The whole scoop....

This year there were some definite highlights to share with you all. On Thursday night we held a parenting conference at the request of the pastor and his wife. There were about 40-50 in attendance and I brought a message on LOVE (which you will soon see is a common theme). Specifically, that if they are here at a parenting conference, one thing is for sure, they love their children. And that God will honor that and bless that and work with that because God is love and when we love, it reveals Him to others. During the message I also had Christy share about her experiences growing up and also had KC do the same. This way, there was a "child's perspective" too, which really helped to drive home the importance of raising kids in an environment of love, encouragemnt, safety, acceptance, etc. One young woman really touched my heart as she caught me afterwards and basically began to thank me for what i shared. She continued to tell me how she hasn't been living inlove, how she blames everyone else, how she has hated parenting her 11 month old and how she quit coming to church or going out and has just isolated herself. But how thru what i just taught, she saw that this was wrong, that she didn't want to live that way anymore....and she continued on. I was just awe struck to be honest. I knew she had gottenrevelation of a greater truth but I still couldn't pinpoint exactly what was happening in front of me. And then it hit me- thisis REPENTANCE. And I just melted to her. Two days later she came back for the women's conference looking completely different and wonderfully beautiful. The next day she came to church with her son and I was able to pray over both of them. Yeah- really good stuff- really precious stuff. On Friday, we ventured out into a small village and began a mission of "small beginnings" in distributing food and school supplies to the local kids. We did this as a direct result of God's word to us (Mike and I) and I must say- I was completely tearful and caught up in God's love and aware of how much this little "natural" act would produce in the "spiritual" realm. KC taught the 42 children about the Fruits of the Spirit with posters she had made herself. Christy then shared the gospel message and about 6-7 older children raised their hands to receive Christ. We used Trefor's (from Living Light) "sorry , please, thank you" model as it was perfectly simple and easy for the kids to follow! After that, we were able to individually and personally pray for each of the 42 kids, blessing them and calling forth their destiny in Christ. THIS WAS POWERFUL and exciting and all done hidden away in some village in the hills and trees of Central Romania. BUT EMMANUEL!!!!!! They also then received a bag of small food treats and school supplies given to them in the name of Jesus. Friday evening was spent leading the prayer meeting for about 20 or so people at Carmen's home. We usually do this once each time we go, but this year we had two meetings scheduled as the group was hungrya nd eager for more teaching on the Holy Spirit and victory in Christ. I did not know what I was going ot teach on until about 10 minutes ahead of the meeting. I ended up speaking about "taking every thought captive" and explaining with a simple drawing that God gave me how we are composed of Body, Soul and Spirit. And how, in Christ, our spirit is always and will be immune from the evil one. But that Satan can and does attack and roam in the areas of our body and mind. I spoke about the battle line being drawn between the spirit (where he can't roam) and the body and soul (where he can) and how we can push that battle line further and further to TAKE BACK control of our soul (mind , will , emotions) and our body. It turned out to be a really relevant message and when I was done, noone wanted to leave. They wanted more. So we then did another "prophetic activation" like we did last year and had them pray for some of our ministry friends and supporters. Many of them participated freely and I was able to bring home words of encouragement and love for people they have never even met! Saturday was filled with our "annual" women's meeting. This time instead of a weekend camp, we had one day event at Carmen's church. Women from both of the local chruches that we work with attended. It was exciting that this year- one of my "goals" was fulfilled and in all seriousness was probably THE HIGHLIGHT of my trip. Carmen delivered the morning message and we also had a LOCAL worship team leading worship! My heart in going is alwasy to raise up the giftings and leadership in the nationals, so this was very exciting and wonderful for me to see! We also began to lay out all the eye glasses that we brought with us and MANY MANY MANY found glasses that worked for them! Praise God! On Sunday we headed to church under the impression that we would be sharing a quick hello to the body and then Christy would sing and share a testimony. DURING WORSHIP, the pastor came over and let Carmen know that he was giving me the time to preach the message again. This was huge becasue last year I was the first and only woman allowed to preach in the church. Noone has done it since and again he was giving me the whole time to preach again. Of course I DIDN'T HAVE A MESSAGE PREPARED (smile)....but aren't we always prepared in Christ?!!!! I found one page of a message that i had taught about 3 years ago and beagn to skim it- I found one core sentence that sprung up in my spirit and ran with it. I spent the remainder of worship time just jotting small notes on a paper and then brought God's word forth. I spoke about the purity of God's love. How I believe the world has so tainted and perverted and twisted the real meaning of love. How we as Christians have only scratched the surface of understanding the purity and power of this love and how God is revealed thru it. So that was cool. And once again the pastor was very pleased! Thank you Jesus! Christy did an amazing job singing At the Cross and sharing a testimony about God's faithfulness. She actually got to do an "encore" of the song as the pastor's wife and many of the congregation wanted her to sing it again with the Romanian words on the screen behind her (they hadn't been able to get them up the first time). So that was really awesome too to see the crowd "demand" a repeat so they could gain full understanding and worship along! Sunday night we went to the other church (speranta church) and KC and Christy sang two songs, shared a testimony and I had brought a small greeting and summary of what God has spoken to me over the past 4 trips and the purposes in them all and this knitting together of us all. When we were done, the pastor had still given us more time and Carmen asked me if I was going to speak. I said "no- I'm good"...and then realized...."you tell me, am I?" So I got up and began to bring the same message I had brought in the morning- again- unexpectedly. When I was done the pastor elaborated on it for a good 5-10 minutes which brought much peace to my somewhat "anxious" soul- (once again, we were ina place where women did not preach and clearly I was just preaching). The Speranta church was much more lively and "full" then it had been only 3 years earlier. It was great to hear their choir, join in worship with them and hear the passion with which the pastor spoke. (even if I didn't know all that he was saying). On Monday we had a day to relax, see some sights and enjoy relationship. I spent the day alone with Carmen and Roxana took KC and Christy around the shopping area and hisorical district. It was great for Carmen and I to have the one on one time to really connect and talk about the challenges of leadership, growth, etc. It is wonderful to have her as our "Romania Truth Ministry contact" an for us to be on the same page with what God is wanting to do and what He has already been establishing and how we will approach the increase in teams, etc... Monday night Carmen and I took the pastors and their wives out for dinner. We had pizza- which was a huge treat for them I guess, so we were happy to do that. It was fantastic time of just hanging out together, getting to know each other and also hearing their vision and heart for their churches and the community. I feel now that I'm not just "visiting their churches" but that I KNOW them and again, look forward to what God will do in the future. It was also net becasue in conversation I was able to tell thema bout our church back home and the School of Worship and this is great becasue we know that Sergiu (one of their members) wants to come to SOW in 2008. Tuesday we had the "mega prayer group"- prayed and prophesied over each person for a little over 6 hours total. We were wiped physically, but energized by the Holy Spirit. Some highlights of this time were seeing the giftings that were lying somewhat dormant come to the surface and bless the Body! Christy sang this amazing spontaneous prophetic love song over one of the young women. It was just wonderful! KC was prophesying with such accuracy and boldness it just made me sort of shake my head, laugh and think "wow". Roxana- who we had brought here for a month to grow in her prophetic giftings (among other things) was prophesying right beside us the whole time. Carmen aslo was flowing inprophecy in between translating for us! Evena few of the other prayer group memebrs who were sitting and watching and waiting would occasionally join in with a word. THIS DELIGHTS MY HEART!!!!!!! Thisis what TO US (mike and I) Matthew 28:19-20 is all about- GOING, DISCIPLING, TEACHING and seeing the fruit! THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU WHO HELPED MAKE ALL OF THIS POSSIBLE!!!!! WE GIVE GOD ALL THE GLORY!!!!!! God gave me a "motto" this year that I wrote in my Bible right away..."Boldly going...Humbly bowing". That pretty much sums it up. Please continue to pray for God's abundant fruit to come forth. Also, if you made it this far thru all of this- there's a good chance you should be on the team next year! Think about it- better yet- PRAY about it :)

Romania 2007 "To bear fruit- fruit that will last"

We've just returned from another wonderful and fruitful trip to Romania. it was also a difficult trip- filled with warfare and challenges- but as always, God's purposes prevail and we have seen the victory! To be honest- I'm quite tired. We arrived home only hours before we had to pack up and leave again for our annual church retreat. I guess I shouldn't say "before we had to"...I should say "before we got to" ...because the weekend retreat was also an amazing time in the Lord and with His Body. It was also a great time for our immediate family to just be together and enjoy each other! I so love my family and was happy for all of us to be together and enjoying the beauty of God's creation together!

All that being said- this post will just be some photos and brief captions. I'm sure there will be more to follow int he days ahead. We want to give a genuine thanks again to all who labor with us in this mission! We truly love and need you.

(check back soon if you like for more updates)


Day one- parenting conference- we were asked by the local church to do a parenting conference. The results were more than I had expected. This turned out to be one of my highlights- again- more stories to follow.

Prayer group- we prayed and prophesied over each member of the prayer group- 6 hours later we were CLOSE to being done :) Tiring but who would trade it?! This is what we do!

Christy (above) and KC (below) each shared their own related testimonies at the parenting conference. It was really powerful and I was certainly proud of them as team leader but also, admittedly, so proud of KC as her Mommy:) (Doesn't Christy look great in my skirt? Uh yeah- her luggage got lost and didn't arrive until the next day)

Sergiu and Adi at the prayer meeting during worship. Sergiu still wants to come to Living Light School of Worship in Fall 2008. We are praying that God will indeed make a way! Both of these men are dear to my heart and have a sweet gentle spirit.

Prayer for Belize and Gales Point

As I type this- there is a Category 5 hurricane heading directly for Belize. Now , it's not supposed to hit until Thursday so that gives us plenty of time to pray. Would you join in even a short prayer with us right now to ask God to diminish the storm and spare the people and land in Belize and surrounding nations? It's that simple- but powerful! Below are some photos of Gales Point and the mission base. The base is right on the Carribean sea and the village is a tiny peninsula barely above sea level about a mile inland. The villagers will not leave their homes for fear things will be stolen. There is a hurricane shelter (made of cement) but they probably will not use that either for the same reasons. So just pray with us please if and as you feel led. Thanks :) (All staff have evacuated the base. Vera and Basil are in California with the birth of their granddaughter and are due to return mid Sept.)

Gales Point Village- home to about 500 people that God so loves...almost all who have yet to realize this.

KC and Mike (a couple of years ago) jogging on the beach at the base. The main house, cabanas, staff and directors housing and sanctuary are only about 100 yards or less from shore.