Catching you all up on some exciting things that have happened these last weeks . . .

1) Arts Festival, Scottish Festival, and other public events:

These are always perfect opportunities for interacting with all kinds of people. Everyone wants to be loved and have others show genuine interest in them. We love chatting with anyone and everyone (for the most part), and we wait upon the Lord to move upon those situations that He has set up. Sometimes we just plant a seed; sometimes we water a seed that has once been planted but needs sustenance; and at other times we end up praying with people off to the side somewhere, and/or they end up getting water baptized back at our place or wherever suits them. They key is remaining led by the Holy Spirit and being obediently flexible to whatever God puts before us. This is our calling and part of our reasonable service.

2) Church conventions:

When you’re solid in your faith and scriptural understanding of the full gospel salvation message, church-related conventions and events can also be where you might be called to the Lord’s work — maybe in a seemingly very small way (yet not small in the eyes of God!); maybe in a big way. We tend to hang around these events versus immersing ourselves in the teachings. Again, the key is to pray for the Lord’s leading; be in tune with the workings of the Holy Spirit; speak up when called to in the peace and love of God, yet also in the confidence and authority of Jesus Christ; and exercising faith in God’s anointing upon whatever He orchestrates by His hand. Remember: we are the messengers, and God is the One who gives the miraculous increase to whatever we say and do — it might not always accomplish what we hope it will, but God’s will will be done, always.

3) Neighbor’s Spiritfilled landscaper:

Don got chatting with one of our neighbor’s landscapers about lawn products. He found out he is already filled with the Holy Spirit but only prays in tongues at times, mostly during a “worship” service. Don encouraged him about the importance of consciously choosing to activate the gift of tongues on a daily basis, “building up ourselves on our most holy faith” (as described in Jude 20). Don and Ethan then prayed over him.

We meet so many Spiritfilled believers that are in similar situations where they’ve spoken in tongues a few times here and there, but have never had strong mentorship like the first disciples in the Book of Acts, and so they don’t realize they can pray in the language of the Holy Spirit as much as they can every day. They don’t realize that praying in tongues is not just for dedicated worship times; it’s also for whenever they want to communicate with their Father in Heaven throughout the course of their days.

Of course, we don’t freely pray in the Holy Spirit in public, but there are so many opportunities to be regularly prayerful toward God, to help us get through life. We imagine this was what was meant by the call to “pray without ceasing” in the Book of 1 Thessalonians!

4) Grocery store ministry :)

We regularly get chatting about the Lord with people while grocery shopping. Often the conversation starts when we spy a t-shirt or sweater they’re wearing (with a message about Jesus, or a church, or a church event, etc.). This is what happened to Ethan a couple of weeks ago. He got chatting with an older lady and her mother (who was wearing the t-shirt). The lady wanted to pray right then and there in the store aisle after Ethan shared with her some of our Church ministry experiences! Ethan encouraged her to finish up their shopping and then meet outside where it was a little quieter, so they could better focus on praying, which they did.

Afterward, the lady shared that her mother had asked whether or not she should wear her “Jesus t-shirt” given the recent persecution one man had experienced in the States, getting thrown out of a certain public place because of his overt promotion of Christianity. Her daughter (the lady Ethan prayed with) replied, “All the more why you should wear that t-shirt today!”

5) Home show vendor with spelling mistake on his booth signage:

While strolling around a home show event (prior to which we had prayed — for the Lord to clearly guide us to who He wanted us to share a message with), we spied a booth that had misspelled signage. At first, we thought it was maybe the surname of the company owners — “Christain.” But after we asked the booth operator, we realized it was a spelling mistake, so we pointed it out to him. This led to a beautifully anointed conversation which ended in us praying over him in a quite area of the convention hall.

Again, he was in the situation where he had been filled with the Holy Spirit when he was younger and had prayed in tongues a number of times since, yet he had a number of “gaps” in his scriptural understanding and application that God wanted brought to his attention. He is a super lovely, humble guy who had recently hired an old school friend who had become homeless, setting him up with not only employment but also an apartment to live in, etc. We pray God will continue to bless him mightily.

6) Cafe and civic park ministry :)

Whenever we’re dining out and enjoying our local parks and gardens, we’re always on the lookout (so to speak) for whatever God might be doing to further His Kindgom work upon this earth. After all, isn’t that what this life is all about when you’ve been called to service in the Lord’s spiritual army? We’re being used to fight for people’s souls, but we’ve found that the victories tend to come when God precedes us and sets things up for us.

This happened last weekend as we were dining on the patio of one of our favorite cafe restaurants. There were lots of people there, but there was one particular young lady that we all felt drawn to speak with. We never really got a clearly directed opportunity to chat, so on our bike ride home, Don (unbeknown to the rest of us) prayed that if he saw her again on our return through downtown, he would stop and inititiate conversation.

Off we all rode, and as we passed through the civic park, I saw the young gal sitting in a grassy patch. By the time I got to the end of the pathway, I couldn’t go any further - I felt that I just had to turn around to speak with her. So I did, and the others followed, except Don whom I noticed was already pulled up by the gal, chatting with her. I hadn’t realized he had been so far back, and obviously he had noticed her, too (and so was obedient to God’s answer to his earlier prayer!).

We all chatted with her for a very long time and ended up offering to pray over her to be filled with the Holy Spirit. She admitted she was a bit nervously afraid, but we encouraged her that it’s a normal feeling that many people experience because praying for the Holy Spirit anointing is stepping into the unknown in faith, and it’s very much a complete surrender of one’s self to God. Despite this, she pushed through the flesh (the body, the mind) and responded with a sweet following after God’s will. We moved to a quieter area of the park, to help her better focus on praying, and she received the Holy Spirit anointing, speaking in tongues, very quickly - yet very softly and gently, and so beautifully.

She even wanted to follow through on the fullness of God’s calling to be born again of both water (full immersion baptism) and of the Holy Spirit. So, we all rode back to our place (she had ridden to downtown on a bike, too) and Don baptized her in our bathtub (seeing that the pool is only half completed!). The rest of the evening was so joyful as she stayed for dinner and as we chatted more about life and the Lord.

We all spent the next evening together, too, as we took her out to dinner to enjoy some more fellowship and to share more of our experiences and understanding of the Word. We try to encourage our brethren to live the book of Acts life, too — to be “out and about” amongst people to whom God might be calling us to bring a message of hope and of power through Jesus Christ.