Giving Away....

Sadness courses through every vein
Losing someone who you wished to gain

Letting go of of what you never had
Running into the arms of dad

Making known the things of the heart
Can it ever give us a brand new start?

Its never easy letting go
Never wanting to watch, wait, or show

Those emotions inside that make you known,
Longing for the one you bemoan

And when its gone, all said and done
You will have given away what you wished you had won.


Saying goodbye is never easy, but it is the best thing to do sometimes. Even though you wish you had more time. You wish you would have gotten to become better friends. You wish you would have been able to share more of life's laughs, loves, and hardships together.
You want to know the other person as you know yourself. You wish the best for them while at the same time you never want them to leave.

I will miss you......

What if?

Can a dream change the world. Can one person driven by passion, a desire, or an idea make a difference in this ever expanding world. Is there hope for change, is there hope for a difference, is there hope for a revolution of the world. Can there be something that burns inside of someone that is so immense that it drives them and propels them forward into life not only for themselves, but for others. Could that person be me? What if I want to be that person? What makes me better or different from others? Why not them? Why me?

Is it the desire? Or the need for something more? Can I even comprehend or imagine what will happen if I pursue and go after the things upon my heart?

All in time. One day at a time. One step at a time. One person at time.

An idea can change the world. Because ideas do not die like we do with time. Ideas do not feel pain or bleed. Even though we can not hold an idea or even touch it, it lives on.

A New Way Of Looking At Things

To say the least, it has been hard being home. It has been huge time of transition and adjustment for me moving from N. Ireland to Southern California. I feel like I have become a bit more settled here, but there is still this feeling of mayhem. It's as if there are things that are settled around me, but not inside of me.
Since coming home I have gotten in touch with the school that I was hoping to go to and everything came together perfectly. I will now be attending Cal State Fullerton University in the Fall of 2009 for my freshmen year of college! It will be a big change and a challenging time for me getting back into school, but I know God will guide me every step of the way. Since being home and having all these things come together, I have received words about me being at school and me going to school, which has been extremely encouraging for me. It helps me become settled in my heart, knowing that this IS the place where God has brought me and that He IS in what I am doing.
So beyond school, all that I am trying to do now is get a job.

Thats whats been happening around me and with me lately, but here is what has been happening inside of me lately:

Ever since I have been home there has been a tension inside of me between what I have seen and experienced and what I am seeing and experiencing now. It is a tension between the past and the present.
In N. Ireland while I was doing my internship with CCV, everything was new and everything was a learning experience. Over the 10 months I was there I got to learn, see, experience, and grow exponitially in more things than I could have ever dreamed of. I was exposed to a culture and a way of life that has been so deeply engraved in me, that it has followed me here to California.
Before I came back to Southern California I foresaw a few things that I would be encountering and that would be a struggle for me to transition into. Now being home I have been engadging with those things and experiencing those struggles for over a month now. I have experienced times of lonliness, times of hopelessness, times where I wanted to go back to N. Ireland, and even times where I was angry and confused to why I was in So Cal. As I said at the beginning 'To say the least, it has been hard being home.'
Today I went and grabbed coffee with a friend and shared my experience and my heart that had been transformed by God in N. Ireland. I shared my struggles and some of the things that I was finding hard dealing with since being home. After sharing all the things that I had learned, grown in, and become acustomed to, my friend shared a bit of truth that I had lost in the mayhem of this past month. He opened my eyes to see things through a new lense. It has been hard for me to see what God has been doing here with me since I got home, but now I feel like I have a greater idea and purpose through what I now see.
When I was interning with the Causeway Coast Vineyard I was within a culture, a church, and around people that were very focused and driven for the purpose and the calling that God had put upon them. You know that saying, "some things are better caught than thought."? That is what I experienced in Northern Ireland. I feel like I have caught a vision and a calling that God has put on His church for the lost. And now coming back home where I am away from this environment and these people, the things that are within my heart are truly tested. My friend opened my eyes to see that some of the greatest fruit isn't during the time of learning, but it is during the time of testing; sometimes it is during those wilderness experiences that the most fruit comes. He showed me that now during the time where my heart and my mind is being tested and challenged is the time where I can see the true depth and worth of what I have recieved. That this time can be greater than the last.

That was a huge encouragement for me. It was the new perspective that I needed. It doesn't make any of the things that I am going to be facing easier, but it helps bring hope and expectancy to the journey.

Thanks for reading.

The Perfect Day

The Perfect Day. You don't get many of these in northern ireland. Hahaha! It is so beautiful here, so green, but what many people don't know is that the weather rarely is as sunny as good old california. So when it gets sunny, when that big ball of fire decides to show up in the sky, we all go outside and have a party. When the sun came out a few days ago, I just had to get out of the offices and go enjoy God's beauty. This day was truly like no other. Usually in portstewart (a city right on the northern atlantic coast) there is wind, if not a gale force wind. On this special day, not only were the skies clear and the sun out, but it was extremely quiet and calm. The wind wasn't even present. Than NEVER happens, so I just had to get outside and enjoy myself. I luckily had my camera with me and had a little bit of fun. It was so beautiful, more beautiful than my camera could capture. It is so amazing being drawn and pushed back to God in my mind and my spirit as I took in these stunning sights. It is by His grace that He reveals such amazing wonders to me. Thank you jesus for my sight!

Praise you Father!

Stevenage (St. Evenage)

My last trip with Mark.... :-( Sad but exciting at the same time. This weekend we are in Stevenage, England which is close to St. Albans where Samuel Lane lives and leads worship. It was a good weekend, but different at the same time. Everyone was excited, nervous, and some fearful about going out on the streets for the first time. We split the team in two because we had two separate locations where we were doing HOTS. The location I was at was a very hard location. There were a few regulations and things that the church wasn't allowed to do on the streets, like hand out leaflets, which made it a lot harder. The location I was at was tucked away in a little corner and it wasn't seen by the people walking by, so we didn't get much response from the public. God's presence was still there, but no one was sitting down. But even though people weren't sitting down at our location, people were getting prayer and sitting down at the other location. People were getting healed and touched by God's presence, love, and peace. The team was very encouraged and we got to share stories of what God had done which was faith lifting.

On most of my trips with Mark, after our saturday afternoon on the streets, we would go back to the place we were staying and relax and chill out for the rest of the day. This saturday evening I was invited to go with some of the team from Stevenage to a house warming party. So that evening I went to this house warming party and had such a fun time. I have always loved my travels with Mark; I love traveling and going different places and I really love meeting people. At this party I was blessed to meet some really amazing people. They were so loving and accepting to me, it really modeled such a loving community that I hope I can be able to give and show others. At the party, they were doing a BBQ and the main event of the night was watching Eurovision Contest. Eurovision is a singing contest that was created over 50 years ago who after the second world war to unite the countries of Europe. It was a hilarious time of critiquing all the performances done by each country that was in the contest. We judged each performance on 5 categories, song, lyrics, dress, and performance (dance, movement, etc). They also got extra points for special affects and key changes in their singing. It was a hilarious time and I must admit that I probably got a little too opinionated and shared too much about what I thought of each contesting countries performance.

Norway ended up winning, not on skill or performance at all. They were terrible, utterly horrible. Pish!!!!! I was appalled that they won, but I learned that Eurovision can be quite political (neighboring countries voting for each other, etc...). This trip and that night was an amazing experience and I will never forget my time here at St. Evenage (Stevenage). Hahah!

Lord bless this city. Bless everything they do out on their streets. Make your name known in this city! Use the people of the Stevenage Vineyard in huge ways. Bless them lord. May your favor be upon them. Amen.

Birmingham

This past weekend in Birmingham was amazing. In total, there were just about 150 people being trained at this HOTS training event. All of those people were from about 15-20 different churches throughout Birmingham. It was great to see another city where churches are uniting under one vision and banner to get back out on the streets and bring the love of Jesus to the lost and needy.

We hit the streets on Saturday afternoon in two locations. Throughout the afternoon Mark and I visited both locations and they were both buzzing with people. The first location was at Birmingham cathedral, it was a beautiful open green area where people were walking to and from the bus stops to the city centre. From the word go, the chairs started to fill up. I got to chat with many of the youth that were hanging outside of the cathedral and had a grand time. After about 45 minutes, mark and I left to go to the other location. When we arrived there almost all of the chairs were full. The people who were praying there were very excited and God was moving in many ways. We spent the rest of our time at the second locations and throughout that time there was a good flow of people sitting down in the chairs receiving prayer. We had planned to end at 4 oclock, but because so many things were happening, people were constantly coming to receive prayer, and it was still really busy, we didn’t end till 5 oclock!! We gathered into a circle after we had packed up all the equipment and shared stories and everyone was very encouraged.

God is good!

Canterbury

In total we had about 180 people being trained in Canterbury. Healing on the Streets was new to Canterbury, and it was the first time where different pastors, denominations, and churches have come together to unite under one banner and vision. There were over 10 churches who came together for the training. On the Saturday we set up 13 chairs on the corner of Best Lane and the High Street. It was bustling with people and the HOTS team numbered about 140 on the streets. It was an amazing day. Many people got healed and after our time on the streets we all met back at the church to tell stories from the day. It was very encouraging and when all was said and done we had prayed for 87 people who were from the streets of Canterbury. Praise God!

Newcastle, again!!!!

The weekend in Newcastle was amazing! It was the normal teaching seminars and it was held in the New Brunswick Methodist church again. There were approximately 50 new people getting trained for HOTS, making the total number of people trained for HOTS in Newcastle upon tyne 300!!!!! On the Saturday afternoon when we were supposed to go out, we had to change locations because there was some type of show/music festival that was in the spot where we usually set up by Grey’s Monument in Newcastle’s city centre. We just went to the other location on Northumberland Street. It is just a minutes walk from the monument, and still had the same amounts of people walking by second by second. The whole time on the streets went well. I can think of only one instance where we had maybe one or two people sitting in the 9 chairs available. The rest of the time it was mayhem!! Holy and glorious mayhem. People were coming to sit down right and left and I was getting to join in with all the Newcastle team as we prayed for the people of Newcastle. God did many amazing things and the new people who had only been trained that weekend were definitely encouraged. The time flew by so quickly that people started to pack upand I looked down at my watch and discovered that it was time to go home... I wanted to stay. I personally saw god do multiple healings and it was a great encouragement to me.

The whole weekend in a nutshell was amazing. God did so much and I hope that what is happening in Newcastle continues to grow and even turn into a full blown revival.

Edinburgh

Edinburgh......

What an amazing place.  The following weekend, Mark and I set out on another adventure to Scotland.  We set out at o'dark hundred and arrived in scotland early enough to get taken out for a nice Scottish breakfast.  I was also privileged enough to eat haggis in the first meal I ever ate in Scotland.  :-)  

On this weekend Mark and I came to train the Almond Vineyard.  The pastors of the Almond Vineyard are the Dave and Liz Hart.... Gemma's Parents!!!!!!  It was so good to finally meet my great friend Gemma's parents.  They are really amazing people.  Throughout the weekend we got to hang out with them and get to know each other better and better.  I even got to watch the Ireland vs England rugby match with Dave (he is Northern Irish) so this match was a big thing.  

The whole weekend went great!  Spending time with the Harts and the people from their church was a treat.  I got to learn a lot about what is happening in their area, their church, and their lives.  It was great to be able to get to know my friends parents.  I know that that sounds really weird, but I really enjoyed getting to know Gemma's parents.  I will definitely come back to visit Edinburgh one day to stay with the Harts and to see the city.  On my trip I wasn't able to see any of the city, but thats not what matters.  What does matters is that we saw god change people's hearts and lives for his kingdom.  God is really doing something with the Almond Vineyard and I really look forward to hear reports about what is happening with them because I feel, just as they feel, that they are on the edge of a breakthrough.  God would you bless them and give them that breakthrough.  Would you bring a new anointing upon their church.  A fresh anointing and blessing.  

Bicester

Hey!

So..... lets catch up.  

These past few weeks have flown by at light speed.  I don't know where all the time went.  It feels like 2009 just started and it is already march.  I almost don't want to believe that it is passing so quickly.  

The past few weeks have been ones that I don't ever want to forget.  They have not been anything different from how my life's schedule has been lately, but what I have seen, experienced, learned, and the people I have met have made them worth while.  

About 3 weeks ago Mark and I were off to Bicester, England to train up a group of churches for Healing on the Streets.  The weekend was as normal as ever, but the city center, the people we stayed with, and the house we stayed at were so amazing.  We usually don't stay in hotels or any type of purchased accommodation, we usually get to stay with a couple from the church that are kind enough to open up their home to total strangers.  The couple we stayed with in Bicester were the sweetest people I have ever met.  They lived on a farm and had turned their massive house into a little Bead and Breakfast which they called the Manor Farm B&B.  Staying with

 them was a blessing and such a privilege because they were some of the loveliest people to talk to and discuss the simple things of life with.  I thoroughly enjoyed my stay in their home and

would love to see them again very soon.  Over the weekend in Bicester we saw many people

 encouraged and emboldened to push past their fears and go for it with praying for people in the streets.  The town center where we did HOTS was very different in appearance than other town centers I have seen in England.  I really loved the look of it because it reminded me of what I had seen on my trip to Germany the year before.  On sunday, Mark got to speak at 2 different sunday services in different churches where in total 8 people raised their hands to become christians or rededicate their lives to christ!!!  Amazing!  Thank you jesus!   It was a trip where I got to chat with people and pray with people where I really got to connect with them on a heart level.  It was a beautiful and moving experience.  I also had a lot of fun exploring the farm land around the Manor Farm where we were staying.  I found some amazing views and and some really cool places to just go exploring where I got to climb this huge pile of hay bales. 

What I am doing here in Northern Ireland

For anyone who doesn't know what I do here weekly, here is a brief view into my life as an intern.  

Here in Northern Ireland I am working under the missions pastor of the Causeway Coast Vineyard, so my weeks are generally spent in the church offices. It is amazing everything that the church staff and pastors do behind the scenes that doesn't get seen by the normal church goer. So during the day I am in the offices (9am - 5pm) and then I go home usually for a bit of reading and then dinner and then I shoot on to the next thing. 2 nights out of the week I go to a home group. One of them is a youth small group that I am leading with someone else from the church, and the other is a young adult group where I am learning, receiving, and being challenged in my walk with God. At the moment I am also doing a class on tuesday nights called the Father heart of God, where I am learning about God as my father, my daddy. It is such an amazing course where I am going back to the root of many hurts and problems in my life and having God come in and heal those places. My mondays are my day off from work, but on those days things have to be done around the house. Grocery shopping, cleaning the house, laundry, and a bit of down time. Usually mondays are my day where I jump on my computer and get in contact with people at home. (like right now) :-D

God blessed me immensely when I came here by opening a door for me to travel with one of the staff members here from the church (Mark). He started something here in Coleraine (the city in Northern Ireland where the church is) called Healing on the Streets. Healing on the streets is just a simple model for healing where churches can get outside of the building and offer healing and hope to a lost and needy world. Through this ministry, God has opened doors for Mark to go to other churches all over europe and teach them the Healing on the Streets model. I have been his traveling companion since october last year and I have been so blessed to be able to go places with him. By being around Mark and just doing normal life with him, I am learning more than I have ever learned in my life. It has been an amazing experience and the best is yet to come.  For many of my weekends I am away, but out of the past 4 weekends I have been home for 3 of them.  So all in all, I am a pretty busy guy all day all week long.  It is a rare occasion where I get a chance to relax and take some time off, but it is definitely the best time of my life.

I hope you enjoyed a look into the life of Ben.  Crazy, full, but because God has been in the center of it the whole time.... it has all been worth while.  

Places I am going!

Here are a list of places that I am going. Please pray for me on these trips that God will keep me safe, that he will bless me, and that I will not miss any of His leadings on these trips. And as I meet people please pray that God will place more wisdom in me, that He will humble my heart, and that He would expand my character so that I might be loving and encouraging to everyone I meet in every situation.

February 20 - 22 Bichester, England. Healing on the Streets with Mark.

February 27 - March 2 Edinburgh, Scotland. I will be going to Gemma's parent's church!!!!! Healing on the streets with Mark.

March 6 - 8 Aylesbury, England. Healing on the Streets with Mark.

March 13 - 15 Glasgow, Scotland. Healing on the Streets with Mark.

March 21 - 28 Morocco. Trip with Sydney and Ricky Wright (the missions pastor) to morocco to meet underground missionaries and pastors who are evangelizing in a muslim dominated society where it is illegal to be christian.

April 17 - 18 Newcastle, England. Healing on the Streets with Mark.

April 24 - 26 Colchester, England. Healing on the Streets with Mark.

May 1 - 3 Birmingham, England. Healing on the Streets with Mark.

May 8 - 9 Canterbury, England. Healing on the Streets with Mark.

May 15 - 17 Stevenage, England. Healing on the Streets with Mark.

May 19 - 31 South Africa missions trip. Sydney and I will be leading a missions trip to south africa for 11 days.

The past month!

Its crazy to think of all the things that I have done in the past month. January of 2009 is already gone, and it seems like it had just began. I had a more of a relaxed schedule this past month than normal. I had 3 weekends home which was really nice. But 2 weekends I went on trips with Mark and another I went back to Newcastle, england to visit some friends. My trips with Mark are always amazing and eventful. I wish I could truly describe the excitement and the atmosphere of what it is like being around mark and learning from him. He is an amazing guy who's heart is so humble. In January I went with Mark to Stanmore and Plymouth, england. Both of the trips went great and I saw God touch a lot of people. I had so much fun on the plymouth trip chatting with teenagers and inviting them to come and take a seat for prayer. It was amazing watching the routiest and craziest teenager become totally calm and tranquil as they sat in the chair and received prayer and were told that God loved them. I remember being amongst a group of boys when one of their friends who just got prayer came from the chair to rejoin the group. She had gotten prayer for her back and all her friends immediately asked her how she was doing. She said that all the pain in her back was gone. She was all smiles and kept on telling her friends over and over that she felt a lot better. She then made the hilarious comment that she was thinking about going all religious. Haha!

In Newcastle, I met two of my friends I had made on my first trip with Mark Marx for Healing on the Streets. Over the weekend I spent every minute with them and every second I was there I was learning things. These guys were both radically saved and came from rough and extremely hard backgrounds. Both of them had amazing stories and amazing a huge passion and fire for God. Just spending a weekend with them I was challenged and stretched in my thinking and faith. I walked away from Newcastle with so many stories, it would be too hard to tell you just one of them. So to sum it all up, in Newcastle God did amazing things and my friends taught me inadvertently about living a passionate sold out life for christ. It was flippin awesome!

Since coming home, I have also finally settled into a home group. It was hard for me deciding on where to go and which home group to choose, but I finally chose one and I know that it is the family that I need here. The people in the house group are an amazing bunch of new and old christians and we have a lot of fun journeying our walk in christ together. Thank you Jesus!

As a small group and just as friends getting together to have some fun, we have all gone to the movies, thrown a surprise party, and watched a rugby match.

For any of you who have never seen a game of rugby... you are sorely missing out. It is the most amazing sport ever invented. I am definitely going to join a league when I get home. We watched the 6 Nations rugby match on sunday where it was Ireland vs Italy. The game was played in Rome, so the nerves were blaring and we were all a bit on edge. But as the fighting Irish always do, we kicked some italian ass and won 35-17!!!!! I love rugby.

Thank you god for putting me here

Thank you God for letting me be a part of your story.  Thank you for letting me be a part of what you are doing here.  Thank you for this church and all the people here.  As I look around at all the leaders and all the amazing people you have here, God my heart is moved to tears of joy.  Thank you for putting me here Jesus.  A teenager from California living in Northern Ireland I am.  What an adventure!!!  What a blessing!  What a time of learning and change!  Thank you for what you have included me to do here in Northern ireland and abroad.  Greater things are yet to come. Greater things are still to be done here.  I am so happy to be home, to be back at church.  Thank you for what you are going to do this year.  The best is yet to come.

(this is what I wrote in my journal the first sunday I was back since going home to california for christmas)

Holiday......

Going home......

It is an experience for any person who has moved away and then returned to their land of childhood, their place of safety and city of friends and all things familiar.  

My time home was an amazing one.  I got to do everything I wanted to do while I was there and more.  I had so much fun hanging out with friends and family.  I loved being home for  christmas and new years where I got to share life with so many old friends and family.  

One of the thing I would definitely say about my trip home was that it was an experience.  It was a holiday, a vacation, a time to relax and enjoy home, but I was thrown into a new experience and eye opening change.  As I came home I expected things to be changed.  People grow, change, and move on from the point when I left for Ireland.  But when I got home that was not the thing that I noticed the most that had changed.  I noticed that I had changed.

Things were different.  I had seen a new world and experienced a new way of life and going back to the previous one was an eye opener.  By no means am I saying that things at home were bad or worse than the new life that God has blessed me with in Northern Ireland.  I just had changed so much and had my whole way of thinking and perceiving life altered that I noticed many different things than what I thought I would notice.  I felt like I was now seeing clearly and so many things are being revealed to me.  It was a good and fresh experience to have at home and something that God is using to shape me and mold me.  To be totally honest, it wasn't an easy experience because I am such an internal person.  I think about things too much and the only way I can describe it is, I kill myself with my thoughts.  I turn it over again and again in my head and in the situations at home where I can't do anything with the things I was seeing, I just got stressed out and discouraged.  Loosing my hope and my passion.  

But God is good!  He holds me in His hands and takes all my worries.  He will do it in his time and will fulfill the dreams of my heart in His perfectly laid out plan.  I don't have to worry about it or give it a second thought until the time comes. 

So coming back to Northern Ireland I had a lot to think about and had a lot of questions I wanted to ask.  I also felt like I saw more of the ways God is changing and molding me.  He continues to show me how amazing He is.  My eyes are opened more each day (a spirit of wisdom and revelation) and I have this new love and passion for the Streets.  To get out among the lost, God's people, and live the life of the kingdom.  I see a new boldness within myself.  I see God's plan for my life coming together, I feel like God has given me the biggest gift by letting me see His plan for my future and now I get to watch him work and move things into place as I walk in obedience and partnership with him; it is so much fun.  

Since coming back, I have had a refreshment of the pure excitement that gripped my heart when I started my internship back in August of 2008.  Everything in me is just rearing for the next adventure and the next thing God is going to be teaching me.  Even if that thing is hard, tough, stretching, challenging, and goes against my comfort zone I want to learn it.  I feel that there is still lots of learning for me to do and many ways for me to grow.

I just want to say thank you for all my friends and family at home who love me and support me.  You made my trip home a very fun and memorable one.  You also have made my life one worth living.  You have made me the most blessed man on this earth with your kind words, your thoughtful actions, your time spent hanging out, your prayers, and most of all you love.  I am a blessed man indeed.

God Bless you all!

ps. for those who want me to write more because you want to know more of what is going on here, don't worry, I will be writing more very soon.   :-D

Filling in the gaps.....

It has been a long time since I wrote anything.....  I apologize.  I will try to fill in the gaps with all the places I have been and with some new and current things that have been happening with me and that have been put on my heart.  

Traveling around with Mark Marx has been the most amazing ongoing experience of my life.  I have been learning so much from this man, that in all honesty is epitomized by what Mr. Briscoe said one day at lunch "he is what I imagine jesus would look like today."  Mark is such an amazing man and I am truly blessed to be in a friendship with him and on this journey

 traveling place to place as he teaches Healing on the Streets.  

  We went to Jersey, which is a small island in the british commonwealth that is a vacation spot, and had a great time teaching some very open and enthusiastic people.  We didn't end up going out into the streets with that group of people because they didn't have all of the right equipment ready, but meeting the people there was a very encouraging experience indeed.  I had a lot of fun there and would love to go back one day.

 After Jersey mark and I went to denmark where I got to meet some really cool people and chill with some fellow americans from South Carolina.  The house I was staying at while I was

 in Denmark had 5 people living in it, but when I got there it was filled with teenagers.  The residence of the house had opened their home up for the local teenagers of the area.  The city they were living in was a commuter city and had no businesses or public shops, so the teenagers of the city didn't have much to do.

  They were welcomed by the people living in the house with open arms 6 months ago when they opened their house for the local teenagers.  Many of the kids who came to hang out at the house had no affiliation or connection with the church and many

 of the kids in the youth group of the church never came to hang out at the house.  The people I stayed with were really cool guys and I got to hang out with some of the teenagers who they liked to call Little Gangsters.  That night I got to experience the first snowfall.  It was so amazing.  I loved it.  I took a walk through the snow and got covered in snow flakes.  As I was walking I experienced the most beautiful thing.  It was true and utter silence.  So much peace and safety in that moment.  I have never had a moment like I had, walking in the middle of the street at

 night, while it was snowing in Denmark.  I will never forget that.  It was a picturesque moment that no camera could capture.  We had a good time in Denmark and it was sad to say goodbye to another beautiful country. 

  The next weekend after that I was blessed with some time off from traveling with

 mark (which can be tiring after a while) but then decided to go and fly to bristol to hang out with my friend Ben Lucas.  Ben is a friend of mine from Brazil and we met up in Taunton (right next to bristol) where he is doing an internship with the taunton vineyard.  It was so good to catchup with him and hang out with him for the weekend.  He is an amazing guy who has a passionate heart for God who loves to worship him.  And, I might add, is an amazing worship leader... in english or portuguese.  I was also blessed to accidentally meet up with some other friends who live in Taunton and go to the vineyard there, Andy and Jemima Malam.  We hung out with them a lot while I was there and had a grand time.  :-)

The weekend after that I went with Mark to Bath, England to do another training.  If you ever get the chance to go to Bath.... DO IT!!!  It is such a beautiful city and I can't wait to go back there.  I loved it and I really want to go back to visit the friends I made there.  Everything went well over the weekend training and on saturday we hit the streets of Bath and set up for Healing on the Streets right outside of Bath Abby.  It was such a cool place and location t

o do Healing on the Streets.  God did a lot in Bath and I can't wait to hear all the reports that are coming out of that place.  While we were there Mark and I both separately got to have a very prophetic lady within the church pray for us.  She is one of those prophetic people who goes on for so long that she records what she is saying and then gives you the tape because sometimes it is 20 minutes long.  I was blessed beyond my wildest dreams by the things she was saying.  Everything that she said rang true with my heart and my desires that had been within me for many years.  I am so grateful for her praying for me.  She was the sweetest and most kind person ever.  I know that I have to way everything that she said to me, but but the things that she said to me are so true with what is in my heart that I hope each one of them comes true.  :-)

The next weekend Mark and I only had to drive down to Belfast to do the training at the belfast city vineyard.  I was able to reconnect with some friends who I had stayed with right when I had arrived in ireland and it was good to see them again and catch up.  The people in belfast were really receptive to the teaching and the whole lot of them numbered more than 50, so it was really cool to see everyone hit the streets.  We set up Healing on the Streets in Victoria Square, which on saturdays is thronged with people.  It was an amazing time to see people sit on the chairs and get healed.  I loved doing it and had so much fun partnering with God with what he was doing.  

Then after that I came home and the rest is history.  :-)   I came home for christmas and had an amazing time it was so good to see my friends and family.  Christmas and New Years were both great and loved seeing friends and doing fun stuff like bonfires at the beach, going out to dinner, having jacuzzi nights where me and the guys smokes some cigars, and just hanging out and playing cards.  I loved being home and am so thankful that I have a huge family at home that loves and cares for me.  

I have only been in Northern Ireland for a couple of days now and I already miss everyone.  I am glad to be home and I love it here, but I miss California already.  I love you all and may everyone who reads this be blessed.  God Bless,

Ben