Introduction To Graciela's new book, "Break The Silence: Family Violence & Child Sexual Abuse--A Spiritual Perspective"

I had the honor of writing the intro to my friend, Graciela Gimenez de Prein's new book. She asked me to include some history of our journey together in establishing the ministry of Aguas de Sanidad (Healing Waters). Until the book comes out in English, you'll have to just enjoy the intro! It is now available in Spanish as well as Italian...coming soon--the English version. I am so very proud of my friend!

*I remember the first day I met Graciela Gimenez. We met for coffee one afternoon. She had agreed to meet with me because I wanted to get to know her and I wanted to invite her to be a part of our upcoming Aguas de Sanidad Conference that we were going to be presenting in the Hotel Sheraton in Buenos Aires. As soon as we began to chat, I felt an immediate comradery—not just in friendship—not just because we had similar testimonies—but it was a comradery of the Spirit.

I arrived in Argentina in November of 2006. Within 24 hours of my arrival to Lomas de Zamora, my friends Rocky & Sherry Grams, directors of Instituto Biblico Rio de La Plata invited me to share my testimony to the students of the power of restoration and healing in Christ from a life shattered by sexual abuse and family violence. I shared it that day. The next morning I repeated it in the morning chapel service. The response was literally overwhelming. Afterwards, I remember counseling people, including some of the older married students, both chicos and chicas, from early morning until midnight or 1 a.m. for about two weeks. The stories that I heard were heart-breaking. But, I knew that something else was breaking: The silence. The silence was being broken—that loud, deafening silence that exists over the lives of “captives” being held in emotional dungeons and spiritual prisons because of the sin of others. Their ‘sentence’ as captives is perpetuated by the silence of those that are called to be the mouthpiece for freedom in Christ: The Church.

It was because of this great need, that I was inspired to put together a conference called “Aguas de Sanidad”. With the help and encouragement of Rocky & Sherry Grams, my pastors Edgardo and Silvia Munoz, and the intercessors and worship team of our church, Avance Cristiano en Temperly, Maria Valoy, Caro Lopez Greco, and some of the students of IBRP, we simply did what we could, with what we had – and we ministered to about 200 women in that first Aguas de Sanidad conference in March of 2007 on the campus of Instituto Biblico Rio de La Plata. We witnessed the Holy Spirit moving profoundly on those present: From a young girl of 17 years of age, to an elderly woman of 83 years of age, lives were transformed.

Almost a year later, I felt a stirring from the Spirit to begin planning another Aguas de Sanidad, this time, in Buenos Aires in el centro. It was in this planning process that I met Graciela. As we began to chat that day, in the cafeteria in the Shell station on the side of General Paz, I met a person who would quickly become one of my closest friends. We dreamed together about the Buenos Aires Aguas event—we prayed togethered, we weathered the storms that the enemy tried to stir up against the ministry, and we ultimately saw a loving God move intimately and powerfully on over 1600 people in the Salon Libertador of the Sheraton Hotel, Buenos Aires, in April of 2008.

In the time since then, I have ministered side by side with Graciela in many nations and in many different settings—from small churches, to one on one ministry, altar ministry and larger events of hundreds and thousands of people. The message has been consistent: Healing, restoration and complete freedom in Christ. This is the thrust of the ministry that we have been desarrolando juntas (building together)--Aguas de Sanidad--and this is the heart of Graciela’s personal ministry as well. I have been inspired and challenged by her walk with the Lord, by the sharp and clear prophetic Word that consistently flows from her spirit, even through her own process and journey of healing. I am amazed at how God uses her—even on a subway in Madrid, Spain when a young lady just began to open up and pour her heart out to Graciela—but am convinced that He uses her because she, first and foremost, truly walks with God, and secondly, she has a sincere love for the individual. For this reason alone, she has written this book—with the hope and determination that by breaking the silence that exists over the lives of the abused and broken, we will see a greater flow of God’s Spirit in the earth and in the Church than we have ever witnessed before in our lifetime.

My prayer for you is that you, through the pages of this book, are able to clearly identify your story or the story of a loved one and are also able to sense the loving heart of your Heavenly Father to intervene and to work a deep healing in your soul. May God richly bless you and speak into your life as you read.