Time to Travel!

Sweden!

God has been working in miracles these last two months in Scotland! I want to give you guys a few testimonies of how He has been moving over here and in us.

Healing has been on the rise here. Devine healing, from the Lord. We have had several people in our DTS physically healed of chronic back pain, and even some of their arms or legs growing a few centimeters to match up with the other limb to fix the problem. (This was to realign the joins/or bones that were out of place, once the arm or leg grew a little bit it would realign the back/hips or shoulders to fix the pain). Sounds a little kookoo I know, but this is what's happening!
I personally have a story of healing to share with you guys. I'm not sure if any of you are aware of a severe ear problem that I have has since I was eight? My ear drums had burst while on vacation in the snow. Ever since then flying (hopping planes), going up into the mountains, and even swimming below three feet of water has caused serious pain in my ears. I always thought it was just something I was going to have to live with. We were in class one day and the speaker said "Does someone have a problem with their right ear"? I had to ask if she was serious. When she confirmed that she was I said "Well, heck yes I have an ear problem". She got me to stand up in front of the class and tell them the reason why I had ear problems. The speaker then led the class in a time of prayer over me. Everyone (about 25 people) surrounded me in a circle, laid their hands and me and started to pray for the Lord to come and heal a problem that had gone on for way too long. They prayed for about 20 to 25 minutes. After this time they went through a whole process of asking how I was doing and what was God speaking to me. I told them I felt like God was asking me to take a faith step and go swimming to see a complete healing come. (Now remember swimming= ear aches and infections). Several of the students confirmed this sense of water by either saying they saw a picture of me and water, or water pouring into my ear. (funny I know) So… a couple of days later I went to our local hotel and decided to take a step of faith and swim to the bottom of their pool and get my complete healing! I did it and there were NO PROBLEMS swimming 5 1/2 feet under water for a long period of time. Since then, I have flown to Sweden and back, no problem, driven on the motorway with only one window down (usually really difficult for me), no problem, and even been able to sit in a bath tub with my head under the water and there being no sign of any aching ears! Praise Jesus. You might not understand, but this has actually been a huge battle my entire life having ear difficulties. I always travel with antibiotics and ears drops. NO LONGER! THERE IS NO MORE PAIN!

Two weeks ago the DTS was involved in an event called Light and Life. It's a ministry here that sets up events kind of like a physic fair to draw people in. They offer Spiritual Readings (meaning prophetic words), Prophetic Art, Massage Therapy, Spiritual/Physical/Emotional Healing, Street Evangelism, and Dream Interpretation. This is all done in the name of Jesus. So when anyone asked you "what medium do you go through", we would answer Jesus Christ. Most of the time is an opportunity to pray for people and tell them what the Father is saying to them. I was working on the Healing team that night. A young woman came up to me and my prayer partner Rachel. We introduced ourselves and asked her why did she sign up for the "healing booth". She explained that she was only 27 but she looked much older than that. She had been a smoker and had quit the day before because it was prematurely aging her skin. She had very dark black and red rings under her eyes and aging spots all around her face. She wanted to know if we could actually just pray for her skin that it would change and she wouldn't look like and older woman any more. We told her the process of prayer, and how we pray in the name of Jesus and how He can heal all things. She freely accepted out prayer. As Rachel and I prayed for her I asked if I could place my hand over her eyes, again she accepted. We prayed for a few minutes this way and when I removed my hand from her eyes they were drastically lightened. We asked her to go and look in the mirror and tell us if she liked what she saw. She came back ecstatic! God had started the healing! We asked if we could pray again, because we believe the Lord gives 100% healing to us, He doesn't do things half way. We prayed again and the Lord continued to heal as Rachel and I got to witness years of harsh treatment physically leave from this woman’s face and her to be restored to her youth. AMAZING! WATCHING GOD HEAL SOMETHING AS SMALL AS SKIN DEFECT FROM SMOKING! Beautiful, really beautiful. This woman left that night full of joy form the gift the Father had given her.
That same night a little boy came in. He was only 6 and completely deaf. He received his full hearing that night in the name of Jesus when two people prayed for the Lord to reveal his glory to this little innocent life. For the first time he heard music. There was a worship band playing at that moment. When he turned and saw them, he took out his hearing aids and ran straight to the front of the stage just mesmerized by the sound. What would that be like to hear for the first time? Scary? Confusing? Elation? It's amazing to witness the miracles of God. He still does them to this day. The New Testament hasn't finished, we're just adding onto the book of Acts. (That's the book with a ton of miracles by the way).

I need to tell you guys about my outreach! We leave in a week to go traveling throughout Scotland bringing the Kingdom of Heaven here! Ah! I am leading a team of five students throughout the West coast of Scotland (the Highlands and Islands). For a part of our outreach my team will be camping and hopefully staying in Scottish host homes. Our first week will be spent camping on the Isle of Skye just going where the Father leads us each day.


My team practicing setting up our tent!


We will then be partnering with a few different churches working in schools and with youth on the small islands outlining the west coast. My team is definitely a go with the flow (as in the Holy Spirit) kind of team. We only have a few ministries set up here and there and the rest of the time we are just going to wake up in the morning and ask what God wants us to do that day. We will be traveling throughout Scotland until the very last day in May and then I will be off to Turkey for two weeks finishing the outreach portion of DTS with a smaller team. I will be going to southern central Turkey in a more rural area to reach out to the Turks. (If you want to know the city I will be based in please email me, I can't put that online any longer). With how God has been revealing himself in the base I am expecting mind blowing experiences out in the Nations. Our teams objective is simple: to love as God loves us. To serve, as God serves us. And to be His mouth piece for Him to move though.



Meet my team. We're posing in front of the mini bus that we will be using for
outreach that we have nic named Marv!



I am still in the process of raising my funds to lead my team. I have until Wednesday to raise about 700 pounds ($1,150). I will not be able to go out into theses nations if I don't raise all my support. I known it seems like short notice, but I have seen God move in a miraculous way here lately in finances. In the last couple of weeks we have seen THOUSANDS OF POUNDS donated to this school for outreach through other missionaries who are raising support themselves. I know God has told me to lead this team out into Scotland and Turkey. Would you be willing to pray and see if you would like to be a part of this two month mission and help donate to my fund raising? By the way, all this money goes towards gas money for the mini bus we will be using (we named him Marv), plane tickets, ferry tickets, food money, and accommodation.

I am so excited to get out there once again and see God move powerfully though peoples lives when they come to know what He's some for them!
Thank you guys for all your support!

Edinburgh Castle on the east coast of Scotland. It's like a fairy tail!

New Faces All Around

Sorry it's been so long since the last update! I'm a terrible procrastinator! Since the middle of December I have been preparing for 20 new faces to join us here at the Seamill Centre to take a journey over the next six months that will hopefully change the course of their lives. A new Discipleship school has begun these last three weeks and I am an "official" staff member on this one! Nineteen trainees have come from all over the US, Canada, England, and South Africa. Our staff team for this school has six people evolved.....again from the US and England. Three members of the staff include our "Leadership" team, Rachel, Greg, and Shawna. These are the ones that have had the vision for what this new school is going to look like, what we will be involved in, rounding up speakers from all around the world to come and give a lecture each week, and of course leading us through these next six months. The other three staff (including me) is Jazz and Eileen. We are the ones that will be in constant contact with all the trainees (seeing that we live on base), giving One on One discipleship, leading small ministry groups, and eventually taking all of them out into the Nations for three months of "hands on" ministry.
After a few weeks of praying our staff team has come to the decision that the majority of our Outreach Phase will be spent reaching the Scots in Scotland. We have felt this is THE TIME to see God move in big ways through this nation. The Scots deal with several serious issues like low self esteem, alcoholism, unforgiveness, worthlessness, anger, hiddenness (not wanting to be noticed at all), and something we call the Clan Spirit. The Clan Spirit is good in one sense, they are VERY loyal to their own clan and would do anything for them. The bad thing is, it's very exclusive, if you're NOT from the same clan they are automatically against you. They assume everyone from an opposite clan is going to in some way betray them, like old history repeating its self. Example, "Clan MacDonald vs Clan Campbell". One thing the Scottish youth deal with here frequently is fatherlessness. Many young children and teenagers grow up with hard examples of what a dad really is. Scotland has a huge percentage of young teenage girls becoming pregnant to move out into there own flat, (if you become pregnant here the government is required to give single mums their own housing). You can see how that can be a problem. Maybe if young teenagers don't like their own situation they just decide to try and make it better by creating their own family, and it's a vicious cycle.
We believe God wants to break all of this. The Scots have a rich heritage of God moving in amazing and miraculous ways up in the Northern Isles of Scotland throughout hundreds of years. God has made these people to be warriors, poets, and prophets! We want stir up these Giftings and see them reaching their OWN nation with the Word of God.
We also feel we are to go into Turkey for the last two weeks of our Outreach to reach out to the Turks. This is still a decision in process, and we have many months before we come into that.

I am so excited to to have the privilege of working on this school. I love sitting in class each day learning about our Father God and what He has called us as a people to do. Some things that we're taught are a nice reminder of what I have learned throughout my time following Jesus, and most times I am constantly receiving new revelation from God about the world around me, what he had asked me to do, or just His nature and character. Week one for the students was all about Hearing the Voice of God, and how we can ALL hear Him, and recognizing the way we each individually hear from Him. It also included lessons about Intercession (praying on another’s behalf, or praying for a nation or a people group). Last week (week two) was all about the Father Heart of God and being INTENTIONAL about your relationship with Him. So many amazing stories were shared by our lecturer Mike, while sitting around on the floor or on couches just listening to him speak from the Fathers heart point of view. I know God has placed me on this school for the students who are struggling with "father issues". So many of them have been hurt by their fathers in some way or another, and God has given me His heart just for them. I know my circumstance with my own dad has placed me on this school to see these peoples hearts healed by sharing part of my testimony and walking these next six months with them.

I want to give you guys a short testimony of what I have see God do lately: (I know this is getting long and there are so many facts, but here is a story),
I went into Glasgow about a month ago to do some street evangelism with a small team. I felt like God had told me to interact with all the homeless people that were out that day. He also told me to buy a few pairs of gloves and hats to give out when the need had arrived. I went from homeless person to homeless person giving out gloves when God prompted me. I would bend down and place them on their hands and try to bless them any way I could. God told me and my team to go to a street called Buchanan Street because there was someone we NEEDED to see there. So we wandered along, and once we got there we just waited to see what we would find. In a moment I saw her. She was crouching down leaning against a wall, smoking a cigarette and crying. I motioned for my team to follow me. I crouched down next to her and asked if she would like a pair of gloves (she didn't have any and it was in the 30's F that day). She slowly reached out dirty hands letting me put one glove on at a time. I asked her what was wrong, she told me the electricity had been turned off in the apartment she had been staying in and she didn't have any money to turn it back on to feed her kids. She had been sleeping outside under a bridge for the last couple of days and had given her kids to someone. Her name was Amanda. Amanda had tiny cut marks on one side of her face near her eye, and deep slashes from a knife on both sides of her cheeks. (She had been in a rough relationship and her boyfriend was in jail). The police had come by and given Amanda some canned food to cook for her kids but she still didn't have the money to turn on the electricity to cook this food. She was at a crossroad in her life, deciding to prostitute herself or not. She didn't quite like the idea, but she didn't know what else to do? I asked if I could lay my hands on her and pray. She started sobbing and was eager for the prayer. A friend of mine and I prayed for her, that God would just bring provision and a way out of the darkness she was being consumed by. When we finished our prayer, she was prompted to ask Jesus into her life all on her own and ask forgiveness for all of her sins. She also was calling on God saying she knew He was the only way she could make it through this. We didn't tell her to do any of this! The Holy Spirit completely lead her. I was only able to give her the 3 pounds on me that I had left, and a small New Testament bible that I had been carrying in my bag. I gave them both as a small gift, and she readily accepted the bible holding it to her heart. Amanda kissed both mine and my friends hands as we left and thanked us for stopping to notice her. Everyone else walked by without even giving one glance.
I continue to pray for Amanda today. I pray that God continues to show her the right path and provide for her and her children’s well being. He needs us to stop and look. To take our time and notice the people around us. Most people are feeling lost and alone, like no one notices. They need to know the truth! We have a God that notices EVERY detail in our life and wants to meet us right where we are at. He loves us! Look around. Even in all the darkness, He loves us.

To be continued.....