Global Prayer Initiative (July 6-8): The Willoughbys

The Willoughby family has journeyed through cancer sustained on the prayers of many around the world. This week, the Apostolic Center of Mattoon, Illinois is endeavouring to organise a global prayer during which everyone who wishes to participate in this special initiative prays for God to bring healing and strength to the Willoughbys. Apostolic Center asks you to join with them in prayer and fasting from Monday, 6 July thru Wednesday, 8 July. You are encouraged to join them in a time of focused prayer on Wednesday, July 8th from 8.00 – 10.00 pm (CST), in Asia this will be on Thursday, 9th July, 9.00 am – 11.00 am. 1 Corinthians 2:5 states “That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” Let us stand together and believe that the tipping point on the journey to healing and wholeness for the Willoughbys is in our prayers. Apostolic Center has prepared a video presentation to encourage others to join them in this prayer. You can view it at www.apostoliccenter.org.

The Thrill of the Climb

“Now, I don’t want to brag, but there is very little I’m afraid of.  Seriously.  In fact, I would more accurately describe myself as “nearly fearless with a healthy tint of caution.”  From bungee jumping to rock-climbing, anything that speeds and anything tall (the taller the better), I seek the thrill of flirting with danger.  But, I’m sensible about it!  Well…usually. 

I remember a canoeing trip some years back when some friends and I grew amazed at both the depth of the water we had just paddled into, and the incredible height of the cliffs that surrounded us. It was as if we had just been swallowed up by enormous jaws of rock and dirt, with just a sliver of blue sky above and quiet water beneath. My canoe partner and I looked around us and noticed some evenly-spaced rocks and crevices along one of the faces of the walls that surrounded us, disappearing toward the top. Looking at each other, we knew in an instant… a challenge was on! We steered the boat over to the shore, and began climbing the steep wall. It was a strenuous climb, but we were on a mission. Half-way to the top, we paused to catch our breath and strength, and then continued to scale this obstacle.

It took quite some time to make it to the top, but the climb was well worth it. Surrounding us now were luscious trees and beauty. It almost looked as if the scene had leaped off the pages of a fairy-tale book… it was just incredible. We took in the sight for a minute or two, and then walked over to the edge of the cliff to peer over the edge. I remember the feeling in my knees distinctly. It was nearly dizzying to see how high we had climbed, and the canoe below us looked so small. For just a moment, I felt a flutter in my stomach, and then I composed myself, remembering why I had just climbed this cliff. I turned to my friend and said, “This is it… we have to jump!”

“Are you crazy?” He asked.

I stood up with a mischievous smile on my face and walked back from the edge about ten paces, turned around to face the nothingness before me.

“Jay, are you serious?”

“I’m dead serious.”

You see, I didn’t just climb that cliff to see what was at the top. I didn’t just climb to take in the beauty of the wilderness around me. I didn’t scale that wall to say, “Wow, look how high I climbed!” No. I scaled that wall because I knew beyond it laid another challenge… another obstacle… another adventure.

Often in our walk with God, we climb incredible heights in our adventurous journey only to be paralyzed with fear at the next obstacle or fight. Fresh from the victory of our last battle, we shrink at the challenge ahead, and allow fear to glaze us over… numbing us to the idea of another accomplishment.

In Mark chapter 6, we find Jesus and the disciples responding to a tremendous problem. More than five thousand men, women and children had followed them into the mountainside to hear Jesus teach, but had grown hungry. With no food, and the market too far away, Jesus blessed five loaves of bread and two fish, and gave them to his disciples to dispense to the multitude. Miraculously, as the disciples broke the food apart, it grew and multiplied, feeding every one of the people, and leaving twelve baskets of leftovers! This was an incredible miracle, and the disciples themselves were part of it!

Just a few hours later, however, we find the disciples pushed off from shore in a boat while Jesus stayed behind to pray alone. There in the water a storm arose, and the twelve men became afraid as they rowed for all their might to get back to shore. You may remember this part of the story, as it’s taught regularly as one of Christ’s great miracles… Jesus came walking on the water to them in the middle of their storm! Often, we focus on this nature-defying act of Jesus when we relay the story, but have you ever considered what it was that caused the disciples to fear and be, “amazed in themselves beyond measure”? Verse 52 states the reason plainly for us…

” 52 For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened.”

They had just come fresh off one of the greatest miracles of a lifetime, and were personally involved in the feeding of thousands of hungry people, yet they had forgotten all about that victory and became fearful in the middle of their next trial.

What would have happened if the disciples gave up rowing? What would the outcome be if they had just surrendered to the fear and despair of their moment and quit the fight? With the encouragement they received from Jesus, they went from “undermining fear” to “unfathomable revival”.

Verses 54-56 of Mark chapter 6 records the actual results like this:

54 And when they were come out of the ship, straightway they knew him, 55 And ran through that whole region round about, and began to carry about in beds those that were sick, where they heard he was. 56 And whithersoever he entered, into villages, or cities, or country, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought him that they might touch if it were but the border of his garment: and as many as touched him were made whole.

If the disciples had quit rowing… if they had quit believing… if they had given up, they would have stifled a great revival in the land of Gennesaret! What great revival; what great blessing is waiting for you to push beyond your latest victory and into a new realm of the miraculous?

Thank God they kept “climbing”!

I sucked the cool air around me deep into my lungs as my heart raced faster and faster. Adrenaline was rushing through me, and an invincible feeling began to build up in my chest. The hair along my neck and arms stood on end, and it seemed every fiber of my body was surging with anticipation as the muscles in my legs engaged.

With a jolt, I took five or six strides as the astonished face of my friend passed by my in my peripheral vision and the ground beneath me disappeared in a solitary flash.

As my right toes left the edge of the cliff, I let out a thunderous, “WHOOOoooooo!!!!!!” that surely echoed for a mile up the river. I have no idea about the height of that cliff, but I recall that midway in the fall, I ran out breath, sucked in more air and let out one more whoop as my arms and legs flailed in the open sky!

The crash into the deep, refreshing water of the Rifle River was itself a thrill, and the swim back to the surface had me gasping for air. Exploding to the surface, I couldn’t contain myself… I let out another yell just in time hear my friend plunge into the water next to me.

We did it.

And we were on to our next adventure.” 

 -written by Pastor Jones, Pentecostals of Kentwood (www.mypentecost.com)

I want to discover every adventure that God has for me here in Singapore!  I know that you want to discover that adventure that God has for you, in your life.  Don’t stop at the top!  Take that next step into the wild, unknown realms of faith!  You will never know your powerful God-experience until you do.

Closer than Close

“It was an act of desperation, really. There was a nervous excitement in her body… adrenaline rushing through her as if she were about to fight for her very life. Her mind was a blender of thoughts and emotions as she anxiously skirted the edge of the crowd, peering through them to catch a glimpse of her goal. In mere milliseconds, her mind weighed the thought of missing the greatest opportunity of a lifetime with the possibility of utter failure and defeat. She moved closer into the crowd, timing her reach. The voices of the excited crowd drowned to silence in her focus. Her eyes quickly caught glimpse of an opening, and time stood still for just a moment. She thrust her arm in front of her body, lunging her hand forward… fingers outstretched… she closed her eyes… she felt the brush of linen under her weathered and wrinkled skin. Like a flood of raging water, everything around her gained speed and volume as she felt a rushing power flow through every fiber of her body! Incredulous and beside herself, she fell back into the crowd…

It was nearly twelve years ago that she first discovered an abnormal flowing of blood from her body. At first, she didn’t think the problem was too severe, but soon realized that it was not going away. For twelve years, she has suffered, and each day of every year she wished it would stop. Over the years, she had seen physician after physician, but to no avail. Not only had she spent every dime she owned to purchase a healing, and find a release from her pain, in the end she had not improved at all.

Many people can sympathize with this woman. Maybe you can, too. Maybe you know what it’s like to go through life wishing things were different… that you were different. Praying that the pain you’ve felt for so long could somehow be relieved. Physical. Emotional. Spiritual. Maybe we can all relate somehow to the desire for change. Tired of waking up each day and facing the same dilemma… the same face in the mirror that echoes years of discouragement and shattered dreams.

She sank back into the crowd, a refreshing cool overwhelming her. She felt the flow of blood that was once constant suddenly stop. What had happened to her? What was she feeling?

It was at that instant that Jesus turned himself around in the group that pressed against him while he walked.

“Who touched me?” he demanded.

“What do you mean, ‘who touched you’, Jesus?” his disciples stated, “Everyone is touching you…You see the crowd pressing against you and you say, ‘Who touched me?’”

Jesus said, “I felt power flow out of me… someone touched me.” And he looked around him to see who it was.

The woman, trembling, pressed back through the crowd and dropped before him. “It was me, Lord… I touched you. I had to touch you… I had no other hope, and I had to touch you.”

“Daughter, your faith has made you well…go in peace and be healed.”

It’s a great quality in a person that causes them to take interest in God, and many people actually take the step to know him better than they have before. But there is a place in Him that many people never realize, because they are content with simply rubbing shoulders with him. They get into his presence… like the crowd that day… they even touch him. But they don’t really touch him. They sing their songs in the congregation, but they don’t really sing. They even preach, and never really preach. People attend church faithfully every week with the hope of touching Jesus, but they never really touch him.

There is so much more to a relationship with God than a superficial recognition of him. There is a deepness that many people never realize, but that is open to everyone.

I cannot be content with merely being in his presence. I can’t be satisfied with only rubbing shoulders with him. My needs are too great. My desire is too overwhelming. I don’t want just a closeness with him…when there is a place that is closer.

What would happen if we just tried to press in beyond our past efforts, or failed attempts at knowing God? What resources would be available to us? What healings? What peace? What fulfillment?”

What would happen if we really touched him?”  -Written by Pastor Jay Jones, Pentecostals of Kentwood.

Thank you Pastor Jones for allowing me to place this excellent article into this blog.  I also ask myself the question:  What would happen if we really touched him?

Updates on the Willoughby Family

Here is the latest on the Willoughby Family (June 20):

“I am pleased to inform you that Sis Barbara Willoughby was discharged from the hospital on Thursday, 18 June 2009. To be back at home with family is very comforting not only for Sis Willoughby but also her family and friends. She is continuing to have outpatient radiotherapy to her lower spinal area. She will have a total of ten radiation sessions which will hopefully allow her to gain additional strength in her legs.

Bishop Steve Willoughby will be seeking neurosurgical specialist advice on possible surgical treatment options for his legs over the next couple of days. Please do keep this matter in prayer.”

If you would like to join Tabernacle of Joy in our fasting and prayer chain, feel free to connect to the website and submit the form by using this URL: http://www.formspring.com/forms/?462409-fXOHsmJNKz  If for any reason it doesn’t work, then feel free to connect to the website (tabjoy.org).  The form is located on the Home Page under the “Special Update Senior Pastor” section in “Resources.”  Just click on “Prayer Shift Sign-up.”

Thank you so much for holding up our leaders in prayer.  We appreciate and are so thankful for the Family of God!

Born Again…in the Nick of Time!

One of our Bible study students, Rezel Jenkins, asked us to teach her sister, Jennifer, a Bible study.  Jennifer, a nurse, had come to Singapore from the Philippines to help Rezel care for her husband David Jenkins who recently had brain cancer surgery.  We taught her a Bible study in the Jenkins’ home about receiving the Holy Spirit. 

She told us that she wanted the Holy Spirit, so she raised her hands and in just a few minutes she was speaking was speaking in tongues.  One hour later, after taking a taxi to the church, I baptized her in Jesus name!  3 hours later, she boarded a plane to return to the Philippines.  God reached her just in time!

We discovered from our Filipino pastor that there is a UPC church located just a few blocks from Jennifer’s home in the Philippines. 

God has everything in control! 

 

Baptized in Jesus Name!

Rezel with her sister Jennifer (center) and Johanna

Almost 11,000 Hits!

I just want to say thank you to all who visit our blog on a regular basis.  I just want you to celebrate with us the fact that our blog has received almost 11,000 hits so far!!

You have been a part of this.  And, we want to say thank you.  Thank you for keeping tabs on our ministry adventure here in Singapore.  Thank you for your comments.  Thank you for taking the time to email us.  Thank you for the encouraging letters we receive in the mail.  Thank you for the phone calls we receive.  Your friendship and love shines over the ocean waters seperating us from you and illuminates our pathways as we walk on top of our mountains and through our valleys, and we feel at peace knowing we are part of you, the family of God.

We feel your prayers, and we are so appreciative to be part of such a wonderful family of God!

You are a part of our family, and may God bless you all!!

Mannafest to Manifest

Senior Youth Camp this past week was tremendous. 

Chad and Mendy Flowers with Jayden

Bro. Chad and Sis. Mendy Flowers came and ministered to the Twenty20 group, and they did an excellent job!  They brought their little treasure along with them; their 5-month old baby girl named Jayden. 

The Flowers and Us

They stayed with us, and it was a wonderful opportunity to make new friendships that we all feel are to be life-long!  Plus, Lionel-John thought it was great meeting another little person and having someone to play with for 6 days!!

Lionel-John and Jayden

Excited!

Friends!

all giggles and laughter

Each night they preached the Holy Spirit fell in a mighty way.  Lionel-John enjoyed himself as well!

Reading the Bible together

Lionel-John's Turban Look

Sitting in a day session

On Sunday morning following Mannafest Camp Chad Flowers preached.  After preaching, he gave us a word that things unprecedented would begin to happen over the next 24 months.  To God be the Glory!  We claim and agree with that word!

Bro. Willoughby got up and danced with all his might and the Holy Spirit fell in a new way.  He mentioned that although he couldn’t dance as he once did, he would still worship with everything he had.  From the platform to the back wall, people danced, lept and worshipped as the power of the Holy Spirit fell.  To see this service watch The Sin of Commonness, May 24,  at tabjoy.org.

Thank you Chad for your timely messages and word from the Lord, and thank you Mendy for your prayers and ministry.  God bless you both!!

NEPAL IN CRITICAL NEED OF PRAYER

Young Nepalese Men

I recently received a prayer request from a friend in Nepal, as follows:

“Please pray for the security situation in Nepal. Yesterday morning at 9:15 AM a bomb went off in a church in the Kathmandu valley, killing a 14 year old girl and a 30 year old woman. 14 other people were hospitalized and most of them are critical.  The main suspect in the bombing is a Hindu extremist group called the Nepal Defense Army. Please pray for the families of the ones who were killed, and for those who are injured. Please also pray forgiveness for the ones who placed the bomb, and that they will come to Christ. You can see details and a photograph of this bombing at www.nepalnews.com.

The security situation has really been deteriorating here in Nepal. Recently the prime minster resigned, and the Maoists have begun new strikes and agitation in protest. Some people have died in these strikes, and there is some fear that there will be a return to the Maoist people’s war that ended in 2006. In response to this, the US state department has issued new travel warnings for Nepal. Please pray for safety, and that the Lord will continue to use these difficult times to bring people to himself. Even as things have become much worse here, we have seen people becoming more open than ever to hear about Jesus.”

Please pray for God’s protection over His people, wisdom in the government to handle this situation, and for the light of the Gospel to shine across the darkness of the beautiful country of Nepal.

Tamil Fellowship

Lately, we held a gathering at one of the saints house in our Tamil ministry.  We had 47 that came, and a total of 14 first-time visitors.  It was awesome.  We prayed with several couples, made friends with needy people, and God blessed.

First-time visitors: Hindu but asked for prayer for healing!

The following Sunday evening, I was invited to visit one family that had attended the fellowship and to pray for their mentally-handicapped daughter.  They were so kind.  We stayed several hours at their home and fellowshipped with them.  After we prayed for thier daughter, we gave to them a prayer cloth, and they fed us some wonderful Indian food.   Please pray for Angeline, the daughter, and the parents, Kevin and Mary.

After this fellowship, we also visited the home of one of our visitors (Rages, a Malaysian-Indian banker working in Singapore) at her home and then went to dinner with her. 

Rages, her children and us eating a scrumptious dinner!

Johanna is currently teaching a series of lessons to our Tamil ladies that she recently put together entitled “Becoming a Woman of God.”  She spoke on being a Proverbs 31 woman of God for the first lesson.   She did a tremendous job, although I am understandably a bit partial, and will finish the lessons over the next few months!

Johanna teaching

How to Become a Woman of God: Proverbs 31

We have really fallen in love with our Indian brothers and sisters.  Please keep our multiple potential Bible studies in prayer:  1.  That they would commit to a Bible study, and that God would move on them throughout the day with a strong desire for the Word and for prayer, 2. that spiritual strongholds and strongholds of flesh would be broken within them, and 3. that God would destroy every weapon of distraction and destruction that is being formed and used against them.  We want souls to be saved!!

A Recent Tamil Service!

Our New Friend Ruth

We moved into the Keys’ house while they were away on vacation.  While there we met a young lady named Ruth, an Indonesian.  She has been in Singapore for several years as a houseworker.  What a precious lady.  She became a Christian several years ago.  She is hungry to know Jesus.

She recently introduced a friend, Muji to Johanna.  Johanna has visited several times with Ruth’s friend who is showing an interest in learning more about Jesus.  Please keep Muji in your prayers.

Also, Ruth is witnessing to her family back home, and recently, she traveled to Indonesia to be with them.  We prayed with her, for God to open doors and to anoint her.  She is baptized in the Spirit, and we believe that God is going to continue leading her and blessing her.

Ruth...and a green-colored bread sandwich (looks white in this photo though)

Our New Friend Ruth!