Nicaragua 2009

I just returned this month from an impactful trip to Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua. God continues to open new doors for us to join those He has called in northern Guatemala and in El Salvador. He has led us to a woman who is from El Salvador and called to the mountains near Coban, Guatemala and a couple who are living south of San Salvador.

The Lord also led us to a group of 1,200 people who live next to an old garbage dump. They were displaced due to flooding from Managua, Nicaragua to a very desolate place north of Managua near Tipitapa. We will help with the construction of a simply built feeding center. Our Guatemalan team will return next month to continue our outreach. We would also like to place a fulltime missionary there from our Guatemalan team. Please pray for wisdom as we approach this new challenge and opportunity for us to be Jesus' hands, feet and heart to these who are so poor.

It All Stated With A Simple Question

Five years ago on April 9, 2004 I leapt from a cliff... a place of security and manmade comfort because I had fallen in love. With faith in my heart, I spread out my wings, jumped as I was asked and found that I could fly. My eyes were focused on Jesus and I could not see the ground below, even though I knew full well it was there. I held on to God and my wife held on to me. We jumped and there was no turning back. My flesh felt the humiliation and death that awaited me. My wife's tears showed what I should have feared, but my love for my Lord and His call were all that I saw.

The ground should have rushed up at us, but we found we were being held up by the mighty hand of our God. Over these five years, we have made mistakes and even taken wrong turns. But our ears heard a voice behind us saying, "This is the way, walk in it." We have experienced the mountaintops seeing God's hand of provision and we have gone deep into caves of despair. We have heard the sound of heaven rejoicing and known the breath of hell on our heels. We have experienced the encouragement of God's whispers and known the strength of His correcting hand. We have seen God remove mountains before us and experienced the thrill of seeing His redemption, healing and love that changes lives. We have been privileged to come alongside those who are faithful to their Creator living out their own calling in the most remote of places.

And to think it all started with a simple question. "Steve, do you love me?" Three times He asked me in early 2004 and I responded with all of my heart, "Yes, Lord You know I love You." In tears I laid my life down before Him, "Lord, I will go anywhere You want me to go. I will do anything You ask me to do and I will say anything You ask me to say." Soon afterward, the adventure began. I have not yet entered my Land of Promise, but I know it is soon to come. I have seen evidence of what I cannot see and praise the One who made the promise for He is faithful to keep His promises. I have come to know Him so intimately as the lover of my soul. He is so big, yet so small. He is so far, yet so close. He is so natural, yet supernatural. The skies and earth declare His glory to all mankind. In an instant He can supercede the natural laws He put in place and allow His creation to see Him move supernaturally. He is not limited. He is real. His power is real and the most amazing thing is this... that this most holy God loved us while we were yet sinners. He sent His Son to die for you and for me. He is love and He is our Savior if we will only believe and receive His free gift of eternal life with Him. Our lives are in His hands and our deaths are in His hands. May our future... your future be in His resurrection.

Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow.

Peace In Christ,

Steve

An Unanticipated Miracle Trip To El Salvador

I just returned from a trip to Guatemala January 6-21 where we saw God move day after day. However, I want to share about an unanticipated short miracle trip to El Salvador. One of our Guatemalan leaders, Annie, received a dream from God one night in which a woman named Sorina from El Salvador thanked Annie for coming to see her. Sorina is a friend of the ministry whom we had not seen for two years and who had since become pastor of her very conservative denominational church. They believed that God did not move anymore as He did when the Bible was written. We checked on Sorina by e-mail. In her response, Sorina informed us that her ministry was fine, but her health was not. She could not eat and was having serious colon and digestive problems.

Two days later, we made the 6-hour trip to Sorina's church in El Salvador and met with Sorina and 25 of her church members and leaders.The group was sitting in a large circle of chairs when we arrived. As ll sat and prayed, pastor Jorge, our Guatemalan team leader shared how a small, poor church from Villa Nueva, Guatemala had been doing missions totally led by God. It turned out that this El Salvador church made up of professional people had just made a commitment to missions beginning January, 2009 (Divinve appointment I'd say). During this time I looked around the circle asking God what He was doing... where He was working.

As I scanned the people, He kept showing me one particular woman over and over who sat directly acorss the circle from me. At the end of our meeting, we had one on one prayer. I approached the woman (who I later learned was named Blanca) whom God had been highlighting to me. I placed the tips of two of my fingers very lightly upon the woman's forehead and began to pray. Her hands were partially raised about head high and her eyes were closed. After a few moments she began to fall backward, she caught herself as her eyes opened with a start. She had obvious fear in her eyes. She looked at me as I continued to pray and then closed her eyes again. After a few more moments, the Holy Spirit moved upon her again and she fell backward into the arms of one of our team members. Blanca laid on the floor for many minutes sobbing as the Holy Spirit ministered to her. The team prayed for every church member and we also laid hands upon Sorina asking God for her healing.

At the end of the meeting, I sought out Blanca and asked her if she was alright, knowing that she had never experienced the Holy Spirit like this before. She looked up at me nodding her head approvingly, saying in Spanish, "I was really blessed by this new experience." She continued, "Two or three weeks ago a man gave me a word that the Holy Spirit was coming to our church. I have been praying ever since that the Holy Spirit would come through me." God answered her prayer. Praise God!

In addition as we gathered the next day around mid-morning, pastor Sorina, who previously did not believe that God spoke through dreams anymore or still did things like He did in the Bible, praised God for sending us to their church through a dream. Sorina also announced that she had been able to eat a big supper after our prayer meeting the night before and even had a large breakfast that morning without any problems. She praised God for her healing.

I believe this church will be a much needed base for our continued work to the poor in the rural mountains of El Salvador. Please pray that God will continue to move through these people and teach them about His Holy Spirit. How sweet and gentle is our God!

As an overall update, we started 3 1/2 years ago with 20 people in a very dangerous and poor area of Guatemala called Villa Nueva. Today we are ministering to over 550 people in Villa Nueva and the mountains of Guatemala and El Salvador. Plus this group in Villa Nueva is going weekly into the Villa Nueva schools to share Gospel stories with 2,000 school children each week. I am so blessed to be a witness of how they are operating in power and going deeper with God.

God's Mercy in Honduras - July 2008

A group of 15 people from Virginia and Georgia made their way to Honduras to come alongside a missionary family whom the Lord led us to in December. The Rose family's mission is to help the local people help themselves through job training and business development while evangelizing, discipling and displaying Christ. The trip saw many dozens of people receive Jesus as their personal Savior while many dozens of others recommited their lives to Christ. Many were healed, but there was one day that stood out to me... a day that only God could orhestrate.

One Saturday afternoon, several of our group made the one mile or so trek from the Rose's home to the small town of nearby Pena Blanca. While there the first time in December, the Lord led me around along with Sylvester Mathews and pastor Jeff Light. the Lord would say to me, "Turn left," and we'd turn left. "Turn right." We'd turn right. "Go in there... there's a pastor I want you to meet." We'd meet him. And so this was the way I expected God to lead this time. However, the Lord remained quiet and closed all the doors that had been previously open in December. I finally asked the Lord what He wanted me to do. He replied, "Relax and enjoy the day. I will send them to you." So I did.

The afternoon quickly turned into evening and we found ourselves back at the Rose's home. We had been working with a local group of missionaries who were putting on a evengelistic crusade. Saturday marked the second night of the three night event. We had left a group of mostly womwne back at the Rose's home to interced in prayer for the event. A crowd slowly filled the community building as I found a seat in the back. I began to pray when suddenly the Lord spoke to my heart, "Go outside and walk the perimeter of the property in prayer." I circled the property a few times and went back inside to pray for the speakers in a small back room. After we finished, the Lord spoke to my heart again. "Go back to the house." I was confused. "Why?" I asked. I struggled with this since I felt I was needed at the event. But again I obeyed and went back to the Rose's house.

I walked into the home where i found 7 or 8 people praying. I joined in and soon one of the women had a vision. "I see demons over this region linking arms and preventing our prayers from reaching heaven. Jesus says, 'We need to get loud.'" We began to raise the roof with praise and worship. We stormed heaven at the top of our lungs while drumming on table tops and banging pots with wooden spoons. The worship was awesome and the battle became intense. unbeknownst to us a group of drunken men had gathered outside the house and were throwing rocks at the house and on the tin roof accompanied by loud shouts of displeasure. Our noisy congregation never heard their attempt at disruption. We were making a joyful noise to the Lord that got the enemy's attention. After one hour and a half, we found ourselves in perfectly peaceful air. The Lord and His army had cleared the way for what was to happen next.

As the members of our group returned from the crusade a very drunk man entered our room. He wanted us to pray for him. Behind him in the street were two more men. The Lord said to me, "It's time to worship." I gathered the Rose family's two oldest daughtyers and their friend and asked them to begin to sing and lead us in Spanish worship songs. They quickly got organized and soon we had a spontaneous worship service going. The men who had earlier been throwing rocks and shouting curse words at us were now slowly trickling into the room one or two at a time. They came in smiling and ready to sing. We set before them chair after chair until we had 15 men singing and praising the Lord. They raised their hands in worship and between songs lifted their voices shouting "Halleluiah!" I have never seen anything like this before. It was God who had drawn them to us. And His words echoed in my mind, "I will send them to you." By the time the night was over all 15 men either recommited their lives to Christ or accepted Him for the first time and many who came in drunk left the meeting sober. What a glorious night I will never forget.

In Christ,

Steve

India Report from Sue - The Ring

It had been prophesied that our ministry would be working with the Jewish people around the world. I didn't think that meant me, since I was presently assigned to India. "Surely there are no Jews in India," I said. So I hit the Internet and found that I was quite mistaken. Granted, there are fewer today than 50 years ago, but there are still small pockets and large concentrations in places such as Bombay (Mumbai). There are even Jews in Manipur, which was my destination, so I was excited about what God had in store.

One Sunday after our church's Bible study in Texas, a man in our class approached me and started taking off his gold ring. He told me that God had spoken to him. "Give this ring to Sue, she will meet a down and out man in India and she is to give it to him," he was told. As he laid the ring in my hand, I saw the Hebrew lettering and said, "It is for the Jewish man." He asked me what man and I told him about the prophesy. I wore the ring a lot as time for my trip grew near because it was a reminder to me that God was in control and had interesting things planned for me in India.

I had been in Manipur about two weeks when we had to go to Calcutta to meet with the US consulate regarding our friend in India Alex's visa to the US. He was denied this time, but we know now what is needed and feel confident he can get one next year when he is allowed to re-apply. We stayed in a quaint little hotel on Sudder Street that had quite a history. It had been owned once by a Jewish family because, according to the brief history in the lobby, we were in the old Armenian and Jewish sector of the city. After that I saw the old buildings with different eyes, imagining the families living in the big apartment buildings.

On the last afternoon of our stay in Calcutta we went to a travel agent to get tickets to fly back to Manipur the next day. On a door in the lobby was a brass name-plate: David Cohen. After our second visit to the travel agent, I looked again at the name and knocked. No answer, but we knocked on another door which turned out to be the kitchen of Mr. Cohen's apartment. We were let in and got a chance to meet Mr. Cohen. He was happy to have visitors and very talkative. He was using a walker and explained that he had broken his hip four years before and had to sell his business to pay his debts and is now a beggar. This got my attention, so when he mentioned again his financial condition, I removed the ring and
handed it to him.

Mr. Cohen was suprised and said he couldn't take it. I explained the whole story and he was incredulous. He asked me again who told me to give him the ring and I said, "God, Jehovah!" When I said Jehovah he sank back into his chair in resignation. We talked more and he said as I left, "You are a Godsend." I replied, "Exactly."

Later I went back to give him the shawl that Melba Knott had given me to give to him. He was asleep and I didn't get to see him, but I will return someday and check on him. He is 94 and told me that there are only 25 Jews left in all of Calcutta. Out of 15 million people, God had led me to the one man he wanted to show His love to.

Miracle Birds In Alaska - June 2008

As a child I grew up admiring the life of St. Francis of Assisi. I was especially drawn to him and his way with animals. They apparantly had no fear of him. I have always been intrigued by this and desired the same for my own life. Throughout my years, as I would spy a deer, squirrel or bird, I would yearn for the gift of St. Francis, but to no avail. That is until my last trip to Alaska.

I traveled to Alaska May 19-June 2 to speak and minsiter. I had spoken at a church one Sunday morning decided to go outside and spend some time with the Lord that afternoon. I would be speaking again that evening. I took my Bible along with me outside into the cool Alaska air. As I made my way to a comfortable spot on the stairs of a friend's house that led to their second story wooden deck, I opened my Bible to read Acts chapter 2.

I was about ten minutes into my study when all of a sudden there was a flutter. And instantly there was a bird perched next to my feet and a second bird perched on the handrailing near my head. I dared not look at the bird near my head for fear I might scare it away. I was astonished. I studied the black and white headed chickadee at my feet for a few moments. Then, another flutter. The sound of wings and a suddenly there appeared a third bird. It was soft and gray with black, charcoal eyes. It landed on edge of the open Bible in my hands. As quickly as it landed, it cocked its head and stared directly at me as I stared back in disbelief. There we were looking at each other, natural enemies, for many seconds. Then a terrible, yet comical thought filled my head.

"This bird is going to peck my eyes out." (Strange thought I know)

As soon as the ugly thought entered my mind, there was another flutter and just as quickly as they appeared, the birds were gone. I quickly ran inside to ask my hosts if the birds in Alaska were different somehow of birds in other places.

"Are your birds not afraid of human beings?" I sasked. I shared what had just happened. TMy hosts smiled and informed me that they were no different in Alaska than anywhere else.

Blessings,

Steve

Report from Sue in India - June 2008

Report from India...

The town is called Ananthavaram, but is probably not on any map you can find. If you had been with me and met the grandmother who lives in a small room behind a cow stall and had her pray for you, as she did for me, you would not be in a pit. You would be praising God for your home, your family, your clean kitchen and your beautiful clothes. We hosted a dinner for the widows of the village and gave them each a cotton sari. Cotton is grown in this area and also woven locally and often dyed with natural dyes, so they are cheap, less than $2. Grandmother's sari was woven with two different colors of thread giving it an iridescent look. It had a beautiful green border. We went to visit her the next morning and she had SLEPT in it! She is quite bow-legged and arthritic, but ambled slowly to her grinding stone outside to prepare some chutney for us. Roasted peanuts, oil, salt and a few small peppers were slowly ground to a paste requiring about 30 minutes with the ancient stone. Her daughter in law made hot dosas (similar to a thin crepe) and we used the dosas to sop up the chutney. Heavenly!

Grandmother was born Hindu in a village only a few miles away, an extremely poor village. There were many children in the family, so when she was old enough she was married off to a man from Ananthavaram. Their custom is to move to the husband's village and she has been here since. She was only blessed with one child, a son, but he grew strong, became a village and church leader and had four sons and one daughter. The third son, Suresh, is the man I met on the train last year.

Every morning grandmother arises and starts singing and praising God. She sometimes sings for hours, they say. I have promised to return in October and take her to her village to visit her extended family who still live there.

Please continue to pray, as I will pray for you. I am sitting in the Calcutta airport at a small cybercafe waiting to board my flight to Imphal. Only one week and I have already had an amazing time with God.

We are planning a medical clinic for Ananthavaram in October, hope to continue the feeding of the widows and are praying for funds to complete the church. So much already planned for only the first stop in my journey.

My prayer: may God bless you, wrap His arms around you and lift you to new heights in Him. May He send His Holy Sprit to reside in you and guide you and encourage you. May he send Christian friends to your side and, each day, show you His ways.

Sue