Missionaries
Butch & Janet Berner
with
Light of Africa in Zambia
January
2006 Report
April
2007 in Burkina Faso
More reports from Butch
Brother William held a Seminar and Crusade with Butch and Janet in Livingstone, Zambia in February 2005. Below are reports received from them afterwards.
“Butch taught The Elijah Challenge Seminar to the Oral Roberts University and Oklahoma University teams that were recently here. One young man, Brian Hahn, the team leader for Journey Church in Norman, Oklahoma, really caught on and was are able to minister healing to several people while here. Also, a young lady on the team was healed from TMJ after I helped lead one of Butch's trainees in commanding the infirmity to flee in Jesus’ name. God is so good. Butch is also talking to a man in Gwembe, Zimbabwe who wants to learn about the Elijah Challenge and for Butch to possibly come and do the Seminar at his church for him and other leaders there! So, much IS happening with Elijah Challenge in Zambia. There are a couple of pastors from Botswana who will be booking with Butch at the seminar/conference we will have next week for him to come and do training with them and Butch wants to include Elijah Challenge too!”
"I am excited to inform you that Butch will be leading your Elijah Seminar this coming weekend at the Maramba Community Center. He will teach on Friday and Saturday with the crusades on Saturday and Sunday evenings. Please remember him and the crusade in your prayers. We are excited at what the Lord will do during these training sessions and crusades. It is a definite stretch for Butch but we are ready to tread into new territory."
“Just wanted to let you know the results from the training yesterday. God is so very faithful and is enlarging Butch's territory! He taught about 20 people yesterday on the Elijah Challenge. At least half were pastors and the other deacons or elders/teachers (leaders) in their churches! This is so exciting. During our practice time one lady's 4 year jaw ache was healed and another had a very sore back and headache and was healed! We do crusades tonight and tomorrow night. Butch taught better than I have ever heard. He is completely impassioned with this. Many evangelical churches represented...Baptist, Methodist, African United, Assembly of God, Church of God, and Pentecostal Holiness. What a beautiful combination! We pray they will be unified and come together tonight to see God move in miracle, mountain-moving faith through them to draw men and women to himself for salvation. Thank you, Brother William, for starting this wonderful fire of revival and unity in Livingstone!”
“Do you remember the young man that we were praying for on Sunday night that could not walk? Kevin and I prayed for him after others had already done so. He tried so hard, scooting his legs trying to walk but they had to take him home in a taxi and then send him back to Lusaka. His mother was the older lady that wanted to chase rabbits on Friday night. Last Sunday just before we started our crusade I met a pastor who was there the night we were praying for the young man. He had just met the father of the boy and was told the boy is still in Lusaka but walking and running, PTL! This pastor told me how he went to a meeting of his church 300 km away and God used him to teach this to the other pastors in his fellowship and how God had healed many and now those pastors are using authority to build their churches.Back to my teaching…last Friday….God was gracious and all who asked were healed and many saw God's authority flowing through themselves. On Saturday we met for the crusade but the planning was poor so we planned for Sunday night. We met Sunday night and experienced another learning curve. I was trying to let them plan it---big mistake. It took over an hour just to get an extension cord for the sound equipment. We started with singing---very badly, so no crowd gathered, but finally some women stopped and were listening. I gathered the team and told them to start praying for people. In the next half hour God healed many. The most dramatic was an older man who could only see enough not to run into things but after much prayer he began saying ‘I can see that light, tree, auto,’ etc. Many were healed of aches and pains. When we preached the gospel and gave the altar call, most of those prayed for had already left for home, I was a bit discouraged and it seemed as no one really listened but the Zambians know better. They said many of the people in the market had watched and listened. When i went in to teach class today, they were already planning another crusade for another place in the area. The result is today the ones that were there are pumped and running itching to do it again! Thank you so much for coming and starting something that will impact the Kingdom here.”
Missionaries Butch & Janet Berner
with Light of Africa in ZambiaJanuary 2006
"We have been blessed by learning and teaching the Elijah Challenge last year. After your training we began using the authority in our villages and watched God heal many of aches and pains. The most dramatic was a grandmother with a knee problem. It was swollen and hurt but we ministered several times and God touched her every time so that she could walk again for awhile without pain. In May I taught my first Elijah Challenge. We had about 25 for the whole training. It was wonderful to see God's truth and authority break through into their world of unbelief. When the pastors realized that God wanted to use them in this way and that they have the authority, it was a great joy to them and to us. We had one lady who had an injured jaw and couldn't chew without pain. We ate lunch after praying for her and she ate and laughed and praised God for her healing.
At the crusade which followed, the trainees prayed for a man who was 80% blind and as God restored his sight it was tremendous to see him point to things and say what they were and thanking God for healing his sight. It was during this crusade that we heard a praise report from the February 2005 crusade about a young boy who couldn't walk and who after much prayer left the crusade still not walking. But between that February and the following May God had healed him and he was playing soccer again.
In September we held our next training but there was a bus accident that week and many did not come. But of the seven that came we saw God heal every person we ministered to from every infirmity they had. It was a learning experience and the host pastor has since taught it at a Conference where he spoke. He is excited about what God is doing in his church and ministry. We will do it again soon at his church.
In November we went to Gaberone in Botswana for an Elijah Challenge Conference. The teachings were held in the village of Romatswana, just outside of Gabarone. We were reuniting with some of Butch’s students from a few years back who have pioneered a work there. They were excited to be taught the Elijah Challenge. We had been praying for God’s grace and for many to be won to Christ because of the teaching. We also prayed for the local churches to be better equipped to do ministry and to have a new and powerful means of ministering the Good News of Jesus Christ to the lost.
Between 60-75 were in attendance each day for the teaching on The Elijah Challenge. After 3 days Butch was able to cover almost half the material. Using a translator really can slow down progress. God showed his power and healing grace. We saw many people healed in the training sessions, and many realized that God wanted to use them. When demonstrating God's ability to heal at a distance, I had a visiting evangelist stand and pray over the people as they laid their hands on the hurting area of their body. Over 20 people raised their hands to indicate that God had healed them. One man had hurt his elbow over six months previously and God instantly healed it. He couldn't bend it and then afterwards he could. One lady had severe pain in her side for over a month, and I choose a young lady to come and minister to her. As she commanded the infirmity after me the truth of authority sank in. When she ministered the second time by herself without me, the lady laughed and danced as the pain left. The young lady just was amazed that God would use her. She was our best warrior during the Crusade.
The Crusade was held in the evenings. There were 5 different churches participating (a miracle of unity in itself) in the Crusade. The site was at a major junction in the area. There were about 150 villagers attending each night. We saw about 20 come to know Christ as Savior, including witchdoctors. One sangoma (witchdoctor) was miraculously healed of pains in her body from which she had suffered for several years. She asked Christ to be her Savior and also told the people to whom she had supplied medicine to come to Jesus. There were many healed of pains in the hips, joints, breathing difficulties, foot problems and fevers. We believe that these signs and wonders are God’s way of calling many to see that the One who has the power to heal also has the power to forgive sins and to save their souls from a life of eternal torment.
I am so grateful to you and to God for this ministry and look forward to what is going to happen in 2006. I am already talking to three pastors about doing an Elijah Challenge at their church in the coming months. This past year was a learning time for me and every training conference was a new experience for me. We look forward to allowing God to show Himself strong this year."
September 20. 2006
"Butch taught the Elijah Challenge at the Dambwa Pilgrim Wesleyan (September 2006) to an interdenominational group of 22 adults. Miracles of healing included boils disappearing, headaches leaving, foot pains instantly gone, eyesight improving, healing of malaria/fevers and others. These fine folks have caught on that we have authority to heal the sick in the name of Jesus Christ. What a wonderful time we all had."
Butch Berner teaching The Elijah Challenge in Burkina Faso
April 30, 2007"The meetings went well and the totals are about 60 salvations and 200+ healed and around 100 trained. It started with meetings at Pastor Marc's church. I trained about 30. We had 10 solid salvations during the meetings and many healed. The most dramatic was the first night of the crusade---2 older women were healed of bad eyesight. One accepted Jesus on the spot. The 2nd night only 3 people responded to the call for healing and none were healed. Many were concerned and watching a teenage girl brought in a wheelchair rather than participating. Saturday night many came forward and were healed of various things and the girl was prayed for again, with some improvement. The church was going to continue with her until they saw a miracle. They had 2 meetings without me so it was a good time.
Monday I went out to a training center for a church in Ouagadougou. It was to train about 20 students there. The crowds were about 80-100 every day but the 20+ people were trained. At the healing times at first many older ladies came and were healed of various body pains, chest pains, leg and neck pains, etc. They also came forward every time after that, It gave the trainees practice. My translator said that they thought if they were prayed for more they would keep their healing longer. We had a deliverance of a woman with the spirit of stupor---whenever some stared to pray for her she fell down in a faint. She was healed at the end and much ministry. We had about 5-10 salvations there.
From there I went to Fafo to a church conference where 600+ were there. It was hot!! No electricity, no fan, no ice, so when not ministering it was brutal. Was training about 50 out of the group but didn't know until last day how many were actually taking in the teaching as everyone was there all the time for the most part. At the first teaching session I did a mass prayer for about 80. It was crowded and hot so I didn't have anyone to come forward to testify. I knew God had a plan. From the back came an old women. She was shouting some in some language I didn't know but she was happy and stomping her right foot. She testified God had healed her back that had been hurting her for 8 years or more and she had not been able to bend over and her right foot hurt when she put weight on it. She was doing deep knee bends and bending over and stomping her foot and glorifying God. This was a first for me as I spoke in English, was translated into French which was then translated into four tribal languages.
The next day after more teaching I had those needing prayer to stand and for those around them to minister with authority to them. We had about 30 come forward to testify. Many were of knee pains and headaches but 1 man was pumping his fist into the air and stomping his foot. He had injured his left hand and could not pick up more than a few pounds with that hand. God healed his hand and his foot which had been hurting for years. That night at the crusade during the ministry time all the church people came forward again. So the next day the pastor told everyone not coming to help minister to stay home. We wanted to minister to the villagers.
God did some great things. Two elderly ladies testified that God had healed them of problems from which they had suffered for years. Both had walked 8 miles or more to come. One could not hear. As they ministered to her, liquid poured out from her ears and she could hear for the first time in eight years. The other woman came for knee and leg problems and she could now bend and walk with no pain. Another younger women praised God for her restored voice. She had been demonized by a dumb spirit and she was delivered and could talk. Many came with chest pains and leg pains. One young boy had chest and leg pains and gave glory to God for healing him. We ministered to at least a hundred people. Twenty-four gave their hearts to Jesus on Saturday. It was a great time for Jesus and the kingdom.
At night I thought I was sleeping in Noah's Ark. All the animals around us---donkeys, guinea fowl, chickens, goats, dogs, cats, cows and assorted others of unknown origin were making sure we knew they were there. God gave strength to me and I was never tired at the training times or the crusades although I never really slept much any night."
April 2008 Report on the aftermath of Butch's meetings
