WOW! Only one day left! I don't say that over enthusiastically, or scarcastically. I am excited but, as with any good time of ministry, sad to see the time end. Still, we are so excited to see what God has for us next. We have been blessed so much by this experience, and our leaders have been amazing and, thankfully, teachable. We are looking forward to heading back home and hanging with friends and family and seeing everyone again. Yeah!
We are so thankful to everyone who has prayed and supported us during this time. I will stress at this point that we are not done. Life with Jesus is never done (unless you're dead, then it's safe to say that you're done).
I (Luke) have learned so much during this time and have had the chance to read some awesome books, sit under some really good teachers, and do some hands on stuff that has stretched me quite a lot, but it has been really amazing and I would do it again, definately.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Video Blog #2
Hello friends. This is our second video Blog and this one is very much fun times yes? This is a little taste of some of the ministry that we are doing during this time of outreach.
Blessings.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Montana
We are in Montana, (Woot!) now close to the end of outreach and even closer to staring our new life in ministry; we're excited and scared at the same time, it is good. One thing we've learned, and has been ever clear during this time, is that Jesus Lord.
We have done a lot of cool outreaches during this time in and it's been amazing, all the things that God in His providence has lead us into.
Last week, we had the opportunity to join a prayer team at a "Get motivated!" seminar, which is the largest of it's type in the world. We were invited by a man named Joe Walsh to pray for the people that were in attendance. It was quite amazing and we definitely felt like we had no business being there, but God called us to be there and it was awesome. The speakers there ranged from Gen. Colin Powell to Mike Phelps, and was totally amazing to be a part of. The leaders of the event also spoke and gave a gospel message which was really good and the 17,000 people who were there were impacted by a straight forward call to repentance.
So, we're staying in Polson, Montana for this week. The surrounding area for about 100 mile radius is Reserve land belonging to the Flathead Indian nation. We have teamed up with the Island Breeze DTS once again, actually for the first time since Vancouver. Tomorrow we get to be a part of something that is a first for the people of this reserve here in Montana. We are meeting with the tribal council of the reserve and the Samoans are going to present a message, cultural dances, songs and gifts to them on behalf of the countries and cultures. (There are ten countries represented in our team.) It's really cool and Really different. Also we'll be preparing and serving a luao lunch. Our DTS is taking on a servant role for the Samoans and help them make this time a success.
There is a lot of protocol involved in something like this, which we have spent some time learning about. We are so excited to see how God is going to use this opportuinty! For His Glory!
We have done a lot of cool outreaches during this time in and it's been amazing, all the things that God in His providence has lead us into.
Last week, we had the opportunity to join a prayer team at a "Get motivated!" seminar, which is the largest of it's type in the world. We were invited by a man named Joe Walsh to pray for the people that were in attendance. It was quite amazing and we definitely felt like we had no business being there, but God called us to be there and it was awesome. The speakers there ranged from Gen. Colin Powell to Mike Phelps, and was totally amazing to be a part of. The leaders of the event also spoke and gave a gospel message which was really good and the 17,000 people who were there were impacted by a straight forward call to repentance.
So, we're staying in Polson, Montana for this week. The surrounding area for about 100 mile radius is Reserve land belonging to the Flathead Indian nation. We have teamed up with the Island Breeze DTS once again, actually for the first time since Vancouver. Tomorrow we get to be a part of something that is a first for the people of this reserve here in Montana. We are meeting with the tribal council of the reserve and the Samoans are going to present a message, cultural dances, songs and gifts to them on behalf of the countries and cultures. (There are ten countries represented in our team.) It's really cool and Really different. Also we'll be preparing and serving a luao lunch. Our DTS is taking on a servant role for the Samoans and help them make this time a success.
There is a lot of protocol involved in something like this, which we have spent some time learning about. We are so excited to see how God is going to use this opportuinty! For His Glory!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Video Blog #1
Hello all faithful Blog followers. We have a little treat for you today, it's our first video Blog. We just figured that we it would be fun if you could see exactly where we are at and some of what we are doing. Enjoy.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Outeach week 3
We are now into out third week of outreach. It's funny how God changes things and directs us to people & places we would never think of.
Everyone on the team was really excited to go to Seattle and Mars Hill church for a sunday service but unfortunatly the van broke down and we had to stay in Vancouver for another few days. It was all good though, we got to hang out with Danny and Arielle (Barbie's brother & his GF) for another evening (and shower at their place, yeah!) God always works things out for good for those who love Him.
We also got to spend some time with YWAM Vancouver and encourage their team. They were/are also in the middle of a litigation process for their base. Apparently the city has re-zoned their base as residential and they are not allowed to be there now. So they have been in a large process of getting their base back, good times.
$1900.00 later, our van is fixed and we're on the
road again. Stopping breafly in Seattle to pray for the city we headed to Salem OR. We stayed the night in Salem at the YWAM base which was quite nice; All their guest rooms are theamed after countries and Barbie and I stayed in the Azerbaijan room which was really nice. We met a young 
man named Adrian who we got to spend a lot of time sharing with and praying for, it was really awesome. He's a cool dude. Actually, he is a stunt man and he has done stunts in some pretty big movies like "The Fantastic Four". We only stayed in Salem for one night and then headed for Redding CA. Arriving in Redding at one of our host family's place, Shane and Ginny Grimes, to have dinner and then headed to Bethel Church. I'm not sure if you have heard of Bethel Church, but it is a great place and people are on fire there. The team there ministered to us and we got to sit in on some classes in their Supernatural School of Ministry which has about one thousand students. Our time in Redding was so great and we met and minnistered to a lot of people.
road again. Stopping breafly in Seattle to pray for the city we headed to Salem OR. We stayed the night in Salem at the YWAM base which was quite nice; All their guest rooms are theamed after countries and Barbie and I stayed in the Azerbaijan room which was really nice. We met a young 
man named Adrian who we got to spend a lot of time sharing with and praying for, it was really awesome. He's a cool dude. Actually, he is a stunt man and he has done stunts in some pretty big movies like "The Fantastic Four". We only stayed in Salem for one night and then headed for Redding CA. Arriving in Redding at one of our host family's place, Shane and Ginny Grimes, to have dinner and then headed to Bethel Church. I'm not sure if you have heard of Bethel Church, but it is a great place and people are on fire there. The team there ministered to us and we got to sit in on some classes in their Supernatural School of Ministry which has about one thousand students. Our time in Redding was so great and we met and minnistered to a lot of people.Treasure Hunts- If you have never heard of a treasure hunt, it is about the most crazy thing I have done. Basically you wait on God, asking Him to show places, peoples names, appearance, prayed needs and unusual things to look for. Then you go out and look for them, and when you find those things you pray for people. One of the teams that went out came back with a crazy testimony of finding a woman who exactly fit the list someone made and who told them that the day before she had said to God "if you love me send someone to tell me." No Joke. It was totally amazing and our team has now adoped the idea and are trying it out in other citys we visit. Redding was amazing, going to church there was a blast and I would say probably the most intimate and intense worship I have ever experienced.
Leaving Redding we made the short drive to Chico CA We stayed at the YWAM base there and it is an incredible place. The base there is actually an old hotel built in the twenty's for movie stars
and is still in quite good shape. After we unpacked our stuff ,we found out that there was a pastors conference there with over seventy pastors attending from the county. We were given the opportunity to attend a prayer meeting with them and given some time to speak. It was crazy. I really felt that God had given me a word to speak to the pastors about holding thelogical issues in the open and closed hand and what needs to be in the closed hand thelogically and what we should hold in the open hand thelogically. It went well and I got some good feed back from a few of the pastors. Another thing that happend near the end they asked if there were pastors that wanted to come up for prayer about any personal issues that they had. One pastor named Abe came up and said that he was afraid to blow it and just wanted God to be proud of him. I felt like God told me to tell him that He (God) had a wallet with his picture in it. Yeah sounds pretty funny but, obedience. So after the meeting was done I found him and told him that. He began to tell me that he tells people that all the time and it means a lot to him. He thanked me then began to tell me how he was just so scared of messing up I told him not to worry about that and that it would be important for him to study pastors who have messed up and see where they stumbled and also have a network of Godly men around him to be accountable to he thanked me again and left.
and is still in quite good shape. After we unpacked our stuff ,we found out that there was a pastors conference there with over seventy pastors attending from the county. We were given the opportunity to attend a prayer meeting with them and given some time to speak. It was crazy. I really felt that God had given me a word to speak to the pastors about holding thelogical issues in the open and closed hand and what needs to be in the closed hand thelogically and what we should hold in the open hand thelogically. It went well and I got some good feed back from a few of the pastors. Another thing that happend near the end they asked if there were pastors that wanted to come up for prayer about any personal issues that they had. One pastor named Abe came up and said that he was afraid to blow it and just wanted God to be proud of him. I felt like God told me to tell him that He (God) had a wallet with his picture in it. Yeah sounds pretty funny but, obedience. So after the meeting was done I found him and told him that. He began to tell me that he tells people that all the time and it means a lot to him. He thanked me then began to tell me how he was just so scared of messing up I told him not to worry about that and that it would be important for him to study pastors who have messed up and see where they stumbled and also have a network of Godly men around him to be accountable to he thanked me again and left. The next day we headed out on our first team treasure hunt. The treasure hunt this time was definatly different than in Redding for what ever reason. We ended up praying for a young ladies Dad who was struggeling with pancreatic cancer. How we arrived at this point is the interesting part. Like before, in Redding, we waited on God for people, places, things ect. One person got "Jon and Bon's" which is an ice cream shop, another person got "fountain", and "pancreatic ailment", another got "purple shirt and red nail polish". And another got "octopus". When we met this girl named Jacqueline, she was wearing a purple shirt she had red toe nail polish and she standing was in between a fountain and Jon and Bon's ice cream shop, and in the fountain was a statue of an Octapuss. Barbie went up to her and told her all this. When she asked if we could pray for anything, Jacqueline told us that she had a grandpa who was dying from pancreatic cancer. Coinsidence?
After a few more days in Chico and serving the base there we headed out for Sacramento.
This trip has been amazing so far. We, our team, all believe that God is leading us on a journey that is much different from a conventional outreach, whatever that is, and far from what we might expect it to be. It was the sense from the beginning that He would be putting us in places where we had no business being with people who we would not otherwise ever contact. This is exactly what He's been doing, so far, along with teaching us much of whi He is. Jesus Is Lord!
Sunday, January 18, 2009
The first week of outreach
The first week of outreach has been awesome! The first day was spent driving to Kelowna, which was a lot of fun in the van. (We only had one child freak out and say that he wanted to go home about two hours in. It’s all good.) Arriving in Kelowna, we were met by a Korean man named Daniel and he guided us to the place where we would be staying at for the night. We drove to a beautiful house atop a hill that is owned by an awesome Korean couple. In the morning we spent some time praying for the couple in there house and speaking prophetic words over them and the city of Kelowna. It was a really awesome time.
I had an interesting word there for them and the city. I saw our group in the spirit gather up something like snow balls and throw them out onto the city and I also saw the couple speaking life into the city from there house in the mornings.
After our time in Kelowna we journeyed onward to Vancouver. We arrived in Vancouver on Tuesday night and stopped at our place of residence for the next few days- the Full Gospel Assembly church in Burnaby. We are guided to our room which is the church nursery, not bad.
That night we found out that there was a prayer meeting going on with the Zion church. Our base leader John Knoch told us that it would be beneficial to us if we went there and it was. We arrived with a little help if a GPS. Going upstairs to a small room filled with a diverse group of people praying, we are introduced to the group and given an opportunity to share. The pray time there was phenomenal and we had many encouraging words spoken over us. One of the highlights for me was meeting the Russian missionary that was a guest to the Zion church. We struck up conversation and I began to tell him about where we were planning on going. I told him that I was hoping to get to Seattle for church on Sunday and he asked me what church we were going to. I told him that I was hoping to go to Mars Hill. He said “oh yeah, Mark Driscoll, I like him.” He began to tell me that he watches the pod casts in at his home in Russia. It was so awesome to meet some one from Russia who was stoked on reformed theology.
For the next few days we had the opportunity to minister at Union Gospel Mission. UGM is a shelter for the homeless, but it is not your every day shelter. This place packed with a highly energetic clientele of about 120-130 homeless people from all different experiences and backgrounds, and seven crazy staff that we had lots of time to get to know and encourage. There are probably too many highlights to share but I think the number one was the time Barbie and I got to spend with Bill Wong. He is the manager of the UGM. We spent a large portion of the day with Bill running around the city picking up donations and talking. We really connected with Bill and had an awesome time of fellowship with him. It’s truly amazing to hear stories of the lives that have been changed by the mission and we were blessed to have been there.
Next up for us we are headed to Seattle. We need Prayer, today (Saturday) our van decided to break down, I guess the fuel pump and the fuel relay were on the last legs and decided to throw in the towel. So we are now in a holding pattern. Praise the Lord. We are being obedient.
Saturday night we got to relax and hang out with Dan & Arielle (Barbie’s bro & his GF). We had a really nice visit and had some delicious Indonesian curry. (made from scratch! Thank you!) It was a fun time, and as always, ended too soon.
Today is Sunday, the seventh day of outreach. WE are hoping to leave today for Seattle, but alas the van is in the shop still. We went to church at the Full Gospel Assembly this morning. The New Waves team performed a couple of their dances and the Hauka. The church was very culturally diverse. We had a lot of fun and were very blessed by the congregation. WE got to pray for many people after the sermon and the youth rocked it out. We had lunch with them after and it was a really cool time.
So here we are, not sure what is ahead, but we are confident in what the Lord has told us and are excited for the next seven weeks!
I had an interesting word there for them and the city. I saw our group in the spirit gather up something like snow balls and throw them out onto the city and I also saw the couple speaking life into the city from there house in the mornings.
After our time in Kelowna we journeyed onward to Vancouver. We arrived in Vancouver on Tuesday night and stopped at our place of residence for the next few days- the Full Gospel Assembly church in Burnaby. We are guided to our room which is the church nursery, not bad.
That night we found out that there was a prayer meeting going on with the Zion church. Our base leader John Knoch told us that it would be beneficial to us if we went there and it was. We arrived with a little help if a GPS. Going upstairs to a small room filled with a diverse group of people praying, we are introduced to the group and given an opportunity to share. The pray time there was phenomenal and we had many encouraging words spoken over us. One of the highlights for me was meeting the Russian missionary that was a guest to the Zion church. We struck up conversation and I began to tell him about where we were planning on going. I told him that I was hoping to get to Seattle for church on Sunday and he asked me what church we were going to. I told him that I was hoping to go to Mars Hill. He said “oh yeah, Mark Driscoll, I like him.” He began to tell me that he watches the pod casts in at his home in Russia. It was so awesome to meet some one from Russia who was stoked on reformed theology.
For the next few days we had the opportunity to minister at Union Gospel Mission. UGM is a shelter for the homeless, but it is not your every day shelter. This place packed with a highly energetic clientele of about 120-130 homeless people from all different experiences and backgrounds, and seven crazy staff that we had lots of time to get to know and encourage. There are probably too many highlights to share but I think the number one was the time Barbie and I got to spend with Bill Wong. He is the manager of the UGM. We spent a large portion of the day with Bill running around the city picking up donations and talking. We really connected with Bill and had an awesome time of fellowship with him. It’s truly amazing to hear stories of the lives that have been changed by the mission and we were blessed to have been there.
Next up for us we are headed to Seattle. We need Prayer, today (Saturday) our van decided to break down, I guess the fuel pump and the fuel relay were on the last legs and decided to throw in the towel. So we are now in a holding pattern. Praise the Lord. We are being obedient.
Saturday night we got to relax and hang out with Dan & Arielle (Barbie’s bro & his GF). We had a really nice visit and had some delicious Indonesian curry. (made from scratch! Thank you!) It was a fun time, and as always, ended too soon.
Today is Sunday, the seventh day of outreach. WE are hoping to leave today for Seattle, but alas the van is in the shop still. We went to church at the Full Gospel Assembly this morning. The New Waves team performed a couple of their dances and the Hauka. The church was very culturally diverse. We had a lot of fun and were very blessed by the congregation. WE got to pray for many people after the sermon and the youth rocked it out. We had lunch with them after and it was a really cool time.
So here we are, not sure what is ahead, but we are confident in what the Lord has told us and are excited for the next seven weeks!
Monday, January 12, 2009
Outreach-Day 1
Up this morning, 4 am. In the van and on the road, leaving Cypress Hills, Alberta, 5:30am.
Arrive in Kelowna, BC, 9:30pm.
One day down and we are well aware that a good attitude can change everything.
Jesus is Lord!
Arrive in Kelowna, BC, 9:30pm.
One day down and we are well aware that a good attitude can change everything.
Jesus is Lord!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)