A former Vision of 2005

When I was in Pemba, Mozambique in 2005 I was having a time of morning prayer and bible study when I remembered a vision the Lord had given me a couple of weeks prior. This was not a deja-vu type experience, but more like a revelation of something I needed to remember. It was powerful nonetheless.

I stood with Jesus in the African dirt and He talked with me, revealing things He had (wanted) for me and expressing His continual, unconditional love for who I was. A time later He bent down and drew a line in the dirt and stood back up and looked at me with an expression of seriousness that I shall never forget. He said, "I won't make you cross this line." I said back, "I want to though." He said, "This is completely your choice. I won't make you do this. If you choose to cross this line there will be no going back." So I stepped across the line. Jesus bent down again and this time He took His hand and erased the line. He stood back up and stared at me and said, "There is really no going back now. Even if you turn from Me and run, you can't cross back over this line. It is gone now. There is no returning."

That was perhaps the most sobering and serious experience I have had. I had forgotten about it until yesterday, and I am so glad that God brought it to my remembrance.

Oh, and here's a word that has some dire ramifications; I've been dwelling on this one for a few weeks now:
complacency: a feeling of contented self-satisfaction, especially when unaware of impending trouble

walk from Hades / new Poll

Peter & Julie took me for a "walk" today. I call it a 3hr test of endurance, but they seemed happy enough to use the term "walk". It was alright though. Today was pretty chill; I slept in, skipped church, relaxed, etc etc.

Here are the results from the last Poll:

Where is Finland?

43% Europe

43% Scandinavia

14% Mexico

Actually, Finland is part of Europe. It is not officially Scandinavian. It is part of the Nordic countries, but not the Scandinavian. Interesting, but not really.

So here's the New Poll:

Think Jesus is coming back in your lifetime?

hanging out with Holy Spirit

That's right. Last night, Josh Heymans, Kyle Laviolette, and I cruised to the Pen Center to do some 'basic' (if there is such a thing) evangelism. Sometimes it's hard to get going, so we sat on a bench and just asked Holy Spirit to manifest and bring some Kindom action on the scene. First, Josh and I got to pray for some guy that had had a stroke; he said he felt better following. Then I talked to a couple people very breifly after getting (what I thought was) a word of wisdom; it turned out to be fairly innacurate though; whatever! Then Kyle and I totally Gospelized this guy who was quite bitter against God and the church, and who had a really tough time seeing anything good about God or Jesus, etc. And not that I blame him. The church has done a terrible job of accurately portraying the love of Jesus. (Dont get me started.) As we were witnessing to this guy, Josh was speaking a word over this girl who approached him asking if she knew him? How cool is that?! Then he starts talking to some other Christians who were seated right next to him and gets to pray for one of their wrists, and she immediately says it feels better! Nice. Then we head to the movie theatre and right outside the door we get passed by this guy on crutches and 2 of his friends. We ask him if we can lay our hands on him and pray for God to heal his foot. He says "sure", and his friend says, "Can you pray for me too?" Sure, man. So, the guy with the sore foot didn't get healed but we were able to minister to them for a few minutes, praise God!!
For "The Gospel According To Josh Heymans" about Feb16/07, click --> here

After our evangelism stint, we headed back to 35 Elma St and watched Super Size Me with Peter & Julie. Great night.

15 minute preach

All us 2nd yrs at CBC had to do 15 minute preaches as part of our ciriculum. Here's mine. I spoke on the subject of "the poor", an often unspoken message here in the West. It went well though. Most of the students really seemed to recieve the 'encouraging' words I spoke. It's in 2 parts cause the file size was too big for YouTube.

Part 1


Part 2

pursuin experience

Today I have a sore throat and a headache. I called in sick. I didn't really want to cause I also miss out on about 4hr work or so, but I dont feel like sittin through class when I really don't feel good. It also means that my perfect attendance record is gone, but oh well.

I've been saying a lot lately that, "I'm tired of knowing 'about' God, and now I just want to know Him." We can sit through classes, and listen to teaching tapes, and go to conferences, but still be no closer to God. It's all about experience. Bill Johnson has said (along this lines) "Those who seek experience without the Word of God are in danger of falling into deception, but those who seek the Word of God without experience are decieved already." It's so true.

I've taken some slack from the CBC students about my pursuance of 'heavenly experience', but I see that criticism as a major blessing. See, what kind of relationship can you have with someone without experience? The answer: none. For example, you can read all the books about Wayne Gretzky that you can find. How he plays hockey, his family life, his childhood, etc etc etc; but you get out on the ice with him and you'll quickly realize that all that knowledge means absolutely nothing. But, spending time with him and letting him teach you develops a relationship and a growth that cannot be obtained without the experience. Interesting, eh? In saying that, I certainly am expecting to partake of my inheritance in this life. Why wouldn't I? In Ephesians 2:5-6 it says: even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus; and then in Colossians 3:1 it says: Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Amen. All this stems from God's love. He loves us more than we can understand or comprehend, and He wants us to experience Him more than we do. All the basis of pursuing experience comes out His unmeasurable love for us; period.

And in other news, I've been digging in to David Hogan's ministry to the Indians in Mexico. It's some good stuff. Click -->here to view David speaking in different conferences and such.

Johanna Poll

So anyways, Johanna, my Finnish roomate (pictured here holding a Swedish flag, go figure) was highly insulted at the fact that us ignorant Canadians don't know where the Finland is actually located. So she made me do a poll which asks everyone where it actually IS located. And it's like midnight, and I have to get up for school in the morning, but she don't care because her culture has been insulted and her pride has been marred!!!! Anyways, whatcha think, where is that country? To be honest, I don't think she knows herself. Yeah, I'm tired, I hope she's happy!
Yeah right Josh Duffy!!

Se todellakin luulee olevansa jotain!!! Eika silla oo harmainta aavistustakaan mita maa tahan kirjotan...ilman a:ta pisteilla. HAHHAHHAAAAA!!!!!! :D

-Johanna

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post psychic fair '07

What a (somewhat) crazy weekend. Friday, after classes, Josh Heymans and I went to the Psychic Fair here in town this weekend to see what Holy Spirit would lead us into. The atmosphere was HEAVY with warfare; ours conflicting with theirs. I had a few discussions but was unable to really get a foothold or advantage in any of them. I didnt go there to preach or 'convert' (or did I?), unless led by the Spirit to, but I wanted to go and sow some seed out there and to see just how much spiritual friction there would be. And let me tell you, you could literally feel it as you walked through the doors. I did start a conversation with one of the psychic's assistants, but when I asked her "What's the difference between a psychic and a prophet?", I drew a line in the sand. She couldn't answer me so she asked Rev. Corbie Mitleid (the psychic whom she represented), and Corbie pretty much tore a strip off me and made it abundantely clear that I was "unwanted" at this kind of venue. T'was a wee bit crazy.

Corbie was to do a seminar on saturday, Feb 3rd @ 2pm, so Josh, Julie and I went to check it out. We were 10 minutes late for it and seen no open seats as we walked in. The Josh spotted 3 open seats in the front row!!! How funny was that?! So we saunter up and take our seats and listen to her propaganda. She moved her table back a bit to put some distance between us and her, and consciously avoided us the whole time; muito funny. Then we went around to all the tables and I talked with assistants. I likened a lot of their beliefs to Hinduism and similiar far eastern religious mindsets. I was able to back a couple of them into a corner they could not explain their way out of, in a non-confrontational way, of course. Holy Spirit really gave me some clever analogies.

On sunday, Josh and I went to TACF to see Ola, and partake in an a.m. service. Some lady we didn't know blessed us with $40 to take Ola out to lunch with, seeing as it was her 20th birthday. We also took a couple of the SoM graduates out with us; one of whom Ola wants me to marry. Anyways, we went back to the SoM building afterwards to eat and play pool and rave, and stuff. It was definitely "one sweet weekend".

fundraising propaganda starts

Yes, you heard it right; the fundraising propaganda has started. I was talkin to my good friend Paul Adams last week or so and he related to me his vision to get to Sudan to preach the Gospel and do all sorts of crazy missions work in refugee camps, slums, etc etc etc. Lets just say that Paul and I had planned to meet up again some day to do Kingdom work, and it appears that Sudan could be that plan fulfilled. Iris Ministries is breaking new ground in Sudan and needs some pioneers to go in and take Jesus to the lost, broken, dying, poor, of that country.

Needless to say, a lot has to be accomplished for me to reach my goal of being in Africa by august at the absolute latest!!! Plane tickets, visas, vaccinations, savings, monthly support, and on and on and on need to be provided before that goal happens. So, I got on PayPal and ended up with a 'Donate' button on my webpage. Pretty sweet. Anyone willing to contribute to this 'Africa fund' is now able to! All proceeds will go towards expenses needed to make this trip happen.

Supporting a missionary is perhaps the wisest and most worthwhile investment one can make. Meeting the poor's financial needs is impossible, but meeting their spiritual needs is not only possible, it's inevitable..................if people are willing to send those whom are willing to go. Know what I mean. So click on the 'Make a donation' button to support the Gospel in Mozambique/Sudan. I will let you all know how the funds and plans progress. Africa calls, and I'm gonna answer.

Mission Statistics

Facts about evangelical status worldwide:

• approx. 2 billion people are considered an unreached people group
  
• only 2-3% of protestant missionaries are reaching this group
  
• 95% of all unreached people live in the 10/40 window
  
• 66,000 people die every day from this group
  
• out of every gospel dollar only 4 cents goes to missions
  
• of the 4% that goes to the mission field, 80% of it goes to already established works
  
• 27% of the planet has 2-3% of the missionary work force helping them get saved
  
• 97% of missionaries work in already evangelized fields
  
• last year more money went towards ecclesiastical crime than went to missions
  
• America spends more money on dogfood than on missions
  
• 10,000 chinese come to the Lord every day
  
• every 7 weeks 1 million Latin Americans come to Christ
  
• most expensive country to send a missionary to-Japan
  
• least expensive-Mozambique

RICH AWED BY POOR'S ABILITY TO LIVE LIKE THAT. "No Way We Could Do It," Say Leaders of Wealthy Nations

Monterrey, Mexico (SatireWire.com) — At a United Nations conference last week to address world poverty, dozens of leaders from the planet's wealthiest nations concluded they were "totally in awe" of the 1.2 billion people who reportedly live on less than $1 a day.

With no medicine, sanitation, or food, the poor do it anyway.
"Lord knows I couldn't do it," U.S. President George W. Bush told a roundtable of colleagues Friday. "The mortgage on my ranch alone is $5,500 a month."

"I think the hardest part would be keeping it up," added South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel. "Every now and then I'd have to sneak out for a nice meal with my wife, or maybe a movie."

But truly poor people, several delegates noted in wonder, never do that.

"How often do you see a really poor person splurge for a steak dinner, or an upgrade to first class on an airliner?" said French President Jacques Chirac. "I tell you, these people are incredible."

Said Bush, after a momentary pause: "I'd like to propose that the world doesn't just have a billion poor people, it's got a billion heroes."

However, some attending the International Conference on Financing for Development respectfully suggested the leaders, while apparently no longer indifferent, were missing the point.

"The poor don't have mortgages. They don't have houses," said U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. "Most days, they don't even have food."

"Oh heavens no, I'd have to eat," replied World Trade Organization chief Michael Moore. "I could maybe skimp on dessert, but that's it."

As the meeting adjourned, a spokesman for the World Development Movement announced that almost half the earth's population — 2.8 billion people — lives on less than $2 a day. The attendees stood in unison to cheer until it was explained to them that these people wanted money.

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