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.