Ministry Trips in May

The prayer room has been truly amazing this month, even though we were out of town for a short while towards the end, there has just been this sweetness about God while in prayer. He is wooing us into a new season of adoration and simplicity in seeking Him while He teaches us how to pray correctly. I’m reading a book right now called Crafted Prayer by Graham Cooke and it is amazing. I highly recommend it! God has been answering our prayers and it has been truly encouraging to see the results.

I have been doing quite a bit of traveling this month as some of you know. Earlier in the month I traveled to Portland OR and Washington state with the "Encounter" team from our church. We spent the weekend of the 17th ministering inner healing and freedom to a wonderful Russian community that resides there. It was absolutely beautiful to see the level of freedom the Lord brought these people. It is so humbling to have God use our team in this way. Their hospitality is unmatched to any other I’ve seen in a community. They love to eat and we had plenty of Russian delicacies to keep our strength up as we ministered.

Prayer Mountain where our team met before meetings

Coming back down from Prayer Mountain

The meeting hall at the retreat center

Matt ministering on the bass during the "Encounter" service

A prayer line to minister Freedom to these sweet people

I came back from Portland and was home for 3 days recuperating from jet lag and then on the road again with the family this time. Erika, baby Joel and our friend Edwin and I all drove up to South Carolina together to minister in Greenville and attend The Call conference in Fort Mill.

Erika & Joel at The Call Conference

We had an amazing time seeing some old friends and encountering God in the two Houses of Prayer that are there. We stayed with the Rummage family who were our old home group leaders. It was a joy to be in their midst again. ZHOP and JHOP, both of which we were a part of while we lived there, are continuing to grow. ZHOP is running with their vision to incorporate the arts and now have 3 art tables and quite a few artist as well as paintings hanging all over the place.

Artwork displayed at ZHOP

Matt's old group leader, Ryan, leading a set at ZHOP

It’s good to see a community that’s keeping the fire on the altar burning day and night. We were also there when JHOP launched the 40 day fast for the Call in July and witnessed their transition to full time day and night prayer. Previously they had only had enough interns to fill 6 am until Midnight, but word is getting out and they are being swarmed with internship applicants. On Memorial Day the base threw a huge Bar-B-Q and provided spray cans for car painting in preparation of The Summer of Love Tour taking place this summer right after 7-7-07.

While we were at The Cause base, we felt strongly about having Lou and Therese Engle pray over Joel. We found out we were pregnant at a Cause Rumble last summer and God told us his name would be Joel, a major motivation scripture behind The Call, it just seemed right to have him blessed by Lou, the founder of The Call. The Engles have been a huge source of inspiration to both of us and we love them dearly for their heart and passion towards the youth of this generation. Lou gave us some scriptures to study in the books of Joel and Hosea, about his name, Joel Ammi. Joel is growing so fast, it seems that he grows everyday. He did so well on this trip to SC, sleeping almost the entire car ride up and back. Everyone fell in love with him and he was the center of most of the conversations we had there. When we were there last time, 11 people were pregnant in ZHOP and most of them have had their children since we last saw them so it was quite a joy to see all the little blessings in the arms of their parents.

We were also honored to be able to lead worship with a group of people out in the Greenville area. While we were living in Fort Mill, we met Lisa Aman who was our mid-wife for a short time before we came back to Florida. Lisa and her husband Chris have a beautiful piece of land right on a river where they invite worship teams and ministers out to share and worship in a home group type setting. They have some very exciting plans for the future and we are looking forward to the next time we are able to go up and visit them again. While we worshiped God, the Spirit of Prophecy fell and some very encouraging and directional words came forth for us and others that were there. Once again it was amazing to be able to minister in the midst of such a God-Loving bunch of People.

We wanted to thank all of you once again for making this ministry possible. Many people are being touched and that is worth all the effort! In fact, we even had a devine prayer connection made on the ride North when our tire popped right at an exit. We ended up meeting a man who use to play bluegrass music in the church but had fallen away. He was expressing his desire to return but couldn't help feeling like a hypocrite. I prayed that God's love would be revealed to him in a real way and that he would return to his first love and play once again. He was so blessed that he told his fellow beer drinkers goodbye and went home. Bless God!

Our new friend Jimmy H.