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For those who wish to listen to the audio only version of Supernatural Secrets, here is our playlist on Soundcloud

Supernatural Secrets Part 1 from Mission Critical International on Vimeo.

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“You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of God.” – Luke 8:10

Coming this week! I will begin to post videos of my 15-part series on Supernatural Secrets that I have taught around the world. See the trailer below.

Supernatural Secrets from Mission Critical International on Vimeo.

Mission Critical Crusades 2020 from Mission Critical International on Vimeo.

“Whenever the Holy Spirit sees an opportunity to glorify Jesus through you, He will take your entire being and set you ablaze with glowing devotion to Jesus Christ.” – Oswald Chambers

Read the beginning of the series HERE

When our precious Lord dropped that little African girl on our doorstep July 3, 2008 we sensed He was up to something big but never in a million lightyears could we have envisioned all that He has done this far.

Over the years Mercy Kandakai has changed our lives in more ways than we can count. She is a very big-hearted girl and we all have grown to love her more than can be expressed in words.

Stunning spiritual warfare that could fill its own book has surrounded her since she arrived in America but she has fiercely fought through it all and has arisen as a bright and shining light for Jesus.

A few Father’s Days ago she wrote me, “To the Best Dad. I Love you with all my Heart!! Words are inadequate to express my gratitude for you. Every so often I wonder what did I do to have such an amazing man for a Dad? You are such an inspiration to me, through you I’ve come to learn a lot about God’s Love. For that, I’m grateful. Thanks for always having my back. – Mercy”

Like every father of a daughter, I have prayed and prayed for the right man to come along to be a husband to my girl, but even I couldn’t have chosen a man as perfect as Bobby Peabody. Only Jesus… Mercy and Bobby knew each other as children in Liberia, Africa and then met up again a few years ago at college in Arlington, Texas. Bobby came to our big family Christmas gathering in 2016 and Lisa, all the adult children and spouses, and I fell in love with him. As we sat around the Christmas dinner table we all told Mercy, “Well Mercy, either you can have Bobby as a husband or a brother because we are keeping him!” We all laughed and rejoiced that God had answered another miracle prayer regarding our beloved daughter/sister, Mercy Kandakai Bullen.

Over the last 3 years Bobby has become like a son to me in every way. We have enjoyed so much together. Last spring we were blessed to serve together at a men’s three-day Christian retreat in Oklahoma and the Holy Spirit showed up in a mighty way. At one point, the MC announced, “If you have a father in the room and would like to show him a gesture of love, feel free to do that now.” Bobby jumped up and came to me and took my arm. “Come on Dad,” he said, and led me to the front of the room where he proceeded to take off my shoes and socks and he washed my feet. Rarely in my life have I felt so loved. Someday Bobby will have to tell his whole story and especially what God did for him that weekend. It was sweetly supernatural.

To say the least, I was crazy blessed and humbled to walk my beautiful Mercy down the aisle on July 27, 2019 and give her hand to Bobby in marriage. I know heaven rejoiced and did the Bullen family on this blessed day. With Lisa as the mother of the bride, Rebekah as maid of honor, Beverly as bridesmaid, Brooke as Bridesmaid, Misti, grandkids, Joy, Joseph, and Jacob assisting with the reception, Luke, Travis, and Oscar as ushers, our granddaughter Lily as the flower-girl and our grandson Maurice as the ring-bearer, and many many of our dearest friends present and serving selflessly, we could not have scripted a more beautiful or fulfilling wedding day if we tried. Only Jesus…

After a fabulous honeymoon in Hawaii, Mercy and Bobby came home and began preparing and this fall will be working with Rebekah and I doing three-day Christian retreats building servant leaders for the local church.

The Mercy miracles march on…

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2 Corinthians 1:11 you also joining in helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed on us through the prayers of many.

The Bullen family and Mission Critical International is in awe of all that God has done in the last 10 years among the nations and we know that our prayer warriors have played a gigantic role in that and as we seek to impact the world for Jesus in the next 10 years we want first to say “Thank you!” and secondly to ask the Lord for many many more prayer warriors who will join us in asking Him to make His kingdom come among the nations through this ministry…

Click the button below to join our prayer team on Facebook and get immediate updates and prayer requests…

Facebook Prayer Team

And to build your faith and stir a fresh thirst for prayer in all of us, here are some encouragements from church history to pray…

Many if not every great move of God in the world began in a prayer meeting. From the pages of church history come some amazing stories of prayer meetings that God used to change the world beginning with the 120 in the upper room that culminated in Pentecost. I mention some of these prayer meetings below to illustrate.

-Moravian Prayer Meeting

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Count Zinzendorf called the 300 Moravians living on his property together on the night of August 12, 1727, and they conducted an all night prayer meeting. The next day is referred to in history as “The Moravian Pentecost” (August 13, 1727) The Holy Spirit visited them in a supernatural blessing of love, unity, and power. They decided to form a 24/7/365 prayer meeting… They signed up for prayer slots around the clock, 3 praying together at a time every minute of every day… the prayer meeting lasted 110 years.

Six weeks into the prayer meeting Zinzendorf stood up and challenged their little band to go to the nations. The next day 26 of their group stepped forward and gave their lives to go to the mission field. Some of them were too poor to go so they sold themselves into slavery to get a free ship ride and to be missionaries to the slave trade.

In the first 28 years over 200 missionaries were sent out of a their little community of 600 people.

They excited a missions passion everywhere they went and inspired thousands to follow their example and go to the nations. They dramatically impacted such notables as John and Charles Wesley, William Carey, and many more.

-The Holy Club

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John and Charles Wesley and later George Whitefield formed a prayer meeting when they were students at Oxford that became known on campus as the Holy Club. Later John was changed forever by his contact with the Moravians. Out of that Holy Club prayer group the Wesley’s ushered in the great awakening in England while George Whitefield along with Jonathan Edwards ushered in the great awakening in America.

-Concert of Prayer

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John Erskine, a Scottish pastor in 1742 suggested a concert of prayer for Christ’s kingdom to advance to all the nations of the earth. In 1744 the Scottish leaders organized two years of concerted prayer at designated times for international revival. Word of this prayer concert reached Jonathan Edwards in America and he published a little booklet encouraging the colonies to join together in these prayer concerts. The great awakening and the American Revolution were the result.

-Union of Prayer

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Following the above examples a movement of prayer began in Britain through William Carey, Andrew Fuller and John Sutcliffe—and other leaders who began what the British called “the Union of Prayer.” it was resolved to set apart an hour on the first Monday evening of every month, “for extraordinary prayer for revival of religion, and for the extending of Christ’s kingdom in the world.” Out of that prayer meeting came the Baptist Missionary Society and the beginning of modern missions.

At about the same time in America, Isaac Backus and Stephen Gano, along with twenty-three other New England ministers, distributed a circular letter in 1794, which called for a concert of prayer of believers to pray for a general awakening. Having been directly influenced by the First Great Awakening, they invoked the memory and authority of Jonathan Edwards, and agreed that, beginning in January 1795, two o’clock on the first Tuesday of the four quarters of the year would be set aside for a concert of prayer in support of the new awakening. This prayer concert would launch the Second Great Awakening… Out of the second great awakening came the modern missionary movement, the abolition of slavery, popular education, Bible societies and Sunday schools.

-The Haystack Prayer Meeting

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Five Williams College students met in the summer of 1806, in a grove of trees near the Hoosack River, then known as Sloan’s Meadow, and debated the theology of missionary service. Their meeting was suddenly interrupted by a thunderstorm and the students: Samuel J. Mills, James Richards, Francis L. Robbins, Harvey Loomis, and Byram Green took shelter under a haystack until the sky cleared.

It was the first documented resolution ever made by Americans to begin foreign missionary work. In its first fifty years, the group that resulted sent out over 1250 missionaries. Today it has sent out nearly 5000 missionaries to 34 different fields, and it all began with five young men praying in a haystack.

-1859 Prayer Meeting

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“In September 1857, a man of prayer, Jeremiah Lanphier, started a prayer meeting in the upper room of the Dutch Reformed Church Consistory building, in Manhattan. In response to his advertisement, only six people out of the population of a million showed up. But, the following week, there were fourteen, and then twenty-three, when it was decided to meet every day for prayer. By late winter, they were filling the Dutch Reformed Church, then the Methodist Church of John Street, then Trinity Episcopal Church on Broadway at Wall Street. In February and March of 1858, every church and public hall in downtown New York was filled.

“Horace Greeley, the famous editor, sent a reporter with horse and buggy racing around the prayer meetings to see how many men were praying: in one hour, he could get to only twelve meetings, but he counted 6100 men attending. Then a landslide of prayer began, which overflowed to the churches in the evenings. People began to be converted, ten thousand a week in New York City alone.

In America more than a million people were converted to God in one year out of a population of thirty million. Then that same revival jumped the Atlantic, appeared in Ulster, Scotland and Wales, then England, parts of Europe, South Africa and South India, anywhere there was an evangelical cause. It sent mission pioneers to many countries. Effects were felt for forty years. Having begun in a movement of prayer, it was sustained by a movement of prayer.

You can see why we are so grateful for your prayers and desperate for you to continue praying for this ministry.

God has bigger things for us and for you in store!

“Whoever welcomes one of these children in my name,

welcomes me.” – Jesus

Mercy’s House is Mission Critical’s outreach to orphans and children in need of education and homes on the continent of Africa. Our first project is a school in Monrovia, Liberia, the hometown of our beloved adopted Liberian daughter, Mercy.

We began in late 2015 with Mercy and Matt going to Liberia to see what God would have us do there. Then in early 2016 Mercy and Rebekah visited the land and we began building our school. Early 2017 Matt’s terrible accident brought a halt to Mercy’s House but then in early 2019 Matt and Rebekah visited Liberia and were reignited with a passion for this project. Since returning from Africa on January 10, 2019 we have been able to put in the dirt subfloor, concrete floors, and we have just finished the plaster and are ready to paint. We are praying for the next installment of funding ($5,000) to install the doors and windows but so much has already happened this year. Praise God!

“The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.”

– Ferdinand Foch

Read the beginning of the series HERE

When I awoke in that hospital bed in the ICU on May 4th, 2017 and began to understand how broken my body was and that I was nearly blind, one of the first things that came to my mind was, “Well Lord, I may not be able to preach ever again or go to the nations like I’m used to but I can still pray.” I lifted my right hand to my forehead in a salute and said out loud, “Yes Sir, Captain.” There was a great contentment in me at that moment but I couldn’t have known about the grand smile that must have spread across His Fatherly face at that moment because He knew that in 2018 I would set a personal record and preach on 4 continents in one year. How GOOD our God is and how unsearchable His adventures for us.

Of course, North America was the first continent in 2018 and my family and I were crazy blessed to speak at 8 different 3-day retreats with 6 different 3-day communities. Only heaven will be able to tell all of the God moments and life changes that happened at each and the life-long friends we have made but this may illustrate just two of the many stories sent to us of how God used these retreats to radically change lives. I was speaking at another 3-day retreat this month and a lady came up to me and showed me a beautiful tattoo on her otherwise clear forearm with the name and colors of her 3-day retreat last spring as she said, “This may give you a little idea of how your messages impacted my life on that weekend.” Wow! Only Jesus… Another young woman from that same spring retreat sat down with me last week and shared how she is going to graduate from university in May and found her own non-profit ministry and begin to go to the nations. Wow! Only Jesus… I am beyond humbled and blessed as I look forward to many more retreats in 2019. “Yes Sir, Captain.”

As I wrote in the last post, Asia was the second continent. Heaven only knows all that is coming in 2019 through those relationships.

Another thought that came to my mind that morning in the ICU was, “Well, I guess Project Shield, our safehouse initiative in Colombia for street girls, will never be finished because I’ll no longer be physically or financially able to lead the charge.” But God! Once again He must have smiled because the third continent I preached on last year was South America with my Pastor Frankie Mazzapica of Celebration Church of The Woodlands and God put a great desire on Frankie’s heart to take the lead in establishing the safehouse in Colombia! Praise God! Every two weeks he, other Celebration leaders, my dear Colombian friend Pastor Jordan, and our daughter, Ginary video conference together and plans are moving forward! Only Jesus…

Again as I lay in the ICU that morning I thought, “Well, I guess Mercy’s House, our partially built school project in Liberia named in honor of our Liberian daughter, Mercy Kandakai, will never be finished because once again I’ll no longer be physically or financially able to lead the charge.” But God! The fourth continent I was blessed to preach on in 2018 was Africa and I was able with my daughter Rebekah, friend and partner in Mercy’s House, Bruce Marshall, and director Pastor Martin Paye to visit the village where we were building Mercy’s House and meet with the chief and elders who assured me that Jesus raised me up from my deathbed just for their village because they need Mercy’s House to educate and disciple the next generation of their tribe. Wow! Only Jesus… Bruce came up with a brilliant plan where if we raise just $75 per student we can finish our school for 360 kids and change a generation and we are making progress! Only Jesus… You can keep up with all that is happening at Mercy’s House at www.mercyshouse.org

Look out 2019! “Yes Sir, Captain”

Emissary: A person sent on a special mission, usually as a diplomatic representative.

One of the things that delights my soul most is that our family gets to be the emissaries of those who love, support, and pray for us by going around the world on a special mission to bring the love of Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit and see lives transformed and hearts healed before our very eyes. It delights me that we get to be the representatives of those who help us go and to know that the fruit that we see abounds to their accounts in heaven as well. Last weekend was our 15th consecutive weekend of traveling and preaching around Texas and Oklahoma and dozens and dozens came to us with tears in their eyes saying that they will never be the same. It blesses my heart unimaginably that we get to be the emissaries of such love and that those, like you, who support us get to take part in that reward more than you will ever know until you get to heaven. Thank you Jesus for such an honor. Thank you to all of you! Please know that we are humbled and blessed beyond words to be your emissaries.

Love the Bullens

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Where do I find my strength? What do I do when I get that call that shakes me to my core? When i get a knock on my door at eight o’clock at night and I just can’t muster the faith to pray for someone else that is sick? How do I encourage anyone when my own faith is shaken by the worse news of my life? How do I tell a mother, “God has good plans for you.” when her child has died? How do I continue to pray when I haven’t received the answer I was looking for? Where do I find my Strength?

[quote] Psalm 28:7, “The Lord is my Strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and He helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise Him.” [/quote]
[quote] Psalm 18:32, “It is God who arms me with Strength and keeps my way secure.” [/quote]
[quote] Psalm 22:19, “But You, Lord, do not be far from me. You are my Strength; come quickly to help me.” [/quote]
[quote] Psalm 18:1, “I love You, Lord, my Strength.”[/quote]

I love the Psalms. Every time it feels like I can’t draw a full breath because of the circumstances around me, I run to the Psalms to remind myself of Whom my God is and where my strength comes from. I have to scream these verses out loud sometimes to counteract the lies of the devil or my own fears. Strength is defined as “the quality or state of being strong- the emotional or mental qualities necessary in dealing with situations or events that are distressing or difficult.” We all know with out a doubt that in life there will be situations or events that shake you to your core and make you want to hide under your covers. When those times come where we look for our strength will define our life. Will I look to alcohol, relationships, TV, or drugs. We all need something or someone to help us deal with life. But the truth is, there is only one Person that can give us the strength we need.

So how do I run to God instead of trying to do this life on my own or turning to those other places? Let me answer with a story.

So that question I asked about the mother and her child that had died was a question actually asked of me at a Bible study under a Mango tree in Zambia, Africa. As soon as I heard her question, my heart started racing so hard my ears where ringing. I knew my answer would change her life for better or worse. The real question was, how could I believe God was good when children died and mothers had to live with arms that longed for their babies. I took a long breath and silently prayed, “Lord, You know I believe You are good because I have seen You move in my life too many times to doubt You. I also believe You are Who You say You are. Please give me the words to heal this mothers heart.” Then I answered her, “I am so sorry. I can only imagine your pain. I don’t understand why God allows children to die but I know without a doubt, He loves you and He wants to show you His love. He can heal your heart if you let Him.” That day I had no idea how God would answer my prayer and hers but I believed He would. I am overjoyed to tell you, shortly after that conversation, my friend found out she was pregnant and she knew God had given her this child as the answer to her prayer.

 
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From then on, every time she came to our Bible study, she would hand me her little boy to hold because he was her proof that God loved her. God doesn’t ask us to have this life all figured out but we do have to believe He is Who He says He is. He is our Strength.

Love, Rebekah Bullen

At Large Missionary

Mission Critical International

Rebekah depends on the donations of big-hearted people like you to continue the amazing work she is doing around the world.

If you would like to help Rebekah you can mail a check to:

Mission Critical International

200 Fountains Ln Apt 11202

Conroe, TX 77304

or give online below.

100% of your gift will go to support Rebekah’s missionary work around the world.

“Do you want to have a heart always on fire for God? Do you want to know the continuous anointing of the Holy Spirit? Are you anxious to be used in the service of your Lord? Would you always be aflame with the power of God? …Perennial revival is only possible where there is continuous brokenness of heart which comes from making it a point to be alone with God every day.” – Oswald J. Smith

Read the beginning of the series HERE

At the end of the last Aflame For God post I wrote, “We don’t know yet what the next chapter of Aflame For God will look like but we are confident that it will be MIRACULOUS!!! STAY TUNED!!!” How prophetic those words were!!!

Understandably we breathed a giant sigh of relief when the clock chimed midnight on New Year’s Eve 2017. It had been a crazy year of trials and miracles and we were ready for 2018, and though still in recovery and reeling some from the flood, we were excited for a new year. Then January 4, 2018 the Holy Spirit woke me up at 2:30 a.m. I prayed for an hour expecting to go back to sleep but at 3:30 a.m. I knew that wasn’t going to happen. A fire was burning in my soul to not quit, not give up, not assume that my only ministry now would be prayer for the nations. I got up, grabbed my laptop, and began to create a radical “Mission Critical To Do/Prayer List” for 2018. By 6:00 a.m. I had it finished and my heart burned so.

The item at the top of the list was a crusade in Pakistan. That had been the next place I was invited to go when I fell. In fact, two days before I fell, my son, Luke, and I sat on our balcony and he committed to go with me to Pakistan. So one of the things that I put together in my new late night list building was a budget of $12,000 to go to Pakistan. We had no money and no idea where it would come from but began to pray hard that God would allow me to preach for my first time on the Asian Continent in 2018. Rapidly, the money began to come it without us telling anyone but God and very soon we had $12,000! Then we began to realize that it would take more like $22,000 and sure enough more began to come in miraculously and my health and strength grew as well. I was so proud of my wife, Lisa, and daughter, Rebekah, as they wholly embraced this vision and began to work hard to bring it about. We put out a “fleece” to the Lord. “If our Pakistani Visas are approved we will know that this is Your will and Your plan.” Sure enough, quickly our Visas were approved. One morning as we walked into church a dear brother, Shaun Breeden, asked me, “Where are you going next?” I said, “Pakistan” He said, “J.J. and I are in! We’ll video document the trip and I’ll help fund it! Ok if I invite myself?” We said, “SURE!” Praise God!! Miracle!! The next week, through a series of miracles, we had lunch with a Facebook friend, Ruben Rasaili, from Nepal, a country that had been on our prayer list for years and while we were enjoying an anointed conversation during lunch, Ruben suddenly asked, “Nepal is close to Pakistan, why don’t you hop over and hold a crusade for us in Nepal?” We quickly crunched the numbers and realized we could do it! Long story short and numerous trials and miracles later we flew out on March 28, 2018, one week shy of a year from my nearly fatal fall and miraculous recovery to Pakistan! And then the next week to Nepal! BUT GOD!!!!!!

Oh how we prayed for a fresh anointing! We arrived in Pakistan at 5:00 a.m. on Good Friday and at 8:00 a.m. I was preaching to a packed church of Christians and the Sr. Pastor assured me that the sermon was being broadcast on their Christian television station, Isaac TV, to 47 countries. WOW! Praise Jesus. The grandest surprise came on Monday as we drove out to a more remote portion to preach a crusade among a 90% Muslim population. Imagine our thrill when we arrived and 6 men wearing black T-shirts with white letters which said “church security” escorted us to the open air meeting with AK-47s slung over their shoulders and as we walked rose petals rained down on us from all of the adjacent roof tops and people stepped out of the crowded passageway and laid sewn flowers around our necks. Nothing could have prepared us to step into the clearing and see upwards of 5,000 Muslims standing before a stage waiting to hear from us! I preached my heart out and my wife later said she could literally feel the Holy Spirit blowing across the crowd. When I asked them if they wanted to give their whole life to Jesus, all 5000 lunged forward with an audible gasp raising their hands to heaven. MIRACLE!!! The next night the same thing in another city, and the final night the same again. Only heaven knows all the little and big miracles that aligned to make this trip happen. The flames are spreading.

Next we flew to Kathmandu, Nepal then drove 7 hours through the Himalayas to a remote area and over the next several days preached among the Hindu “Ratcatcher” tribes of Nepal and once again the blessed Jesus surprised us with many many coming to Christ. Not reluctantly or skeptically but hungrily and eagerly. One day we were blessed to teach a whole church full of pastors that had come from as far away as India and the Holy Spirit moments are too numerous to name but suffice it to say that God took the trials of 2017 and turned it into the chance of a lifetime! Glory! Only Heaven knows what’s next…

Aflame for God 27 – Four Continents

“I will know by the gleam and glitter of the golden chain you wear, by your heart’s calm strength in loving, of the fire you have to bear. Beat on, true heart, forever; Shine bright, strong golden chain; and bless the cleansing fire and the furnace of living pain!” – Adelaide Proctor

Read the beginning of the series HERE

Early in January 2017 We met and all agreed that 2017 would be the year of miracles. We even made this video to share our heart’s dream… But we couldn’t have known…

In late January Levi and Rebekah headed to Zambia, Africa to minister and in early February I flew to Bogota for a 3 week pastor training and crusades in some of the hard places of Colombia. In June of 2016 my son-in-law Oscar introduced me to Carlos the head of outreach for YWAM in Colombia. Who said that he had many jungle pastors and smaller towns on the West coast of Colombia that needed help, but no foreign pastors they had asked where willing to go. Oscar said “Ha dad will go anywhere” and so we booked a trip for February 2017. The Holy Spirit flooded these meetings. We had an amazing time in the jungle training these pastors. Then came a huge city wide crusade in the big mountain town of Montelibano. They set up a large stage in the street on the first night we preached to over a 1,000 people in the street. Many gave their lives to Christ that night. The second night we preached to 1,500 people and the third night over 2,500 people showed and hundreds were saved or rededicated their lives to Christ. In total we shared the gospel with over 5,000 people in those 3 days. Brooke, Oscar, and I were bursting with joy and rejoicing at what God did in this city. Over the three weeks there, I was deeply convicted that this type of training and crusade program needs to be happening all over the world. This is my future plan for my part in Mission Critical. Thrillingly I was invited by 18 countries this year to do that very thing but then…

March was all about awesome and anointed Tres Dias retreats and getting Mercy’s House Liberia up and roofed. It was so thrilling to see the walls go up. When we got the roof on I was going to Liberia in May to hold crusades and see the project! I was also planning and praying for a trip in June to preach to tens of thousands in Pakistan, a pastor training and crusade trip to central Africa in August, and so on! But then… tragedy…

On Tuesday, April 11th, 2017 I left the house for a routine inspection of an office building to make a little money to help finance our ministry. I set up my ladder and then remembered that I needed to send the last $1400 to Liberia to put the roof on Mercy’s House. I pulled out my phone, opened the money transfer app, sent the money, put my phone back in my pocket and climbed the ladder. I don’t remember anything else but I fell sixteen feet and landed on concrete. Miraculously there was a lady there who saw and called 911. EMS had me to Memorial Herman Hospital in the Woodlands in 11 minutes but with all of my injuries the doctors told Lisa, my wife, I wouldn’t survive. Shattered face, 3 brain bleeds and a closed brain injury, 8 broken ribs, broken collar bones and sternum, busted shoulder, blindness, 3 broken vertebra, internal bleeding that eventually killed my spleen and part of a kidney and on and on… But God!!! My warrior princess wife, family and dozens of church, Tres Dias, and other brothers and sisters in Christ began flooding the hospital and prayers and messages began coming in from around the world. My son-in-law and daughter, Oscar and Brooke, flew in from Colombia, Mercy and her fiancee Bobby came down from Arlington, namely, the army of God showed up and began to pray a hurricane of prayer around me and very quickly “the tide of the battle began to turn.” I was out cold in ICU for 25 days battling pneumonia, sepsis, urinary infection, blood infection, a hemothorax lung , a pneumothorax lung and more but God’s army stayed with me and prayed continuously throughout those 25 days, Lisa posted prayers every day on facebook that electrified people around the world. My sister Michelle heroically guided Lisa through the whole process of dealing with the hospital. The people of God began giving tens of thousands of dollars to take care of me. Miracles!!!

On the night of May 3, 2017 the hospital told Lisa, “Please just put him in hospice and let him die.” She went home cleaned up and was in her prayer closet praying that God would wake me up when suddenly her phone rang and it was our pastor, Frankie Mazzapica. He had been supporting and encouraging my family through the whole disaster and he called to get the latest. Lisa told him about hospice and then said, “Pastor, if he would just wake up everything would change!” He said, “Well, we’ve seen God do many things in his favor already. Let’s pray he wakes up.” They prayed. Lisa drove to the hospital, walked into my room, and I opened my eyes and said, “Hello beautiful!” “She said, “It’s you! it’s really you!” I said, “Yes, why am I tied to this bed and where am I? BUT GOD!!! Miracle!!!!!! My doctor’s and surgeons rushed to see me and exclaimed, “Holy ________! Your a miracle! Oops excuse our language!” We all laughed. I was so happy to see my family and hear the amazing stories of all God had done to rescue me. A week later I went to rehab and 17 days later I came home to recover. I quickly improved so much that I was able to preach at my home church Celebration Church of The Woodlands on August 9, 2017 and people all over the world watched the video. Miracles!!!! Then… disaster again…

On August 17, 2017 Hurricane Harvey had pounded Houston until our kids came to our rescue and evacuated us to Willis north of The Woodlands. That night our house flooded with 5 feet of water and everything we owned in this world except a bag of close and laptop for each of us was destroyed. BUT GOD! Immediately our church and Tres Dias brothers and sisters began to help out and currently we are sleeping on a nice air mattress at our oldest son Luke’s house. There are now 5 adults and 5 grandkids 7-years-old and under living in a one bath house and we are having the time of our lives. I was blessed to preach at the second anniversary service of my daughter Mercy’s African church in Fort Worth and she gave me perhaps the sweetest introduction I’ve ever had. See it HERE. We don’t know yet what the next chapter of Aflame For God will look like but we are confident that it will be MIRACULOUS!!! STAY TUNED!!!

Aflame For God 26 – The Flame Spreads To Asia!

“You never have to advertise a fire. Everyone comes running when there’s a fire. Likewise, if your church is on fire, you will not have to advertise it. The community will already know it.” – Leonard Ravenhill

Read the beginning of the series HERE

January 1st, 2016 I spent New Year’s Day praying about what the new year would look like. 2015 had been so hard charging that I was sure 2016 would be more of a year of prayer and study and saving up money for another hard charging year in the future. Wow! Was I wrong! We started out the year with nearly no funds but I felt strongly that we should have a mission trip to Colombia in June and I had promised Pastor Ndagijimana the year before that I would come and do a large crusade in Rwanda in July of 2016 so I began to pray for these two and assume that not even those might happen this year. I made three prayer lists. 1. Daily Needs, 2. Crazy Prayers (BIG things like those two trips that I was asking God for), and 3. BIG HARRY AUDACIOUS Prayer List (Stupid crazy big things that I was asking God for but would’ve been embarrassed for anyone to know about). The spring went by quietly as I had suspected but we did get to financially help our friend Pastor Paye in Liberia put a roof on his church and get the plans and budget drawn up for Mercy’s House Liberia so that was good. Then God did some things so BIG and HARRY that they hadn’t even made it onto my BIG HARRY List!

The first thing God did was to gather together the largest mission team we had ever had to go to Colombia and for Lisa and I the biggest shocker was all of our children in the U.S. except Mercy were able to sign up for the trip and then God miraculously supplied their finances. It was mindblowingly awesome to arrive in Colombia and be met by Brooke and Oscar and our Colombian children Juan David, Ginary, and Heidy and granddaughter Adara. To stand in that airport with 8 of our 9 children and two grandchildren on a mission for God was craziness! We had a marvelous week with our sons Luke and Levi rotating everyday giving a wonderful devotion in the morning and then setting out for orphanages and street ministries to love and serve and share Jesus together. Our son-in-law Travis sharing his testimony with the children, and so many other things was surreal. Only God. It was heavenly! The crazy blessing of getting to stand at the top of a mountain overlooking Bogota and have this photo taken of all of us except Mercy, our daughter-in-law Misti, and some grandkids was unspeakably wonderful.

The 2nd mind blower God pulled on us began one night as we drove to go meet some precious friends for dinner. I had been praying hard for 18 months for this large crusade in Rwanda and we were now just 4 weeks away and I didn’t have a dollar to my name. It gave me a headache but as my wife drove us to meet this couple for dinner I messaged Pastor Ndagijimana in Rwanda and said, “I’m so sorry brother. I want to come so bad but I haven’t received the finances I have been praying for so I thought I should let you know now that I can’t come next month.” He almost instantly replied, “I’m sorry too. But I trust God. I’m sad though. There were many many people waiting for you to come.” I cried, pounded on the dash, and put my head in my hands. My wife said, “What’s wrong baby?” I told her and she said, “Well God’s timing is perfect. You did your best. That’s all He expects.” We arrived at the restaurant, had a wonderful dinner and then… our friends handed us an envelope and said, “This is really why we wanted to have dinner. Please open it.” Inside was a card that read, “Dream crazy dreams.” And inside was a check for $50,000 for our work in Liberia and Rwanda!!! My mouth fell open and I exclaimed, “What the heck?” They laughed. It was the most money I had ever held in my hand at one time in my life. We cried and hugged and headed home.

I quickly messaged Pastor Ndagijimana, “Hold it!!! A miracle just happened! Don’t cancel anything! I will be there!” He wrote back, “Praise God!!!” In a rapid series of other miracles my daughters Rebekah and Brooke, and son Levi were able to have provision and time to go and we flew to Rwanda July 13, 2016. Miracle!! We met with Pastor Ndagijimana the first day and he blew our minds with a status report of Mission Critical International Rwanda (MCIR). In the year and a half since Rebekah and I first came and began to back him Pastor Ndagijimana had planted 5 churches in different parts of Rwanda and the government had approved them as MCIR churches named Celebration Church after our beloved home church in the Woodlands, Texas. He had purchased two plots of land around Kigali, the capital city, for Mercy’s House Rwanda and we had crusades set up in each of these new churches and locations. Over the next three weeks so many miracles happened I can’t list them all. We preached and sang all over the country, hundreds upon hundreds were saved and over 100 were subsequently baptized. People were healed, land was donated, and on and on. When we got home we hired the contractor and started building Mercy’s House Liberia! Way bigger than anything on my BIG HARRY list… Yes…

The 3rd BIG HARRY was on my list. We had been praying for a year for our daughter Brooke to marry my best friend, now son, Oscar and God outdid Himself on August 20th, 2016 as our whole family once again traveled to Colombia, gathered in a quaint castle, and I was supernaturally blessed to walk Brooke down the aisle and then officiate at their wedding. Words can’t describe the joy and fun we had that day. A picture is worth a thousand words… Only God!

Aflame For God 25 – Miracles… Disaster… BUT GOD!