On to Belgium...
We have had a glorious time in that as you prayed, the words for 72 students were more powerful than ever. Plus we did community meetings at both schools in Norway that were packed. The people anticipated us from times before and turned out in mass that overwhelmed one school for it was standing room only. Afterwards I prayed for about 4 hours with those that stayed for prayer. I'm always amazed at the hunger or anyone sticking around that long. HUNGER FOR GOD, AND NOTHING LESS.
Been one of the busiest trips ever, with much teaching, as well as personal time with staff and individuals and then those in the community around the city, and then, on our only Sunday off, the pastor hosting us wanted me to share in a short meeting along with a friend of his who runs a Bible training school in Nepal. End result on our day off: a 4 1/2 hour morning service and a 2 hours evening service in a church that was supposed to be half dead, but they came alive and began to "hallelujah" for I believe the first time ever! It was amazing to watch cold Norwegians get excited about God... but then when Daniel, the pastor from Nepal, spoke about how the Hindu witch doctor cursed their bull, and his eyes fell out of his head, dangling from the sockets, and when they prayed and the eyes popped back into the bulls head and he was totally healed, well, if you didn't praise God then you might have DIED! It was hilarious from my point of view. When the service ended I could not stay in my seat. I went back up to everyone's surprise and began singing a powerful song I wrote about 20 years ago, "When the fields are ripe unto harvest, and the laborers are few, as harvest time is approaching, who will tell them of you... SEND ME LORD, SEND ME LORD, SET MY HEART ON FIRE, MAKE MY ONLY DESIRE, TO GO, TO TELL AND BE A LABORER FOR YOU!"
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
As I was singing the song I felt inspired to tell this cold, Lutheran church, they needed to take a love offering for Daniel. So I reached in my billfold and said that I would go first. I thought I had pulled out a 100 Kroner bill, which is about $18 USD. But because I was not looking I pulled out a 1000 Kroner, about $180 USD. Norwegians are very tight. They would have thought it was crazy to have pulled out a 20 Kroner, which is about $3.60 USD, but a THOUSAND KRONER?!? They took up a mighty offering! He runs this Bible school completely on faith and sends out these young men to preach in Hindu and Moslem areas where they preach with their lives at stake. From these young believers 80 churches have been formed and in areas where the Gospel has never gone before.
Oh well, we finally left Norway on your snowy Saturday to arrive in Belgium and believe it of not, snow. Very rare but the whole of Europe is in a deep freeze. People are shocked by the coldest European weather ever. Even the liberal Europe is beginning to make many jokes about global warming.
Yesterday we preached... ahhhhh... excuse me. You know that Linda and I do not preach. We just share our hearts. But the presence of God was so wonderfully there that from the first note of "There's a Place in My Heart Just for You," to where Linda got up and shared the miracle of grace in our family, giving us a son, Jonathan David, and healing our grandson, Spencer Daniel, there was not a dry eye in the place. I paused for a moment, and asked if there was anyone with a question as to what was going on, for I am sure there were many who had never experienced the presence of God in quite that way. A beautiful young lady, an artist from Germany, about 30, asked, "Since I walked in the door and you began, I have not been able to stop crying. What is this?"
I told her it was the presence of God taking us on the greatest and most difficult journey of our lives... "The journey from the head to the heart." Then I suppose you might call it preaching, for I turned to Romans 8, verses 5- 8, where Paul outlines for us the difference is living from the head and living from the Spirit, or what I call, "living from the heart":
"For those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds STUCK OR SET on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit (living from the heart) have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace..."
It was a glorious time, which took a while because in Belgium everything has to be translated into Flemish, and others have to get it translated into French. Kind of takes a while to say much. But in the little, God did much. We prayed with folks for hours after the meeting. GLORY!
So, we are finally at the YWAM Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. We are way up on the 4th floor, and believe me, for the life of me, I wonder, "Why do Americans have to take so much stuff?" Actually, even though we lugged 4 suitcases up four flights of stairs, we have carried little for the cold weather we have experienced. A few times in Norway the temperature stayed around minus 8 Celsius... which, if you do not know how to calculate C to F, Fahrenheit, it is easy. Take the celsius and double it and either add or subtract from 32 degrees. So, minus 8 C, doubled is minus 16 from 32, which equals 16 degrees Fahrenheit. COLD, especially when the wind is whipping up off the sea.
This morning we finally are looking forward to a few days of rest before a big retreat in the mountains of Belgium up close to the border with Luxembourg, a beautiful part of the country. So, we awoke, went to the toilet in one room and then onto the bath room for a shower. So American to put the toilet in the same room as the sink and tub? Ahhhhh... sweet home, North Carolina.
We are excited about returning back home to warm and sunny North Carolina, where they just received a bunch of snow and ice and I saw on line that the present temperature in Sophia, was 19 F... or, about minus 7 celsius. ENOUGH MATH. AMERICA WILL NEVER CHANGE TO METRIC. STUBBORN OR JUST LOVE THE WAY THINGS ARE? GOD BLESS AMERICA.
For breakfast this morning we had of course, Belgium waffles and coffee. But best of all, we got to spend our breakfast in worship with Jonathan and Melissa, as we watched the powerful video of their recent time of worship at Morning Star in Charlotte, NC. It was so wonderfully alive, but not for the religious or faint of heart. I found myself wanting to stand on my chair in this YWAM building and scream, "YEA GOD!' but that might not have gone over so well, since most in the building were still asleep.
"Thank you Jesus for your presence in everything and thank you for all the prayers from those at home who have faithfully kept us alive and healthy in prayer. Bless you for all that you have done and are going to do as we wind down toward your end in Europe. You are so loving and kind! Amen."
Last shot should be first, for it is a special art class that joined the YWAM DTS for the week in Skien. They loved Linda so good they showered her with Norwegian Chocolates. Then the photos of Cassie as we left Skien. Sad, but she was doing so well. The Depreter family in Belgium that hosted us for a Sunday Service in Brussels where we met again with folks we had not seen in 17 years, where we ministered in Germany with our whole family. Also, a shot of the Belgium country side, which rarely ever sees snow. So much for Al Gore and his idea of "global warming."
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