Ministry Update

Spring 2006



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Nailed to the cross for our sins, He paid the price once for all that we might by God's grace, be completely pardoned. The grave could not contain Him, and thus, Jesus rose victorious on the third day, demonstrating His glorious victory as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Let us give Him all the praise He is due! Hallelujah!
Visiting the Grand Canyon after
preaching in Arizona.
 
Check out some short video clips of the working of the Holy Spirit during some ministry from our latest three day "campaña" in Mexico. The power of God is moving! Check it out!
  Mexico Ministry Clips
Windows Media Version
Quicktime Version		  

As we've been ministering in various places including Mexico and a recent trip to Arizona, God has been pouring out His Spirit, and we've been blessed to be experiencing these outpourings on a regular basis. A group of teenagers was recently impacted for missions in Tijuana when we gave the call that "the harvest is ripe but the laborers are few" and the Lord took hold of a number of young men and women and consecrated them to His purposes through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Young girls around 10 years old being filled with the Holy Spirit in Arizona.  
No good deed goes unpunished though, and right after we left the church we were pulled over by the police and accused of a traffic violation we hadn't done and were kept there for about 40 minutes while the officer waited for something, most likely for us to offer him money. We made it clear that though a number of people were not even slowing down for the stop sign he accused us of running, we had stopped. He seemed torn for he knew we were telling the truth but obviously wanted something.... After we sat praying while he kept walking back and forth to the car and asking occasional questions, he finally gave up and left, praise God.
The Holy Spirit moved powerfully in Phoenix, Arizona when we went out to minister in a Hispanic Church of around 500 people. We shared on what God was doing in the world in relation to the spread of the Gospel and missions. We also related that in the US the Hispanic wing of the church is now its fastest growing segment, while the Anglo Western Evangelical wing has had by and large mostly nominal growth (click here to read more) but that Europe is in the worst shape of all. We've been stating for years and trying to point out what a dire state Europe is in spiritually. We've spent one fourth of the year for over ten years over there ministering and have attempted to communicate what desperate shape the place is in spiritually. Thankfully, some are starting to see the reality now too. Peter Wagner has written on this in his newsletter and now CBN has done a piece on the terrible spiritual shape Europe is in, (read related article from CBN) while Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and parts of Asia continue to surge ahead.
The Holy Spirit moved in great power and many were filled, healed, impacted and touched in a glorious way by the presence of God as we ministered in Phoenix.
We also got to experience a few things while in Arizona. We visited a little old Western mining town where they had simulated gun fights which Patrick and a friend of his really enjoyed. We then went to the Grand Canyon. What a shock we were in for however when we encountered the 15 degree temperatures at night (that would be around -10 Celsius!) We were freezing our feet off when we tried camping one night, so we went to a motel the next night. We hadn't known that the place where you view the canyon and camp is at around 8000 feet elevation. We did get to hike a ways down into the canyon, which was really fun and had magnificent scenery, and we got to see some wild animals including wild mountain goats, bighorn sheep, deer, hawks and other wildlife. It was a blessing ministering out there and then getting to do a few things afterward, and we also had a great place to stay with a friend out in Phoenix who we got to minister too while there as well.
Patrick and his friend Aaron join
the Old West gunfighters for a
photo op, hoping not to get caught in the cross hairs.		        
A stop along historic Route 66.
Patrick walks down the street
of an old Western town, ready
to draw and fire.

Maneadero Crusade

We recently did a three day outreach in Maneadero, Mexico, which was filled with some powerful times of the Spirit moving, including some people coming to the Lord, healings, fillings of the Spirit, and awesome times where the Spirit moved even on some kids and filled them, as well as drew them into exuberant worship. You can view a little video sample of some of the kids, including Patrick, getting into the worship at the end of a service after the Holy Spirit moved in awesome power and everyone celebrated what God did that day, by clicking here.
Praying for a woman in Maneadero who was instantly healed of pain in her head and ears.       Checking out the latest new farming methods that use temperature and moisture controlled hothouses.          
Pastor/Farmer Fidel holding one thousand dollars worth of genetically-modified seeds imported from the nation of Israel.
It was also a cultural experience with a visit to a home where we had a carne asada party and then played baseball with some of the local kids. I was thinking, "These kids play baseball really well!" and then found out a number of them are on the Mexican National Team (Mexico is a rising power in the baseball world), which helped me understand why I was working so hard just to keep up with them. We also got to see how the changing face of our modern technological world is affecting places you would never expect it to. Ten years ago we visited some of the farms in the area and saw things done the old traditional way. A lot has changed in a short amount of time, now many vegetables we eat here in the U.S. are grown there in temperature and moisture controlled hothouses with genetically modified seeds imported from other countries at high expense, but which assure a very high crop yield. These are remote locations where you wouldn't expect to see such cutting edge technology, yet they have been altered by the modern computerized world we now live in.

Holy Ghost Spontaneous Combustion

On another note, we have been experiencing the spontaneous work of the Holy Spirit manifest in some the most unusual of places. At some different parties/celebrations recently: a birthday, a gathering for radio broadcasters, a barbeque, etc., we were asked to share a few words, pray a closing prayer, or share a song, and the Holy Spirit took over and turned these “get-togethers” into Holy Ghost ministry times with powerful and deep times of the Spirit of God filling and ministering to people in surprising and unanticipated ways. God is not bound by the four walls of a church building in order to minister to people; he's just looking for open hearts willing to be led by him.


Assurance in the Storm

We recently took a trip to the mountains for a little break, but when we were getting ready to leave there was an ominous change in the weather. Then we found out that the main road out had been closed due to snow and spinouts. We decided to chance taking a back road through the mountains, and all looked good for a while but then... That was until we began to encounter the four mountain passes we'd have to traverse which would get progressively higher (up to 8300 feet), and heavier with weather as we went along. The first was tough enough with snow falling and ice on the road but then on the next one it really started coming down, in addition to getting dark, the wind began to howl very, very hard with blowing, blinding snow, and we could barely see in front of us as we drove at a top speed of 5 mph, just fast enough to keep momentum and not get stuck, but slow enough to not lose control and spin out, as we went up and down the steep mountain roads. It became increasingly stressful and even a bit scary as we experienced completely blinding conditions at times where you couldn't even see a few feet in front of you. When you think of the people who get stuck or make one wrong turn and are lost for days or even weeks (like a family recently shown on the news) it definitely causes your stress levels to go up.

  
Wild Bighorn Sheep down inside
the Grand Canyon.

I turned on the radio in the middle of the trudgingly slow and stressful drive, and surprisingly got a station right away in the remote wilderness, a Christian one at that, and the announcer said they would now play a song by Scott Brenner. This immediately caught my attention since he is an old friend of mine! I can never recall his name being announced on the radio like that, much less hearing a song by him on the air. It began to play and spoke right to our situation: "Though the mountains be shaken and the storms rage I am with you, says the Lord" were some of the lyrics and the Lord began to minister His presence to us in the middle of the storm. If we needed it when we first heard it we only needed it more as we went along, as the conditions got heavier and no one was on the road for miles. My hands seemed to just be bolted like a vice to the steering wheel and the scenario went on for hours and seemed like it would never end.

God was with us in it and through it all though, and brought us safely through unscathed! We definitely felt the heat and stress of the "what if's" as we passed through high mountain passes, blinding snow, heavy winds, and slick road ice. As we came to the end of the mountain passes we noticed the CHP and Cal Trans were on the other side of the road regulating and turning people back. We'd just made it through before even more of the heavy storm came in.

The Lord is with us, who are His children, no matter what we face. He doesn't promise that we won't face storms but rather that He'll be with us through them. Though the storms may rage, He holds His own in the palm of His hand.
Hiking down into the canyon.
A little warmer down inside, especially in the middle of the day.		      
 Thank you so much for your help!