Love looks like Soup and Sandals

  Last night at the House of Prayer, which is in the middle of the slum, we had our first soup outreach. They have been wanting to do a soup outreach for a while but this was the first night!  It was awesome. They made a giant pot of soup, and we prayed and then I went around part of the neighborhood with Andrew and a couple others to invite people. (Andrew knows everyone there)  They served soup in disposable cups on the first floor of the prayer house and prayed with people as they came in.  Most people left from there after they got soup, but if they wanted to talk or pray more, we would invite them up the stairs to a little seating area for coffee and ministry time, and if they still wanted more or to stick around we invited them into the top worship room and later had a 7 minute message, worshipped and prayed more.  The room was full of ministers and people of all ages. It was amazing!!  It went so well, and was such a perfect set up for people to receive as much ministry as they were ready for and to get more of a taste of the presence of God if they wanted.  And it just felt so natural and like a family to worship with them all, only God makes family so well!  So glad to be a part, and experiencing supernatural as natural.

   One girl is 16 and very pregnant.  She came to the city from her hometown and family 4 hrs away.  She is selling her body for food and crack, and has no support system, and was barely clothed.  She said she wants to give away the baby when it is born because she can't take care of it...  She was so hungry and got lots of prayer, told her story a few times and cried a few times especially during our short worship time together.  Lorelei gave her her sandals.  She received Jesus!  And she picked out a couple of dresses from the bags of clothes we keep there, then took a shower and changed, she looked so beautiful and had a huge smile on her face.  Hopefully she will keep in contact with us.  She is the type of situation that we would like to be able to invite her to stay with us at the big house once we get settled in there and ask God about how he wants to do that.  Lots of things to consider and to learn, but for sure it will be an adventure.

  Oh also, at the beginning of the night another teenager, who I had met in March and who has had a baby since then, she wanted to dedicate her baby to Jesus that night.  Which was an amazing decision for her, as she has been friends with these missionaries for a long time, but not usually wanted to make decisions to follow Jesus.  And also, she herself had been dedicated to Macumba (a regional witchcraft) when she was a baby by her mother.  So this was a huge breakthru and blessing for her and her adorable baby girl....

Jesus is so amazing!  Love is just so simple sometimes.  And supernaturally powerful to change our lives and hearts.

Fortaleza week 1

    Just in the last few days before I got here, God basically is giving Herbert and Lorelei and this Iris team a new base.  Its a huge house in the center of the city.  MUCH closer to the slum than their current house.  Its only a 10min drive/ 25 min walk.  As opposed to a 1-2hr bus ride.  It has 12 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 2 kitchen areas...  It has been one of their dreams to expand the team and 

missional community, but I don't think they were expecting it so fast, God just gave them this open door suddenly.(on Herb's birthday)  So the rest of the Iris team is praying about moving in, it will be another big step of faith for everyone, financially and time commitment  ministry possibilities etc.  We will be paying 1/3 the rent that it is worth, but still much more than anyone on the team is currently paying while living with parents or with current support.  Hopefully we will get the keys tomorrow so that this huge 28 person Iris Latin America team (that just arrived tonight) can help get it cleaned up and fix it up and have somewhere bigger to stay while they are here.

The only photo I could find that captured part of its mansion aspect well :)

We went to the beach Friday night to worship and minister to the prostitutes.  Lorelei is so passionate about this, and has made many friends there.  One girl in particular, R, has experienced the Lord and is kind of on the fence about taking next steps of faith and being obedient to follow the Lord in a new life.  She and her 'boyfriend' came to church with us tonight and to eat dinner at our house, so that really represented a big step for them hopefully.  They complain that since the team has been ministering to them, their business has slowed down and they are not getting any clients on that corner anymore. haha.  Also, Friday night, another girl was with them so we met her and heard part of her story, super hard family dynamics, and prayed for her.  Then she told us that she had a nervous disorder that made her move/twitch all the time, all over her body.  I thought that she had just been cold and nervous.  So she let us pray for her, and I asked to give her a hug.  She needed a hug really bad, and just held on for dear life, it seemed like forever.  I could feel her little body shakes/twitches.  Finally she started to relax, and then Bruno prayed for her.  She said that she was totally better and that she started to get healed when I was hugging her!!!!  Wow.  It is true, Jesus heals thru hugs!  Its what I have always hoped.  Especially while I can't use words yet. 

Painted this while praying for street outreach Friday night and gave to one of the girls there

This month is full of short term teams coming in, and moving, and preparing for the Call in Sao Paulo in November, so its a big transition month for the team, and I feel like the Kingdom of God is ambushing our lives and the city.  The Iris Latin America team, that has been traveling the continent all year arrived Sunday night.   And a team from Exodus Cry in Kansas City is coming in 2 weeks, they are passionate about impacting sex trafficking and it will be great to have them with us for a while.

The Iris Latin America team camped out in the courtyard of this neighborhood church the first night they were here, waiting  for the new house contract to open.  These guys are hard core, they've been traveling the continent all year.

a couple of Iris Latin America team members spending free time eating the white  part of a watermelon rind,  and braiding some tree roots into a rope.  See what I mean, they are out of control in their resourcefulness skills!

Peru with Dunamis!

   So I am in Peru with Dennis and Lynnie Walker and Carl Garitson from "Dunamis".  http://www.dunamisarc.org/  The Walkers have lived in Peru many years and sown a lot into the people here, and come back every year to visit.  They take turns preaching at meetings, and they all really emphasize moving in the power of God for signs and miracles and healings.  They preach from the word and share testimonies, and demonstrate the power of God in whatever he wants to do in a particular meeting, and then find ways to activate the people and train them to listen to God, and ask him what he is doing in heaven and release it on earth.  They call it getting an "initiative of heaven", and thats how they train believers to move in miracles flowing with the Holy Spirit.  Like how Jesus says, "I only do what i see my Father doing and say what my Father is saying."  

   I am really blessed to be with them all this time, and getting extra training and encouraged in my faith, and being activated to move in the Spirit in a whole new level and learning how to activate others as well. 

   We first went to Chiclayo and Lambayeque (cities on the coast).  We had meetings there Thursday and Friday, then I went by bus with Lynnie and Carl to Trujillo for meetings on Saturday and Sunday.  Several people wanted to accept Jesus and prayed before the different activations to hear from God.  Then Sunday night because we were in a hurry to finish the meeting and get back on the road to Chiclayo to fly out this morning, we did a 2 man fire tunnel, to have them receive impartation/blessing and after they went thru to give out to someone else a blessing/prayer/prophecy/testimony whatever God had given them/shared/shown them etc.  They didn't really seem to catch on to that part of the activation much, but it was a good idea I want to remember for activation.  She was demonstrating different ways we spend time receiving from God and then giving out, and that allows the Holy Spirit to flow.  Establishing receiving the power of the Holy Spirit and whatever gifts/revelation he gives us, and then giving it out and blessing others.  I don't think the people were used to the idea that they can receive something specific from God, and then be used as a blessing to others.

  They did well when she activated them in prophecy by partnering them up and having them wait a minute to listen, then bless/prophecy or pray whatever God showed them.  They were all hugging and crying after that.  So I know that people actually blessed each other then.  Also she had a word of knowledge to have people stand if they had back pain and then had whoever was next to them lay hands on their back and pray, and all 4 people who had stood afterward said that they experienced healing.

After the Sunday morning meeting, we went to the pastor's house for lunch.  Every meal we have been treated so well, and had 3 course meals, very flavorful.  And the famous ceviche 3 times in 2 days!  Anyway, we went to the beach for a few minutes before lunch, awesome.  Its desert and beach in Trujillo.  At the end of the meal, the Pastor Rosi told me she had been having pain in her chest/breast the last several days and it was really bothering her.  Then when we went to take a nap, I imagined a prophetic act to demonstrate God healing her (I caught an initiative of heaven, I saw what was being done in heaven so I could release it on earth).  So after our nap, she mentioned hurting again, and I could tell she was really wanting prayer/healing.   (Of course I was not really sure if it was my random imagination, or an actual idea from heaven of how God wanted to heal her, but I figured it was worth a shot that it might be God since he does like to heal and he likes to use my imagination, and I've been hearing all these crazy testimonies from this team of God using weird ideas from him (initiatives of heaven) to heal and perform whatever miracles he wants us to release on earth).  So I showed her the idea God had given me, for her to act like she was wiping off the area of pain, and a rolling it into a ball in her hands, and flicking it off her hand.  So she did and we laughed and said Amen.  And rushed into the car for the evening meeting.  After the meeting she said that the pain had gone and laughed about the way that God had healed her.  Crazy.   

Carl, who's been to Peru several times with Dunamis, is a really funny guy and even uses his limited Spanish to make jokes all the time.  One of his catch phrases this week has been, "Are you expecting something?" (i.e. are you expecting God to do something powerful in your life? miracles or whatever you need?) At Carl's meeting Sunday night a paralyzed man stood up and walked and the small crowd went crazy.  Carl didn't realize he had been paralyzed, just knew he needed some kind of miracle to walk and said to him, "are you ready? Are you expecting your miracle?" and took him by the hand and he stood up and walked!

Monday we flew over the Andes Mountains in a small plane from Lima to Huanuco.(so high!! so fast in a 45min flight which would take 8hrs on a bus ride thru the mountain roads).  We had a little informal meeting with a lot of teenagers.  This church seems more like family, a little closer to my tribe culture, and knows this ministry team better.  Several were healed of neck and back pain, and even the common cold of all things!  Haha, and several kids had a sign of oil showing up on their hands, and gold, and a little 6month old baby even had oil show up on her hands and all the teenagers got so excited about the baby, and the mom brought her up and was crying and saying that another year when Carl visited, he had prophecied that she would have a healthy baby after she had had two miscarriages and this was her baby, born healthy but having a lot of visits to hospital and she had come that night hoping for help and healing… So of course we blessed that beautiful little girl.  It was super fun.

Today and Thursday we will be going for meetings in TingoMaria which will be totally different, its in the jungle part of the mountains a few hours drive from here.

Anyway, so yes, this trip is definitely a hijacking by God in my life.  He is giving me tools and impartation I didn't even know how to ask for!

Here's some comments from Lynnie's and Carl's facebook posts, from part of the trip:

Sept. 13 Thurs. pm Dennis- Lambayeque, Peru

(Lynnie facebook)Great first meeting last night here in Lambayeque, Peru. Dennis preached and

had words of knowledge for bronchitis, lumps in breast, pain in right knee, injuries from

playing sports. Many responded, and many were healed or improved. At the altar call for

salvation, 40 came forward, including re-dedication. Carl had an initiative from heaven

for a teen (after saying 3x he was not better) to drink water. Suddenly he had a smile on

his face, as his throat-swallowing issue totally straightened out and he was healed! Yay,

God.

(Lynnie facebook) Sept. 14 Awesome meeting last night here in Peru. Salvations, healings,

baptism of Holy Spirit. One lady I ministered to had come forward for salvation, then got

bapitized in Holy Spirit, and then she showed me her hands full of oil. Two young men

were excited about gold glory dust on hands. There was a large youth dance team.

Today I take a bus with part of the team to Trujillo, while part stay here in Lambayeque/

Chiclayo. Yesterday we ate at someone's house. Ceviche, rice, beans, beef, and maracuya

juice. We rented a van here with no power steering. Edgar is getting a real workout.

From Carl facebook: "10 salvations, with instant baptisms in the Holy Spirit, deaf hear

approx. 7 people hear as i snapped my fingers all went out in the Spirit. vocal chords

healed. Diabetes healed but, time will tell after they test. All in all a very good meeting."

Lynnie: At an altar call for salvation where many responded, one of the ladies got saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, and immediately glory oil

flowed from her hands. After my session, I had the people practice soaking in the Spirit

to see and hear from Heaven. Sandra Zarate, who was one of the city pastors, shared that

she saw rain. Then it literally rained inside the building on one side. Andrea and Carl got

showered on. Even Carl's i-pad got wet!  Meanwhile, Dennis

and team in Chiclayo had the glory fire fall on a huddle of people as they all went out

under the power of God. For two meetings! So Water and Fire from heaven. Carl and I

went to 2 separate churches on Sunday 2x. I finished with Andrea and I forming a tunnel

for the 200 or so to walk through and get impartation. We jumped in a car, rode 4 hours

to Chiclayo, slept a few hours, flew to Lima, then flew to Huanuco. Powerful meeting

last night: fragrance of heaven, healed necks and backs, oil and gold, including on a

baby's hand.