Love :: The Movement

Christmas Greetings from Sudan

2009-12-24T21:10:00.000-08:00

It is Christmas in Sudan and we are saying, Thank You!" to Papa

for one of His most precious gifts to us:

YOU.

Thank you for loving us and standing with us

all year long.

From our ever growing family in Sudan,

we send our greetings and our gratitude.

Remembering the One Who is no longer

a baby in a manger,

Who is no longer on the cross

but Who reigns triumphant over all

and whose Kingdom

knows no end.

In Him we live, love, move and have our everything.

With love at Christmas and always,

Michele and all our Iris Sudan family.

A Christmas Baby!

2009-12-23T21:50:00.000-08:00

Welcome home Michael, Kujo John.

At only a few days old, on Dec 20, 2009, Michael became the youngest member of our family at Yei Children's Village, Iris Ministries Sudan.

A Christmas gift from heaven who reminds us of another baby who once had no place to lay his head. Thank You Papa for sending us Love.

May Michael grow up knowing and loving the One Who is no longer a baby in a manger, or a broken man on a cross- Who did not stay in the grave and Who is not staying in heaven forever.

In this season of remembering Your coming Jesus, may we live ready for Your coming as You come each day and expectant of your coming again.

The Face of Love: Documentary Trailer

2009-10-22T20:39:00.000-07:00

Welcome to a preview of our documentary to be released Christmas day this year...

One of those days...

2009-09-18T11:44:00.000-07:00

Ever have one of those days?

If so this one is for you. I hope it makes you laugh as hard as it did me when I took it!

Fall Schedule 2009

2009-09-03T13:09:00.000-07:00

Oct 2o-21 Colorado Springs: Schedule Pending

Oct 22-25 Syracuse NY: University Christian Fellowship

Oct 25-26 West Haven, CT: Gateway Church

Oct 27-29 Pittsburg, PA: Shepherd's Heart Community/Area Meetings

Oct 30-Nov 2 Charlotte Area/Area Meetings

Nov 3-5 Marian, Indiana: Indiana Wesleyan University

Nov 6-9 San Francisco: Schedule Pending

Nov 10-15 So Cal: Converge Board Meeting/Schedule Pending

Nov 16-21 Phoenix/Maricopa, AZ: Schedule Pending

Nov 21-23 St Louis, MO: Final Documentary Edits and Area Meetings

Nov 24-30: Jacksonville FL: Area Meetings/Family time

Nov 30-Jan 2010: Schedule Pending (OH, Chicago, FL, ??)

Dec 25: The Face of Love Documentary Scheduled Release!!!!

For more information or to schedule Michele to speak when she is in your area or to see about hosting a book release event, email her at lovehasaface@gmail.com

Love Has A Face: Book Release Sept 1!!!

2009-08-29T08:57:00.000-07:00

Well it is hard to believe the date is almost here! My first book is about to be released Tuesday, September 1st!

Thank you to all who have prayed and stood with me to see this day finally arrive. When you read it, I would love to know how Papa impacts you and hear any feedback you have.

Get involved in the discussion on Facebook or email me here.

May Jesus take you deeper into His heart every day and show His face of love. I pray you will be richly blessed.

For more information on purchasing, appearances and the like check the Book Blog out.

Much love, Michele

Silent Fire

2009-08-25T14:28:00.000-07:00

Experience is not the ultimate validation of the promise-God Himself is...

It has been quite the year- actually in my journal I have it written it has been more precisely one heck of a year- all hell seems to have broken loose and God has felt very far away- I know He isn't, but still. A year of crazy warfare, loss, sickness, opposition.

In the middle of malaria lying in bed yesterday, His Presence came so so tangibly I realized how much I have not been feeling Him and somehow I took the lack of tangible experience of His Presence to mean He was displeased. It has been a year of very little sensation, very little encounter in the manifest sense, tons of warfare, hard stuff, voices even from loved ones shouting at times the exact opposite of what God was saying and all the while at times it has felt like He has been silent knitting on the backside of the universe a few thousand light years away.

Every promise I had from Papa about this year was about visitation. Had I heard incorrectly? So I was asking Him why His promise of visitation had not come to pass yet- I mean we are over half way through the year. His response- "why beloved what makes you think it hasn't?"

Which led to a massive download in about 20 min- It has truly been a year of visitation- a year of Papa teaching me to live in the spirit apart from emotion, encounter, even encouragement at times. Unlike in 2001-2002 when I had a year when all sight was removed and much hearing, this season snuck up with no warning in advance, no promise. It just was and it has been HARD. This time even desire was dulled and hunger numbed.

There was nothing else BUT His promise to hold on to. Much of this year all I have been able to do is pray aggressively in tongues and declare His promises. But there has been no emotion, no sensation, nada- just blah flat, holding on because I can't let go. Some days I did rather beat myself up feeling like a hard hearted passionless bump on a pickle. Some told me oh- it is burn out and suggested I go out to pasture. Others theorized I just needed more soaking.

What to do when soaking feels like choking cause all experience of the river has dried to dust?

Yet in the middle of it all Papa has been stripping the old sounds and unleashing a new voice inside me I did not even know was there- a fiery war cry of love. Deep inside me there has been a faith establishing- a solidifying of who I am. In this season of sight and hearing being dim, being all but shut down- I have realized I DO SEE. I DO HEAR. Last year God told me I didn't really need another visitation at the moment- I needed to believe the ones I already had. It has been a year of silent fire burning out doubt- not doubt in God so much as doubt in myself and my ability to hear Him. It has been a year of learning to live in the reality of His Spirit, not only in the realm of my experience of His Spirit's reality.

There is a deep knowing in my spirit about the absolute necessity of this past season and the amazing things Papa has worked into my heart preparing it for the next stage of grace. He has awaked this fire in my bones- a cry for holiness. Not miserable legalistic religious stuff- but genuine love that is pure- intimacy AND purity. Holiness, set apartness unto Him. A cry for a genuine joy filled call to abandonment.

His silence is not His absence! It is simply a season of realigning my heart to carry an expanded realization of the message of His love- a love that has teeth. A love that is not some passive paltry sympathetic fluff- but a love that is a call to war, a love that calls us to die to all that is unworthy of Him! Love and the message of intimacy is incomplete without a renewed call to purity (as a state of grace, of living in union with our Jesus).

It has been a year of testing and proving the motives of the heart. Yesterday for the first time in a very long time I actually tangibly felt His Presence-like I am so accustomed to. Yet even in the middle of the dark, silent fire of this last year, a still voice would whisper into my ear every night:

"beloved I am so proud of you"

Every night. I could not understand why because it felt like I was simply struggling to hang on for dear life at times. I wasn't not feeling His Presence. I was encountering His PResence deeper than experience and feeling- I was having a different type of encounter, I just didn't know it. He has been drawing me into His realm.

Living from heaven to earth means we have to die. Our hidden life in Jesus is a positional reality that requires a practical outworking in our lives. Living from heave to earth has nothing to do with feeling/experiential encounter in its roots- that is some of the fruit and how awesome it is! But our roots are planted deep in the unseen bedrock of the character of Who God is, where His reality is trusted even when there is no feeling and emotion seems to shout the exact opposite. There is a company, a generation of people who will live a love encounter deeper than experience alone.

Experience is not the ultimate evidence of the unseen realm- FAITH is. God Himself is the validation of His Word. And a lack of manifest encounter is not a lack of encounter- it is a different encounter because in our spirit man united with Jesus we live one with His glory all the time. We live in His glory. That is truth. Manifestation is one kind of encounter of the glory realm. Faith is another.

I spent much of yesterday rereading my journal from this year only to see EVERY promise God has given is being precisely fulfilled. How amazingly faithful is our Jesus. And I know regardless of feeling or not, manifestation or not, tangible encounter or not- my spirit is one with Him and nothing can shake that or take that away from me. What freedom is that! And I look forward to the seasons of crazy overwhelming heaven encounters, as well as the quiet encounters of faith. Because in both God is closer than my next breath.

Selah.

More Outreach Fun

2009-08-23T10:43:00.000-07:00

Hi beloved: Jennie-Joy has put some more fabulous stories from our time with the Mundari and our recent prison outreach on her blog... Check them out:

Who Are the Mundari??

How Many Cows Is She Worth?

Prison Outreach

Mundari Land and Beyond

2009-08-22T07:37:00.000-07:00

Mundari Land was an amazing time of God moving and the miraculous being poured forth with love and power. For all the details, download the PDF update of photos and stories from our recent adventure HERE.

Thank you to all who prayed and stood with us in the Spirit. We had the joy to lead 90% of the prisoners in Yei prison who gathered today to Jesus and 99% of those that came forward for healing prayer got healed completely before our eyes! Go God!

So the Kingdom is coming in power to the peoples of Sudan. Thank you again for standing with us in love for God's dreams coming true here at the ends of the earth. Much love from here...

Your Kingdom Come...

2009-08-12T07:57:00.000-07:00

So it has just been your average week in Sudan- battles with sickness, an infestation of demon bees, discipling the police, trying to get IN to the prison, trying to plan outreaches in the absence of key leaders and vehicles, shortages in the markets cause no one can make a profit here anymore, a busted water pump and yes the list COULD go on and it is only Wedneday...

Today, I met Moses. Well I call him Moses-I actually don't know his name. He barely talks. He is maybe 14 years old. I saw him yesterday sitting naked on the side of the road in a mud puddle of putrid chemical-laden water filled with excrement. I call him Moses, drawn out of the water, because that is where I found him. But he is not a cute baby in a basket- THAT would be easy. Moses apparently has epilepsy and was totally non-responsive sitting buck naked with pus coming out of one ear. Flies were swarming him sticking to gooey green nastiness running down one side of his face, clinging to his open oozing sores. (I hope you are not reading this around a meal time- apologies if you are.)

So what did I do to the chagrin of the crowd that formed? I knelt down in the dirt with him and looked into his blank eyes and began to talk to him like he might actualy understand me. Then I held him and prayed. He began to smile and laugh. He still was barely communicative; but after finding a car to take him to the hospital, I returned to him wanting to hold my arm. He was praying the Lord's prayer- your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven in a local tribal dialect.

It got me thinking again- so what does God's Kingdom look like for him? What would it mean to be the answer to his prayer? Life here holds no easy questions and even fewer easy answers.

We took him to the hospital who told us point blank they don't take such cases and almost yelled at us for wasting their time. So we were faced with a decision. Do we risk further involvement or do we say oh well, pity, we tried? Love risks. Period.

We went back to where he was found and this time found a relative, who will take us to his uncle tomorrow. And we will sit with his uncle and hear his heart and his struggles... And of course we will see what we can do to help his father care for him.

Love sees. Love stops. Love compels involvement. Love risks. Love never fails.

So here's to a generation of lovers and dreamers, poets and prophets, mystics and minstrels who dare to live a love unboxed that colors earth with heaven.

some days...

2009-08-01T14:05:00.000-07:00

there are days

that hold

Church as it was intended...

2009-08-01T13:19:00.001-07:00

So what is church all about? This description rocks... and rolls. Be encouraged it is all about love, life and light shining forth in darkness. So what about you- does your very life testify that Jesus is Love and He is real?

Answered Prayer and Great Expectations

2009-07-29T02:49:00.000-07:00

Thank you for all your love and prayers, encouragement and support in this last season. Great news! Mary-Pat is off all tubes and has had a miraculous turn around. Thank you for standing with one I love so dearly. How she pulls off radiant and a photo shoot in ICU? Dude... hospital food looks like it has improved since I was there last.

Please keep Jennie Joy in prayer as she is still recovering with friends in Uganda from malaria, mystery virus #243 (ie no one knows) and a possible case of typhoid.

The latest with me... The doc here only speaks german and some details got "delayed in translation" until two days ago. It turns out that the reason my bouncing back hasn't been so bouncy this time is it appears I may have had some mild to moderate lung issues myself from the most recent malaria. There are concerns if I were to catch malaria again it could be extremely serious until my lungs heal.

When this all started, He said this sickness was not unto death and so I believe every working thereof, even in damage done WILL be completely reversed. As I asked Him Monday afternoon for confirmation and that MP (Mary-Pat) would be off all tubes before or by Wednesday when I left, making miraculous improvements that astounded and confounded the docs, there was a freak gorgeous rainstorm while I was taking to a friend in the US with a bright double rainbow landing just outside my window. His promise remains unmoved. I will NOT be moved by what my eyes see. We will step through His double portion promise! So the news of her miraculous improvement was so encouraging on more front than one.

I refuse to let an enemy attack or physical circumstances deter or define my call, but I DO want to be sensitive if Papa is saying the WAY I am walking this journey out needs to be adjusted in any way. I believe we are being shown some strategies in this season really bring a greater release of God's heart in Sudan.

We will not be led by what our natural eyes see. But we hear a call in this day to seek deeper revelation of what God is saying in the moment that shakes us out of any preconceived model. It is a season for our amazing indigenous family to step farther out in His dreams. Of course this has been my heart all along that the Sudanese Bride would be released into the fullness of her destiny.

The main issue for my health right now is not to get malaria and worsen the damage, so I am for the first time taking malarone as my next period in sudan will be for about a 2 month stretch, which is the limits thereof at one time with my other physical circumstances. Of course all the while trusting that Jesus supernaturally restores and kicks the devils butt for all the havoc he has caused in the last month. And we'll go from there. I can't wait to be home and I miss my babies so home can't come fast enough...

This whole season has been filled with revelation, wise counsel from the leaders surrounding us and great expectation of the Kingdom coming in even deeper ways all our lives. Below is an excerpt from a recent word released in May by Chuck Pierce that was a great confirmation from Papa's heart as I read it last night.

Hugest of hugs,

Michele

May 31, 2009- From a word given by Chuck Pierce

The Lord says, "Let the sound of reformation come into you. Feel the brooding of My Spirit over you. My Spirit brooded over the confusion of the earth realm, and I can brood over your confusion. Fully submit your spirit to gain insight into My plan of reformation. Ministries are reforming. Lives are reforming. Cities are changing. Church gatherings are reforming. There is a cataclysmic ending and beginning going on in the earth that is creating My plan of fullness.

"There is a mounting up. Angels are guarding your reforming. Life systems around you are changing. The water is being applied to the clay and the Potter's wheel is accelerating. You must be ready and start coming up and I'll meet you halfway. I will overshadow you as you ascend. I will shadow you and bring you through the confusion you've been in. Be ready. Come up. Ascend and watch that confusion end.

"I am making you ready now. Watch Me get you ready. Be ready to move with Me quickly. Be ready to make a quick decision. Be ready to move and advance with Me. Be ready for the third day. Be ready for the change. Be ready for your new assignment. Be ready to move with Me. Be ready, for the third day is coming over you and overshadowing you!

"I am working in your life to make you ready. Like Peter's mother-in-law, be ready to rise up from that fever that has held you down. Be ready to serve Me. Be ready to go up. Be ready to be assigned. Be ready to make that change. Be ready to go forward. Be ready to demonstrate My power in the path where I have placed you.

"Be ready for the change that is about to happen in your life. Be ready! Sanctify and ready yourself, for this is a day that I will call you quickly and change your circumstance quickly and cause you to rise up. From the direction you were taking, you will shift immediately. Be ready, for changes are coming—suddenly. I AM singing 'Suddenly! Suddenly!' Sing with Me and ready yourself to move quickly...

Aligned With Heaven

2009-07-23T02:34:00.000-07:00

I have discovered I tend to live a bit of a prophetic life. I am learning a LOT in this season. We have this majorly important bone that connects our skull to our spine, commonly called the C1 vertabrae or the atlas bone. It is the most important bone in our body. If it breaks, you die. If it is out of line, it causes all sorts of problems and throws everything else out of line too.

Jesus told me 2009 was a year, especially during the summer months of aligning and defining. Aligned, defined, assigned in 2009 was the exact phrase.

I am in Germany getting over some major bouts of sickness from last month in Sudan and just trying to learn how to be healthy period. One thing that we found out was my atlas was quite a bit out of whack. Seeing as none of my spine is in line, it is not surprising. But this part could be fixed easily and as it is the MOST important bone in the body, it seemed prudent to do so...

They have this amazing guy here named Tom who very gently (no bone cracking) in one 5 minute sitting slightly presses the right spot while you shake your head and wallah it pops back in. He places his fingers in the small indentations behind your ears as you move your head from side to side and there you go. Oh, but that is when the fun begins Church- every other muscle, joint starts lining up (as much as possible in my case as all but 2 vertebrae are fused in place). And that is spelled everyone's favorite four letter word to be avoided: P-A-I-N.

When it has been out of whack for a long time, there is a release of toxins that require drinking tons of water to flush out of the body. Is it just me or is anyone seeing any parallels?

Yesterday Jesus began speaking to me how much of His Body (that's you n me) is suffering from disconnection from the head through an out of place atlas. And because that is out of place everything else gets out of line too. The pressure and shaking we are feeling is a call to let Him line us back up with Him. But we have to agree to the process, we have to say yes to the shaking so the lining up can happen.

It is a critical season of aligning with heaven, aligning in relationship with the Head Who is Jesus. The enemy desires to send a cancer of religion to completely eat away the atlas of the Body of Christ and disconnect us from relationship with our first Love. This year I lost someone very dear to me because of just such a cancer in the natural. It is time to radically allow the aligning process in our own hearts and lives... only when we are rightly aligned with Jesus can we be properly in place with one another. Alignment has everything to do with hearing and connection directly with the One Who gave His all that we can be wholly His. In one word intimacy.

1 Peter 2:4-12

4 As you come to him, the living Stone--rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him-- 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

And the results of the alignment process can be painful for a short time. We need to drink lots of His living water to flush the toxic stuff that has built up over time. We are in a great season. Papa is just sticking His fingers behind our ears calling us to hear His heartbeat again, aligning us with Who Jesus is and the reality of heaven that all can be put in place for His glory to shine though us as His dearly loved sons and daughters and His Kingdom to come on earth as in heaven.

So what is Papa shaking in your life, what is He pressing on to bring alignment with Him?

desert song

2009-07-20T05:48:00.000-07:00

Some days you find songs that capture the song of the season you are in... thanks Hillsong for this one:

this is my prayer in the desert

when all that's within me feels dry

this is my prayer in my hunger and need

my God is the God who provides

and this is my prayer in the fire

in weakness or trial or pain

there is a faith proved of more worth than gold

so refine me Lord through the flames

i will bring praise

no weapon formed against me shall remain

i will rejoice, i will declare

God is my victory and He is here

and this is my prayer in the battle

and triumph is still on it's way

i am a conqueror and co-heir with Christ

so firm on His promise i'll stand

all of my life

in every season

you are still God

i have a reason to sing

i have a reason to worship

this is my prayer in the harvest

when favor and providence flow

i know i'm filled to be emptied again

the seed i've recieved i will sow

-hillsong

some deep words

2009-07-19T06:36:00.000-07:00

We are not easily reduced to prayer. We who grope toward praying today are like a city gutted by fire. The struggle against injustice has exacted from us an awful cost. In a similar period with similar struggles, Camus wrote, “There is merely bad luck in not being loved; there is tragedy in not loving. All of us, today, are dying of this tragedy. For violence and hatred dry up the heart itself; the long fight for justice exhausts the love that nevertheless gave birth to it…”

Unprotected by prayer, our social activism runs the danger of becoming self-justifying good works, as our inner resources atrophy, the wells of love run dry, and we are slowly changed into the likeness of the Beast.

Walter Wink, Engaging the Powers, p. 297-298

Without Love, we have nothing.

Elizabeth Pita

2009-07-17T02:06:00.000-07:00

It is such a blessing to see the hand of our Papa at work. Please take a look at the latest addition to our In Community Care Program family. Elizabeth Pita. And see the story of her naming. Go God! Jennie-Joy, you rock!

A Resting Place

2009-07-16T21:00:00.000-07:00

I am so blessed to be writing this from a small cow village in Germany in a lovely guest house run by people who exude the love of Jesus. Papa is so smart- He knew exactly where to send me! I am getting some wonderful counsel and understanding about nutrition and the things I need to do to get my body back online. They have very advanced testing here that is amazingly accurate and noninvasive. The doctors then use nutritional and natural solutions. My digestive track appears from the preliminary results to be very much compromised and inflamed. So I am on a special diet of very bland food (no more extra hot chili sauce- not for a while anyway!) and lots of juices.

Apparently the digestive track has ALOT to do with your overall health- far more than I ever imagined. I am learning all I can how to be healthy even in a place like Sudan... It is important this body lasts for the long haul. What is incredible is that this place, which defines beauty and rest, is completely built, run and managed by those who deeply love Jesus. It is true biblical community and amazing to experience. Well I have homework of things to read, so I best get to it! Much love and thank you for your prayers...

Meeting New Family

2009-07-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

After leaving Alaska, I headed to a time in Holland to spend several days with new family there. It is always such a privilege to meet more people who are radically pursuing all God is and has for their nation and the nations of the earth. It was a precious time of getting prayer and learning some more insights about the battle at hand concerning me personally. Slowly (more slowly than I'd like!) my body is healing from the last month of attacks on my health. Next it will be on to Germany to hide away for a week and learn all I can on how to get and stay healthy for the long haul. Much love from Europe...

Alaskan Adventures...

2009-07-07T10:08:00.000-07:00

Hold on to your Hat

Well it has been one of those months to well, hold on to your hat and press in to Jesus cause it was quite a ride. One of our little princesses has the idea down pat. Is she not gorgeous????

Shika baba (hold on to the Father) WHAT a month. We had some MAJOR victories I am still grinning cheesily over: we finally after a year long battle got our land documents for the longest lease they grant at present which is 25 yrs. WAHOOOOO! Our house of prayer is about 1/3rd of the way complete... 75% or more of the police department got saved at one time.

Add in battles with malaria and other health issues, assignments of the enemy and just the general conditions- well it was hmmm interesting....

I WAS very good and stayed in bed much of the time. Much MORE than usual! But the severity of the sickness and spiritual battle associated really made it feel like I was in a fight for my life. And I have since found out I pretty much was.

Alaskan Adventures...

I had a lovely time taking my mom on Catch the Wave in AK and meeting all the precious people Papa let me get to know from there. It was a time of beautiful, albeit COLD, scenery, lovely people and fun learning about the native heritage of AK.

I shared in a meeting in Anchorage that was SUCH a blessing after the boat ride- led by an ex cop turned nun turned revivalist. It rocked. There was a refugee woman who was heavily involved in witchcraft from Congo in the meeting who didn't speak English. When she started screaming manifesting in the meeting guess who gets voted to deal with things? I knew that spirit- I see it many times at home. So I went up to her to bind things from further distraction and give her a hug and before I even got a word out she decked me in the face. No black eye though! Leave it to me to get punched out by someone dabbling in witch craft from Congo in the middle of Alaska, hello!

More memories...

Friends from Atlanta!

Some one decided to turn trees upside down and make planters out of them... and an alaskan tourist attraction was born...

Mom in Ketchican

Eagles are a big theme here...

With the Tlingkit chief in Ketchican... was a beautiful time of hearing about their culture and dreams.

With another wild woman for Jesus... Love you Red!

Let there be LIGHT!

2009-06-24T09:35:00.000-07:00

June 2009 Update

It has been a whirlwind month of grace and battle. Truly it would have been impossible without the love and prayers of so many of our global family. For you I am truly grateful.

Every day where we live seems to inch closer to precipices of hostility. Intermittent reports blow like the storms of rainy season: one moment calm, the next violent in intensity. Thousands have died in the last 6 months in the South in intertribal clashes over resources and land, making its recent history bloodier than even its northwestern neighbor of Darfur. Reports from our pastors in the field reach us regularly of famine, drought, destruction of seed stores by worms and instability that make daily life a veritable crucible of love and faith.

What do you do in the face of an impending tidal wave of darkness?

For one, remember darkness cannot stand in the face of light. It only calls for beacons to shine the reality of another realm. Darkness cannot chase the light, but light sure can chase away the darkness!

So while aware of our at times precarious placement in the Kingdom, we choose to focus that for such a time as this God has called us to shine the light of love in the middle of the storm, raising up a generation of storm dancers and light carriers that will shift the atmosphere over this nation.

It has also been an intense time on our base as sickness has seemed to attack from every side. I personally was hit with a severe case of malaria followed by bacterial dysentery, followed by a rare reinfection of malaria all in the span of 3 weeks. Others on our base have been battling at times life threatening intestinal infections and malaria as well.

Yet in the middle of the onslaught we can celebrate the nearing completion of our land lease paperwork (a 2 year battle!). I am thrilled I got to preach my first sermon in Arabic even while sick AND share with the entire gathered police force of our city. 75% of them gave their hearts to Jesus!

Our churches are growing and planting more churches, our family is maturing in love and one of my favorite memories of the last 3 week ordeal was about 45 of my kids turning up on my porch one morning to pray for me. This was the idea of an unexpected instigator- little Aarona now seven approached Kafi one of our eldest saying "We need to pray for mama" So up they march to my house and by the time they were done I was feeling so loved and in need of a chiropractor- they can be a bit heavy handed my lil guys can. Hmmm does it help if we push harder?

I am so excited as we are about to start the construction of 200 person House of Prayer that will be open for 24-7 prayer and used for our church services as well. It is a vision coming to pass at just the right time.

Thank you for your love and prayers. You are signs and wonders to us in your love and support. I am leaving for approximately a 3 week trip to the states where I will be attending Catch the Wave with my mother (hopefully resting and getting my strength back!), preaching in AK and then stopping for meetings in Holland on the way home.

I very much need another supernatural miracle of grace for my body to be healed and restored. But I have the best Doctor in the whole wide world!

Please pray

*For the base especially Jenny Joy as she holds down the fort in my absence, as well as our national team

*For sickness to be kicked off our our compound and 7 fold retribution of divine healing to be poured out

*For our indigenous leaders and pastors facing extremely difficult circumstances

*For wisdom for all of us as we listen to Love's heartbeat

*For healing for me and a good time of connecting with heaven and family.

Love all of you so very much,

Michele

When Heaven Smiles

2009-05-30T12:56:00.000-07:00

Do you know the feeling when heaven smiles and all is right, no matter how wrong things could go, it just doesn't even begin to touch the smile in your spirit? This week has held so many precious days like those. It was a great 2.5 weeks with my mom here, but a marathon of sorts as we packed alot in. After putting her on the plane in Uganda I was actually grateful for the ticket snafu the next day that delayed me a day getting home. I needed a day off with Jesus.

It is moments like Thursday driving in to our compound I know I am so home and no matter what, HE is worth it. Here we are with one of our outreach choirs at our sign (we finally have one, thanks to our short term guys!) on the main road to our compound.

I cannot even begin to tell you how blessed I am. I came home to all my children dressed in their Sunday best welcoming me singing and dancing and about tackling me to the ground in hugs! Their bright shining faces lit up my heart as they called out "Mama we missed you- we are so happy you are home." Together we marched up to my house where they all were waiting to see my expression... they had lined my walk with bricks and planted some flowering vines and had begun cultivating the garden beds by the fence. I did not ask them to do this, they just did it to bless me, knowing how much I LOVE flowers. I was so happy I about cried... as we sang and danced and prayed and I had little 2 yr old esther in my arms. I realized how at home I feel, how home this has become, how totally excited I am for the days and years ahead and all that God desires here.

Tonight we had a gorgeous worship time as several little guys piled around me for hugs and lightening lit up the sky in the distance... I watched little charity (who was healed after the LRA attacked her family) worshiping with her hands up to heaven, eyes squeezed shut singing with every cell of her 3 year old being to Jesus. I cried and cried and cried- the "I am so grateful I don't know what to say" kind of tears.

Then she ran over and threw herself into my arms and whispered in my ear, "Mama". I could feel the smile of heaven, the kiss of our King as all of our children prayed their hearts out to Him face down in the dirt in tongues, in english, in kawkwa, in arabic, in madi, in didinga, in lingala, in what ever language they had to express their hunger for more of Him and to cry out for revival in our land. I am spoiled for sure. To be honest- it is the best worship time I have been in months. Maybe I am biased but I just love worship with our kids. The only thing I love more is the thick weighty glory honey Presence of Jesus anywhere- but even better when with our kids. Haha!

God is bringing strategic connections and all I can do is stand amazed at the doors that are opening. Electricity or not, running water or not, convenience or not- nothing could compare to such a homecoming that I seriously doubt could happen just so any other place on earth. Yup so all that to say I am blessed (and healthy too!). I am so glad to be home surrounded by treasures from heaven even as I type this on my battery power. Amenities will come but now I have to admit the candles have their own ambiance... my idea of camping may be a day spa, but my idea of home is my family here. Here in His courts where I'm close to His throne, I've found where I belong.

My Mom came home with me...

2009-05-25T03:05:00.000-07:00

Here is our latest video update, from the perspective of one of our most recent visitors... my mom. It was great to have her experience life Sudanese style with me. I am proud of her for sticking through it, as stretching as I know it was. Way to go mom!

Child Witches? Please.

2009-05-23T11:07:00.000-07:00

This breaks God's heart... Please pray: this has to stop.

USA Today-Child Witches Accused in Congo

See a beautifully done Dateline special on it HERE.

Introducing Converge International...

2009-04-30T13:21:00.000-07:00

It has been an exciting season to finally submit the Converge International papers for incorporation and registration. Some of you have wondered what exactly Converge is... Well someone give us a drumroll please...

Converge is a not for profit ministry organization that networks people that are hearing the same heartbeat of heaven across streams, affiliations and organizations and links them with the front lines of God's outpouring in the darkest and hardest places we can find. Converge partners with like-minded and like-hearted quality indigenous organizations to stand with them to release revival movements of His love in the nations.

We are about raising up and releasing an upside down company who live from heaven to earth and bring the Kingdom where ever they go.

We are about raising awareness through the creative arts and calling the Church to have eyes to see with the eyes of Jesus. Then out of the place encountering the One Who is Love to become the incarnation of His answer in the earth.

We are about practical acts of love that reach the unreached and supernatural displays of heaven's reality that bring revival to regions and transformation to nations.

Right now Converge is exploring several avenues of involvement internationally. Its primary focus at present is the people of Sudan through its partnership with Iris Ministries Sudan. It is also looking into the issues relating to children accused of witch craft in DR Congo.

Want to find out more? Check us out at www.convergeinternational.net.