Wim "The Flier" Set Free to Soar

Wim (which means "The Flier") De Vlieghere spent more than two decades crippled by chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and religion.
(Click to enlarge)Wim De Vlieghere was just 15 years old when he was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia. The medical professionals in Belgium, Wim's homeland, said his ailments were incurable and they could not offer him the miracle he needed.

As the years passed after his diagnosis, Wim slid into a dire state of hopelessness. He said, in his Flemish accent, "I got really depressed. Life didn't make sense because it was hopeless. I became suicidal looking for a reason to live, looking for a reason to go on."

Although the weight of his sickness became a tremendous burden, Wim was initially able to use a variety of medication to make it manageable, and he was able to hold a job. The company for which he worked was managed by a Christian man who took a liking to Wim. His boss began sharing the gospel with him, and Wim was quick to receive Jesus as his Savior. He had found a reason to live.

Shortly after finding this new lease on life, religion quickly became an unwelcome source of strife. As Wim read his Bible, he realized that God heals the sick. This revelation was met with violent opposition from the religious people in his church. Their counter and errant doctrine pressured Wim to abandon what he had seen in Scripture. He said they did everything they could to talk him out of believing in healing. Eventually his unwillingness to let go of his revelation led to his expulsion from their church.

"At first it seemed that these people really believed in the full Gospel and all the works of God that go with it. But very soon they started to give me all sorts of reasons why I wasn't healed, like secret sins, or it wasn't God's time or that God wanted to teach me something through the sickness," Wim recalled.

Andrew listens to Wim as he joyfully shares a little of his testimony at a conference in the UK.
(Click to enlarge)Unfortunately, Wim spent the next 12 years bound by religious legalism, manipulation and intimidation from within the Church. Finally, he stopped attending church altogether. He continued to pursue the Lord and His healing through ministerial streams outside the Church—all the while his health continued to deteriorate.

Wim became so sick that at one time he spent five years confined to his bed. "I had no life. I was a prisoner of my bed," he said. Through all those years he clung to what he had seen in the Word and the belief that God could heal him.

In 2011, Wim met with a friend he had not seen in a decade. The two had a short conversation about Wim's health, during which the friend asked, "Do you know you are already healed through the stripes of Jesus Christ?" The question sparked a heated debate that ended with Wim extremely angry.

"I thought he was mocking me. I asked, 'How can you say that I am healed, when I am sick as a dog?' I threw all the religious mumbo-jumbo at him that I had learned in the 22 years I had been in church, and he killed every one of them with the Word of God—he slapped me in the face with the Truth," said Wim.Wim at a Gospel Truth Seminar in the UK in 2011. (Click to enlarge)

Though the conversation with his friend was unpleasant, something changed in Wim's heart. The truth of the Scriptures his friend had shared stirred in him. A short time later Wim's brother gave him a CD about healing. The disk included various minister's teachings, including one by Andrew. Wim listened to the CD for months and studied the Word until he realized that healing was, in fact, for today. Wim wanted more than ever to be healed.

Needing a change in his spiritual surroundings, Wim went to Germany to visit some friends. While he was with them, he had access to a computer and the internet, something he did not have at home. Immediately, Wim went to Andrew's website to see the man to whom he had been listening. Once on the site, he began to watch archived videos of Andrew's Gospel Truth Seminars. He watched God Wants You Well and was energized. Then he watched You've Already Got It and the teachings pushed his energy and expectancy for healing into another gear.

Wim shares a teaching on his youtube channel. (Click to enlarge)"All of a sudden I realized that God had already healed me 2000 years ago...I had to stand up and take the power and authority He had invested in me and command these things to get out of my body," Wim said excitedly.

As Wim finished watching the You've Already Got It series, he stood in agreement with Andrew's prayer for healing at the end of the final session. He didn't feel anything, but believed in his heart that something had happened. Wim recalled that Andrew had said when a person has had a sickness like Wim's (one that had been around for a long time) that the person should attempt to do something they were previously unable to do. Wim decided to go out to dinner. As Wim ate, he prayed in the Spirit, and he had an overwhelming desire to go running—not something someone with chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia is likely to desire. In his mind he wondered if he was goingcrazy, but the desire to run intensified.

After dinner Wim went for a run. He said, "As soon as I started running, I prayed in tongues and there was an explosion of power on the inside. I started racing! I raced all the way up to the bridge on the other side of the city and back (2.5 miles) at high speed, shouting, 'Halleluja, I am healed!'"

When he went back to his friend's house, he declared that he would not be sick another day, and he promptly took his shoebox full of pills and threw them in the garbage. More than a year has passed since Wim received his healing, and he hasn't taken another pill. In fact, he left sickness behind and has gone into ministry sharing the truth of the Gospel with all who will listen.

In The Backcountry of Uganda

As 2012 drew to a close, Andrew visited Uganda. While there, he made his usual stops in Kampala and the surrounding area, visiting the ministry's Ugandan headquarters and the Charis Bible College extension school. Andrew also toured a part of the country he had never seen before, traveling to one of the most remote and primitive villages in the nation. In this episode of The Inside Story, Andrew shares how the trip impacted him and takes viewers on a journey to the village he visited in the northeastern region of Uganda.

CBC Students Visit Garden of Hope

A mission team from CBC-Colorado praying for people after a service in Costa Rica. (Click to enlarge)Recently a 30 person team of staff and second-year students from Charis Bible College in Colorado had the opportunity to minister in Central America. The team, led by CBC Missions Coordinator, Michelle Patterson, and intern leaders, Marcelo Duarte and Lori Lalonde, went to the nation of Costa Rica where they were hosted by Garden of Hope, a ministry founded by CBC-Colorado graduates Jim and Lynn McHood in Horquetas, Costa Rica.

CBC-Colorado's mission team on the ground in Costa Rica. (Click to enlarge)The McHoods provided the students with ample opportunity to put into practice the ministry training they have received at CBC. The team spent time evangelizing neighborhoods through door-to-door ministry; they taught in churches and schools and visited a local rehabilitation center. Each opportunity yielded measurable fruit.

For CBC student, Dalton Mixon, that measurable fruit came in the form of healing. After an evening outreach, which included a series of teachings and the sharing of student testimonies, Dalton had the opportunity to minister to a man who came forward for prayer. Although Dalton Mixon as Jesus during a skit performed at a rehab center.
(Click to enlarge)the two were hindered by a language barrier, Dalton understood by way of hand and facial gestures, that the man was suffering from severe back pain. It was Dalton's prayer that the man would feel a warmth come over his body as he laid his hands on him. Dalton hoped the warmth would overcome the language barrier and that the man would realize he was healed. When Dalton finished praying for the man, he invited an interpreter over to bridge the gap in communication. The interpreter told Dalton that the man said he had felt a warm sensation in his back and that he knew he was healed. The man also said that there was still a small pinch when Dalton praying with a young man.
(Click to enlarge)he bent over all the way. Dalton was unwilling to compromise; he expected a full healing. Dalton spoke again to the man's back, and the pinch and pain left immediately. Later one of the CBC intern leaders, Marcelo, who speaks fluent Spanish, followed up with the man and explained to him that it wasn’t Dalton who had healed him, but that it was God. Marcelo stressed this for the man's benefit, pointing out that tomorrow Dalton would be gone, but God would never leave him.

CBC student, Maria Seppälä, experienced the Lord as He led her to step out of the shadows and into the front lines of ministry.
(Click to enlarge)Another CBC student, Maria Seppälä, experienced the Lord in a different way, and her fruit manifested on a freeing internal level. As she prepared for the trip to Costa Rica, Maria realized that her primary expectation for the trip was to actively participate in the ministry opportunities presented to her on the mission field. Maria felt that she had been hiding behind her husband for some time, with the perspective that he was the one God was able to use, and that she was just along for the ride.

Once on the ground in Costa Rica, Maria stepped out of her husband's shadow and out of her comfort zone. On more than one occasion, Maria found that the Holy Spirit led her to It is the goodness of God that leads to repentance... The team's bus driver, Johnathan, was so impressed by what he saw in the team's witness that he gave his life to Christ. Here he is being baptized by Marcelo Duarte and Francis Ansah. (Click to enlarge)minister to groups of people that have always been on her heart, and she found that ministering in those situations was exciting. "I have felt that I am called to love and help parents in their parenting, to help young couples with their marriages, and I know that I want to see children growing in their personal relationship with their Lord and sharing the good news. During the mission trip I was excited as I realized that most of the ministry opportunities that I had, took place among these groups of people. I loved being in those situations and I felt that ministry was easy," Maria said excitedly.