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

Amazing Alabama

In December the Lord has brought us together with an independent missionary in Honduras named Chris Rose. He sold his Florida lumber business in 2004 and moved his wife and six of his seven children there because God told him to go. His heart is to spread the Gospel and help the people help themselves by teaching the local people marketable skills. He's also helping the people find new markets and fair prices for their commodities such as high quality coffee. At the same time the Lord has miraculously led us to a man in Austin who the Lord has called to start a chain of coffee stores (similar to Starbuck's) beginning in Austin, Texas this Fall. He is a strong follower of Christ who has a heart for the poor around the world and desires to pay a fair price for the coffee he buys. We are the connector between the two and all will be used to fund the work of the ministry leading the world to Christ.

An Amazing God Story

Chris Rose told me of a friend of his in Alabama named Ellis Wade whom he wanted me to meet. Ellis owns a furniture manufacturing business in Alabama and sells to national furniture chains. I scheduled a driving trip for January from Texas to Alabama, Georgia and Virginia. I was accompanied by a man named Paige Rowland who has worked full time with The LORD Will Provide Ministries since December trusting the Lord for his provision.

Paige and I drove to northern Alabama in one day and by the next we were on our way to meet with Ellis Wade. On the way, two things happened. First, Chris Rose called from Honduras wanting me to meet with another man named Larry Blankenship after seeing Ellis. Chris said, "Larry Blankenship has an industrial electric business up the road from Ellis' business and I need you to check on an electric transformer for me." I agreed and wrote down Larry Blankenship's name and the specs for the transformer. Second, as we neared Ellis' place, we passed a very large church named, Meek Baptist Church. "Paige, look at that!" I exclaimed jokingly as I pointed at the sign, "Meek Baptist Church is huge. There is nothing meek about that church." We laughed.

Our meeting with Ellis was filled with prayer and prophetic words and was so awesome and lasted so long that Paige and I forgot about seeing Larry Blankenship afterwards. We were some fifteen minutes away traveling back to the house where we were staying when I realized my mistake. I called Ellis and asked him to call Larry Blankenship to check on the transformer for Chris. "I'll take care of it," He said reassuringly. Just as I hung up, my phone rang and it was Chris Rose from Honduras. "How was your meeting with Ellis?" "It was awesome. God really showed up," I said. "Did you have a chance to see Larry Blankenship?" "No," I replied. "But I gave the information to Ellis and he said he'd take care of it." Chris sounded a little disappointed and I felt bad. I hung up the phone and just as quickly, the Lord told me that we needed to go to a prayer meeting that very night. It was 3:30 Friday afternoon and I immediately began looking at every church we passed reading every marquee sign I saw and at the same time looking for a supernatural sign from the Lord that would lead us to the meeting. Nothing. We arrived back at the house some thirty minutes away and I still didn't know where the prayer meeting was. I went to the yellow pages and started calling churches. It was late Friday afternoon and most didn't even have someone there to answer the phone. The two that did were not holding a prayer meeting that night and didn't know of a church that was. It was Friday after all. "Lord, where is it?" I asked. I flipped in the yellow pages over to the "B's" and God highlighted Meek Baptist Church. "No way," I said out loud in surprise. I called them. "Yes," said the stranger's voice on the other end. "We have a prayer meeting tonight at 7." "Thank you, I know where you are," I said as I hung up the phone.

Paige and I arrived just after 7 and to our surprise there were only five people there. We introduced ourselves and the group's leader immediately asked, "How did you hear about our prayer meeting?" I replied, "The Lord told us today there was a prayer meeting in the area and so I made many phone calls until I found you." "I'm so glad the Lord told you about us because it really affirms our starting this group. We just started this group two nights ago and haven't even had a chance to publicize our meetings yet." The leader came over and stuck out his hand ntroducing himself, "I'm Larry Blankenship." Paige and I were taken aback. I pulled out the piece of paper on which I had written his name along with the transformer specs and pointed to it. "I was supposed to meet you this afternoon at your office." "I wasn't in my office this afternoon." Larry replied. "I had to go to the airport. The only time we could have met was tonight."

Is God cool or what!!!