres, who is 17, served me while I was in Bogota. He became like a spiritual son to me. During the weekend while I was in Bogota, Andres was baptized in the Holy Spirit! And then on my last night he translated for me in his church. It was a huge step for him. I believe Andres represents the future of Colombia. He is a young man who has the heart of Jesus, and he has broken away from the old machismo culture.

** One other interesting thing happened on Monday afternoon. I asked a small group of leaders if we could go to downtown Bogota and pray for the city. I had heard that the mayor of the city wants to turn Bogota into “the San Francisco of South America” by making it a gay capital. So we went to the city council office just to pray and ask God to stop Satan’s plan. When we got to the city council building, we were invited into the office of one of the only Christian city council members. Not only were we able to pray and prophesy over him, but he also invited us into the city council meeting…and then he asked me to greet the people! I was amazed at how quickly a door opened to the government. I also got to meet the two council members who are pushing this gay legislation. Then my friends and I went inside a council room and asked the Lord to cut the control of these people and the forces working behind them. A battle is raging for Bogota but I know God’s people will triumph.