Well, Seattle was a success and many people were touched by the Lord. It is funny though how we go places and minister and almost take for granted the awesomeness that is IHOP-KC. What I mean is, what we do everyday as a lifestyle others are blown away by. Simple prophetic words of encouragement or the Forerunner message are life altering things and I forget how much people get touched when they hear it for the 1st time. People really are greatly encouraged by the fact that there is a small band of radical Christians in the Mid-West (one place among many in the World) who give themselves to radical lifestyles of wholehearted devotion to Jesus. I need to remember how blessed I am to be surrounded by such wonderful “sharpening stones”.
I have been observing others (as well as myself) and their walk through this “Intercessory Missionary” profession here in KC and I think I have pinpointed the time it takes to actually get the message in you where one is a voice and not an echo. I would say about 2 and 1/2 years would be a safe bet for “adapting” to the waters here. My family has been here 2 and 1/2 years this month and I feel (for the 1st time) pretty confident that I can communicate the Forerunner message at least somewhat effectively . It is IMPORTANT to be able to communicate a message clearly and with conviction so others will go with you on the journey to find out the why behind the what of a Forerunner and the destiny of Forerunners in the age the Lord returns. So, when I was communicating this very thing to a group of Korean teens in Seattle this past weekend they were suddenly struck with the fact that they are this and He is coming and we MUST do something about it. The light bulb went off and I was there to see it light up. When I let my new friend Chris (a 16 year old Korean American from Seattle) hear Misty’s song ” People get ready, Jesus is coming” and he was like “This stuff is AMAZING, Jesus really is coming soon!!!” I just sat back and thought to myself; ” I love what I do” .
We arrived in Seattle last night about 8pm. The temperature here is about 45 degrees COOLER than Kansas City’s wonderful 105 degree/80 % humidity that I left a few hours ago. Did I mention that there is no humidity in the midwest…and no bugs. But, there are alot of Koreans :0. In fact, I am sitting in a room with about 50 Koreans right now while my friend Jeff Eggers preaches on the Forerunner Calling. We are in Bellingham Washington with Immanuel House of Prayer for their first ever Forerunner Conference for teens and young adults. As I type Jeff is giving his testimony of being saved during the Jesus Movement in the 60’s and the place is going nuts. I love it!
I called Allison a little earlier to tell her about my dinner last night of garlic cloves, kimchee, jalepenos and rice…and my breakfast this morning of clam chowder, boiled potatoes and toast. So here we are and the Lord is moving and doing stuff and we are just hanging on for the ride. The Pastors here are awesome and the church has a sweet presence of Jesus on it. We are praying for the fire of God to come down…even so, come Lord Jesus.
It was awesome!! As I sat on the 2nd row of the Episcopal Church with Allison and the boys I heard a kinda rumble coming from behind me; it was Corey Russell praying in tongues as he came down the isle to the pew where we were sitting. He sat down and I began laughing almost immediately and I know it was heard throughout the quiet church. Not long after, the wedding party made their way to the front of the church where the groom awaited the entry of his bride. As Matt played beautifuly on the piano Laura began making her way down the isle toward her waiting groom…the crowd stood in honor of the bride. Even my children had a look of “awwww-ness” on their faces as the bride walked down the isle. The father gave her away and the bride took her place next to the groom to exchange vows…and then they kissed. At this point Eli put his hands over his eyes and whispered to me “Dad, tell me when it’s over” and Silas said “I am never getting married if I have to kiss a girl”. After the kiss the new couple took communion and the priest called for the “blessers” to come and pray for the bride and groom. This was an honor for me and Allison to speak into their lives as we joined Corey, Misty and the parents to pray over the newly wed couple. We prayed, sat back down and the wedding ceremony ended and Mr. and Mrs Combrink were presented to the world for the first time.
On the way home (i won’t write about the desert bar reception, it was MAD) Eli and Silas were in the back seat of the VW saying “Maiwwage” and “Twoo Wuv” …(for those of you that have seen the Princess Bride)…
On Friday at my prophecy team briefing my buddy Mark Slezinger came in the room to take communion with us. After communion i really felt like the Lord was saying “$22,000″ for Mark and I felt like it was connected to Psalm 2 and Psalm 22 but i was unsure if the $ would come in one amount or a bunch of little gifts. All i knew was that it would be connected to the number “2″ in some way. Anyway, Mark was super pumped at this word because I guess he had been eating rice for like a week and needed some breakthrough in finances. The next day Mark came up to me in the prayer room and was gleaming because he had just checked his mail and had gotten 2 checks in the mail and each one was for $200… i just laughed.
Yes, that was 2 checks for $200…
At 1:58 pm today I was at a water fountain filling my water bottle when I realized that at that moment was the only time I had been still enough to gather my thoughts even a little bit. That is a tragedy in my opinion. I got out of the prayer room last night at 6:30 pm (after a knock down drag out prayer meeting with Lou and company) and headed over to that auto parts store i was telling you about. They found my alternator after a few minutes of digging and of course the guy asked me “Where is your woodruff key”? Most of you right now are wondering what the heck a woodruff key is right? Well, it is a very small pie shaped piece of metal that helps line up different components on a pully and apparently mine was missing and of course they did not have one at the store where I was. I grabbed the alternator and headed for the door trying to think the entire time where the heck I was going to find a woodruff key at 6pm on a Friday night. Well, I did not find one and in fact Allison and I went out on a date instead. We got home at about 10 pm and watched a super cheesy girl movie. Went to bed late and slept a little later than normal and then we were off to a wedding rehearsal “brunch” at 11am for Jono Combrink and Laura Gilman(they are getting married Sunday and we did their pre-marriage counseling) and then we rushed home by 1pm to get the kids. I then grabbed the alternator and took the pully off in hopes of finding a woodruff key before 2pm at which time I had to be at IHOP to prophecy over people attending the Weekends @ IHOP Seminar. I had to call for backup, this was getting ridiculous…so I called Buzz and he took my alternator to a shop that had some woodruff keys but they were all to big so we have to file one of them down to fit. I hopped on the scooter and made it to IHOP by 1:57 pm and found myself at a water fountain filling up my water bottle thinking that I needed to slow down a bit. But, instead of slowing down I headed to the prophecy seminar and we ministered to about 40 people for about an hour…now I am back in the Prayer Room and Jon Thurlow’s set is going OFF…intercession has hit the room. I gotta go get into this
So every Thursday me and the boys have the whole day together to kick around and goof off or whatever(Allison is able to go to the Prayer Room all day uninterupted). We do various thing like go fishing, bike riding, exploring, swimming, etc etc. Anyway, today we woke up about 8am(Eli had Charlie Eibel spend the night last night and they were up all night doing “stuff”)and chomped down some cereal and got ready for the day. Charlies mom picked him up at 9:30 cause he had a guitar lesson at 10am with Adam Snegowski(try spelling that). Bunny trail; I am so pumped that the musicians and singers at IHOP are pouring into and raising up the younger generation in musical excellence. Eli takes piano lessons with J Rizz and J also teaches an End-Times Bible study for 10-12 yr olds. So, these kids (my kids) are being mentored and trained by prophetic messengers who are doing this thing full time and I know it is having a HUGE impact on their lives and destiny’s. So Charlies mom picked him up and me and E and S were wonderind what to do with the rest of our day. I was thinking swimming but it was super overcast and looed like thinderstorms were coming any second. I remembered an email that Stephanie Parker had sent me about free bowling in Kansas City all summer so I headed for the computer and searched for it. After a while I found it and signed up for the deal and we were off to bowl. A short stop at a bagel shop for some grub and we were at the alley and ready to roll(get it, roll). It was sweet cause on the 1st round Eli bowled a 97 and Silas bowled a 92…I bowled too since there was a suprise awaiting me of $1 games for adults all day onThursdays…SCORE! I got whipped by my boys by the way. After 2 games and a few blisters later (from the bowling shoes) we were back in the 85′ Vanagon and headed for home. Upon arriving home I saw my poor, sad 1990 Vanagon sitting in the driveway due to a bad alternator. Now is a good a time as any so i took that puppy off and headed to the Auto parts store to get a new one. Again a nice suprise awaited me; the bad alternator was under warranty so I got a free trade in(this was a good thing cause we are in the Neg in our account…ouch). They ordered me another one and i will pick it up tommorow and put it on the VW in the morning.
Beautiful...
After the Auto parts store I came home and Eli practiced his piano stuff and Silas chased the lawn mower around while I cut the grass. Man, I think the grass here in the Mid-West is on steroids. I can cut it on Monday and by Wednesday it needs it again…crazy!!! After the grass I ran some shower water over my body and went to meet Dave Campbell @ IHOP Pancakes for about an hour(kids with Allison). Got home about 10:30 and went into the boys room for a little tuck in time a some back scratching . Now in bed and going to hit the sack soon…I have to be at the Prayer Room at 10am tommorow for intercession. Great day, good night!
Well, it is official, my buddy Nate Wood is having a little girl. He and Katty found out last week that they will be parents of a girl in November. So, I figured he might need a little down time in the sun, on a river, in a canoe, with a fishing pole…catching fish of course. So we left yesterday morning at 7 am and headed South toward Clinton Missouri and Weaubleau Creek(an Osage River arm near the Truman Res.) for an all day trip. Of course as soon as we got to the river (9am) and had dragged the boat down the steep, rocky embankment (with all the gear) to the river, it started to rain. But that did not deter us from going for it anyway. The weather ended up clearing up not long after we started and the sun came out in full force. The fishing was kinda slow to begin with but we started catching quite a few fish as the day went on. Nate caught 2 nice bass and we caught quite a few bluegill and sunfish also. But the kicker was when Buzz and John Hunter finally caught up to us a ways down river(did I tell you that they were with us also?). Anyway, Nate asked them if they had caught many fish(Nate was probably thinking that since it was slow for us that maybe it was slow for them also)and Buzz answered back “I stopped counting after 50″…and he was totally serious. I told Nate that God was being kind to Buzz cause he was about to turn 65.
Not long after this was when me and John climbed up a mud cliff and I wiped mud on my face and chest and ran off the cliff into the water…a mere 10 foot drop…into 5 feet of water. I didn’t even hit bottom. :0 When you see Nate make sure you give him a slap on the back of the neck…he will love it.
. It is IMPORTANT to be able to communicate a message clearly and with conviction so others will go with you on the journey to find out the why behind the what of a Forerunner and the destiny of Forerunners in the age the Lord returns. So, when I was communicating this very thing to a group of Korean teens in Seattle this past weekend they were suddenly struck with the fact that they are this and He is coming and we MUST do something about it. The light bulb went off and I was there to see it light up. When I let my new friend Chris (a 16 year old Korean American from Seattle) hear Misty’s song ” People get ready, Jesus is coming” and he was like “This stuff is AMAZING, Jesus really is coming soon!!!” I just sat back and thought to myself; ” I love what I do” .