Recently an old childhood friend Steve Klippert wrote me an email, recounting to me an amazing story of healing of cancer and diabetes. Somehow I was involved in this healing—but certainly not through any prayers I am consciously aware of praying over him. I had long forgotten this friend from grade school, and hadn’t had any contact for some 40 years. I have been praying quite regularly in the spirit throughout the day and at night for the past year. I have felt compelled to do this as an act of pure faith. I have also been asking God for breakthroughs with diabetes, as many of our immigrant workers here suffer from this. I am very encouraged to see that God is at work and has linked me back together with a friend who is involved in similar work. Here is his amazing testimony of healing and renewal of friendship and a call to pray for Jose’s healing too.
Testimony
My name is Steve Klippert. Shortly after moving hundreds of miles from my home where we’d lived for decades, I became very ill. The original diagnosis was a terminal condition called retroperitoneal sarcoma, a very aggressive cancer, with a death rate within five years. This "mass" abutted my kidney and pancreas. After many tests and procedures, specialists surrendered that they had never seen such a thing and that surgery was necessary. The prognosis was not hopeful and my family and I were given five scenarios: 1. mass too involved with other organs and there was nothing they could do; 2, removal of the pancreas; 3. complete bowel resection; 4. removal of mass and hope for the best; and, 5. systemic metastasis (spreading of malignancy) with hospice to be considered. As the surgeons were mystified at this mass, my wife was on standby in case of complications or need to consent to life changing procedures once the operation began. This operation was scheduled for eight hours, but expected to go longer. As we just moved, we had developed only casual friendships and were still looking for a church that was Christ-driven. We were alone and I was mad. Mad at God for sending me away, scaring me and my family, and I told Him so.
On August 20, 2008, as I was being prepped for surgery, I prayed and I was told to "find Bob". This made little sense to me as I did not know any Bob's, not even any of the surgical team nor their support staff went by this name. My family and I were alone, as we had only made casual friendships in the area and were still looking for a church that was Christ-driven. After surgery I awoke to amazed faces, my wife in tears and my doctors proclaiming that not only did they not find any cancer, but the mass (the size of a lemon) was successfully removed. Furthermore, I was not confined to intensive care.
I immediately got out of bed, a remarkable feat when considering the surgery, the ng (nasal gastric) tube, carotid artery port, catheter, and various machines I was attached, to find "Bob." This was my mission, my quest that had to have an end, a meaning more than just a mere message. I only returned to my bed under the threat of physical restraint. It was that night that I felt the warmth, security and essence of God who told me softly, but firmly that I must find an old school pal that I had not seen or heard from in forty years named Bob Ekblad. This mystified me as I did not know where he was or even if he was alive. Once released, I would try to "find Bob".
On August 25, after several days in hospital I was given solid food and the nurse brought me a regular meal: pancakes with syrup, toast with jelly and a cinnamon roll. I was astonished to see this as I was a diabetic and these sugary delights were forbidden. I ate with the finesse of a toddler, scooping the sappy grape jelly from its plastic hold when a nurse came in screaming: "The doctor forgot to order a special diet. Stop eating, it could kill you!" My blood sugar was taken...normal. They again took my blood sugar...normal. An endocrinologist was summoned and stated my diabetes was cured; he called it a "medical anomaly", I call it God's grace.
Once home, I googled Bob Ekblad, half expecting to find nothing or discover him selling insurance in Omaha. I read about Bob, his work with convicts and how his ministry was similar to mine as I also work with felony offenders.
I currently work for the New York State Department of Corrections in Albany, New York. I am responsible for policy management, implementation of alcohol and substance abuse treatment programs for several State prisons, the most notable is Attica Correctional Facility. Before these administrative efforts, I supervised a staff of 16 counselors and previously was a 'front-line' counselor working with violent felony offenders, many with life terms. I have witnessed the grace of God in many of their lives and I am especially grateful for your [Tierra Nueva’s] community reintegration efforts with those society considers to be the least, last and lost.
I realize how God through his children intercedes in miracles. If you are troubled, "find your Bob" you will not have to look that far.
In response to my question: "why do you think God wanted you to find me?" Steve wrote:
"My thinking is that you provided the answer during our phone call when you stated that you have been praying intensely and anonymously. Perhaps God wants to remind us of the power of intercession and that His will comes to those we do not know or have forgotten; that as flawed and frail humans all of us need some encouragement with something tangible and concrete and that the power of healing is not a myth or parlor game.
My first feelings were denial in "finding Bob". I initially thought it was a result of medication or that I heard somebody looking for "Bob". However, this message was not an echo or aberration; it was set deep within and the more I tried to ignore it, the more life it had. I became frustrated at the lack of clarity... "find Bob". Bob who? How many Bobs did I know? Maybe I thought it was a coded message, but no matter what Bob spelled backwards was still "Bob". Discovering the essence of this meaning became somewhat of an adventure. Every time somebody came into my room I espied their name tags, listened for nicknames or maybe I would be referred to a specialist named "Bob".
For me in my work and continuing relationship with God, I see despair, humans who live life backwards, killing time; the keeper vs. the kept. I dwelt in this environment, adversarial without end, merit or rationale. Faith is not only tested, it is questioned. Christ knows this and He is a pretty funny guy. Here He knows I am lost, feeling abandoned and sets me off on an adventure. Not just an ordinary adventure, but an adventure to "find Bob". Darn slick. Through you which was through Him I am healed, WOW! Not only have I been restored, but my guess is so have you. Could ANYBODY think of a more incredible scenario.. who would have 'thunk'? Imagine me barely able to sit, plucking away at the computer and finding your ministry! It all makes sense.
Here's a challenge- call someone, maybe your parents or a friend, tell them this story. Not that credibility is an issue, but I have all the supporting documentation for those who ask. I feel your hand upon my scar and with that an image of a man sitting on a padded surface (bed or futon like contraption) bent over engulfed in prayer. This will not leave me. I do not debate this, analyze its existence or disguise it in hyperbole. It is a core construct, that which transcends and transmutes all I have known before. I am truly blessed in the spirit and so are you. God touched you to touch me...Bob Ekblad from Bellevue Christian School, the kid who used to keep his ten speed bike in his bedroom. Is NOT Christ the coolest or what!! You know Christ and His father are high fiving over this..what a perfect plan!
He told me: "Steve and Bob, my precious children, I am not done with you yet. You must carry this living gift to all you see, through your healing others will follow. This is my design and now your duty and obligation. I spin stars upon my fingers and cure disease. You are the proof of my everlasting love and mercy".
Praying for Jose
Three weeks ago, Stuart, a friend who owns the little grocery store by our house asked me to visit his Mexican friend Jose. Jose has stomach cancer and diabetes. The doctors have said he won’t live till Christmas. He wants to be sure his wife and children will have his social security benefits once he dies. I visited him and his family, prayed for his healing and anointed the hands of his wife and children with oil to continue praying. At that time Jose couldn’t eat but was fed through a feeding tube that went directly into his stomach. He could hardly get up from his hospice-provided hospital bed in their apartment. Gracie and I just visited them tonight and were startled by the change. Jose was up and eating at table with his family.
“I feel much better. The doctors think I’m eating just a little, but I’m eating a lot,” he said, smiling. His wife said that they have been praying together every night and feel God’s peace.
“Before we never prayed, but all of this is bringing us close to God,” she said. I told them the story of how God healed Steve of cancer in his stomach and diabetes and they were delighted. We were moved by Jose’s visible faith. We gathered around him and together with his wife Maria and three children we prayed for his complete healing.
Please pray for Jose with us—that God would completely heal him and bring others to faith through his testimony.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Friday, November 14, 2008
The Jesus Pledge: Giving Allegiance to Jesus and the Kingdom of God
On November 4, election day here in the USA, I had the privilege of speaking before some 2,000 students and faculty at Messiah College in Pennsylvania. An orchestra played at the beginning while young women students processed in carrying flags of all the nations. The students lifted high their flags, and I kept thinking that these symbols of national identity were taking people’s focus off the human beings carrying them—made in God’s image and likeness. The girls placed all the flags into stands and I was surprised that the American flag was in the second row, somewhat hidden. After the opening prayer though I opened my eyes to find the flag had crept to the front left corner—the most prominent position. I thought of the first commandment:
“I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything… you shall not bow down to them or serve them” (Exod 20:1-4).
The prohibition of images is because human beings are God’s image bearers, created and placed in the temple of God’s creation as those given authority to exercise dominion (Gen 1:27-28; Psalm 8) over all of creation—including the authorities and powers. Moses, the prototype human being in a prophetic role before the powers was to be “as God to Pharaoh” (Exod 7:1).
That morning I spoke on how God had elected each and every one of us, adopting us as beloved sons and daughters. Each of us are made in God’s image and likeness, and Jesus is the perfect embodiment of an empowered bearer of God’s image. He is God’s anointed one, the Messiah/Christ, and God has raised us with Christ and made us sit with him in the heavenly places now (Eph 2:6). Through his Holy Spirit we too receive the anointing, and become little anointed ones (christians or anointlings).
On election day and thereafter, when we may tend to put hope in candidates and even “a new spirit of patriotism” (Obama) I invite people to remember rather that God has chosen each one of us, and is recruiting us and empowering us with the Holy Spirit to follow Jesus to announce his Kingdom, on earth as in heaven.
This does not mean we do not vote or promote structural change. We are called to be advocates for the poor and oppressed, to pray for our leaders and even to submit to them— but never at the expense of our highest allegiance to Jesus and his kingdom. But now is the time to remember that deep change does not happen through elections or legislation but through the process of conversion and empowerment from the bottom up.
In subsequent chapel later last week I introduced the US version of the Jesus Pledge, which I am including below. I encourage you to prayerfully read it and consider joining a group we’ve just set up on my facebook—where we’ve posted an international version of the Jesus Pledge (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=49000126270)
The Jesus Pledge
What is the Jesus Pledge? A movement of Christians from the United States who feel compelled at this time to reaffirm our allegiance to Jesus as Lord and Christ, and the cross as God’s way of overcoming evil. We, therefore, give our allegiance to Jesus and the pursuit of God’s kingdom above all else, and renounce allegiances to nation that in any way compromise our calling and identify us with war and the use of force instead of Jesus’ life-giving love displayed in his earthly ministry and in his death for the world on the cross.
Manifesto
We confess that Jesus is Lord, the full revelation of the God of the Old Testament and that before Him every knee will bow. We confess that Jesus is Christ, Israel’s Messiah, and Savior of the world who conquered the power of evil on the cross. We agree with Jesus’ call to undivided allegiance to God: "No one can serve two masters…” (Matt 6:24), and “Love the Lord your God with all your heart…and your neighbor as yourself.” We also reaffirm that: “God so loved the world…” and now sends us with that same love to our society’s outcasts and our country’s enemies. Like Jesus, we must say ‘yes’ to the kingdom of God, and ‘no’ to all allegiances that compromise the furthering of that kingdom.
As followers of Jesus Christ who are citizens of the United States, we are troubled when God’s name is overly identified with our country’s wars and laws through Christians remaining silent or actively promoting them as ordained by God. We believe any union between the name of Jesus and our government and its leaders is both idolatrous and a hindrance to the witness of the Church. Killing our enemies and enforcing dehumanizing laws in the name of God deny Jesus’ call to love our enemies and to join him as a “friend of sinners.” This is the time for genuine, widespread repentance and change.
Pledge
As a follower of Jesus Christ, and in keeping with my baptismal vows:
I renounce allegiances to the world and nation that would lead me to justify the use of violence, war or any type of force that are incompatible with Jesus’ teachings and his witness on the cross. I affirm God’s mission for the Church to serve as ambassadors of the kingdom of God, announcing forgiveness, promoting healing, peace and reconciliation – by loving and blessing those considered our enemies.
I renounce the flesh as it manifests in a spirit of national pride, superiority and self-interest that pursues our nation’s dominance for our own economic and material benefit and security. I affirm that my primary earthly place of belonging, identity and loyalty is in Jesus Christ and his body -- the borderless, worldwide family of God, and embrace his way of humility, service and love of God and neighbor.
I renounce Satan, the accuser and deceiver, and turn from his lie that America is God’s elect ambassador of freedom and Christian values whose mission justifies and requires the sacrifice of human lives. I affirm God’s kingdom as manifested through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and through his Church empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Action
I encourage you to join our group on facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=49000126270 and watch for a website we're setting up jesuspledge.com where we want to provide resources to a growing movement of Christians seeking greater faithfulness and commitment.
“I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything… you shall not bow down to them or serve them” (Exod 20:1-4).
The prohibition of images is because human beings are God’s image bearers, created and placed in the temple of God’s creation as those given authority to exercise dominion (Gen 1:27-28; Psalm 8) over all of creation—including the authorities and powers. Moses, the prototype human being in a prophetic role before the powers was to be “as God to Pharaoh” (Exod 7:1).
That morning I spoke on how God had elected each and every one of us, adopting us as beloved sons and daughters. Each of us are made in God’s image and likeness, and Jesus is the perfect embodiment of an empowered bearer of God’s image. He is God’s anointed one, the Messiah/Christ, and God has raised us with Christ and made us sit with him in the heavenly places now (Eph 2:6). Through his Holy Spirit we too receive the anointing, and become little anointed ones (christians or anointlings).
On election day and thereafter, when we may tend to put hope in candidates and even “a new spirit of patriotism” (Obama) I invite people to remember rather that God has chosen each one of us, and is recruiting us and empowering us with the Holy Spirit to follow Jesus to announce his Kingdom, on earth as in heaven.
This does not mean we do not vote or promote structural change. We are called to be advocates for the poor and oppressed, to pray for our leaders and even to submit to them— but never at the expense of our highest allegiance to Jesus and his kingdom. But now is the time to remember that deep change does not happen through elections or legislation but through the process of conversion and empowerment from the bottom up.
In subsequent chapel later last week I introduced the US version of the Jesus Pledge, which I am including below. I encourage you to prayerfully read it and consider joining a group we’ve just set up on my facebook—where we’ve posted an international version of the Jesus Pledge (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=49000126270)
The Jesus Pledge
What is the Jesus Pledge? A movement of Christians from the United States who feel compelled at this time to reaffirm our allegiance to Jesus as Lord and Christ, and the cross as God’s way of overcoming evil. We, therefore, give our allegiance to Jesus and the pursuit of God’s kingdom above all else, and renounce allegiances to nation that in any way compromise our calling and identify us with war and the use of force instead of Jesus’ life-giving love displayed in his earthly ministry and in his death for the world on the cross.
Manifesto
We confess that Jesus is Lord, the full revelation of the God of the Old Testament and that before Him every knee will bow. We confess that Jesus is Christ, Israel’s Messiah, and Savior of the world who conquered the power of evil on the cross. We agree with Jesus’ call to undivided allegiance to God: "No one can serve two masters…” (Matt 6:24), and “Love the Lord your God with all your heart…and your neighbor as yourself.” We also reaffirm that: “God so loved the world…” and now sends us with that same love to our society’s outcasts and our country’s enemies. Like Jesus, we must say ‘yes’ to the kingdom of God, and ‘no’ to all allegiances that compromise the furthering of that kingdom.
As followers of Jesus Christ who are citizens of the United States, we are troubled when God’s name is overly identified with our country’s wars and laws through Christians remaining silent or actively promoting them as ordained by God. We believe any union between the name of Jesus and our government and its leaders is both idolatrous and a hindrance to the witness of the Church. Killing our enemies and enforcing dehumanizing laws in the name of God deny Jesus’ call to love our enemies and to join him as a “friend of sinners.” This is the time for genuine, widespread repentance and change.
Pledge
As a follower of Jesus Christ, and in keeping with my baptismal vows:
I renounce allegiances to the world and nation that would lead me to justify the use of violence, war or any type of force that are incompatible with Jesus’ teachings and his witness on the cross. I affirm God’s mission for the Church to serve as ambassadors of the kingdom of God, announcing forgiveness, promoting healing, peace and reconciliation – by loving and blessing those considered our enemies.
I renounce the flesh as it manifests in a spirit of national pride, superiority and self-interest that pursues our nation’s dominance for our own economic and material benefit and security. I affirm that my primary earthly place of belonging, identity and loyalty is in Jesus Christ and his body -- the borderless, worldwide family of God, and embrace his way of humility, service and love of God and neighbor.
I renounce Satan, the accuser and deceiver, and turn from his lie that America is God’s elect ambassador of freedom and Christian values whose mission justifies and requires the sacrifice of human lives. I affirm God’s kingdom as manifested through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and through his Church empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Action
I encourage you to join our group on facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=49000126270 and watch for a website we're setting up jesuspledge.com where we want to provide resources to a growing movement of Christians seeking greater faithfulness and commitment.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
The Kingdom of God coming close
A bunch of us at Tierra Nueva got together a few weeks ago to talk about our Spanish worship service. The tremendous diversity that is typically referred to as the “Hispanic community” has challenged us to re-think how we move forward with our faith community.
Most of the farm workers these days are far from fluent in Spanish and far from Christian. They speak Triqui and Mixteco and pay homage to a diversity of gods and goddesses. Many go to brujos (traditional healers/witch doctors) and practice a very syncretistic religion. They need to be introduced to Jesus through direct prayer and simple but dynamic Bible study. They also need church to come to their apartments or camps as they work long hours, and have large families of kids that need to get off to school early. So we’ve decided to make our Sunday night Spanish service shorter and simpler and visit people and establish faith communities in people’s homes using Luke 10 as a model.
In Luke 10 Jesus sends 70 recently appointed disciples two-by-two into every town and place. They are to look for sons/daughters of peace who will receive them. In India and Mozambique the body of Christ is growing fastest through leaders who spiritually discern which homes to visit and then practice Jesus’ approach of blessing people with peace, not moving from house to house, eating with the people, praying for this sick and announcing “the Kingdom of God has come near to you.” I got to experience the power of this last night and Salvio, Victoria, Emily, Mike, Chris and others at Tierra Nueva are stepping out in this way too.
Last night Emily encouraged me to call on a Triqui-speaking family who hadn’t been coming to Tierra Nueva for many months. Unfortunately I went alone, but you can come along now back into this encounter. After dropping my son Luke off at gymnastics I called Felipe (not his real name) who welcomed me to his apartment without hesitating. As soon as I stepped through their door Alejandra (not her real name) sat me down, offered me a soft drink and brought a bowl full of hot tortillas and meat to me and Felipe.
I wondered if they were discouraged because Alejandra had been healed of a swollen and painful leg problem several times, but the pain kept returning. I suggested that maybe it’s possible to lose healing if you are going to more than one god for help. I invited Felipe to read Exodus 20:1-4 and learned that he hadn’t been able to read for a long time, which I figured was because he’s 50 and probably needs reading glasses like Gracie and I do. In fact this had frustrated him, causing him to lose interest in our Bible studies. I suggested that we go together later to get some glasses at Food Pavilion, and then read Exodus 20:1ff’s “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me” and talked briefly about how God wants us to recognize only one healer/liberator/savior—who we know as Jesus.
“Like you Felipe or me, how would you feel about Alejandra being with another man while she's with you?" I asked him. He shook his head. They had a big poster on their wall with the American flag on it and I said "in America many Christians pray to Jesus but also believe in the flag and put their trust in the political system. Maybe it’s because we don't trust that only Jesus can rescue us. We want to be sure we're protected so we go to more than one god. Does that happen in Oaxaca?" I asked. He nodded reflectively. I then asked if we could pray again for Alejandra.
Before we began praying Felipe started chatting away in Triqui to his wife. I asked him what he was saying and said he was explaining to Alejandra that we can only serve one God. I was super encouraged that he explained it to her completely on his own. I prayed for her but nothing changed. “It’s the same,” she said matter of factly. He told me more freely that he thought it was witchcraft. So we prayed against that, but Alejandra said the pain was still there. I asked if they had an idea of who is cursing them. First he said he didn't know. Then when I kept asking he said he thought it was his ex-wife who was mad at him for leaving her in Mexico years before and not sending money, and then for his relationship with Alejandra.
I talked with Alejandra about how important forgiveness is and she forgave without hesitation. Then I prayed, sending back blessings, love and peace to the woman who cursed them and to the brujo/a. After this prayer Alejandra said all the pain left and a big smile came on her face.
After praying for Alejandra I said "let's go to Food Pavilion Felipe to get you some glasses,” and off we went in his van. It was fun choosing the glasses together, trying to figure out the strength and model. We came back and we tested out his new glasses by him reading Romans 12:21 "do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." We had talked about this before we sent back blessings, peace and love to their enemy, and Felipe smiled and was really into the verse and excited he can read again. It brought us all great joy to see the Kingdom of God come close. So much joy that I can’t wait to go out again.
Most of the farm workers these days are far from fluent in Spanish and far from Christian. They speak Triqui and Mixteco and pay homage to a diversity of gods and goddesses. Many go to brujos (traditional healers/witch doctors) and practice a very syncretistic religion. They need to be introduced to Jesus through direct prayer and simple but dynamic Bible study. They also need church to come to their apartments or camps as they work long hours, and have large families of kids that need to get off to school early. So we’ve decided to make our Sunday night Spanish service shorter and simpler and visit people and establish faith communities in people’s homes using Luke 10 as a model.
In Luke 10 Jesus sends 70 recently appointed disciples two-by-two into every town and place. They are to look for sons/daughters of peace who will receive them. In India and Mozambique the body of Christ is growing fastest through leaders who spiritually discern which homes to visit and then practice Jesus’ approach of blessing people with peace, not moving from house to house, eating with the people, praying for this sick and announcing “the Kingdom of God has come near to you.” I got to experience the power of this last night and Salvio, Victoria, Emily, Mike, Chris and others at Tierra Nueva are stepping out in this way too.
Last night Emily encouraged me to call on a Triqui-speaking family who hadn’t been coming to Tierra Nueva for many months. Unfortunately I went alone, but you can come along now back into this encounter. After dropping my son Luke off at gymnastics I called Felipe (not his real name) who welcomed me to his apartment without hesitating. As soon as I stepped through their door Alejandra (not her real name) sat me down, offered me a soft drink and brought a bowl full of hot tortillas and meat to me and Felipe.
I wondered if they were discouraged because Alejandra had been healed of a swollen and painful leg problem several times, but the pain kept returning. I suggested that maybe it’s possible to lose healing if you are going to more than one god for help. I invited Felipe to read Exodus 20:1-4 and learned that he hadn’t been able to read for a long time, which I figured was because he’s 50 and probably needs reading glasses like Gracie and I do. In fact this had frustrated him, causing him to lose interest in our Bible studies. I suggested that we go together later to get some glasses at Food Pavilion, and then read Exodus 20:1ff’s “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me” and talked briefly about how God wants us to recognize only one healer/liberator/savior—who we know as Jesus.
“Like you Felipe or me, how would you feel about Alejandra being with another man while she's with you?" I asked him. He shook his head. They had a big poster on their wall with the American flag on it and I said "in America many Christians pray to Jesus but also believe in the flag and put their trust in the political system. Maybe it’s because we don't trust that only Jesus can rescue us. We want to be sure we're protected so we go to more than one god. Does that happen in Oaxaca?" I asked. He nodded reflectively. I then asked if we could pray again for Alejandra.
Before we began praying Felipe started chatting away in Triqui to his wife. I asked him what he was saying and said he was explaining to Alejandra that we can only serve one God. I was super encouraged that he explained it to her completely on his own. I prayed for her but nothing changed. “It’s the same,” she said matter of factly. He told me more freely that he thought it was witchcraft. So we prayed against that, but Alejandra said the pain was still there. I asked if they had an idea of who is cursing them. First he said he didn't know. Then when I kept asking he said he thought it was his ex-wife who was mad at him for leaving her in Mexico years before and not sending money, and then for his relationship with Alejandra.
I talked with Alejandra about how important forgiveness is and she forgave without hesitation. Then I prayed, sending back blessings, love and peace to the woman who cursed them and to the brujo/a. After this prayer Alejandra said all the pain left and a big smile came on her face.
After praying for Alejandra I said "let's go to Food Pavilion Felipe to get you some glasses,” and off we went in his van. It was fun choosing the glasses together, trying to figure out the strength and model. We came back and we tested out his new glasses by him reading Romans 12:21 "do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." We had talked about this before we sent back blessings, peace and love to their enemy, and Felipe smiled and was really into the verse and excited he can read again. It brought us all great joy to see the Kingdom of God come close. So much joy that I can’t wait to go out again.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Jesus inside Guatemala's gangs
A week ago Sunday I returned from four intense days in Guatemala City working with "Estrategia de Transformacion," an initiative that supports, encourages and trains a group of ex-gang members and committed pastors engaged in transformational work with active gang members. I also visited a former Tierra Nueva colleague who now works in a project to exhume, identify and photograph the remains of indigenous people massacred by the military in the 1980s. The trip was a home-coming of sorts as Guatemala was the place God called me to work with the poor and where I’d called Gracie asking her to marry me during some of the worst violence of a civil war in 1980.
I hadn’t been to Guatemala in 20 years, but there I was, this time to go into two prisons housing some of the most violent gang members and to train chaplains and ministry workers who currently serve the poorest of the poor. What a privilege! But my memory of the terror from the violence was also rekindled. Torture, savage killings and beheading commonplace in 1980-81, fed by US policy, are still happening, now among rival gangs of young men and the police—and the fatherless young gang members are being scapegoated for nearly everything, including the violence they have inherited.
Joel Van Dyke leads this gang ministry and hosted us. Joel is a street-wise Christian Reformed pastor/missionary and Latin American Director for the Center for Transforming Mission who’s been in Guatemala 4-5 years. He’s full of vision and passion to develop the chaplaincy ministry and many other initiatives after pastoring an inner-city church in Philadelphia for some 15 years. The first day Joel and a Guatemalan chaplain took Chris, Angel David (whose been with Tierra Nueva Honduras for 25 years) and me into the gang wing of a big prison guarded by machine-gun toting soldiers.
The guards opened the doors and left us off in the midst of 180 young men, many with tattoos covering their faces and upper bodies. Unlike our local jail, marijuana smoke, cell phone calls, a prostitute and dispute over a woman made it hard to get people’s attention for the Bible study. But we were able to get away with what we do best in Skagit County Jail. Chris played and sang over the men after I asked permission to lay hands on each one and pray for God’s Presence to heal, fill and bless them. I could sense that each hardened guy softened as I prayed, but the men had to be careful not to express outwardly that they were being positively affected.
Churches are viewed as rival gangs, and often act that way—pulling people away from their most functional family of “homies” into something often marked by legalism and exclusivity. The gangs are even more legalistic and brutal. Two of the chaplains who visit another prison shared with us that five inmates who accepted Christ and expressed a desire to change were found dead the next day, executed by fellow gang members, a warning to others not to leave the flock. Yet a number of guys told me privately afterward that they appreciated the Bible study on receiving Jesus as their personal body guard—a particular reading I do of Psalm 23 and Luke 15. I was disturbed to learn from Joel, who just finished his doctoral thesis on the gangs, that as many as 80% of the gangsters are from evangelical homes. Legalism begets legalism unless it is directly confronted and healed by Jesus’ grace and love.
That afternoon we got a tour of a forensic laboratory that deeply moved me. There we saw the bones of men, women and children exhumed from mass graves in the highlands. We were shown skulls and entire skeletons that were respectfully laid out on tables so the technicians could determine, age, identity and cause of death. I was shown bullet holes in many of the skulls, including that of a 16 year old girl. We saw storage rooms full of cardboard boxes with the already inspected remains of hundreds of yet unclaimed people labeled by name, site, village and region. My former colleague told us the lab has processed 5,000 of the 200,000+ ”disappeared” by the military during the 1980s. What is the link between the violence of the civil war and the gangs? I continue to wonder.
The next day we went to Central America’s most infamous prison to visit the gang member inmates of perhaps the most notorious gang in the Western Hemisphere. They’re arch-enemies of the gang we’d visited the day before and had proved it three years before by killing and beheading 45 of their members.
Once again the guards let us in with 110 or so inmates. We hang out and talk with a number of men, some of whom had first joined the gang while living in Los Angeles before they did prison time in the US and were deported. I later heard from Joel that many of the gang members had lost their fathers to the death squads or the war in the 1980s. Adrift and afraid, many migrated as young teens to the USA, often ending up selling drugs and joining a gang.
A few days before leaving for Guatemala I had a dream of a heavily-tattooed gangster with a hole in his right side. I saw someone fitting that description, and ended up needing to ask him where I could find a bathroom. I followed him into the dark recesses of the prison, and after using the toilet he humbly asked me if I’d like to see his cell. There in the cell this man who’d been shot in his lower abdomen, sentenced to over 120 years, one of the top chiefs of this gang invited me to sit down on a plastic chair and hear about his belief in God. I offered him a CD of contemplative flute music for worship and a copy of my book Reading the Bible with the Damned, which he warmly accepted. We prayed together for God’s peace and presence in his life and he was very grateful.
From there we went straight into Chris singing over a group of 40 or so inmates, while I once again was granted permission to lay hands and pray over each one. I then led a reflection on the call of Matthew in what turned out to be a breakthrough Bible study. I described how Matthew was a tax-collector—a member of a notorious class of people that nearly everyone hated.
“Who might fit the description of tax-collectors today?” I asked. Gangs in Guatemala force businesses in their territories to pay “protection taxes” [from themselves] and taxi drivers to pay “circulation taxes”- and the men smiled and looked at each other, acknowledging that they fit the description.
“So what was Matthew doing when Jesus called him?” I ask. The men look surprised when they note that he wasn’t following any rules, seeking God or doing anything religious, but practicing his despised trade when Jesus showed up on the street and chose him.
“So let’s see if Jesus made Matthew leave his gang to be a Christian,” I suggest, and people look closely at the next verse. There Jesus is eating at Matthew’s house with other tax-collectors and sinners and the disciples.
“So who followed whom?” I ask, excited to see people’s reaction. The men could see the Jesus had apparently followed gangster Matthew into his barrio and joined his homies for a meal.
“So what do you think you guys, would you let Jesus join your gang?” I ask, looking directly to the two chiefs of the gang? They both had big smiles as we looked at Jesus’ reaction to the Pharisees’ distain.
“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” I ask them if they are at all offended to think of themselves as sick—and they don’t seem to be at all. I’ve got their attention and Jesus’ final word to the religious insiders hits these guys like a spray of spiritual bullets from a drive by:
“Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” I knew from experience that they were letting Jesus inside and hearing his call to follow. Last Thursday back in our local jail two groups of ten inmates all welcomed Jesus into their cells and into their lives after talking through this same Scripture with them.
But that day we still had to leave the prison. On our way out I wonder about the warden just as Joel suggests we thank him. We step into his office and shake hands. I acknowledge that he has a very complicated job needing lots of wisdom and ask if we can pray for him and bless him. “Bueno” he says, and I ask if we can lay hands on him. He accepts but just as we begin praying he suddenly pulls out his hand gun, takes out the clip and empties his pockets of other clips. “This is more proper!” he says, placing his gun and ammunition atop his file cabinet. He receives our blessing and we offer to pray for healing for an injury related to a machete fight that left his arm, shoulder and chest with shooting pain.
“All the pain is gone,” he tells us with a grin after we pray. We leave amazed by the truly special unique Spirit who disarms and loves both gangsters and warden.
That night and the next day we ministered to the seven chaplains and some 50 ministry workers, teaching on forgiveness and praying for God’s Spirit to refresh and renew people. The Holy Spirit came in beautiful ways, with lots of crying and people all wanting prayer. Angel David was delighted to see how God visibly touched these spiritually hungry men and women as we prayed together over each one.
I am sure there’s a need for more and more of God’s healing, transforming presence—brought right into the heart of the places of greatest wounding and pain. I’m also certain that honestly facing the truth of Guatemala’s violent past and of America’s participation is critical for forgiveness to lead to true reconciliation and peace.
Please pray for Joel Van Dyke, my former TN colleague, and the gang chaplains and other ministry workers in Guatemala—for strength, empowerment, wisdom and protection. Remember too the gang members both in the prisons and on the streets—that Jesus’ kindness would penetrate and transform hard hearts. Pray too for Angel David, who returned to minister in Honduras, excited to recruit younger people into active ministry to the poor and Chris who is now back in Burlington pasturing his own flock of local gang members. Please keep Gracie and I in your prayers as we leave next week to visit our son Isaac in Argentina.
I hadn’t been to Guatemala in 20 years, but there I was, this time to go into two prisons housing some of the most violent gang members and to train chaplains and ministry workers who currently serve the poorest of the poor. What a privilege! But my memory of the terror from the violence was also rekindled. Torture, savage killings and beheading commonplace in 1980-81, fed by US policy, are still happening, now among rival gangs of young men and the police—and the fatherless young gang members are being scapegoated for nearly everything, including the violence they have inherited.
Joel Van Dyke leads this gang ministry and hosted us. Joel is a street-wise Christian Reformed pastor/missionary and Latin American Director for the Center for Transforming Mission who’s been in Guatemala 4-5 years. He’s full of vision and passion to develop the chaplaincy ministry and many other initiatives after pastoring an inner-city church in Philadelphia for some 15 years. The first day Joel and a Guatemalan chaplain took Chris, Angel David (whose been with Tierra Nueva Honduras for 25 years) and me into the gang wing of a big prison guarded by machine-gun toting soldiers.
The guards opened the doors and left us off in the midst of 180 young men, many with tattoos covering their faces and upper bodies. Unlike our local jail, marijuana smoke, cell phone calls, a prostitute and dispute over a woman made it hard to get people’s attention for the Bible study. But we were able to get away with what we do best in Skagit County Jail. Chris played and sang over the men after I asked permission to lay hands on each one and pray for God’s Presence to heal, fill and bless them. I could sense that each hardened guy softened as I prayed, but the men had to be careful not to express outwardly that they were being positively affected.
Churches are viewed as rival gangs, and often act that way—pulling people away from their most functional family of “homies” into something often marked by legalism and exclusivity. The gangs are even more legalistic and brutal. Two of the chaplains who visit another prison shared with us that five inmates who accepted Christ and expressed a desire to change were found dead the next day, executed by fellow gang members, a warning to others not to leave the flock. Yet a number of guys told me privately afterward that they appreciated the Bible study on receiving Jesus as their personal body guard—a particular reading I do of Psalm 23 and Luke 15. I was disturbed to learn from Joel, who just finished his doctoral thesis on the gangs, that as many as 80% of the gangsters are from evangelical homes. Legalism begets legalism unless it is directly confronted and healed by Jesus’ grace and love.
That afternoon we got a tour of a forensic laboratory that deeply moved me. There we saw the bones of men, women and children exhumed from mass graves in the highlands. We were shown skulls and entire skeletons that were respectfully laid out on tables so the technicians could determine, age, identity and cause of death. I was shown bullet holes in many of the skulls, including that of a 16 year old girl. We saw storage rooms full of cardboard boxes with the already inspected remains of hundreds of yet unclaimed people labeled by name, site, village and region. My former colleague told us the lab has processed 5,000 of the 200,000+ ”disappeared” by the military during the 1980s. What is the link between the violence of the civil war and the gangs? I continue to wonder.
The next day we went to Central America’s most infamous prison to visit the gang member inmates of perhaps the most notorious gang in the Western Hemisphere. They’re arch-enemies of the gang we’d visited the day before and had proved it three years before by killing and beheading 45 of their members.
Once again the guards let us in with 110 or so inmates. We hang out and talk with a number of men, some of whom had first joined the gang while living in Los Angeles before they did prison time in the US and were deported. I later heard from Joel that many of the gang members had lost their fathers to the death squads or the war in the 1980s. Adrift and afraid, many migrated as young teens to the USA, often ending up selling drugs and joining a gang.
A few days before leaving for Guatemala I had a dream of a heavily-tattooed gangster with a hole in his right side. I saw someone fitting that description, and ended up needing to ask him where I could find a bathroom. I followed him into the dark recesses of the prison, and after using the toilet he humbly asked me if I’d like to see his cell. There in the cell this man who’d been shot in his lower abdomen, sentenced to over 120 years, one of the top chiefs of this gang invited me to sit down on a plastic chair and hear about his belief in God. I offered him a CD of contemplative flute music for worship and a copy of my book Reading the Bible with the Damned, which he warmly accepted. We prayed together for God’s peace and presence in his life and he was very grateful.
From there we went straight into Chris singing over a group of 40 or so inmates, while I once again was granted permission to lay hands and pray over each one. I then led a reflection on the call of Matthew in what turned out to be a breakthrough Bible study. I described how Matthew was a tax-collector—a member of a notorious class of people that nearly everyone hated.
“Who might fit the description of tax-collectors today?” I asked. Gangs in Guatemala force businesses in their territories to pay “protection taxes” [from themselves] and taxi drivers to pay “circulation taxes”- and the men smiled and looked at each other, acknowledging that they fit the description.
“So what was Matthew doing when Jesus called him?” I ask. The men look surprised when they note that he wasn’t following any rules, seeking God or doing anything religious, but practicing his despised trade when Jesus showed up on the street and chose him.
“So let’s see if Jesus made Matthew leave his gang to be a Christian,” I suggest, and people look closely at the next verse. There Jesus is eating at Matthew’s house with other tax-collectors and sinners and the disciples.
“So who followed whom?” I ask, excited to see people’s reaction. The men could see the Jesus had apparently followed gangster Matthew into his barrio and joined his homies for a meal.
“So what do you think you guys, would you let Jesus join your gang?” I ask, looking directly to the two chiefs of the gang? They both had big smiles as we looked at Jesus’ reaction to the Pharisees’ distain.
“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” I ask them if they are at all offended to think of themselves as sick—and they don’t seem to be at all. I’ve got their attention and Jesus’ final word to the religious insiders hits these guys like a spray of spiritual bullets from a drive by:
“Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” I knew from experience that they were letting Jesus inside and hearing his call to follow. Last Thursday back in our local jail two groups of ten inmates all welcomed Jesus into their cells and into their lives after talking through this same Scripture with them.
But that day we still had to leave the prison. On our way out I wonder about the warden just as Joel suggests we thank him. We step into his office and shake hands. I acknowledge that he has a very complicated job needing lots of wisdom and ask if we can pray for him and bless him. “Bueno” he says, and I ask if we can lay hands on him. He accepts but just as we begin praying he suddenly pulls out his hand gun, takes out the clip and empties his pockets of other clips. “This is more proper!” he says, placing his gun and ammunition atop his file cabinet. He receives our blessing and we offer to pray for healing for an injury related to a machete fight that left his arm, shoulder and chest with shooting pain.
“All the pain is gone,” he tells us with a grin after we pray. We leave amazed by the truly special unique Spirit who disarms and loves both gangsters and warden.
That night and the next day we ministered to the seven chaplains and some 50 ministry workers, teaching on forgiveness and praying for God’s Spirit to refresh and renew people. The Holy Spirit came in beautiful ways, with lots of crying and people all wanting prayer. Angel David was delighted to see how God visibly touched these spiritually hungry men and women as we prayed together over each one.
I am sure there’s a need for more and more of God’s healing, transforming presence—brought right into the heart of the places of greatest wounding and pain. I’m also certain that honestly facing the truth of Guatemala’s violent past and of America’s participation is critical for forgiveness to lead to true reconciliation and peace.
Please pray for Joel Van Dyke, my former TN colleague, and the gang chaplains and other ministry workers in Guatemala—for strength, empowerment, wisdom and protection. Remember too the gang members both in the prisons and on the streets—that Jesus’ kindness would penetrate and transform hard hearts. Pray too for Angel David, who returned to minister in Honduras, excited to recruit younger people into active ministry to the poor and Chris who is now back in Burlington pasturing his own flock of local gang members. Please keep Gracie and I in your prayers as we leave next week to visit our son Isaac in Argentina.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Extreme Intercession: Bringing God's future into the present
I’ve felt compelled to preach lately on a story in the gospels that I’ve always disliked and wished I could delete from the Bible. I’ve called it a toxic text in that it seems to depict Jesus as exclusive, unfair, even mean. Now I’m finding this text extremely challenging and even inspiring.
In Matthew 15:21-18 a Canaanite woman comes to Jesus desperate for help for her daughter, who is “cruelly” demonized. Jesus ignores her, rejects her and humiliates her by referring to her as a dog, and then finally relents and delivers her daughter. What is happening in this story? What does it mean for us?
The Syrophonecian woman approaches Jesus desperate for breakthrough. Not a Jew herself, she “comes out” of her region, leaving her allegiances and securities to enter into Jesus’ Jewish world. She exercises exemplary prayer protocol. She cries out, and the text uses the same language as Exodus, where Israelite slaves cry out to God (Ex 3:9). She addresses Jesus by the Greek equivalent of the proper name for Israel’s God, YHWH, Kurios. “Have mercy on me Oh Lord!” She identifies Jesus as “Son of David,” a title that identifies him as Israel’s Messiah.
Jesus doesn’t answer her even a word. Yet the woman presses in, persisting dramatically in her intercession. Jesus’ disciples don’t help either. They cold-heartedly order Jesus: “Send her away, for she is shouting after us” (Matt 15:23). While Jesus doesn’t send her away, he excludes her by saying: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (15:24). How are we to understand the limited ministry priorities of Jesus “only”?
Jesus’ answer shows he still committed to his Father’s agenda to raise up Israel as the kingdom of priests called to be a blessing to every family on the earth (Gen 12:1-3). God had called Abram and Sarai out of Haran, Israel out of Egypt and then again out of Babylon to bring justice to the nations (Isaiah 42:1), to be a light to the nations, to open blind eyes, set prisoners free (Isa 42:6; 61:1ff) “so that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Isa 49:6). Israel had been stiff-necked, rebellious. Yet God’s gifts and call are irrevocable. Jesus’ plan is to start with the lost sheep of the house of Israel who remain the beloved of God—in spite of their offender status. He wants to see his people mobilized. He will not give up seeking after lost sheep until he finds them. When he sends out the twelve on their first mission trip he is precise in Matthew 10:5-8 and consistent with his stance here:
“Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, ‘the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons…”
The Syrophonecian woman refuses the Jesus’ time-line for ministry. Though she’s destined to be a future beneficiary of God’s coming Kingdom (once Israel becomes obedient), she refuses Jesus’ silence and rejects his “not yet.” Jesus’ silence and rebuttal provokes her to pursue him relentlessly in a way that makes her an exemplary intercessor. She comes and bows down before Jesus with a desperate prayer right out of the Psalms: “Lord help me!” Are we as relentless?!
Jesus responds by simultaneously upgrading his people’s “lost sheep” status to “children” and downgrading her to scavenger dog: “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs” (vs. 26). Yet there on her knees at his feet, like a dog before children prone to kindness to their pets, she humbles herself further before Jesus and Israel: “Yes Lord, but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their master’s table” (vs. 27). The woman humbles herself to the extreme, acknowledging the oppressed Israelites who Jesus calls to their highest vocation are her masters.
Many scholars think there is a historical basis for arguing that this woman was wealthy. I’m not so sure. But if so this woman would then be recognizing the place of the poor as bearers of the Good News to the world and her masters!. At the same time her humble yet relentless pursuit of deliverance for her daughter there and then is a call to seek the future things of God’s kingdom here and now. Jesus is willing to change his mind, to give her and us the future now.
Are we willing to leave our region (nation, ethnicity, denomination...) in pursuit of the Gospel that has the power to save? Do we love enough to cry out, follow after, humble ourselves to such extremes so as to call in God’s future promises into the present? When we pray “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven” let us expect an acceleration of God’s coming salvation. While in Korea I found myself compelled to pray for every North Korean knee to bow every tongue to confess that Jesus is Lord—since that is in God’s future (Isa 45:23; Phil 2:10).
Now I’m on a plane to Guatemala where I and my Tierra Nueva colleagues Chris and Angel David will be crying out for healing and salvation of hard-core salvatrucha gang members incarcerated in the Guatemalan prison system. We want to see them touched and converted by Jesus’ love now, so there will be no more victims of brutal gang violence. Please pray with us as we train ex-gang member prison chaplains and at-risk urban youth workers over the weekend.
In Matthew 15:21-18 a Canaanite woman comes to Jesus desperate for help for her daughter, who is “cruelly” demonized. Jesus ignores her, rejects her and humiliates her by referring to her as a dog, and then finally relents and delivers her daughter. What is happening in this story? What does it mean for us?
The Syrophonecian woman approaches Jesus desperate for breakthrough. Not a Jew herself, she “comes out” of her region, leaving her allegiances and securities to enter into Jesus’ Jewish world. She exercises exemplary prayer protocol. She cries out, and the text uses the same language as Exodus, where Israelite slaves cry out to God (Ex 3:9). She addresses Jesus by the Greek equivalent of the proper name for Israel’s God, YHWH, Kurios. “Have mercy on me Oh Lord!” She identifies Jesus as “Son of David,” a title that identifies him as Israel’s Messiah.
Jesus doesn’t answer her even a word. Yet the woman presses in, persisting dramatically in her intercession. Jesus’ disciples don’t help either. They cold-heartedly order Jesus: “Send her away, for she is shouting after us” (Matt 15:23). While Jesus doesn’t send her away, he excludes her by saying: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (15:24). How are we to understand the limited ministry priorities of Jesus “only”?
Jesus’ answer shows he still committed to his Father’s agenda to raise up Israel as the kingdom of priests called to be a blessing to every family on the earth (Gen 12:1-3). God had called Abram and Sarai out of Haran, Israel out of Egypt and then again out of Babylon to bring justice to the nations (Isaiah 42:1), to be a light to the nations, to open blind eyes, set prisoners free (Isa 42:6; 61:1ff) “so that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Isa 49:6). Israel had been stiff-necked, rebellious. Yet God’s gifts and call are irrevocable. Jesus’ plan is to start with the lost sheep of the house of Israel who remain the beloved of God—in spite of their offender status. He wants to see his people mobilized. He will not give up seeking after lost sheep until he finds them. When he sends out the twelve on their first mission trip he is precise in Matthew 10:5-8 and consistent with his stance here:
“Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, ‘the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons…”
The Syrophonecian woman refuses the Jesus’ time-line for ministry. Though she’s destined to be a future beneficiary of God’s coming Kingdom (once Israel becomes obedient), she refuses Jesus’ silence and rejects his “not yet.” Jesus’ silence and rebuttal provokes her to pursue him relentlessly in a way that makes her an exemplary intercessor. She comes and bows down before Jesus with a desperate prayer right out of the Psalms: “Lord help me!” Are we as relentless?!
Jesus responds by simultaneously upgrading his people’s “lost sheep” status to “children” and downgrading her to scavenger dog: “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs” (vs. 26). Yet there on her knees at his feet, like a dog before children prone to kindness to their pets, she humbles herself further before Jesus and Israel: “Yes Lord, but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their master’s table” (vs. 27). The woman humbles herself to the extreme, acknowledging the oppressed Israelites who Jesus calls to their highest vocation are her masters.
Many scholars think there is a historical basis for arguing that this woman was wealthy. I’m not so sure. But if so this woman would then be recognizing the place of the poor as bearers of the Good News to the world and her masters!. At the same time her humble yet relentless pursuit of deliverance for her daughter there and then is a call to seek the future things of God’s kingdom here and now. Jesus is willing to change his mind, to give her and us the future now.
Are we willing to leave our region (nation, ethnicity, denomination...) in pursuit of the Gospel that has the power to save? Do we love enough to cry out, follow after, humble ourselves to such extremes so as to call in God’s future promises into the present? When we pray “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven” let us expect an acceleration of God’s coming salvation. While in Korea I found myself compelled to pray for every North Korean knee to bow every tongue to confess that Jesus is Lord—since that is in God’s future (Isa 45:23; Phil 2:10).
Now I’m on a plane to Guatemala where I and my Tierra Nueva colleagues Chris and Angel David will be crying out for healing and salvation of hard-core salvatrucha gang members incarcerated in the Guatemalan prison system. We want to see them touched and converted by Jesus’ love now, so there will be no more victims of brutal gang violence. Please pray with us as we train ex-gang member prison chaplains and at-risk urban youth workers over the weekend.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Living under an open heaven: reflections on Genesis 28 and 35
Departure from family, homeland, traditions, land of slavery are everywhere in Scripture as precursors to revelation, fruitfulness and every kind of blessing. Whether you leave in response to God’s call or are driven out by forces that oppress (Hagar, the children of Israel), an exodus is key to faith.
Jacob leaves Beer-Sheva (“well of the vows,” place of accommodation?) in Genesis 28:10, on his way to Haran (“cross-roads, paths” -- the place of Abram’s original call and departure). Jacob flees the righteous wrath of his older brother Esau, who he just robbed of his father’s blessing through premeditated fraud, lies, and trickery. Far from every security, a rock under his head as a pillow, fugitive deceiver Jacob dreams of a ladder ascending to heaven. Angels are ascending and descending. God appears beside him and says:
“The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and they shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Jacob names the place Bethel—God’s House.
Men in the jail are always surprised that God doesn’t arrest Jacob and take him back to face justice. People expecting compliance with laws or other prerequisites in exchange for divine favor are intrigued that Jacob is running away and then just sleeping when God gives blessings and promises. Such grace and extreme promises of blessing to the bad guy are unheard of, especially among criminals.
I have felt compelled to share these reflections in France, Korea and here at home over the past few months. Is this good news too good to be true? How can we stay in this place of grace where help comes under an open heaven and God promises permanent presence and fruitfulness in every direction?
Jacob isn’t won over immediately. Right after waking up he even says: “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God” (Gen 28:21).
It takes Jacob 21 years of working an “infinite” amount of time (7 is symbolic for a totality of years for each of his two wives and herds) to make him finally flee Laban’s oppression. A wrestling match with God who blesses him yet again, and his enemy brother’s surprising forgiveness finally win him over. Now he is ready for God’s call to live in a place of perpetual grace:
“Arise, go up to Bethel and live there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau” (Gen 35:1).
Limping Jacob’s hardships and experience of divine grace have made him truly understand what is required. He tells his family to put away their foreign gods, purify themselves and change their clothes-- and they do it.
Jacob and his people strip themselves of every competing security as they head towards Bethel (the House of God). A terror from God falls on the cities around Jacob that keeps anyone from pursuing his clan (Gen 35:5). What would this look like for us today? What are foreign gods we lean on that need to be put away so we can live under an open heaven? What adversaries do we need to see flee from before us?
In a church in France I visited, culture and the generous social system stood out as potential idols. In Korea they were parental approval, upward mobility, and honor. In our Burlington church we thought of money, materialism, sports, self and nation.
I find myself continuing to ask the Spirit to show me what I am leaning on that is keeping me from Jesus’ life of freedom and fruitfulness. Like Jacob and Nathanael, I want to experience the blessings of living in God’s continual presence without any other props. I want to witness and experience for myself Jesus’ word to Nathanael. “You will see the heavens opened and angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man” (Jn 1:51)—each and every one of us. I want to see God’s love and grace poured out through me and others in every direction—north, south, east and west. I long to live in God’s house 24/7—here and now, before and after I die.
Let’s head towards Bethel now, laying aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, fixing our eyes on Jesus—our only security.
Jacob leaves Beer-Sheva (“well of the vows,” place of accommodation?) in Genesis 28:10, on his way to Haran (“cross-roads, paths” -- the place of Abram’s original call and departure). Jacob flees the righteous wrath of his older brother Esau, who he just robbed of his father’s blessing through premeditated fraud, lies, and trickery. Far from every security, a rock under his head as a pillow, fugitive deceiver Jacob dreams of a ladder ascending to heaven. Angels are ascending and descending. God appears beside him and says:
“The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and they shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Jacob names the place Bethel—God’s House.
Men in the jail are always surprised that God doesn’t arrest Jacob and take him back to face justice. People expecting compliance with laws or other prerequisites in exchange for divine favor are intrigued that Jacob is running away and then just sleeping when God gives blessings and promises. Such grace and extreme promises of blessing to the bad guy are unheard of, especially among criminals.
I have felt compelled to share these reflections in France, Korea and here at home over the past few months. Is this good news too good to be true? How can we stay in this place of grace where help comes under an open heaven and God promises permanent presence and fruitfulness in every direction?
Jacob isn’t won over immediately. Right after waking up he even says: “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God” (Gen 28:21).
It takes Jacob 21 years of working an “infinite” amount of time (7 is symbolic for a totality of years for each of his two wives and herds) to make him finally flee Laban’s oppression. A wrestling match with God who blesses him yet again, and his enemy brother’s surprising forgiveness finally win him over. Now he is ready for God’s call to live in a place of perpetual grace:
“Arise, go up to Bethel and live there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau” (Gen 35:1).
Limping Jacob’s hardships and experience of divine grace have made him truly understand what is required. He tells his family to put away their foreign gods, purify themselves and change their clothes-- and they do it.
Jacob and his people strip themselves of every competing security as they head towards Bethel (the House of God). A terror from God falls on the cities around Jacob that keeps anyone from pursuing his clan (Gen 35:5). What would this look like for us today? What are foreign gods we lean on that need to be put away so we can live under an open heaven? What adversaries do we need to see flee from before us?
In a church in France I visited, culture and the generous social system stood out as potential idols. In Korea they were parental approval, upward mobility, and honor. In our Burlington church we thought of money, materialism, sports, self and nation.
I find myself continuing to ask the Spirit to show me what I am leaning on that is keeping me from Jesus’ life of freedom and fruitfulness. Like Jacob and Nathanael, I want to experience the blessings of living in God’s continual presence without any other props. I want to witness and experience for myself Jesus’ word to Nathanael. “You will see the heavens opened and angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man” (Jn 1:51)—each and every one of us. I want to see God’s love and grace poured out through me and others in every direction—north, south, east and west. I long to live in God’s house 24/7—here and now, before and after I die.
Let’s head towards Bethel now, laying aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, fixing our eyes on Jesus—our only security.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Light Shining in the Darkness-- Reflections on the Olympics and the North Korean Border
As I watched the dramatic opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics last week (8/8/08) I kept thinking of my visit to the North Korean border five days before. The contrasts and comparisons between our day at the demilitarized zone (DMZ) with Holy Given School of Missions participants and the Olympics are messing with my head and heart.
The day before our tour a young woman from North Korean who had come to faith in Christ the night before had shown me a drawing she had done during an exercise in hearing God. She had drawn thick clouds covering her homeland. Rays of sun were barely breaking through in a few places—signs that God’s saving Presence cannot be shut out. In contrast to the lightshows, surreal lighting of the torch and spectacular fireworks of the opening ceremony in Beijing it poured rained as we crossed into the DMZ between South and North Korea into fog under dark clouds covering lush mountains.
In contrast to the parade of the fittest of athletes from nearly every nation, I followed a long line of ministry workers from frontline ministries in Kurdistan, Ukraine, Korea, Thailand, Pakistan, India, Lesotho and 13 other countries down a narrow tunnel towards North Korea. This tunnel hewn out of rocks descending 25 stories underground was one of three that North Korea had hewn out of the rock so troops could invade S. Korea. Now it’s a heavily guarded tourist attraction that ends in a pile of razor wire—a serious impasse at the border of a hard place.
I descended with Chong Bok (Chuck), a South Korean businessman who has taken off 5 weeks to attend the Holy Given School. We discussing our callings and his growing desire to engage in ministry to the poor and oppressed.
Over the week I was In Seoul I learned that many Olympic athletes had been living and training there because of Beijing’s debilitating air pollution, flying the short distance into China for events. As our humble training was happening there in Shalom Mission Church, and I was stories of persecution and trials in North Korea and elsewhere.
Human rights in North Korea remain among the worst in the world. There is no freedom of religion and Christians are often tortured, imprisoned and murdered. Deviation from state doctrine is met with ruthless and devastating punishment. Around 200,000 are believed to be held in prison camps with no hope of release (see http://www.amnestyusa.org/all-countries/north-korea/page.do?id=1011213&n1=3&n2=30&n3=963 and references below).
I have been amazed by the level of skill and dedication of Olympic athletes competing in all the events. These people have hours training to perfection, pursing records, medals and glory for their nation. Are we taking our faith and callings so seriously? Yesterday in our Tierra Nueva staff prayer we read together 1 Tim 4:6-16; 2 Tim 3:16; Heb 5:14; 12:11-12 and were struck by Paul’s emphasis on deliberate training.
“For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. This is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance (and for this we labor and strive), that we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe. Prescribe and teach these things (1 Tim 4:8-11).
We discussed the challenges of our ministry to gang members, inmates, juvenile offenders, farm workers and the mainstream church. We are feeling called into a higher level of commitment both here and as we think about the larger world.
I think back to my Saturday at the border, when my friend Darrell and I stood under umbrellas and prayed with three N. Koreans at a special overlook where you can normally look into North Korea (see photo on my blog www.bobekblad.com). I looked out into the fog towards the border, praying for the fog to lift, the rain to stop, even for an instant… and it did. I saw a lush, green ridge where a North Korean guard post stood and prayed for the light of Christ to shine on the guards and the people of N. Korea.
We ended our time at the border praying together for North Korea at a sparkling train station that is poised to send trains into Pyongyang at the earliest opportunity—bringing products, a lifestyle to thirsty new consumers. I’m now home pondering how I can best prepare and train people to bring the light of Christ, the Gospel of the Kingdom of God into the dark and thirsty places of our world. Please pray:
-- for us as we prepare more courses and a ministry school through
The People’s Seminary and the completion of our retreat/training center New Earth Refuge.
-- for the Holy Given School still going on In Seoul, Korea
-- for the underground church in North Korea
Hear a conversation between Darrell, me and Lesley-Anne in Seoul http://pacificministries.googlepages.com/bobandlesley.WMA
The day before our tour a young woman from North Korean who had come to faith in Christ the night before had shown me a drawing she had done during an exercise in hearing God. She had drawn thick clouds covering her homeland. Rays of sun were barely breaking through in a few places—signs that God’s saving Presence cannot be shut out. In contrast to the lightshows, surreal lighting of the torch and spectacular fireworks of the opening ceremony in Beijing it poured rained as we crossed into the DMZ between South and North Korea into fog under dark clouds covering lush mountains.
In contrast to the parade of the fittest of athletes from nearly every nation, I followed a long line of ministry workers from frontline ministries in Kurdistan, Ukraine, Korea, Thailand, Pakistan, India, Lesotho and 13 other countries down a narrow tunnel towards North Korea. This tunnel hewn out of rocks descending 25 stories underground was one of three that North Korea had hewn out of the rock so troops could invade S. Korea. Now it’s a heavily guarded tourist attraction that ends in a pile of razor wire—a serious impasse at the border of a hard place.
I descended with Chong Bok (Chuck), a South Korean businessman who has taken off 5 weeks to attend the Holy Given School. We discussing our callings and his growing desire to engage in ministry to the poor and oppressed.
Over the week I was In Seoul I learned that many Olympic athletes had been living and training there because of Beijing’s debilitating air pollution, flying the short distance into China for events. As our humble training was happening there in Shalom Mission Church, and I was stories of persecution and trials in North Korea and elsewhere.
Human rights in North Korea remain among the worst in the world. There is no freedom of religion and Christians are often tortured, imprisoned and murdered. Deviation from state doctrine is met with ruthless and devastating punishment. Around 200,000 are believed to be held in prison camps with no hope of release (see http://www.amnestyusa.org/all-countries/north-korea/page.do?id=1011213&n1=3&n2=30&n3=963 and references below).
I have been amazed by the level of skill and dedication of Olympic athletes competing in all the events. These people have hours training to perfection, pursing records, medals and glory for their nation. Are we taking our faith and callings so seriously? Yesterday in our Tierra Nueva staff prayer we read together 1 Tim 4:6-16; 2 Tim 3:16; Heb 5:14; 12:11-12 and were struck by Paul’s emphasis on deliberate training.
“For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. This is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance (and for this we labor and strive), that we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe. Prescribe and teach these things (1 Tim 4:8-11).
We discussed the challenges of our ministry to gang members, inmates, juvenile offenders, farm workers and the mainstream church. We are feeling called into a higher level of commitment both here and as we think about the larger world.
I think back to my Saturday at the border, when my friend Darrell and I stood under umbrellas and prayed with three N. Koreans at a special overlook where you can normally look into North Korea (see photo on my blog www.bobekblad.com). I looked out into the fog towards the border, praying for the fog to lift, the rain to stop, even for an instant… and it did. I saw a lush, green ridge where a North Korean guard post stood and prayed for the light of Christ to shine on the guards and the people of N. Korea.
We ended our time at the border praying together for North Korea at a sparkling train station that is poised to send trains into Pyongyang at the earliest opportunity—bringing products, a lifestyle to thirsty new consumers. I’m now home pondering how I can best prepare and train people to bring the light of Christ, the Gospel of the Kingdom of God into the dark and thirsty places of our world. Please pray:
-- for us as we prepare more courses and a ministry school through
The People’s Seminary and the completion of our retreat/training center New Earth Refuge.
-- for the Holy Given School still going on In Seoul, Korea
-- for the underground church in North Korea
Hear a conversation between Darrell, me and Lesley-Anne in Seoul http://pacificministries.googlepages.com/bobandlesley.WMA
Friday, August 1, 2008
Holy Given in Korea
For the past five days I have been teaching a group of 100 grass roots leaders from 20 countries gathered here for a month at the Holy Given School in Seoul, Korea. My friend Lesley-Anne, a veteran missionary from New Zealand is the firey founder of these radical mission schools that she coordinates around the world (www.holygiven.org). Korean pastor Deborah has gathered her friends from Korea and the world to partake in a feast of worship, teaching on the ministry of Jesus, healing, deliverance, ministry strategizing and exotic & sumptuous Korean food.People are visibly hungry for teaching and a fresh touch from the Holy Spirit—and it’s a great joy to minister here. Healing and deliverance happen in many of the sessions-- like yesterday when a young woman from N. Korea began weeping over the terror and shame of her life. Her three siblings had been killed by the authorities and she’d been raised by abusive people. She came to faith in Christ the day before. Amanda, another New Zealander gathered other women around her to pray through her pain.
I led a session on the importance of forgiveness of our fathers and mothers. Nearly everyone came forward for prayer and people wept aloud as I led them through prayers. One African man from Lesotho told how he had never been touched or shown any kind of affection by his father or grandfather. Rather they beat him regularly with sticks. Crying was not allowed, as men don’t cry. He is a pastor with a deep heart of love for his nation. He longs to see men come into his rural church but laments they see needing God as a sign of weakness that would bring them unbearable shame.
Today I taught on reading Scripture at the margins and led a Bible study on Hagar in Genesis 16. I broke people into groups and had them identity the forces that oppress them and how they feel. I had each group name a scribe and share their answers. I sat there and took notes in amazement, feeling moved and privileged to hear people’s raw and real responses.
Koreans talked about fearing parents and authority figures who pressure them to do things they don’t want or that are beyond their capacity. A woman said she felt pressure to be recognized and approved by God. A young man told how he felt forced to conform to the misery of the status quo and his longed to move out of society and start over. An older woman said “imagine being married to the men who pressure people to conform. Many women feel oppressed by their husbands and want to escape their marriages. Sometimes we wish they would just disappear.” Men from India talked about spiritual oppression and confusion from the 3 million gods and goddesses worshiped in their nation. A young woman from Singapore said she and others of her generation feel oppressed by money and the endless pressure to achieve.
People from Mozambique, Zambia and Lesotho mentioned HIV/Aids, witchcraft, poverty, violence and polygamy. A Pakistani mentioned fear of Islamic terrorism directed against Christians. Others ministering in Islamic countries mention the fear of being discovered, persecuted or expelled for being Christians.
We talk through Sarai and Abram’s abusive treatment of their Egyptian servant Hagar in Genesis 16:1-6 and people see direct comparisons to their lives. We discuss at length in small groups how the messenger of the Lord finds her by a well and offers her a new life of dignity and hope.
“When Hagar fled into the desert she had no choice and no options. She was a slave and couldn’t return to her master or to her country. There was no other way forward for her apart from the Lord appearing to her and helping her,” a woman comments.
People are moved by how the Lord calls her by her name, asks her about her life and promises her great blessing—regardless of her low status. He sends her back, which people interpret as a call to live under structures of oppression knowing that God sees, does not approve but is with them too bless them. People look encouraged. Many will soon be going back to dark and difficult ministry contexts.
Tomorrow we go to the demilitarized zone at the border of N. Korea. Sunday I fly home after preaching. Please keep all of us in your prayers.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Creation groaning: waiting for emowered children of God
My 13-year-old daughter Anna and I just returned from a three-week trip to Paris (5 days), Pietermaritzburg, South Africa (3 days) and Pemba, Mozambique (the rest). In each of these distinct places we heard the groans, saw the longing in people's faces for more meaning and transformation, and witnessed God's Kingdom breaking in.
Paris is a city of great sensual appeal. Fashion, the arts and aesthetic beauty are ever alluring. Tastes and scents invite participation. The streets are filled with the young, the beautiful, the unique and altogether interesting. Yet in the face of all the cultural bounty I was struck by a pervasive loneliness, emptiness and entrapment. I met a young American super model in the metro who was taking home $2,000 a day. She told me the four months she'd been there were the hardest in her life. She was beautiful, successful but lonely to the point of despair. "Vanity, vanity, all is vanity and striving after the wind" was apparent in Paris.
Yet in the Eglise Reformée de Belleville where I ministered I saw people reaching out for connections deeper than any culture can offer. There in the heart of Paris' Jewish and North African communities people come together to worship, read the Scriptures, hear the Word preached and eat together. I saw people longing for authentic community that's not easy to come by in the hustle of urban Europe. The leadership is challenged to facilitate community in the face of emptiness. Immigrant youth are being served by an after school program. People streamed forward to receive prayer, healing and deliverance all afternoon.
Next stop was Pietermaritzburg, South Africa where we were hosted by good friends and Univ of Kwazulu-Natal professors Gerald and Bev West and Jonathan Draper. These people are veteran activists, pastors and teachers who train up theologians for all of Africa. The Aids epidemic, post-apartheid affirmative action policies, rampant violence and poverty and social chaos both at home in S. Africa and in surrounding nations like Zimbabwe have brought the Doctors of the Word down low. I was impressed by the humility of 8-10 Bible profs Anna and I met with one night for dinner and discussion. I was struck by honest grappling over ideas that matter both that night and the next day at a "theological café" where I presented my new book to profs and grad students at the University. Where is the Gospel that has the power to save? These people are hearing it, being held up by Jesus and are still in the struggle, but with no easy answers or quick fix-all plans. They seem to realize with Jesus that "these can only be cast out by prayer and fasting."
Final stop Pemba and then Maputo, Mozambique. Iris Ministry is still in the midst of amazing growth with as many as 9,000 churches?!—900 of them in the last four or five years in a part of the country thought to be impenetrable because of an exotic mix of traditional African religion and Islam.
We did a village outreach where several thousand showed up, and it wasn't easy. Some people came up for prayer to mock those ministering. They pretended to be sick and then sprung up and pranced off "miraculously healed" before laughing friends. Many of the visiting Canadian ministry team caught people trying to steal their cameras off their bodies. Yet truly hurting people approached us too, humbly asking for prayer.
We saw Jesus heal lots of people of all kinds of ailments. I witnessed someone get their sight restored and a deaf mute child say "mama" for the first time to his mother who was overcome with joy. We returned to the vehicle to find that Heidi Baker's and my back packs had been pulled through a broken window in the land rover. That night the regional pastors recovered our journals, book bags and other odds and ends—but Heidi's expensive phones, cameras and $2500 cash and our camcorder and MP3 player were lost.
A few days later Anna joined me as I preached in pastor Juma's home church in an impoverished village in the countryside outside Pemba. Pastor Juma is an Iris pastor who has started some 30 churches in the 6-7 years he's been a pastor. Children, youth and adults pounded the sloping dirt floor of the church with their bare feet, dancing to wild drumming that accompanied simple choruses led by one song leader after another. After a good hour and half of exuberant worship I preached on ordinary believers' authority and empowerment for Jesus' ministry and had people lay hands on themselves for healing. A good thirty people were healed on the spot and we invited those still suffering to come forward for more prayer. 20-30 people came forward and we watched nearly everyone experience relief as Anna, pastor Juma and our two American Iris worker friends laid hands on people. This community had experienced numerous miracles of multiplication of food. They seemed to embody Jesus' beatitude: "blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled."
Back at the Iris base I alternated between teaching 120 or so mission students from around the world and 110 Mozambican Bible school students. On both teaching fronts people were hungry and open. The Westerns were feeling their limits. They worshipped from the heart and responded to my invitations and the Holy Spirit came every time. Heidi asked me to help her pray for the Mozambican pastor candidates to be filled with the Holy Spirit. This was pure joy, watching seasoned Pentecostal Heidi explain being totally yielded to Jesus and open to receiving an unmerited gift. We laid hands on people and saw the Spirit touch them. Many had visions and spoke in tongues for the first time: not Portuguese, not Macua… but languages from another realm not of this world.
Anna is the third of Gracie and my three children to go with me on a mission adventure at age 13. We had a great time together watching movies on the airplanes, eating out, going to a game park, swimming and even scuba diving in the Indian Ocean, drinking coke, going on outreaches and praying for people's healing together. Anna has had the impression that God only helps and heals poor people and criminals. But when she got violently sick on the last day in Mozambique and I sent out a desperate email for prayer and she saw God come to rescue her through many divine appointments with people who prayed for her and a doctor from Cameroon we met in the Johannesburg airport who treated her. We made it home safe and sound and invite you to pray with us for our friends in challenging places.
- For pastor Serge Jacquemus, the church elders and members at Eglise Reformee de Belleville and for Randy Greer, an American missionary friend of mine who heads us the church's after school program for immigrant youth. For Gilles, Aude, Linda and Jan of Eglise Reformee du Marais, who lead a deliverance ministry and church in Paris. Pray for strength, wisdom and breakthrough in evangelism, discipleship and community building.
- For Professors Gerald and Bev West, Jonathan Draper and the many others at the University of Kwazulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. For Heidi and Rolland Baker, pastor Juma, and the many missionaries and African pastors and leaders working with Iris Ministries in Mozambique. For Hette Domburg and Petra Doorn and other professors of Seminário Unido de Ricatla in Maputo, Mozambique. Pray for strength, protection, ongoing fruitfulness and wisdom for all these people as they train and send out more and leaders.
- For all of us here at Tierra Nueva as we minister among immigrants, inmates, gang members and in mainstream churches and seminaries—for grace, provision, more of God's anointing to announce the best news and break chains of addiction and oppression.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
France, S. Africa, Mozambique final prayer update
Special thanks to those who have prayed for us over the course of these three weeks in France, S. Africa and Mozambique. The trip was very demanding and extremely rich and rewarding.The last I wrote you was to ask for prayers for Anna, who began vomiting and having intestinal problems on our last day in Mozambique. God truly helped us through a difficult time in amazing ways. We were picked up at the Maputo airport by an English couple who hosted us the night and following day of Anna's sickness. They took care of Anna, the host mom rubbing her back as she threw up, taking her to get a malaria test to rule out malaria, watching Anna as I met with a Dutch couple who are professors in the local mainline seminary and as I taught a group of 50 Mozambican pastors.
As I was heading to teach my class on Iris' Maputo base I ran straight into Duncan Smith from Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship, who came to the house and prayed for Anna's healing. The group of 50 or so pastors then prayed for Anna too. We made it safely to Johannesburg but Anna was weak as she'd been unable to hold down any fluids.
As I was waiting to get our boarding passes in the Air France line Anna lay exhausted on the plastic waiting room seats until she had to find a bathroom. On her way back from the bathroom there in the airport she ran into a girl from a team "Frontline Ministries" that had sat next to her on the plane. She had just spent three weeks in Swaziland ministering with Iris pastors. She gathered her team of 12 or so young people around Anna and prayed for her.
When Anna got back to the Air France counter I was in the middle of talking in French with a man from Cameroon who worked with Doctors without Borders in Maputo. He was a physician in charge of a clinic for Aids patients. He examined Anna as we stood in line and was there to help me catch her as she fainted. He then took us to the airport pharmacy and got us medications. He continued to check in with us throughout the flight to Paris.
Anna was fine throughout the 12 hour flight to Paris, three hour layover and 9 hour flight to Seattle. She is recovering and still needs some prayer for intestinal problems. We are glad to be home and very thankful to you for keeping us in your prayers. I'm mentioning below some of the highlights of our trip which you participated in through your prayers.
- Anna and I had a great time together. Lots of fun traveling and swimming in the Indian Ocean. We even got to go scuba diving for three hours!
- Gracie and Luke experienced God's strength and peace in our absence. Isaac also had some important breakthroughs in Argentina.
- In France we saw lots of deliverance and God's Spirit touch many people as we ministered.
- Friendships with theologians in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa were significantly strengthened and broadened. Mainline, liberation theologian-oriented Christians are increasingly open to Holy Spirit empowered ministries like Iris. I hooked up Heidi Baker with my good friend Gerald West (Academy of the Poor) who she has now invited to teach in Pemba.
- We saw Jesus heal many many people of all kinds of ailments. Anna participated directly in praying with me for Mozambican villagers.
- I got to pray with Heidi for the 110 or so Mozambican Bible school students to be baptized in the Holy Spirit & saw the Spirit really show up and fill these humble men.
- Sessions with the Iris Missions School students went really well. I met a Scottish Presbyterian pastor couple who long to see renewal come to the Scottish Presbyterians in Glasgow.
- Everywhere we went we had divine appointments with leaders in France, S. Africa and with people from all over the world. I am expecting some invitations to Korea and Scotland and have already been invited to lead a pastors retreat for French Reformed Church pastors hungry for spiritual renewal in Paris at the end of November.
- Everywhere we went people prayed for us and blessed us in many ways. Tierra Nueva has not brought in enough for us to be paid for three months now. God is providing for us through unsolicited, unexpected gifts and honorariums. We will see where all this leads as our family grows and our actual financial needs are increasing.
- For strength, direction and God's increasing presence for breakthrough as we go into our season of accompanying migrant farm workers and continue our jail ministry and worshiping communities over the summer.
- For our annual conference Going Deeper: Word, Spirit, Street beginning July 13. We'd love for you to join us if you can.
- For finances so we can finish construction of New Earth Refuge, which can be completed by the end of July with another $25,000.
- For God to raise up more regular financial supporters for us for our work with Tierra Nueva and New Earth Refuge.
Bob
Friday, June 20, 2008
Kingdom of God comes in Mozambique, trip update #3
This past Wednesday I taught my first large group session of Iris Harvest Mission School to the 120 or so students here. I spoke on evangelism as recruitment into the ministry of Jesus and invited people feeling called by Jesus to recruit others to come up for prayer. The whole group came forward-- which is not so surprising considering this is a highly motivated audience.
Right after the session Anna and I went out to Mieze, a village where there was a mobile health clinic day. There was a doctor and some nurses and lots of prayer people. Many people were helped and we saw lots of healing too. Physicians and prayer happening together. Then we returned and I gave a 7:00 talk to the students on my spiritual journey, ending with my own confession and repentance for judgments I had made against Pentecostals, Assembly of God, Four Square, Charismatics, right wing republicans, evangelicas, fundamentalists... I invited the Spirit to show people if they needed to confess their judgements against brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. Many people came to the mike and made public confessions and asked forgiveness. It was really powerful. Then I invited people to come up for fresh fire from the Spirit. Everyone seemed to come forward and the Holy Spirit was very strongly present. People were laid out all over the straw mats as the Spirit came stronger and stronger. Really amazing.
Yesterday Heidi Baker, Anna and I and some others went out to do an overnight outreach in the bush some 2-3 hours away. There was another group ahead of us showing the Jesus film, and several thousand were gathered watching when we arrived-- an amazing mass of impoverished humanity! We prayed with people for what seemed like hours after the film. Anna and I saw lots of healings-- backs, head aches, knees, shoulders. Then Anna got overwhelmed as we had the crowd pressing in on us. She got up on the flat bed with Heidi and I kept praying. I saw God really move to heal people-- even someone who was partially or totally blind get their sight back! Then when we returned from our praying to the land rover we found a window broken out and all Heidi and Anna and my most important bags were gone! In Heidis bag there were two I-phones, $2500 cash, camera, residency documents. In ours our digital camcorder, journals, bible, water purifier, $100 or so and other things. We were disappointed, but tried not to let it get us down after seeing God move so beautifully. A bunch of local pastors rallied together and spend the whole night trying to locate our stuff. They kept coming back to wake up Heidi (who was in a tent right next to us, so we woke up too) to tell us their progress. Finally at 5:00am they came back with all of our journals, bible, back packs and other non valuables-- which was great! We just returned feeling tired but full after lots of signs of Godś kingdom and great fellowship with Heidi and others.
Keep us in your prayers. I preach in Mieze, a nearby village from 8:30-1:00pm or so on Sunday. Then teach most of Monday and Tuesday. We fly out on Tuesday night to Maputo. Meet with a theologian from the mainline denominational seminary who is interested in talking on Wednesday morning. Then we fly out Wed afternoon for S. Africa, Paris and home!
Pray for safety, Gods ongoing presence and continual ministry through us and to us.
In Christ,
Bob
Right after the session Anna and I went out to Mieze, a village where there was a mobile health clinic day. There was a doctor and some nurses and lots of prayer people. Many people were helped and we saw lots of healing too. Physicians and prayer happening together. Then we returned and I gave a 7:00 talk to the students on my spiritual journey, ending with my own confession and repentance for judgments I had made against Pentecostals, Assembly of God, Four Square, Charismatics, right wing republicans, evangelicas, fundamentalists... I invited the Spirit to show people if they needed to confess their judgements against brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. Many people came to the mike and made public confessions and asked forgiveness. It was really powerful. Then I invited people to come up for fresh fire from the Spirit. Everyone seemed to come forward and the Holy Spirit was very strongly present. People were laid out all over the straw mats as the Spirit came stronger and stronger. Really amazing.
Yesterday Heidi Baker, Anna and I and some others went out to do an overnight outreach in the bush some 2-3 hours away. There was another group ahead of us showing the Jesus film, and several thousand were gathered watching when we arrived-- an amazing mass of impoverished humanity! We prayed with people for what seemed like hours after the film. Anna and I saw lots of healings-- backs, head aches, knees, shoulders. Then Anna got overwhelmed as we had the crowd pressing in on us. She got up on the flat bed with Heidi and I kept praying. I saw God really move to heal people-- even someone who was partially or totally blind get their sight back! Then when we returned from our praying to the land rover we found a window broken out and all Heidi and Anna and my most important bags were gone! In Heidis bag there were two I-phones, $2500 cash, camera, residency documents. In ours our digital camcorder, journals, bible, water purifier, $100 or so and other things. We were disappointed, but tried not to let it get us down after seeing God move so beautifully. A bunch of local pastors rallied together and spend the whole night trying to locate our stuff. They kept coming back to wake up Heidi (who was in a tent right next to us, so we woke up too) to tell us their progress. Finally at 5:00am they came back with all of our journals, bible, back packs and other non valuables-- which was great! We just returned feeling tired but full after lots of signs of Godś kingdom and great fellowship with Heidi and others.
Keep us in your prayers. I preach in Mieze, a nearby village from 8:30-1:00pm or so on Sunday. Then teach most of Monday and Tuesday. We fly out on Tuesday night to Maputo. Meet with a theologian from the mainline denominational seminary who is interested in talking on Wednesday morning. Then we fly out Wed afternoon for S. Africa, Paris and home!
Pray for safety, Gods ongoing presence and continual ministry through us and to us.
In Christ,
Bob
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Word, Spirit, Justice in S. Africa and Mozambique
My 13-year-old daughter Anna and I arrived in Pemba, Mozambique yesterday afternoon after a rich three days in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. We keep seeing signs of a new move of the Spirit, though in early stages perhaps.
I spoke to a group of professors of Scripture from the different seminaries and the school of theology associated with the University of Kwa Zulu-Natal. We had a meal together at an Oblate community on the outskirts of Pietermaritzburg, where I was invited to present a summary of my new book A New Christian Manifesto. There were Catholic, evangelical and mainline Bible scholars-- feminist, contemplative, liberationist. I was amazed at peoples openness and excitement. I spoke the next day at a theological cafe at the university to some 30 professors and graduate students-- including a prof of Islam who is himself Muslim specializing in Islam and traditional African religion. He had some profound questions about Jesus that really moved me.
Conversations with my friends Gerald West-- OT prof and his wife Bev, a theologican and Jonathan Draper, a NT prof were stimulating as usual. These people are veteran Christians who have seen all the abuses from every side. They are not easily won over by any new thing and are incredibly astute-- and yet always open. I see a hunger for the Kingdom of God-- but not for any variety. Rather the authentic kingdom which brings true empowerment to the poor and freedom with dignity to the least.
Mozambique has moved us already to the core. Last night we went to a worship rave at Iris, where orphan kids together with Western mission students danced with abandon under the stars. Today we worshipped for hours in Iris' new church just a quick run from the dazzeling Indian Ocean, dancing and crying out to God for more revival in Mozambique. The poverty is worse than last year since food prices are up. Please continue to pray for Anna and I, our schedule includes lots of teaching in the both the mission school (110 Western participants) and the Mozambican Bible school (over 100). Pray for:
I spoke to a group of professors of Scripture from the different seminaries and the school of theology associated with the University of Kwa Zulu-Natal. We had a meal together at an Oblate community on the outskirts of Pietermaritzburg, where I was invited to present a summary of my new book A New Christian Manifesto. There were Catholic, evangelical and mainline Bible scholars-- feminist, contemplative, liberationist. I was amazed at peoples openness and excitement. I spoke the next day at a theological cafe at the university to some 30 professors and graduate students-- including a prof of Islam who is himself Muslim specializing in Islam and traditional African religion. He had some profound questions about Jesus that really moved me.
Conversations with my friends Gerald West-- OT prof and his wife Bev, a theologican and Jonathan Draper, a NT prof were stimulating as usual. These people are veteran Christians who have seen all the abuses from every side. They are not easily won over by any new thing and are incredibly astute-- and yet always open. I see a hunger for the Kingdom of God-- but not for any variety. Rather the authentic kingdom which brings true empowerment to the poor and freedom with dignity to the least.
Mozambique has moved us already to the core. Last night we went to a worship rave at Iris, where orphan kids together with Western mission students danced with abandon under the stars. Today we worshipped for hours in Iris' new church just a quick run from the dazzeling Indian Ocean, dancing and crying out to God for more revival in Mozambique. The poverty is worse than last year since food prices are up. Please continue to pray for Anna and I, our schedule includes lots of teaching in the both the mission school (110 Western participants) and the Mozambican Bible school (over 100). Pray for:
- I will be teaching Monday - Thursday afternoon (June 16-19) in the Iris mission school and Bible school. For wisdom in selecting teaching subjects, for God's presence to really bring clarity, healing and empowerment.
- On Thursday-Saturday (June 19-21) Anna and I go on an outreach into the bush with Heidi Baker. Pray for protection and God's kingdom to come.
- On the following Sunday-Wednesday I teach.
- Pray for Anna-- for protection, openness and connections.
- Pray for divine appointments and friendships
- We fly home June 25 and arrive in Seattle on June 26.
Blessings in Christ,
Bob
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Bob and Anna's Trip to France and Africa
Anna and I arrived in Johannesburg, S. Africa yesterday morning and here in Pietermaritzburg in the afternoon. We've almost been gone a week and things are going amazingly well. We are having a lot of fun together, starting every day in Paris with fresh pan au chocolats and croissants-- and lots of amazing meals. Anna however says she's tired of fancy things like roast duck and misses peanut butter and jelly! Here are some highlights and some new prayer requests:
1) I preached and ministered Sunday at the Eglise Reformee de Belleville-- a big reformed church in Paris. I invited people to come forward if they wanted to give Jesus permission to really take them deeper into baptismal death of the flesh so they could be wholly given over as sons/daughters of God, empowered more fully by the Holy Spirit. People came forward in droves and the Spirit really touched people. Then we had another session all afternoon, praying for many many people. There was lots of deliverance, quite amazing really. I was really moved by how many people are suffering from deep loneliness and isolation.
2) On Monday we met with Gilles Boucomont and his team from another Paris church. They had just taught for a week in Burlington. This is an important connection. Then I went out with Elian Cuvillier, the New Testament prof from the Eglise Reformee seminary in Montpellier who just happened to be in Paris when we were. We really connected and I am once again amazed to see how mainline intellectual French Protestants are so hungry and open to the Holy Spirit and to entering more fully into the ministry of Jesus. We stayed the entire time with the President of the French Bible Society, Bernard Coyault and his wife who is a pastor. We had great conversations.
3) On Tuesday I ministered "prophetic presytery" style to the pastoral team of Eglise Reformee de Belleville and then did a book signing at the main bookstore of the Eglise Reformee de France's national office. The French translation of Reading the Bible with the Damned is out and doing really well.
4) Then we were wisked off by taxi (since there was a train strike) to the airport for an all night, 12 hr flight to Johannnesburg. Last night I spoke to a gathering of all the Biblical studies professors from the seminaries in this city (Catholics, protestants, evangelicals) based at the Univ of KwaZulu Natal and elsewhere. They asked me to share about my new book A New Christian Manifesto. I shared openly about the new move of the Spirit that I see, where word, spirit and ministry to the poor/marginalized are coming together. The profs were very excited and we ended up having a long discussion. I am amazed at people's openness-- especially since these people are not from charismatic camps but are theologians of liberation, contemplative Catholics, feminists, post-colonial theologians, academics. The Spirit is truly at work bringing together the body of Christ.
5) Today I speak at a "theological cafe" before professors and students and the Univ of KwaZulu Natal and then have dinner and breakfast meetings with profs and others. Please keep us in your prayers. Tomorrow the NT prof and my good friend Jonathan Draper is taking us to a game park. Yeah! Then we fly to Johannesburg and fly out Saturday morning for Iris ministry in Pemba Mozambique.
Please pray for ongoing divine appointments and God's wisdom, direction and annointing for conversations with professors/leaders.
Pray for Ilona Dobeyn who is suffering from cancer here. We have prayed for her and she seems to be improving.
Pray for protection for us as we travel, and for Gracie and Luke back home and for Isaac in Argentina.
Pray that God would really prepare us for our 10-11 days in Mozambique (June 16-26).
Pray for Anna, for her health and an open heart. Pray for our time together as dad/daughter-- that it would be the best.
Feel free to write if you get any impressions for us (bob@bobekblad.com).
Blessings in Christ,
Bob
1) I preached and ministered Sunday at the Eglise Reformee de Belleville-- a big reformed church in Paris. I invited people to come forward if they wanted to give Jesus permission to really take them deeper into baptismal death of the flesh so they could be wholly given over as sons/daughters of God, empowered more fully by the Holy Spirit. People came forward in droves and the Spirit really touched people. Then we had another session all afternoon, praying for many many people. There was lots of deliverance, quite amazing really. I was really moved by how many people are suffering from deep loneliness and isolation.
2) On Monday we met with Gilles Boucomont and his team from another Paris church. They had just taught for a week in Burlington. This is an important connection. Then I went out with Elian Cuvillier, the New Testament prof from the Eglise Reformee seminary in Montpellier who just happened to be in Paris when we were. We really connected and I am once again amazed to see how mainline intellectual French Protestants are so hungry and open to the Holy Spirit and to entering more fully into the ministry of Jesus. We stayed the entire time with the President of the French Bible Society, Bernard Coyault and his wife who is a pastor. We had great conversations.
3) On Tuesday I ministered "prophetic presytery" style to the pastoral team of Eglise Reformee de Belleville and then did a book signing at the main bookstore of the Eglise Reformee de France's national office. The French translation of Reading the Bible with the Damned is out and doing really well.
4) Then we were wisked off by taxi (since there was a train strike) to the airport for an all night, 12 hr flight to Johannnesburg. Last night I spoke to a gathering of all the Biblical studies professors from the seminaries in this city (Catholics, protestants, evangelicals) based at the Univ of KwaZulu Natal and elsewhere. They asked me to share about my new book A New Christian Manifesto. I shared openly about the new move of the Spirit that I see, where word, spirit and ministry to the poor/marginalized are coming together. The profs were very excited and we ended up having a long discussion. I am amazed at people's openness-- especially since these people are not from charismatic camps but are theologians of liberation, contemplative Catholics, feminists, post-colonial theologians, academics. The Spirit is truly at work bringing together the body of Christ.
5) Today I speak at a "theological cafe" before professors and students and the Univ of KwaZulu Natal and then have dinner and breakfast meetings with profs and others. Please keep us in your prayers. Tomorrow the NT prof and my good friend Jonathan Draper is taking us to a game park. Yeah! Then we fly to Johannesburg and fly out Saturday morning for Iris ministry in Pemba Mozambique.
Please pray for ongoing divine appointments and God's wisdom, direction and annointing for conversations with professors/leaders.
Pray for Ilona Dobeyn who is suffering from cancer here. We have prayed for her and she seems to be improving.
Pray for protection for us as we travel, and for Gracie and Luke back home and for Isaac in Argentina.
Pray that God would really prepare us for our 10-11 days in Mozambique (June 16-26).
Pray for Anna, for her health and an open heart. Pray for our time together as dad/daughter-- that it would be the best.
Feel free to write if you get any impressions for us (bob@bobekblad.com).
Blessings in Christ,
Bob
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Raising the Dead, Good Friday 2008
At the end of Matthew Jesus commissions his disciples: “Go and make disciples of all the nations.” He tells them to baptize people, “teaching them to observe all that I commanded you” (Matt 28:19-20). What did Jesus command his disciples? Am I practicing these things and teaching others to do the same?
There are many things that Jesus commanded. Reading through Matthew’s Gospel looking for Jesus’ commands is challenging. There are many that are very well known, like “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of people” (4:19), “let your light shine before people” (5:16) “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (5:44), “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness” (6:33), “do not be anxious for tomorrow” (6:34), “do not judge lest you be judged yourself” (7:1), “ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened to you” (7:7) “enter by the narrow gate” (7:13).
Especially challenging to me right now are Jesus’ instructions to the twelve he send out in Matthew 10:7-8. “As you go, preach, saying, ‘the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.”
I recently returned from eight days visiting Tierra Nueva in Honduras. My colleague Nick and I went around with the Honduran TN promoters visiting villagers they attend to. Everywhere we went we led Bible studies to materially impoverished, spiritually hungry people. We prayed for lots of sick & hurting people and saw lots of healing. We saw Jesus take away migraines, tooth aches, pain in backs, necks, shoulders, abdomens, knees, ankles, ovaries. We prayed for several Catholic lay leaders in one village who were profoundly touched by the Holy Spirit, falling to the ground under the power of God’s love. We also prayed for people who were not visibly healed, four blind people who did not receive their sight and three dead people who did not raise up.
On the third day of my trip I was planning to meet beloved TN promoter Jorge in a high mountain village “Iran” at 9:00am. That morning though the news reached us that there on the mountain right where we were heading a white Toyota pickup like the one I had rented had been ambushed by four masked men with AK-47s. They had shot and beheaded the 22-year-old driver, shot his mother through the lungs and killed his 44-year-old worker. People said this was a revenge killing as the 22-year old had reputedly killed someone from the village of Iran back in December. We called off our trip as the four armed assassins were at large. As we stood in the park below our house trying to decide what to do when the Toyota pickup rumbled down into the square, bullet holes riddling the driver’s door, blood flowing out the back, the bodies covered with plastic bags. People ran to look at the dead. I stood there trying to shake off Jesus’ imperative: “raise the dead!”
I began to walk towards the white pick up, praying in the Spirit, dreading the moment. I didn’t want to look on these poor men. Yet I imagined the power of God being manifested there, and thought of the impact of Jesus raising these slain. I remembered Jesus’ words about not doing his own will, but only the will of his Father. I asked Jesus to show me the Father’s will, to show me what the Father was doing in heaven. The words that came to my mind surprised me: “He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword.” I doubted these to be God’s Word as they seemed too convenient, an escape from practicing Jesus’ commandments. But I didn’t feel peace. Then I thought to myself:
“I’ll go to their homes tonight during the wake. I can always pray for them then and that will give me time to get greater clarity.”
I remembered later that Jesus himself waited several days after Lazarus died to pray for him. That day we went off to a remote village, Zapote, and had a Bible study and prayer time with 15 men from an old Tierra Nueva committee. But we returned around 7:00pm and then had to decide again what to do.
Everyone told me not to go to the wakes, which in Honduras are all- night events, mourning around the body. My Honduran friends told me there had been lots of armed robberies after dark in our town by gangs of young men and that I shouldn’t go. As the night went on though I found myself unable to relax. I was feeling pressed to go down to pray over these dead men.
Nick accompanied me down to the first house. Groups of men hung around outside. “The situation is very sensitive,” a Honduran friend told me. “There are groups of armed men already heading out after the killers. There’s going to be more vengeance.” I walked inside the house. Women and children sat around a rustic wooded casket in the middle of the room. Inside was the 44-year old man who had been hired that day to help and protect the targeted 22- year-old. He had been carrying a gun, but hadn’t known how to use it when they were attacked. He was shot as he fumbled around trying to figure it out. He had just been deported by the US Border Patrol after working in the US for a few years.
I held his mother, a Christian active in a local Evangelical church, as she wept: “He was my right hand man.” “My God, my God. He was my provider, my beloved son, my son, my son.” I held her for a long time, praying and listening. Eventually I went over and looked through plexiglass at this poor man as I silently prayed and prayed for him to be raised, watching for any signs of life. “O Jesus, Son of God, have mercy. Bring your peace!"
We went to the next house of the 22-year-old who lived just down the street. This was a much bleaker scene as the family were not Christians and the mother was hospitalized in critical condition in the capital. Two days later she too died. I could feel a mix of rage and despair as I approached the house. People sat in what looked like numb submission. I held the father and we talked and prayed. I prayed that he would not feel pressured to retaliate. I then prayed over the young man’s body, silently speaking resurrection life into him, crying out for God’s intervention, for peace to come, for the violence to end.
The next day we went out visiting three poor peasant communities on the other side of the mountains. In four houses in a row we encountered blind people who we prayed for and anointed with oil. An old woman, a young man who had lost an eye, penetrated by a flying metal shaving while filing his machete. We prayed for a lady who was blind but also had an open ulcer on her lower leg. Heat came all over the open sores as we prayed, but she didn’t notice any change in her eyesight. We prayed for her husband’s back and hip pain and eyesight, clouded by cataracts. He told us excitedly that the pain completely left his back and hips and that his eyesight was improving—but I wondered about his eyes, thinking that maybe he was telling us what he thought we wanted to hear.
As we left I saw his middle-aged son sitting on a stool in their dirt-floored kitchen. “Are you in any pain? Can I pray for you?” I ask. “I’m not in pain, but you can pray for me.” “For what?” I asked. “For my salvation,” he said. “What?” I asked, surprised. “That I would be saved,” he said again. This man was apparently touched as we prayed for his parents. Did he feel God’s Presence? Though his mother’s eyes were clearly not opened, his spiritual eyes were, to the point that he felt drawn to ask Jesus to save him and fill him with the Holy Spirit. Yet I still long to see actual blind eyes opened—and am encouraged by my friend Heidi Baker, who after years praying for the blind without result is now seeing many blind eyes opening.
While I have not yet seen the blind receive their sight or the dead raised I find myself strangely longing to pray for more and more blind people, and for the dead, as Jesus directs. As I seek to open myself to practicing the ministry of Jesus, I find my heart changing, my pride and fear fading and an unexplainable confidence rising up inside. Something dead inside of me is coming alive… a new hope in the impossible.
On this Good Friday as I contemplate Jesus’ death, I think of these scenes of several weeks back and pray: Jesus, you yourself submitted to death. All of us too will die. Yet you call us to stand before death like you did: letting ourselves be affected by it, yet boldly facing it, willingly submitting to it for ourselves—yet resisting it for others. You wept for Lazarus, but then you commanded him to raise up. You stopped a funeral procession and raised a woman’s only son. You raised up the synagogue official’s 12-year-old daughter. Your disciples also raised the dead and I hear reports of it happening around the world today. Have mercy on us. Free us from our belief in the power of death, violence, and sickness-- and from our unbelief. Fill us with faith in your superior power at work within us. Let your resurrection power become visible among us, more and more, here and now.
There are many things that Jesus commanded. Reading through Matthew’s Gospel looking for Jesus’ commands is challenging. There are many that are very well known, like “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of people” (4:19), “let your light shine before people” (5:16) “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (5:44), “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness” (6:33), “do not be anxious for tomorrow” (6:34), “do not judge lest you be judged yourself” (7:1), “ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened to you” (7:7) “enter by the narrow gate” (7:13).
Especially challenging to me right now are Jesus’ instructions to the twelve he send out in Matthew 10:7-8. “As you go, preach, saying, ‘the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.”
I recently returned from eight days visiting Tierra Nueva in Honduras. My colleague Nick and I went around with the Honduran TN promoters visiting villagers they attend to. Everywhere we went we led Bible studies to materially impoverished, spiritually hungry people. We prayed for lots of sick & hurting people and saw lots of healing. We saw Jesus take away migraines, tooth aches, pain in backs, necks, shoulders, abdomens, knees, ankles, ovaries. We prayed for several Catholic lay leaders in one village who were profoundly touched by the Holy Spirit, falling to the ground under the power of God’s love. We also prayed for people who were not visibly healed, four blind people who did not receive their sight and three dead people who did not raise up.
On the third day of my trip I was planning to meet beloved TN promoter Jorge in a high mountain village “Iran” at 9:00am. That morning though the news reached us that there on the mountain right where we were heading a white Toyota pickup like the one I had rented had been ambushed by four masked men with AK-47s. They had shot and beheaded the 22-year-old driver, shot his mother through the lungs and killed his 44-year-old worker. People said this was a revenge killing as the 22-year old had reputedly killed someone from the village of Iran back in December. We called off our trip as the four armed assassins were at large. As we stood in the park below our house trying to decide what to do when the Toyota pickup rumbled down into the square, bullet holes riddling the driver’s door, blood flowing out the back, the bodies covered with plastic bags. People ran to look at the dead. I stood there trying to shake off Jesus’ imperative: “raise the dead!”
I began to walk towards the white pick up, praying in the Spirit, dreading the moment. I didn’t want to look on these poor men. Yet I imagined the power of God being manifested there, and thought of the impact of Jesus raising these slain. I remembered Jesus’ words about not doing his own will, but only the will of his Father. I asked Jesus to show me the Father’s will, to show me what the Father was doing in heaven. The words that came to my mind surprised me: “He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword.” I doubted these to be God’s Word as they seemed too convenient, an escape from practicing Jesus’ commandments. But I didn’t feel peace. Then I thought to myself:
“I’ll go to their homes tonight during the wake. I can always pray for them then and that will give me time to get greater clarity.”
I remembered later that Jesus himself waited several days after Lazarus died to pray for him. That day we went off to a remote village, Zapote, and had a Bible study and prayer time with 15 men from an old Tierra Nueva committee. But we returned around 7:00pm and then had to decide again what to do.
Everyone told me not to go to the wakes, which in Honduras are all- night events, mourning around the body. My Honduran friends told me there had been lots of armed robberies after dark in our town by gangs of young men and that I shouldn’t go. As the night went on though I found myself unable to relax. I was feeling pressed to go down to pray over these dead men.
Nick accompanied me down to the first house. Groups of men hung around outside. “The situation is very sensitive,” a Honduran friend told me. “There are groups of armed men already heading out after the killers. There’s going to be more vengeance.” I walked inside the house. Women and children sat around a rustic wooded casket in the middle of the room. Inside was the 44-year old man who had been hired that day to help and protect the targeted 22- year-old. He had been carrying a gun, but hadn’t known how to use it when they were attacked. He was shot as he fumbled around trying to figure it out. He had just been deported by the US Border Patrol after working in the US for a few years.
I held his mother, a Christian active in a local Evangelical church, as she wept: “He was my right hand man.” “My God, my God. He was my provider, my beloved son, my son, my son.” I held her for a long time, praying and listening. Eventually I went over and looked through plexiglass at this poor man as I silently prayed and prayed for him to be raised, watching for any signs of life. “O Jesus, Son of God, have mercy. Bring your peace!"
We went to the next house of the 22-year-old who lived just down the street. This was a much bleaker scene as the family were not Christians and the mother was hospitalized in critical condition in the capital. Two days later she too died. I could feel a mix of rage and despair as I approached the house. People sat in what looked like numb submission. I held the father and we talked and prayed. I prayed that he would not feel pressured to retaliate. I then prayed over the young man’s body, silently speaking resurrection life into him, crying out for God’s intervention, for peace to come, for the violence to end.
The next day we went out visiting three poor peasant communities on the other side of the mountains. In four houses in a row we encountered blind people who we prayed for and anointed with oil. An old woman, a young man who had lost an eye, penetrated by a flying metal shaving while filing his machete. We prayed for a lady who was blind but also had an open ulcer on her lower leg. Heat came all over the open sores as we prayed, but she didn’t notice any change in her eyesight. We prayed for her husband’s back and hip pain and eyesight, clouded by cataracts. He told us excitedly that the pain completely left his back and hips and that his eyesight was improving—but I wondered about his eyes, thinking that maybe he was telling us what he thought we wanted to hear.
As we left I saw his middle-aged son sitting on a stool in their dirt-floored kitchen. “Are you in any pain? Can I pray for you?” I ask. “I’m not in pain, but you can pray for me.” “For what?” I asked. “For my salvation,” he said. “What?” I asked, surprised. “That I would be saved,” he said again. This man was apparently touched as we prayed for his parents. Did he feel God’s Presence? Though his mother’s eyes were clearly not opened, his spiritual eyes were, to the point that he felt drawn to ask Jesus to save him and fill him with the Holy Spirit. Yet I still long to see actual blind eyes opened—and am encouraged by my friend Heidi Baker, who after years praying for the blind without result is now seeing many blind eyes opening.
While I have not yet seen the blind receive their sight or the dead raised I find myself strangely longing to pray for more and more blind people, and for the dead, as Jesus directs. As I seek to open myself to practicing the ministry of Jesus, I find my heart changing, my pride and fear fading and an unexplainable confidence rising up inside. Something dead inside of me is coming alive… a new hope in the impossible.
On this Good Friday as I contemplate Jesus’ death, I think of these scenes of several weeks back and pray: Jesus, you yourself submitted to death. All of us too will die. Yet you call us to stand before death like you did: letting ourselves be affected by it, yet boldly facing it, willingly submitting to it for ourselves—yet resisting it for others. You wept for Lazarus, but then you commanded him to raise up. You stopped a funeral procession and raised a woman’s only son. You raised up the synagogue official’s 12-year-old daughter. Your disciples also raised the dead and I hear reports of it happening around the world today. Have mercy on us. Free us from our belief in the power of death, violence, and sickness-- and from our unbelief. Fill us with faith in your superior power at work within us. Let your resurrection power become visible among us, more and more, here and now.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Word, Spirit and Ministry to the Poor Embracing at New Earth Refuge and beyond
You may already know that Gracie and I have stepped into a new dimension of our ministry: praying more for individuals and groups here at our home-based retreat center New Earth Refuge and teaching (¼ time) here in the US and around the world. We continue to share a position directing and pastoring Tierra Nueva. At Tierra Nueva, here at New Earth Refuge and in our travels we find ourselves inviting people into the ministry of Jesus, praying for healing and empowerment and equipping people to announce the Kingdom of God.
It’s feeling more and more like we are preparing people for something new and expanding. A renewal movement appears to be underway. We are certainly seeing more and more healing, conversions and other signs of God's presence among immigrants, inmates and also in the churches. A friend recently sent me a prophetic word spoken by British revivalist Smith Wigglesworth in 1947. While it was about England, it seems to apply to here too. He prophesied then that in the next few decades there would be two moves of the Spirit characterized by “a restoration of the baptism and gifts of the Holy Spirit” and people “moving out of historic churches to plant new ones.” He saw a third larger move combining word and Spirit as following. I quote:
"When the new church phase is on the wane, there will be evidence in the churches of something that has not been seen before: a coming together of those with an emphasis on the word and those with an emphasis on the Spirit. When the word and the Spirit come together, there will be the biggest move of the Holy Spirit that the nation, and indeed, the world has ever seen. It will mark the beginning of a revival that will eclipse anything that has been witnessed within these shores, even the Wesleyan and Welsh revivals of former years. The outpouring of God’s Spirit will flow over from the United Kingdom to mainland Europe, and from there, will begin a missionary move to the ends of the earth."
Gracie and I are seeing more and more groups and individuals that have focused primarily on Scripture cross-pollinating with those who have focused on Spirit (and vice versa) in ways we have not seen in our lifetimes. During a November 2007 trip to France I led Bible studies and a retreat for word-focused Scripture Union International’s European workers in Alsace and French Reformed pastors in Paris. In both places there was a lot of spiritual hunger (see trip reports on my blog (http://www.bobekblad.blogspot.com and the forthcoming article on Word and Spirit in Catalyst at http://bobekblad.com/publicationsnews.html).
Many individuals and churches everywhere also are feeling called to reach out to the poor and marginalized—a third essential chord. Word, Spirit and ministry among the poor are coming together like never before. People in North America and Europe are longing to see action. Yet fruitfulness in ministry is only possible as we are rooted and grounded in God’s loving Presence, pursued in worship, Bible study, contemplative prayer and service.
On a mid-December 2007 trip to Colorado Gracie and I ministered in a church in the Aspen area that faces huge ministry challenges. The Aspen area has one of the highest per capita undocumented worker populations in the United States. These people serve as construction workers, dish washers and gardeners for people of extreme wealth. We taught and preached on Jesus’ ministry of announcing the Kingdom of God to the poor to an enthusiastic group, and ended with a healing service where the Holy Spirit really came to heal and bless people.
Right here in Northwest Washington we also see signs of a movement of the Holy Spirit. Increasing groups and individuals come to us for prayer. We are aiming to complete our two bunk houses and meeting room to meet the growing demand for one-on-one prayer, retreats and courses.
We are deeply encouraged by people’s support for both our new calling and for the construction of our larger prayer, teaching and hospitality building. The structure is now complete, with windows, doors, siding, roof and decking. We currently need $50,000 for floors, insulation, electrical, sheet rock, kitchen and other finish work so we can begin hosting people. Eventually we will need another $150,000 to pay back a loan that has helped us build everything up to this point. Please prayerfully consider whether you feel called to help us complete the building. We welcome you to visit us, see the progress and receive prayer yourself.
Tax-deductible contributions can be given online through PayPal on my website (http://bobekblad.com/donate.html) or mailed directly to New Earth Refuge, P.O. Box 410, Burlington, WA 98233.
We value your prayers for the following international commitments happening in the next five months.
Yours in Christ,
Bob Ekblad
It’s feeling more and more like we are preparing people for something new and expanding. A renewal movement appears to be underway. We are certainly seeing more and more healing, conversions and other signs of God's presence among immigrants, inmates and also in the churches. A friend recently sent me a prophetic word spoken by British revivalist Smith Wigglesworth in 1947. While it was about England, it seems to apply to here too. He prophesied then that in the next few decades there would be two moves of the Spirit characterized by “a restoration of the baptism and gifts of the Holy Spirit” and people “moving out of historic churches to plant new ones.” He saw a third larger move combining word and Spirit as following. I quote:
"When the new church phase is on the wane, there will be evidence in the churches of something that has not been seen before: a coming together of those with an emphasis on the word and those with an emphasis on the Spirit. When the word and the Spirit come together, there will be the biggest move of the Holy Spirit that the nation, and indeed, the world has ever seen. It will mark the beginning of a revival that will eclipse anything that has been witnessed within these shores, even the Wesleyan and Welsh revivals of former years. The outpouring of God’s Spirit will flow over from the United Kingdom to mainland Europe, and from there, will begin a missionary move to the ends of the earth."
Gracie and I are seeing more and more groups and individuals that have focused primarily on Scripture cross-pollinating with those who have focused on Spirit (and vice versa) in ways we have not seen in our lifetimes. During a November 2007 trip to France I led Bible studies and a retreat for word-focused Scripture Union International’s European workers in Alsace and French Reformed pastors in Paris. In both places there was a lot of spiritual hunger (see trip reports on my blog (http://www.bobekblad.blogspot.com and the forthcoming article on Word and Spirit in Catalyst at http://bobekblad.com/publicationsnews.html).
Many individuals and churches everywhere also are feeling called to reach out to the poor and marginalized—a third essential chord. Word, Spirit and ministry among the poor are coming together like never before. People in North America and Europe are longing to see action. Yet fruitfulness in ministry is only possible as we are rooted and grounded in God’s loving Presence, pursued in worship, Bible study, contemplative prayer and service.
On a mid-December 2007 trip to Colorado Gracie and I ministered in a church in the Aspen area that faces huge ministry challenges. The Aspen area has one of the highest per capita undocumented worker populations in the United States. These people serve as construction workers, dish washers and gardeners for people of extreme wealth. We taught and preached on Jesus’ ministry of announcing the Kingdom of God to the poor to an enthusiastic group, and ended with a healing service where the Holy Spirit really came to heal and bless people.
Right here in Northwest Washington we also see signs of a movement of the Holy Spirit. Increasing groups and individuals come to us for prayer. We are aiming to complete our two bunk houses and meeting room to meet the growing demand for one-on-one prayer, retreats and courses.
We are deeply encouraged by people’s support for both our new calling and for the construction of our larger prayer, teaching and hospitality building. The structure is now complete, with windows, doors, siding, roof and decking. We currently need $50,000 for floors, insulation, electrical, sheet rock, kitchen and other finish work so we can begin hosting people. Eventually we will need another $150,000 to pay back a loan that has helped us build everything up to this point. Please prayerfully consider whether you feel called to help us complete the building. We welcome you to visit us, see the progress and receive prayer yourself.
Tax-deductible contributions can be given online through PayPal on my website (http://bobekblad.com/donate.html) or mailed directly to New Earth Refuge, P.O. Box 410, Burlington, WA 98233.
We value your prayers for the following international commitments happening in the next five months.
- February 16 I leave for nine days of outreach with Tierra Nueva in Honduras followed by two days speaking at Lubbock Christian University.
- Speaking engagements increase beginning in March once my new book A New Christian Manifesto: Pledging Allegiance to the Kingdom of God, (Westminster John Knox: Louisville, 2008) comes out in late February.
- In April I will be the keynote speaker at the Scripture Engagement Roundtable of the Forum of Bible Agencies International in Amsterdam. I will then spend four days speaking in Paris as the French edition of Reading the Bible with the Damned (Lire la bible avec les parias) comes out in late March.
- In June I will be heading to Pemba, Mozambique for two weeks to teach Mozambican pastors and mission students in Iris Ministries Holy Given Missions School, accompanied by my 13-year-old daughter Anna. This will be my third time working to train pastors in Mozambique—where revival is outpacing training in an amazing move of God’s Spirit.
Yours in Christ,
Bob Ekblad
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