Over 4000 Types of Potatoes In Peru

How’s that for a title?
Either it’s true, or Dean Milley is pulling my leg. Considering that other Peruvians at the dinner table didn’t correct it, I figure this was not an instance of which he was pulling my leg in his Newfie accented English.

I’m at his apartment right now while he and his other guest/ministry director left for church, and since I was waking up from a nap when he asked me if I wanted to come, I declined, thinking something else was going on. Funny how sleep or lack of it does that to your mind.

So I’m sitting here listening/watching to the streaming live footage of the Florida Healing Revival. I also unsuccessfully attempted to talk to my mom over Skype for mother’s day. And now, after a relatively busy few days, I’m just chilling alone at the apartment where I’m at now, and thought I easily had time to post an update since I don’t know when my next opportunity will arise.

But this will have to be quick and brief.
As the pictures below indicate, I got to preach to a youth group last night at the Fresh Oil Church (I forget how to pronounce it in Spanish, but that’s the name). I don’t know what else to say other than it was exciting, and my interpreter was very encouraged about the whole affair and thought the youth were very captivated by it. I preached primarily out of Romans 8 about the creation groaning for the revealing of the sons of God, and correlating it to this generation that God has been waiting for. At the end, one of the leaders there gave an altar call for people to get saved or rededicate their lives and four people came forward. Praise God!

Today I went with Dean, Nina, and Sherry–all newfies (which means I was outnumbered in my proper pronunciation of the English language)–to an English church this morning, where a church out of Florida operates a satellite church here and puts on a DVD from the church back in the USA. It was in a movie theatre. It was pretty cool. Other than the fact it was about the marriage bed, and NOT as singles-friendly as they insisted at the beginning. I am all for talking about real issues in church, but I can’t say sprucing up your sex life with your spouse was a very appealing topic to me nor is it even where I’m at in my relationship with Christ. But it had a cool feel to the atmosphere, and the free gift they gave to first time visitors was a 10 soles gift certificate to a restaurant that apparently has a franchise close to where I’m staying. So praise God.

Well, Dean, Nina, and Sherry are back and in a moment everybody’s leaving to go somewhere for ribs. I don’t want to miss out, so thanks for reading, and please keep in prayer the potential to speak to another youth group this Saturday. I’m awaiting confirmation about it, and the possibility to teach at Ron’s Bible school–this will happen, but I have to make sure not to overlap it with something else that day.

Blessings, and fire on your head.

Pictures for May 11th, 2008

Please Send Revival To Peru

Greetings my fellow revolutionaries,
Or should I say, revivalists? I will get to that in a moment.
First, this week’s updates are in order.

I’m no longer in the apartment I was staying in, but have moved in with Dean Milley, a missionary from Newfoundland who’s been here for 6 years. He youth pastors at a church in the area, and I’m going to be staying with him until I go home May 29th. And, he has actual internet! Praise God, so now I can update posts and pictures more speedily, and possibly record a podcast or two with Dan while I’m down here if he’s up for it, which I think he isn’t for the next couple of weeks while he has friends visiting him in Holland from the States.

What else to share in such a brief amount of space? I mentioned already how sunburned I got? Well, my skin is still peeling and flaking. I’ve never gotten one so bad before. I also tentatively have every Saturday and one Friday night booked for speaking to youth groups down here, and Ron has invited me to speak in his Bible School this Saturday or an upcoming one. I still have to get that part figured out.

This Sunday morning, I got to teach one of the Sunday school classes at Catedral De Fe (Cathedral of Faith), a very charismatic and large church here. My interpreter spoke to the youth pastor and he invited me to speak on short notice in his class with about 20 teenagers. I basically taught this, and this. And at the end got to pray with about 6 of the youth who had never been baptized in the Holy Spirit before, and were left speaking in tongues–albeit very inhibited but still starting it. The youth pastor and my interpreter Sara were both really pleased with it and felt I’d pushed them further out of their comfort zones than they normally go. Good to hear!

And finally (for now), have any of you heard about what God is doing in Lakeland, Florida? A revival so big it fills a baseball stadium of upwards of 12,000 people! I’m blown away and excited. I’ve heard nothing but good things from friends of mine in Charlotte, N.C. who drove down for a few days. In a personal e-mail, Brian Parkman referred to it as “Brownsville times ten” in terms of the raw power of God.

So on Monday night I went over to Ron and Michelle’s and we watched that night’s service live on the God.Tv site, and were just blown away at what’s going on. The first thing Todd Bentley (the tattooed Canadian man instrumental in this move of God that He has used mightily) did was call forth anyone there that was from the Netherlands, and they went forward and he laid hands on them and called forth the fire of God and told them to take it back to Holland. It makes me all excited to see the fresh things God’s doing all over the continent at this kairos moment in history, and in the months leading up to 08.08.08 on the Malieveld.

Afterwards, Ron, Michelle, and their other guest who is one of their children’s teachers whose name slips my mind as I write this–all began to pray as we turned the laptop off and just sought God intensely. Bring it to Peru!

Anyway, I’m not going to go into detail about it since you could Google search it and find out more for yourself. And there’s plenty of cowards with keyboards out there spouting off all their opinions about Todd Bentley and how this is fake and so on. Blah blah blah.. I just want God to move and I find it undeniable when I watch the live footage that God is breaking forth in something fresh, and this is just the beginning of something…

Come on God!

Anyway, here are a few more pictures for those of you who stubbornly refuse to join Facebook and see my pictures there..

FIRE On Your Head Episode 27: Is It Always God’s Will To Heal?

God is restoring power evangelism to the Body of Christ in this hour, so join us as we provide Scriptures to help anchor you in the subject of divine healing, and leave you no excuse for not stepping out and laying your hands on the sick.

Does God really keep people sick in order to teach them a lesson? Does God really withhold healing from anyone who seeks Him for it? What about those godly people who’ve sought God for healing but never got it, and even died in some cases? Does Scripture really teach that God gives us something different than what we ask Him for? Join us for a sacred cow slaughterhouse as we go through LOTS of Scripture on this one area.

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Related Articles:

‘What Would Jesus Do?–No, Seriously

Faith Is Selfish

How Come Jesus Only Healed One Man At The Pool of Bethesda?

The River of LIFE - Ezekiel 47:1-12

Please visit our site at http://firenederland.podbean.com/, or consider subscribing to us in the iTunes store, the Zune Marketplace or at ZenCast listed as “FIRE Nederland”, where you will also have access to many other teachings from our conferences.

Crazy Taxi Drivers, Bad Sunburns, and Cow Heart

Well, in a little while I’m off to bed at this early hour with what is probably heat stroke. I figured since I’m too exhausted to do much else and my head hurts too much to not lay down, that I’d pick up my laptop and try penning an update.

I didn’t heed peoples’ advice that down here white people burn to a crisp faster, especially when playing outdoor volleyball between noon and 1pm. Ouch. I was invited to attend some kind of celebration at the church I visited on Sunday—same place as the seminary my pastor Stephen taught at it before going back to Canada. Unfortunately, I forget what the holiday was today that they were taking off.

I have nothing planned tomorrow. I figured I could spend the day writing my latest newsletter and editing one of the two healing podcasts I pre-recorded with Dan before coming down here. Now, I anticipate sleeping in and rubbing aloe vera on my skin all day to soothe the pain.

Lima is definitely WAY different than Rotterdam, Netherlands! That sums it up in one sentence.

On Saturday night, I spoke to my first youth group while here, as the pictures below should indicate. The Lord put on my heart mostly some motivational stuff about this generation and what I’ve been seeing and hearing God doing all over the world, and how there’s never been a generation quite like us. I personally couldn’t tell if these teenagers were interested or not, but the leaders and my translator all insist they were very captivated. Then afterwards I attended my first Peruvian birthday party, which was an experience in and of itself. For some reason, it seemed that many of the games involved humiliating the gringo (foreigner/me).

I enjoyed myself, and had a ride home I’ll never forget—riding the Peruvian version of public transportation. I forget what the name of these buses is, but they’re more like big vans. It’s cheap, but I highly doubt I’ll ever ride one alone at night without other Peruvians, because quite frankly being a tall white guy makes me stick out and announce “hey I’m a gringo, rob me or mug me since I must have a lot of money.”

It’s really weird to face issues of race from the minority’s perspective—and be the odd one out whose safety is more likely to be in jeopardy than most peoples’. So far, I’ve had people go out of their way by about an hour just to ride a taxi, bus or drive me to my area of Lima to avoid having me be alone at night in several areas of this city. Not because anything is likely to happen to me, but because they haven’t wanted me to take the chance. So far, Ron and Dean Milley (the Canadian missionary whom I’m staying with starting next week) have both shown/told me some of the ropes and personal safety is something I’m not going to be careless about.

Yesterday I went with Ron to the mountains where one of the feeding programs he supplies food for takes place. I have to say, riding in his truck up through the mountains was more fun than some roller coaster rides I’ve been on, as there’s nothing but tight winding and bumpy roads all the way until where we were going. I wish I brought my camera, but Ron took some pictures so I’ll try getting them from him, but these kids are adorable, and they’re always excited to see us, given that we look so different from them.

Anyway, I’ve had invitations to speak to youth groups, but I haven’t had too much follow up, and I’m supposed to hear tomorrow if something is confirmed for this Saturday night. Keep it in prayer.

Blessings and fire on your head!

Pictures April 29th, 2008

Pictures, April 24th, 2008

Pictures April 22nd, 2008

Greetings From Peru

This will be a brief update since I don’t know when the next opportunity to post a blog entry or Facebook note will come. As I write this my pastor Stephen and his brother-in-law Ray are out doing some shopping as we’ve scheduled for today (Monday) to be a bit of a day off. And we needed it too, as we’ve been busy non-stop since arriving here late Wednesday night.

Good news: I’ve managed not to get sick or anything at all so far, given that we can’t drink the water or eat fruit that we can’t peel, so there’s some natural lifestyle habits I had to be careful to watch down here. Not using tap water to brush my teeth and not flushing the toilet paper down when I’m done in the bathroom is also something that’s taking some getting used to. But I’m NOT minding this awesome hot weather at all. Especially after such a miserably long winter in Canada!

I’ve posted some pictures previously that you should see if you scroll down, and they are from up in the mountains (the exact name slips my mind) outside of Lima—one hour away from where the three of us are currently staying. Previous teams from my home church have gone and ministered to the children in the area.

The first thing that hits me like a ton of bricks is how you can see lovely areas of Lima, and then not far away see absolutely poverty-stricken areas not 20 minutes away. Our apartment is in Mira Flores, which is more of the wealthier and tourist area of town, so it makes for easier integration into the culture instead of sudden change of pace into more poorer areas. There’s places I’ve seen that don’t have running water or toilets, but DO have internet. Amazing.

I met with a FIRE International missionary Ron Smith on Friday to get to know one another and fellowship, and he brought me with him to an area of town where we were mobbed by people begging for things from us. I’ve never traveled anywhere where people are so aggressive in their panhandling, and from what I understand, they assume white people like me have money so they don’t let up until you really push them away. It’s heartbreaking at the same time. The area Ron took me to, we only got there after hailing five taxis before one was willing to drive there, since it was a dangerous part of town.

Other than that, I’ve not done a whole lot else other than accompany Stephen to meetings he’s preached at, prayed for people–so far in really rough and poorer areas of Lima–and just meet more people and fellowship with some believers who really appreciate receiving what we are here to bring.

I’ve already been asked to speak to three different youth groups, the first being on Saturday. And praise God, I’ve got an interpreter lined up for that one! Please keep it in prayer, as the youth pastor explained to my interpreter that this group needs to be stirred up and excited for the things of God. I will be seeking the face of the Lord about what exactly I should share in that setting. Then last night pastor Cesar Costas asked me to share with his youth group very soon, and from being there for three meetings now where Stephen preached on the love of God, I can see this is a hungry people who want more of what we have to give. So God’s putting a few different things on my heart, but please lift me up in prayer and pray that the fire of God will fall in a good way how He wants, and knows that I’m open to just being obedient and delivering what He gives me.

Late this afternoon my pastor and I are going over to Ron’s either for dinner or to decide where to go for dinner. Dion Light, the assistant director for FIRE International is here with another missionary staying with the Smiths and visiting this place to see if the Lord is directing him here also. It will be very great to have the relationship between my home church in Canada and the base in North Carolina that trained me, sent me out and serves as my covering to be connected with each other, so I’m looking forward to it.

Well, that is about all for now. If I updated on everything I could think of I wouldn’t have the time to write this post, so short and sweet is how it will be, but please keep me in prayer for the speaking opportunities I’m being presented with. I want to be sensitive to what God is saying to the people in each of those contexts.

Blessings, and fire on your head!

Fire On Your Head Episode 26: Enjoying God

This week we are privileged to have author and itinerant speaker S.J. Hill joining us, whose all-consuming passion is to see the Church come to an understanding of the beauty of God’s incredible personality. We sit down over Skype with him and talk about the heart of Father God, and ask him questions regarding these issues that he’s so passionate about sharing.

Visit S.J.’s website at http://www.sjhill.com.

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