Privileged

I was very privileged last night to hear a missionary couple from Nepal speak last night. The woman is actually Bhutanese, but was kicked out of her country for refusing to deny Jesus, and lived in refugee camps in Nepal for years before meeting her Nepali husband. What faith. I don't know that I have that faith.

I really loved what her husband shared with us when talking about how to reach his people with the gospel and how they respond:

"You tell me that Jesus loves me. Show me Christ's love."

A hungry man won't necessarily be able to hear the gospel, unless we fill his belly first. But I think this goes for Americans, Germans, and Nepali alike. Wherever you are, people want to know that the words are real, that there is true love behind the "Jesus loves you."

If we have the leading to share Him without the opportunity to meet a person's needs, we should definitely listen to the Spirit. But if we can serve the people we want to preach the gospel to, how much more power is in that?

Old News Made New!

This is old news, but the Kanner Lake blog promoted by super suspense writer Brandilyn Collins had a post on Wednesday, July 12th from a man named Hank Detcher, pastor of First Community Church in Kanner Lake. He speaks like a true Idahoan, like someone born and raised in this fine state.

Oh, by the way, I wrote it :D.

If you missed it, check it out with this direct link. Then read some of the other fine posts on the blog. And check out the preview chapters for an awesome new suspense book, Violet Dawn, set to debut in August!

More CAN

Check out this awesome photo montage from Calling All Nations.

I forgot to mention that I felt the Lord spoke this psalm before CAN. See what it speaks about worship, missions, and the harvest!

Psalm 67
For the director of music. With stringed instruments. A psalm. A song.
1 May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face shine upon us,
Selah
2 that your ways may be known on earth,
your salvation among all nations.
3 May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you.
4 May the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you rule the peoples justly
and guide the nations of the earth. Selah
5 May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you.
6 Then the land will yield its harvest,
and God, our God, will bless us.
7 God will bless us,
and all the ends of the earth will fear him.

Impressions

I've spent a couple of days meditating on what I felt happened at Calling All Nations on 15 July. There is a lot to ponder, and there is likely more that will come to me over time.

On one level, CAN had some very ambitious goals. They wanted 70-100,000 worshipers initially, overflowing the stadium. The last numbers I've heard have been from 22-25,000. From a worldly viewpoint that may be seen as a disappointment. However, that doesn't account for the heart of the people that were there and what was accomplished in the spiritual realm. God is pleased by our hearts of praise, not necessarily big numbers. I'm not disappointed at all regarding the turnout.

I went to CAN without very strong expectations. It was hard to know what would happen with that many people coming to seek the Lord together. I mentioned before that I did have a picture of it being very easy to worship where we were all coming with a heart of worship, but that there was warfare in seeing us break through.

I did hope for 2 things, 1 corporate and 1 personal. I wanted to see a move of God manifest right there in the stadium. Personally, I wanted revelation for where God is taking me, especially in the light of losing my job in 6 more weeks!

As far as the "move of God", I think that there was something started there, but it may not be as dramatic as one could see. I didn't really expect people coming out with tongues of fire above all our heads (even though that would be WAY cool). I think people left there with a determination to see Jesus exalted both through worship and in bringing people to Him. As a speaker said during the event:

Worship without missions is self-indulgent. Missions without worship is self-defeating.

That message was repeated several times, especially toward the end of the day as people were ready to go out from there. There wasn't a specific manifestation of His presence, but do we need to have some other confirmation that God is going out with us? "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." I don't think it was wrong to look for something incredible, but God did speak to me and tell me to focus on Him, not on what I could only see physically. Why not always expect God to move when we come together?

For me, I didn't get a map with waypoints on what to do next (wouldn't that be so nice!). I left with healing in me though. I was healed from self-doubt, wounds in the past that kept me from really worshiping Him with my whole heart, and from the attacks I've been under recently. I left with a greater determination than ever to see His glory spread into all the earth, because He is worthy. He is such a great God, and He deserves all people praising Him. This has been my heart for a very long time, but it was burned even deeper into me. I don't know exactly the steps I will take next, but I know that the One who goes with me is ever faithful, and I have no reason to doubt or fear.

Calling All Nations was a special event. It wasn't necessarily "the" event of the year. God is delighted in a few believers worshiping Him quietly by candlelight, trying to avoid persecution, probably even more than a bunch of spoiled Westerners (for the most part) jumping up and down in a stadium. But Germany needs a move of God, and seems thirsty. I believe this event was a long-awaited drink to refresh the believers, to touch the land, and that from this there will be fruit that is harvested over a long period of time. I'm sure more will come out from the event as we get further away.

Thank you to everyone who prayed for the event or for our group, because your prayers made SUCH a difference. Blessings!

Praise from Berlin

First of all, check out the pictures from http://www.himmelszeuge.de/ and clicking on "Fotos".

Last post I talked about the early part of the Global Gathering. The day was split into 3 parts, and after we sang in the international choir, we had the first short break. I met a worship leader from Toronto (Allen Fros?) while in line to get a brat! It was cool to hear the stories of people who had come to this event.

The second set was meant to have a focus of intercession and prayer. This section was the hardest for me, as sometimes it felt like we were trying to build up some momentum from the initial buzz. Some prophetic people came out at one point and gave words about Germany rising up. I appreciated the word about Germany having a heritage of church music, and that God would call them back to joy and song again. This meshed with some of what my wife and I had felt during our time traveling in Germany.

At this point my three young boys, who had been troopers our whole trip, needed a little time outside the stadium. We went outside for an ice cream and run-the-boys-around break. There were always a lot of people on the outside of the stadium, checking out the booths or kicking back on the grass. I wonder how much some of these folks missed out on. I guess we missed Kings Kids performance, which was disappointing since I wanted the boys to see them. It was interesting that this group, and another leader worshipping with kids, all had technical problems where their microphones weren't working. Out of all of the performers, only the two that focused on kids had the difficulty. Definitely sounds like warfare to me!

David Ruis brought the second section to a close. He's recently moved in more "experimental" worship, I guess you could call it (see his album The Mystery). He played some of his classic songs with a different touch than the original arrangement, but his heart for the "mystery of God" really led us into touching heaven. In fact, I wish he could've kept going, because it felt that we were close to a "breakthrough" when he stopped, but it was time for another break.

We moved into the evening, and the praise really seemed to raise at this point. Through the day it felt like we were plowing ground, and it took more of a choice to worship. I think when we come to such an event, the expectation can be that we just have to show up and the worship will be there to lift us to the heavens. But it was a choice - tuning out the people around us, tuning out my boys playing and fighting at my feet :), and not worrying about my expectations and just focusing on Jesus alone.

Tim Hughes came on in the evening. He is a younger worship leader, but he does have insight and anointing. His song "Here I Am to Worship" has been a powerful song in the church, but this night it meant a lot more to me. I feel like I laid myself bare before the Lord and worshipped Him with everything I had. It was my personal highlight, as I felt His gentle touch on me as I poured my heart out to Him.

The evening seemed to have the other "big names", if you will: Reuben Morgan, Delerious?, Matt Redman. (Other notables from the day were Judy Bailey, Kees Kraayenoord, I Themba, Broken Walls, and of course Noel Richards). The evening led us up in praise, and the excitement in the stadium increased. There was one point where I think it was Reuben had led us in some exciting, upbeat worship. Then a German worship group followed and immediately switched to a more intercessory type of worship - which could've been very powerful, but the switch was kind of jarring. Of course, it didn't help that the crowd started doing the Wave, which happened many times through the night. Having someone reverently call out to the Holy Spirit while the crowd is going, "Wooooo" and watching for their turn to stand doesn't flow.

The evening also had a call to missions, which I will talk about more next time. The evening ended simply, with Noel Richards closing us on a new worship song that spoke of the nations worshipping Jesus. We left the stadium with our bodies exhausted, but our spirits exultant in spending the day with the fellowship of the saints in worship.

Heilig Bist Du Herr

*Blink*

Ok, I think I'm awake now. Nothing like jet lag and running straight to work from a trip from Germany to keep one away from his blog. Oh, and soccer night with the boys. And worship practice...

Anyway, I am happy to report about Calling All Nations from July 15th:

Wow.

I think it is hard to fully express what it is like to be part of 25,000 people praising Jesus Christ as Lord. It definitely is a miniature picture of what heaven will be like, considering that 30+ nations were together in worship.

There was warfare involved. Prior to the event I had to deal with some sin, and it was not pleasant. However, I would rather have the Lord expose me than to go into something like this without being as clean as I can be. It was a hard confrontation, but the Lord disciplines those He loves.

My only complaint was the punctual, nay...EARLY Germans! We didn't account for how long we'd have to spend going through the entrance line, and were searching for our seats lost outside the huge stadium when we started hearing the Psalm Drummers lead off. That was my only disappointment is that it started a few minutes early and we weren't RIGHT THERE. But the drum group pounded away while a flag corp performed, followed by another group carrying many of the flags of the world.

The day was split into 3 sessions, as we were there from 11 am-9 pm. The initial session focused on praise and God's love. The second session had more of an intecessory/prophetic bent. The third session directed us to the call of missions as a natural outworking of worship.

There was a main stage at one end of the stadium, then a small set-up opposite this. Acts would alternate between the main stage and the fore stage, in order to stagger acts without big delays. It actually worked quite well, since the stadium is large enough that we had to look at the large monitors to see anything anyway.

We alternated between English and German worship songs throughout the day, even though English was dominate. It worked well, as it seemed most Germans were quite familiar with the "big" English worship songs.

Five of our group, including my wife and I, were part of an international choir that performed with Brian Doerksen (two of our team were gracious enough to tackle our boys in the stands!). We only had a couple hours of practice the day before, and none of our team realized we'd be singing in German as well as English. The spirit of worship carried us through, and it was just a time to lift Him up, no matter what language (although I'm glad I didn't have to sing a solo!). It was a powerful time to join together with these brothers and sisters and be a small part of the whole event.

I think I'll share about the 2nd and 3rd sessions next time, then talk about my impressions of the event - what I've taken away from it, and maybe encouraging all of you in some of it as well. Until then, "Holy is the Lord!" (the translation of the title of this post). Also, check out this blog report from CAN. As I can find other posts on this, I'll link to them here.

The Thrill of Orthodoxy

Here is a must-read from Breakpoint, posted yesterday! I loved it. A quote from it:

By contrast, as G. K. Chesterton explained about the timeless quality of God’s truth: “The Church always seems to be behind the times, when it is really beyond the times; it is waiting till the last fad shall have seen its last summer.”

Auf Wiedersehen

Well, goodbye to Germany!

We are home after a long day of traveling. At least I think we are home. Jet lag can make things seem quite surreal. I don't know how our kids adjust so well - they aren't even acting tired (it is 4 am in Berlin, whereas it is 8 pm here).

We had a wonderful time in Germany, exploring and having adventures with our Lord. I will be posting more through this week on our experiences and what we've taken away from it, as well as what we hope to apply to our lives here on out.

I don't want to leave y'all hanging about Calling All Nations. The event was powerful and joyous. I've never seen 20,000+ worshipping Jesus before, and let me tell you that is is a spectacular sight. God moved in many ways that day, and we are excited to hear reports about it both in our lives and in heaven! Photobucket helped me put together a few photos of CAN, so you can see for yourselves. Unfortunately, it was one of those things where you "had to be there". Bless you Noel Richards, and all of the many people who helped bring this to fruition.

Note: I've posted more about CAN on the main blog since this date, so I invite you to check it out. Also, I'd love to have comments from people who were there! Bless you all, and thanks again to Noel for posting this link!

Rend the Heavens

Just a quick post tonight. Some of our group have the privelege of singning in an international choir with Brian Doerksen for a couple of songs. I didn't realize I would be singing in German as well. If I can't get "Heilger Gott" then I may be mouthing "watermelon" in those parts.

Anyway, just the practice was so exciting. There was a group called Psalm Drummers who were practicing, as dancers with flags of the countries paraded around the track. Right away I had tears in my eyes. If anything I've ever been a part of has the potential to "rend the heavens", this is it. I am SO excited.

Bless you all, and I hope to post after tommorrow! Thanks for praying! We want to bring home some blessing from here to everyone as well!

A Mighty Fortress

There I was, sitting in the Fortress Salzburg, over looking this historic Austrian city, listening to a classical music recital with my wife. I was struck by the fact that the classic hymn "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" was written by Martin Luther.

Germany is dotted with castles and fortress like buildings. The very room where we listened to the recital still had cannonball damage from fighting a peasants' revolt in the 1500's. This is a place where people can see the importance of having a fortress or refuge. Even as recently as 1989, where the East Germans were blocked by wall and barbed wire from escaping into the refuge of West Berlin, thez have had this in their history.

I've been in the Psalms lately, and they are full of references to God as "our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble". David and the other psalm authors knew that life brings trials and troubles, but that God is ever faithful to meet us in these times. We just need to recognize where that shelter is.

I wouldn't normally expect to be on German TV, but yesterday my German friend and I were stopped near the Brandenburg Tor (Gate), where the reporter stuck a microphone in my friend's face and asked him about the resignation of Juergen Klinsmann, the German national coach. They talked in German, but when I asked about Klinsmann, the reporter was amazed that I as an American knew about him. He then put the microphone to me, and asked what I thought. I told him that I heard the rumor that he might coach the US national team sometime. The reporter pressed further, mentioning how people thought he was responsible for revival in Germany, as the successful World Cup has really boosted their national ego, which has suffered since WWII. I told him that Klinsmann was just a man, and that only a man of Martin Luther's stature could cause something like a national revival in Germany. Little did the reporter know that I was here in Germany to see if I can help in some little way to spark such an event.

It was funny though, how they looked to someone as simple as a football (soccer) coach, when they have evidence all over of the true Refuge. Please pray as we seek God on behalf of Germany, Europe, and the world this Saturday. We want to see Jesus get His rightful due, and that a new wave of missions would launch from this. For those who have access, apparently you can watch this event I'm involved in here at God TV. Check it out if you can!

Football Fever

In America, we have a weird game called "football". It is curious, because in it the players rarely use their feet. They dress in armor, and play for maybe 10-20 seconds at a time before grouping up and taking a break to talk about what to do next.

Then there is FOOTBALL. Americans for some reason call it "soccer". Now this is a game that can claim the name football. The players dance and spin with the ball like a ballet, yet they knock each other around to a bloody pulp sometimes. Onlz in football can a 1-0 game be exciting.

As the World Cup is going on in Germany as we are here, there is a fever among the people. World Series? Super Bowl? Pheh. Pretenders, all of them. Nothing matches the enthusiasm and devotion in sports like football does to Europeans, especially the Germans. Several times this week, at 9 pm things have closed as the game of the night comes on.

Germany was heartbroken this week as they lost to Italy. But tonight they are cheering again as Deutschland is up 1-0 on Portugal as I type. It is an infectious passion.

Yet we pray that these fine people hear recognize the true Champion, and will turn their powerful devotion to Him. That is our heart as we head toward Berlin to worship the King of kings in Olymipic stadium with 25,000 Christians from 25 nations on July 15th. We anticipate a time of heaven opening up over the formerly divided city, to shine Glory down. Please pray that He will be lifted up, and that a fresh move of God will sweep from Berlin to Germany throughout Europe and around the world!!!

Until next time (I must go, as Germany just scored again and I'm missing it).

Rain and Internet Cafes in Sonthofen

Hello all! Here I am in an internet cafe in Sonthofen Germany. This is in Bavaria, at the base of the Alps. It is right at the border of Austria, if you're looking for it on a map.

We are having a wonderful time so far. We have been very blessed by God and by our host Linda. (By the way, I'M on a German keyboard, so if something is weird, blame my hands, as they donät know German).

We have 3 apartments for our team in a wonderfully quaint little village nearby called Allstäden. It looks just like you would imagine Bavaria - flowerboxes in every window, narrow streets, and frequent cobblestone walks. Many people bike around. We have language adventures everytime we go to the grocer or bakery, but we've managed to eat well despite ourselves.

We notice that there are crucifixes every where we go. We've seen numerous ones on the side of the road, in seemingly out of the way places. Our host explains that this is from their Christian heritage. Many, many people have this slight connection, but it is not a heart relationship for them. They know a form, but they do not know the Person. We are just praying about this whenever we encounter it.

We have the opportunity to do worship for a small church in Füssen this Sunday! They have many songs that we do in English and they do in German, so they are happy to have us. We are blessed and humbled, wondering what we can offer. All we can offer, is a drink from Living Water, by His power. If you think about us, pray for us this Sunday, that we can share a little blessing with these wonderful people!

Our team member who was going to bring a laptop wasn't able to, so right now I can't post a picture. Maybe later!

We miss all of you back home. Hope all is well. I hope to be back in a few days, maybe after our church time.

Check out Psalm 46. God IS our refuge and strength!

The Scene for the Beans

On July 5th, I invite you to check out the newest blog on the web, the Scenes and Beans. It is the place for all of the happenings in Kanner Lake, Idaho. The blog is hosted by Bailey Truitt, the proprietor for the Java Joint, the local coffee hangout. She has invited many of her regulars, the colorful folk of Kanner Lake, to post guest blogs as well. Get the dirt on bypass surgery from Wilbur Hicks. Hear all the gossip in town from the local newspaper reporter Leslie Brymes. Dishing folksy wisdom will be Pastor Hank Detcher.

Kanner Lake is a beautiful place, the kind of place that can attract families and newcomers and make them feel at home. You wouldn't think at all that such a lovely place could be the site of suspense and mayhem...