The Praise Report
Winter 2002-2003
European Mission Trip

At the Pont du Gard, Southern France, an incredibly well preserved Roman aqueduct from the era of the Bible, and a scene from our latest video production

We recently returned from a three-month mission trip where we ministered in Europe, the least evangelized continent in the world today, in the countries of Norway, Sweden, France, Spain and England. We preached in outreaches, crusades, retreats and churches.

Twelve people made decisions for Christ and many others were filled, healed, delivered and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

We also had some powerful divine appointments and some strange episodes of spiritual warfare too. God did so many things it’s hard to share them all but following are some highlights from the trip.
Norway
We spent a month ministering in Norway in lots of different places including a Bible School/ Rehab center, a retreat, an evangelistic outreach and seven different churches.

The Holy Spirit was continually poured out with a constant wave as people were filled, empowered and deeply ministered to.

We did a seminar on personal evangelism one weekend, and then went out with some people from the church to a local fair and did some witnessing (not the norm in Norway.)

Not only did we share the good news with many people but we even led a young woman to Christ there at the fair! Praise the Lord! Another young woman was also brought to Christ miraculously, at the end of a retreat we spoke at.

Patrick tries to get in on the act while Torhild leads worship.

The Holy Spirit moved deeply on many present and at the end of the last meeting we preached at, I gave a word that God would give dreams and visions to help people reach the lost.

The meeting had just ended when a friend of ours named Torhild walked outside and saw a young lady down the street and had a vision concerning her. The Lord showed Torhild in the vision that the woman she saw down the street was on drugs but would be saved that day if she would go and talk to her.

Torhild stepped out in faith and went and began to talk to her and indeed the young woman was a drug user. Torhild began to talk to her about Christ and then brought her over to us. I felt led to share the story of the prodigal son with the young woman and she began to cry profusely and ran off. Another lady named Anita went to find her and when she did she prayed with her to repent and receive Christ. Anita brought her back a little later a new creature in Christ.

When the young woman returned I asked her why she had cried and then run off. She shared how she’d grown up in a religious home but that it was all rules, legalism and religiosity and it had caused her to rebel against God and eventually fall into drugs.

When she heard about the love and forgiveness in the story of the prodigal son, her heart was overwhelmed by the Father’s love and she was saved that day, glory!

There were also a lot of people that were radically touched by the presence of the Holy Spirit in meetings we did. We experienced many powerful outpourings with radical manifestations of the Spirit. We received more than a few testimonies of people whose lives were touched in a significant way as we ministered. Some shared that they had never experienced the power of God in such an intense way before. One young man shared how when we prayed for him he received a vision of being lifted high on a mountain out of the valley of despair he’d been in. Many young people, as well as a young boy, were very powerfully filled with the Spirit; others received direction in life and ministry. The Holy Spirit gives life and it was a joy to see it happen before our very own eyes.

Wedding Garments
We had been invited to attend two weddings while in Scandinavia, one in Norway and the other in Sweden.
As I was getting into the car of the couple who was taking us to the wedding in Norway, I found that my wardrobe was a little too “California casual” for the formal events. The wife noticed my relaxed attire and offered me a pair of her husband’s pants to use for the wedding, a brand new pair of Ralph Lauren’s. They fit me perfectly so she said nonchalantly, “Keep them.” That was one needed wedding garment, divinely and generously supplied, that I got to make use of at both weddings!

While witnessing at the fair I spoke with a man who had a booth selling clothes. As I spoke with him he asked, “Are you American? I Love Americans!” (Not always your typical response.) He said, “Let my give you a tie.” It was a brand new, Italian silk tie that supplied the other wedding garment I needed. God obviously has a better fashion sense than I do and divinely appointed a fix for my wardrobe.

It was quite a cultural experience attending these Scandinavian weddings as well as an experience in endurance. The Norwegian wedding started at 1:00pm and the reception didn’t end until 3:00am. That’s 14 hours…
Sweden
The Swedish wedding was a little shorter but not by much. We had a powerful divine appointment there where we met a young lady who was a new Christian and prayed for her during the reception right in the middle of all the people and commotion going on. She was powerfully touched by the Holy Spirit and felt a great heat pass through her body as we laid hands on her.

We were slated to preach the next morning just outside Stockholm. Getting up at 7:00 am after a long Swedish wedding wasn’t easy but the way the Lord ministered made it all worth it.

Powerful manifestations of the Spirit’s presence were evident, as many wept and were touched deeply as God filled them. A couple of young boys, around 7 to 9 years old, were powerfully filled with the Holy Spirit also, which was a glorious demonstration of Jesus’ words, “Let the children come unto me…for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

We had been in need of a place to stay in Stockholm before we came but couldn’t find anything. At 5:00am one morning the Lord spoke a name into my heart of a person I hadn’t seen in years. Later that day a friend mentioned this same person to me. I gave the guy a call, out of the blue, and he warmly welcomed us to come and stay even though he would be out of town. We had a divine appointment with his wife with whom we spent some blessed time in prayer and fellowship while staying at their place.

We also ministered in Malmo at the Europe’s Gate Conference Center. We did one meeting with some international people and another with Swedes. Again the Spirit moved greatly and we received some testimonies of those who were ministered to powerfully and others who were healed, one of a serious neck injury, another of arthritis and shoulder pain.
Spiritual Warfare of a Bizarre Nature
The enemy didn’t seem happy that we were in Sweden. While driving home right after ministering, a bizarre incident took place where a car came at us while driving, cut us off and the people in it spent no less than literally 15 minutes giving us the finger and shaking their fists at us. We had done absolutely nothing to provoke this and they wouldn’t leave. All we could do was pray and ignore them and hope they’d eventually go away, which finally after 15 long minutes they did.

We had another bizarre incident while parked out praying one night. A very strange person drove up to us boxing us in and stayed there just staring at us with a deranged look on his face. He looked like something out of a horror movie. We drove around him and went to another spot and 15 minutes later there he was again leering at us some more. Something was definitely wrong here; this guy would make Freddy Krueger uncomfortable. We ditched him and laid low for a while. When we began to make our way back the police were out and about indicating this nut cake was probably harassing others also.

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