God is definitely moving in this place and its amazing to watch. Our school has had divine health declared and prophesied over it and it is awesome to watch God back up that prophecy. There have been a couple people in our school who have gotten malaria , we have prayed for them and they have recovered! God is so up to stuff its amazing.
This entry is going to be unlike my previous entries in that I don’t have a whole lot of amazing radical testimonies of the manifestations of God, even though they happened during this last week. God Is calling me into a new place during this time and it is an interesting journey to say the very least. God has pulled me out of the corporate anointing into a place of silence. He has taken me into a season of learning to receive rather than only receiving through giving. He is teaching me about his father’s heart in new revolutionary ways that is just absolutely rocking me. He has started me down a journey of intimacy with Him that I have never been on before. It is a new level that I have never experienced, and its taking some getting used to, because there isn’t the typical flash bang excitement of being a part of miracles and gnarly stuff, but its more of a season of quiet fullness that is impossible to resist. I am finding myself getting up early to spend time with the lord before everyone else gets up. During our corporate worship sessions he has just taken me into a quiet place of soaking which is really amazing. It is interesting the way that God works, since He has started me down this journey of quiet he has given me so much revelation into my own life and my own relationships and why things are the way they are in my life. Some of the revelation has been unpleasant and other revelation has been absolutely glorious. One of these revelations is that I never really learned how to have fun with God as my father. He and I never really do anything fun together, because my quiet times have always been focused on “this is where I need improvement.” I have never really allowed myself to just “be” in His presence before, because I always felt that I was urgently in need of improvement. He is teaching me to have a story with Him. We go and do stuff together, we climb trees, we swim in the ocean, I never realized before that God enjoys having fun That concept has been completely foreign to me.
That is only one example of what God has been doing. He is stirring stuff in me that I never even knew existed. I am realizing what needs to start happening in my life and He is giving me awesome revelation about my calling and the steps that I need to take in order to get there. He is also really just taking me down a road of healing that Has been totally refreshing and has lifted some major burdens off of my shoulders.
We have started a soccer tournament between us and the Mozambican bible school students. Out of our first two games, despite the help of Jazz and Dana the have beaten us both times. But it has been a great time of bonding with them. Our speakers have continued to be amazing each one bringing something entirely different and unique that gives added perspective on missions, martyrdom, and the Intensity of God’s calling on your life and just how Jealous he is for your attention. He has been bringing major conviction with how much time I waste doing useless stuff and how he wants to call me to something higher. Its kind of funny though, in regards to the question “God what do I do with my future?” instead of making my options narrower, He has added more of them to the equation to choose from. Now I am more in a pickle than ever because threre is so much that God has put on my plate saying “I want you to do this.” But giving no time frame for any of it. Im not worried though. I know ill be in cali for at least a few months when I get back, just because of What He is doing there and the involvment I have with everyday back home. I am coming to realize more and more especially being in communication with Heidi and others, just how close California is to revival. And I am realizing that stewarding What God wants to do in California is my absolute number one priority for when I get home.
The other day we had a time where we practiced the gift of prophecy, and traded prophetic words with each other, and it was really cool to see God moving. Especially through those who have never prophesied before. It is always encouraging to see someone realize more fully the power that they have in Christ. I think that probably gives me some of the most joy out of my time here. ~ watching people realize their Identities and how as co-heirs with Christ they have the power to recreate and do everything that Jesus did. Its funny though. Often when you hear that thrown around there aren’t the miracles to back it up, there are at best stories. Here they say that in lecture, then we walk out into the villages and see the blind eyes opened and the deaf ears hear. The anointing on this place for miracles is unlike anything I have ever experienced in my life, and it is just so challenging for me to be able to see first hand how we all should be walking every day as followers of Christ. It makes me burn for more in California. I am not content to be a Sunday Christian. God is so up to something and He is pulling me into it like a whirlpool. Im caught in it, and I have passed the point of no return. Im done with living a life that has absolutely no impact on eternity, Im droppin my nets and following.
Thank you guys for your consistant prayers.
During this next time I am really in need of prayer for
Deeper revelation of God through initimacy
An ability to learn to laugh and have fun with God
Practical direcion as to whether or not God wants me to Go on outreach,
And money to pay for it if that is the case.
A job when I get home, so I can start funding my adventures!
Thanks a million!
Ben
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Everyone post their harvest pics here
photobucket.com
username: harvest10
password: Pemba10
you will notice that the P in Pemba is capitalized
username: harvest10
password: Pemba10
you will notice that the P in Pemba is capitalized
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
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
Saturday, June 6, 2009
First Entry, Ive Made it!
Hey everyone ,
It has been an intense first couple of days here.
First I would just like to let you all know that we made it fine and had absolutely no hitches in our travel whatsoever. I left after my party on the 29th where I said goodbye to a great many of you, and drove down to Pasadena with my mom. It was a very good drive and I enjoyed being able to get some really good quality time with her. We just talked all the way down. It didn’t even really set in that I was leaving and won’t see you guys for three months until just yesterday. That made me really sad. I miss you guys already… So we got to Pasadena and stopped at my sister’s house where we camped for a few hours. At about three in the morning I was picked up by Kim’s parents, because we had arranged to travel the whole way together. Kim having never traveled, had parents that were grateful for her to be able to travel with someone else. So we drove to the airport and went through our baggage check and customs without any problems at all. We got to our gate and waited for about thirty minutes before they started to board our flight. We weren’t able to reserve seats next to each other on this flight because it was over booked but that was ok because it was pretty short leg anyway. Our flight left at 6:30 am and flew to New York. From there we went immediately to our next gate and boarded our next flight to Dakar in Senegal. There was no gimme time at all between these flights, and we were very relieved to make it on to that one. On this flight Kim and I didn’t have seats next to each other either, but an African gentleman gave up his seat so that we could sit next to each other. Unlike the flight from LA to New York, this flight was actually decent. You didn’t need to pay an arm and a leg for dinner, or the movies. Haha. So after five hours from LA to New York, we flew about another eight from New York to Dakar, Dakar is the very most western Tip of the hump of Africa. We offloaded our flight and were ushered into a Delta lounge for about forty five minutes which was actually very nice because it was incredibly hot outside already. It was about 4 in the morning and already pushing 85 degrees. Dakar is Basically the bottom of the Sahara Desert. From there we loaded on to our next flight which was a long one. It flew All the way to Johannesburg South Africa. This flight was either 9 or 10 hours. I am not exactly sure which. Needless to say it was an incredibly long flight. And being as tall as I am I was especially miserable having nothing to lean my head against. I Didn’t get much sleep on that flight. As we were coming into Johannesburg I got a chance to talk to the guy across the aisle from me, and it turns out he was Going to P. too. Apparently there were about 50 people from something called Global Awakening on this flight. They were all going with Randy C. to P. for two weeks. So Randy C was on our flight. That was pretty cool. So we landed and outside of the deboarding area. Kim and I met up with a guy named Taylor Gonzales who was also on the same flight who was doing the harvest school. He and I made arrangements to get a room together in Jo’berg. He was also on the same flight from Dakar. We were walking out to catch a shuttle to the hotel when Robert found us and he decided to come with us. Apparently he had been in the airport for 10 hours having had a 23 hour layover in Jo’berg Airport. We all go to our hotel and Kim got a room with another gal , Krista, from our school. The next morning we all went back to the airport and at 8:40 caught our LAM flight to Mozambique. W had a stop in Maputo and had to go through customs there. I was issued a One month Visa because you cannot get a 3 month entry visa at the border. And since the consulate denied my visa application It was the best I could do. Now I have to go through the process of getting my visa renewed before the month runs out, because apparently if I stay beyond the limits they start charging 100 bucks per day. Supposedly it can be a very complicated process to get a visa renewed. So p. for big time favor. Im not worried. God has already shown that he is so in control of our situation it’s incredible. We boarded our same plane and flew on to P. Pretty much the entire flight was people going to the same place we were. What between the Global Awakening People and the school, we pretty much swamped the P. airport with people and luggage. Their one little baggage claim belt was having a very hard time handling all of the luggage for people that were planning on being there for quite some time. It was interesting, all of the locals who flew, without exception every one of their bags were shrink wrapped. One said it was to prevent people from opening your bags and stealing stuff. I will have to do that in the future.
There was a truck there to pick us up and take us to the base where we will be staying for the next three months. It was great, all the way on the flight. We talked with other people that were in the school and stuff. Then we finally got there and were checked into our rooms and just started to socialize. We pretty much had the whole day to ourselves other than just like a groundwork meeting at 6:30. We met lots of people, and we were hanging outside in our compound outside of one of the houses, when two girls Chelsiey and another gal busted out their guitars. We just had an impromptu worship sesh on the spot and it was amazing. It was incredibly anointed and people as soon as they started to hear the music just started to show up. It was awesome. After that it just turned into an all out spirit filled ministry time where people just started going crazy. Getting gnarly p. and prophetic words. It was awesome. I ran into Christine again, who I had met back in LA then in AG who is also doing the school. That first Night we had rice and beans. It was really good cause we were really hungry. Apparently that is the staple here so I might not be as grateful for it in the future.
The next day was ridiculous. The first day we got there essentially, happened to be the second biggest holiday in Mozambique other than Christmas. Its called Children’s day. It is a celebration of the children. So the Compound was opened up to the public and the kids from the village. Not only were the 500 or so orphans fed at the feast, but about 2,500 kids from the nearby village came to eat. It was a feast day, and so the kids were coming in by the truckload. It was really cool because all of the children were singing on their trucks as they were coming in. I caught some of it on video thank goodness. The day is really special because each kid got not only the normal beans and rice and cabbage, but also got chicken and a soda. Which is a HUGE deal here. Like a once a year type deal. I got some pretty amazing photos. So all day we were incredibly booked with all the stuff we were doing, trying to keep the kids organized and keep the chaos level down. I was on gate control where we managed the lines of kids at the front gate and tried to keep the flow of kids steady so as to not swamp the kitchen with a mob. At the end, we had to get all the kids out, but the Global awakening people had something special in store. In order to get out the kids had to go through a huge firetunnel of all the staff, long term missionaries, and harvest students. For those of you that don’t know a fire tunnel is basically a big long p. tunnel where everybody p. for people as they are walking through. It was quite an ordeal as you can imagine. It was by far the most nuts firetunnel ive ever seen. After all the kids went through, the staff and missionaries started to go through as well. H. was there, and she went through, it was hilarious because she got knocked over by Jesus at least 5 times. Bummer to be the girl behind her huh? But at that point the firetunnel just sort of collapsed ant turned into a holy spirit free for all, where all of us students were pretty much rolling around in the Mozambican dirt getting absolutely wrecked. I have never seen such a high concentration of Sprit drunkies in one place. It was kind of ridiculous and awesome. We were there for a good 3 hours at least. I took a very brief, but very needed shower that night after we had some worship and went straight to bed.
Only to be woken up at 5 in the morning by a bird chilling on the windowsill right next to my head. There is no glass in the windows, only rebar grates, so the bird was like a foot and a half away from my face screaming its heart out. I got up and decided to have a quiet time and watch the sun rise over the Indian ocean. It was one of the most glorious quiet times ive ever had. It was so peaceful, it was cool because the sun hadn’t come up yet, and I just stood there on the root of this huge tree crying out to the lord in thanks for bringing me this far. I then flipped my ipod to my ‘anointed’ playlist and just worshiped until the sun came up til about seven when it was time for breakfast. Breakfast is a roll and a cup of tea, which will take some getting used to. Then we went to our ‘classroom’ which is actually a hut that is open on all sides so you can see the entire country side and the ocean. We worshiped as a school for the first time which was pretty amazing. There are some real fire bringers in our crew and it was awesome to be a part of what God is doing. Then Randy C. came and gave us our first lecture, it was pretty amazing. He talked a little bit about m. and told some stories that were incredibly inspiring. Then we had more worship where Randy and his team came around and ministered to each of us. It was again pretty amazing.
After a brief break we were back in lecture only this time it was H. speaking. She spoke on the Good Samaritan, and stopping for the one. I have never heard the story of the Good Samaritan put in such light. Itwas amazing. She cast the three people in the story not as a priest and a levite, and a Samaritan, but as a pastor, a worship leader, and a normal person. It was really good. Amazing teaching. After H. spoke we had another holy spirit party, only this time the kids were a part of it. Some little like seven year old kid came and laid hands on me and started p.ing for me, and completely laid me out. I was shaking I was doin all sorts of stuff. Its intresting, God totally used this kid way more to touch me than Randy C. Randy p.ed for me and almost nothing happened, but this kid p.ed for me and I went ballistic. God has been shattering my expectations and my preconceived ideas of what stuff is going to look like and man is it good! Then from there we had lunch then had the rest of the day off. I went to town to try and find a jimbey but was unsuccessful. I need to continue to pursue that tomorrow. It was a long day in town for accomplishing nothing that I wanted. So I came home and hung out with the kids. Then went to a meeting for people who want to be involved in worship. I don’t really want to but God told me to so I guess that is what Im doing. We had dinner and just hung out as a school some more which invariably means it turned into another j. party. In three days it has had to have happened at least like 12 times already. It is a little nuts. Then I went to bed, got up again at 5 this morning, had another amazing quiet time, and went to breakfast. After breakfast we had language class and worship, which was again nuts, these people are always nuts. Then we went and listened to another lecture by Randy C., which was really amazing, but it was kind of a bummer cause the guy translating wasn’t very good and always had to stop and ask randy to reword which totally diminished the power of the message I thought. It was still amazing though.
Anyway this is a lot of typing and I got other stuff to do, so I am gonna jam. Ill keep you guys posted. In terms of p. requests. Major favor as far as the visa goes, and just keep me in p. for the supernatural. We are gonna start going on outreaches to the bush bush soon so We are really pumped for that. Robert is doing great, Jazz and Dana haven’t arrived yet, but things are amazing. All of us are basically a big family already. I have never connected with people so fast. And from me that is actually saying something. Keep us in p. for safety in health. And that God would dump out his glory on us in exponential proportions, and that we might be able to receive every bit of it! I am p.ing for you all back home, and am already missing you guys!!
Salaama (makua for hello, I dunno what goodbye is so ill use this til I do.)B
Ben
Actually Jazz and Dana just showed up so Im gonna show ‘em the ropes! Catch yall later!
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