JON THURLOW'S TEAM at IHOP-KC

It has been so fun to worship with a team again.  It is one thing to sing at home with the guitar, or even perform our own music, but there is NOTHING in the world like praising Jesus with like-minded believers.  Jon is a very humble, yet strong leader and we count it a privilege to be on his team. Here's a little clip where the team challenged me to step out on a limb, and by the spirit of prophecy, and totally impromptu, share my testimony about Jesus.  I only heard the Lord say one phrase before I started.  He said, "Sing about Sam".  I had about 1 minute to think and then this is what came out!  If you've lost a loved one recently, I pray that you would be encouraged.

MINISTRY TRIP TO COLORADO

First, I would like to praise the Lamb for making this trip happen!  God provided the gas money through the ministry we were invited by (Thanks Jon and Gina).  He provided an awesome Ford truck to travel in through Ross and Mandy Johnston (thanks guys!).  He provided love-filled homes to stay in while we were there (yummy home-cooked meals included- we ate so much!).  He provided extra cash along the way from people who just handed us money!  The church we preached at took a generous and surprise offering for us.  He provided a whole new winter wardrobe for our kids, including shoes!
(Thanks Moore's)AND after all of that... our supporters in Missouri and Africa sent their support in to the IHOP office and our rent was already covered when we got home from the trip!!  Now that is what I call supernatural provision! Living in faith never felt so fun.Originally, we went to Colorado to minister at 1 ministry, and when we got to the state, we got 3 more invitations!  We also got to meet up with a bunch of friends that we love in Colorado and enjoy them while we were there.  Here are more details...

BLAZING HOLY FIRE CHURCH HOSTS PASTOR YONG-DOO KIM
First stop, Pastor Christine's Blazing Holy Fire Church where they were hosting a team from "The Lord's Church".  It was amazing!!!  Pastor Kim and his team are from Korea.  They began having all night prayer meetings a few years ago, and the Lord opened their spiritual eyes and took them on visits to heaven and hell.  They lived to tell about it and their lives were never the same!  We lead worship at one of his meetings at the Blazing Holy Fire church in Denver.  WE will NEVER be the same after listening to them testify about their experience with the Lord.  A funny story - The meetings went from 7pm to 5am!!!  I know, crazy!  We ended up falling asleep with our kids in the kids room at the church the first night around 1am.  We drove 12 hours from MO and then pulled right into the church at 7pm to be at the meeting.  We woke up the next morning so full of God's joy.  We were laughing at how radical life in Jesus can be AND how crazy we must have looked to the people who saw us. LOL! We we baptized again with blazing fire and our eyes were opened more!  For reals! I just finished reading his book, "Baptize By Blazing Fire" and it rocked my world.  This the link to the website you can go to for more information. http://www.baptizingfire.com/baptizebyblazingfire.htm 

NORTH ROCK CHURCH LEADERSHIP RETREAT- DEFINE!

Our next stop was a leadership retreat for the young adult and youth ministry at North Rock Church in Thornton, Colorado.  We were hosted by the young adult and youth pastors, and hilarious friends Jon and Gina Horner.  The retreat was held in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at the Horner Country Inn just west of Ft. Collins.  Absolutely beautiful!  The perfect fall colors were in full display.  The group was so filled with joy!  They burst into the living room to worship with laughter.  After some time in unified worship, we sang our songs to them the first night and shared our testimony in between each song.  Jesus was there ministering peace and gentleness to the group the first night.  The next morning we taught on how powerful praying in the Holy Spirit is, and encouraged the team to do that daily.  We also shared a prayer tool on how to FELLOWSHIP with the Holy Spirit and how important it is to read the Word daily.  Finally we wrapped our part of the retreat up with a quick overview of the Song of Songs and we told the group how the Lord defines them.  The group loved it!  I think their favorite part was when we handed out a free copy of our cd as a gift to them!!  I wish you could've seen them jump out of their seats to have one! LOL!  Here's some pics of the group and our good friends Jon and Gina.

PREPARE THE WAY CHURCH IN SOUTH DENVER

After leaving the retreat we went to a small church in Denver lead by Pastor Dan and Jenny Yeakly.  We lead worship for this fiery church of hungry and aggressive forerunners.  We felt right at home when we flowed in the prophetic.  God gave us timely word about being rooted, grounded and established in His love.  That was probably the most hilarious way we have ever preached the Song of Songs!!!  It ended up being real powerful at the end and the oil of God's joy brought deep healing that night.

VISITING CLOSE FRIENDS AND CHURCH FAMILY

We had SO MUCH FUN visiting with people.  It started with a hilarious breakfast at Sweet Tomatoes with Olivia and Betsey, then Uelese and Mana went to watch football with Jose and Sam while Olivia, me, Lei and Aloha had great girl time. The next day we spent the morning with Francis Dupuis and then headed up to Ft. Collins to hang with Ethan Labadie,  Josh and Amy Horner and then stay the night with John and Sarah Moore. The next morning Sarah and I went to a cool restaurant for breakfast while Uelese took the kids to one of the many posh playgrounds in the city. Sarah and I had a great time talking (and shopping! Thanks Sarah and John!) Next stop was Loveland where we visited with Mark and Kyle Anne Lucks. Then we hung out with Zach Bumgardner, the Hilarious Hartwig Family, and jaunted over to hang with Kurt and Emily Chamberlain.  We stayed the night in Greeley and awoke to drive down to Colorado Springs where we met up with Jerome and Hilda Bernard and lead a devotional set at the Colorado Springs House of Prayer. We stopped in Castle Rock to have dinner with John and Karen Blessing and then stayed the night in Denver.  That last morning we visited Brian Albin at Starbucks where he works (what a convenient stop :o) We did one more service at TheHill at Resurrection Fellowship, the young adult ministry there in Loveland. We finished the trip with a sleep over at the Chamberlain house with the Faagutu's and the Bernard's and a yummy homemade breakfast. What a trip!

WHAT WE LEARNED...

People really matter to God. Every single person matters. Every single relationship is a blessing and has purpose. We finished the trip with such gratitude in our hearts for connecting us to the people he has. The richness of our times together filled us up with so much joy! God works through relationship. The stronger our relationships are, the more God can do through our lives. You might wonder why we included so many names... it is to prove our point that life in God's kingdom is impossible outside of relationship.  Each of the families mentioned above could have been casual acquaintances that faded in and our life, but they are not.  Without these people and many others that were not mentioned, this trip would not have happened and our life as a missionary family would not exist...FOR REAL!  Jesus is making this happen through all of us.  It's not a one man show... it's a community of believers, loving Jesus, loving each other and reaching out to those who need His love.

WITH ALL OUR ALOHA,

Uelese, Rachel, Lei, Mana and Aloha