Hi Everyone!
As many of you know from my Facebook posts, we are in the midst of a 5 week ministry trip. At first it was 2.5 then another week was added, and shortly after that a much needed slot for debriefing (from our time in China) opened up and we'll be attending that for a week with a few days on our own in between. As you may have also noticed, we have added some ministry contributors to our Blog postings. Not long ago my friend Tom Steele of Truth Ignited posted his first contribution "Hath God Said?" Our vision of providing a place for independent ministries to cooperate and grow is taking flight and we look forward to the future contributions of others who are already working on their first Blogs.
Anyways, here is quick update to catch you up a little on what we are doing.
We made our way to Colorado Springs and did a little camping along the way. We stopped in Durango where we were snowed out the second morning. We were able to reconnect with some wonderful people, Justin and Mikquel Matherson. They are doing some wonderful things for Abba and are such an inspiration. From Durango we made our way to Salida, Colorado thinking we'd get ahead of the weather and enjoy a couple more nights of camping before getting to Colorado Springs. Well, the weather turned cold and we got snow there too, but it didn't accumulate and the last evening there the weather turned in our favor and we enjoyed an amazing evening by the campfire.
In Colorado Springs, it snowed about 6" our second day and it was a heavy and wet snow that broke tree branches all over the city and even made some trees fall. There we visited with some wonderful people Ali and Sierra. They made us an amazing dinner of delicious dishes form his home country of Afghanistan. His testimony is amazing. God's grace shines through them both with such fervor.
Later in the week, I took an unscheduled prayer walk which took me about 14 miles. It had been 25 years since I pastored in Colorado Springs and I hadn't realized I needed some inner healing until I began that walk. I didn't know quite where I was, but I knew how to get where I was going. The in between was and adventure down memory lane. That particular pastorate was one of the hardest ministry periods of my life. I was only 24 and it was my first Senior Pastorate, and my first time so far from family and friends.
That walk was emotionally hard for more reasons than I can list here, but it was also very healing.
In Colorado Springs we met up with the Discipleship Training School from YWAM (Youth with a Mission) Tribal Winds - the base Naphtali's parents planted and we are now working out of. We took the baton, so to speak, and led the next phase of their final outreach. The host ministry was "Hands of Faith" in Nebraska, but it was just across the stateline from White Clay and Pine Ridge, S. Dakota. Pine Ridge is just 40 minutes from where the Wounded Knee Massacre occurred and many Lakota were slaughtered like caged animals. In the coming days, I hope to write to you about the lecture we were so graciously given by a descendant of Sitting Bull, a Lakota leader who had been betrayed by and murdered by a fellow Lakota paid to kill him.
A Pic from Inside the Main Chapel at Glacier Bible Camp
Where we are currently staying
The last two days have been remarkable. We are in Hungry Horse, Montana at Glacier Bible Camp. It was a gathering of several Youth with a Mission (YWAM) focus groups. We are here representing YWAM Tribal Winds for Naphtali's parents in the group focused on ministry to Native Americans. Not the Colonial Jesuit model of times past, but a model of taking time to see where Abba has inserted Himself into those cultures and introducing them to His attempts to reveal Himself to them through their unique culture. Not unlike Shaul/Paul with the statue of the unknown God.
I pretty much always feel a little out of place at events of this kind. It used to be because of the system I never really fit into. In recent years it's because the system seems to be everywhere.
THIS HAS BEEN DIFFERENT.
We have been able to listen to the stories of others and pray, weep and laugh with, and prophecy to one another. I've met some incredible people... I mean truly incredible. Not the impressive resume' and dossier types of the global business realm. Though there are some of those too. But people who have endured testing and trials to stay with people who seemed to not want them around in order to produce fruit after as much as two decades before seeing any at all. Most would have walked away after 2.
This may very well be the first place where I, the real me - not the "me as I was trained to be", has been accepted and celebrated without having to prove anything to anyone. They discerned my heart through my tears. They saw my burden in my passion. They perceived my value in my quest for Him and nothing more.This is the relational ministry model I believe Abba has destined for me to perpetuate. This will be the model we will use for building Home Assemblies. All of which He confirmed through a dear sweet elderly prophet named Georgia today.
Well, that catches you up some. I'll try to get back on here soon and add some pictures.
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