Archives May 2011

I’d like to give a general idea of where we are at currently. We are in the process of sending in applications and getting a support system going. When we get further along in the application process we will have a better idea about when we will leave. Right now we are hoping and praying it will be early September. So what about needs? 1. The Dream Center asks 1,500$ for each volunteer that comes and stays with them for eight to twelve months. 2. We will need money for plane tickets when it comes time to go. 3. The Dream Center also recommends we have financial support while we are there of 100$ per person a month for basic necessities. These are the major needs that we ask for prayer about. We also have some minor needs such as clothing and possibly a small fridge and microwave for our living arrangements. All together I think we are looking toward raising 8,000$. We don’t know yet how God is going to meet these needs but we are praying and moving ahead one step at a time. We thank everyone for their support and are excited to watch God move!

So as yal can see my dad and I built a blog this weekend for our latest undertaking, ministry in L.A. Prayers are much coveted! I plan on jumping right into updating the blog on needs, prayers, praises and just general information as soon as I can. Anyone interested in keeping up with our progress and needs can follow us on the blog! I am very excited! A big thanks to anyone who jumps on board with this! Yals support is much needed!

We are three sisters with a shared passion to spread God’s heart of love to lost and hurting souls. Our passion was born as we ministered with our dad in the orphanages of Bogota, Colombia and helped found Orphan Hope International. Eventually the three of us with our sister-in-law formed a singing group called Purchased. We love this name because it reminds us that we are not our own we are bought with a price (1 Cor. 6:19-20). Our work in Colombia is growing but as we move forward God has brought another opportunity to reach out to the lost and serve in an amazing ministry called The Dream Center. We first heard about the Dream Center from Matthew Barnett in his book The Cause Within You and later heard him preach at Lakewood Church in down town Houston. Each of us felt God stir within our hearts a burning desire to get involved in the work this ministry is doing in L.A. We have much ahead of us and we pray God blesses our efforts and that we may bring much glory to Him and much healing to the broken people of L.A. We hope to learn much from the incredible ministry model of the Dream Center and someday bring that vision to the nearly 8 million people of Bogota, Colombia.

“May God so fill us today with the heart of Christ that we may glow with the divine fire of holy desire.” – A.B. Simpson

Read the beginning of the series HERE

Lisa and I started out married life in a Baptist Bible College married dorm. It was so cute. It was a tiny one room efficiency apartment with a Murphy bed that folded down out of the wall. Shortly after we moved in my mother shipped us a big box of wedding presents that the dear folks at my church in Albuquerque had collected for us. We set up our little home very nicely. Shortly thereafter we were out soulwinning and ran across a homeless hispanic family living in their van with two little kids. With the help of our prayer team we set them up in a little apartment and my new bride gave them all of her wedding presents to help establish them in their new home. They came to Christ and were baptized and we stayed in touch with them until we moved away. This was to define our family forever. From that moment on our house was always going to be a home for anyone the Lord sent and our possessions were always going to be “on loan from God” until we ran across someone who needed them more than we did.

We were still working in Teens Unlimited, praying, preaching, soulwinning, and studying like mad people. I was still pursuing my study of the anointing of the Holy Spirit and during our first 6 months of marriage I read every single book in our bible college’s two story library on the Holy Spirit, gifts of the Spirit, revival, and evangelism. I was a man obsessed with having what Jesus had in…

 
[quote]Luke 4:14 And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district.
 
Acts 10:38 “You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good…[/quote]
 

and the apostles had in…

 
[quote]Acts 4:33 And with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all.[/quote]
 

and Paul had in…

 
[quote]Rom. 15:19 …in the power of the Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.
 
1Cor. 2:4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,  5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
 
1Th. 1:5 for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction;[/quote]
 

I could honestly say with Paul…

 
[quote]Act. 20:24 my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News of the wonderful grace of God.[/quote]
 

I read the stories and biographies of men and women throughout church history whom God used mightily and the more I read the more my heart burned to know God and expand His kingdom like those men and women had. I read about D. L. Moody, R. A. Torrey, Wilbur Smith, Charles G. Finney, Billy Sunday, George Mueller, William Carey, Adoniram Judson, Christmas Evans, Peter Cartright, George Whitefield, John Wesley, Mordecai Ham, The Moravians, David Brainerd, Robert Murray McCheyne, Jonathan Edwards, C.H. Spurgeon, William and Catherine Booth, Hudson Taylor, George Fox, Andrew Murray, Oswald J. Smith, and many others. I wanted so desperately to see God vindicated in the world and to see Him show His power and I wanted so bad for people to know Him and not be lost anymore.

All along the way since I gave my life to Christ at Singing Hills Camp I had faced resistance by my family, friends, and even spiritual leaders. The fact was I was just too radical for most of them. As I delved deeper and deeper into my studies of the history of great awakenings and reformations and revivals (which is what my soul longed for so desperately) I began to experience more and more resistance and even persecution from those in the Bible college and the church that my life caused to be uncomfortable. I became weary of the opposition and it wasn’t long before I began to feel strongly that I should leave school (ah youth!) and pursue a ministry of evangelism full time. We packed up what little we had, said our tearful goodbye’s and headed for New Mexico. I felt that I would have more opportunities back home where my life and ministry were known.

Shortly after arriving back in Albuquerque we discovered that we were expecting our first child. We were ecstatic! Our families were not amused. Here we were 19 and 20 years old with nothing to our name out to save America! We moved into a little apartment in The War Zone (a section of Albuquerque riddled with drugs, gangs, poverty, and crime). I put a handmade sign on the door of the apartment that read, “Matthew Bullen Ministries Revival Center” and we began to pray for God to open the doors for us to serve Him.

Within a month I was offered a full time position as a youth pastor at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Roswell, New Mexico. Lisa and I felt that it was a good place to start and so we accepted, trusting God for great things. Aflame For God 10 – Fire In The Church

Here are some of the amazing events that God has called us to and we covet your prayers and support…

1. Texas Vacation Host Program. Bringing 17 Colombian orphans on July 15, 2011 for three weeks to stay with 11 families in the Houston area. This program has been very successful in helping children to find forever families. Working to raise $42,000.00 to fund this summer’s program.

2. June Mission trip. Taking 40 people to Colombia June, 2011. Planning a way to take 10 ea. 40 gallon bags of feminine care products, 30 baseball bats, and a pickup truck load of t-shirts donated last week by YMCA. Coordinating with the Colombian pastor whose church we will visit on June 19, 2011 where we will preach, sing, and have lunch with the church. The Colombian/Houston band Viraje (www.virajemusic.com) (https://www.facebook.com/virajemusic?sk=wall) will be traveling to Colombia with us and doing mini-concerts in each orphanage. Working to raise $20,000 to fund this trip.

3. Vision trip to Bogota for local church leaders and pastors sometime in October.

5. Mission trip, January 2012. Sign up now!

6. 2nd annual Share the Hope fundraising dinner, February 2012 with a goal of raising $250,000.00 for orphans.

7. Orphan Hope Marathon February 11, 2012 at Huntsville State Park. Look for the new website at www.OrphanHopeMarathon.com coming soon. Hoping to raise $250,000.00 for our Safe House operation that gives orphan girls vulnerable to sex trafficking a loving Christian home and a chance at life.

God is moving mightily! The team here at OHI could each write a book about the miracles we have seen this year. To God be the glory!