Rest for the rest of us

We just came back from our summer family vacation. This was indeed a lot of fun. You're welcome to watch the slideshow I put together quickly and get an idea. This was a very quick 30 min job and no editing whatsoever, so please have mercy with the blips.

I personally really enjoyed this vacation. It was one of those rare vacations where you actually come back home rested and you don't need to rest from the vacation. Everything was low key, really easy going time. But I had to also discipline my mind to stay away from all the things that are going on in ministry, business and personal. It does take spiritual strength and wisdom to actually keep at bay all these thoughts that come to your mind when you go to bed. With more than two dozen of to-do's in my organizer, it took a major effort at times not to run to town and start checking emails. It was actually refreshing to be in the middle of the woods, with no signal, no phones, no sms and no email for a whole week. Sure, I did get to check my email once or twice, but I didn't even have the grace to do anything. My dad was in the hospital for some test last week so this was really my main concern, wanting to make sure there was nothing urgent on that front.

We didn't go on this vacation because everything was so perfect, we had all the money or all the time. It was something special to our family. We've been talking about taking a trip to South Dakota now for years. It was going to be something special to be able to go to the lands where Crazy Horse roamed and General Custer camped with his expedition. I'm so grateful to God for giving me this opportunity as a father to be able to bless our kids with this trip.

Looking at the Black Hills of South Dakota, reading and learning of the Native Americans and their ways of living was truly a fascinating time. And before you think I'm so high minded and only think about reading books, let me make it clear that the most fun part was going fishing. Both with the whole family and once actually totally on my own. On this trip I caught the biggest trout I've ever caught and I think I also missed two very large specimen.

I kept thinking of the love of Jesus and the fact that he does want us to rest. Not only once day a week from the weekly pressures of life, but once in a while to go somewhere where there are no ring-tones grilling your brain and no emails captivating your mind. A time when you actually hear the birds singing, see the deer running and feel the fish bending the fishing rod of your lucky cast. Thank you Lord for true rest, which can only come from you!

Now here's a verse that has been feeding my spirit in the last few days:

Be free from the love of money, content with such things as you have,
for he has said, “I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any way forsake you.”

So that with good courage we say,
“The Lord is my helper. I will not fear.
What can man do to me?”

Heb. 13:5-6 (WEB)

Photos:

1) bison at Custer National Park 2) with Wanda at Crazy Horse Memorial 3) our kids are learning Lakota words from a native woman at the visitor center at Crazy Horse Memorial

Thank you Theresa!

What kind of a blog entry this might be, you may ask. Let me explain.

I'm on my way back from a ministry trip in Charleston, South Carolina. This is my second trip there. My host is prophet Samuel Rivers from Voice of the Lord Church International. We've been developing a relationship since and it's been a blessing to get to know him and the people he leads.

This was really a wonderful and very refreshing ministry trip because there were several covenant friends who were able to join us for the meetings. Last but not least, we ministered together with prophet John Isleib from Jacksonville, FL. John of course is my best friend and governmental prophet to Harvest Breakthrough Network. I love to minister together with him. Not only that, but he was there with his wife Davia and their son David, so it really felt like a family.

I really enjoyed ministering at Voice of the Lord Church Intl, not least because our host prophet Samuel Rivers gives you complete freedom to minister as the Lord leads you, without putting pressure on his guest to perform. I've grown to really appreciate this, especially here in the United States, where in so many churches there is so much performance driven ministry going on. Something I can't stand and I try to avoid at all cost. I don't know what it will take for the Church here in the US to come out of this performance driven pattern and get down to the bottom of this raw apostolic Christianity we see in the book of Acts.

And as fun as it was on this trip, it was really hard for me to be away from home again. The more time passes, travel doesn't become easier, it becomes harder. I ask myself these questions all the time - what is this all about? Because I feel like there's nothing worth making me go away from my family and be separated from them, even if it was only for 3 days, if it wasn't for the Kingdom of God. Honestly, that's how I feel. And I've done a lot more than being gone for only 3 days. This year alone I've been away from family for 3 full months out of 7. That's not little.

But then again, right there in the middle of it all, something happens that just gives you new strength and joy in serving the Lord.

Like for instance Theresa.

Yesterday Theresa, one of the sisters in the church in Charleston, started to talk to me after the afternoon service. She thanked me for coming and sharing the word of God. She has a ministry in the prison. She said: "I don't know what's wrong with the Body of Christ. Why are there so many churches who are so ... dead! I see more people who have life from God when I go to minister in the prison, than in the people I see in the Church."

Right on, Theresa! Isn't this what we're declaring to the Body of Christ? And yet so many leaders just don't have the ears to hear it and the eyes to see it. For way too many pastors success is there as long as there are enough bodies to keep the place full and the bills paid. And then what we do is wait on God to do something as if were somehow despite of us, not because of us, the Church.

Theresa went on to thank me: "Your last coming to our church was really life-changing for me. I had been coming to this church for a while, but had not committed myself as a member. Last time you came, I was one of the people to whom you ministered prophetically and the word released was what I needed to complete my shift. I'm now a member and am so blessed. I also want to go to Russia and China on missionary trips."

Teresa made my day and really my weekend. There may be many more testimonies and we know there are. But it's just such a blessing and such an inspiration for me to hear this firsthand - that someone's life was changed for the better as a result of my travel and ministry. That this sister, who goes and gives out to the people in prison, was also ministered to and blessed by the Holy Spirit.

Isn't the Lord amazing? Truly, as parts of the same body, when we allow the Holy Spirit to flow through us, He will bless and minister to other, who will minister to other, who will minister to others.

So, I thank you Theresa for sharing your heart with me. Thank you, Lord, for using me to speak your word to someone who ministers to others, in places I can't go personally. And finally, the glory truly goes to Jesus who is the reason and the essence of our life and ministry!

I'm OK now. It doesn't matter that I'm now crammed in a tight airplane seat on my second flight back (delayed). That the man next to me on the last flight was breathing out into my direction. That my back is hurting me because of sitting in a very uncomfortable regional jet, having to put up with the loud flight attendant announcements coming through the speaker systems, blasting my hearing to the max.

Knowing that the Father can somehow, in someway use me to inspire, encourage and minister to His children, fills me with hope that it's all worth it and it will all bear fruit, regardless of how difficult it is for us sometime to see it and appreciate it.


pictured above: Theresa

You can see the photo-set from the ministry time here.