Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! Today was just a regular day at work here, however our church will be having a Thanksgiving celebration that I'll be catering on the 4th of Dec. We'll also have a Christmas ceilidh as well. So should be fun! I pray all of you stateside had a great time with your families! We have many blessings to give thanks for!

Alliance roots

I walked into a conference a year ago not really knowing what I would experience. The first day, I was a bit ....... "put off" (but that's not really the right expressing but can't find a more suitable word at the moment) by the actions of those around me. People were convulsing, yelling out words like "Woah", lying and rolling on the floor, shaking, moving about, doubling over repetitiously, falling over, laughing uncontrollably, lying on the floor rocking, etc....... Normally I would have walked out of the place in a critical attitude. But I had an incredible hunger and thirst to learn more about the Heavenly Father's heart. I had heard that I was missing something and I was determined to find out what I was missing. As I was standing there watching all of this, the picture of Asllan the lion from "The boy and his horse" came to me when He told the boy, after the boy asked him why something had happened to the girl, He replied to Him, "That is her story". So I just said, Lord, you know each person in this room. You know their hearts and You are living their story with them. I don't know what You are doing in them and why they are doing the things they are doing, I'm going to leave that to be between them and You. Please Lord have Your way with me and do whatever You desire to do that will cause me know You more. That first night, I had expected the Lord to at least speak to me, but there was nothing but silence. I went to the conference to pursue Him but there was nothing. I was devastated to uncontrollable tears that evening. The lady I was staying with prayed for me which brought comfort. She told me to just wait and He will come. So I waited, nothing still the next day, as once again many people all around me were doing weird things, I still felt nothing. We had broken up into small groups to discuss any questions about things we had heard during the day. As I expressed a question, which was actually an agreement with another lady's question, the group leader said, let us pray for you. All I remember was their hands touched my body and I heard her say, "Holy Spirit, send down Your fire on her" and then I hit the floor. No warning, no feelings of dizzyness, no anything but a straight shot full straight body fall, thankfully I was caught and landing was buffered. That is when I looked into the face of my loving Heavenly Father, the One I can now call "Daddy" actually I call Him "Babi". Apparently I was down for almost an hour but it seemed like only 5-10 minutes to me. This was the beginning of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit on my life which, over the course of the past year, has lead me to receiving the gifts of tongues, seeing visions, receiving words of knowledge for people and seeing miraculous supernatural healings. I know there is controversy in Alliance circles about the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but I fully believe, according to my experience and the transformation that has taken place in me that it was at this time that I was fully baptised in the Holy Spirit. As I've mentioned some of what has gone on in me with other C&MA people, I've learned that those things that I have described were common place with AB Simpson's experiences. A friend told me about a book called "Genuine Gold: The cautiously charismatic story of the early Christian and Missionary Alliance." by Paul L. King. I have been thoroughly enjoying reading this book about the history of Holy Spirit revivals that had taking place throughout Alliance history all over the world. Did you know that there was a decade long revival that took place in and around our Alliance churches in first decade of the 1900's and before that? The book gives accounts describing HS outpourings over people in our churches that would describe all of those things mentioned in the first part of this message. I now understand that when someone is on the floor convulsing that the Lord is doing a powerful work in them, one that is personal and intimate between Him and that person. Alliance friends, I believe that we are entering another season of revival, some would say that it is a continuing off-shoot of the Toronto revival, but I'm not sure that it has arrived within our Alliance doors yet. God is certainly on the move in other circles however all around the world, people are seeing visions, dreams, are being miraculously healed and the supernatural is becoming natural and common place for many people. I don't know about you, but I want to press in for more! I want to live in expectancy of the kingdom of God falling down on our churches and that Holy Spirit has His way with us. I want to see a return of Apostolic Christianity in our CMA churches and once again capture the incredible presence of God as our founding fathers of the CMA did. What about you? Will you join me in praying that revival will take place in our churches? Will you stand with me in expectancy that God is going to do great things and reveal even more of Himself to our Alliance family around the world? If you are willing, just cry out to Him, "Have Your way with me Lord, then have Your way with them!"

Finished with year two

I'm finally breathing a deep sigh of relief today. Today is my first official day of summer vacation. Yesterday was my last day of clinical placement, all of my work is caught up, I can finally rest (well kind of) for a while. On monday I'll be flying out to Kosova for three weeks. I'm so excited to be going back to my "other" home away from home once again. It will be so exciting to see my friends and team family again. Another thing that is exciting is that God has put on my heart to lead a mini-conference on healing ministry while I'm there. Because this is from Him, I'm so excited about what the outcome will be from that time. For those who are praying friends, please pray for my time of preparation for this. I don't want it to be a striving time but a time where I just hear the voice of the Lord guiding me through topics that He wants to present to those who will be participating in the training, through me. Thank you!

All done for the summer

Wow what a crazy busy last 5 months this has been. Yesterday I handed in my last "catch up" assignment for the BSc programme. God helped me complete all the modules for years one and two in just 5 months. What a great relief it is to finally have a bit of a rest. I have three more weeks to go in my clinical placement then will be heading to Kosovo for a very anticipated three week vacation. Well, there will be a bit of work to do there as well, but I will enjoy every bit of it. Thank you to all who have prayed me through these past months. Thank you for those who have given so faithfully toward my education. May the Lord bless you abundantly as He has me. God is sooooooo good!

Time in Croatia

Just had a great week in Croatia catching up with the Balkan team and meeting new members. It is so great to hear about what God is doing in the Balkans. Every time God does His thing it's incredible, but one of the miracles we are praising Him for is the fact that we are only a couple thousand dollars away from meeting the end of May deadline for paying the final Ringjallja payment. We are all WOW'ed at how the Lord has moved His people to give so graciously to the ministry center there. We are trusting that the rest of that money will come by the 31st and the church and the team will receive the "paid in full" papers from the owner. What a celebration that will be.

It was exciting to go on a cyber tour of the new ministry center building that is being renovated in Sarajevo and to hear how the Lord provided that building for rent. I can't wait to hear how God works in mighty ways there too.

It was fun spending time with the Macedonia group and hearing how God has been working in many ways there as well, but also hearing about the challenges that are faced there as new laws go into place which complicate some work that is going on.

In the midst of hearing about the blessings, I was reminded too of how much the kingdom work takes a toll on worker's bodies, soul and spirits. Many workers are tired (there is too much to be done and not enough laborers), have health issues, and fight personal battles as well. I thank all who have given to the Great Commission Fund and to Compassion and Mercy Associates general fund which enabled our workers to step away from the front for a bit and to take a breather, get refreshed and to be touched by God before going back in. It is such an invaluable time for us. So if you are reading this, and you have given, THANK YOU!

Croatia

Am looking so forward meeting up with the team in Dubrovnik this next week. It's been a very long year! Looking forward to what the Lord has in store while there.

Needing to change some things

Due to some of the topics mentioned in this blog site, I needed to delete the blogs. But if you have any questions about how things are going, please "email" me and ask! Di