THURSDAY MARCH 29th

THIRTY NATIONS – FIVE HUNDRED STORIES

There are thirty different nations represented here. I didn’t realize there were that many. Each of the representatives are people who have some mileage as advocates or associates of the idea that it is in the heart of God to transform a town, region, city or nation.

After a great piece of Bible teaching from Exodus, George Otis spoke about the fact that, while they had told less than twenty of the stories that were out there of places around the world that had been changed by God, they actually had records of more than five hundred similar stories that they had not had opportunity to follow up or validate let alone tell. He presented an ambitious bit exciting program called Fire Quest that would seek to use different methods to visit, film and report as many of those five hundred stories using the web to feed video and data information about what God was doing. He said that this would have four benefits: a. it would pass on the story in the way stories that inspire faith need to be passed from one place to another and from one generation to another b. it would teach more people more of the ways of God c. it would contribute to people having a larger vision of God’s work and d. provide a form of antidote to the spiritual of hopelessness that often came upon believers when all they heard was the world that comes in through the mass media..

In the midst of all this we heard a story of a baptism time in the Euphrates River right in the middle of Baghdad where people were lined up a hundred deep waiting to be baptized as new believers in Jesus Christ. Here are some stories worth the telling. We also learned of the hundreds of churches that are currently being planted among the Kurds in the northern part of Iraq and also in remote parts of adjoining nations, including one in the news lately in association with atomic weapons.

There was some considerable discussion about the ways this could take place and the ways it could be spread to believers around the globe. It tells a story of the power of the life and message of the kingdom of God that changes cultures from the inside out and brings hope and life where there is none.

This evening we views the latest Sentinel video. George called it a provocumentary. It is a thirty minute version of what is happening in the world, what different groups in the community propose to do about the problems and issues that are out of control, and what the church is doing while all this is happening in a 360 degree radius of its facilities. It is a powerful and (as proposed) provocative challenge to the church to take its role as the custodian of its constituent communities.

All very stirring stuff. Lots of processing going on and it is very stimulating to process what is being shared with people from a whole range of different cultures and nations. The humility and love between the leaders here is profound and allows for discussion and dialogue that doesn’t have the taint of pride and arrogance and one-up-man-ship that often happens when Christian leaders are together. There is the sense here of handling things that are holy. Everyone’s story is so above and beyond what a person, a denomination, a theology or a culture could produce that people talk about these issues with a derived sense of humility and reverence. There is also a common experience here of great suffering. All except the people from western nations have experienced the grace of God in the midst of very grave difficulties and struggles. That also breeds a sense of awesome gratitude to the God who has made such a difference. It is so far from the denominational rubbish that goes on in a lot of places I have been over the years. It is also a long way from the idea that some local congregation should begin to think of itself as having either the answer or worse still, the best answer. These people have also been delivered from that.

I find this environment very inspiring. My love to you. I’ll be in touch with you again soon

Brian

WEDNESDAY MARCH 29TH

CITY TRANSFORMATION MEETING IN TACOMA

and

THE INTERNATIONAL FELLOWSHIP OF TRANSFORMATION PARTNERS
SUMMIT 2007


We were picked up at 7:45 and taken to a church in the centre of Tacoma called Trinity Fellowship. It is right in the central area of Tacoma surrounded by large shopping malls. We had met the pastor (Ralph) the evening before.. The main drawcard for the meeting was Ruth Ruibal and there must have been more than a hundred pastors and intercessors gathered there, mainly from the Tacoma area. Many of you would know Ruth from the first of the Transformation videos. She and her husband were pasturing a church in Cali, Columbia. Cali was had the sad reputation of having the greatest number of homicides and kidnappings for the whole of South America (and perhaps beyond). It was also the centre of the largest and most influential of the drug cartels in South America.. You may remember that her husband was shot and his very sad death created a catalyst for the pastors to come together and begin to pray, and call the people from the churches to pray. They drew together 20,000 then 30,000, then 40,000 people to all night prayer meetings in the largest stadiums in the city. So many people showed up that they had to shut the gates. While the prayer was going on inside the people outside were walking along the roads around the stadium praying and worshipping the Lord as well. The unity, prayer and the following actions by the churches working together saw the power of the cartels broken, homicides spectacularly reduced and the churches begin to see sovereign increase of people coming to the Lord. The churches also began to work alongside the civic leaders to attack the problems that were not able to be solved in the city. That story was first told at the turn of the century. It was good to hear that all of those things have continued to happen. It was also good to hear that the process has continued with all kinds of challenges, but that the church there is meeting those challenges on the basis of unity, prayer, humble service and spiritual power.

Ruth spoke for about two hours and then Mirce and I spoke for about ten minutes each, sharing one or two things that were happening in our areas.. MIrce sng this great song in Croatian. He told us a story of when he was in one of the war torn areas and was speaking with a bunch of people in the basement of a monastery. Everyone was afraid and without any food. While he was speaking a soldier came in and sat in the back just looking around with wild and angry eyes. He had his gun at his side and Mirce thought he might shoot everyone. It happened a lot in those days. Mirce kept on preaching and then concluded by singing the song. It was made up of the words from John’s gospel “Peace I give you. My peace leave with you, not as the world gives. Do not be troubled and do not be afraid.” When the meeting finished the soldier came and said in a very rough way, “These people are starving and have no homes to go to or food to eat. You have given them something they need even more than that. Keep on speaking about this peace of yours.


They prayed for us and we prayed for them. It was a good time.

After lunch Mirce wanted to buy some clothes before going to the Summit, so one of the pastors from Trinity took us over to the mall and he was able to get some things from there. Mirce is a big bloke and has a problem with diabetes. He is on a strict diet and has lost more than 20 kilos in the last two months. His is still a big man, so he has a way to go. We have a lot of fun together. The pastor who was looking after us was a great guy as well. For an American he had a very Aussie sense of humour so before very long we were paying out on each other pretty avidly.

At around four in the afternoon Dennis Fuque (pronounced “foo-kway”) came to collect us and we were drove north on Interstate 5 to a turn off somewhere between Tacoma and the Sea Tac airport that took us east into the hill country. Washington state is full of large conifers and beautiful hills and valleys that rise up to very impressive snow covered mountain peaks. We tracked around some of these hills until we reached a Christian Conference Centre called “Berachah” which is a Hebrew word for “blessing.” There are about fifty people here from all parts of the globe: Canada, Columbia, Brazil, Uganda, South Africa, Romania, Switzerland, Macedonia, Denmark and then Japan, The Philippines, Fiji and Australia.` It was great to meet and talk with some of them over the evening meal and then to hear some of them begin to share in the first session of the Summit.

I will have a copy of the sharing on video to show people at home, but the stories were amazing. We heard a young Philippino talk about a revival that has been going on in the Chang Mai area of Thailand. Thousands of young people, sometimes as young as ten have been gathering to pray at 4 in the mornings and they have seen visitation after visitation or the glory presence of God. As a result hundreds and hundreds of people are being healed, saved and transformed. We heard a great bloke from South Africa called Dawie Spangenberg talk about prayer gatherings of leaders from African nations and then similar gatherings of Christian leaders from the Arab nations in the north. As a result of all the things that are happening across the churches on the African continent, for the first time an however long, the statistics show that the increase of Islam in the continent have turned around and are becoming less. I’m not sure about the exact details, but the figure I remember was 51% going down to 47%. We heard about a guy from Uganda being involved in meetings in Burundi where one of the rebel leaders became a Christian and began to travel around the nation repenting to the people for the things they had done. He eventually was elected as the President and has personally sponsored large crusades to see Burundi people coming to the Lord. On top of that, the leaders have held a large meeting where they committed the nation to the Lord and vowed to walk in obedience to him.

All of that is very exciting. None of this is perfect, nor does it produce perfect results, but to hear the passion people have to fight for the God ordained destinies of their nations and with a view to their nations taking their place in God’s purposes in the world. That is powerful. On top of that, there is a profound and tangible kind of fellowship here created by humble servants of God preferring one another in love. There are no big egos and very little pride. These are humble but determined people. Many of them have suffered greatly and you can see the purity of God in their attitudes and postures. It is extremely refreshing.

My love to you

Brian

TUESDAY MARCH 27TH SEATTLE TO TACOMA

Chuck and Meryl Walle looked after us on Tuesday evening.

Mirce is a wonderful pastor from Skopje, the capital of Macedonia

After having breakfast with Ian and Seb this morning we parted company until tomorrow afternoon. Jay and Wendy are pastors from a suburb in Tacoma and are part of the team of leaders who foster unity and purpose in the city. Tacoma is about an hour south of Seattle and about 450,000 population. We picked up Ruth and Sarah Ruibal at the airport on the way and it was good to see them again. They were both in Canberra as I mentioned before.

We drove to Tacoma, had lunch and then I went off to meet with a Macedonian pastor who is also here for the Consultation. He is a big guy called Mirche (don’t ask about spelling, but the pronunciation is something like “mech-ay”) . What a great bloke. There are a very small number of evangelical churches in Macedonia and he has been involved in planting thirty five of them. They have been moving to bring the evangelical churches together in the country and it is very hard there. It is a great joy to meet such a persistent and strong servant of God. They have seen some very significant things in that country where leaders who would never really like to be together have not only come and prayed together but have repented for their division and their suspicion of one another. God is beginning to create the situation where ethnic walls are being torn down through the grace and mercy of Jesus and by the courage of some of the leaders.

We went to a meeting this afternoon with some other leaders where we shared some stories and then prayed together. The meeting was set up by the international leader of the Pastors Prayer Summits Network, Dennis. He has been to Australia and actually visited Canberra when I wasn’t there. He met up with Steve Hall from Queanbeyan.

We were taken to the home where we are staying for this evening and after team some of the leadership team from the Tacoma area met there for some more sharing and prayer. This has been a very valuable add-on experience. It is always helpful to see what pastors and leaders are doing in another area. There are always insights and warnings and observations that help you to think through the issues.

I am sure that there is a refining of the vision going on, possibly all around the world. It’s easy to use those words as a euphemism for “nothing very exciting is happening,” but I don’t think it is justified in this case. There are some strong threads being woven into a fabric here that would have the capacity not only to qualify for God to visit but perhaps to enable him to take up habitation. The question is, can we build a “house” for God to dwell in? Can the church desire this kind of house and not the one that is built out of personal ambition and pride.

Chuck and Meryl are our hosts for tonight. They are such great people. Warm hearted and very hospitable.

Tomorrow we are at a meeting in Trinity Church in downtown Tacoma before heading out to the Lodge where the Consultation is being held.

Thank you to those who are praying for us. Love to you.

Brian

MONDAY MARCH26TH REFUSING TO SLEEP IN SEATTLE

Today was a rest day for us.

We are staying in a hotel in Lynnwood close to the offices of the Sentinel Group (George Otis organization). There were no plans for today so after breakfast Ian and I wandered over to the local Starbucks and spent nearly two hours pouring over many of the issues that are part of the reason we are here. I am so grateful for the friendship of this terrific bloke. I can’t think of another person on the planet who helps me think like Ian does. It isn’t that we think the same way on every subject. We definitely don’t, but the open exchange of perspectives and ideas and passions stirs my mind and more importantly my heart for the purposes of God.

We didn’t quite solve all the world’s problems in the couple of hours, but stirred things up enough so that we would be tossing the ideas around for the rest of the day at least. Seb is a great contributor to this process simply because the wisdom he brings from the practicalities of doing the stuff in the villages around Fiji makes us realize that you can’t think your way into a revival.

I don’t think I have mentioned the fact that when the decision made that Seb’s dad, Vuniani should not come it proved to be what could well have been a life saving decision. It turned out that Vunni had a very large blood clot. When the doctors in Toowoomba found out about it they said that it was such that he could have just died on the plane. They have been working with him get the right levels of medication to clear it. He hasn’t been allowed to walk until yesterday. They will monitor his situation and connect with a doctor in Suva so that when he is well enough to fly he will be able to return and continue his convalescence there. This has all been a matter of grace from heaven for him. He has been doing a lot of traveling in recent years, but that will have to stop for quite a while. I don’t know the way it works but long distance air travel is risky for someone with his condition.

After extended coffee I decided to tackle the local bus system and find my way to the Boeing factory. They have a tour of the plant and being a frustrated fly boy I thought it would be aeronautically sacrilegious to be so close and not attend. After some negotiations with the booth operator at the nearby transit depot I was on a bus that took me within a kilometer or so of the facility.

I won’t bore you with the details. It was impressive to say the least. The Boeing factory is the largest building in the world by volume. It is a single building that covers more ground area than Disneyland. The construction process for these large jets is mind boggling. To see them at all the different stages of construction was equally impressive. The bus ride was quite an around and about journey. I would have been lost anywhere along the route had I been on the sidewalk rather than inside the bus. It finally drove into the interchange and I was able to walk back to the hotel.

Later in the afternoon some arrangements were made for me to go down to Tacoma tomorrow and be there for a day with some pastors and leaders from that city. Ruth Ruibal is also going to be there and we are sharing some speaking commitments. Ruth Ruibal is the one you would know from Cali in Columbia. Her husband was a pastor and was shot by someone outside his church. His death was the catalyst for the transformation experience you would have seen in the second of the now famous videos. She has been to Canberra for some meetings in our church. They were mid week meetings – perhaps there was just one evening meeting. She is a great person and I am looking forward to meeting with her again. When she and her daughter came to Canberra her plane was delayed leaving the next day and we had a long time to talk.

So tomorrow morning I will leave for Lynnwood and we will go to the Consultation from there. The place where they are holding it is in the south anyway, so we will be closer. Tacoma is about an hour south of the Seattle CBD.

I’ll talk to you next time from Tacoma

SUNDAY - ONTARIO to BOISE to SEATTLE

Hi everyone,

I had the greatest day today. Yesterday evening I travelled from Boise in Idaho just across the border into Oregon to have some ministry with a church in Ontario. I was billeted with a great couple. They have travelled all over the world as Doug worked as a dentist in places like Nepal and the Marshall Islands and they also spent some time in YWAM and did travelling in Indonesia. We talked and swapped stories till late and connected in that wonderful way God's kids get to do.

This morning the first service in Christian Life Fellowship, Ontario, Oregon was at 9:00 and the second followed right on at 10:30. This was a great bunch of people and we connected very strongly. I had some minor language problems, which I warned them about in advance and so it was pretty much fun all the way. God's presence was strong in the meeting and there was a wonderul reponse and responsiveness. This church is planted in the poorest part of Ontario and the people are wonderful down to earth loving people. I had to watch the time for the first service, but had more opportunity in the second. I have a strong feeling that we will build a connection with this church. The pastor has a great visions for working in Ontario with other churches to reach the whole region. Anyway, we will see what eventuates.

After the services we drove back to Boise to join with the rest of the team for lunch and then it was time to go to the airport to catch our flight to Seattle. One of the great things about doing things like this is the opportunity to meet and share and gauge what is happening and gain insight from what we have heard and seen. The additional gain is to be able to talk about it as a group. This was the case with our trip around Australia last year. We didn't stop talking from the time we left till the time we finished. On this trip Ian and Seb and I are able to share in the same way.

One of the things we are longing to see is a group of leaders in a city who have the commitment and the heart to build a leadership community into the city that will both model the life of Christ as well as pour this life into the church in the city itself. So much of what we do is cooperative but not purposeful oneness. If Jesus wants to dwell in a body prepared for him, then that body must be the church in city. How can Jesus dwell in a "temple" that is in ruins? The house of the Lord must be built. It is interesting that the prayer time focused on division in the church, but that division is often only thought of in organizational terms, not in organic ones.

We default to something that will never achieve that goal with the greatest of ease. We put up lame substitutes and call them by the same name.

The connection with the Treasure Valley in Idaho was very much in the Lord, I am sure of that.

I'll talk again very soon.

Brian

SECOND DAY - BOISE ONTARIO

Saturday March 24th


Today was a full deal from the time we were picked up at the hotel until now. It is 10:45 pm and I am staying with a great couple from the church in Ontario where I will be preaching tomorrow. This is not Canada but near the border between Oregon and Idaho just on the Oregon side.


We all slept really well last night. Having only had a few hours in total the day before because of our flights, we were in bed by 9:00 pm and I didn’t wake till about 7:15 am. Pretty good going for me. We were picked up by Montie Galston, our host from the day before and taken to the restaurant where we were to meet with the pastors and leaders from Boise. There were about 45 to 50 there from churches across what they call the Treasure Valley. It is a high plain bordered on the west by the Snake River and on the east by some mountains. The mountains still have snow on the tops of them and look wonderful. At the breakfast meeting some of the leaders spoke about what they had been doing in the city. They have some terrific activities that represent the church and connect well into the city. They have seen many people coming to the Lord as a result. They had a festival where 1,800 people made commitments to Christ. One of the young guys there is both creative and enterprising and has started an internet site called http://www.iquestion.org It is a site where they have pages where all the kinds of questions people have that relate to the challenging issues in life are a doorway to some of the leading Christian ministry people give answers. For example, Garry Smalley answers questions on marriage and family. Josh McDowell answers questions about faith and life. Perhaps you could check it out. It is a big project that was initiated by some money put together by the churches but has now rolled into a 2 million dollar project that will become a 15 million dollar project over the next couple of years as they gather their material and make it work through their website. There were lots of other stories. I recorded them all on digital files, so I will be able to make them available to anyone who wants to know.

After about 45 minutes of their sharing, the three of us shared stuff. I talked about unclimbed mountains and the urgency of committing to the climb (my four unscaled Christian peaks: holiness, oneness, fullness and completion). Seb talked about what has been happening in Fiji and Ian then finished up with stories from Toowoomba and some stuff on unity. It was a great time of impartation all around. These are great people who are, perhaps, among the groups in the USA, who are closest to Aussies in the way they think and work. Idaho is a pioneering area where there are still large areas of unpopulated plains and hills. It is a long way from a lot of the more well known places in the US and people have developed a kind of down to earth view of reality that is very appealing. They are extremely hospitable and very generous. We have eaten better than we need and have made strong connections with lots of open hearted people who are passionate about serving Jesus.

After the meeting we went up to what is called Table Mountain where the people of Boise erected a huge lighted cross. It is about as big as the one at the ACCC in Canberra but can be seen for absolute miles and miles. We had a great prayer time there with quite a few of the leaders who had been at the breakfast meeting.

We were given a bit of a drive around town after coming down from the mountain and then visited the facility of a ministry called Mission Media (the same building where the “iquestions” guy works out of as well). We ended up having lunch with some of the staff guys from that ministry before heading out for a smaller meeting with some of the key leaders in the city reaching team. Here we had a good opportunity to talk beyond the initial presentation stuff and get down to some real issues together. It was inspiring and as encouraging as it was informative. It is clear that in many cases the “oneness” between churches and their leaders is still stalled in so many places. Ian shared a very powerful word born of their experiences in Toowoomba and I pitched in here and there when it was relevant.

We had some food at around 6:30 and the pastor and his wife where I will be preaching tomorrow drove me the 100km to Ontario. We had a great time in the car and I have been billeted with a really great couple in the church who have worked in many places in the world and did a stint in YWAM for a season. They have a huge heart for some of the nations where they have been and will probably end up serving God there when their teenage daughter finishes school. We talked until late and I am now finishing up in order to get ready for two church meetings tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow will involve preaching in the morning, then driving back to Boise for a meeting at 2:00 pm before we get on a plane to fly to Seattle.

I’ll talk to you tomorrow from Seattle. I haven’t been able to get a web connection tonight so I will try in the morning and if not successful I will send this and a bit more from Seattle. Hope the pictures give some idea. I never know whether pictures I take are any good because to me they are all living experiences. At least you should be able to get a bit of an idea.

Lots of love to you


Brian

Boi, are we glad to see Boise !!

Hi everyone,

CANBERRA TO LOS ANGELES AND THEN TO BOISE

It is around 9:30 in the morning in Los Angeles. We arrived here at 7:00 am having flown for more than twelve hours. It went pretty quickly for me because I was able to sleep for a few hours more than once. The rest of the time was spent going hard talking Oz and church with Ian Shelton.. Savlaca is with us as well. He is the son of pastor Vunni from Fiji. He is a terrific young guy and handles a lot of the work in Fiji with teams going to villages and seeing God bring about healing and reconciliation and revival. Vunni was supposed to come as well, but became ill just a day or so before. He had been in Toowoomba with the Toowoomba City Church at the time, so he is resting up back in Oz and the three of us are here.

It was still a pretty long day yesterday. I was up by about 4:30 am and to the airport by 5:30. Then it was Brisbane by 7:00 am and with a short train ride down to the International Terminal, I was there well before 8:00. Time to catch up on some letters and emails waiting for Ian and Sav to arrive. We took off from Brisbane by about 11:30 am. For those of you who know the Australia to US experience, you get this really strange short darkness going from west to east. I reckon it is about 2:00 am on Saturday morning in Canberra at the time I am writing this. That means the day lasted for nearly 22 hours if you don’t take the naps along the way.

I was going to phone Nola to let her know we had arrived safely but for her sake I stopped short when I realized that she would get a phone call just after midnight.

We have a four hour layover here before we get on another plane and fly to Boise, Idaho. I think it is about a two and a half hour flight. The program starts tonight with a meeting and then all day tomorrow and then preaching on Sunday. We are looking forward to all of that.

Even though LAX is always some kind of waiting ordeal. Immigration, customs, then a long walk to the United domestic terminal and another bunch of lines. We found a Starbucks and decided to park there until the time of board.

Talk with you soon. Photos are a bit on the lame side. We will try and fake some kind of drama to make them a bit more worthwhile watching.

We'll I'm still talking. That's strange for me isn't it. Brian can't stop talking. So what else is new?

What's new is that we have finally arrived in Boise, Idaho. It is the capital of the state of Idaho. It has about 200,000 people and the state has about 1 million people. They have a part time legslature made up of people who work like city councillors do. This is really high desert country. The plains are higher than Canberra, about 2,500ft. These are irrigated plains and water comes by way of melted snow and about 12 inches of rain per year.

Our first engagement is a dinner with some of the pastors in about an hour. They have put us up in this nice place for tonight so that we can rest up for the meetings tomorrow.

I am not stopping talking. Till tomorrow or whenever I get near the right connection.

Love to you from

BRIAN