“A part of being the Missions pastor here at the Vineyard is an opportunity to go on missions trips to Mexico. I’ve been there over 10 times. On our last trip in January 2018, I began feeling like all those years of being there and having relationships even if only for 10 days at a time is really making a difference. Specifically, in 4 peoples lives I could see growth and change:

One women I have known for 8 years and have prayed for many times has lots of struggles in her life. Husband is in and out of prison. She has 4 kids and has experienced lots of heartaches. Last I heard she had left her kids with her husband who had gotten out of jail and ran away. This year she came to the church to see me. We communicate via Messanger so we try to keep in touch at least some. We hugged and cried. I found someone who could translate for us and she told me “I only have peace when you are here”. This is of course a very bad situation; we talked about Jesus being her peace and prayed together. It was so good to see her and at least get to pray for her.

I got to speak into another leader’s life. I have prayed for her in the past and this time she came and found me before I left. She said she was very conflicted by the Gospel of Wholeness conference and needed prayer. I prayed and got an image of her heart being hurt and still bleeding from long ago and that I thought she needed to forgive some people. She cried and said yes, we prayed more about starting the process of forgiving.

I had another significant experience with a leader who had always been very cold to me and really everyone. He usually looked at his phone during teachings or sermons. But on Sunday when I preached at his church he was paying attention and at the end he came forward and asked the translator to tell me what he said to the congregation. He told them he had been angry for years and is just then realizing that it has impacted his intimacy with God and how he needs to get prayer and healing. Afterwards I asked to pray with him and his wife. I did not know at the time they have been struggling in their marriage. God gave me several word pictures for each of their hearts and then a word about their marriage. They both cried and it seems like a break-through for them.

Another of the main leaders asked me if I thought I could identify any of his empty wells after the Gospel of Wholeness training. I told him what I saw and we had a really great conversation about his needs to seek God in several situations. ”

—Casey LaCore