I flew into Caracas on October 1st and was joined by Barbara Wentroble, Naomi Dowdy and Pam Anderson, along with a team of eight intercessors from Barbara Wentroble’s ministry. It was a great blessing to have these prayer warriors with us because Venezuela is a challenging place to minister.

** On my first day there I did a special meeting for men. It was difficult because the men seemed hard and unresponsive. I really battled some discouragement that first day. Some of these guys were pushed into attending the meeting by their wives, who desperately wanted their husbands to deal with their macho attitudes. I shared about the crisis of abuse against women in Venezuela, citing some shocking statistics (including the fact that thousands of women are killed every year by their husbands or boyfriends.) God broke through in spite of the men’s stubbornness, and a group of them came to the altar in tears to receive prayer for deliverance from abusive tendencies. I know that those who did not come to the altar still were confronted, and the seed of the Word was sown. At one point I asked how many men had ever heard a sermon about domestic abuse and only one man in the crowd of 250 raised his hand.

** There was a great deal of spiritual warfare going on behind the scenes during the “Apostolic Men and Women Emerging” conference, which began that Tuesday. The organizer, a pastor named Olga, deserves a gold medal for the way she handled all the obstacles. One church leader in the city publicly opposed the meetings, warning people not to go. Witches from the area snuck into the meetings to cast spells on us. They were angry that we were using the Limon Coliseum because they felt it was designated only for witchcraft festivals—even though it is a municipal facility. During one of Naomi Dowdy’s messages on Wednesday the electricity went out and the place went dark for 10 minutes (and Naomi kept right on preaching). To top it all off, someone decided just a few days before our meeting that he needed to have a political rally in our coliseum. We were forced to move the conference to a local hotel auditorium on Thursday.

** In spite of this annoying resistance, we saw incredible breakthroughs throughout the week. On Thursday I addressed the issue of the Father’s love for his daughters and opened the altars for women who felt abandoned or abused by their dads. Just before I gave the altar call, a giant yellow butterfly swooped into the altar area and flew all the way across the stage. A lot of people noticed it because it was so big. To me it was a sign from God that He was bringing transformation to the women. Then, a huge group of women came to the front. They were weeping as the presence of God removed their pain. Some women were getting delivered on the spot. One had to be taken to a room behind the stage because a demon was making her scream in torment. She was set free after about 10 minutes.

** One afternoon a local newspaper reporter came to interview me. She was a Catholic woman who had many questions about my books and my perspective on women in Latin America. When we finished the interview it was obvious that she wanted to talk about some personal issues. She told my translator, Korey, and me that she had to leave her husband because he hit her. We shared more, and then Korey asked her if she really knew Jesus in a personal way. She said she wanted to be born again. This dear woman invited Jesus in her heart and then came back that night to hear me preach in the last service of the conference. We were also able to connect her with a local church in Maracay.

** None of us speakers told each other what topics we were preaching on, but the Holy Spirit directed every session. On the closing day, Barbara, Pam and Naomi gave powerful messages about the need for authoritative, prophetic intercession. It was obvious that God is equipping the people of Venezuela to deal with serious issues. That night I ended the conference with a message called “Donde Estan las Mujeres de Guerra” (“Where Are the Women of War?”). I challenged the women to rise up like Jael and Esther to expose the enemy and overthrow him. At the end of that service we had all the men come to the altar and form two long prayer tunnels. The women walked through those tunnels as the men prayed blessings on them—and then Naomi, Barbara and Pam laid hands on all the women to release an impartation of apostolic authority. It took a while to pray for everyone but it was worth it. After all the woman had been prayed for I went through the tunnels and laid hands on all the men. They were all so hungry to go to a new level in God.