Honduran Harvests: Coffee beans and people

The coffee harvest is now in full swing on Tierra Nueva’s coffee farm in Alta Mira.  I am glad to report that we now have the infrastructure in place for a growing production of specialty coffee that offers employment to local workers and income to support Tierra Nueva’s ministry in Honduras (see photos below).

We are grateful to supporters who have contributed funds to purchase a truck, coffee processing plant, housing for farm manager, latrines, solar dryers and drying patios.  A growing supply of quality beans are now available for Underground Coffee Project’s ex-offender-led roasting operation at Tierra Nueva in Burlington, which you can order online here: http://coffee.newearthworks.org

Tierra Nueva’s Honduran leader David Calix has had a calling to reach out to people in extreme poverty since we began working together in 1983.  Since TN’s founding in Minas de Oro in 1982 we have been committed to empowering the rural poor through teaching sustainable farming and intensive gardening, establishing gravity-flow water projects and teaching on nutrition and hygiene.  Bible study among people outside the churches has also been a major emphasis.  Now we are focusing on building small communities, “hogares en transformacion,” where new Christians can be built up in their faith and in sustainable living practices.

David visits his native village of Mal Paso twice a month.  He had to move away two years ago due to violence that led to the deaths of 9 men from opposing sides—all people David grew up with.  Honduras is currently considered the most violent country in the world due to lawlessness resulting from a breakdown in government leadership and widespread poverty and drug-trafficking.

Jesus’ sending the disciples out in Luke 10 provides inspiration for regular visits to receptive families.  Hondurans are noted for their generous hospitality, and David and other leaders are welcomed into homes in Mal Paso, Minas de Oro and other surrounding villages. 

There in the security of people’s homes, prayers are offered for healing and other needs, and the Bible is read and discussed.  When Jesus heals someone rejected by the majority, and people feel cared for with no strings attached by Tierra Nueva’s workers, they usually want more, and the work is growing.  Leadership development is now the biggest priority.

David conducts larger gatherings every two weeks with all the families involved to encourage and build up these new believers.  He also is mentoring emerging leaders in Bible study and social development.  Tierra Nueva provides lunch for these meetings and covers transportation for people from surrounding villages.

Tierra Nueva’s future plans include regular visits to the villages of Huertas, Altamira, Guachipilín to engage people in prayer and Scripture study.

Please pray for a resolution of the political crisis in Honduras, and for reconciliation between the many Honduran Christian groups that are currently divided and working against each other.  Please intercede for David and his wife Esperanza’s health and safety.  Pray with us for a growing harvest of people into Jesus’ Kingdom.  Pray also for TN apprentice Paul Foth’s visit to Honduras Feb 18-March 5.

Right now we are in need of $20,000 for the purchase of land with a house where David and his family can live, show hospitality, gather people for worship, leadership training, and establish a small organic demonstration plot to train people in sustainable living practices.  See this YouTube video interview with David where he outlines his vision http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VGF7fFt2BI.

If you would like to support this project donations can be given through e-giving using this link,

https://www.egsnetwork.com/gift/gift.php?giftid=E4EB2CF9D2AC4AF

Or, you can sent to Tierra Nueva, Attn: Honduras, PO Box 161, Burlington, WA 98233, USA.

For an extended version of the David Calix interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFcQ00XJuw0

Soft Like a Marshmallow

Gracie and I have been enjoying being back at Tierra Nueva after our year away in France.  We’ve appreciated our weekly worship services, which are drawing ex-offenders, people in recovery and immigrant workers.

For the past three months on Monday evenings Salvio, Bethany (TN Family Support Center directors), a growing number of Tierra Nueva apprentices and Gracie and I have been meeting at the Tierra Nueva building for thirty minutes of prayer before seeking to enter into a contemporary practice of Jesus’ mission according to Luke 10.

In Luke 10 Jesus sends out 70 workers in pairs, telling them to “beg the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” because the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few (10:2).  Our group varies from four to eight. As we’ve gone out we’ve seen that Jesus’ assessment of First Century Palestine is true today for Skagit County.  There is spiritual openness, great need and a longing among ordinary people to engage in some kind of outreach.

During our prayer time together we thank God for what the Spirit is already doing in our ministry and community and deliberately ask how we can best collaborate with God.  We seek guidance regarding where we should go.  We expect God to speak, bringing to mind families to visit, specific places to go, conditions needing healing—whatever the Holy Spirit wants to show us.

In Luke 10:3-4 Jesus sends out the 70 dependent and vulnerable (no shoes, money, extra clothes) and specifically commissions them to go as guests rather than hosts.  Seeking the person of peace is all about receiving people’s hospitality- and yet there’s a proactive side to this involving going out looking for receptive hosts.

Usually we visit people in their homes, and end up praying for their concerns—which include anything from the need for work to physical healing and comfort.

A few weeks ago Gracie got the impression: “soft like a marshmallow” thinking it was about the condition of someone’s heart.  She also thought of the laundromat across the street beside a Mexican grocer.   Anna and Salvio thought we should go to the megastore Wal-Mart, and Salvio got “palm tree” and someone else thought of “black hair.”  I wasn’t sensing anything but decided to join Salvio and Anna and head to Wal-Mart, even though I dislike this particular megastore. 

Meanwhile, Gracie and Paul headed across the street towards the laundromat, but as they passed by the Mexican grocery store, “Los Antojitos” they felt they should go in.  There Paul noticed a bag of big heart-shaped marshmallows by the cashier, and in front of it was a Mexican woman making a purchase with whom Gracie struck up a conversation.  They accompanied the woman outside into the cold December wind.  After they introduced themselves and briefly described how they were praying for God to bless people, they asked her if she needed prayer.

“Yes I do, but doesn’t everyone?” she said in Spanish.  Gracie agreed that everyone needs prayer but told her: “I think God is highlighting you,” and shared how they’d been praying and had gotten the impression of a heart as soft as a marshmallow.  At this the woman seemed to melt and said that in fact she needed prayer: for pain and swelling in her leg from deep-veined thrombosis and some other conditions.

The cold wind motivated them to duck into the laundromat, which was empty, and they prayed.  The woman cried as she told how she’d been longing for someone to tell her about Jesus and help her understand the Bible.  Gracie and Paul invited her to our Sunday service. 

At that point she invited them to her car and offered them bags of oatmeal and granola from the factory where she works.  She’s come twice in to Tierra Nueva’s services, and we recently visited her and her family in their home where we celebrated God healing her leg, and prayed for her family.  Afterwards she invited us to share a meal delicious home-made chicken tamales and strawberry atole (a sweet pudding-like drink) (photo below).

This woman truly has a soft heart towards God and us.   She is longing to go out with us on our Monday night outreaches, which shows us that Jesus’ call for disciples to beg the Lord of the harvest for laborers is a prime example of evangelism as recruitment. 

That same evening when Salvio, Anna and I went into Wal-Mart I was skeptical about our prospects.  However, as we walked down the first main aisle we ran straight into a big tower made up of stacked cases of Corona beer (a Mexican favorite).  Atop it was a big plastic palm tree! (photo below).  There beside it was a man with jet-black hair pushing a shopping cart full of hot chili cheetos. 

Salvio and I approached him about our mission and he immediately agreed to receive prayer: at which time we learned he was from India but living in Vancouver, BC.   We prayed for him and encouraged him, realizing that our church aisles were becoming strangely inclusive, and the nearness of Jesus’ Kingdom was coming into places I would never have chosen (Wal-Mart). 

We rejoined Gracie and Paul and truly could identify with joy of the 70 who returned to Jesus to debrief (Luke 10:17-21).  Last week I sensed God speaking to me to “double” these outreaches—which we plan to do beginning in January. 

May you too experience the joy of the harvest as you venture into whatever version of Jesus’ ministry the Spirit leads you into in 2013.

Why Celebrate?

In mid-October we gathered to celebrate Tierra Nueva’s 30-year anniversary.  A few weeks before that celebration I was fretting in the middle of the night, wondering: “why celebrate?” I experienced feelings ranging from ambivalence to disappointment to outright grief.  Perhaps mourning our many setbacks and outright failures would be more appropriate, I thought.

We've had so many losses and disappointments these 30 years: We’ve poured time and resources into projects that haven’t always born fruit; we’ve raised up leaders who have left us;  people we've led to Jesus and seriously advocated for have relapsed, re-offended, grown cold or been killed.  We’ve started and lost agricultural committees, Bible study groups and churches.  Truth-be-told we don't know what's happened to most of the people we've ministered to in Skagit County Jail or in the Honduran countryside.

I lay there feeling discouraged, thinking how successful other ministries and churches seem to be in contrast.  I struggled to believe that it’s not too late for us.  I found myself surrendering myself as fully as I know how, crying out to God to have mercy on us and to work with us and through us more effectively.  As I lay there praying I think God spoke to me.  

I found myself thinking about God’s own ministry experience promoting salvation/liberation. I thought back to the first humans in the garden, who distrusted God’s goodness and chose death, rapidly-- in spite of the most ideal beginning.  My thoughts moved to God’s failed efforts to prevent Cain from murdering his brother or getting humans to fill the earth and subdue it rather than starting from scratch after the Flood.

Jacob's family came to mind.  I remembered Simeon and Judah who killed all the men in a city to retaliate for one man raping their sister Dinah; the ten sons of Jacob who threw their brother Joseph into a pit to kill him, selling him to the Midianites instead; 400 years of slavery in Egypt; Moses who murdered an Egyptian, fled his people and then 40 years later reluctantly responded to the call.

I thought of the Israelites making it out of Egypt only to be disgruntled and rebel, worshipping a golden calf.  None of the original escapees from Egypt made it into Canaan but died in the wilderness. 

Then when God’s people do make it to Canaan they blow it over and over, turning to the gods of the land, being carried off into bondage, crying out and God showing mercy on them... many times (see Judges 10:6-16).  

Then the monarchy-- a bad start with Saul; David's life of violence and adultery; a seriously-broken royal family; the kingdom dividing; lots of kings that did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; the people and leaders ignoring the prophets, or killing them; the Assyrians carrying off the 10 northern tribes after they spurned God's prophets; the Babylonians destroying the temple and carrying off the cream of the crop into exile; returning to the land and rebuilding the temple, only to mess up again, and again. 

When Jesus is born Israel is under Roman occupation.  He embodies God’s total presence to heal, deliver and in every way save.  But religious leaders reject him, the Romans crucify him, and his disciples abandon him.  The church is birthed into this mess and we keep making similar mistakes. 

As I thought through the history of God’s people I felt strangely comforted-- like maybe I was feeling the paternal heart of God, the feelings Jesus must have felt and still feels (though I don’t think God is anxious or depressed).  Yet it seems God hasn't been totally successful yet, or has he?  

God hasn't managed full-on global revival through all the myriad of efforts to call, disciple, equip and mobilize.  God hasn’t succeeded in weaning his church from their current idols (money, politics, violence...).  Jesus and his disciples haven’t stopped global warming, human trafficking, mass incarceration, school violence, drug addiction, at least not yet.

I’ve concluded that I still like the way our great God goes about ministry and invites us to join.  God is kind, persistent and never gives up, in spite of human frailty, unreliability and outright rebellion (mine included).  Jesus shows us a God who reigns by serving, exercises power by emptying himself, wins by losing, and saves the world by dying.  God lets us fail and fall and learn hard lessons, but he is with us through it all.  The Spirit brings comfort and reignites faith, inspiring and mobilizing us anew.  I feel mobilized and grateful to be part of his messy (bloody) body of Christ.  

We ended up having a rich and encouraging 30th anniversary.  Gracie and I are grateful to be seeking Jesus’ kingdom in the company of 20 committed colleagues who now make up our staff. 

We value your prayers and friendship as we end this year and continue into our 31^st.  May the Spirit comfort, encourage, strengthen and inspire you this Advent season.

Jesus Frees Violent Men: from Gerasenes to Mount Vernon & Beyond

Last month I spoke at a conference called Unlocking the Future: From Mass Incarceration to Restorative Justice at Texas Lutheran University. I also preached about the Gerasene demoniac, inviting students to cross over to the other side with Jesus into the world of violent offenders (see: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjlmWSa9UOg)

That evening Michelle Alexander gave an unsettling talk on her book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in an age of color blindness.  Like an Old Testament prophet she exposed the injustice of society’s increasing use of imprisonment as the only solution, and decried the courts’ classifying disproportionate numbers of people of color as felons, damning them into a new caste system where they are stripped of basic rights (see: www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8jGm1E7w1c&feature=related)

At Tierra Nueva we have been immersed in these realities for 18 years as we’ve ministered to inmates and ex-offenders.  Leading weekly Bible studies in Skagit County Jail again after a year in France reawakens me to the needs right here in our backyard & re-ignites my calling.  Both the brokenness and spiritual openness I see among inmates right here in Mount Vernon, Washington rivals what I’ve encountered in Asian slums, impoverished Mozambican or Honduran villages and prisons around the world.

On a recent Thursday evening during a Bible study in the jail all four inmates in our first Bible study had experienced traumatic loss of a parent.  When I asked how the men were doing the first one told of his reoccurring anxiety around finding his mother after she’d shot herself in the head when he was eight years old.  The man beside him recounted tormenting memories of finding his father after he had hung himself.  The third man then described how his father had invited the family to a barbeque after coming back from being separated from his mother. In front of the whole family he then put a gun to his head and shot himself.  The fourth man sat beside me anxiously shifting back and forth.  He was still dope-sick, detoxing from a heroin addiction.  Two months before when he lived in Texas, drug-task-force police stormed his family’s house, mistaking them for the drug dealers next door.  When his father had jumped up startled, the police opened fire, shooting him eight times.  His father died in his arms.  

How was I to minister to these men so hammered by trauma in the remaining 15 minutes allotted to us by the jail?  I went around and prayed for each of them, lifting off the trauma and blessing them with comfort from the Holy Spirit.  

This past Thursday night I led four back-to-back Bible studies on the Mark 5 version of Jesus’ encounter with the Gerasene demoniac.  Inmate participants read the story in sections, beginning with Mark 5:1-5.  The guys resonate with the description of the tormented man who lived in the tombs and broke off his chains. 

“Do you know anyone who authorities have repeatedly tried to control through prison-time, fines and threats?” I ask.  A Mexican-American gang member named Antonio looks up and states matter-of-factly “yeah, that’s all of us!” 

The description of the man screaming night and day and gashing himself with stones leads the men to name their own self-destructive behaviors: meth and heroin addiction, alcoholism, self-condemnation, cutting themselves, re-offending.

We continue by reading the next section of the story, Mark 5:6-7: “And seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him; and crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What do I have to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore you by God, do not torment me!” 

We notice how the man assumed Jesus would deal with him like all others had in the past—further tormenting him through confinement rather than effectively liberating him.  The men acknowledge that many people assume that God is out to punish people, on the side of law-enforcement and “the system”.

Jesus, in contrast, reveals a God who respects and liberates offenders.  Jesus also demonstrates what all humans are made for.  He embodies total love for a difficult person together with keen discernment and authority to separate out what is destructive and evil from that person.  We read next how Jesus deals with one violent offender with swift authority in verses 8-19:  casting out the unclean spirits, punishing them by giving them voluntary departure into a herd of pigs, restoring the man to the state of “clothed and in his right mind.” 

Jesus first responds to the man’s plea to not torment him by asking his name, and in the jail’s Good News version bible the translation reads, “My name is mob (legion in other versions) there are so many of us.” 

“Do you think demons exist?” I ask.  “Do you notice them in people around you or even in yourselves?”  “They all around us back there,” a man answers matter-of-factly, pointing to their cellblock.  “You can sense all kinds of evil: hatred, fear, anxiety… all kinds of things.”  Others elaborate in more detail. 

A man in his late twenties named James, still emaciated from years of addiction, suddenly bursts out: “I’ve got all kinds of them right in me. Can’t we just pray to get rid of them right now?  When I’m out on the streets high on meth I can see myself doing all kinds of shit I don’t want to do.  It’s like I’m just an observer.” 

I move on to comment further but James stops me.  “Did you hear what I just said?” he interrupts.  “Can’t we just pray for the demons to leave now?”

I explain to him that it’s important first to come to Jesus fully, trusting him to save you, even if you don’t understand him- like the man when he falls at Jesus’ feet. Otherwise, freedom from evil spirits will only be temporary as you have no protection.  James had been coming to our Bible studies for weeks, but always stressed how he had no background in religious stuff and all this was new.  Immediately he said he was ready to trust Jesus, but said he felt that something was blinding him, holding him back from faith.

2 Cor 4:4 comes to mind: “the god of this worldhas blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”  I invite him to set himself against the god of this world, and to ask Jesus to save him.  James prayed and then I led him in prayers to command other confusing and tormenting spirits to leave and not come back and to ask the Holy Spirit to fill him.  He soaked in the moment and said he felt good, like something was happening.  

The men are struck that Jesus wouldn’t let the man leave his people to follow him, but rather sent him back as a missionary to proclaim “what great things Jesus had done for him.”  We read in Mark 6:7, 12-13 how Jesus rapidly empowered his disciples to themselves practice the authority he exercised.

“And He summoned the twelve and began to send them out in pairs; and He was giving them authority over the unclean spirits... And they went out and preached that men should repent.  And they were casting out many demons and were anointing with oil many sick people and healing them.”

1 Peter 1:7-9 comes to mind as another explanation to encourage James regarding his quandary about not perceiving Jesus: “although you have not seen him, you love Him, and though you do not see him now, but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.”  James quickly wrote down the verse as the guards ushered the inmates out.

Curtis and I felt shivers going through our bodies after connecting James with the unseen yet very-present and loving Jesus, and I can’t wait to “cross over to the other side” again.

The figure of Jesus pictured below is made of shanks (clandestine inmate-fabricated weapons) that men in a prison in Paraguay gave a chaplain I met in Texas.

The Word Coming Close: Reflections on Romans 10 and Luke 10

Coming back to the Skagit Valley of Washington State was a bigger shock than we expected after a year in Paris.  Significant ministry trips into 15 different countries seemed to increase our time away from home and give us new eyes for what was once familiar, sharpening our priorities.  We are enjoying re-connecting with our family, ministry colleagues (see photo), faith community, supporters and also with jail inmates, ex-offenders, gang members and immigrant workers.

We participated in a baptism of Evaristo, an ex-gang member who is now a member of our community, in the frigid waters of the Skagit (see photos below).  He and others want unforgettable, even dramatic baptismal experiences that will rival violent gang initiations.

Today Tierra Nueva’s visiting Honduran director David Calix, our Mexican pastor Salvio Hernandez and I met to try to distill our distinct theology and strategies for working with people in extreme poverty here and in Honduras.

As we prayed Salvio got a picture of a big tree, whose large branches provide cover.  David saw a big roof that sheltered people from rain or hot sun.  Luke 15, Romans 10:5-17 and Luke 10:1-9 all came to mind which we read and discussed at length over delicious chile rellenos and carne asada at the El Gitano Mexican Restaurant across the street from Tierra Nueva.

In Romans 10 the Apostle Paul contrasts efforts at self-salvation through following the law to the “righteousness based on faith.”  This righteousness does not require frantic work bringing Christ down from heaven or up from the grave (v. 7).  “The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart,” writes Paul.  How do we help people accustomed to seeing God as distant and punishing come to know God as close and loving? 

Paul’s emphasis on people confessing with their mouth Jesus as Lord and believing from the heart that God has raised him from the dead (v. 9) really struck us as a brilliant crystallization into two essentials that show the Word as close & faith- inciting. 

Jesus reveals that God (Lord) is not a distant law-enforcer but rather the one who comes down from heaven to seek and find the lost (Luke 15:4, 8).  Jesus shows God to be the friend of sinners, healer of the sick and liberator of the oppressed.  God raises Jesus from the dead, vanquishing death and all its authority, bringing him back to us as alive now. 

“Whoever believes in him will not be disappointed!” (v. 12) write Paul.  “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved,” he insists (v. 13).  But how will this message be proclaimed without preachers sent to communicate it in ways that instill faith? (v. 14-15).   If indeed “faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ” (v. 17) someone must agree to carry the message.  Luke 10 shows an early Christian strategy instigated by Jesus.

Jesus appoints 72 disciples and sends them out in groups of two ahead of him into homes to receive hospitality first & then heal and announce the Kingdom of God.  “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.  So beg the Lord of the harvest to cast out laborers into his harvest” (v. 2).  Jesus sends them out needy and vulnerable (without money, suitcases or even shoes).  They humbly receive and also freely give in the homes where God directs them.

David has been practicing this in Honduras for the past few years, visiting the poorest families in fields and homes, establishing friendship, praying for people and leading them in Bible studies.

For the past six weeks we’ve been gathering on Monday nights to try out Jesus’ ministry strategy in Luke 10.  Four of us have been going out in teams of two, visiting families in rural migrant labor camps and in area apartments.  Every week people are welcoming us, receptive to prayer and many have experienced immediate healing.

On one of our first nights out we prayed for an older farm worker who had been working long hours harvesting blueberries.   She received almost immediate relief from pain in both her knees and arthritic wrists as Salvio, I and her husband prayed.

Two weeks ago a woman served us fresh blackberry juice from berries she’d harvested that day.  She asked us to pray for her to be freed from abdominal pain from a past operation, and then poured out her heart to us about having lost custody of her three children to her ex-husband.  She ended up confessing her bitterness and rage, asking for us to pray for freedom and God’s peace.

Last week we visited a Triqui-speaking couple from Mexico and their five children, who offered us soft drinks and then asked us to pray for healing for the woman’s leg.  As the pain gradually diminished, Salvio read Jesus’ teaching in Mark about the power of faith as small as a mustard seed.  The man asked us to pray for him to be filled with this faith.   We left with greater faith and excitement to follow Jesus, and are now inviting others from our staff and faith community to join us as part of Tierra Nueva’s weekly rhythm.

Through these weekly visits we are seeing that the closeness of the Word that Paul talks about can be experienced through our very closeness as carriers of the Word to people right where they live (under their roofs).  Jesus’ strength to comfort and heal people from emotional and physical pains wins them over to a God of grace and love.

Jesus in Jakarta

During a 24 hour stop over in Jakarta in late May I taught on the gifts of the Spirit to Servants of Asia's Urban Poor’s five-member Indonesia Team (photo below). While some of them were new to Servants, two of the women, Lina and Anna have been living in a slum community that had been ravaged by fires and forced evictions.

Team members were feeling vulnerable and longing for a fresh impartation of the Holy Spirit. I felt so very privileged to be able to minister to each team member in my role as Elder of Servants, and to visit the slum community where Lina and a new intern, Al, are living.

For several hours I went out with Lina to visit the people (see photos & video link). Lina and Anna had clearly won the trust of the residents through humbly living among the people, playing with the children and advocating for the whole community as they face eviction. After listening to a woman share about how difficult it is for her to leave her home of over 15 years, we asked her if she was suffering from back pain based a prophetic impression. She welcomed our prayers and experienced immediate healing.

We then moved on to talk to people in the adjoining house. Apparently the first woman we prayed for had told others, because one after another women were coming to us asking for prayer: for abscessed teeth, pain all through the body, back and shoulder pain. Each person was healed on the spot as we prayed. People were filled with visible joy and excitement. One woman pulled her husband over and insisted that we pray for his heart as he’d had pains and murmurs. As we prayed we proclaimed Jesus’ victory over the powers, and people received what we were saying.

A young lawyer who represented the slum dwellers was standing there watching as people were being healed. He approached me and asked if I prayed for land. He asked if we could pray for a legal breakthrough for the poor families he represented who had not yet received remuneration for their homes. A whole circle of people were gathered around as we explained to the lawyer how we would pray if he wanted us to pray.

“We understand the God is our father, and your father and the earth and everything in it belongs to him,” I explained with Lina translating. “The enemy of God, Satan, is ruling the world. But we believe that God sent his son Jesus to destroy the power of the enemy, which he did when he died on the cross. God has raised Jesus from the dead, and he is at the right hand of the Father. He intercedes for us, and sends the Holy Spirit to be our advocate and defender. "Is it okay with you if we pray for Jesus to intercede for you and to send the Holy Spirit to help you with these problems?" The lawyer and all the people expressed their agreement and we prayed. I was amazed to see people’s total openness to prayer in Jesus’ name.

On our way back as we passed by a woman in the doorway of her house the thought “pain in her left hip” dropped into my awareness. Ignoring this I continued on with Lina. After telling her about this impression she said that we should definitely go back and ask the woman. We did and sure enough she was in pain, and she wanted prayer for her hip and her knees. She was healed immediately, and totally touched that God had revealed her hip problem. Another neighbor who was a washed clothes by hand for a living asked us to pray for her elbow- and she was healed on the spot. Lina had not yet seen physical healing-- and she was watching her neighbors receive immediate healing as she laid hands on them. We were both so excited by what we’d witnessed that we decided to go back and talk with the first women who had been healed, and ended up praying for more healing. Watch this video clip to learn more http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUwupwOfNk0 .

A few hours later I was on a flight to Sydney, praising God for the beautiful signs of Jesus’ Kingdom that we were able to witness, and the coming together of aspects of ministry that too often are separated (incarnational presence, service, advocacy, healing prayer, proclamation). Please intercede for the Servants team’s following requests:

For the slum: Eviction is moving forward (several more people have moved out) and there have been some tense moments between those who tear down the houses and those who are moving). Pray for peace. Pray for justice and a fair price for those who are still in negotiations for the compensation money. Pray that these women (and others) will see Gods provision and protection. That we will have opportunities to lift up Jesus in this place.

For the team: Over the last few weeks 4 of 5 of our team members have experienced significant illnesses which have sidelined us for sometimes a week or more. Considering the timing (it started right after your visit) and that the illnesses are not common things we have experienced before we feel that these are coming from the enemy to distract and discourage us. Pray for both our bodies and our spirits to be protected.

Following Fire in Bangkok

The Kingdom of God is advancing in the darkest places through people who love Jesus and serve the least. A few weeks ago I was in Bangkok leading a training called “Following Fire: Signs and Wonders where they’re needed the most.” This training was organized by Urban Neighbors of Hope (UNOH), and drew together street-level ministry workers from across the body of Christ for two days of training on transformational bible study, moving in the power of the Spirit for healing and deliverance, hearing the voice of God, and other related topics.

People who work with the most broken know all too well that they need continual anointing by the Holy Spirit, more wisdom for strategy and problem-solving and constant refilling with God’s strength, love and joy. The spiritual hunger and longing for learning was evident during these two days of training—and experiences on the street showed that there can’t be big gaps between theory and practice.

For me it was a big dream come true to be able to teach and minister to UNOH workers living in the slums of Bangkok and along the border with Myanmar (see www.unoh.org), people working with prostitutes through Nighlight and Youth with a Mission (YWAM), Iris Ministries and others. I stayed in Bangkok’s biggest slum in one of the UNOH houses (photo below), walked the streets with Jennie-Joy of Nightlight (see http://www.seedswillgrow.com), and with Iven and Kashmira Hauptman of YWAM (ivenandkashmira.com). As a lone white male in my 50’s I felt the alienation of being viewed as the prototype client. Yet as I walked with friends who knew the people in the slums and streets I benefited from the trust they’d established through living among the people. Praying for people came natural, despite their animism, Buddhism or Hinduism. The Hauptman’s two little kids broke through barriers, drawing the homeless and the many selling their bodies into normal conversation and even delight (see photos below).

All these workers need serious intercession from the larger body of Christ. Right in the midst of my last session all the UNOH workers suddenly had to rush off after getting a call that a fire in the slum was consuming their next-door-neighbors shack. Fortunately it was stopped, but 1/3 of the course participants missed out on the final listening prayer exercises and ministry time. Please intercede for Ash and Angie Barker and their UNOH team, for Iven and Kashmira, Jennie-Joy and others working to advance God’s Kingdom in Bangkok.

I left for Jakarta and on to Australia and New Zealand filled with admiration as well as joy and thankfulness. The Kingdom of God is being announced to people in great darkness. The harvest is plentiful and the number of workers are few but growing. “Beg the Lord of the harvest to cast out more workers” is Jesus’ imperative most on my heart.