Feet in the Fire

As a kid I always thought it'd be great to be a Musketeer or a Knight of the Round Table or a World War 2 soldier or Indiana Jones. I just thought that the battles were so glorifying and adventurous and that ultimately to die in battle would be an amazing honour. I don't think this way anymore.

I've had to, in what has been a very hard struggle actually, learn to realize that life isn't quite like the way it is in the movies. In life there's no behind-the-scenes filmmaker yelliung "Cut!" as you try the same miraculous escape over and over and over again. In life you only get to try it once, with no "Cuts!"

I mention this because over the last 5 months and particularly within the last 5 days I've come to realize that we're in a war. And it's conscription based, calling even the newborns and the elderly into combat mode. This war is vicious, frightening and life taking. There's only one way to survive the turmoil and it's by calling attention to yourself. The war I'm talking about is the 5000 year long Spiritual War.

It's because of my most recent revelation of this war that my desire to don the leather jacket, whip and fedora is because of how vicious I've seen this war can be. My enemy has worked its absolute darndest to destroy my dreams, my beliefs and my life. My enemy has attacked me through finances, fear and family. The three "F"'s.

My enemy is Satan.

As most of my 4 readers know, I recently finished a 5 month school focused entirely on my relationship with Jesus and sharing it with others. Nothing about this school failed me, as I learned to speak with God, listen to God and about this IMMENSE love that He has for me. I can't put how incredible it was into words, but I have come out of this school a new person with new life and a passion for Jesus Christ that will never die! As the school was coming to a close I began to pray about what it was I should do next, and received the answer on the day I graduated, when I was invited to do another school focussed on being a long-term missionary. Through a short series of amazing events, I accepted the invitation. Nothing in the world could drag me down! God and I were tight!

And so I let my guard down...

I've always felt very attached and loyal to my family, but seeing how it is a divorced family, that has lead to a number of painful encounters. But it never changed the fact that I was dead loyal to the people I loved and that has not yet changed. However, upon revealing to my family that I would be staying in Hong Kong for another school doing something that most of them don't actually believe in anyways, all but two remained supportive of me. Maybe a little bit sad that I wouldn't be coming home, but still supportive. All but two...

The two that didn't are two people who have been quite possible the two most important people in my life. They were always there even when they weren't, and always ready to talk. But they really hate the change in The Sister's Son, and really hate the things that I'm saying now. As my words about God and frankly, Spiritual Warfare, became stronger, so did their words against me and my beliefs, so far as to say I didn't have any but that I was faking all of this. I'm not by the way. The comments they were sending my way became so horrible and disgusting that I've now had to break contact with them temporarily. I did that the day my new school started.

That same day I discovered that two of my closest family members have found themselves completely and utterly seperated. No contact. That sucks even more than the first one did to be honest.

You see, there's nothing in this world that I love more than I love God. But second to Him is my family, and they're hurting right now. Both events took place the same day I started my new school, because God has clearly laid this school out for me. I have been called by the Father to serve the Father and that is an amazing blessing. But it scares the shit out of the Devil, and he wants to stop me. I won't let that happen. Talking with my family, I was able to help clear some of the dispute of the seperatees and will hopefully see a resolve come one day soon. As for the people I've seperated myself from, well, time will tell, but I'm praying everyday that they aren't out of my life forever.

I'd thought my victory in my latest savage battle against Beelzebub had ended that night, but in truth it had only begun. The next morning as I was worshipping Jesus, I received a Scripture from the Lord, 2 Peter 2. It described entirely what was going on between me and the loved ones I'd thought I'd lost, and gave me hope for a future. I also felt an anointing fall upon me, what I'm calling the "Noah Anointing," which basically calls me to preach righteousness to those fallen so far that they actually speak insults against the Lord to others and about others. I know the type, because I used to be one of them.

Then, the next morning, I played on the worship team and felt the Spirit of the Lord fall upon me in such a powerful way that I actually played with an intensity I didn't know I had. It was amazing! The Power of God was working in me!

We followed the time of worship with baptisms for 4 friends of mine (not you 4 readers of course, but maybe next time) and during their testimonies God reminded me of my baptismal testimony: I was baptized in the 12th grade, but in between that time and now I'd fallen so far that I had actually spoken insults against the Lord to others and about others. Hmm... irony anyone?

As the testimonies ended, our baptizers (which I believe is a real word) asked if anyone else felt as though they needed to be baptized. Three people volunteered. So as they were thanking God and giving testimonies I apologized to Jesus for throwing mud in the face of what was my baptism. And this is what He said to me...

"You could always go wash it off..."

Well there it was. And sure enough, as the last of the second three emerged from the Holy Water, they invited anyone else who felt God speak to come be baptized. And in I went. And out I came. Victorious.

When I was told that my beliefs were false, it was also said that I should be willing to "put my feet in the fire." Well, I am willing to do that and a whole lot more.

In order to win this war once and for all, I need to be completely on fire for Jesus. And so I lit that fire, by covering myself with Holy Water. Now I want to be Indiana Jones again, because I want to live the adventure that comes with fighting for Jesus.

My feet are in, and now I'm running. I encourage you... come catch me.

Iggy Tribute

I really admire and respect this guy. He just won the Mark Messier Award for leadership and the dude thanked God for all of His blessings in front of the entire NHL and the world. I dig dude.

Out of the Chinese Yonder

Rockin' the Indiana Jones at a Mountain Pass

Hello again from Hong Kong everyone! I hope that this newsletter finds you all in good health and in good spirits! I have recently returned from my Outreach in the Chinese speaking world. The last 8 weeks have been an incredible experience of evangelism, prayer walking and travel. I had the opportunity to visit 10 different cities and through my team’s preaching of the Gospel we saw 38 people come to know Jesus! Hallelujah! As for what comes next, I know I said I was thinking about joining a Far East Evangelism Team, but in prayer one day God gave me a clear “No” about doing it. I want to apologize to those of you supporting me for how I’ve jumped from thing to thing regarding what comes next, but please know that I am truly seeking Jesus on what to do next. It was not until I arrived back in Hong Kong that God told me what to do next, when two of my schoolmates at our DTS Graduation suggested the School of Frontier Missions (SOFM) and that same day the Base Director of YWAM Hong Kong invited me to join the school. So it has become clear to me that SOFM is God’s will for me, and I’m jumping right in on June 24!

I was doing evangelism work at a university with my leader Harold and we were finding it difficult to start a conversation with anyone. No one wanted to talk to us for over an hour! But as we got more and more discouraged, God spoke to us about faithfulness and we just continued pressing into Him. As we were praying, we see two girls sitting in a park taking pictures of each other, and we offered to take a picture of them together, which lead us into small talk. The girls didn’t speak much English, so I had a chance to pray while Harold spoke in Chinese. God told me right away that we should share the Gospel with these girls, so I told Harold to go for it. As I continued praying, God told me to pray for three things: An anointing on Harold’s words, openness in the girls’ hearts and for no distractions. So I prayed for only those things for 25 minutes, when suddenly the girls were ready to accept Jesus into their hearts. They even heard His voice for the first time right there, and we gave them each a Bible. So not only did God teach me about remaining faithful to Him, He also taught me about how to pray while I am ministering, and he topped it all off with some salvations!

Our first two weeks of Outreach were spent at a Cultural Exchange learning about the Chinese culture and spending time with the students at a university. My ministry partner during the time was my schoolmate Josh, and we’d befriended a guy about our age named Joe really quickly, and spent most of our time with him. He was a great guy, but a little bit shy and so it took us about a week before we could truly start to share the Gospel with him and teach him about Jesus. After the first week, Josh and I both felt that we were supposed to share our testimonies with him, and in doing that, Joe opened up much more. He shared with us that his girlfriend had recently broken up with him, and that he’d been considering suicide. Well, we reacted very quickly to that and took him to a quiet place to tell him all about Jesus and how He can heal our hurts. We left for our team time after that, and through out the day’s report back and Worship time, Josh and I both felt like we were supposed to meet with Joe again, so we called him and had supper with him. We asked him what he thought about Jesus, and Joe said he wanted to accept Him into his heart. But the spiritual warfare was intense! As we left for somewhere quiet to pray, a Buddhist chant was played over the university’s speakers and it lasted all night, and then approximately 200 students walked into the same place we were praying! But Joe pressed in anyway; He wanted the Father’s love so much! And then he heard God speak, and brought Jesus into his life and into his heart! He said God told him that now healing could come into his heart. Amen.

My Outreach Team