JOEL 2 GENERATION

I went back today to the place that had given me free coffee two days ago - this time to pay for my coffee AND to see what door God would open.  All of the people I had prayed for two days ago were there, but today there was another one, an Egyptian Muslim man from Nubia (the far south of Egypt).  Nubians historically were all Christians.  In fact, Christianity had reached them by the end of the 1st century!  I began to show him an Arabic video which was a prayer by the Egyptian Coptic priest Father Makary Younan.  And guess what?  He already knew about him!  I told him that my wife and I had learned a lot about how to pray in Arabic for healing and exorcism from Father Makary.  I told him that there were many videos he could watch on YouTube.  May this man return to the faith of his fathers and find again the Christ whom the Nubians worshipped for centuries before being coerced into the religion of Islam. After leaving the coffee place, I...

DISCLAIMER - in NO WAY did we violate the guidelines that the country has outlined in this time, and we practiced proper social distancing in every establishment we were able to enter.  And the reason I say this is because it is a LIE that Christians cannot be out ministering to the lost and hurting at this time.  Jesus would be out and we follow Him.  Of course, there are certain people that due to health/age considerations should not be doing this, but the idea that we should be simply staying at home means that literally millions of people around the world will not be encountering Christians in their time of greatest need. One week ago we named it "Church on Wheels" and today we launched out once again as a community in different vehicles in this Muslim-majority country.  And once again God blew our minds with the opportunities He gave us to be "FEAR Extinguishers", to pray for those who can no longer go to their churches.  In fact, in a number of places t...

The first experience we had today was on our morning prayer walk where I got to walk-thru a drive-thru at a local fast-food restaurant.  I bought a water and got to pray for an Egyptian Muslim man in Arabic.  It was the 2nd time I've walked up to this drive-thru to pray, but now that we can't go inside, what is a "fear extinguisher" to do??  After that, the Lord opened up new doors in a new area to pray with and or bless people from Egypt, from India, from the Philippines and even one from Iran. People continue to receive with such gratitude.  The Muslims I have prayed for and/or blessed will say "amen" over and over while I pray ( ameen in Arabic).  The Christians are very thankful - agreeing whole-heartedly with prayer in Jesus' Name! A serious prayer at this time for everyone is the protection of their salaries and for the financial pressure they are either currently facing or will be soon.  This is a major prayer request that we can all be pr...

Today on my second prayer walk, the Lord opened the door for us to pray for and encourage many more people - Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and at least one Buddhist.  Between 10 and 15 more people - from restaurant employees to delivery people again from a number of different nations. In one place, their salaries have been cut by 30% and so they welcomed our prayer that God would restore their salaries to their full amounts.  I got to pray for the manager also in Arabic.  It was at one of our favorite restaurants and so we were all looking forward to celebrating with food together - and the manager said it would be "on the house"! The most powerful encounter, however, was with a Filipino woman who we had ministered to last week.  We got to pray for her Arab husband who had lost his ID card, which is a huge problem with so many checkpoints.  We prayed that God would reveal to them where it was. While we were with her, my wife said that we continue to go aroun...

God continues to open doors whenever we get out and have the chance to interact with people.  Please don't think that you are limited!  God is making ways for those of us who will make ourselves available! Today while out on my morning prayer walk, I got to pray for another Turkish Muslim man.  Then into an open coffee shop (which was a surprise!) and got to pray for 5 of the staff - all from India.  I assume they were all Hindus. And they were so open, so receptive.  I was able to boldly pray for the power of Jesus' Blood to come over them and their families! And in the end, they would not let me pay for the coffee I ordered. Free coffee!!! (and it didn't matter how much I insisted, and even put the money on the counter - they wouldn't take it). Beyond that, I was able to pray for two more Muslim men - one from Egypt and one from Bangladesh. This is simply the greatest time ever for being able to minister openly and boldly to the people we are meeting....

Proverbs 29:18 is a well-known and oft-cited verse - especially the King James Version,  "Where there is no vision, the people perish" I am daily reflecting on how people are doing in the midst of the greatest global crisis in our lifetimes.   Like all of you, we are connected to many different people.  We have our families, we have our friends, we have our church communities and we have colleagues at work.  Beyond that, we are 'hearing' from many others.  Some people seem to be doing extremely well and others are struggling tremendously.   And what is the difference between those who are thriving and those who are not?  In many cases, I believe it boils down to "vision".  This morning, I realized that those who have a clear mandate, or "vision" as Proverbs 29:18 calls it, in these days are the ones who seem to be doing the best.  And not just their general mandate, but those who have an "updated" or "fresh" mandate (...

I thought all restaurants were now closed but found 3 that were still open. I was able to pray for one Turkish Muslim in the first restaurant (the 1st Turkish person we've encountered), and then 6 more in two other restaurants close by.  Most of them were from the Philippines and were very grateful for the prayer and the encouragement.  In one restaurant, they had heard a rumor that their salaries would be reduced and so I was able to pray for that not to happen.  I shared with them a testimony of how God provided for us this month in an unexpected way for an unexpected bill. Finally, I was able to encourage another Egyptian Muslim security guard to look into the ministry of Fr. Makary Younan in Cairo.  He was particularly interested in his ministry of exorcism.  He was very open and as I was leaving he was about to look this man's ministry up on the internet. As long as the doors are open, we will be taking the opportunities to pray with anybody and everyb...

I haven't even left the house today - a small group of us gathered for morning prayer early. My wife is out helping a pregnant Ethiopian Christian woman get to her 8-month check-up as no taxis or buses are operating.  While driving her to/from the appointment she has been able to pray with this woman who understandably is nervous with a curfew starting daily at 5pm, wondering how she will get to the hospital when she goes into labor.  She is getting to "extinguish fear" in her life. As I was waiting for the plumber to come to fix our toilet that our landlord had arranged, there was a knock on the door and two Egyptian Muslim plumbers came in.  I knew this was God bringing an opportunity right into my own home!   I have been directing any and all Egyptian Muslims to the ministry of a gifted Coptic priest in Cairo named "Makary Younan".  As I began to speak to these two men about how they were doing and how their families were doing, I just happened ...

Like many across the Body of Christ, our community has been singing Leeland's song "Way Maker". Little did we know that it was going to become so literal in these days of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the Middle Eastern Muslim country in which we live, the restrictions have been tightening for the past few weeks.  But through it all, God has made a way - He's been truly a "Way Maker". We've been able to find ways to meet (and not just virtually, but in person), we've been able to minister to so many people in the midst of the ever-increasing limitations and restrictions. Even today, when one of the main ways we have been interacting with people and praying for people has been taken away, the Lord opened new doors.  Unprecedented doors.  One of my frustrations, since this began, is that the opportunity to minister to the local Muslim population has been far more limited than it is normally.  Yes, we have been able to minister to many different ...

Today we discovered that the main way we've been connecting with people and praying for them has been taken away - all restaurants are now closed and no takeaway orders can be picked up.  For the past two weeks, we've been visiting dozens of restaurants/coffee shops/etc. to be "Fear Extinguishers" as per the mandate the Lord gave us. This door is no longer available. And it came without warning. I am encouraged because yesterday I felt "compelled by love" to head out and visit a number of restaurants, a supplement store, a bakery, and a donut shop.  I blogged about those encounters yesterday.  Little did I know that it would be my last chance to minister in that way. So as we launched out this morning on foot to go to our local Costa Coffee which we discovered was now shut and in the1.5-hour prayer walk we took, the Lord opened the door for us to minister to many people.  A few of those included: 1. A group of 3 working inside a now-closed bakery (m...

We are not sure how long our "window" will remain open as they are now discussing enforcing a total curfew. Already some restaurants/coffee places that were open are now only taking orders and either coming out to people's cars, delivering through a drive-thru window or doing home deliveries. Today I went out to "explore the space" and see what that might look like - I was able to go through one drive-thru at a fast-food restaurant and first of all got to pray for the Nepali Hindu woman who took my order through the intercom and then got to pray for her even more and also another Egyptian man who was a Coptic Christian. When I began to pray in Arabic for the Egyptian man, I knew he was Coptic when he began praying the Lord's Prayer along with me!! So I discovered that even if they close the restaurants/coffee places so that we can no longer go inside to pray with people, we can minister at the drive-thru windows and/or when people come to our cars to take...