In 1976 Mark Goodwin and his wife Alice went to Bogota Colombia to begin their ministry there. They built a church in 1981 with only 10 members. The church did not grow much. Then they went back to Canada due to family matters.
During their stay, they fasted and prayed for two weeks. The Lord revealed to them the reason they were sent to Colombia was to pray through for the nation. When God called them to pray for Colombia it meant prayer in importunity and perseverance as Colombia was then a notorious nation of poor security and with less than one half of one percent of the population who were born again believers. Mark said that being robbed twice a year was somehow normal then.
Through the impossible circumstances, God gave them a passion for prayer and a firm calling to change the nation through importunity intercession. However, nothing specific happened after 12 months of prayer. Then one day God revealed to them and gave them five university students who joined them in prayer each day from 2:00 to 8:00 PM.
During these intense times in God’s presence, God would show them precise things to pray for. Sometimes they would even see the results of their prayers in the Sunday newspaper. After the eruption of the volcano Nevada del Ruis in 1985 God showed them five men that He wanted to raise up. So they continued to pray earnestly for these men.
In 1996, they began to witness the coming of the revival. César and Ricardo were just two instruments that the Lord has used to bring revival to Colombia. César Castellanos and his wife Claudia helped found the G-12 movement. In 1996 he and his wife were attacked and repeatedly shot at by Communist guerrillas. They had to leave Colombia. During his two years of exile the Lord added to his already burgeoning church 32,000 cell groups.
The Lord raised up another brother, Ricardo Rodriguez, who began to influence many people. Recently when they got together at Christmastime there were over 200,000 people gathered together to worship Jesus in the park, something unheard of four decades ago.
Today, according to the book “Operation World” twenty percent of the population know Christ. Meanwhile it was this revival in Colombia that sparked men in South Africa to start the World Day of Prayer. They reasoned that if God could do this in Colombia why not in other nations of the world. This revival in Colombia also caused great transformations in both the politics and economy of the nation. Their GDP is growing at a rate that causes other nations to envy them.
Mark added that one of the main ingredients that brought revival to Colombia was small intense prayer groups gathering together in different cities who prayed until they possessed an open heaven and clear communications from God that motivated them to pray with even greater intensity.
With this, Malaysian Christians are challenged if we are ready to go into importunity prayer. This kind of prayer commitment does not come cheap. It always comes with a price. Our Lord is thus looking for men and women in Malaysia who are willing to pray persistently for revival and for the nation to an extent that our lives may be put at stake.