Pastor Jerry Salmeron & Pastor Brian Burns
McAllen, Texas & Progresso, Mexico
April 2008
Pastor Jerry Salmeron of Casa de Oracion and Pastor Brian Burns of McAllen, Texas attended The Advanced Elijah Challenge Training in Houston in February 2008. Below Brian reports on the first-ever Elijah Challenge Training taught entirely in Spanish in McAllen followed by an open-air outreach just across the US border in Progresso, Mexico.
McAllen is at the southern tip of Texas near the Mexican border
Pastor Brian writes:
“After weeks of preparation and translating, Pastor Jerry Salmeron kicked off what I presume was the first TEC Training in Spanish. It was held at his church, Casa de Ordacion in McAllen, Texas. There were approximately 25 people in attendance. While my Spanish is not the best, thanks to having attended the basic training and advanced training I was able to follow along easily. The audience was very receptive and often “ooohed” and “ahhhed” at what they had never realized before — such as the kingly anointing vs the priestly and prophetic offices.
Pastor Jerry Salmeron teaching
Once Pastor Jerry was done going over the basics, he translated for me as I shared some testimonies from Pastor Carl Henderson’s ministry in the Philippines (www.m-o-r.net) and I also read the email we all received from William & Lucille last week. Following the testimonies we watched clips from theVietnam TEC video that is on The Elijah Challenge website. The testimonies and video had a powerful impact on the audience, but not like what they would soon experience since they didn’t know there would be a demonstration phase!
The demonstration went very well. We had a single volunteer at first as Pastor Jerry targeted knee pain, a woman responded who had been suffering from chronic knee pain in both knees whenever she sat down too long. She was currently suffering from that knee pain after sitting through the Training. The Lord healed her of her pain and she wept with joy. This healing inspired others in the group to come forward for a variety of aches and pains. All of them were healed – praise God!
Following the demonstration, Pastor Jerry wrapped things up with a quick recap of all that was taught. Next, was the “main event” – Progresso, Mexico.
Pastor Jerry and I had already visited Progresso to find a good spot to do the outreach portion of the training. We had found a public soccer field in the perfect part of town — the most desolate part of town where the poorest people live. The trip is about a 45 minute trip in total as we live close to the border on the US side.
That evening we headed off to that field with a load of hotdogs, chips, sodas, a tent, chairs, and some sound equipment. After setting up we started playing some music and a number of us went out house to house to announce to the locals what was going on. After rounding up about 15 people (people were very timid about what was up) we went ahead and started. Sergio, the worship leader for Casa de Ordacion, played his guitar and sung a few songs.
Pastor Jerry followed by preaching out of John 14 and then issuing The Elijah Challenge. That is when things started happening! The first person to be healed was a lady with neck pain and ankle pain. She was overjoyed and lifted up here hands in praise. She also ended up making a profession of faith in Christ — what it is all about of course! After that happened more people started coming out of the woodwork. Among the others healed that I was able to keep track of were:
A woman who had “burning eyes” and had suffered from the condition for a long period of time.
A woman who had chronic knee pain in one of her knees — she had seen several doctors to no avail, nothing she had tried could relieve her pain. Nothing until Jesus did! She was so overjoyed it was fun to watch her. She stuck around for the rest of the evening and was testifying to all the locals there. I kept watching here talk to different people and kick her leg, showing them how she no longer had the pain that had plagued her for so long.
A woman who had injured her foot, she had it along with one of her toes bandaged up in order to help relieve her pain. The Lord took all her pain away and she was so happy that she gave Pastor Jerry her name and phone number and has now offered her home to for any future events. Later on after things had slowed down she took him, myself and my wife Gloria to her home so we could see where she lived. Her home was a nice home for the area and does have good potential. She has a large yard right on the dirt road and she offered the use of her restrooms and she said she would help spread the word for future events.
A woman who had some kind of internal infection on the side of her head, around the ear. She felt a lot of pain and pressure because of it. It was totally healed.
Above & below: testimonies of healings
A boy who had indigestion issues. His mother told us that he can go as long as three weeks without a bowel movement. While it is tough to know with a child, he was convinced he was better and said that his tummy didn’t hurt anymore. He was confident he would be able to go home and “poopoo.” (See photo below.)
His tummy doesn’t hurt anymore
There may have been others but those are the ones I was around to witness and take pictures of. By the end of the evening we had a good number people present at the event. Many of them wanted us to come back on a regular basis. They related to us how nobody had even done an outreach in their area before — of any kind. The people of the area were not just touched by the miracles but by our willingness to take time to fellowship with them. The sad thing is, there are churches in reach of these people, yet those churches have not made any impact on this community.
It was an awesome and emotional evening. An entire community was touched by the Lord and He was glorified.”
Report by Pastor Brian Burns in McAllen, Texas