Dalton & Anna Lifsey

"Take Care of the Widow and the Orphan..."

2010-01-05T10:46:00.007+13:00

On December 23rd a man who truly carried the burden and heart of the Father for the orphans was in a tragic car accident and went home to be with the Lord.

Derek Loux was a worship leader at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City. He also helped pioneer the Forerunner Music Academy. Derek and his wife, Renee, gave birth to a little boy named Josiah who was born with spina bifida in 1994. Josiah only lived for 2 1/2 years and his parents loved every moment they had with him and were filled with grief when he went to be with the Lord. This in itself moves my heart to tears, knowing that these incredible people gave birth to a child with severe handicap and yet valued the life of this child as if he were completely healthy and loved him with a deep love. This is a rare thing in a world that is screaming at us to snuff out the life that is handicapped, treating it as if it had no right to life because it might be inconvenient for him/her OR for the ones raising that life.

After Josiah passed away Derek and Renee had 2 little girls and years later decided to adopt 3 girls from the Marshall Islands. One of them having a severe spinal curve in her back that was rendered incurable but by the handiwork of the Lord was cured - and with an incredible story to go along with it. During the process of adopting these girls the Lord began to move on their hearts for the orphan, and not just those who were fatherless and motherless - but those who were handicap and had even less of a chance of being adopted. They began the Josiah fund - you can read more about this incredible vision on their website, click here to read more.

Since adopting the three girls from the Marshall Islands, they have adopted one more girl from the Marshall Islands and 3 boys from the Ukraine. Two of the boys have down syndrome and the other has spina bifida. The stories of these boys are heart wrenching and miraculous.

After adopting the 3 boys, this brought the total of their kids up to 10. And if you read their story, which I highly recommend you do, you'll see that they are wanting to adopt 30 needy and neglected children, not limited by location, and bring them to Kansas City to a rehabilitation home so to speak - to be cared for and loved.

Now that Derek has gone home to be with the Lord it has left Renee as a widow caring for the orphan.

I don't know about you, but this stirs my heart in a major way. I want to help her. I'm encouraging those of you who can and who feel moved by this story and this vision to give to Renee Loux and her vision to help see this come to pass. Jesus expected us, commanded us, to look after the widow and the orphan and here we have a great opportunity to do both.

When Derek and Renee set out on this journey, neither of them were expecting that Renee would have to continue carrying it out without him. I know that Renee's heart and vision haven't changed - but I know that she feels the pain of losing her greatest advocate and partner and love. I can't even imagine - she had already climbed up the ladder of incredible women I admire and respect because of these children that she was pouring her life into and the sacrifices that she was making and the message that her life was proclaiming to the masses - "EVERY life is VALUABLE, HAS WORTH, DESERVES A CHANCE TO LIVE AND BE LOVED." - but now - my goodness - she is my hero. God uphold her, give her strength and let her feel Your nearness, Your presence surrounding her and protecting her. Strengthen her with Your everlasting love and kindness. Give her peace and give her comfort.

I feel burdened to stand with her, fight for her and all the thousands of children that I believe will be impacted by this ripple in the water that will go far beyond the 30 children that she will adopt. Therefore I felt burdened to share this story with all that I can.

May the Lord bless this incredible family and meet them in their time of grief and need. Thank you Jesus for setting the lonely in families and for setting the Loux family in Kansas City where they have family that will love and care for them in their time of grief. Do something miraculous out of their suffering. Turn the eyes of a generation that is standing for death to this incredible light shining in the darkness and let them choose LIFE instead of death.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

The Loux Family

For more information on how to give financially you can go to their personal blog site here.

Or you can go to their Josiah Fund website here.

Crawling Already???

2009-12-31T14:40:00.002+13:00

That's right folks - it's time to start proofing the house because Isaiah is on the move! As I mentioned in a previous post - he is quite the over achiever and he decided 6 months was a fine age to begin crawling. :)

He's not quite there yet, but he will be in no time at all. He still hasn't even mastered sitting up on his own - I mean, he can do it, but he often nose dives into the ground when he loses his balance. We're workin' on it. :)

Nonetheless - he is determined to find a mode of transportation and he reckons scooting isn't efficient enough - so might as well start crawling!

Here's a sneak peak at what's to come - the behind the scenes training before his debut. :)

All About Isaiah

2009-12-22T12:25:00.008+13:00

So this is a post all about Isaiah. It is amazing how we can just sit for hours and just stare at him - he is by far the most entertaining and most enjoyable way to spend our time. So I figured you all would feel the same way. :)

Big Boy Food:

It's true - about 2 weeks ago Isaiah started eating "solids". Which is really more like liquid than solids - but I guess the idea is that before they were liquid, they were solid. We started him off with the reccommended rice cereal. He didn't know what to think at first and fussed his way through most of it - but still - he did it! The second time, he knew what he was doing. He got straight into it and LOVED it. The third time, well, he just couldn't get enough. We quickly moved on to new flavors - I started him off with pear. I thought - fruit is nicer on the pallet than veggies so I'll start with that. He did not like the pear at all. He made the FUNNIEST faces and spit it out - but he did try - he was a champ. After a few tries he ended up liking it alright and now eats it without any fuss. The second flavor we tried was pumpkin and sweet corn - I thought for sure this was going to be a hard one and that he would put up a fight - boy was I wrong - he LOVED it! He practically inhaled the whole jar and was so sad when it was gone. I just gave him apples for the first time today and he had the same reaction to them as he did the pears - I guess babies taste buds are far different than adults - brand new and untainted.

Dalton had a cat named Buckwheat while growing up. Buckwheat LOVED to eat. Buckwheat had a small problem, he had no gauge for when he was full. Buckwheat ate A LOT. Buckwheat ate far more than he needed to, just because he liked it. I'm coming to find out - Isaiah is a lot like Buckwheat. :)

"Tummy Time":

When we first started tummy time, Isaiah hated it. He would cry, and fuss, and cry until we would turn him over to his back. Then he discovered the challenge of tummy time - it was his time to work his muscles. As soon as he was put onto his tummy, he knew it was workout time - it was all work and no play. He would struggle to lift his head up, making loud groans as if he was a man bench pressing 350 lbs, occasionally letting out a poot or too because of his intense straining. He would get frustrated when he started to lose energy - but he was no quitter. Eventually, he learned to rest in between workouts and started to enjoy just laying on his tummy. Now when I put him in his crib he rolls right over to his tummy. His tummy is one of his favorite places to be now. It's also a very messy place - he can't be on his tummy without spitting up his last meal - and now that he's on solid it's become quite colorful. :)

Isaiah loves his challenges, he's always pushing himself to the limit. He's pretty close to crawling I think. One of the new "workouts" he's taken up is "try to get the pacifier all by myself". He'll lay on his tummy, drop his pacifier, bring his head up to find calculate exactly where the pacifier is located and then go in for the kill. It's SO FUNNY to watch. He's usually unsuccessful because he just can't quite figure out that kicking his feet in the air won't actually move his body anywhere at all. We had a video to show you, but it's too big for here. :( We'll try and capture it later in shorter form. :) Here's a completely different video to make up for that one.

Giggles:

We love our baby's giggles. But he's camera shy - so we've had a lot of trouble trying to get it on tape. But today was a success - and this was what motivated me to update this blog again. His laugh is amazing and you just have to hear it. :)Ok, so I should probably figure out how big the files are before I write all about them - here's another understudy video for the original one I was going to post. But this one's pretty cute too. :)

I'm way worse at this than anticipated...

2009-12-08T09:23:00.005+13:00

Okay, so I stink at this blog thing - SORRY!!!!

I'm not going to make any promises - because I've done that before on this blog and well - we all know how that turned out.

Instead, I'm just going to take one day at a time and pray that I get better at updating this thing and get better at a lot of other things I hope to get better at as well. :)

So here's a quick update on our life:

Oxford:

We just spent the week in a small town called Oxford in the South Island. Dalton was teaching on a Discipleship Training School while me and Isaiah just hung out. It was very exciting because I have never been to the south island so it was wonderful to finally get to go. It was just enough to wet my appetite for more. The weather was pretty bad all week long - rainy and cold. So Isaiah and I spent most of our time inside. However, the last two days we were there we had beautiful weather. On Friday when Dalton was done teaching we went to a place called Castle Hill. It's this crazy place with boulders and rock structures all over. That's what the pictures are of below. It was beautiful. We felt like we were back in Scotland. We spent our last day in Christ Church with a good friend of ours Mom - she showed us the sights, fed our tummies and inspired us with her love and devotion to Jesus. It was a good day. This was also the second flying trip for Isaiah and he did just as good this time as he did when we went to Australia. And we're just warming up for that big 12 hour flight, that we hope to be taking sooner rather than later, to America. :)

which leads me to our next portion of news...

Trip to America:

While we were hoping to come home for Christmas - we just couldn't come up with the dough we needed to make it happen. We did have some generous gifts given towards tickets and we have put them aside to purchase tickets for a later date. We're hoping to make a trip around April or May. So it looks like another hot Christmas for us which Dalton isn't too sad about, but I must admit - I was really, really, really hoping to get home for Christmas. But I am determined to make Isaiah's first Christmas a special one! Even though he won't know the difference from that day to any other day - it's more for me. :) We are approaching a 3 week break over the holiday's - which is a pretty long one! We're not sure what we're going to do yet - probably take a few short trips so Dalton can surf his brains out. But mostly we're just looking forward to resting and enjoying each other's company. As much as I wanted to be home for Christmas, this is New Zealand's most beautiful time of the year, so I am glad we get to be here for that.

ISAIAH:

He's growing up so fast I'm afraid I'm going to blink my eyes and he'll be marching off to the mission field somewhere to preach the gospel (haha, normally you would say "sending him off to college" in a sentence like that - but i thought mission field was more appropriate for our college dropout/high school dropout family. :)) When we went to Australia, he rolled over for the first time and got his first tooth. When we went to Oxford, he sat up by himself for the first time (meaning, balanced while sitting by himself, not actually "sat up" from laying down) and got his second tooth! He's getting stronger and stronger every day and cuter and cuter every day. His personality is starting to shine through more and more which is so fun to watch. He is a happy baby - only crying when he needs to (for the most part - he certainly has his grumpy days). He is very personal, likes lots of attention and is quite adventuras - always wanting to try to do more than his little body is able. We fall in love with him more and more every day - he is such a precious gift from Jesus for us. So excited to spend our lives together. :)

Ok - I'll leave it here for now and hopefully I'll update another one soon after we decorate our Christmas tree. I know, I know - why are we waiting so long to decorate our tree? I know my brother's thinking that - I'm sure they're house is already decorated top to bottom *sigh*. But we've been crunched for time lately - we're planning on decorating tonight.

I'll sign off until next time, and hopefully next time will be sooner than Isaiah's 16th birthday party!

War Within Me

2009-08-05T16:24:00.002+12:00

Click here to download

The "Oh face"

2009-08-04T11:15:00.004+12:00

One of my favorite things about my beautiful niece is her "oh face" that she makes. We don't get to spend much time with Mary Kate and have never even met Ford (yet!)so we LOVE looking at pictures and getting to know them through still shots and an occasional short video.

So the "Oh face" has been one of my favorite things - always makes me laugh and cry at the same time - so cute! Well, I'm quite pleased that it runs in the family and that MK's little cousin Isaiah has the same face. It's nice to see family in family - this is for you MK - your little cousin is already taking after you!

Mary Kate

Isaiah - unfortunately I haven't captured the fullness of the "oh face" on film - this is my best shot - but believe me - he's got it down just like his cousin!

Isaiah's First Road Trip

2009-08-03T10:55:00.005+12:00

We did it! On Friday - we all packed up and hit the road for the weekend. Dalton and I have been traveling to Hawks Bay every few months and connecting with some of the churches and prayer groups there. They have hosted three seminars on the book of Revelation that Dalton has been teaching on. The Hawks Bay guys are like family to us now and we LOVE going there.

However - this was a different trip altogether! Dalton still taught/preached - but this time there were so many different nuiances that made this trip so incredibly special.

First of all - we had Isaiah. Some thought I was crazy - including myself - for bringing our three week old son on a four hour journey (4 hours here is totally different to a 4 hour drive in america - no high ways - lots of curvey roads through mountains). It was a little crazy but it was either come along for the ride - or stay home alone without a car - both sounded incredibly scary to me but I chose to go where I knew I would have help and not be alone. So we packed up Isaiah's bags, bundled him up in his little seat (we call it the big jiggle chair) and away we went! It was VERY challenging for me - but we did it! And Isaiah was AMAZING! I'm still an anxious, insecure mommy learning to find her feet in parenthood - but coming home and looking back on the weekend - I'm SO GLAD I went. I feel much more confident and I had some really, really good mommy, son and Jesus time - it was sweet. I really could write an entire post on this - but I'll move on.

We also brought a big team up with us this time. We had a lot of our closest friends there with us leading worship for the seminar. It was so great to have them there and to be a part of what the Lord is doing in Hawks Bay. There's such a sweet connection spiritually that we have with Hawks Bay. Every time we go, even though it's chalk full of stuff to do and Dalton is SO BUSY with lots of speaking and lots of meeting with people - we always leave feeling refreshed and extremely privileged and humbled to be a part of what the Lord is doing there. We always leave with a joyous and sobering sense that the Lord truly is birthing this prayer movement and all we have to do is just jump in the current of the flowing river and be a part of what He is sovereignly doing. Anyway - all that to say that we are so, so excited to have been able to bring a bigger team this time around to be a part of it.

Part of the "bigger team" was that Aaron (director of Tauranga House of Prayer) came along and spoke about the Prayer Movement during two of the Saturday sessions. Aaron is originally from Hawks Bay so it's pretty special for him to come and speak into that town as someone who was once a troublesome boy who has now grown into a young man with such strong spiritual stature in the Lord and a profound leadership roll in the birthing of the prayer movement in, not just New Zealand, but the south pacific and Asia. Seeing him there (although I only saw him myself for about 15 minutes)just had the leadership of the Lord dripping all over it. It's hard to find words to articulate the sweetness that was felt throughout that whole weekend. I believe the Lord found great pleasure in it.

Also - Mary - Dalton's Mom - was able to come along for the weekend which was incredibly special for us and for her. It was so wonderful for Dalton to have his mom be able to sit and hear him teach - to see the incredibly gifted young man that he has grown to be. Dalton is Mary's inheritance - she prayed and prayed for him during those last years when he was far off from the Lord. To see where he is now is a profound testimony to the sovereignty and goodness of the Lord at work in Dalton's life. It was so wonderful for Mary to be able to see him in that ministerial context and to see him fully operating in his giftings - not just as a teacher/preacher - but as a husband and a father as well. What a blessing to have her come along with us.

I mostly stayed at home with Isaiah and missed out on most of the weekend physically - but the Lord was so, so faithful in keeping my heart and spirit knitted into the weekend. Although I did get lonely at times - I didn't feel I was missing out. I was still able to feel the significance of the weekend and was so keenly aware of the Lord's hand at work. I still felt humbled to be there and to be a part of it. I know having a child means I will "miss out" on other things - but the Lord proved, yet again, His faithfulness to me this weekend. There's not one ounce of bitterness that I feel in my heart - just gratefulness for what he's doing. I'm sure I'll have struggles up ahead - but He is so faithful to carry me through this season of life - just like He has all the others. He is so good.

Here are just a couple of pictures from the weekend - hope you enjoy!

Cinnamon rolls before we hit the road!

The beautiful scenery on the drive down

Worship at the seminar

Isaiah's kitchen!

Cutie Pie!

It was COLD! And we forgot his hat - oops. Oh well - he's super cute!

2009-07-21T17:25:00.003+12:00

I have felt the need to just write for a few days now but every time I get a break I don't feel like I have the energy. However - right now the overwhelming desire to write trumps my exhaustion.

There are so many things that I want to process - SO MANY new things that are emerging inside my heart.

I have this sensitivity - i guess some might call them hormones - towards pretty much all aspects of life. I think of my family and how much I ache for them when the oceans are between us and how much I treasure the time with the family that was here, and I cry - I think of my husband and how amazing he is with me, with our son, with all the other things that he has on his plate...his selflessness has caused me to fall in love with him all over again, it makes me cry - I think of my friends here who have been so incredibly generous to us and taken such good care of us, and I cry - I think of the prayer room and how grateful I am that we are here doing what we're doing and that this is our job, and I cry - I think of our beautiful baby boy and how perfect he is, every part of him so beautiful and intricate, and I cry - I think of Jesus and how incredible He is, how beautiful He is how creative He is (creative is a small word for Him - but my own creativity has stumped me and I can't think of a better one), and I cry. I cry a lot. Sometimes the tears are therapeutic - sometimes they're painful - but maybe still therapeutic even when they're painful.

All I know is my heart is filled to the rim. I feel unworthy, I'm keenly aware of how weak I truly am and how gracious and strong our God really is. I'm leaning into Him, crying into His breast in much of the same way that my little teeny, tiny son cries into mine - helpless with nothing really to offer but complete dependence.

This is a wild season filled with revelation - I only hope that I can steward it well, let it take root in my heart and change me forever.

Thank you everyone for all the emails and words of encouragement and blessing you have sent our way. We love you dearly and are so glad you're apart of our lives. More pictures and stories about our cool as kid to come.

The Grommet

2009-07-17T12:27:00.002+12:00

Isaiah is Here

2009-07-15T11:54:00.003+12:00

Isaiah Thomas Lifsey
Born on July 10, 2009 at 7:56 a.m.
7 pounds 13 ounces

Update on Life

2009-05-04T16:37:00.005+12:00

I don't have any cool pictures to post, but I'll give you all a quick update on our life nonetheless and hopefully it's appreciated. :)

Book of Revelation Seminar:

This last weekend Me, Dalton and our friends Dave and Karina traveled down south to Hawkes Bay where Dalton and Dave spoke/taught/preached at a seminar on the book of Revelation. We've been building relationship with a group in Hawkes Bay over this last year and have made some very dear friends that are pretty much becoming family. The Lord is doing some great things in that place and we feel privileged to be a small part of it. The seminar went great. I especially loved this one because I know it's probably the last weekend away where I'll get to just listen to Dalton since we have our precious little one on the way.

Internship Graduation:

Our current internship graduates this Friday. There are 10 on the internship and all 10 of them have decided to stick around! We're SO excited about that! They have been a great bunch and we're so glad to have them join us on staff. Now our Staff classes will increase by 10 - woo hoo! Graduation is always a fun little celebration. Everyone gets dressed up (which to be honest, I'm not that thrilled about this time around - the basketball in my tummy makes the fashion department a little more difficult these days :)), we eat good food and reflect on what the Lord has done in the lives of these young adults over the last 3 months. This internship FLEW by!

Break:

After each internship we try to take a small break just to rest up and get ready for the next term. We'll have a 5 day weekend which Dalton are hoping to use mostly to get our lives organized around our house. Get things set up for Baby, clean/organize things we've been wanting to get our hands on for sometime now...etc. But we also want to take a couple of nights and just go away somewhere just the two of us. We're on a hunt to find a cool but affordable place. We just want to get some time away together before our lives are dramatically changed! We're very excited and expectant for this dramatic change, but it will be great to have some time to just talk, pray and enjoy each other before he joins us - precious little boy.

Baby Lifsey:

He's supposed to be just over 3 lbs now - which is probably right on the money so my midwife tells me. He's growing at a steady pace and it feels as though he's beginning to lose space in there - and my ribs are feeling the reprocussions of that. :) He's in the right position he needs to be in, still has a boney butt my midwife says but he's in the process of fattening up right now. :) He's moving LOTS and feels much heavier than 3 lbs. My tummy muscles are getting their work out for sure. I'm becoming less mobile (funny how you feel like your body ages 20 years when you get into that last tri-mester) and am beginning to get tired a lot more - but it comes with the package so I don't mind. In a couple of weeks the girls are throwing me a shower which should be fun and by then I'll know what all I'll still need for the little guy before he comes - but honestly, the Lord has blessed us SO MUCH. I can't believe how much has been given to us or practically given to us because it was sold to us so cheap. It has been such a blessing to watch the Lord just give us everything we need and really, more than we need. We're so grateful and truly humbled. Still deciding on a name - if you think of it, throw up a prayer for us. We really want to hear from the Lord about his name, just for peace in my heart and Dalton's heart.

That's all my pregnant brain can think of right now - but hopefully I'll get some pictures of my fat belly and put them up here so that you can all see - sometimes i look at myself in the mirror and think "Who on earth am i looking at?!" I can't believe that our bodies can stretch and mold into something so different and then go back to normal (maybe not completely the way they were before, but certainly less like a watermellon). The human body is so incredible, which just makes me marvel at the Lord even more. I'll end it here - stay tuned for more exciting blogs to come!

Camping for Easter

2009-04-24T16:18:00.010+12:00

We had a little break for Easter and we went camping with our new friends from GA. Zach and Mallory are from Alpharetta, GA - so close to home!!!! They also are mutual friends with some of my good friends from Columbus so when we met we sort of felt like we already knew each other. Anyway, when we met, we became instant friends which was inevitable really. :)

We went camping together at the famous Piha site which is just West of Auckland. Piha is generally a surfers dream which is why we chose that spot - however, it wasn't so much the surfers dream over Easter. Dalton didn't surf once. The only day the waves were good, EVERYONE went out. No fun to surf crowded waves. Luckily, Piha is still an extremely cool place even if you don't surf. Lots of fun walks, beautiful scenery, quiet little family campsite and the local Piha shop (which is the only shop in Piha) with their freshly baked cinnamon donuts and the infamous custard loaf - that is literally a bread brick with custard in it - heavy as a car but sweet on the tastebuds.

It rained a little while we were there but our new mansion of a tent kept us nice and dry. Dalton froze the first night, but we remedied that up quick the next two nights with more blankets. Baby Lifsey really enjoyed his first camping experience - he thought the food somewhat different, the sleeping arrangements a little more uncomfortable than what he's used to, the walks nice - but kind of hard work for the little guy - all in all, quite enjoyable. He's a trouper!

Here are some shots from the trip - enjoy!

We camped pretty much on the beach - we could hear the waves at night - delightful

Proof that I did make it to the top, belly full of jelly and all!

Our awesome timer photo - the waves crashed right when the camera went off - epic

Feedin' little bub some good campin' grub

Chef Zach cookin' the grub

Walk number two - the beginning of the adventure

Mal and I psychin' ourselves up for the journey ahead of us

The top in all it's glory - ah the serenity

Zach filling up his water bottle with "Pure Dew" - not ordinary water - super natural one might think.

Walk number three - destination - bottom of the waterfall

We watched some folks repel down from the top - which wet Dalton and Zach's appetite for some good climbing. They began planning our next camping trip right after watching them.

Dalton giving me a "I'm so proud of you honey" kiss on the forehead for all my intense outdoor excursions over the weekend.

And there they are - The Wheelers - you can see why we like them so much can't you?

Fish and Chips - we'd be crazy not to - the best chips in the country in Piha - they were outstanding.

The End.

*I also find it important to note that pretty much the whole weekend we put on our thickest southern accents possible. I know you're thinking we're all from the south so what do I mean "put on" - unfortunately, none of us really have southern accents - Zach probably the most out of all of us and he's not even originally from the south. But we all love and appreciate them and there's just somethin' about being out in the wilderness - it just brings the southern out of ya. In fact, while I was typing in all of those captions under the pictures - they were southern in my head - so, it's probably best that all readers read them with a southern accent to get the full effect. Also, not just any southern accent lest you begin on the wrong foot and end up sounding like a southern bell - if this is where you end up, you've missed it. It's okay, just try again. It's more of a smokers southern accent - a little rough, a little grungy - a good ol' boy if you will. Go on, give it a try, you won't regret it.*

Happy Birthday Moma!

2009-04-05T14:50:00.003+12:00

Some pictures for your birthday! We love you!

27 Years Young

2009-03-10T18:29:00.007+13:00

That's right, I had a birthday..."I" being Anna, not Dalton. My birthday was last week and this one snuck right up on me! I didn't forget that my birthday was March 3rd, however...I did not realize that March 3rd was so close! Thanks to a friend who shares my birthday, I was reminded just in the nick of time. :)

It was a crazy week for us last week, mostly for Dalton but I always feel it when things are full for him...we are one flesh you know. :) We went to Hawks Bay, a town about 4 hours south of Tauranga, last weekend where Dalton and a couple of other guys from the House of Prayer taught at a seminar on the book of revelation. It was a wonderful weekend and so rewarding for all of us, but I won't go too much into that now. When we returned Dalton kicked off the week leading an intercession set Monday morning, then we had staff class Monday afternoon and then he taught the internship Monday night. He taught the internship the rest of the week and he is also teaching through the book of Revelation (which he is loving...and so am i!) at our Wed. night meetings. Over the weekend a good friend of ours got married and Dalton and I sang at the wedding...it was a beautiful wedding! Then Sunday, we made an effort to clean our house! It was a very rewarding week, but certainly a full one.

With all that being said, my husband is wonderful and still managed to make my birthday memorable and very special in the midst of all that he had on his plate. I am a blessed woman. :) Since I didn't realize how soon my birthday was, birthday presents were not on my mind at all. But Dalton still managed to pick me a WINNER of a present! We don't have closets in our house so organizing our bedroom has been quite a task for me and we have had boxes with clothes and shoes laying around our room since we moved in. Well, Dalton remembered this cabinet that I had noticed in a store a while ago and snuck out and came back with a large thing covered with a white sheet in the back of our car. After class on Monday night some friends followed us home and helped lift it out of the car (it's pretty heavy) and bring it in the house. Here are some pics of the unveiling of my present!

Drum role please...

Of course I had to put on a performance...

She's a beaut'!

Yep, that's right, I decided to just get dressed up and take a picture with my new present. Actually, my wonderful husband, as mentioned before, took me out to dinner to a restaurant that we have been wanting to try for some time now and afterwards he took me to see "slumdog millionare"...pretty good movie. Every morning for the last week I have woke up to Dalton telling me happy birthday. He decided that my birthday should be celebrated all week long, so today was officially my last day of my birthday week. It was a great birthday and I felt very blessed.

Later on in the week some of my girl friends made me a mexican feast and we celebrated some more. Good food, good company...what else could a girl ask for?

I also must make mention of my awesome family in GA and FL. My parents and sister sent me incredibly cool birthday emails and made me feel real special in the facebook world...which is a pretty big deal! My brother and sis in-law made me a video with my precious niece and nephew wishing me a happy birthday...it was amazing. And my mil (mother in-law) sent me an awesome b-day package making me quite the stylish pregnant mama. How blessed am I?!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to my family for still making me feel loved and connected even with oceans between us. It means more to me than you'll ever know!

It's a BOY!!!!!

2009-02-21T16:24:00.007+13:00

Before I clean the kitchen...I just realized that I haven't made the official "blog announcement" that we're having a baby boy! We are so excited!!!!! I have some fun little videos to share with you of the little guy movin' around in my tummy! I'll put one of my personal favorite pictures up of his little mouth and nose...we'll see if you can make it out. It's very precious to me.

His sweet profile

His cute little feet that kick me all day long

My favorite pic...little nose, little mouth. Can you see it? He's laying on his left side. It's not his whole face.

Big stretch!

Isn't he precious? We love him so much already!

"Farm Livin' is the Life For Me"

2009-02-21T15:33:00.008+13:00

Today our family grew. We adopted 11 chickens! I tried my best to get some good pictures for you all to see, but it was in a real shady (literally, not morally) area and the little guys are still pretty scared of us and kept running away! And I'll be the first to admit that I'm no photographer. They're so cute! Come April they should be producing more eggs for us than we need! We're still unsure of how many females we have, they're still too young to tell. They've already escaped three times today. I get so worried about them. Supposedly after a couple of days the place will become home to the little guys and even if they do escape, they'll wander back home when they need food or water. Hence the term "free range". :) We have some neighborhood cats that come around so we're praying that they stay away from our chickens!

A nice little video of our new chicken family.

I also added this picture because it was left out of our house pics.

This is one of my favorite places in the house. I'm going to do a little work

to make it a little more comfortable, but I'm thinking I'll spend many early mornings here,

especially when baby is up and at 'em real early!

Not the most flattering picture I know, in fact, Dalton completely

dissaproves that I put it up...but I know my family appreciates any glimpse

of our faces that we'll give them. So here we are in our "chicken yard".

We do generally look better than this, but notwhen we're "workin' on the farm".

We don't really live on a farm, we're justpretending we do. :) And hey,

we have chickens and grow our own veggies...we're doing a pretty

good job of pretending if you ask me. :)

This morning we ate some tomatoes out of our garden...they were so yummy, and I don't even like tomatoes. They really do taste different from the garden vs. the grocery store. It's been a good Saturday. Now I'm off to clean the kitchen!

Mexico

2009-02-15T22:31:00.002+13:00

I just did some research and Mexico's independence day is actually SEPTEMBER 16th...not February 16th. This could be news to all of you though, seeing as how we always celebrate it on May 5th...but the actual independence day is September 16th. I thought it important to clear up my mistake...BUT...we can always take time to salute Mexico for it's glorious food. Every day is a day to celebrate good mexican food.

Up by Popular Request...The Tummy.

2009-02-15T17:52:00.003+13:00

Ok, you asked for it so here it is! My pooch! I'll preface these pics by saying that some days I show more than others...today seemed to be a "less for your money" day. However, my clothes don't fit...so whether you can experience it through site or not...I am indeed growing. I'll also preface these pictures by saying this was an extremely awkward photo shoot. It's hard being the only one in the photos and hard having your tummy be the focal point! But here it is nonetheless and I hope it somewhat satisfies your curiosity. I will be getting fatter very soon they tell me...so we will do our best to be better with this camera! Ok...here I am in all my glory!

There's a baby in there!

Little bub resting on the picnic table...how cute.

Saluting Mexico and their amazing food (Mexico independence day tomorrow folks). Mexico, me, my husband and my baby salute your culinary skills and are very grateful that you are a nation.

TUNE IN NEXT TIME FOR EPISODE NUMERO DOS!

Pictures of the New House

2009-02-12T15:07:00.008+13:00

A tour of our house........in kid's book form: Our front door
Our bathtub with sweet jets
Our bush walk to the valley
Our bedroom glass ceiling
Our garden that I dug up and built
Our compost bin
Our garden AND compost bin
Our bedroom ceiling (again)
Our house and bench
Our bedroom
Our study.....just joking

Our house. The end.

Hot Summer Days

2009-02-09T16:25:00.002+13:00

It has been one hot summer!

We recently moved to a new house, which we really want to post pictures of so everyone can see! However, our camera is out of commission at the moment, but will soon be back in action. Anyway, in our new house...it is HOT. We love our house...but it's an old house with not very much insulation which means it doesn't keep cool or hot air in very well!

But other than that we absolutely love our new house. We are so thankful that the Lord would look at little ol' us and give us such a gift. It's on quite a bit of land, just over 3 acres. We have plum trees, apple trees, orange trees, lemon trees, macadamia nut trees, walnut trees, avocado trees, pear trees and I'm sure I'm forgetting some...it's wonderful! Dalton is in heaven...so much land means so many projects. He's built a chicken coup and a hen house, tilled the soil and planted a veggie garden and he has so many other projects up his sleave. He's having so much fun!

My belly is growing and I feel huge...but people still tell me that I'm not showing very much for as far along as I am. It's all skirts and dresses for me now...none of my shorts fit me and well, the heat makes everything even remotely tight feel ten times tighter! I'm 19 weeks as of today. Our baby is becoming very active and I'm feeling all kinds of new and exciting things happening inside my tummy. Dalton felt the baby kick for the first time the other night right after we finished watching a movie about soccer...I figured that it was a sign that he/she will be quite athletic and especially love soccer...just like his/her mommy. We'll find out what we're having on the 19th...can't wait to find out!

I will post pictures of our new house and my growing belly very soon!

Happy Birthday Sierra and Joel!!

2009-01-09T23:06:00.004+13:00

We wish we could be with you to hug you and say Happy Birthday in person. This'll have to do! We love you two.

2009-01-03T23:43:00.012+13:00

I've told my husband that now that I have a baby growing inside of me, maybe I'll have more incentive to update this! Let's hope that's the case...I really, really am going to earnestly try and update this consistently.

I don't have any cool pictures to put up with this post because I have to wait for the return of the camera with Dalton from his surfing trip...then we'll put some photos of our break up.

Our break is almost over...it has been an enjoyable one. Dalton and I spent christmas morning together with some close friends who are pretty much family and then in the afternoon went and ate a wonderful lunch with the pastors of the church that is letting us use their facilities for the prayer room. They are originally from Arizona but have lived here in New Zealand for over 20 years. Their Oldest son just married a girl from their home town so she too is here adjusting to a new culture and a hot christmas. Even though they have been here for over 20 years their home still felt like walking into a home from America...they still celebrated christmas the way we do back home...and it was nice.

We then went away with some friends for a few nights up north. It was nice to get away for a little while and that trip just wet Dalton's appetite to surf, surf, surf! He is currently away with some of the boys on a surf/camp trip. I'm glad that he's enjoying himself, but I'm ready for him to come home to me and his little bub in the womb. We miss him.

I must say that the most impactful part of this break for me has been something that was taking place in Kansas City from the 28th of December to Jan. 1st. There was a conference for young people held by the International House of Prayer called "One Thing". Dalton and I both do the best that we can to attend this conference when we're home for the holiday's. This one was, I guess you could say, monumental. There was a sobriety and authority that was resting on the speakers and worship leaders that is unlike anything I have seen possibly in my entire life. It's not so much the conference that has impacted me, but it's the driving force behind the conference. I am convinced, and become more and more convinced, that we are in the eye of an enormous storm that is swirling around us right now. I feel like I'm watching a chess game and seeing the pieces moved into place for a divine check mate across the earth. We are on the verge of something major, unprecident to anything history has ever seen. It may not seem that way...it may seem like we're just having an economic crisis because our current president made some bad decisions or maybe it was our congress...but I assure you, there's much more happening than we are aware of.

I believe we are on the verge of a hot furnace coming and purging the body of Christ. This fire will produce authentic, unashamed, unafraid saints who will stand in the face of opposition and remain unmoved in their convictions of who God is and what He's like and what He's doing on the planet. We're on the verge of seeing revival like we have never seen before, people believing in and loving the Lord like we have never seen before...devotion and dedication like we have never seen before. It will be glorious. But be sure, that this authentic army of worshipers and lovers that is sure to arrise, will be hated by the majority of the earth. They will be hated unto death...just as the One whom they love was. We are in very interesting times...I can feel the glory and the terror of it all on the inside of me. I breathe in with excitement and exhale with trembling. I have this child inside of me and I am asking the Lord for wisdom to know how to raise up a child in the ways of the Lord, knowing that the landscape of the earth could drastically change in the next 10 years. I don't want to live my life as if it were an ordinary time with ordinary events, because we are surely living in extraordinary times. Oh God, teach me how to live, teach me how to love, give me strenght to stand firm in love and devotion to the Worthy One who is coming to save not just the day, but the entire earth and all the ages that have proceeded that glorious day of His return.

I have the words of a song written by a worship leader in Kansas City ringing in my heart..."go buy oil, i cannot give it to you, get it now"...it's from the passage in Matthew 25 of the 10 virgins. I want oil on this inside, substance on the inside, love on the inside that will sustain me during the test of time. I want oil not just so I can survive...but because I want to see His beauty and His worth that I would begin to live a life of extravagant worship and devotion that He is deserving of even now, right now. I want to be one that people call radical...I long to be irrelevant to the world but completely relevant to the King and to His Kingdom. I know that may seem like an odd and even somewhat heartless thing to say. But the cross is foolishness to the gentiles, to those who don't believe, the gospel is not something that gives warm fuzzies...it is offensive and it is foolish. It is God that opens the heart and allows a person to see it as wisdom and beautiful and necessary.

I know I'm not completely ordered in my thoughts and therefore my writing...but I just feel stirred. I just feel stirred. I can feel things shifting under my feet and I want my heart to be prepared for what's coming...I want to stand in love in that day, and not offense and confusion and hatred.

I'm up in the middle of the night having trouble sleeping listening to worship music and teaching and this is what's on my mind, and since I don't have Dalton to talk to...I'm talking to whomever will listen here.

May God hold firmly to our hearts and sustain us with His love that is as strong as death.

A New Addition from the Lord

2008-12-24T13:32:00.005+13:00

We have some news! It's not new news, but it's new. It's actually 12 week 'old' news. At the bottom of the post you can see a video clip of the 12 week old news hopping!

"Just as you do not know the path of the wind and how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not know the activity of God who makes all things." - Ecclesiastes 11:5

Rainy Days...

2008-10-07T21:48:00.002+13:00

I've been looking forward to this week for a while. The weather has really been changing...flowers are blooming, the sun is shining, short sleaves and shorts are beginning to come out of storage. We have this week off and I was really looking forward to just sitting in the sun and letting it aid my vitamin e deficient body. But then it happened...New Zealand turned on me and it started to rain, rain, rain and rain some more. The first day wasn't so bad, it was nice to have an excuse to just stay in and read and just relax. The second day...it was still tolerbale, but not quite as enjoyable. And then the third...starting to get stir crazy and wondering why the rain restrained itself until our week off! It comes in waves of sprinkling and pouring but never ceasing...right now as I write, it's pouring. It will be nice to sleep to the sound, but I do hope that little Annie is right and that the sun does come out tomorrow.

Oh mr. sun, sun, mr. golden sun...please shine down on me...please?

Running across Africa

2008-10-04T23:18:00.005+13:00

I just hung out with a friend tonight, she's from Cananda. She has these three friends who...yep...just finished running across Africa. This is certainly blogworthy and was enough to wake me from my blog slumber. Amazing...they started in April and finished I guess about month ago, maybe a little over. Anyway, they ran 5 marathons A WEEK for 4 1/2 MONTHS! This is superhuman...it must be! I feel like dying after a quick run to my mail box!!!

The runners themselves, right after they finished the marathon of a life time. Unbelievable!

It's inspirational for sure, who knew the human body was capable? They're in their early 20's and I haven't run in quite sometime...but I've at least got a few miles left in me. I see all these silly headlines in the grocery stores of all these celebrities who have run marathons and all that jargon and then there's my family...sheesh...my brother and sister and sister in-law are like running machines! Then there's the 70 year old(at least, he could be older) man who we see running all throughout the city and then finishing off his incredibly long run with a few sprints up and down the sidewalk of our neighborhood. Now that's just embarrassing for me, I'm only 26! I've got to get back in the business!

But this, this is definitely enough to get me off my rear and on my feet...and even if I feel like passing out after the first 10 steps...I have enough running experience to know...it will get better, and I'll just remember that 3 people actually ran across the CONTINENT of Africa. Pure insanity I tell ya.

Here's a link to their website...read it and weep and then run.

www.see-them-run.com

Canadians rock.

Oh, also just a random fact about the girl, her name is Erin. She did this thing where she decided to live with only 100 objects. For one year, she only had 100 things...this is including clothes, underwear(I realize that underwear is considered clothing, but I had to list it individually for dramatic affect, I probably have about 100 pairs myself...not really but I'm trying to make a point), dishes, the whole bit. She got rid of a lot of her stuff and just learned how to live simply...which totally blows my concepts of what living simply actually is. 100 items...I probably have 100,000 (again, exaggerating...i hope) pointless items laying around my house collecting dust. She had to stop living with only 100 items because she went to run across Africa and there were just a few extra things she needed...excuses, excuses...weak Erin, real weak. That was a joke for those having trouble sensing my sarcasm through writing on a computer screan.

off to dream about running and hopefully tomorrow do it for real. But this blog is living proof that my inspiration, well, it fizzles quickly. A wise man once said "Why don't I do the things I want to do, and do the things that I don't want to do?!"

Short Lived Inspiration...

2008-08-02T09:49:00.009+12:00

Ok, ok...I guess my inspiration to "keep up" with the blog world died quickly. But here I am again...I knew it was due time for me to write...but I just sat here, staring at the blank screan for a while, trying to determine what to write about. I was caught in a cross fire in my brain...and well, I've decided that our site is very bland and is need of some pictures. So I'll give a wee update on what we've been up to the last couple of months.

Dalton's birthday: June 29th, just over a month ago. We had a mexican birthday party (mexican is our favorite food)! The afternoon was full of spicy cheesey aromas in the kitchen and lots of running around, trying to find mexican decorations...two dollar shop really saved the day! We went ALL OVER town trying to find a pinata, and finally found it at the most obvious place...The Warehouse, which is in some ways like Walmart at home...just not nearly as big or diverse in what it has to offer. Preparations were full of fun and excitement and the party was an overall success!

We made churros!!!

Please divert your eyes from our messy garage and focus in on the lovely and colorful pinata Dalton is about to smash.:)

Presents: Dalton got a lot of BOOKS...he loves his books. He also got a "dobro" whihch is a resonator guitar. It's generally used in Blue Grass music...it's a slide guitar. For all you Ben Harper fans, he plays them like a champ! It's a beautiful piece of work and Dalton has LOVED learning how to play it. It was a group effort from far and near to make it happen. Thanks everyone who helped!

Break: Directly following Dalton's birthday, we had a short break here at the House of Prayer. It was quite convenient in it's timing because that meant we could take a trip somewhere for Dalton's birthday. He LOVES getting out, going different places and being outside. So, we traveled to the center of the North Island to a place called Whanganui..."Wh" pronounced with an "F" sound. Whanganui is situated on a lake the size of Singapore and right in the middle of lots of rock faces and mountains. Rock faces are a dream come true for Dalton these days as he has recently taken up the hobby of rock climbing. My Daddy did a lot of this while I was growing up, so I've always had a special affection for it. Dalton is catching on quickly and this has been great for him because he just can't surf in the winter! There might be waves, but when you wear a wetsuit and still manage to get frostbite...there's a problem. Too cold for this Florida boy!

We had to walk across a big puddle to get to our campsite...the water was so cold! But after a few trips, our feet were numb so we couldn't feel it anymore. :)

Did I mention that it was FREEZING! We woke up and the ground was completely white and any liquid we had left out for the night was frozen...we weren't prepared for that.

So this is a delayed update...we're back in the House of Prayer and have been since our little birthday adventures. Our next internship begins this weekend. There will also be a DTS beginnning on Sept. 1st, it's sort of like a family cousin coming to stay at our house type things. Although they won't necessarily be under the banner of "House of Prayer", they will be really involved with us and will certainly be part of the family. Dalton and I are SO EXCITED to have a DTS here and in the context of prayer.

Well, that's it for today...now I'm off to go make a cup of coffee and enjoy my Saturday...last one I'll have for a while! We're starting Saturday's back up next weekend...so I'll soak up my minutes while I have them!

inspiration

2008-07-11T14:47:00.002+12:00

Well, I've decided that my blog lifespan up to now has been pitiful and after going through and reading other people's blogs just a few minutes ago I got a burst of inspiration. It was so enjoyable reading and feeling like I was conversing with these people, some that live down the street from me, some who live across the ocean from me, some that I haven't seen or talked to since high school and some that I actually haven't even quite met yet (i know, sounds scary). Anyway, in this very moment, I like blogs. Tomorrow I might not, so I can't promise consistency...but I will try. Maybe, just maybe this little blog site might get interesting.

Exciting News...since we're on the topic of blogs. My brother and sister in-law have created a blog site that is quite helpful for me living so far away from them and their growing family. I was just checking up on their lives via that affectionate blog site and saw that I'm going to have a nephew! This is FANTASTIC news! I'm sure it sounds strange that I found out through a blog, but they did try and call me a number of times but just couldn't get a hold of me. Anyway, I'm VERY EXCITED! A boy...that just makes me so happy.

Sometimes the rapid growth of technology upsets me, it makes me feel like we're turning into an impersonal world where we do everything in front of a computer screan. There is some truth to that...but today I like it. I can't believe how much helpful information is at our fingertips! It's sad how much we take for granted. You can pretty much go to Yale for free online...unbelievable! Today, I'm happy that all I had to do was type in a wee website address and immediately I find out that I have a nephew (on the way, but he's still alive, breathing and has a heart beat so he already exists!). 50 years ago, it would have been a MUCH longer process. So yeah, technology...you get a bad rep sometimes but there's a lot of good to you. I guess it's more the abuse of the technology that bothers me...not the technology itself.

Enough rambling from me for today. This could be a new beginning for me and the world of blogs...and then again, maybe not. We'll see how long my inspiration lasts. :)

moving again...

2008-05-15T09:40:00.002+12:00

We have lived in this house since November and then pretty much immediately took off for the states...which means that we have lived here for a total of probably 5 months...shocking, it seems much longer. Anyway, we're moving again! I'm hoping that this move keeps us stationary for a bit longer.

It's a big move...all the way to the end of the street. The Tauranga House of Prayer is slowly but surely taking over this neighborhood...but, it's ok, it's a good fit for us.

The thing that I'm most excited about with this house is that we're moving into is, it has a bathtub...yessssss. It's winter and bath time is a much needed thing during this season. We also have a garage...which we currently are very excited about...but down the road I have a feeling, maybe not so excited? Garage means more storage space = exciting. More storage space means more junk to collect and store for no real reason except to take up the extra space that you have = not so exciting.

It's amazing how much junk you can collect over time, even when you have very little "extra" money to spend.

I'm excited about this house though. It will be our first "stand alone" house since we've been married. When we first got back from our honeymoon...we had to find a place so we stayed in the staff housing for a couple of months. This was an interesting experience...it was a pretty good set up, for a single person. After that we moved into a "granny flat" which was a self contained flat that was attatched to a bigger house with a garage connecting the two. It was beautiful, and such a gift from the Lord. Our favorite part was definitely the view...it overlooked a very green valley and then crescendoed into the Kamai Mountains. But there was still somewhat of a feeling of being "visitors". Our Landlords were wonderful, but it just didn't feel like "our house". Then we moved in with another married couple, really good friends of ours. And after we had lived here a couple of weeks a single guy (also a good friend) moved in with us. The people that we live with right now could quite possibly be classified as the easiest people in the world to live with. However, it still doesn't quite feel like our home. We have loved our time here and enjoyed living with our friends...but I am excited at the thought of having our house, even though we won't own it, it still feels a little more like ours. We will still have a roommate, but she's like family.

Anyway, I've never written such a long and pointless post. It's Thursday...my morning off...and this is what came out of me. I guess moving is on my mind. The move could very likely take place next weekend...we shall see.

Dalton leaves this weekend with some of the boys to speak at a guys weekend retreat down south a bit. Me and Jess have the whole house to ourselves. This probably means that we will watch a little Jane Austen or maybe a little "Anne of Green Gables", bake and drink lots of coffee. This sounds heavenly to me when i think about it...but when i read it, it sort of makes me feel like a lameo. I do seem to be turning into one the older i get it. Such is life. My disclaimer is...if it's a beautiful weekend, I'm sure we'll get outside. Beautiful days are few and far between during this season.

For Every Season, There is a Reason...

2008-05-06T19:48:00.003+12:00

"Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn." - Romans 12:15

You know those verses that you grow up hearing, and you can recite them by memory (usually there's a song to go with it :))and you know it so well in your head and then one day...it reaches your heart and your undone by this familiar verse that has lived with you for years and years but you never truely got to know it??? If you grew up in the church, you'll know exactly what I mean. If you didn't, it's true...these things really happen. Anyway, the verse above is one of those verses for me and the truth of it hit my heart a little bit deeper than it ever has before and therefore it has been unveiled just a little bit more to my whole self...not just my mind.

Recently Dalton and I went through a tough experience. It was one that you would somewhat expect to have to sort of "deal with" on your own. Not because you don't think people care, but because it seems quite personal and aren't sure if people would really be able to identify. We live in a small community here at the Tauranga House of Prayer. We're still few in number so usually things aren't kept a secret too long.

When people began to hear of our news I was shocked at how real this verse became within our community. People were truly mourning with us. It felt holy. It wasn't sentimental. It wasn't a bunch of people trying to make us heal quicker or heal slower...they weren't trying to make it a bigger deal than it was or a smaller deal than it was...they felt something on the inside that caused them to physically respond. People truly mourned with us. When they cried with us, it was a deep cry, a cry that doesn't come out of our own human nature.

And I came to realize this...if we can't love without Jesus first loving us, we are incapable of doing anything right, without Him first doing it. We can't truly feel compassion, or truly feel Godly sorrow without Him first feeling it. So that means that when we go through tough times...He is feeling just as intensely as we are. He is THE Great Intercessor, and intercession isn't just a prayer with no emotion attached to it. He has deep emotion for every single human being on this planet that is suffering and He has a holy zeal towards it. We can be confident in this...if He isn't acting today to stop the hurt from happening, there is coming a day where He will certainly avenge the broken hearted, He will certainly, certainly make the wrong things right. In this we can be confident...He may be quiet now, but He will not stay silent forever.

The outrageous thing is, The Great Intercessor lives inside of us and therefore we have access to these same emotions. And it is a tremendous thing when it happens. No matter how "big or small" the tragedy may be...we can feel much more than human sentiment...but we can feel the grief of The Living God and participate and share in it. It's a holy thing, it really is.

I saw a small glimpse of it this week. People weeping with me...and I don't mean that there was deep physical sobbing taking place, but I could...I dont know how to explain it...I could just feel the sobriety and the holiness of it all. And I am humbled, so humbled. To know that God would look upon me and my small situation and allow people to gather and stand with me and share in my "suffering"...is truly humbling.

He really is the God who looks upon the lowly and the weak ones.

As I wrote to some of my friends earlier this week:

Tragedy is a mystery. It absolutely sucks, but often ends up being one of the best things for us…makes us humbler, causes us to lean in on Him a little more, and makes us a little weaker thus giving Him opportunity to become stronger in us.

We truly are living in an "inside, outside, upside down kingdom...where you lose to gain and you die to live." I don't get it quite yet...good thing He does and He lives inside of me. What a relief.

The sun rises...and then it sets...but it will rise again in just a few short hours.

Easter Road Trip

2008-03-27T00:15:00.005+13:00

We had a few days off for Easter and had the joy of taking a wee road trip! The pictures here are of that trip. We headed first to the center of the north island to the Tongariro national park and hiked the "Tongariro Crossing" which is a 12 mile hike across a mountain ridge. If you've seen "Lord of the Rings" you'll notice "Mount Doom" in the background. They filmed that segment of the film at the Crossing. As you'll see from a few pictures with my wedding ring, it's the place where Frodo had to destroy the ring.

From there we headed to the west coast to my favorite little beach town Raglan where we relaxed and celebrated our friend Kate's birthday. The pictures are chronological starting from the bottom working up here to the top.

Sorry for the silence recently. We might just break it soon.

We love you all!
Dalton and Anna

A Must See

2008-01-22T19:16:00.000+13:00

Please Read

2008-01-02T16:04:00.000+13:00

Hey Beloved,

I just walked in the door after flying home this afternoon from a cold Kansas City and wanted to send you a letter. I received something that I want to pass on to you. It's copied on the bottom portion of this email. Before doing so I want to make a statement that is critical for us to understand. That statement is over the issue of " blood."

In context to the abomination of the enslavement and murder of untold multitudes of Africans, Abraham Lincoln said that if "if every drop of blood shed by the whip" was proportionally and equally shed by the sword (in civil war), it must "be said that God's judgments are righteous and true altogether."

I say that to say this: Many people are consumed with "political" issues wrapped in "political" jargon without understanding that the paramount issue in our nation is not a political issue but a civil rights issue, a moral issue and a justice issue.

The atrocity of slavery was not a political issue. Why? It's because blood was shed that invariably made it a paramount issue of righteousness, morality and justice. When blood flows, "politics" are insufficient. The atrocity of our generation is abortion.

If government officials rounded up 50 million people, set them on the steps of the Supreme Court in Washington D.C . and continued to gun them down there would be no question as to whether or not it was a "political" issue or a moral issue. The blood would come to the waists and chests of the gunmen. Remember, 50 million babies have undergone a Holocaust in American incinerators in a period of 35 years. And blood requires blood in the mind, heart and leadership of God.

"Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man. (Gen. 9:6)

As sure as the law of gravity affects our day to day life now, so is the law of bloodshed affecting us now. Shed blood in the eyes of God demands reciprocal bloodshed. It demands Divine reckoning.

Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning……. and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man's brother I will require the life of man. (Gen. 9:5)

The Civil War was the day for reckoning for our nation for the bloodshed of slavery. 600,000 American's died on the fields of battle because we allowed, encouraged and fought for the legislation of injustice.

Let me be very clear: There have been around 50 million people murdered on our soil since 1973. Every drop of blood that has fallen and every body that has been thrown into the incinerators around the 50 states of America arise as smoke provoking the jealousy of God.

I'm emailing this to you to make a sober and serious appeal: First of all, refuse to stand with or for anyone who stands for or even passively endorses bloodshed. And secondly, understand that none of us are voting or praying this year as Democrats or Republicans – we are voting and praying as those who stand guilty with blood on our hands desperately in need of mercy of a Good Father.

Martin Luther King said "I can't take the hatred out of a white man's heart, and I can't remove the rage from him……..but I can make it illegal to for him to beat me." In other words, we are in need of righteous legislation in America that would make bloodshed illegal. Though we may not at this point be capable of acknowledging that abortion is murder so as to turn from it, there is hope that it could be made illegal.

(Please understand that even if abortion ends in America, there are pools and pools of blood resting upon our soil that will result in an unprecedented crisis that will far surpass the magnitude of the Civil War when the Lord in His justice releases it. I'm addressing in this letter the necessary legislation of righteousness not the removal of our bloodguilt; that is for another day. )

Therefore I ask of you this: There is one man that is standing for life in the Presidential Candidacy. I am asking that you pray and vote for him. Mike Huckabee unquestionably will stand for life. Regardless of your opinions on a thousand other issues (including the multitudes of controversies and debates), the issue of bloodshed trumps all others demanding our intercession. And therefore I stand boldly for the one who stands for life.

I am not lobbying for your vote just so that you would vote for a mere man that I "like." I am appealing to you because of a civil rights issue that has turned into a crisis that is mounting on our land. This issue transcends "politics" and is neither "left wing" nor "right wing" We must stand for life and we must initiate a turning of our hearts that stand for murder (whether we do so passively or aggressively). And that is why I ask you to change your vote and begin to pray. I receive the letters and bulletins from many of you that both boldly stand for other candidates and as boldly oppose Mike Huckabee because of a multitude of issues (legitimate or illegitimate).

We stand at a historic juncture in our nation's history. And we stand unaware of the overwhelming controversy in God's heart with our blood stained nation. The blood of the Native American Indians, the blood of the slaves from Africa and the blood of 50 million babies is entirely accounted for before the True Supreme Court and the Throne of Justice.

In the face of historic military crisis in the land the prophet Joel declared the only remedy that could minimize or avert the violence of the deserved judgment.

"Even now" declares the Lord, "turn to Me with all you heart…rend your heart and not your garments…for I am gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love, and I relent from sending calamity."

The young men of who were raised prior to the Civil War were those that lay slain because of the choices their fathers and brothers made before them. The decisions of our hearts have real consequences.

In sincere love and respect for you, and in the love of the Father,
Dalton Lifsey

PS What follows will seem strange to some and ridiculous to others, but let us remember that in monumental transitions in history God seems to speak to humble men through silly dreams and offensively juvenile visions and holds entire nations and generations accountable for their response (See Daniel 7-12, the first chapters of the Synoptic Gospels, the Book of Acts and the Book of Revelation).

BEGIN QUOTE

Dear Friends in the nation,

I am speaking now for my own personal perspective and not from any ministry I lead.

A year and a half ago Bobby Connor, a strong prophetic voice in the nation called me concerning an encounter with the Lord. In the encounter the Lord told him that if the church would pray the nation would be sustained in dark days by a president who would come in a brown bag and his five loaves and two fish would be more than enough. For a year and a half we have prayed for this. We thought it might have been Brownback but our application I believe was wrong. I believe the brown bag speaks of the common and humble container that the candidate would come in – not in the robes of professional politicians but in a surprising common man container. And so I was stunned when watching Fox News as they interviewed Mike Huckabee where they asked him how do you explain your sudden surge in the polls when you have had such little money and few staff in Iowa? His answer: "We have thousands of people praying, it's the only way to understand it. It's the miracle of the five loaves and two fish." I believe that the churches prayers are unleashing a divine influence of kingdom promotion. I am not saying that it's the word of the Lord, but I am taken by it.

And now just a few weeks ago Chris Berglund, my prophet friend received another dream about Mike Bickle and myself. The dream reads:

I was watching you two interact and you were forcefully or adamantly sharing with one another your conviction that you would not be as those who did not consider the miracle of the loaves (Mk 6.52). It was clear you had come into agreement to take a stand together, the disposition of your heart was one of faith. The scene changed (but this could have been a separate dream?) and now I am standing at a river bank looking into a river that just a day earlier had few fish in it. Yet, over the night the rains had come and now a day later the river was teeming with fish. As I watched the fish, one large fish seemed to be out of place in the sense of its size and its actions. This fish would come to the surface and open its mouth wide, it looked as if its whole body became a mouth. The smaller fish unaware that they were swimming right into the large fish were consumed by this large fish. I looked to those on the shore and suggested we shoot the large fish with an arrow so the other fish would no longer be in danger.......

I believe the dreams are clear. Mike and I which I believe is the prayer movement must not be those who would move in unbelief while considering this multiplication of the five loaves and two fish in this election moment. The fact is in the last 2 weeks the media and other candidates have been blasting Mike Huckabee and his polls have dropped. I believe that the big mouth is a spiritual attack on the promotion of Mike Huckabee and the people of Iowa must discern it. We are not to doubt! The arrow is a clear picture of a prayer assignment that is being given to us. For the last 3 years we have called our assignment "the arrow of the Lords victory against abortion." We are to move into an offensive prayer and fasting stand and declare in faith that the power of the media is broken and the favor of the Lord will rule over the thoughts of men and women. In the light of this crisis and in the light of Bobby Connor's dream, IF THE CHURCH WOULD PRAY, I believe we are in an Esther Moment and I would strongly encourage believers across the nation to enter into a 3-day Esther fast on January 1st-3rd for the pulling down of any Hamans and the raising up of God's Mordecai who will break the death decree off of the nation.

I have made a vow similar to James Dobson that I can never vote for anyone that is not pro-life. Psalm 94 makes it very clear, Shall a throne of iniquity that devises evil by law have fellowship with you. They gather together against the life of the righteous and they shed innocent blood. A throne of iniquity is a governmental administration that legalizes evil. We are told that we cannot have fellowship with such government and I believe that voting for such thrones is having fellowship with them. Scripturally speaking the two basic foundational issues of a throne of iniquity are anti-Christ philosophies that seek to destroy Christian principles (they gather against the life of the righteous), and thrones that legalize shedding of innocent blood (abortion).

Secondly 2 Samuel 23 declares that one who rules over man must be just and must rule in the fear of God. I cannot vote for anyone whose moral life does not reveal the fear of God and who is not just. Abortion I believe is the foundational justice issue facing our nation. We are not to vote democrat or republican, we are to vote for whoever is just and carries the fear of the Lord.

I am not saying that I know that this is a clear prophetic word but I believe that Mike Huckabee lives out these two requirements as a leader and who will also resist the two foundational issues that comprise thrones of iniquity. He will stand for the righteous remnant in the nation and his top policy value is pro-life. I believe that the nation should rise up and support this man. It is so important that the churches keep crying out to God for supernatural assistance in these elections and that He would promote the humble and the righteous. Let us pray for favor on the one he has chosen to exalt before the others. Thank you for listening to my heart. I am just one voice among many but I bear on my shoulders in intercession along with you the future of our nation and the future of our children. We have 5 days to pray before the primaries. Let us not render to Caesar what God has not rendered to Caesar. Prayer can shape history.

I am bearing Iowa on my heart deeply. I have been in days of fasting and prayer. Let us take our stand in the heavens where angels wage war over the promotion and demotion of kings. Thank you for making the Lord happy with your intercessions.

In Faith,

Lou Engle

A Message From Lou

2007-12-10T15:55:00.002+13:00

It's been too long...here's a post from Anna

2007-11-26T21:51:00.000+13:00

Ok, I realize it's been AGES since we've put anything on this. So here's some thoughts from me. It's just stuff from my heart, so forgive me if it seems a little unrefined. But here's a small glimpse into what's going on in my mind and heart...if you're interested. If you're not...I'm not offended. :)

I was reading James tonight and I came across this verse:

“For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it…”

And then:

“…faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action is dead…you see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.”

And what it immediately made me think of was our emerging church movement here in the western world. This emergent church says much about grace. In many churches it speaks of grace to such an extreme as if to present God winking at sin, giving us a pat on the back and saying “no worries mate, you’re forgiven before you even ask for it!” It’s quite easy for me to get frustrated and all worked up over it on the inside. But tonight as I was reading those verses, there was a part of me that immediately began to feel condemned. Now that is certainly not the Lord stirring this up within. But having these feelings made me think about why our church today has swung so far out on this grace issue.

My desire in writing this isn’t to disrespect anyone. It’s more so just to take a look at how badly we as human beings steward the Word of God. We read things, don’t spend time in prayer over them at all, form a theology out of it and present it to the masses and it becomes the new popular revelatory message for the next few years or next generation.

Remember the hell fire and brimstone preachers? Some of us want them back! But if we had them back, we would be in just as pitiful shape as we are now with our “grace” preachers. We didn’t understand the God of love, the God of emotion, the God of desire. We didn’t understand His heart. We read a couple of verses, like the ones above, read the Old Testament and skipped all the verses about God’s emotions and went straight to the ones about His intolerance of sin and formed our “holiness theology”. But how on earth can we even begin to try and be holy if we don’t understand that God has emotions, that He has intense, intense feelings that compel Him to act in certain ways and when He reacts out of emotion…it’s absolutely perfect…it cannot be improved upon. We miss the fact that He actually wants us to succeed and gives us chance after chance after chance after chance to do just that. He constantly pressing delete with us, constantly wiping slate, constantly cleansing us and washing us and giving us a new beginning. Every morning He does this! Every morning we can wake up and start afresh because His mercies are new every morning.

So, we as humans got wounded by this jagged, narrow, “religious” message that was being preached that was disqualifying all of us by the masses! So, we came up with something new. We were turned off by all the hard verses that made us feel like we had to work for our salvation, so we ditched those and went for all the verses that said we didn’t have to do anything! All we have to do is say a simple little prayer asking Jesus into our heart and we’re home free! We can comfortably remain in our lukewarm compromised lifestyles…still trying to achieve the status quo, still trying to make a buck, still trying to gratify our sinful desires…and still make it through the gates because Jesus understands. He gets us broken people. He gets how hard it is to be good and to do things right. So we skip the verses that tell us that we have to be perfect just as He is…or maybe we’ll read it out but we’ll just turn it around and inside out until it fits our grace shaped gospel that gets us our “get out of hell free” card. It’s true, Jesus does understand how weak and broken we are…He understands completely because He became one of us. He was tempted in every single way that He could possibly be tempted by the devil and on top of that He was rejected by those He loved and crushed by the Father...but the kicker is…He remained perfect. We get in a hissy over that and start throwing out statements like “He’s God though, of course He was perfect and never messed up”…but He was fully man too. FULLY Man, He came completely equipped with human emotions, bodily restrictions, pains, aches, runny noses, crying…He got tired, He got hungry, He got thirsty…He was completely human, therefore He completely understands how difficult it is to remain perfect in a polluted and perverted world. Yet, He still did it...and He did it gloriously.

When God became human (what?!), so many doors were opened. He left the Spirit with us to empower us to walk a life worthy of the calling. He died on the cross, shedding His blood so that our sins might be covered…not just the ones up to that point, but the ones that are still happening today and that will happen tomorrow as long as there is a spirit of repentance present. He made a way for the imperfect to approach the perfect while raising the bar and putting out a higher calling, asking those who are imperfect to become perfect and giving them every resource in heaven to accomplish this.

How do we reconcile these opposite end of the spectrum gospels? Do we find a “happy medium”? Do we try to get a “balance”? One thing that I’m learning here in the House of Prayer is that God is paradoxical and because He is infinite and we are finite, we will forever be living in tension…at least until He splits the sky and everything is revealed…and well, I expect at that point we’ll just fall on our faces unable to function properly anymore, weeping, worshipping and losing our minds while being the sanest we have ever been.

Maybe this isn’t the answer we all want, but in my minimal understanding of these great mysteries of God…this is what I know.

He is Holy and He is Gracious. Never one more than the other, always the same intensity in each attribute.

He is a Just and He is Merciful.

He is Righteous and He is Compassionate.

He is Angry and He is filled with Joy.

He hates and He loves.

Maybe we’re more comfortable with some of these attributes than others…but the beauty of our God is that He is all of them, whether we like it or not. And we can’t take out what we don’t like…we are forced to stare head on into the parts of Him that we don’t understand and are uncomfortable with and cry out for understanding, cry out for an intimate touch of this glorious and beautiful God and ask Him to show us who He really is, how He really feels, what He’s really like…and just sit and wait until He answers us. We have to stop being so quick to get an answer that tickles our noses and makes us feel better, or worse in some cases…and we have to wait upon the Lord. One thing we can always be sure of…He will always reveal Himself if we keep asking. We may have to wait, but He will surely come. And we will tremble and we will laugh and we will cry tears terror and we will cry tears of joy. He is terribly beautiful and we must be prepared to witness that which no eye has seen, no ear has heard and no mind can comprehend without the Spirit revealing it to us.

This is all that I’ve come to thus far. I do know that I know very little so I wouldn’t publish this or anything. The last thing I want to do is try and form some new theology…I just want the spirit of prophecy to be released in our church in our day…that is…the testimony of Jesus Christ. That is the gospel that we need today…revelation of Him.

Some Pictures from our Week at Raglan

2007-10-13T13:11:00.000+13:00

Random Pictures from the Last Few Months

2007-10-07T13:27:00.003+13:00

A Long Over Due Update

2007-10-07T13:27:00.002+13:00

It's a beautiful Sunday afternoon here in Tauranga and I figured it's been far too long since we've posted an update. So here it is!

As for news, there is, as far as I know, a few fronts that are note worthy:

1. Anna and I have been married for over a year now!

2. Starting this weekend we have a week off from the House of Prayer. And so, much to my excitement, a group of us are heading to Raglan for the week. Raglan is my favorite town in the country. Small town, incredible waves, quiet, cheap and surrounded by water. We'll throw some pictures from the trip up on here when we get back.

3. We were issued our visas about 2 weeks ago! This means that we're in the clear for another 2 years to stay in the country. It has been an intense few months walking through this process as we actually shouldnt have recieved the visas in light of the scenario we found ourselves in. Simply put: It's a miracle we get to stay.

4. We're flying stateside in the middle of December. We plan on staying in Georgia for the first leg of the trip for Christmas, then heading to Kansas City for New Years, and then spending some time in Florida.

5. We're going to Australia in a few weeks for a House of Prayer conference. This will be fun as we'll be staying in Townsville (where Anna used to live) so Ill get to meet all the people she's loves but havent yet met. As we expect to end up in Australia down the track a bit, it should be an interesting trip.

6. And on a more insignificant note, but still interesting, I have found a new passion. A good freind of mine moved here a few months ago and has grown up rock climbing. Im afraid of heights so figured I wasnt exactly compatible with the idea. AFter going a few times with Graham Im hooked and love it. I love to surf but cant do it very much because of our strange schedule having to oversee the Prayer Room at strange hours, and need to get out more to play. I'm quite excited about it all. As I have picked up rock climbing, Anna has begun swimming in the mornings as well as climbing with me.

Just thought you might want to know!

We love you all so much and miss you dearly.

Dalton and Anna

ps Pictures are coming soon!

Our First Anniversary

2007-09-19T16:57:00.000+12:00

In 3 days we will have been married for one year. Absolutely incredible.

We apologize for the lack of updating via the blog site as of late. We will be posting up some info and pictures in the next week.

This weekend we're heading to the west coast for a little getaway for our anniversary (which I keep accidentally calling 'our reunion'). One of my favorite places in the country is Raglan's, which is a quaint little surf town on the west coast. There isnt much there, but it's beautiful and I love it.

We're awaiting an email from the owners of a cottage there and will be off Friday.

Until we return after the weekend, we love you miss you and cannot wait to see many of you in a few months when we come home for a visit. (More on that in the next post)

In the Beloved,
Dalton and Anna

2007-07-08T12:45:00.000+12:00

Here are some pictures from the month with our parents. My mom, Anna'a mom and Anna's dad came for a few weeks last month. We stayed around Tauranga for 3 weeks and hung around twon and in the House of Prayer. After that we took off for a week around the north island. We were hooked up with an awesome deal on a rental van and drove around the island. The pictures are from Tauranga, Wiamarama, Wellinton, Taupo and Auckland. We're blessed people to have parents like these. Enjoy!

We love you all very much.
Dalton & Anna

Life's happenings...

2007-06-04T14:32:00.000+12:00

OUR MOM'S ARE HERE!!!! Weeeeoooooweeeeoooooweeeoooooo! We're very excited to have them with us and our house already feels totally different (in such a good way)! It feels warmer, smells warmer, the food tastes better...everything's just so much better with them here! We can't wait till Daddy joins the family fun! Just a couple more weeks!

Today has been an interesting day. Have you ever just been made so aware of how mean you are? Ok, maybe that sounds like an odd thing to say...but I'll explain a bit more. Every once in a while, it's like my eyes are opened and I'm able to see what kind of person I really am. I see how much I get irritated and how insignificant all the things that are irritating me are. Then I see how all these little irritations sometimes turn into the way I treat people that are around me. You know, you sometimes get those days where you don't feel like talking to people or being social or whatever...and I for some reason think that it gives me excuse to treat people differently...like I automatically have some sort of right or something because I'm having a seemingly "bad day". Anyway, I know all of this might sound a bit harsh, but believe me, it's not. I'm actually probably being a bit light on myself. But this is ok! Here's why...I have a Savior! And as I've mentioned before...we cannot truly appreciate the cross unless we really understand the necessity of it, which means we have to understand how badly we need saving!

So, this is one of those days. I don't want to speak because I feel like I have nothing good to say but I am so desperately aware of my need to be filled by Christ. It really is a good thing because most days I trick myself into thinking that I have LOTS of good and valuable things to say and impart to the people around me...that's my own selfish little nature that thinks the world revolves around me. I'm not saying that I never have anything of value to say, I'm just saying that it doesn't exist within me, if Christ does not exist within me first! Which means...I must decrease...so that He can INCREASE! This is a decreasing day. It's humbling and it also requires me picking myself up when I feel like throwing in the towel and just quitting everything! However, there is grace, and today...I'm trying to cling to it with all that I have.

"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympahtize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." (Hebrews 4:15&16) - Thank you Jesus!!!!

So here's my remedy for today...I'm reading Song of Songs/Solomon. What better way to conquer, or maybe a more appropriate word would actually be...embrace, days like these is to read about how dark I am, and yet He says I'm beautiful. To read about the wilderness that I must be brought through so that a stronger and more pure love may be produced within. To read about the great hope that's at the end of all of this!

Remember in Esther, how her and all the other girls were given treatments before they could present themselves to the King. I'm just guessing, that not all of those treatments were the kind of treatments that you would get at a spa. I'm sure some of them were quite nice...but I don't think they all were pedicures and facials. I'm thinking that there were probably some pretty painful and uncomfortable treatments that they had to go through before they were able to come into the chambers of the King. This is what life is my friends! We are foregoing our beauty treatment so that we can be presented to the King! Some of it's nice...and some of it's not so nice. But once we make it into His courts...it will ALL be worth it.

Today, I'm clinging to that truth. He truly does desire me, but if I want to be with the King, I have to be made ready.

I find it funny and sad how easy it is for me to trick myself into thinking that I really am a good person. Like I have some sort of natural good nature that everyone else missed out on. Well, actually, I like to think that we all have a natural good nature. But reality is...we don't. We all are like sheep who have gone astray...we were all by nature objects of wrath and eternal destruction until Jesus came and made a way. This is a truth that I too easily forget. I have no good apart from Christ.

A chorus we often sing in the House of Prayer:
"Shake everything that can be shaken, take all of me that can be taken...till all that remains is love."

End of May Update

2007-05-31T14:44:00.000+12:00

It's a beautiful afternoon with the sun shining an perfect weather. This doesnt happen all that often as winter approaches fast and heavy. Anna and I are cleaning up the house and re-arranging things in preparation for something exciting.

At 4:45 tomorrow morning we pick up both of our moms from the Auckland airport. Theyll be staying with us for a month.

Anna's Dad Eric comes 2 weeks after the ladies for the remaining 2 weeks.

We'll be moving around the north island a wee bit exploring on the weekends so we'll post up the pictures so our extended family can see.

We've been a bit 'silent' over the last few months as nothing new has really happened personally. The Lord is breathing on many things corporately which is exciting, but for us individually we're pressing along day to day in the House of Prayer. We are so blessed.

The Lord has led me on a path, or should I say that He led me into a wrestling match. Ive been wrestling over the issue of Israel over the last few months, and intensly in the last weeks. Ive been stuck in some chunks of Scripture that Im convinced need to be expounded upon by us all and deeply internalized.

Probably starting this weekend or Monday Im going to begin addressing some of the main issues surrouding the issue of the Jew. Some of the principle areas will be Israel's historic and prophetic role and centrality as it were in the purposes of God; where are we to stand in regards to the current state; how do we cultivate a deep authentic love for Jews as well as a proportional passion for Muslims; was the Nazi Holocaust the last great calamity the Jewish people will experience or was it a prefiguring; and how do we discern truth and error related to the attributes of God as He actively leads history?

To misunderstand the Holocaust of the Nazi time is to ignore the underlying issues that are the very foundation of true knowledge of God. Im convinced of this. It is not a light issue nor is it one to casually or flippantly address or ignore in passing.

I wont be posting the issues on this site but on our other. The address is inearnestexpectation.wordpress.com

We love you all so very much and so deeply appreciate your support and relationships with us.

The Lifsey's

The Underground

2007-05-25T17:41:00.001+12:00

Watch This........

Pride and Prejudice

2007-05-22T12:29:00.000+12:00

One of my all time favorite stories and movies is Pride and Prejudice. The other night, for probably the 100th time me and some of my friends sat down to watch the movie. This time, more than ever before, it really ministered to my heart. I would like to note that I'm not one who watches any movie and can find Jesus in it. I've heard of people "finding Jesus" in some pretty narley movies that are the furthest place that I think Jesus would ever presence Himself. However, I do believe that lots of movies are made out of the longings of the human heart, therefore you can find the gospel in them.

With that said, back to Pride and Prejudice. For those of you who haven't read the book or seen the movie...you'll just have to do something about that! :)

So at the beginning of the movie Mr. Darcey is completely disinterested in Elizabeth. He only notices her class and how much lower it is than his. Now I know that in the movie this is meant to come across as snobby...but just bear with me. As the story unfolds you can see Mr. Darcey progressively falling for her, you can observe him starting to lose his cool, you can see him start to go weak in the knees when she's around him. Finally comes the scene where Mr. Darcey confesses his love to Elizabeth. I've watched this scene a million times but for the first time something struck me.

In reality, Mr. Darcey's class and rank are MUCH HIGHER than Elizabeth's. As far as society is concerned, he is much more important, much more powerful and much more valuable than she is. But that's what makes the story so good. Mr. Darcey falls for her! Mr. Darcey doesn't just think she's pretty and think to himself "yeah, she'll do." He is completely undone by her! When she's around he can barely contain himself. This very powerful figure, this very influential and important man...when this small, seemingly insignificant poor girl walks in the room, she melts his heart. it's so fun to watch how who she is, slowly but surely steels his heart.

Here's another crazy twist to the story! She's totally disinterested in who he is and is actually quite disgusted with who he is. She falls in love with another man who is quite deceptive and is very jealous of Mr. Darcey and wants to be his equal but is far from it. She rejects his proposal and hurls insults at him. She has wrong ideas and concepts of who he is and what his character that she has adopted within the few times that she has interacted with him. She has decided in her heart that he is someone that he's not. She has decided that she wants nothing to do with him.

Like a gentleman, he backs off. He carries pain in his heart from being rejected by this one that has completely stolen his heart. He would do anything for her...he loves her unto death. Nevertheless, she's stated her feelings, so he backs off...but his love remains.

After some unfortunate circumstances...the other lover that she found so appealing and so wonderful was unveiled as the deceiver and the villan. These circumstances were quite painful for her, they caused her a great deal of grief and shame.

Mr. Darcey saves the day. He pays the price that needs to be paid to lock the villan away so that he will no longer cause the world grief anymore.

Elizabeth's eyes are all of a sudden opened. The veil is removed. She can now see who he really is. Mr. Darcey notices the change in the way that she interacts with him. He sees the yes in her heart and approaches her again with his proposal.

This time she accepts. He marries her and all of a sudden, this poor seemingly insignificant girl, became extremely important. Her rank had changed, she was no longer ranked in a lower class than Mr. Darcey, but she was married into his rank. She was adorned with beauty, significance and dignity.

Throughout this whole movie, my heart was softened. I went home and cried. I felt it, I felt the reality of Jesus' love for me. He hasn't just chosen me detatched from any emotion. He feels the deepest of emotions towards me. He has the deepest of affections towards me. When I draw near to Him, this Powerful Figure, this Mighty Man, this Almighty God, feels weak in His knees and He is overcome with love. This is real...if it wasn't, why were we designed to crave that kind of love? This is real...if it wasn't, why would God use this Bridal/Wedding lense to communicate His heart towards His people throughout the Inspired Word.

When Mr. Darcey went weak in the knees...it didn't make him weak. His rank, social status, power, significance...they all stayed the same. The only thing that changed was that he was filled with passion, desire and love. This is how it is with Jesus. Nothing about who He is changes. He is still powerful, He is still the Judge, He is still a Lion...but with one glance of our eye...His heart is moved and He is filled with passion and desire. (SOS 4:4)

So I just wanted to write about this. For some reason, this time, the movie was much more than entertainment for me. I don't count on all entertainment becoming a place where I can get revelation of who God really is...but I count it a blessing when I do. Thank you Jesus for allowing my heart to feel this in a deeper way. I know it's only an ounce more of revelation...but it causes me to want more and more.

I've made Dalton watch it with me many times and he likes it! Well, I should say that there's one part of the movie that he really likes which means that he'll watch it with me if we have to watch a romance. The part where she's finally realized that she loves him but has thought that she's lost her chance and she gets up really, really early in the morning and goes for a walk...then she looks out into the field that is covered with mist and fog and sees Mr. Darcey walking towards her. Dalton says this scene reminds him of SOS 8:5. You'll just have to go read the whole book of SOS to get the fullness of it all! :)

What does it mean to have a voice?

2007-05-09T08:26:00.000+12:00

When I was in high school, right after I became a Christian, there was a wonderful woman (who played a major role in me coming to the Lord) in my life who would, and with every opportunity she could find, she would put me in front of people to share/speak. I remember my freshman year (Grade/Year 9) having to give a presentation in front of my class...I just burst into tears and couldn't even remember what I was talking about because I was so nervous. So when this wonderful woman would ask me to share, my stomach would churn and I would always ask "why?" She always told me "Anna, you really do have a gift to communicate in front of people."

A couple years go bye...and I'm in Australia working with Youth With A Mission. There was opportunity after opportunity given to me to share in front of people. Anything from sharing what was on my heart, to sharing my story of how I became a Christian, to being the MC for events held at our base. When I graduated from my Basic Leadership School one of my leaders said "When you put a microphone in Anna's hand she comes alive."

A couple more years go bye...I'm getting ready to leave Youth With A Mission, I have to lead our weekly intercession slot for the whole base. Leading intercessin was always hard for me because it involved a lot of things that I still wasn't really that comfortable with...like research, and organizing, and presentation in front of a lot of people and then leading that entire group into what we're praying for...hoping that they would "catch the vision" and be able to join in for the next hour. Well, it was my last time having to lead intercession and my base Director came to me after I shared at the beginning about what we were going to be praying for. He pulled me asside and said to me "Anna, you have a voice and you need to use it."

So over the years, through many different and very important people in my life, I have had spoken over me, in essence, what my Director summed up at the end...I have a voice.

What does that mean? Does it simply mean that my vocal chords can produce sound? I don't think so. Does it mean that I'm a good public speaker? I don't think so. Does it mean that I automatically get a platform to use my voice? For a while, that's what I thought it meant...but I'm beginning to think very differently.

What is the responsibility for those that "have a voice"? I'm starting to realize that when someone speaks over you that you have a voice that means you now have a responsibility to cultivate a message to actually "voice out". So how do you cultivate a message? First of all, we have to acknowledge who the giver of the message is. So the obvious answer is the Lord, right? So, how do we get this message from the Lord ingrained within us? And how do we get to a point where we are no longer using our voice with hidden motives of receiving affirmation and applause from man?

I believe that the Lord used all those people to speak a truth into my life. Just as He has sent angels to mothers in the Bible to tell them what their children were meant for, before the mother even knew she had conceived. These people were like my angels (probably not quite as terrifying an experience though), informing me of something that the Lord wants to use me for. And it all seemed really exciting at the time, and I knew that I still got nervous but as time went by I got more confident. However, one thing that I didn't take in to account was how much striving would enter into my life, the proprensity I had to fall into pride, how much desire filled within me to speak so that man would hear.

Everything's changing now. As I learn about the people who used their voices in the Bible I see the requirements. I realize that it's not quite as glorious as I imagined it. It is in Heaven's eyes but maybe not as much as I thought in the worlds eyes. I was a fool to think that using my voice would be all glorious and that I would easily make lots of "fans" as a result of it.

My message, and everyone's message, is to communicate the emotions of God towards humanity, towards the church and towards Israel. I know you guys are thinking "that is glorious". And you're right...it is! It is a great honor. However, if you look at what many of the prophets had to go through before they were able to share, it was not glorious. There will be glory in it, but as I said, it might not look as though we thought it would.

I can only accomplish speaking the emotions of God by first understanding His emotions, which will only come about through lots of time spent before His feet asking "What is it that you feel God? What is it that you desire God?" It requires no more assumptions from me, it requires a lot of disregarding of things that I have adopted as truths about who God is over the years and placing myself before Him once again and asking Him "Let me feel your heart God, let me feel your emotions God, show me your leadership so that I can stand in agreement with it and not oppose it by the way I live my life." It requires meditating on His Word and learning His leadership throughout the Bible, it won't be any different today.

One of the passages in the Bible that has come to life to me over the past year has been Jeremiah 23. I'll just share a portion of this right now:

"This is what the Lord Almighty says: 'Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They keep saying to those who despise me, 'The Lord says: You will have peace.' And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts they say, 'No harm will come to you.' But which of them has stood in the council of the Lord to see or to hear his word? Who has listened and heard his word?...I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message; I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied. But if they had stood in my council, they would have proclaimed my words to my people and would have turned them from their evil ways and from their evil deeds."

This brings sobriety to my spirit and a fear of the Lord over my lips. I do not wish to say with my mouth that I love the Lord and yet be miles away from understanding His heart and then on top of that, shepherding people into a place of distruction when I'm deceived into I'm shepherding them into a place of peace and safety.

And tell me, who can stand in the counsel of the Lord? "He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false." (Psalm 24:4)

Why do I bring all of this up? Because I believe that I am one of many who has "a voice" and I believe that the Lord is right now setting people apart and calling them away to, for real, cultivate a message within their heart to speak on behalf of God Himself. This is not something to take lightly. To be the mouth peace of God must mean we cleanse our selves, must mean that we wait before we speak, must mean we rid ourselves of evil desires and motives...this takes time and it takes massive amounts of grace from the Lord to supernaturally enable us to carry out these things.

We have many voices speaking right now, and I don't say that they are all false prophets, but I do ask...who has stood in the counsil of the Lord? For when a prophet of the Lord speaks, there is a dividing line drawn and there is a confrontation that takes place and there is a choice presented that must be made...choose the good road or the bad. There is no grey, there is black and white and there is a decision that must be made. There is righteous and evil. We have allowed much grey to enter our gospel and it saddens my heart, but not as much as it should because I still tollerate so much grey in my own heart. We need the righteousness of God behind our pulpits again. When I say "righteousness" I mean...that which is RIGHT and TRUE...in complete alignment to the heart of God Almighty.

I say all of this knowing that my words are weak and broken and this only reminds me once again of why my "voice" needs to be run through the mill, needs to be purified and refined. However my words will continue to get weaker and weaker as the message of the Lord is cultivated within. And when the day comes for me to open my mouth...whether it be in front of thousands or sitting at in a coffee shop with 3 others at my table...the message itself will be what carries the power and the authority...not my weak and broken words, that will still be weak and broken. The key will be, I will better understand how weak and broken my words are and how alive and powerful the God of the message is inside of me. It will be His presence and His emotions that I carry with me. And as I said in my last post, As we behold Him we will become like Him. Thus the wisdom of prayer and fasting!

I'm reminded of a conversation that I had with the wonderful woman that I spoke of at the beginning of this post. I had a conversation with her about a year ago, and she asked me earnestly and with great concern and compassion for the youth of our city, "Anna, what would you say to the kids in our High Schools that are depressed and into drugs, alchohol and sex. And what would you say to the Christian kids in our towns that are settling with a standard that is set so low, who settle in complacency and who are content with a small, small and demestocated version of our God?" (those probably weren't her exact words, but with the same heart) I answered her with some sort of statement that I thought was profound on that day and she replied "But Anna, that's already been said by so many and nothing's changing." If I could go back into time I would tell her...you're right, we need to pray like our life depends on it because it does, and we need to fast and we need to ask in the midst of our praying that God would raise up voices that carry a message that has power on it that will cause people to encounter God Himself in the midst of us opening our frail human mouths.

Our programs are good in theory and do come from a genuine heartfelt desire to see change in people's lives...but we need the power of God to truly see change in our cities and that only comes with prayer and fasting. I'm not going so far as to say shut everything down as of yet, but I would say...esteem prayer and fasting more than the rest of it. Make it a priority.

We desperately need voices that will bring clarity about the hour that we're living in. Voices that have the power and the emotions of God resting on their words. There was a man named Charles Finney who walked through a factory in New York, he didn't murmer a word and people all through out the factory were bending under the weight of the presence and power that he carried inside of him, the weight of the message that he carried, the message that was cultivated out of a life of prayer and fasting that lead him to be a wrecked individual that couldn't even eat because he loved and missed the presence of the Lord so much.

We need people who are so undone by the love of Jesus that they care nothing for this world and the things that it has to offer but have come to for real, for real believe that Jesus is the fairest of ten thousand, that He truly is the greatest taste and that only He can satsify...therefore arranging their lives in such a way that they hasten the day of His return!

It's A Small Word After All

2007-04-23T15:21:00.000+12:00

I just wrote a long post and it all got erased so instead of trying to re-write it all I'm going to post a more light hearted post that is much shorter than the one I just lost. *tear*

So...I have all these different "worlds" and they're all colliding! I have my "home world" which is my "GA world" and I have my "YWAM world" and I now have my "THOP world". Well, currently we have an outreach team from Townsville (my old YWAM Base) and the team leader is one of my best friends from Townsville. Two of the people on the team are two of my really, really good friends from home (Luke Smith and Kyndall Walls). They all hung out with me and my husband last night. Ok, so it doesn't sound weird to you guys...but trust me...IT'S WEIRD! Especially when I hear my friends from home talking about my friends from Townsville like they've known them for years and I've never even seen them together so in my mind they've still never met. And then, they're all hanging out with my husband that they met AFTER we were married...STRANGE! It just feels weird is all...but fun...but weird.

Now all I need is my sister and brother to move out here! That would just be the cherry on top of all this craziness! I'd love it! And I say...it's not impossible! Joel...they don't have YL here yet but maybe you're supposed to pioneer it! Rach...there are certainly lots of computers here that could use your expertise! Nothing's impossible I tell ya...nothing at all!

Oh yeah, and did I tell you that my best (girl) friend from home is coming here to do the next internship...what?! Pure insanity I tell you! Small, small world (which was actually part of what my post that I wrote and lost was about...maybe I'll try again sometime)!

Ok, that's it!

I found it! The long lost post!

2007-04-23T14:22:00.000+12:00

After a series of events that have happened over the last week I have been thinking a lot about the shortness of life. We all know that life is short, but do we really know that life is short? I'm not sure that I actually do. I've been looking at the way I live my life and the things that I do with my time and think that I'm a person that doesn't really have a true revelation of eternity. If I had a true revelation of eternity than I would have a revelation of how short this life really is and what this life is meant for and I would live very differently.

When I say differently, I mean with more fervency and urgency. Life really is a vapor, a moment, gone in the blink of an eye. My Mom sent me this brilliant email showing different pictures of planets and stars. It starts off just showing a picture of Earth, Venus, Mars, Mercury and Pluto...Earth being the biggest planet. It then shows a picture with Jupiter, Saturn, Uranis and Neptune added on...earth in this picture looks significantly smaller. Then it continues on adding the Sun to the picture, again...earth is much, much smaller...along with all the other planets. The next picture is of 3 stars and the sun...the sun is miniscule, Jupiter is barely visible and the earth has dissapeared. The last picture with the star Antares being the biggest and a few more stars and the Sun is only one pixel...then at the bottom of the picture it says that Antares is the 15th brightest star, which means there are 15 MORE bigger and brighter than this one.

All this to say...planet earth is SMALL. And if the planet itself is that small...how much smaller are HUMANS?! It's unbelievable when you start to think about it. There are two things this does to my heart...one, it makes me feel dignified beyond belief that the God of the universe would look down and see me, call me out, and desire me to be with Him where He is. WHAT? The second thing it does is causes me to feel a little bit more "put in my place". As I was saying earlier...this life that we are living is small and brief. Psalm 39 says:

"Show me, O Lord, my life's end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life. You have made my days a mere hand breadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man's life is but a breath."

I'm shocked at the fear that floods my heart still when I think about being removed from this earth. I think about the 33 lives that were taken at Virginia Tech last week and the emotions that flooded my heart. It was a very sad and shocking thing that happened. But I looked at the news and all of the articles that were written about this day and I just thought to myself..."how are we going to handle it when half of the earth's population is wiped from the earth in the most horrific events that this earth has ever seen?" How am I going to stand? I felt my knees shaking at this horrible thing that happened last week. It is horrible, I don't make light of the weight of it. It was horrible. But I felt the fear that rose up in my heart and the shakiness in my emotions...maybe it wasn't visible to those around me but I felt it. And what I felt showed me this...I need oil. I do not have enough and I am a fool to think that I do! (read Matthew 25:1-13)

What is oil? Well, I think it's a combination of many things but is only attained by one thing. Going back to Psalm 39, David continues on a verse later:

"Man is a mere phantom as he goes to and fro: He bustles about, but only in vain; he heaps up wealth, not knowing who will get it. But now, Lord, what do I look for? My hope is in you."

I think it has all to do with your heart posture towards the life you're living and the God who gives life. I think it has all to do with acknowledging that God is GREAT and BIG and beyond finding out as Elihu says to Job and that this very fact should be what pushes us to search Him out. To do all that we can and give all that we can of ourselves to know this God better. To not just know that His judgments are perfect, but be absolutely convinced that His judgments are completely perfect and that there is absolutely no other way that things could be done. How do we get convinced? We have to give ourselves to a life of pursuing God, knowing Him much better than we do now. Searching out the things about Him that make us feel uncomfortable, the things about Him that we usually run away from because we can't make sense of them in our finite minds. The things that offend our hearts and cause us to say "My God wouldn't do that." Search Him out. Maybe your God wouldn't "do that" and maybe He would because it really is the best way and the perfect way. We need to be convinced and we need to be completely sold to this Man Jesus Christ.

What we do with our time now really does determine how we will stand when crisis hits our lives. And I can promise that crisis will hit our lives. Whether we are here when Jesus comes back or not, we will hit crisis.

"But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridgroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. Later, the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!' But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.' Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour."

I guarantee this isn't just for those of us left during the coming of the Lord. This applied to the disciples that Jesus was teaching when He said this which means that it certainly applies to ALL OF US, right now. I do not want to finally see Jesus' face and have Him say to me " I tell you the truth, I don't know you." simply because I didn't take the time NOW to know Him. I'm not above this yet...I need oil and I need to live my life in such a way, and spend my time in such a way, that I'm storing it up within me for that day. I need to watch and pray. Watch: Do not be ignorant to what's happening in this world and what's happening in my own personal life. Be aware, stay sharp, do not dull my spirit on the things of this world. Pray: Acknowledge that I need God desperately. Ask Him for help and ask Him to unveil our eyes and allow us to see Him for who He really is. Seek Him and Him alone. Ask for mercy. Ask for understanding. Ask for revelation of His affections over us...this God who sees us, in our small and miniscule world, and He desires us and takes delight in us. I tell you this, true revelation of that reality alone will enable us to stand.

I need oil and I need grace to get it.

Surf Trip To Gisborne

2007-04-10T21:32:00.000+12:00

From Friday to Friday we've had an Easter Break from the House of Prayer. So with a few days to do the things we cant normally do - we took a wee road trip down south with our friends Jordan and Jess to a place called Gisborne. The picture are all from there except the fire shots which were taken at a camp out a few nites before.

I often go through withdrawals by not being able to surf much. We live in Tauranga which is in the 'Bay of Plenty' region. Because of the bay nature of the place we're not that exposed to swell. So, we drove 4 hours south to a place that is! Overhead and offshore is about the highest expectations a Florida boy can have, and that we got. It was quality waves with perfect wind with only a few guys out.

This country is so interesting. As you can see from the pictures it's so diverse. We drove for about 2 hours through a gorge in between mountains with a river running through it. It feels so much like parts of Canada or mountainous Europe. Coming out of the gorge of mountains and evergreens all around you hit flat land for about an hour on the way into Gisborne. The flat lands are the chardonay capital of new zealand. To the left and the right are vineyards as far as the eye can see. Here is feels like southern France with the sunshine and the crisp air as it's like that most of the year. I swore we were back in Aix en Provence. As you drive into the town it feels like a quaint fishing town on the north west coast of the US. But 6 km outside of town is the coast line where the waves are. Here I swore I was in central California with the brown rolling hills all around. The skies were blue and beautiful as the sun beat down, but the water was cold. In the lineup I looked around and felt like I was surely in California. In Gisborne camping on the beach is legal, so it feels a lot like St Augustine in a lot of ways as well; though we camped in town at a legit joint. I love the diversity of it all. In a few months you could concievably be in the water surfing, and then drive about 2 hours to go snowboarding all in the same day.

Anywho, hope that helps explain the country a little bit. We're not the greatest at taking pictures so excuse the quality! Love yall.

For those who surf (Dad and crew)......................wish you were here!

Life's embarrassments...

2007-04-05T08:43:00.000+12:00

You know those moments when something happens in your day that reminds you of a past experience when you made a really stupid decision and then as you remember that moment all of the feelings of embarassment and regret start to flow back and all of a sudden you just feel vulnerable about something that took place years ago...all over again. Maybe only some of you know what I'm talking about...some seasons in life (for me) this happens more often than others. Well this just happens to a season where I almost feel like I'm watching a film on my life and the only portion of my life that it's about, is all the silly decicions that I've made.

So this morning was one of those moments...again. Sometimes I just get so discouraged that I start crying like a little girl. Sometimes I jut get frustrated and feel like throwing a tantrum like a little girl. Sometimes...like today...i just feel it and rest in my weakness.

There just are moments in life where you make decisions that affect other people in a negative way...and although you didn't set out for it to happen that way, it did. It's a bad feeling and if there are onlookers who have seen you make these poor decisions it plagues you in life (sometimes). Most would say..."it's an attack from the enemy. You have been forgiven. Don't listen to the accusations of the enemy. Rebuke him and move on." Which is very true and a very godly and biblically sound response. But I'm finding that there's this other side to the coin.

Remember the story about the lady caught in adultry? I feel the Lord constantly taking me back to this story...because it's a story about all of us. As my leader and friend Kristi Walsh said last night "We have all been caught in adultry." So I find myself always revisiting this story and it just doesn't get old.

"Then each went to his own home. But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, 'Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?' They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, 'If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.' Again he stopped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, 'Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?' 'No one, sir,' she said. 'Then neither do I condemn you,' Jesus declared. 'Go now and leave your life of sin.'"

This speaks loudly to the heart of fallen man. Jesus knew she had done something that truly was detestable in the eyes of the Lord and so, obviously, it was a detestable thing to Him too. This fact is undeniable. The lady had sinned. And the sin in itself is adultry, she had been unfaithful to her first love and had gone after something other than her husband to fulfill her desires (this is a very realistic picture of the church, His Bride, towards Jesus our Bridgroom). I've heard many theories on what Jesus was writing in the sand and I don't know what my conclusion is. I think my favorite so far is that Jesus was trying to distract all the surrounding people from the woman. Remember that she was caught in adultery so the chances of her being fully clothed in that moment were pretty slim, she was probably not covered appropriately. So Jesus was taking the eyes of the crowd and himself, off of the woman who was standing there riddled in shame, guilt, condemnation and fear...she was meant to be stoned right then and there, her penalty legally should have been death...this was by law meant to be her penalty for her sin. Anyway, I don't know what He was writing, but I think the line following it is if not more powerful than the mysterious writings, it is definitely its equal. "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." When I read these words, I don't really think of Jesus as being forceful and angry with the crowds, but more so making His point. And His point was... "you all need me". There wasn't one man in that crowd that didn't need their sin pardoned. There wasn't one person there who hadn't in his/her own way done something that deserved the same penalty as this woman. And then, the words that He spoke to the woman afterwards. This woman who knew what she deserved and was expecting to get it...what liberating words to hear! She was expecting death and instead was given dignity. I love that it says that Jesus declared it... "Then neither do I condemn you". He was declaring something over her entire person that would completely changer her life for eternity. And then following this He says to her, "Go now and leave your life of sin". This is extremely liberating as well! He's saying, "I'm giving you a second chance. I know you feel filthy, but I say you are clean. Now, go and live the life you were meant to live."

I think this woman, although it was the most embarassing and shameful moment of her life, it was also the most dignifying and glorious moment of her life as well. So this is why I'm lead to believe that it is ok to just sit in the feelings of awkwardness because it is a grand reminder of the dignity that Jesus has given us in our undesevering state. It's so odd, but sometimes, just sitting in those feelings helps me feel the depths of His love for me even more! This all has to do with your heart posture...it's not a good idea to sit reliving the moments and beating yourself up over them...that's a disgrace to our generous, kind and merciful God's free gift of salvation. However, if we can posture our heart in such a way that we are so fully aware of how weak we are and how prone we are to screw up and embarrass ourselves in front of people and hurt people's feelings...and then also in the midst of that be fully aware of our Jesus saying "Then neither do I condemn you." And then after this the charge from Him that says, "You can do this, you can turn from your life of sin. Instead, come and follow me, lean in on me, trust in me...I'm quick to forgive and show mercy and my love is relentless." Jesus knows that she'll mess up again, but He's calling her to a new life, He's calling her to a life of dependence, love and trust in Him. He knows she'll mess up, but He also knows that "He who is forgiven much loves much," and when she does fall next time, instead of shamefully approaching Him, expecting death...she can boldly approach His throne of grace and mercy, repent and turn again.

words are silly, we just need Jesus eh?

Dalton sings about this in the prayer room "I wanna hear you say, 'Where are your accusers now? They've all put their stones down.'" I want to hear Jesus say this to me daily.

This Week In Pictures.....

2007-03-30T16:44:00.000+12:00

These are some pictures from the week. Jordans dad Jeff and sis Jenna came out from Florida for a week to spend time with Jordan and Jess. Pics are from a THOP BBQ. Anna & I are trying to get better at taking pictures more, so hopefully we do take more!

Much love from us.

More on Thanksgiving, Praise, Psalm 32 and JOY

2007-03-27T14:12:00.000+12:00

So our week on Thanksgiving has ended and I wasn't ready for it to end! However, it has put this new sense of gratitude within my heart towards the Lord and also such a reverence towards who He is, what He has done for me and what has been promised to me by Him, that which is still to come!

In my last post I put up some lengthy notes on Psalm 32. I have this book called "The Treasury of David" by C. H. Spurgeon. It's a sort of commentary on the Psalms but with Spurgeon's pastoral/devotional edge to it. His language is SO RICH and His passion for the cross is soooo good.

As I was reading what he had to say about Psalm 32 I felt like I needed to include some of what he said here because it was such a good description of what I felt the Lord has been doing in my own heart as of late.

"...But in our God is to be the garden of our soul's delight. That there is a God and such a God, and that he is ours, ours for ever, our Father and our reconciled Lord, is matter enough for a never-ending Psalm of rapturous joy. Redouble your rejoicing, peal upon peal. Since God has clothed his choristers in the white garments of holiness, let them not restrain their joyful voices, but sing aloud and shout as those who find great spoil."

At the beginning of last week Aaron (Leadership of the House of Prayer) gave us a pep-talk for the week. In case we were having trouble mustering up a thankful heart, he reminded us of the basis of our thanksgiving. If you're ever having trouble finding something to be grateful for, if you're ever having trouble something to rejoice over...just think upon the cross. We who were dead in our transgressions, have been given life and life to the full. Our transgressions have been forgiven and our sins covered. Get past the words and into the reality of that statement! Allow the truth and reality of these words to wash over you. We deserved death and an eternity spent in hell and instead we have been given life and glory with Jesus FOREVER.

The first verse of Psalm 32 is this "Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered." And the last verse is this “Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righteous; sing, all you who are upright in heart!”

What response should our hearts have towards the cross? "REJOICE, BE GLAD...YOUR PORTION IS IN HEAVEN!" There is something glorious ahead and it is something that we have done absolutely NOTHING to deserve. It has been given to us out of perfect love, perfect mercy, perfect grace and perfect kindness.

Oh the frustrations with the restrictions that language puts on the true expression of the heart when it gains revelation of this FOR REAL! Our hope and our glory has been given to us not because we deserve it or because we have done anything to earn it. He gave it to us freely out of love and desire. This act of love and mercy DEMANDS thanksgiving! Let us meditate on the cross EVERY DAY! The cross speaks of our true condition, our true need for a Savior. And it speaks of a merciful, humble, powerful and loving God who is able to pardon sin and iniquity, who is able to wash a filfthy and adulterous people clean. And it speaks of His ability to not only wash sin and death away...but to conquer it and its power and to trample it underfoot. How mighty is our God?

So what I'm learning...I could spend a lot of time thanking the Lord for things that He has blessed me with...which I do and should! I could thank Him for relationships, I could thank Him for provision in finances and things, I could thank Him for gifts and talents that He has given me...I could thank Him for a number of things and when I actually stop and think about it He has GIVEN ME MUCH and I don't want to take it for granted EVER! But the true well of my gratitude, the true fountain of my thanksgiving is the death that I deserved being substituded for REAL LIFE spent with the REAL GOD in all His glory and splendor...forever, and ever, and ever, and ever...with no end. This is something that the one with absolutely nothing here on earth can rejoice in, for our portion in Heaven is FAR GREATER than anything that this world has to offer us.

Blessed are you who's sins are forgiven, blessed are you who have inherited eternal life, blessed are you who have escaped eternal death, blessed are you who have been atoned for, blessed are you who's God is FOR YOU and not against you! Blessed are you...therefore REJOICE, BE GLAD, OFFER UP PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING TO YOUR GOD! He has made us clean! He has given us life when we deserved death!

2007-03-23T13:35:00.000+12:00

While Dalton is being so incredibly diligent in keeping his blog updated I want to do my best to keep this one updated as well! I foresee this one possibly turning into my own blog...we both just have so much to say! I'm sure you are all awaiting the next blog entry...on the edge of your seat...full of anticipation! I must appease the crowds! No, I'm kidding. Dalton actually does do a good job of keeping both running...but I need to contribute more!

I wanted to share a bit about this past week. This week we decided that we were going to take our intercession sets each day and take all of our prayer slots and use them as times of thanksgiving and praise towards God. I have absolutely LOVED it! This has been a somewhat difficult season for me, for many reasons that I won't go into too much depth about right now. Let's just say that this has been a season of refining and purifying, a season of aligning me with the Lord's plumbline(Matt. 5). I know that all that are reading this can identify with seasons like this and can also really appreciate seasons like this...the produce of these seasons is of great value.

Anyway, back to the Thanksgiving week! So, this season has been hard for me, I've felt many times that I just want to come up for air. That's what this week has been for me. There's no greater way to "take a breather" than to focus on the Lord, who He is and all that He has done for us. I have been reminded of how good He is, how constant He is, how reliable He is, how trustworthy He is, how perfect He is, how deserving and worthy He is, how victorious He is, how powerful He is, how kind He is...I could go on and on and on. Talk about a breath of fresh air! I forget how rewarding and necessary it is to take time to stop and just remember what He's done and look ahead to what He has promised He will do. It makes all the inbetween much more glorious than it seems at the present!

So with this said, I'm going to put up here a portion of some notes that I've been taking on Psalm 32 today...a psalm of repentance and SO MUCH MORE! It's a Psalm of His kindness, of His love, of His determination to make a way for us, of His desire for us, of His hatred towards sin and wickedness and His love and passion towards righteousness and holiness. Anyway, going through this psalm in so many ways summed up the week for me and what the Lord has been bringing to my attention about who He is. So here it is...it's pretty long, tried to shorten it but that never seems to work for me. I'm not offended if you don't read it all. :)

Vs. 1-4 "Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer."

Vs. 5 "Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord’ – and you forgave the guilt of my sin.”

Much is revealed in this verse. It brings much understanding to why this Psalm has been written in the first place, the purpose and theme of it all. It reveals the mercy of our God. It reveals the meaning of all the previous verses. It reveals man’s tendencies and habits. “THEN” David says, “THEN”. After all the pain and the agony of his silence.

We now know what he was being silent about, his own sin, his own iniquity. Being silent as if in some attempt to hide it from God. In our human frailty and ignorance we so often convince ourselves in our fear and shame of our own iniquity and sin, that we can deceive God. That we can trick him into thinking that we have committed no crime. That we are good and deserving of no punishment. Like a child whose mother saw him take the cookie from the cookie jar with her own eyes, but the child insists that it wasn’t him, he did no such thing.

So in David’s attempt to hide his sin, his shame, his transgression from the All Knowing God…his physical body felt the repercussions. I must say…this is the mercy of God.

For Him to allow us to feel the pain of our sin, to feel the pain of our sickness and disease, so that we acknowledge it and our need for pardoning and the One who pardons. It is the Kindness of the Lord that leads us to repentance. It is His kindness to reveal to us our true condition, no matter how painful it may be and no matter how heavy He may have to lay His hand upon us…for He knows that in the revealing of our sin to us we may turn to Him and He may pardon us and save us from an eternity separate from all that is good, true, holy, pure, righteous, glorious, living…that He may pardon us from spending an eternity in hell separate from the one we love and immersed in all deceitfulness, all filth, all that is vile and grotesque for all time with no escape. It is His kindness, no matter what way He goes about it, no matter how painful it may be in that moment, it is surely His kindness to lead us to repentance. For we know that our light and momentary troubles are nothing compared to what we will inherit if our God wasn’t so kind as to reveal to us our desperate need for Him.

With that said, we see that the whole point of the heaviness of the Lord’s hand and the revealing of sin in David’s life is simply so that the Lord can forgive Him when David confesses, when he decides to be honest in heart and admit that he is a sinful creature in need of a Righteous and Merciful God to pardon him. We see here that the Lord’s strategy is not to cause pain and discomfort…but to bring redemption and cleanse and purify that which has been defiled and has been made dirty and filthy. For we know that it is only through this that He can have what He desires (John 17:24) and that we may have what we desire (Mal. 3:1, Rom.8:22-23). We see here that He is quick to forgive, He is quick to pardon. He desires mercy, He delights in mercy! His mercies are new every morning! His anger only lasts for a moment but His favor lasts a life time! This is our God, who’s love has no end! This is the God who is ABLE to wash us clean and is WORTHY to wash us clean. Who has all power, authority and dominion…He can certainly wash us clean!

But, this we know…there must be atonement for there to be a pardon. So even though our God had all authority and all power to wash us clean, He is full of justice and knew that justice had to be served. There had to be atonement made…so our God who is FULL OF LOVE and FULL OF MERCY became human. Became the likeness of the very one who was full of shame, full of guilt, full of sin, full of deception…the very one who is needy and weak and frail. He became like one of us, but remained perfectly perfect, and then offered Himself as the blood offering, as the atonement, as the justice for our sins. This is our God. Oh what lengths He will go to, to have what He desires! In a moment, He takes on the rage of satan and the wrath of the Father upon His shoulders for all of mankind and in a moment, we are forgiven and made pure.

Vs. 6 “Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to you while you may be found; surely when the mighty waters rise, they will not reach him.”

Therefore let everyone who loves you PRAY, let him come to you in humility and ask for mercy for himself, mercy for his people, mercy for his land, mercy for humanity…let him come humbly and ask for forgiveness, let him turn to you and confess his desperate need for the Living God, confess that we are unable to accomplish anything of worth or of value without Him giving us the supernatural ability, the grace to do so.

Let every man that says he is a lover of God PRAY without ceasing (1 Thes. 5:17)!

And let him do it while God may be found!

What does this mean? That we have a limited amount of time? There is coming a time when God may no longer be found? YES!

There is coming a time when our time will have run out! There is coming a time when all the righteous will go with Him but all the ungodly will be separated from Him forever!

But David is still addressing the godly here, so what does that mean? Yet again, PRAY! It is possible for us to be godly at one stage and forget about our need for the Lord. It is possible for us to get so puffed up in our spiritual success that we forget that we are in desperate need of the Lord and so deceive ourselves!

And what is this? “The mighty waters rise…” what is this referring to? Mighty waters rising?

A flood, a flood is surely coming and if we do not find our refuge in Him today, we will not find it in Him when the waters rise! We must turn to Him today and every day, acknowledging our need for His presence in our lives. His favor in our lives! Even the “godly” ones can fall away if we forget to pray!

Lord help me to never be ignorant of this reality…I need you! Help me to never forget the need for the cross, for atonement for my guilt and my sin! Lord help me find refuge in you today so that I may stand when the waters rise!

And in this we find confidence and comfort, for if we do turn to Him today, pray to Him today, find our every need in Him today…He will be our refuge when the flood comes. This is our God, FULL OF LOVE, FULL OF MERCY!

Our Town, Haircuts, St Patricks Day, Farewells & Parties

2007-03-18T15:51:00.000+12:00

So Saturday Anna got her mop chopped, NZ celebrated ST Patricks Day, our friends Michelle had a going away party at our house and we took some random shots of our town so you could envision it better.

Love yall
Us

Our Hope and Our Glory

2007-03-16T14:41:00.000+13:00

Last night we went to a fundraising banquet for a local YWAM ministry here. It's a ministry that is focused on evangelizing and discipling the indigenous people of the land (Maori). We (Tauranga House of Prayer) are going to be taking care of their kids as they have their discipleship meetings which I am very excited about! If only you could see Maori children...not that any one child is more beautiful than the other...but I will say that there is GREAT BEAUTY in these children!

So last night took me back to my YWAM days (which weren't that long ago at all and let's face it, they never really ended). Anytime you go to any YWAM events, you cannot escape the heartbeat of the Great Commission and the desire for all Nations to turn to the Lord their God. We sang the song "Ask and I'll give the nations to you" which always takes me back to my time with YWAM in Australia. So all of this emphasis on the nations got me thinking. Although I'm sitting in a room all day with not much interaction with people at all, my heart burns for the nations...however, there is this new edge to it. I ask the Lord "how can my heart be burning for the nations when I'm sitting in a room? Not interacting with the nations?"

Well, I am interacting with the desire of the nations. When you interact or commune with the desire of the nations you indeed start to get a "heart" for the nations, and in fact it's much more authentic than simply going to the nations. Going to the nations isn't bad, but if you're not communing with the Desire of the Nations you'll just get caught up in a "sympathetic" ministry that does bring aid, but doesn't really bring them their true desire, true healing and salvation. I do believe that there is a day when all will be sent out to the nations, all that commune with the Lord now, regardless of whether they're already out and about or whether they're sitting and waiting.

This name for Jesus is one of my favorite names that He has. It encompasses the longing of the heart of humanity, but not just humanity...CREATION! Have you ever really thought about the rocks crying out? Have you ever really thought about the Mountains trembling? I don't think this is symbolic AT ALL. I truly believe that creation groans and waits and let's not forget that creation is going to play an enormous part in the ushering in of the second coming of Jesus.

I don't actually have too much to say in this post except that my heart begins to burn when I think about Jesus splitting the sky, coming again and EVERY EYE will see, EVERY TONGUE will confess that He is indeed Lord! Now...talk about the climax of desire! His and ours! Talk about THE GREAT HARVEST!

I don't mean to ignore all that must come before this takes place, all that must happen before we are truly ready for our Lord to come and gather His bride who's only desire is for Him to come. I know that there is a lot of chastising, a lot of fire, a lot of fellowship in His sufferings that must and will take place before our cry for Him to come is completely pure and so pure that He can not resist coming. But it's this hope that gives me the strength to endure the fire. It is the understanding that my hero is coming and He will conquer all, He will rule all, and He will MAKE ALL THINGS COMPLETELY RIGHT. He alone, simply Him, is the desire of all the nations. Jesus Christ is the most relevant thing we could ever present to the nations. Jesus, simply Jesus. Jesus encompasses passion, zeal, righteousness, holiness, majesty, love to the FULLEST degree. He is the magnificent obsession of the soul...we may not acknowledge it as that, but He without a doubt is! He is perfectly perfect! I laugh at the face of words when we try to describe this wonder...they pale, pale, pale...they paint a picture of stick figures in comparison to the production that is to come. And we're not just going to watch it, we're one of the stars of the show...we are the one being rescued! Mind you, at that point, we'll only really care about THE star of the show...just imagine it...please! Just meditate on it, every eye will see Him...every eye. What? At the sight of this majestic and victorious man ALL KNEES will bow...the most powerful of men will grovel at the feet of Jesus, all will bow down low. We will be in awe and wonder! We will weep, we will tremble, we will rejoice! Here are some scriptures that I have been meditating on and they are becoming some of my favorites!

" 'See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,' says the Lord Almighty." - Malachi 3:1

"So do not throw away your confidence, it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised. For in just a very little while, 'He who is coming will come and will not delay." - Hebrews 10:35-37

"See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks...At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, 'Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.' The words 'once more' indicate the removing of what can be shaken - that is, created things - so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our 'God is a consuming fire.' " - Hebrews 12:25a, 26-29

"This is what the Lord Almighty says: 'In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,' says the Lord Almighty. - Haggai 2:6-9a

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed...We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies." - Romans 8:18&19, 22&23

"Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be! Amen." - Revelation 1:7

"I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice He judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on His head are many crowns. He has a name written on Him that no one knows but He Himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and His name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following Him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. OUt of His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. 'He will rule them with an iron scepter.' He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On His robe and on His thigh He has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS." - Revelation 19:11-16

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST:

"BEHOLD, I AM COMING SOON! MY REWARD IS WITH ME, AND I WILL GIVE TO EVERYONE ACCORDING TO WHAT HE HAS DONE. I AM THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA, THE FIRST AND THE LAST, THE BEGINNING AND THE END...THE SPIRIT AND THE BRIDE SAY, 'COME!' AND LET HIM WHO HEARS SAY, 'COME!' WHOEVER IS THIRSTY, LET HIM COME; AND WHOEVER WISHES, LET HIM TAKE THE FREE GIFT OF THE WATER OF LIFE." - REV. 22:12&13, 17

And that's my post...scattered, but from the heart. I obviously had a little more to say than I thought I did! Not out of the ordinary. Just meditate on those verses and the verses that surround them and this post will be worth it! :)

"

Because You Asked

2007-03-04T18:15:00.000+13:00

Because a few people asked this past week over the ole email, and because we all have a stance & an opinion on this whether we think we do or not, I want to post about the Coming of the Lord. As I go through Isaiah this month, this will be a critical thought.

The question was, "Why do you believe we're living at the end of the age, and how are you so sure?"

Great question. As different ones of you read it, you feel many different things. Anger, mockery, passion, excitement, joy and arrogance. We best get our opinions sorted out huh!

Outside the church, this whole idea is quite intriguing and interesting. You have 2 camps - 1 group is wierded out at the thought of it. And the other crew thinks it's awesome, and are quite excited!

Inside the church we have a similar scenario, though mucg more heated & driven by fear of man. That's quite a bummer, considering that the end of the age is the primary theme that dominated the thinking of all the prophets and the apostles. Go through your New Testament and cut out the verses speaking about the Coming of the Lord and you'll have a short New Testament. Not that many of us are reading those parts anyways, but nevertheless.

I dont think it will make much difference at all if I say what 'doctrines' I think are rediculous, though I do and I will a little bit; I think the necessary task is to pay little attention to the friends and critics of stances and ideas and go to the written Word of God that was written for confused yet desirous slaves, peasants, tax-collectors, and prostitutes the world over with a longing for the Day when the darkness & shadows will flee away and only light will remain. Most of us need a little help from friends to spur us on; and hopefully thats what this will be.

So first off....... this is the biggy. If I mention the 2nd Coming around a dinner table in a western setting, the most likely 1st response will be this "Every generation has thought that Jesus was coming in their generation and they were all wrong, so what makes your opinion any more valid."

Then the verse from Matthew 24 will be quoted, "No one knows the Day or the Hour, only the Father."

The massive problem with this popular view is that we forget to take into consideration the rest of that chapter and the one following. Jesus lays out all the conditions, explains what the earth will look like, give a time factor as He refers to Daniel chapter 9 and then tells the disciples that they are not only EXPECTED to know the final generation, but they are REQUIRED. Read the following parables after that verse in Matt 24. Then go on to read chapter 25. Its 3 MORE parables that have their primary application to the end of the age.

Matt 25 has these 3 parables that are unbelieveable in their potency. The first (10 virgins) is about knowing the hour and setting the heart accordingly to endure the darkness of the night. This is the battle to stand with a heart in love at the end. The Second (The Men with Talents) is a simple story that at the core is about what do we think about God! Is He kind, harsh, or confusing? Read it. This is the battle for the knowledge of God. The 3rd (The Poor, homeless, hungry, imprisoned) is always quoted to feed the poor, which is ok, but keep in mind that Jesus hasnt stopped talking since Matthew 24, so the context here is at the end of the age. To keep it short, once we see the position of Israel at the end of the age, we understand what 'My brethren" means. It is primarily about dispersed Jews in the coming crisis. This is the battle for standing with Jews in their flight & captivity.

These 3 struggles are what we seek after when dealing with the end of the age. We're to have a heart in love with oil in the darkness, knowing God in His kindness, and standing with Jews when the nations surround them in violence.

WHy did I say all that? Because the church at the end of the age WILL LOOK LIKE THAT! So to address chronology concerns me little if we dont understand WHY the chronology!

SO.......In matt 23-25 Jesus is speaking to religious leadership of the day, and then his disciples before the cross and He equips their minds with 2 critical conditions that imply the end of the age is upon us.

"You will not see Me again UNTIL you say, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." - Mt 23:39

"This Gospel of the Kingdom must be preached to all nations THEN the end will come." - Mt 24:14

While there are many other conditions for Jesus to return, we have here 2 most critically specific ones that give us understanding.

Jesus said that He will not come again until there is a religious leadership of Jews IN JERUSALEM to welcome Him as Messiah. POINT - JEWS MUST HAVE CONTROL OF JERUSALEM.

Jesus said that He will not come again UNTIL the Gospel is preached to all nations.

Any person who said that Jesus could return in their lifetime between 70AD and 1967 was totally off base and without any foundation for their opinion.

For the first time in 2000 years, Jews have returned to the land, recovered a lost language, reinstated their cultural & religious functions, and are in small numbers turning to Jesus as Messiah, IN THE same timeframe that the Gospel is being preached to all nations. This is the first generation that can say with objective clarity without opinion they are living in the final generation.

I know it sounds to simple, but if I give a kind in the Himilayan Mountains who never read the Bible before Matthew 23-25, and aksed him to tell me when Jesus said the end was going to be, that little ignorant boy would be able to say with clarity when. It is so simple. It's like that for a reason. SO that none of us prepare our hearts on the basis of our own intillect.

Now, we have to establish whether or not God is consitent in His leadership in history to warn people of coming crisis. In other words, will the end of the age come as a suprise? Or is God in the business of raising up people who know and understand?

Interesting that God has given us the exact number of days that the tribulation will last in 8 different ways. 42 months (Rev. 11:2; 13:5), 1260 days (Rev. 11:3; 12:6), time, times and half a time (Rev. 12:14; Dan. 7:25; 12:7), the Great Tribulation (Mt. 24:21; Rev. 7:14), Jacob's Trouble (Jer. 30:7), a time of trouble (Dan. 12:1), the middle of the Week (Dan. 9:27), perilous times (2 Tim. 3:1).

I find it then, very hard to believe that the earth, AND the Beloved of Jesus will be totally oblivious to the Coming of the Lord and that we're to be without a clue.

Consider Noah - 120 yrs before God tells him the flood is coming in 120 yrs. Enoch sees visions of the 2nd Coming around that time. A prayer movement emerges and a preacher begins warning the earth of the crisis to come with the day in mind. 7 days before the flood the Lord warns Noah again. The day of the Lord tells Noah. "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be at the Coming of the Son of Man." Funny how that verse suddenly follows the verse about not knowing the day or hour.

Consider the Exodus - 430 years before the Exodus God tells Abraham when it will occur. Then the Lord apprehends Moses and raises up awitness. The boys prepare Egypt by preaching accompanied by signs and wonders. Timeframe is involved. Then out in the open one night God shows the superpower all His wonders.

Consider the Assyrian invasion and decimation of Israel in 722BC - God raised up Isaiah, Hosea & AMos to trumpet a coming crisis concerning Assyrian troops coming to level Israel. Isaiah tells the people years & days regarding it all. A few decades into their warning, the northern kingdom falls completely never to be restored even to this day.

Consider the Babylonian invasion & decimation of Judah in 606-586BC - God raises up Jeremiah, Joel, Habbakuk, Isaiah and others to warn of a judgment in their generation that would result in the destruction of the Temple, the captivity of the Jews and the non-existence of the nation. Jeremiah then tells them that when it happens, the Jews will go to prison camps in Iraq for 70 years and then theyll be released to the day.

Consider the release captives 70 yrs later to the day and the rebuilding of Jerusalem/Temple - God raises up Ezekiel, Daniel, Zecheriah, Haggai, and Malachi after the crisis who speak into the people in how to carry their hearts before God in the season of restoration.

Consider the generation of Jesus' birth - Was it in a corner or out in the open spoken of by many. Because as it was then, so it will be at the end. Anna prayed and fasted 60+ yrs for His appearing and spoke to all about HIm at his birth. Simeon was promised to see Him before He died. John the Baptists family was well prepared and with clarity. John preaches with power catching the attention of 'all of Israel.' Jesus comes in power for 3 1/2 yrs preaching repentance of sin as well as warning that generation of a crisis 30 yrs later when ROme would invade and 'level them and their children within them.' It happened.

Consider WW2 in Europe - What would have happened it there were people with understanding, power and character to stand and actually threaten Nazi Germany in that hour?

As we look at every other transitional hour of history we see that God raised up messengers to trumpet it synonymous with a prayer movement. In WW2, we see the absence of this though. Not to say there werent shining ones, because there were. But they were few and they were ignored.

The idea is that, like Noah's generation, we're required to know and live accordingly. And as Ive said in previous posts, one of the great doctrines of demons of our day is the idea of pretribulation rapture. If we're gone any minute now, there is no basis to prepare or understand, unless for intillectual hobby.

There are 2 other views that I want to mention and say go look into. There wrong, brutally wrong, but you should know the ideas out there. First is 'Ammillennialism.' If youve never heard it, in short it means that everything is not literal but symbolic rendering the book of Revelation a confusing puzzle of allegory and thus of no value in the hour of it's manifestation.

The second is one held by crew with brains & schooling mostly. It's called 'preterism.' This just means that the main passages about the end of the age like Matthew 24, luke 21, mark 13, and the Book of Revelation had their expression in the 1st Century. This idea comes from the Gospels listed above in that Jesus speaks about Roman invasion in 70 AD and then skips to speaking about end times, therefore it must be refering to 'that generation.' Problem is, Jesus isnt here yet so it holds very little weight.

Im considerably most opposed to those 3 camps because of the damage it does to the heart in this hour. While we should be understanding the end of the age and Jesus' leadership, the guys with the most brains are the guys talking the most people out of being here when it happens and living with hearts burning.

Again I say I love & respect people who have these positions as they are genuine and Godly and will be in glory (hopefully!), but regardless, the ideas are not true and are dangerous when the seasons shift suddenly because preconcieved ideas cause alarm in the heart when it looks TOTALLY DIFFERENT.

To sum it up - As the Gospel will have been preached to all nations before my kids yet to be go to high school, and as Jews are in the land again for the first time, as we watch them preparing for the greatest crisis theyve ever seen,

to say that life will go on as usual for another century is to say we have NO discernment whatsoever.

The days of justifying our ignorance are over. I say this to me as much as I say it to you. The very origin of love & passion is Jesus, why in the world would the idea of being in understanding & agreement with His Return be so alien & irrelevant to so many of us?

Blessings,
Dalton

Good Weekend

2007-03-04T16:50:00.000+13:00

Here are some pictures of the weekend. Some need explanations, but, will go without them. Except for the Mexican style house.....the one tucked up into the side of a mountain...we would really like to own a Mexican looking house someday.....youll also notice the ugly white block that was built above it. When we move in, we're going to habe the white one removed. I'd really like a Mexican style house. If not in this age, maybe in the one to come. Love yall.

It's Anna's Birthday!!!!!!!!

2007-03-03T18:53:00.000+13:00

Today, March 3rd, is Anna's birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we're up on the Coromandel in a little beach town called Tairua for the weekend. We just got back from Hot Water beach far too sunburned, and after a nap we had, we're going for dinner. Hot water beach is a place that at low tide, you dig a hole in the sand and it fills up with hot water because of the hot springs. So its a natural jacuzzi on the beach! I think tommorow we'll relax & go to cathedral cove for the day and pretend we live there. (google: cathedral cove new zealand, and youll see what i mean)

I know there are some of you who love to hear this stuff (mom's)! And thank you to you who blessed us so this was possible, you know who you are.

We'll put pictures up when we get back on Sunday nite, or sometime after that.

Blessings!
Us

The Law

2007-02-22T14:32:00.000+13:00

It's time for Anna to write a "post". Here we go...

I've been fascinated with the Pentateuch (First Five Books) lately. I just finished reading Deuteronomy and have just started Joshua...which I know isn't part of the Pentateuch but it's foundations are certainly all through it! We sometimes have a hard time with books like Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy because they're all about rules and regulations and a lot of them are just weird. In the midst of that, God takes some seemingly drastic measures to insure that His people obey His commands. I know that I have been afraid of these books pretty much my entire life up until now.

Before I go any further I must say that I'm not a scholar in any form of these books...I have only BEGUN to scratch the surface. I am convinced that there is layer, upon layer, upon layer, upon layer of wealth to be found in these books. I am overwhelmed with the emotions of God as I read through these books. The picture of God's zeal for His people. His zeal to produce righteousness in His people. His jealousy to be the only one that they love.

Some interesting thoughts on the book of Deuteronomy: A friend of mine told me the other day that you can't understand the rest of the Bible, the prophets, the entire new testament, without first understanding this book. Why? Because Deuteronomy unfolds the law for us, this is the plumb line that God uses to deal with His people throughout the entire Bible. It's interesting to note that we are under a new covenant with Christ since His death on the cross for us and Him making atonement for our sins, but we can't forget what Jesus said in Matthew 5:17

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven."

Jesus made Himself quite clear, did He not? After He was done with these words, He carried on to give account of the "old law" but enhanced it with increased clarity. It explains a law that almost seems IMPOSSIBLE to fulfill by any human being, and I believe that's the point.

Verses 3-11 Jesus is telling the disciples how to be "great" in the kingdom of God. I don't mean to repeat what Dalton has already said, but this is what the Lord has been showing me. First on the list is "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven." In other words, blessed are those who can admit that this is impossible and they desperately need God to walk in these ways.

Jesus said "For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." Now we all know that the Pharisees were "fulfilling the law" by deed but not by any means in their heart. We know that the Pharisees were religious. The religiosity of what they were doing was that they were "doing" all the right stuff and in the midst of it getting puffy and proud at how holy they were. They were becoming holy and righteous by their own merit. This is IMPOSSIBLE! We can't attain holiness and righteousness without the help of Jesus. This is point number one.

Question: Is the law to produce morality or hearts fully in love with their maker?

"Father, I desire that those that you have given me, that they may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which you have given me, for you have loved me before the foundation of the world ." - John 17:24

Point number two...Jesus desires us. But what will it take for us to be with Jesus where He is?

"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" - 2 Cor. 6:14

Can Jesus Himself be yoked with darkness?

The law was created to help us. The law was given to us so that our hearts would be alive in light and not dead in darkness. So that we would be holy, righteous, pure. Not just for the sake of being these things, but because we are desired by Jesus and there is absolutely no way that He can dwell with wickedness. The law was created out of a deep desire for love, a deep desire for communion with us by our Lord.

The Pharisees understood the law in theory but their hearts were not in love. They became religious and people looked to them as though they were holy and righteous and pure...externally they may have appeared to be but then Jesus showed up. When Jesus shows up, His light shows up and exposes the darkness. Therefore, Jesus is saying, "unless you guys get the 'law' better than these guys do, you will have no place in the Kingdom of Heaven. I'm not after your morality, but your hearts burning in love with me. "

"For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God." - Deuteronomy 4:24

So those are just some thoughts, things that have run through my mind as I read.

Even as I write this and read back over it, it just seems so shallow. I need more understanding. Good thing I'm in the House of Prayer. I need wisdom and I need understanding...I want to know this God!!!

I've tried to write a couple of these posts and end up erasing what I write because I feel so empty. I'm so aware of my need for Christ right now, so aware of my need for help from the Spirit to reveal to me the depths and the riches of Christ and His word. Anyway, I just decided I needed to put one up regardless. So here it is! I love Jesus and I want to know Him better.

We were Gangsters with Guns

2007-02-18T16:11:00.000+13:00

So last night was Lisa Cole's (awesome girl in our family here) 21st birthday. 21st's are a big deal in this part of the world. It was a geeks & gansters' party so we had to dress up. We were gansters. Prohibition era gansters. I had a sawed off, Anna had a 9mil and a knife. 2 dollar shop specials.

They were plastic, but we looked pretty cool.

During the night I figured out that the law that says that every 5th person knows someone you know is true. It's so bizzare meeting people that live on the other side of the world that have intricate ties of association and finding out that we're all connected by some strange event or run in somewhere at some strange time. I wont go into details, just filling you in on the law. If any of you were wondering, it is true.

Also during the night my sawed off was innocently 'borrowed' by a 3 year old named Kylie. As you can see in the pictures she's real cute, so she kept it all night. Anna and I kinda felt wierd carrying firearms at party with a lot of little kids running around, until one of the guys came with a machine gun and a hand gun that looked real. So we figured he was more of a target than we were for angry parents.

Anna and I won the best costume award winning a gold chain & some choclate. She looked very pretty carrying a gun. And she looked even prettier with a plastic gold chain around her neck that said "NY."

At this point in my life and in the this post I want to advertise or preach about one thing and tell you about another. Both are items we were blessed to be able to purchase in the last few months.

The first one is a Barbeque. And this is where Im going to preach. Culture here is its' center & locus around the BBQ grill. I fully endorse and advocate this, especially to our American friends and family. We BBQ a few nites week now! Well, not so much anymore, but when we first got it, we had way too many BBQ's. I am so in love with the BBQ culture. Cheap, easy and we can have heaps of people at once. It's awesome! In fact after church today, Jordan & Jess had us over for lunch. On the BBQ.

The second thing we bought yesterday. A weight bench! The hours in the House of Prayer went to 8 a day 6 days a week on Monday, which was a wee increase for us. It's great for the Spirit man, but my natural man is hurting. Ive been surfing here and there every few weeks, and I feel horrible! So to counteract the decline of our bodys hopefully this will help. So to the right is a picture of my muscles. And in 6 months, theyre going to fill up the picture. I'll be posting updates on the size of my guns periodically so keep an eye out. This should compliment our spiritual contemplative posts quite well I think. ( I hope that you can all sense the sarcasm of this and that I WILL NOT be doing this.)

Purity & Passion

2007-02-12T06:09:00.000+13:00

There is a progression in the book of Matthew that is powerful to me. We see the forerunners doing their work as the power brokers begin to move in place for the birth of the long awaited Messiah in chapters 1-3. In chapter 4 Jesus climbs down into the Jordan to be baptized, and is driven into the wilderness for 40 days to be tempted. He come out of the wilderness clothed in power & the whirlwind begins. In chapter 5, Jesus sits down on a mounatinside assuming the rabbinical teaching position and fires away for 3 chapters. These 3 chapters become God's definitive statement of the laws & ways of the Kingdom. This is the Kingdom of Heaven's cultural manifesto so to speak. In chapters 8-9, the teaching has ended and there is a power demonstration. Matthew records 10 miracles in a row of devils getting ripped out and people being restored. And it climaxes at the end of chapter 9. Jesus sees the multitudes lost, scrambling, bound by necessity of food and drink, riddled with demons & oppression, & without any leadership that can do anything of value or impact. Jesus then tells the boys that the harvest cant be any more ready than it is right now........ever, the issue is, no on can do anything about it. "Therefore, pray that the Lord of the harvest sends out laborers in the harvest." And in chapter 10, Jesus demontsrates what that looks like when laborers are sent - He gives the disciples power over every sickness & disease and sends them out to pick a fight. ANd then THEY walk out what He was walking in described in the middle of ch.9; the 3-fold model of a laborer - teaching, preaching & healing every kind of sickness.

Matthew 4-10 is a progressive unfolding of Jesus leadership OF us as well as FOR us. It's how we're to follow Him - by His baptism & temptation I trust Him and can approach Him as He's identified Himself with Me, and has said NO to temptation FOR me; by His teaching on the Mt I CAN walk the narrow road, that escorts me into loving Him because I cant do it if He doesnt love me; by HIs demostration of power over every sickness & every devil, I can hate devils & can live with a different value system and for another age; and by His commissioning I see the model of how He raises up leaders & laborers and can say yes to the invitation. His method is by setting them in the furnace of prayer until they have something to offer.

And the crux of it all is found in the Sermon on the Mount as Jesus begins the declaration of the culture of the Kingdom that is His. He starts with the beatitudes. ANd thats what I want to talk about. This is the one that has begun to dismantle me the last few days - "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

In light of the mounting crisis on the earth right now, what are a few of our priorities?? Theyre still the same; faith hope & love, love being the greatest. What strikes my heart is how these 3 CANNOT be walked in or out if mixed or tainted with additives. Only the pure in heart can hope, or long for the appearing the Lord and the fulfillment of all His promises. Only a pure heart can be in total agreement with all that God is and has said - Faith. ANd only a pure heart can love a Man that calls us to pick up a cross & die to live.

None of us can naturally walk in faith hope or love, and Im convinced, based on my own current pathetic state, that most of us are faking it if we appear to be. That which is pure has no additives. It isn't missing anything. It hasnt been mixed with something else. It is what it is.

Art Katz said this in a message I heard, "Your eschatology (end-time doctrinal view) isnt determined by your doctrine or intillectual agreement but by your lust." This struck me, because it is so true. And now Im seeing how much the prophets & apostles addresses lust IN CONTEXT TO the end of the age. Its central. And therefore purity of heart is central to our life pursuit.

Sooooooo, I am now in the place of understanding the necessity of purity & passion, but carrying a deep awareness of my defiled heart. And Im becoming more & more convinced of the remedy. It's in 1 John 3. John, speaking about the Coming of the Lord, says that when we see Him we will be like Him. And for those who carry this hope & longing, purify themselves.

To see God as God, and to cultivate a heart of longing for that appearing begins to slay lovers. When I behold Him in HIs jealousy, I am purified a bit more. And as I set my gaze upon Him things shift, because He is so different than I. But a gaze that stays on Him changes me. In a week, we might not notice anything. But in a year and a decade, I am convinced that wisdom will be justified.

And thus the reason for setting the context for purity with the backdrop of Matthew. I am also convinced that God is setting leaders in place as we speak. And that there is a parallel Matthew-like commissioning around the corner. A commission into a whrilwind that is marked by teaching and demonstarting the culture of the Kingdom (5-7), the power of the Kingdom through preaching and miracles, signs & wonders (8-10).

And the issue at and is this - who can steward any of that for a day, or a decade without breaking underneath the weight of it? It's a season to go deep in the pursuit of the knowledge of God UNTO a deep transformation of real people in real time & space.

In the House of Prayer we're laboring everyday that God would give us a real authentic sending. Not a people mustering up zeal and taking initiative in different areas of life, but a real sending like of the prophets of old. SO the question is, WHAT DOES A SENT ONE LOOK LIKE? The answer is, that they walk in purity & passion.

SO how do we acquire these virtues then??!! There is ONE way - the knowledge of God that is by its very nature living. Living revelation that transforms.

In the 3 parallel Gospel accounts when Jesus is asked about the end of the age, He lays out the conditions, tells the key trends and events, speaks a bit of chronology, and then gives the pastoral statement concerning the end of the age - THEREFORE, WATCH & PRAY.

Watching & praying take care of EVERYOTHER ISSUE because we are confronted with all our issues in the place of prayer, and beholding Him AS HE IS, is the ONLY reason anyone would ever want to live a life of fervent prayer. I promise. People who have prayer lives in all sorts of religions yea even christianity, have missed it completely. Prayer is about being with Him where He is and then looking like HIm because we've been with Him so long.

"All who have this hope purify themselves."

D&A

Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-02-10T20:01:00.000+13:00

Happy Birthday to Eric Kennedy.

We love you

D & A

Christmas, New Years & Understanding Solemn Assemblies

2006-12-31T16:20:00.000+13:00

A few weeks before Christmas we moved into our new 2 bedroom flat just outside of town. When we flew in we moved into the internship housing until we found a place.

Some awesome friends collaborated to buy us a Christmas tree and some decorations and had a fun time doin the thing. Here are a few pictures of our house and Christmas time.

Right now in New Zealand summer is just kickin in, so its quite different than home being hot.

The last internship graduated the Friday before Christmas, and that began a break that ends January 15th when start up with prayer meetings again. And on Feb. 6 the next internship starts. Ill explan later what the internship is and what we're doing here.

Tonite is New Years Eve and we're gathering at a families house for a BBQ and a prayer meeting through the night. The father of the family has been praying and fasting for God to establish the HOP for bout 20 years. Amazing family.

Here is a good place to explain what a solemn assembly is. Our city of Tauranga is the city where the youth of NZ gather on New years Eve. Around 15,000 will gather at the beach at a place called the Mount. Here will be stages with bands playing through the night. Picture thousands of drunk young people driven by the lusts of the flesh singing songs with a band on stage who sing meaningless lyrics. This is the counterfiet of what God is calling this generation to. Now picture this-

While 15,000 young people are gathered singing songs drunk on the spirit of the age, another 15,000 are gathered in another building singing love songs to the Most Beautiful One. One gathering is driven by lust of the flesh, the other by purity and a longing for His presence. One produces depression, fleeting pleasure and bloodshed, the other produces purity, passion, lasting pleasure and humility.

As I type this Stuart Greaves in webstreaming preaching to 15,000 mostly young people gathered in a stadium in Kansas City calling forth messengers to stand night and day in purity of heart, and urgency of spirit proclaiming the Coming of the King. Its happening now! 15,000 will gather on the beach in New Zealand, while 15,000 gather in a stadium in Kansas City. WE MUST HAVE STADIUMS FILLED ACROSS THE EARTH CRYING OUT!

It shall come to pass. I guarantee you that night and day intercession and adoration of the Son of God will emerge in the cities of the earth. The end of the age isnt going to randomly happen in a vacuum. It will be ushered in a welcomed by a remnant of a billion+ in pain over His absence. When shaking comes, and it soon will, there will be refuge, and there will be places of encounter - places that have asked for the presence of God and experienced it for decades. The time to enter in is now, 20 years will be over in a second.

God has promised us a King, and His Son a Lover. And if was faithful to send Him the firsttime to die on a cross, how much more can we be confident that He'll send Him again and fulfill all the promises wholesale. It shall come to pass.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Establishing Solemn Assemblies Across the Earth at the End of the Age

2006-12-31T13:56:00.000+13:00

Around 1000 BC King David established a hub in Jerusalem. 4000 musicians and 288 singers who were financially released to be in the House of Prayer ministering to God NIGHT AND DAY as their sole occupation.

Decades prior to the birth of Jesus, a young woman by the name of Anna was widowed. With the options of running away from God in offense, or to Him in refuge, Anna gave herself to a life of 60+ years fasting and praying for the appearing of the Messiah. It would be her ministry that birthed the New Testament in many ways.

Around that time, a priestly family named Zacharias and Elizabeth had an encounter with an angel that set apart their soon to be son John as a prophet to prepare the way of the Lord. The mandate on John's life was to live 30 years in the place of prayer and fasting until a collision occured - namely, the manifestation of the Word of the Lord gathering all of Israel into the desert to embrace the message of radical repentance because the Bridegroom was coming (Jn 3:29). The impact of this got him the name John the Baptist, and was the man Jesus called 'the greatest man born of a woman.'

A Man was born in 1700 in Germany named Count Nicholas Zinzendorf. In short, this wealthy count turned his 'castle' into a House of Prayer that went night and day unceasing for 100 years. This eventually climaxed and poured into the nations marking the first prodestant missions movement.

In May of 1999 prayer meetings began in Europe and in Kansas City Missouri. In Europe, 'boiler rooms' began emerging. Small groups of people crying out 24/7 for the cities of Europe.

And in Kansas City on September 9th of that year a prayer meeting began that is, to this day and hour, still going. With full worship teams on a platform and a room full of mainly young people, worship and intercession has not stopped, and will not stop until the Second Coming.

We're now beginning the Second Year here at the Tauranga House of Prayer and those stories are our bloodline. Were asking God for the gift of night and day worship and prayer until love provokes the Father to send His Son back to the earth.

The way that God set a context in Israel for the First Coming of Jesus, is the same way that He's going to prepare the earth at His Second. Anna and John's life will be the mandate that many are being set apart for now. Many will be Fulltimers, but many teachers, lawyers, waitresses, construction workers and students ruined with a vision for Him and HIm alone GRIPPED with prayer and fasting.

In our generation, mark my words, we will see a church established across the earth gathered night and day crying out for justice. The expression of christianity is going to radically and dramatically change in this generation and it will result in a praying prophesying church across the nations giving direction in the coming storm, and ushering in the Coming of the Messiah to the earth, but this time, He's coming to stay.

Mandates in New Zealand

2006-12-31T13:26:00.000+13:00

So here we are hitched and happy and back in New Zealand. Here are some snapshots leading here:

Flying home from Australia at the end of June 2005 the Lord spoke to me that I was to plant a House of Prayer and Joel 2 gripped my heart. I had assumed that it was to be in Australia because that was my only open door and I just came from there (whole other story). I spent a few days at IHOP Atlanta in August and I prayed that God would make known what the plan was and that there would be supernatural provision to confirm. I asked for a company of people to run with who ache for this too, finances to go, a building to gather, a vehicle to travel, and for understanding of a powerful vision/trance I had a month prior to this.

I walk in the door to get an email of my friend in Fiji telling me he met someone and that he has some crazy news and to be at my phone at such and such a time. The phone rang and an amazing woman of God that I had met a year before God on the phone and said to me, "Jordan tells me God has spoken about planting a House of Prayer. WOuld you take the Mecedonian call and come to Tauranga New Zealand? We have a house here, a building to do prayer meetings in, you can set up staff and invite whoever out, we'll find a vehicle for you, as well dont worry about money God is faithful." She then told me the vision I had had and spoke the phrase that marked the encounter. 1 month later with no money or a clue what was happening in a handful of other peoples lives, I was living at Gideon's Fields under the amazing care, zeal and love of Linda Cowie - My other moma.

Over the next few weeks I began to meet some interesting people who were arrested by God to move to this city TO ESTABLISH A HOUSE OF PRAYER. Some crew moved out with me and we were doing prayer meetings everyday and by January there was about a dozen of us. And in the last week of January, in an absolutely crazy way, Aaron (Kiwi) and Kristi (American) Walsh moved out having been in Kansas City pioneering IHOP for 7 years.

In short, the two took a ministry trip here and went back to Kansas City. They felt a small call to come to NZ, but disregarded it unless there was supernatural confirmation happened. Then theyd consider it. Soon after, Aaron was in a Dillards in KC when he heard a kiwi accent say, "Aaron Walsh. My name is ------, and Im from Tauranga NZ and I heard you speak at a conference once. Im passing through the states on my way to Europe and Im here in KC for a few hours, and Im just wondering if it isnt time for you to return to the land of New Zealand."

They brought leadership and clarity to the call, and we brought a confidence that God had been setting this up for decades. And the journey began. Over those few months I met so many people who had radical redirecting to come here solely to see night and day prayer and worship made a reality. That is crazy. A number of quality YWAMers had also put down everything packed up shop and relocated here for a House of Prayer. THERE WAS NO HOUSE OF PRAYER OR WHISPER OF IT!!!!!! God is truly doing something in our day across the earth.

There is a solid core of full timers here locked and loaded laboring to see a watering hole dug. Yea more than just a watering hole.

In February 06 the first THOP internship started with 11 graduating in July. Anna and I left the next morning to go get married with the intentions of returning long term.

In the next post I want to give a run down on the House of Prayer, the whats and whys of it.

The Honeymoon and Mission Back to New Zealand

2006-12-31T01:26:00.000+13:00

After a few nites in Edinburgh after the wedding, we had a narly itenerary. It's quite difficult to explain the shocking blessing of God in a few paragraphs. But for a 21 year old from Florida, who has been sideswiped by Jesus 3 years before, this season of my life was like drinking from a firehose. From where I was, to where the Lord's kindness has led me, my heart is immediatly softened and undone.

In Short, here was our itenerary with some pictures from the places we were, and of the people that we love.

1. One night in Paris. One night was enough.

2. A few wonderful days in Aix en Provence in southern France near Marseille with some lovely friends Jay and Jenn Smith. We were so well taken care of, blessed, helped, and coached by this family as we were pretty clueless about Europe. I had SUCH a good time with Jay gleaning gold from him as we sat around late nites talking bout the promises of God in the earth.

3. A few days in Rome via Euro-Rail. Rome was epic. A dark city and a powerful city to see. The sites were killer. Coloseum, turkish friends restaraunt, Peter's prison cell, Titus' ark after he sacked Jerusalem, and a whole heap of other historical sites. We met two ozzie Jewish boys traveling and we had an awesome time with them talking about Jesus in the Old Testament. However, Rome made us both sick to see the filth religion has vomitted on the earth over the centuries. In one day we saw the Vatican, then the Jewish ghetto across the street which was built by the Pope of the time to contain Jews PRIOR TO the Holocaust, and then on to the Synogogue that was bombed by Islamic radicals, as we pass a rabbi, a priest and an Imam as we headed back to our hotel room. Point - Man made religions are disgusting and tragic.

4. An afternoon/evening in Venice. Though short Venice Italy was very sweet. Its amazing to step out of a train and almost trip into a canal.

5. And 2 days in a beautiful village on the water, Chinqueterra.This place was stunning. Had we known or planned better we'd have stayed here longer. 5 old fishing villages a few kilometers apart that have hiking trails linking them. Anna wanted badly to stay at an Italian's house, an as we stepped off the train we met Surgeo, and ended up staying at his house eating Italian munchies!

6. From here we made the mission back to Edinburgh to fly to LA to stay with some other lovely friends Andrew and Katie Daly in central coast first, and then Brian and Carmel Field in LA. This was a time of seeing old crew and saying goodbye to the US for a while. Thanks Cali crew!

7. And on October 18th we touched down in Auckland International for the last time for a while. The next post will be a rundown on whats happening here in Tauranga as well as what WE'RE doing in Tauranga.

Touching Kiwi soil was something that we'd longed for since the day we left. Longing for a nation that isnt our own to enter in the prophetic season that she's never known before. Its the hour to build solemn assemblies night and day asking for an authentic inbreaking of the power of God to sweep a generation until it happens and love ruins a nation for everyother love but His appearing.

The Wedding

2006-12-31T00:17:00.000+13:00

September 19 we fly into Edinburgh Scotland before getting married on the 22nd, a Friday. To fill in the massive blank - The weekend we first talked and established that we were going to get married, I asked what her dream wedding was, assuming that she, being from the south, would want a big southern wedding in the south. To my shock, she said a sentence that jarred my pathetic grip on the Sovereignty of God.

See when I was little I wanted to get married outside on a mountain. This turned into a mt. in Scotland, and on seeing Braveheart a dream was birthed! Years later I met a couple who had just gotten married on a mountain in Scotland and I was jealous.

So, here I am years later, in a city in the south pacific because unbelievable sovereign acts of God were displayed to lead me here, sitting on a picnic bench staring at a beautiful Georgia girl who'd stolen my heart and who was the one I felt to marry. Her answer to my question was this verbatim - "Ive always wanted to get married on a mountain in Scotland and put out a mass email for invites of the date and time."

Sooooooo, with 1o bucks in my bank account and a short yet powerful history in the faithul provision of God our plans were set. And on Friday the 22nd of September 2006 we were married in Leslie Perth Scotland at Arnot Tower with about 18 witnesses of all our immediate family and a few quality friends.

NOW...........Let it be said that the purpose of marriage is to communicate to the earth that the longings in the heart of a Man at an altar pledging passion to a Bride dressed in white find its' origin in the heart of God NOT man. We love because He loves. We long because He longs.

I couldnt take it anymore being without Anna, because there is, within the human frame, this reality branded on our conscience - there is Coming a Day when HE CANT TAKE IT ANYMORE not being with His Beloved. Every wedding, Disney Movie, and paperback romance proves that we long for this story. And In the generation in which there will be more people alive on the earth than all the others added up, He'll split the skies. And what was once a pathetic weak and failing group of people who said 'yes' to His proposal will be a Global Phenomenon in Union with Love Himself.

The issue of covenant is the issue of the burning heart of God for the object of His affections. These pictures and this story is a pale prophetic picture of a day yet to come, when the Man that asked His Father for a Bride in a Garden 2000 years ago would get all that He paid for - A Bride saying 'Come.' This is the Gospel. And a religious institution devoid of romance is the greatest tragedy of our day.

'Your Maker is Your Husband' -Isaiah 54:4-5

'In that day you will call Me 'Husband' no longer 'My Master.' -Hosea 2:16

'The Kingdom of Heaven is like a King who arranged a wedding for His Son.' -Matthew 22:2

'As a Bridegroom rejoices over his Bride, so your God rejoices over you.' -Isaiah 62:4-5

'That He might present to Himself a radiant Bride without spot or wrinkle.....' -Ephesians 5:25-30

'Ive betrothed you to One Husband that you might be a chaste virgin.' -2 Corinthians 11:2

'At that time (the end of the age) the Kingdom of Heaven will be like 10 virgins who went out to meet the Bridegroom.' -Matthew 25:1......

'He who has the Bride is the Bridegroom, but I am the friend of the Bridegroom, and I rejoice because I stand and hear his voice....' -John 3:29

'Jealousy is a Husband's fury; He will not spare in the day of veangeance, nor will He be bribed.' -Proverbs 6:34

The Pilgrimage to Georgia and Florida

2006-12-30T22:40:00.000+13:00

The Lord promised me (Anna) on my way out to New Zealand that the next time I flew home, I wouldn't be alone. The Lord was faithful to His promise...He is a covenant keeper. We made the treck back to the U.S. together to meet our family. First stop...Georgia. In Georgia we were blessed beyond belief. We were there for about three weeks and during that time we had friends lavishing their love on us. When Dalton asked me for my hand in marriage he had only $10 in his pocket...and then we decided to get married in Scotland (another blog entry)!!! Needless to say, we needed a miracle. It was important to us that our family was there for the wedding and none of them had extra change to spend on a plane ticket to Scotland. But, God is faithful. I have a home church that is one of the closest examples of a biblical church that we've ever seen. They have supported me for years while I've been on the mission field and have loved me as if I were their own child. When they met Dalton, they did the same for him. We were overwhelmed with the expression of love that we experienced while we were there. So much support, through prayer, finances, people all pitching in a hand to throw us a party, to show us that they appreciate us. We can't even begin to describe the way that they embraced us and affirmed us in our marriage and our chosen lifestyle. It was a true expression of the heart of the Lord towards His bride. During this time all the finances were provided for all of our family to attend the wedding.

Next stop Florida. We also spent about three weeks in Florida. Dalton has quite the life story (yet again another blog entry). Dalton's chosen lifestyle before he encountered God was music, drugs, alcohol and friends. The Lord sovereignly plucked him out of this lifestyle and set him on a road less traveled. Because of the nature of his conversion, he has a good grip on the mercy of God and has faith to see anyone from any background saved, especially the ones in the "least likely" category...if there is such a category. Dalton has a huge burden for his town and for his friends that have not yet encountered the beauty of this man Jesus and come to terms with their need for Him. While we were in Florida we were given opportunity in public settings and more intimate settings to talk with friends and express with our weak words but wanting hearts, the love of this man Christ Jesus and the sacrifice of God Himself coming to earth as a man and dying a horrific death on a tree for our iniquity. We are so thankful for the opportunities that were given to us to share while we were in Florida. Dalton also has an incredible home church that took us in as their own children, supported us, loved us and gave us every opportunity to be a part of their church. We were yet again overwhelmed with the expression of God's heart displayed through these generous, selfless, loving people. We are SO THANKFUL for the blessing that God has given us through church families and feel very undeserving of it all.

Throughout all of this we were meeting family...Mom's & Dad's, Brothers & Sisters, Grandparents. This was such a special, special time and all we can say is...we have the best familiy in the world! There is so much we could share about this and truthfully they deserve a whole page. But I'll just say this...we were ALL meant to be together! :)

After our time in Florida we headed off to Scotland and the story continues...

The Meeting

2006-12-30T22:00:00.000+13:00

Dalton moved to Tauranga in October 2005. Anna moved in Feb. 2006. We met in the house of prayer on Feb. 6 at the first gathering for the first internship at the Tauranga House of Prayer. For 2 months Anna and I never spoke once. For two months both of us supressed our feelings asking for the Lord first for help, and second to do something cause it was so frustrating to fall in love from a distance without a license to talk.

After a strange turn of events and a redrawing of a seating arrangement at Josh and Misty Cole's wedding on March 26th, we were seated next to each other with about 3 or 4 hours to talk. With a vendetta of questions in my heart concerning the future and and her passions and life mandates, we 'caught up.' The next week was horrible. We both can say that we were stung with longing yet still felt like th other hadn't a clue about how we felt.

In that place of tension every day we'd both come into the House of Prayer and come before the Man who knows longing and ache more than any other ever. At the same time we both heard the Lord saying to us as we groaned in pain over an object of our affections, "This is good. Stay with this and feel it deeply. What you feel is an object lesson in how your God feels."

At the end of the week at a birthday party I felt like I had to tell her and be shut down so that I could get on with life, cause at the moment I couldnt function at all and my heart was in severe pain.

The next day I asked her if I could have permission to ask her Dad for her hand in marriage and to tell her that I loved her.

She said yes

Update #1

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The last half 2006 was the most dramatic shifting and changing that we've ever gone through, and it wouldn't be fair to skip over it all. Not for yall, but for us. What has happened in the past few months is the expression of God in two weak peoples lives that points to something of grandeur and romance on two different playing fields, and we want to reflect on it as much as we want to share it. We're going to enter posts of highlight events in the past few months.

The First Entry

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This site is for those we love and adore. We can't see you in person so much nor can you us, but hopefully this will give everyone an idea of what we're up to, who were are, where we're heading as a new family. And most importantly we want this little site to be a vessel of communicating the Excellence of Jesus in our lives and what we feel, and what we know is on the horizon.

This is us, and this is our hearbeat -