Round Two: Fight

So much to tell and I have no idea where to begin. Basically so much has happened in the last couple of days, that I will tell by events and not days. The days here are just so cram packed that itd be impossible to tell it all. Its weird though, you know that expression “time flies when you are having fun” ? well here its like the opposite. We hare having fun all the time, but each day is like the longest day in the world, and we are only just now at the end of our second week.
So God is pretty much amazing and has totally got my number. Back in January when I got home from Kona I was pretty sure that I was going to immediately back to staff the school called the “fire and the fragrance” but instead God called me to stay home and honor my parents by going to college, I was really torn up for about a month because I felt like I was missing out on the plan that God had for me. I felt like the Fire and Fragrance that I knew I was supposed to be a part of was going on without me. But God has just been revealing his faithfulness to me. This last week a guy from kona came and spoke to our class. His name was Todd Mc**** and he is the guy who basically created Fire and fragrance. He handed it over to Andy Byrd and his team but it was his prayer child. So Noel one of my friends from Kona, I was talking to her online when she said “hey my sister and her husband and kids are going to Iris for three weeks” It turns out Todd is this guy and his Wife is Noel’s sis. Anyway really small world. So Todd has been my favorite speaker thus far because the heart that he has is basically the same thing that I feel called to. His whole heart of the marriage between the global prayer movement and the missions movement based upon a Moravian style model is so my heart. Going from the place of prayer to the place of ministry rather than just doing one or the other. After he taught his final session we had a prayer time where he started giving out prophetic words and his kids came around and started praying for people. I went up to him and explained to him my heart and the feeling I had that I was missing out by not being able to be a part of the fire and the fragrance. He totally understood. I asked him to pray for me and to pour out an impartation of all of the DNA of the fire and the fragrance seeing as how he is the father of the movement. He did so. He prayed for me to receive all of the revelation that would have come during the school. It was an incredible prayer. I was thrown to the ground and was laughing and sobbing at the same time. Then he began to prophesy over me and his prophetic words were hitting all the major spots of my life in like really quick sucession. He laid hands on me and his hands got super hot and I could just feel the “Fuego de dios” flowing into me. It was incredibly intense. I got super drunk. Easily more drunk than I have ever been. Then he began to release an impartation of hunger and dissatisfaction and never being contented with my relationship with the lord but always to seek for more. This prayer has been destroying me. It has totally worked.
Since then God has totally just blown me away. Every day are more and more revelations of his goodness and his call upon my life. He has been blessing me and it is just plain amazing how much God is in charge of my life right now. So the next speaker after Todd was David Hogan. I know right? A little ridiculous. All of this time Heidi is speaking to us as well. She speaks probably two days a week. She is an incredibly busy lady. So David was his usual blunt brutal self. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the name, David Hogan is a gnarly missionary to the Indian tribes of Southern Mexico, and his missions organization has seen over 425 people raised from the dead and they are walking in miracles, signs and wonders like no other ministry I have ever heard of. He told us some of his stories, to inspire us, but also to intimidate us. He basically said. “ I am here to convince you to not do what you are thinking about doing. Because if you can be argued away from missions you don’t have what I t takes to succeed on the mission field.” He Is the complete opposite end of the spectrum of Heidi who is all about love. David Hogan is this firey Southern Man from Louisiana whois all about the Fire of the Holy Ghost, and the might and sovereignty of God. He doesn’t mess around. By his own definition he is a “militant soldier for Christ.” And man does he fit the description. He is the most intimidating person I have ever seen in my life. And that is not an exaggeration.

So this past week our team went on outreach. And Both Heidi and David Hogan went with us for the first day. So all of our team “Green team” ( our class is broken down into color groups) Dana and I are both on the same color group which is really cool. We shared a tent. Anyway, we all loaded onto the back of a flatbed truck with about 15 mozambican pastor students and another 4 visitors. David and Heidi and their Crew all came in their land rovers. So we drove for about 2 and a half hours. I had been fasting for about two days prior, so I was pretty excited to eat some peanut butter and crackers before hand. They were really good. So we finally got to the village at about dark and immidatley pitched our tents and went to ministry. We set up the sound system and the movie projector off the back of the truck and quickly drew a crowd of about 300 people. There were a lot of drunk guys there too. Then Heidi and David proceeded to speak to the crowd and talk about healing the sick and the salvation of jesus. We were interceding on the side. It was really good. But there was a lot of opposition. We saw witchdoctors in the bush on our way there and we definitely felt the spirit of mockery and doubt in that place. It was pretty intense. But Heidi and David when they get the Holy spirit on them are forces to be reckoned with. Brock Heidi’s nephew got sick so I took his place in the play of the good Samaritan and was the guy that got beat up and robbed from. That went really well. The people actually thought I was getting beat up it was really hilarious. So after that Heidi took a call and well over half of the people there raised their hands to receive Jesus. And they prayed with us. Then we went into a ministry time where we went around and prayed for the sick to receive healing. I gotta tell you right now that the anointing on Iris ministries in this land for healing is so ridiculous. We saw so many miracles. Bloated stomachs deflated, deaf ears opened, cataracts removed. A lot of deliverance from demons happened, especially in terms alcoholism. We totally broke that spirit in that village. A bunch of drunk guys came up for prayer, intending to make fools out of us, and a bunch of them got sobered up as we were praying for them. It was awesome. The Locals love to dance. After prayer we went into a nutty dance session to local music that lasted a good couple of hours. And eventually at around eleven we had dinner. It was this really good Tuna spaghetti. Which Doesn’t really sound appetizing, but when you’ve been having nothing but beans and rice for quite some time it begins to be appealing. Then we went to bed, and Dana and I shared my tent. It was really cool. We woke up bright and early and went out to have breakfast with Heidi and David and it was funny because on the truck somebody sat on the bag that had our breakfast rolls so they were all flattened. Then we piled hundreds of kids into the trucks and went about a kilometer to the river where we went to baptize people. It was really cool because two days before Heidi’s Neice Morgan accepted Jesus. So she got baptized and it was really cool. But when she was walking out of the water after being baptized, a Cobra came out from underneath a piece of wood and started toward her. David Hogan, Who was standing right there as quick as anything stomped the snake a good solid four times, then in one quick motion whipped out his pocket knife and chopped its head off. I was standing right next to him when it happened. The snake was probably only about two feet long, but that actually makes it more dangerous because the little ones don’t know how to control their venom yet so they use it all. I bite from that snake would kill. But that killing of that snake was so prophetic. And the quickness with which David dispatched it was amazing. Then We proceeded to baptize a good 30 more people. It was really cool I had a chance to get in the water and baptize people with Heidi. It was so amazing. Afterwards I came up out of the water, and David Hogan laid hands on Me because I asked him for an impartation of authority and Might, He laid hands on me and brought the “fuego De Dios” and I got totally destroyed, I fell to the ground in the mud and reeds, then Heidi came over and prayed for me as well as well in addition to David’s aides and a bunch of other people. So I was getting totally worked in the spirit. It was really gnarly. I was getting double teamed by Heidi and David at the same time. It was hardcore intense.
After that Heidi and David and their crews left in their land rovers so it was just us green team and the bible students. We chilled out for the afternoon for a few hours, then we all hopped back in the truck and drove on a gnarly bumpy road for another two hours. This village was out in the middle of NOWHERE. Then we went and started to set up the video screen and sound system. Dana went over and played soccer with a bunch of guys that were playing shirts and skins. It was a really intense game, He went over and joined the team and was an instant hit. He was like a superstar. They all loved him. Soccer skills will get you in pretty much anywhere in the world. Haha. By the time we were set up it was dark. So we started the Jesus film which is a good two and a half hours long and is basically just the gospel from when Jesus started ministry. But it was translated into Makua, which is the local dialect. We interceded for a lot of the time because we couldn’t understand the movie anyway. Young one of the gals on our team from Korea is a hardcore intercessor and she just broke. God started revealing to her , His heart for these people and she started sobbing and fell to the ground. The stars were more clear that night than I have ever seen them. Dana, Kim, Lyle and I laid on the hood of our truck and watched the stars. I probably saw a good 8 shooting stars. When the video was finally over they turned all of our floodlights back on and we were blown away. What started as a crowd of about 300 had swelled to fill the entire dirt soccer field and there were easily over 2000 people there. Pastor Jose began to preach the gospel to them and our team lined up in front of the truck and waited. That night over half the people there, about 1000 people received Jesus into their hearts. It was absolutely amazing. Then we went into a time of praying for the sick and God unleashed the miracles in ways that I have never seen before. We saw deaf people hear, a guy with a broken arm healed with full flexibility, I personally laid hands on a bunch of kids with bloated stomachs and felt about four of five of them actually deflate under my hands. There was a newborn baby whose eyes were swollen shut and pussy, I prayed for her and the swelling dropped and the pus cleared out. We Saw hunched over old ladies straighten up and dance for the first time, and many many more. They started taking testimonies but all the testimonies were in Makua so I still don’t know what happened. But God was in that place in such a powerful way. Jesus just poured out his love in that place and His Glory fell. \
After we wrapped up there we packed up and drove home. It was an even more rough ride because the driver couldn’t see all of the potholes in the dark and so the ride in the back was the ride from hell. Easily coming par with those Jeepney rides of the Phillipines. That night we had fresh Goat stew for dinner. I was going to slaughter the goat but didn’t get to because we had to go to that other village. I was really bummed. Oh well I will do it some other time on another outreach. We went to bed Bushwhacked quite literally. The Bush Bush whacked us. The next morning we packed up and drove home early because We are all going camping as a school tomorrow so we needed to be back for that.
That’s all I have got for now.
My prayer requests are simple.
That Jesus would reveal himself to me even more and that He would always be enough for me.
That The financial situation (yes I still am in need) would see breakthrough,
That he would be able to mold me in this time into The Man of God that he wants me to become.

Thank you all so much for your prayers,
They really are making a difference.

Ben