Personal Stories Part 2

Here is a picture of the amphitheater in Ephesus where 20,000 people rioted when the Apostle Paul proclaimed the Gospel there according to Acts 19 in the New Testament of the Bible.  It was a pleasure to visit there and made the Scriptures come alive.  Here is part of the story of how I got there:

Struggling as I was with loneliness, feeling like I couldn’t go on with this life on the road for Jesus, I told my parents and my girlfriend Rochelle that I would come back home. So I did go back to Lynden and started working in a factory. But all that time I knew I was running away from the call again. When once I almost lost one of my fingers in a work accident, I woke up to the fact that I was running away and repented, tearing my clothes and selling my stuff once more, I purposed to go wherever God would lead. Well, he had me stay right where I was again and work for my Dad as a house painter. But soon His purposes would be made known. I received a call to go to Mexico on a mission trip with a youth group. On the way there the door also opened for me to go to Turkey and Israel on a free trip for a Christian video.

In Mexico I preached the Gospel for the first time at the age of 19 and prayed with people there to receive Christ. The churches there were small and we also did open air evangelism on the streets. Going to Israel and Turkey was also a highlight for me. When I returned there were several people who had a burden for our little town of Lynden, especially for the youth. We sensed that God wanted to bring unity to the churches and revival to our hearts. Suddenly where kids had been drinking and partying down by the river, they all started worshipping and praying together. The gifts of the Spirit, such as tongues and prophecy, started to manifest among us. Then miraculous healings started happening in the name of Jesus. A friend of mine asked if I would help him start a young adult ministry, which became a cafe ministry called Sam’s Cafe. We thought it was going to be a dynamic place for young adults who had left the church, but it quickly became clear that this was an outreach. Down and out folks from downtown Bellingham and locally started coming who didn’t know Jesus and they began to have faith in Christ for the first time. We asked them if it was the music or dynamic preaching; they said no, it was the love of God in the people there. Soon many more began to receive the Lord in faith into their hearts. Many of those folks have remained Christians and are friends of ours now.

At that time high school and college aged folks were praying every night for God to move, just because we wanted to. We worshipped in song every chance we could get. Groups started going into downtown Bellingham and sharing Jesus, handing out food and hot chocolate on the streets. I and my friends were experiencing the Holy Spirit in new ways, like folks praying in tongues and sharing in meetings prophetic words that the Lord had laid on their hearts. On one occasion a young man declared to another young man whose mother was told she was dying of cancer, “she will be healed!” She had a test and the cancer was gone. I remember God opened the door for preaching and leading worship in churches and recording CD’s of the music He gave me. It was very exciting and so much of the time things seemed to happen quickly and joyfully.

We learned that God was moving all over the country, especially in college aged folks, in a similar way. In fact, my ex-girlfriend Rochelle was experiencing a lot of the same things unbeknownst to me. But when we starting writing again we realized that God was calling us to the same things.

The revival was starting to slow down, especially when we fasted and prayed for a young boy to be healed from cancer, but he wasn’t. Then God started also giving us prophetic words about worshipping Him even when we didn’t feel it anymore, seeking His Face and not His hand. God was bringing us to a deeper place of discipleship, but many weren’t ready for that. Yet God remained faithful and we were learning not to trust in feelings and things happening just as we wanted them to.

My work was coming to a close in Lynden and so I went to Seattle to fast and pray and seek God’s face for the next work. During that time it became clear to me that I should ask for Rochelle’s hand in marriage. I also received the call from God to foster authentic community in Christ in the midst of a lonely, busy culture of America. Rochelle said yes! And we were engaged, but while in Seattle the Lord made it clear that I was to go to Zuni, New Mexico next. And that would also prove my own personal faith: was it based on things going easily or on the truth of God’s love and Word? Find out next time…