Tuesday, 12 April—Home again!

Attention spirit world: Attacks that come at this point are too late—the trip is already over!

Many missed and impossible connections in our flights, praying our way through, an airline booking agent almost in tears, finally crawling into my own bed at 2 am ... teaching tomorrow at 8 .. who knows what the morning will bring, but I'll definitely have a lot to talk about, that's for sure!!

Monday, 11 April—More orphan love ... Football dreams realized ... and Harold lends a hand

We split up again for the last day ... half went to the conclusion of the conference, and the other half (the group I was in) went to an HIM orphanage the had been started the year before. Although nothing could compare with the first orphanage we visited, this was still a very special meeting. Shortly after we arrived, the children marched out to sing and recite some of their lessons to us. After that we taught them some songs, Zana spoke for a bit, and then we prayed prophetically over each child. At first the children in my line all refused prayer (!!), but later they warmed up when one boy got his stomach healed ... a lot of good and powerful words regarding the children's giftings and personalities and what God saw in them.

We brought along a lot of sports stuff for the children, and despite the order we had seen in this group so far, we let them run wild for a bit with the equipment.

During one of our trips somewhere, I forget where exactly, I had seen a group of kids playing soccer (football), and saw myself connecting with some of the children here by joining them .. but I had forgotten about this until now, the last day, when we got to do it, Tyson and I were on opposing teams, several heads taller than the rest of the crowd .. but then the driver came over to our side and began to help with offense, so I had an easy job on defense, standing around in the shade and getting to know some of the boys on our team a bit more. But then it was goodbye.

And goodbye again, to all the HIM pastors and leaders, at a Chinese restaurant at a resort in town, and we were off to the airport.

A brief moment of drama as we're about to check in and Keum cannot find his passport! We rifled through his things and had pretty much given up, but I kept feeling around and noticed a plastic ziploc bag with clothes in it that had not been searched, and in a folded pair of pants in there I found it! ("And there was much rejoicing ..!"), but we joked that Keum (or, "Kumar") now owed me (or "Harold"), big time, and we should now be inseparable, and Kumar should never refuse any request of Harold for the rest of the trip ... looking back, though, I think I just got a Bounty bar out of it ... with coconut .. and I hate coconut .. anyway, oddly enough, some Dutch girls Carol and I had met at the Sun N Sand resort in Kenya appeared in Amsterdam, and we shared a few more laughs at the expense of English tourists, who had apparently discovered that success in synchronized swimming shares a direct correlation with the sobriety of the swimmer .. what an idea!

Well, on that note ..

THE END!!! ^-^

Sunday, 10 April—A key, some fruit, and a message from God ... God, the eye surgeon

Amy and I were in a group that went to the church Muwustufa, I got some cool words for the church—first one was connected with the name of our group (that is, Amy and I, haha!) which meant "fruit" .. on the way there I felt prompted to ask what the name of the area meant, and it turned out to be a wild fruit that is hard to pick but good to eat, or something like that, anyway it fed right into the word I had to share, another picture I got for this church was of a key turning, God was about to unlock something, reveal something new here .. seemed to be a bit more traditional church with a choir that everyone sat down for and LOTS of announcements.

Very hard to get a response from the congregation as we got in other places, but I preached on following Jesus and the prophetic, all in 30 min (!), because we thought we had a schedule to keep ... as the last bus we were everyone else's means of getting home.

No time for personal ministry but I preached on it, and I did a corporate healing prayer. It is hard to tell what happened next, though, because the response of the people seemed so minimal at the time .. I asked who had pain and who received healing, though, and the same hands stayed raised the whole time, so I was confused, but I guess that logically means everyone was sovereignly healed! I personally believe healing did break out in that church, but the congregation just didn't know how to celebrate it .. at the time, however, I was just confused.

Then back at the conference, Pastor Steve spoke, and called out a word of near-sightedness. I found myself alone praying for a whole throng of people with near-sightedness, and all of them got healed right away! The line grew longer as more were healed and told their friends! I was still there but had to stop when the rest of the group was getting into the van. Pumped, we tried it on ourselves in the van on the way home, but without any results .. that we could see (bad pun, sorry ..)!!

Saturday, 9 April—Won't you ride my camel? ... God on the beach ... and The men's group

There is a camel on the beach, and a man who wants me to pay 500 shillings to ride it. But I'd rather just watch him stand there and try to control the hulking thing. He is now trying to turn it around but it thinks he wants it to sit down. I was supposed to be doing ministry right now at an HIM conference being held nearby, but they weren't ready to start yet, and so we're here waiting, not sure what will happen next, but beaching it while we can.

Just got to bless five guys who were giving me a tour of the coral life .. Thom and I were exploring the beach and met up with these guys. They all wanted financial blessings and blessings for their families. I just prayed the Father's heart over them and God totally rocked them—they asked us to come tomorrow and pray for their families in the village.

Then we went to the conference .. some preaching .. then the first thing we were supposed to do was pray for the children, but we ended up praying for the adults too somehow. This prayer session was one of the most profound ones for me, because I was praying for a woman and the pain started moving around and increasing in intensity. I told her that was ok and we kept praying, binding the spirit of infirmity and telling the pain to go. It went, and then I saw the beauty of this moment as I empowered her to heal others and explained to her about spirits of infirmity and what had just happened, ending with something like "we are complicated people, but God loves us anyway, and wants to make us whole!"

Later we split up into groups .. I felt I was supposed to go with the men's group .. Justin, Ivan, Joel, and I. Justin anxious before it was time to begin, not sure what we had to say or what would happen next, some awkwardness, but then Pastor Mark comes and shares about unity and love in the church .. then after that one of us was supposed to speak .. but the atmosphere seemed so stagnant, as far as words were concerned, so I stood up and gave a word for one guy—I saw him as Zacchaeus, and God saw his searching and was going to visit him!! Then I spoke on the categories of healing and prayed through each level. Then by that time the flow had started, and Justin stood up and gave a profound and personal word related to fathering and love, and as he told his story I noticed the men really getting into it!

Then we headed home, relaxing on the beach a bit in the evening.

Friday, 8 April—The teachers strike back ... and No, not the tea

Second day of teaching, this time in Tezo (I thought it was Tazo, oh well ..) There was a strong flow through everything we spoke, beginning with the family of God (me), combating the orphan spirit (Pastor Anne), intimacy, God and the five love languages (Zana), and death to self (Karen).

Thursday, 7 April—Teacher anointing ... and The pinky tag team

Today I was with a group sent to teach at a church gathering in Mtwapa. The team was picked for its teaching anointing (the pinky of the five-fold ministry hand, because it explores the deep things of the faith .. and can get into your ear!!) .. Initially, we had no idea what we were going to say, but God downloaded everything we needed right when it came time to speak. Elena and I spoke on royalty, Karen spoke on the Lord's Supper and asking God for more, and Jane spoke on God's abundance, her vision was of angels going to get God's good gifts from the top shelf (extravagance) instead of the bottom shelf (all many ask for).

Wednesday, 6 April—Rest day ... Sun N Sand Resort, Mumbasa

Tuesday, 5 April—Safari Day ... and Miracles on inanimate objects!

Safari day! But God definitely was still at work! Two miracles occurred today. Thom's missing bag mysteriously appeared out of a baggage claim enroute to Nairobi, and I asked to God to heal my camera and he did! The electronic display works now, and I can take videos, for the first time in years. (Oh, you can see the change in the pictures as well .. all the ones prior had digital smears on the side, but the pictures are all clear now!!)

Today we arrived at the Sun N Beach resort in Mumbasa.

The testimony of Thom's bag, from Pastor Mark's blog:

This story is unbelievable. On Friday, April 1st, we packed up and left Uganda and drove to Kenya. An hour into the trip we learned one suitcase had fallen off the truck. We verified it as we took inventory at the Kenyan border. We took off all the luggage and packed in new vehicles. In the next city we unpacked all the bags. Meanwhile we took the young man who lost his suitcase to a store to buy some items. Then today, four days later, we packed up again and got on a flight from Kisumu to Nairobi.

That morning Thom was declaring, "I want my bag back in Jesus name!". When we arrived in Nairobi, I said get your bags and joked, "Thom, maybe your bag came supernaturally as well." Thom went looking and two men said, "Is this anyone's bag?" It was Thom's.

Before you think I am crazy, let me say this. We know that 300 miles, several vehicles and one plane later, there is no other explanation on how Thom's bag could suddenly be there. It was a miracle! We have tried to figure out any possible way this could have happened.

To explain, it would be like losing a bag in the San Bernadino mountains and then driving to Los Angeles. Then after four days of ministry, getting in and out of different vehicles that were not even in the mountains. Then flying from LAX to San Diego and your bag comes out!

Needless to say we are seeing the impossible happen. We rest tomorrow and then will start 6 different conferences all over the coast of Kenya.

Blessings,

Mark

Monday, 4 April—Family reunion ... and Death goes down again for the fifth round!

Today was our reunion day. It was great to hear all of the amazing stories from the other groups ... Keum came up to me smiling, saying "even the demons submit to us ..!" haha .. Pastor Mark shared amazing stories of transformation of the whole region beginning in the leaders meeting where he spoke, and others groups shared stories of a hearing from God class with some powerful testimonies, all which (to catch one strand of it), amounted to a three-pronged attack on suicide in this whole region! Now if we take the word coincidence etymologically to mean the coming together of two things, than this, being a coming together of three, was definitely NOT a coincidence ... because yesterday, when Pastor Mark stood up in the pastors meeting in Kisumu and proclaimed an end to suicide in this region, he had no idea that we were at that very moment routing suicide in the dirt roads on the outskirts of Homa Bay, nor did he know what happened with Sue and Jill in the hearing from God class in Migori:

A Muslim woman attended the service in which Sue led the hearing from God class. Unknown to anyone, she had decided to commit suicide that evening and poison her three children. Her visit to the church was meant to be a goodbye, so she could see everyone one last time. When she arrived Jill and Sue shared on God's love and prophesied over many. The woman did not tell anyone but totally changed her mind and felt touched profoundly by God by a word from Sue. Later that day she shared what God had done with her, and was led to accept Christ! The team was so touched ... God had worked through their faithful teaching and serving to save four lives!!!

Sunday, 3 April—A child will lead them ... 'Pastor' of a different color ... Outpouring in a downpour ... Suicide gets a drive-by ... Cops and Robbers

Today was quite an exciting day with a narrative arc all its own. The climax, I suppose, was the service at the orphanage after which we said goodbye to Pastor Simon's group, but before that we were asked to speak at one of several churches.

RISING ACTION
We paired off in teams of two—I was paired with Mary Anne and we spoke at a churched called Africa for Christ. It was really kind of strange because we left a bit late and by the time we were dropped off at the church the service was well underway, the worship drawing to a close as the congregation looked forward expectantly to what would follow. The pastor and I smiled at each other, not knowing quite what to think of the other, both of us unsure what would happen next—we had never met. But then he said, "let us welcome our visitors and a servant of God will speak to us for about 45[or did he say 4 to 5??] minutes"! I did have a message to share, in fact, on the way there God spoke to me so deeply and profoundly that I started weeping and had to throw a sweatshirt over my head to hide it. So I was prepared to speak, but I wasn't sure what Mary Anne had to say, or how well it would fit. She said she wanted to speak on wisdom and it would take about 7 minutes. So I shared .. speaking out of Matthew 14 on discipleship and John 14 sharing how we have something greater than Peter did out on the water—the Holy Spirit living in us! I also shared what had just happened the day before with the children at the orphanage praying for their healing and said I would like to have everyone come up and we would like to pray for you. I gave a word of knowledge from sympathy pain of pain in someone's lower right leg, but didn't call anyone to come forward, just told them to come up during the ministry time.
 
First, though, Mary Anne spoke. She was a bit nervous but ended up reading a Psalm which brought strength to her, and, it seemed, many of the congregation as well.
Ministry time followed, with people needing healing on one side of the altar, and those for prophetic prayer on the other. Everyone was healed, several toothaches, leg pain, and I found my word of knowledge—he turned out to be the senior elder! Mary Anne was on the prophetic side, I guess (it was kind of hard to tell how people had organized themselves), and she said there was a lot of brokenness, hurt from relationships, and some demonic stuff that she had to break off, especially among the women. Such a beautiful service … we were able to minister to everyone individually … some were shaking, some in tears—all were touched. After the conclusion of this ministry time, the deputy pastor stood up and proclaimed to the congregation that he knew we were sent from God because what I had shared was exactly in line with what he had shared earlier that morning! If a man can come here all the way from Pennsylvania, he said, and share something right in line with what we’ve been speaking here in Kenya, can you not see that we all have the same Spirit of God to guide us?"
 
Later, as we waited for our ride to arrive, we had a chance to sit down and get to know the pastor (who turned out to be the deputy pastor, the senior pastor was apparently away on a mission trip of some kind), share a bit of our lives, and pray together. He asked me about the challenges facing he western church, and was quite interested to hear about the level of skepticism and unbelief in some circles, a denial of anything beyond the physical realm. As a man who finds himself regularly involved in spiritual warfare, combating spiritual attacks from the witches just down the road, this kind of unbelief was impossible for him to understand. I found this to be true for others I talked to as well, to the point where I tried to avoid the subject—the Western perspective was just too hard to explain, especially since I couldn’t claim to make full sense of it myself.
 
Another thing that astonished the Kenyans I talked to was that we weren’t allowed to teach religion in public schools. The way it works there is that the public school simply picks the predominant religious view of the area around them, and teaches it as one of the subjects. Quite a far cry from our system! Or is atheism our religion of choice? People will no doubt have some strong views on this, but I have no time to dwell on it now.

What really interested me, though, was what the deputy pastor thought of what we said and did. Did his church pray for each other as we had? Did they pray for the sick and expect miracles from God? His response stunned me: “We do pray for the sick,” he said, “but never like this. The pastor prays over the group as a whole, but never one on one. It is really quite a remarkable way of doing things.”
Later, when I thought about this, I realized that that was one of the reasons why people felt such a hesitation to pray for others—they had never done anything like this, they seemed hesitant to even touch another person! When I tried to release them to pray for each other as we had done with the orphans, I found no adult willing to do it! Only one small boy was brave enough to step forward and pray for others, and he did, praying both for healing and prophetic words for members of the congregation, and he saw his prayers answered right before his eyes. So at that point there was only one—one boy in the whole church who was able to step out in love and in his kingdom authority to bless others around him … but in Jesus’ name let this boy raise up more with his heart, and let this church be a place where people share God’s love with each other directly, person to person, and let no one go unloved!
This was on my mind, then, as I was asked about the church I pastored. What was it like? So of course I used the opportunity to explain what "Pastor" mean to our church, as it related to the five-fold ministry, and how a pastor was not someone who chosen because they were able to lead well (as an Apostle), but because they were able to love well! I began to see that this was all new to the churches here, but, praise God, it was sinking in! 

Meanwhile, in another area, Eleana and our leader Anne were ministering to a church with only 18 members! During their service, they had a chance to pray at length with everyone, and their words were so accurate that the people there thought the pastor who brought them must have found out about them and fed lines to the visitors—but when they realized it was God speaking, their skepticism changed to awe of what he had to tell them. There were healing testimonies here as well, and Pastor Anne led the group into visions of heaven. Then afterward, Anne felt prompted to give an altar call for salvation! Pretty crazy in a church of only 18, but 3 came forward to receive Jesus! Funny, huh? But you can't argue with those percentages!
Double meanwhile, back at the orphanage, Tyson, Sonja, and the rest of the group were blessed beyond measure by the love, joy, and passion of the service at the orphanage led by Pastor Simon, his wife ____, and Pastor ____.

CLIMAX
Later, we all met together for an afternoon service at the same orphanage. We were a bit concerned, however, because the service was supposed to start at 2, and by 3:30 no one had shown up yet. So Pastor Simon decided to “jump start” African time by beginning the service even though there were only a few people at that point. He was concerned about beating the weather, because, he said, the clouds would be on their way soon with rain, and though ever since our first day of ministry here in Africa the weather had obeyed us, Pastor Simon sensed that our grace in this area might soon come to an end. If the rains hit, Simon knew that the dirt roads down the hillside would be too difficult to navigate, and if our van started off in it, we would no doubt be stranded as soon as we set off, it would be better to spend the night in the orphanage.
An association of pastors were attending this service from various areas all over the region. We as a team were meant to be leading the service, so as we rode home together the night before, we decided what we were going to do. Pastor Anne asked us all to seek God about what we should focus on that Sunday, and Mary Anne had spoken out about how we all bring our own gifts and there is always enough to share with others. Everyone else seemed to have words related to this, but my word was intercession. I had a vision of all of the children in this orphanage interceding for their entire region with just as much passion as we had seen the day before. These kids would one day shake the world! So what Pastor Anne decided to do, in line with the gifts words and the differing words people gave, was to do something on the theme of living stones, and have each one of us share something that we were gifted in, or passionate about—something we felt we could impart to the rest of the group. Then we would get our word in Swahili and put them all together in a puzzle representing God’s temple. After Jesus as the cornerstone, our words were: Forgiveness, Glory, Healing, Passion, Adoration, Acceptance, Prayer, Dreams, and Grace. (Along the way mine had become “Healing”, because I thought that better reflected my current passion.) Each person then spoke on their word, sharing why it was important to them, and imparting it in some measure to the rest of the group. The most memorable ones for me were: Forgiveness—Andy shared personally from his life about receiving forgiveness from God after he had wandered from him, Glory—Anne shared about God’s glory on the orphanage and prophesied that the place was ripe for God’s glory, that signs and wonders were going to break out that would make this place as famous as Heidi Baker’s group in Mozambique, that people would come to this place from all over the world to experience God’s glory. This really stuck out in my mind because I had a similar picture in which I saw this group as Heidi Baker’s group, except in my picture Anne Tubbs was Heidi Baker! I’m not sure if she is willing to accept it, but that’s what I saw! While Anne was speaking, however, rain began pelting down on the tin roof so loudly that it was almost impossible to catch what she was saying. She would share it all again, though, before we left. The problem at the moment, however, was that it had already begun to rain, and thus we would either have to leave right then, or be stranded there for the night. Pastor Anne finished her word, and asked Pastor Simon if we needed to go. Simon, however, said no, we were fine, so we continued—I spoke on Healing. I was just going to get up and go through the different categories of healing, from the healing of the spirit (forgiveness of sin), to the healing of the mind (past hurts), to the healing of the body, environment, and world. For some reason, though, it came out in a firey, passionate, preacher sort of way, and the group responded … then I found myself shouting out an impartation, ending with “be healed, and heal others in Jesus’ name!” But the speaker that stuck out most to me we Pastor Simon, who stood up to speak about Prayer, and gave the very same vision I saw on the bus, and imparted this gift to the rest of us. The presence of God came powerfully when he spoke, as it did for Pastor Anne and I, but the level increased when Pastor Simon spoke, and rose even higher after, when Pastor Anne called for the people there to come forward and impart their gifts to us. Other pastors stepped forward to impart Encouragement and Faith. Then an even greater outpouring as the children came up and imparted Love and Joy! After this, all the pastors lined up to pray prayers of impartation for each one of us visitors before we had to leave. But I think some of them felt a bit unsure as to how to pray prayers of impartation, and there may have been some language barrier issues as well. … One man grabbed my hands and said, very haltingly but forcefully … “Dear God! … … Please bless! … … This … guy! … … And his ministry!” Then the group of pastors went around and shared their names and a little bit about themselves, and I discovered that one of the men was the senior pastor of the church Mary Anne and I had visited! He thanked our group, because he had heard that one of us had spoken at his church, but he didn’t make any significant eye contact with me, so I knew he didn’t know which of us it was. Also, by this time Mary Anne, feeling sick, had left to recover someplace I never quite found. Later, however, the Pastor (Maurice Alex was his name) came up to personally thank me for the work in that church and ask about Mary Anne, but left without being able to thank her directly.
  We said our goodbyes, but found ourselves sitting down for a final meal with Pastor Simon. The rain had stopped by this time, but how would we make it home through all the mud? But we needn’t have worried, when it was time to go, we found ourselves making good our escape, not in the van we had always taken, but in the back of a pickup truck, with iron bars crossing the top to stand in between for stability. Now Dani finally got her ‘Indiana Jones ride’ experience she had been talking about every day for the duration of this orphanage trip. Trekking down the hill in the African moonlight, none of us could prevent our minds from drifting to songs, or at least, inspirations for songs, and Toto once again filled my head. Well, we soon made it down to the van, which had managed to avoid the worst of the mud by taking a longer, less direct way. And now we discovered clearly that the truck we had been riding in was blessed with shocks where our van was not. We continued bumping and rattling home, our path now redirected because of the mud.

DENOUMENT
After a bit, we noticed some commotion to the left of our vehicle … screaming and shouting … a girl and a young man. The girl is running after him, yelling and trying to grab him. Did he rob her? Are they just playing around? The girl yells something about suicide … we slow down, our lights shining on them. Pastor Simon begins to talk to the young man from the van, but he won’t listen. He is carrying a rope or towel of some kind. The impasse continues, with the man running along the side of the road, and the van driving alongside, for a few minutes. By this time Pastor Simon is calling out to the man with the sliding van door open, and rebuking the spirit in him—something has got to give soon. Then, it does. Pastor Simon leaps out of the van and grabs the man. He begins to struggle. He is clearly demonized and set on ending his life. Pastor Simon, holding the young man, is commanding the spirit to go. We in the van are interceding as well, and I see a picture of a huge lion, the Lion of Judah, leaping out of the van onto the man. As Simon drives out the demon, the man suddenly goes completely limp. Pastor Anne, Tyson, and I rush out to minister to him and we discover that his baby had just died. The girl running behind him was his sister. His whole family had been pursuing him but he broke away from them and in the darkness no one could see where he had gone until our van lights shone on him. As we were praying for him to be filled with the Holy Spirit, his relatives caught up with us and began to minister to him as well. We stayed as long as we could to make sure he was alright, and Pastor Simon spoke a bit to the family and the young man and planned to reconnect with him. Tonight, one life was spared.

FALLING ACTION
But even more excitement lay in store. As we tried to navigate this new route along the muddy roads, our van made a wrong turn, and had to back-track from a dead end. When we reached the fork where had made the mistake, and turned onto the correct road, we saw a car coming down after us from the first road we had come from. This car then began to tailgate us, and kept flashing its lights, as if it meant to pass us, which it couldn’t do in such a narrow, rocky road, unless we intentionally pulled over to let them by. Knowing this was a bad area, our driver wisely sped up, hoping to leave this troublesome situation behind. Soon, however, our van was accelerating down the rocky roads at a breakneck speed. The noise was so loud, and the movement so jarring, that it became too much for us passengers to be heard or even to speak. And yet, the car continued its pursuit, still attempting to pass us. There did not seem to be any explanation except that this car had seen that we were a van full of westerners, and meant to rob us, possibly at gunpoint. By this time our van was going so fast that we began to smell something burning as the engine began to overheat. Then, thank God, we reached a more public area, with a few stores and people—a welcome sight, late though it was. But the high speed chase continued, as if it were straight out of a movie! Quickly we made a right at a crossroads and turned into a gas station. The other car followed us there, but spun around in the middle of the road, waiting for us to come out. Our driver made as if he was going to turn right, the same direction the other car was facing, and as they began to accelerate in that direction cut left, tore quickly down the road, made a left at the first road he came to, and turned into the courtyard of a nice hotel, and waited. We had lost them, for the moment. But what to do now? Pastor Simon and the driver instructed us to remain in the idling van, as they went for help. Songs of praise were sung, prayers of intercession were prayed. I watched with concern as other cars pulled up beside us, all the time expecting to see the lights of the white vehicle that had been trailing us. Then, after what seemed like an eternity, they returned, and told us we were getting a police escort. After this, however, the stepped out briefly, and before I knew what was happening (I could hardly process it at first), I saw the SAME CAR that had been trailing us come up behind us, and some guys in suits get out! Well, the explanation we got (which was not believed by all of our team, but which I accept), was that the car behind us was actually on the run from another car chasing them (apparently the men in the car were politicians of some importance, senators or something), and, seeing our car pull out in front of them, from the dead end, thought we were in league with each other and were intending to sandwich them between our vehicles. Later, however, they began to think otherwise. When they saw our white faces peering out of the back of the van, they no longer thought we were after them, but that we were taking down their license and were reporting them for pursuing us. Thus they kept up pursuit, so that they would be able to explain the situation, that they meant no harm to us. Do you believe that? Anyway, that was the explanation we got .. but we did go home in the company of an officer, just in case, and praised God for our safe passage and arrival back at our hotel. I have to admit there were some scary moments in this last leg of our journey, but I was comforted through it all by a word from God: “That same lion you saw earlier tonight is still with you protecting this van.”
"Something like this happens on every trip we go on." - Pastor Anne

Saturday, 2 April—Heaven on earth ... and No orphans here

Today our team split up for the first time, and headed out into different regions …I am with a group visiting orphanages near Lake Victoria in Kenya (more specifics to follow, of course) … anyway today after a very bumpy ride, we reached the top of a mountain area and looked down on the green valleys and fields below … it was so incredibly beautiful … one of those scenes that simply can’t be captured, reminiscent of landscapes in the movie Cry, the Beloved Country, or some similar film. We drove up to the orphanage and all the children ran out to meet us, assembled and began singing a welcome song to greet us. Can you imagine the moment? The whole scene was breathtaking and really quite indescribable. Later we met to begin our presentation, but we found there was much more music in store. The students sang several songs of worship and praise to God, and we were blown away and totally at a loss … in the face of such beauty how could we even think of following it up with a normal lesson? … Then our leader stood up, thanked them for their music, and asked them if they could sing one more song. They sang and sang, and then something happened that had to be seen to be believed. God’s presence filled the room and touched down so strongly that the children dropped to the floor and the singing transformed into beautiful angelic tongues. As the tongues began to morph into singing once again, our leader brought in her keyboard and began to accompany the children on some of the songs. Then through the keyboard she eased a transition into the lesson, which happened quite spontaneously and was basically bringing the children into an experience of heaven. This was the perfect follow up, it seemed, as we began to share our experiences of heaven, and some of the group explained God’s vision for Africa they saw in heaven. Once again, almost impossible to capture the moment, but I hope you can at least catch a whiff of it by these few words. Then we broke up into a ministry time, which, as is our custom here, involves prophetic prayer over every child in the place. I was partnered with Tyson, a friend from New Joy Church, but it was hard for us to give prophetic words to all the children in our group with only one translator. He had the translator, so I just prayed soaking prayers over the children near me, occasionally speaking out the Father’s heart in English … and as I was praying I noticed some of the students responding, despite the language barrier, to the soaking prayers, at times even physically, the power there was quite evident. Quickly, however, we combined groups, and found ourselves in a larger building with another member of our team, Elaina. Tyson was all set to begin praying prophetically over the children, but then I asked the translator to ask the children if any of them were sick or in pain or had any physical problems. Four children raised their hands, so I thought I would pray for them for healing first and then join Tyson in the prophetic prayer ministry time. However, when the translator asked for all the students who needed prayer for physical healing to come over to one side, 30 children came over! Elaina and I set to work talking to the children and asking what their needs were. At the beginning Elaina prayed prophetically over the children and I prayed for their healing. The first child we prayed for had a headache, and was completely healed. Then I looked at the rest of the group … it seemed so large and the sun was beginning to set, I knew we would never have enough time to pray for all of them, so I asked, “Who else has come over for prayer because of a bad headache?” Then the boy who had his headache healed prayed for another boy with a headache and he received healing as well. Then the two of them prayed for the next boy with a headache, and he got healed as well, and so on with the other conditions … once a child received healing, they began to pray in Jesus’ name for the other children with the same condition. And every child that received prayer was completely healed, a significant portion of which we never even prayed for! Sorry I have to head to bed now, but this is just a taste of our adventures at the moment!

Friday, 1 April—Last dance in Palissa ... and Angels at the Kenyan border

We split up into groups ... healing of relationships, hearing from God class (pictured), pastors meeting, making commitments to love their wives, marriage ceremony, graduation, prophetic words over the graduating class, drove for 7 hours ... security out of Uganda, into Kenya .. Angels were clearly all around us, I could feel their presence as we went into customs ... later Pastor Mark told us that he was praying to God for safe passage for us and heard God say: "If you could see the amount of angels watching over your group right now, you would fall down to your knees in awe"!

Thursday, 31 March—Working the Palissa school curcuit ... Up on a stage and out on a limb

"From school to school ... Lord Jesus is cool!" - The now famous "Sha Na Na Na Na" Song!

We visited two schools and an orphanage, sharing the gospel and singing and playing with the kids. At the first school Zana shared the gospel (pictured above) and the children responded, some in tears by the end. Then Bishop Simon spoke, and explained the true source of the witch doctor's power, and how God's power was greater than Satan's. So together we acted this out prophetically by 'stomping' on Satan and his power over our lives ... such a beautiful and powerful moment! Then we prayed prayers of blessing over the students ... although we didn't have translators for most of this time, many students were visibly touched by our prayers. The next stop was an orphanage, located in an open area where it was a little more developed. I shared the gospel and asked which students would like to receive Jesus. Many hands went up. We prayed a prayer of salvation together and then went into a ministry time, beginning with those who were sick. God healed everyone, at least that I saw slash got a chance to pray for. Then, as in the school before, the students all formed lines behind each of us, and we prayed prophetically over them. Last school—Zana preached, and led the group through a long prayer ... the Spirit was totally evident among the children there ... formed lines and prayed, identity, one boy said "I want to be a doctor." Then we noticed adults, teachers in the lines as well ... many came to receive prayer from Andy because they were impressed by how he was looking after his daughter Dani. An old man came forward then and said he wanted to become a Christian, so we prayed for him. He said he wanted to become a Christian because of Andy and his daughter. He wanted to be reconciled to his family as well. Back at the conference, a crusade was going on. When came back, we had some food, and Justin and Thom spoke. Thom's word of knowledge seemed crazy at first ... he called out a man to come forward, and then said he worked with plants? Turned out to be right though, everything he said! Prayed for someone with spirit of infirmity, moving back and forth, meanwhile someone tugged on my shirt asking for healing in their back. Healed right away. Then back to the spirit of infirmity, bound and prayed the Father's heart over her.

Wednesday, 30 March, Palissa, Uganda—Disappearance of inanimate objects ... First ministry stint ... and Remarkable weather

“All the stuff that happened today was normal, for Africa. That it all happened in one day, though, is pretty crazy.” - Pastor Mark Tubbs

Many of our group awoke to religious chanting of some sort, though I heard nothing after the rain. After a brief continental breakfast, with fried eggs specifically requested by myself, we were off as the rain began to fall once again. We worshiped on the bus—Anne Tubbs on keyboard and Eunice leading us in prophetic singing. After a time we arrived at the city of Kampala, where Justin got his ipod stolen ... some kid just grabbed it out of the window as Pastor Steve was trying to take a picture! After that I went on a shopping spree with the insurance money because the airline had lost my luggage. Then we drove to Palissa, where we would minister for the next two days.

On the first day we began ministering at a conference held in a village church. It was truly off the beaten path, in fact, the roads were practically blocked off, as maintenance crews had been meaning to fill in some of the ditches on the sides, but never finished the job, simply dropping huge piles of dirt right in the middle of the road, thus forcing all travelers into the very ditches they were trying to fix. This made travel on these roads basically impossible unless you were walking or biking, though you might barely make it through with four wheel drive. Of course, none of this applied to us and our bus. I have lost count of the number of times we got stuck in the mud and had to struggle, sometimes for up to an our, to get ourselves free. By the end of our time in Palissa, I was quite weary of 'partnering with the bus', as I put it, as inevitably such a partnership ended with all of the guys caked in mud, which, coupled with the fact that we were all asked to dress in nice Sunday clothes to attend these meetings, caused our chivalrous task to soon lose its luster.
Anyway, first day: Our contact for HIM in all of Africa is Bishop Simon. He was our guide for the trip, but we were also joined by Pastor Fred, who was head of the HIM churches in Uganda. On the way there, we discovered quite an amazing story connected with the HIM presence in Uganda. Pastor Fred sold all he had to start a church in Uganda. After facing some initial opposition, the pastor received the word "Harvest International Ministries" from God, as well as a detailed image of Pastor Mark Tubbs! Pastor Fred had never heard of HIM and never met Pastor Mark, but he looked up the organization online, and walked many many miles until he found Bishop Simon. The two connected, and this trip is one of the fruits of that connection, as we find ourselves breaking new ground—the first HIM team ever into Uganda. We were surprised to learn, however, that Bishop Simon and Pastor Fred had already planted 25 churches there! We praised God for the work he was doing and how the way had already been prepared for us.

Needless to say, with such giants in the faith to introduce us, the welcome we received at the church conference seemed almost royal. (It was also the first time any foreign visitors had been in thie areas since 1980!) Singing, dancing, and lots of introductions. Pastor Mark was asked to speak, but before he did, our group spoke prophetic words over the assembly, highlighting one person and prophesying over them. There were several good and specific words, but the moment that sticks out most to me in my mind was when Mina prophesied over some men there ... I say men because at least two stood up, although the word was somewhat specific ... part of it went something like this: "I see you in a dark room asking if God can see you, you want God to show himself to you ... he sees you and has heard your cry, and he is going to do it." After a couple of men stood up she began to speak more of God's heart for them, but the men were not able to hear all of what she had to say, because part way through the translator was so touched by her words that he broke down in tears ... evidently what Mina was speaking fit with what he was going through in his life as well!

Then after these words Pastor Mark spoke on God's love and healing, and the move of God that had begun in Uganda. As he began to close his message, indicating that we would move into a prayer time and pray for the sick, a huge wind began to rip through the place, and by the time he called forward anyone who was sick or in need of prayer, the poles that were holding the tarp above us were wrenched from their place, and huge wind began ripping through the assembly, as the rain fell in torrents. The dust blew up, the rain poured down, and they met in our faces. Suddenly we were all covered with mud from the air and our attempt to pray for the sick in the assembly was cut short, for the moment, as we all ran for cover in a tin-roofed brick building nearby. From there we prayed for the sick, tormented, and those in need of blessing. At first, Pastor Mark thought that the rain and wind represented some opposition of the enemy to what we were doing (it certainly seemed a dramatic response to his words), but then later we discovered that this was one of the first rains in this region after a 3-month drought! I saw it as a sign of the Spirit (wind) and the blessing of God's presence (rain), falling in Uganda. Others saw it as the heavens opening to Uganda ... but everyone who there had to admit it seemed quite significant given what Pastor Mark had been saying.

Meanwhile, back in the tent: Pastor Steve, Tyson, and I prayed for a woman with some trouble seeing (it looked like she had cataracts), and also some problems with her stomach. God healed her stomach as we prayed, and she said she was able to see now .. in her words (through a translator), "I can see you now!" Sidenote: the strange thing about this healing was that it still looked like she had cataracts .. her eyes looked the same from when we began praying, but she was insistent that she didn't need any more prayer, though we offered a few times, she said she could see! After that we prayed for a man's leg and when we asked (through the translator) what he was feeling, he just walked out the door! We tried to call after him but the translator told us, "yes, he's been healed!" There were so many there for prayer ... I prayed for a girl who was physically abused by demons every night ... after praying for her and speaking her identity in Christ over her, she left healed. I prayed the father's heart over several people, and a girl received healing in her stomach. While I was praying for this girl, I saw some other members of New Joy church having some difficulties praying for a woman for healing, so I went over to join them. It turned into kind of a tag team thing, though, when some of them left. It was a spirit of infirmity they were dealing with, it seemed. It kept moving around. While this was going on, some shouting and craziness from a woman who was receiving prayer nearby. She had a past steeped heavily in the prophetic but seemed to have some issues with demonization as well, so it was hard for me to discern whether her movements and shouts were prophetic declarations or demonic manifestations, but I noticed one of the women on the HIM team was engaged trying to cast out a spirit. Now if you've been involved in any serious deliverance you know that it is not often wise to cast a spirit out of someone if you don't have any kind of relationship, accountability, or covering with them, as it is possible that you could be exposing them to worse harm (Luke 11.24) ... so I assisted with simply binding the spirit on this woman, and then simply praying the Father's heart over her, simply washing her with his love, and even though we had no translator at that point, the shouting and flailing calmed down. Girl with a headache healed. I then turned my attention to the other woman the New Joy team had been praying for and began to proclaim the Father's heart over her. Soon, however, I found myself unable to minister as the translator broke down under the presence of God, weeping and singing with arms raised in worship. What else happened there? Oh ... deafness in one ear was opened for one, and both ears for another ... more from Mark Tubbs:

"Today a young quadriplegic woman was placed in front of us on a mat. She seemed lifeless and barely alive. As the team prayed strength came into her legs and she was able to sit up straight on her own! Motion came to both legs and one arm. She actually stood with assistance! Most dramatic was the change in her countenance. She does appear malnourished and we are contending for her." (see pictures above)

Tuesday, 29 March—More flying ... Too late to travel ... and Mosquito fear in a random hotel

As the team reflects on our first day of ministry, I think we have to agree that any attempt to capture this trip, either in pictures or in words, seems daunting. If the trip continues with days as eventful as this one, the sheer amount of information to record and the limited time in which to record it will soon squeeze the life out of any would-be chronicler. Nevertheless, one must try. So my apologies if these notes seem rather fragmented at times—it may well be that you end up reading unedited scribble copied directly out of my notebook ... there doesn't seem to be any other way to complete this journal soon enough (I was hoping for the events to be still fresh in our minds, at least)!

So, as it turned out, because of the delay in the flight, we didn't get to our destination in time, and had to spend the night in a hotel in Entebbe. My first African hotel! I wasn't too excited that our room didn't have any mosquito netting, despite the three-inch gap of pure, unscreened night air beneath the doorway. So we barricaded the sucker with luggage and tried to get some sleep. My older roommate Mike slept quite soundly—and loudly! I prayed against his snoring, though, and it stopped. The night was otherwise very hot and muggy, but I felt I needed to sleep under the covers because of the dreaded blood-sucking, malaria-carrying vermin.

It seems that, in general, the only requirement for a hotel room in Africa, at least in the places we've stayed so far, is that it have a bed. Anything else—wastebasket, a shower, hot water, any water for that matter, lights ... all optional. But the mugginess ended when the rain fell at 5 am, and I was finally able to get some sleep, short though it was ... "I bless the rains down in Africa"!!

Monday, 28 March—Flying

Sunday, 27 March—More healing in Canada