ACERCA DE RAMON Y CAROL BABILONIA
Ramón Babilonia recibió al Señor en el 1.963 en Barranquilla, Colombia. Se graduó del Instituo Bíblico de la Cuadrangular, y tuvo su primera cruzada evangelística en el 1.965.
En su ministerio evangelístico, Ramón ha predicado en muchos países de Sud América, Centro América, Norte América, Europa, Africa, China, Cuba, unas Islas del Caribe é Israel. Carol ha enseñado la Palabra en muchos de los mismos países, y muchas veces comparten el púlpito juntos.
En el 1.976, juntamente fundaron el ministerio Evangelismo Vivo de Colombia, con el propósito de entrenar evangelistas y pastores. En el 1.993, Ramón y Carol fundaron Evangelism Alive International, Inc., en California, Estados Unidos, para poder mandar misioneros a diferentes países del mundo.
Como resultado del ministerio de Evangelismo Vivo de Colombia, Ramón, Carol y los que están trabajando con ellos, han estabelicido muchas Iglesias, ministerios en prisiones, programas para alimentar a los niños de las calles, ministerios de consejería, programas radiales, cruzadas evangelisticas, y eventos en varios países. Evangelism Alive International es la cobertura de un hogar para niños abandonados o huérfanos en un lugar cerca de Pereira, Colombia, llamada Fundación Jesucristo y Gedeones en Acción.
El resultado ha sido que el Señor Jesucristo ha respaldado la palabra predicada; salvando y cambiando vidas, restaurando matrimonios, sanando enfermos, haciendo milagros, prodigios, y señales.
El corazón de Ramón y el de Carol es de mostrar a cada hijo é hija de Dios de que, pueden y deben tomar su posición en el Cuerpo de Jesucristo, usando la herencia que él nos ha dado, anunciando las buenas nuevas de salvación a toda criatura, y en el nombre de Jesús expulsar demonios; y ministrar sanidad a los enfermos. Deben ser un conduit de restauración a un mundo hambriento y necesitado.
Ramón y Carol tienen tres hijos: Bonnie van Stelten, Rachel Connell, Ramon Daniel Babilonia; y seis nietos. Todos, juntos con sus familias, están o han estado en el ministerio misionero.
ENGLISH
At the age of 12, Carol Smith received a vision of South America, and a call to be a missionary. She immediately began studying Spanish. At 17, she became a student at a school that prepared missionaries for foreign countries, and preparing to go to Argentina.
At that time her family moved to Ojai, California, attending a church where the pastor had just visited Barranquilla, Colombia. The missionaries were pleading for help due to thousands of people who had received Jesus as Savior and many miraculous healings.
Colombia was not allowing missionaries into the country because of the terrible violence taking place. Hundreds of Christians had been killed and it was dangerous for foreigners. But in 1962, because of a miracle, a senator obtained permission for Carol to enter Colombia to work with the missionaries as a secretary, at the age of 19.
A year later, a young man named Ramón Babilonia came to the church. He had been working in Venezuela, and a man he hired to do some work for him, prophecied that he would give his life to Jesus and preach in many parts of the world.
He gave Ramón a Bible and told him to read it. Ramón didn’t understand anything the man said, but when he returned to Colombia, he started reading the Bible. A little girl saw him and invited him to church. He invited Jesus into his heart, but also fell in love with the girl playing the piano. He prayed for five years before telling her, and asked her to marry him. By that time he was an evangelist in the very remote areas of the country.
After miraculous confirmations, Carol said yes, and they came to Ojai to get married in the church that was eventually renamed Redemption. They began traveling together throughout Colombia.
They began a family, Bonnie, who is now in Mozambique, Africa, Rachel, who was a missionary for many years before returning to Ojai, and son, Ramon. They were partially raised in Medellín, during the time of Pablo Escobar, and the Medellin drug cartel.
When Ramon was single, and assistant pastor in a church, a 12 year old girl went to the church and received Jesus, while Ramon was preaching. Later he baptized her in water. But when she was 13 some terrible things happened to her. It is her story to tell, but what I can say is that she was held like a prisoner for several years, and when she escaped, she was very bitter, and joined the Revolutionary Army of Colombia (FARC).
She was sent to Russia for training and returned to Colombia to be the leader of 100 men. One day she was on an some business for the guerrilla movement, in the city of Pereira, when a man handed her a Bible. She went back into hiding and began reading it. She said, “This is what Ramon Babilonia taught me.”
She asked God to forgive her, and escaped, and started attending a church.
In 1999, there was a terrible earthquake that nearly destroyed the entire city, and Ramon and Carol went with money given by what is now called Redemption, to feed the people. She had taken three children into her home and wanted to start an orphanage, because she knew where the orphans were from the attacks that she made on villages as leader in the guerrilla movement.
She heard the name Ramon Babilonia, and contacted us to see if we would be a covering for her to be able to start an orphanage. We did that, and since then, hundreds of children have been raised by this powerful woman of God. She was given a farm, and we have been able to build not only a beautiful place to raise children, but it is not an institution, it is a home, where the children, some from newborn babies, are raised to love the Lord, and make a difference in Colombia.
The children also started a church, but have had to move from one place to another, several times. They were given property to build their own church building, in the closest town. That is our next project.
Their Facebook page is: Fundación Jesucristo y Gedeones en Acción