Category Mission Moroto Stories

NEW RESCUES: Our boy Daniel AKA The Giant has been trying to support his 6 half siblings living on the street and he finally got the courage to tell Mama Rebekah about them and asked her to take them in. She said, “Go get them!” He found these 5 today and will look for the sixth tomorrow ?❤️? #streetchildren

6 days later Daniel finally found his other half brother Jimmy AND a little full sister Veronica! He had tears in his eyes when he introduced his little sister to Mama Rebekah. #kissesonthecheekfromheaven

We are praying for more sponsors for these precious children at Mission Moroto

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Kem and his brother Adome were found by one of the Mission Moroto team members lying next to their mothers grave barely clinging to life. The only other people in their village was their blind grandmother and one other very ill person. Kem was unable to walk or crawl due to the sores on his hands and feet from jiggers, a very common parasite in Africa. His Brother, Adome, was extremely ill from malaria and was hardly able to breathe.

As soon as Rebekah was made aware of the situation she borrowed a motorcycle and rushed over as soon as she could. Adome was immediately rushed to the hospital for life saving IV treatment and Kem spent several days under Rebekah’s direct care to carefully and painstakingly remove all the jiggers from his body. This is a very painful and long process but after about two weeks of consistent care and God’s grace, both boys were up and playing with the other children.

They are now two of the happiest and loving children at Mission Moroto.

By the Grace of God and obedient hands, these boys can grow and live in a safe and healthy environment.

We are praying for more sponsors for these precious children at Mission Moroto

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Simon Lokong came to live at Mission Moroto as a young boy after he lost his father to raiders. Too many have been affected and even devastated by raiders due to the extreme poverty and some whole villages, including Simon’s, have lost almost all their husbands and fathers to this tragedy.

Simon has occasionally returned to his village to visit but has been met with police aggression and threat of death. Little is known about the rest of Simon’s family but he has found a new home and family in Jesus through Mission Moroto. At Mission Moroto, Simon been able to grow and flourish in a safe and loving environment. He is 18 years old and currently attending High School in a neighboring district so that he can have a successful future. Education is a luxury in Moroto and being able to attend school is life changing.

We are praying for more sponsors for these precious children at Mission Moroto

READ HERE ABOUT SPONSORSHIPS

Please welcome our newest member of our Mission Moroto family Keem Veronica. She is lame and can’t stand up completely. I met her last week when I went with a mission team to her church. Veronica’s mother is dead and her father is not around. She has up to recently lived with her grandmother but with the drought it has become impossible for them to find food. I am hoping to take Veronica to Kampala one day to see if there is any kind of surgery that can be done to help her.

We are praying for more sponsors for these precious children at Mission Moroto

READ HERE ABOUT SPONSORSHIPS

Last Saturday The Director of the police of Rupa came to me to ask if I could take for sisters whose mother had just died. I told him I needed to pray about it because all of our houses are very full but he was so insistent that these girls could not survive without us that I finally said yes and today they brought the girls to me.  So please welcome to the Mission Moroto family
Loyatee Longoli
Nakiru Paska
Meri Aputh
Apule Lokeris

We are praying for more sponsors for these precious children at Mission Moroto

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Pastor Grace, a local pastor with many contacts throughout the villages, over the last several months was blessed to interrupt the trafficking of and/or rescue from starvation 27 children and July 18, 2022 she brought them home to live at Mission Moroto. By pure grace there were 9 boys and we “just happened” to have 9 boys beds available and there were 18 girls and we “just happened” to have 18 girl beds available. You all are greatly loved. ❤ Here is a wonderful video by Sydnee Bruenn of their arrival at Mission Moroto.

We are praying for more sponsors for these precious children at Mission Moroto

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A few days ago, Mama Rebekah went up the mountain to rescue baby Grace. While she was there, people came up to her and said, “What about these 3? They have no families either.” So she went to get 1 and came home with 4. Welcome Sabina, Bosmick, and Merina. You are greatly loved. ❤

We are praying for more sponsors for these precious children at Mission Moroto

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Welcome baby Itosike Nakudi Grace! She is the sister of two of our boys, Albert and Napan Thomas. When we rescued Thomas and Albert their grandmother wanted to keep Grace because she couldn’t imagine being without all of her grandchildren but recently Raiders attack her village and killed one of the relatives and the grandmother had to run away with Grace.  Grace is malnourished so we could really use your prayers. ?

We are praying for more sponsors for these precious children at Mission Moroto

READ HERE ABOUT SPONSORSHIPS

STOWAWAY ? Welcome Nawairi Tuliana to our family. When Mama Rebekah returned from the U.S. on February 2nd, she noticed this cute girl among her other pre-teen girls and assumed she was one of the new rescues shortly before she left to the U.S. for Christmas. Finally, the other day, Nawairi sheepishly approached Rebekah and Simon, our project manager, and trembling said, “I must confess, I was all alone and I sneaked into Mission Moroto while you were gone and I felt I should be honest and come forward.” Rebekah smiled broadly and said, “You are already part of our family. Would you like me to take your photo and make it official?” Nawairi threw her arms around Rebekah saying “Yes! Yes!” Welcome home Nawairi. You are greatly loved. ❤

We are praying for more sponsors for these precious children at Mission Moroto

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RESCUE #145

Welcome to the family Titus Akobo!

Titus’s only living relative is a blind grandmother who has been coming to our church.

Last Sunday she told us Titus mother had died of HIV and ask if he could stay with us. 

Titus just loves to talk to me even though I can’t understand him. He just smiles and chatters on! ❤️

He is now home at Mission Moroto

We are praying for more sponsors for these precious children.

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RESCUE #144

Welcome to the family Dorothy Lokuge Inwa!

Rebekah met her mother couple months ago when she was visiting their village. Her mother had recently been horribly beaten by her brother which caused an infection in her broken hip. 

Rebekah took her to the hospital and she improved a little but recently Rebekah was told she has lost complete use of that leg and no longer can feed Dorothy. 

She begged Rebekah to take Dorothy and she agreed wholeheartedly. We have also taken some food to the mother and the grandmother.

Dorothy is now home at Mission Moroto

We are praying for more sponsors for these precious children.

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RESCUES #142 & 143

Welcome to the family Angel Teko and Mariko Lima!

Our Project Manager, Simon, was in a village retrieving some other children Mama Rebekah was rescuing and the villagers said, “What about these two? Their only living relative just died.” Simon said, “Let me ask Rebekah.”

They are now home at Mission Moroto

We are praying for more sponsors for these precious children.

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RESCUE #142

Welcome to the family Malachi Kodet!

He has no parents or grandparents so an aged neighbor lady in his village took him in.

Recently, he tripped and fell into the cook fire and received a nasty burn on his torso. The village told her to “take him to Mission Moroto. Mama Rebekah will heal him.”

He is now home at Mission Moroto and is happy and healing.

We are praying for more sponsors for these precious children.

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RESCUES #138-141

Welcome to the family beautiful siblings, Marry Abura, (lace dress), Gideon Ateda (Red Shirt), Caleb Lokola (Purple Shirt), Isaiah Lokiru (Blue Shirt).

Their mother was raising them in a small hut. She carried water for a small restaurant to provide for them.

One night, recently, the hut burned down. The children made it out but sadly the mother did not.

Rebekah heard about it and sent her Project Manager, Simon, to check on the kids. They were at the small restaurant where their mother had worked begging for food.

Praise the Lord! They are now home at Mission Moroto.

We are praying for more sponsors for these precious children.

READ HERE ABOUT SPONSORSHIPS

RESCUES #133-137

Welcome to the family, Hope Telo, Sarah Danielle Christian, David Sagal, Andrew Loreno, and Hetton Teko.

Hope’s single mother recently died from alcoholism.

Sarah’s single mother recently died from a mine collapse where she worked.

David’s aged grandmother brought him to the mission while Rebekah was in America. Her staff cooks took him in and he’s been living as a “stowaway” at the mission. Mama Rebekah got his story today and welcomed him to the family.

Andrew’s father was very abusive and Andrew was injured in many different ways so his aunt took him and brought him to Rebekah.

Hetton is the brother of our boy Easton. They both have the same genital birth defect. Rebekah will be taking them both to Kampala, the capital city, soon for surgeries to fix the problem.

Praise the Lord! They are now home at Mission Moroto.

We are praying for more sponsors for these precious children.

READ HERE ABOUT SPONSORSHIPS

RESCUES #131-132

These sweet brothers, Paul and Diao, were brought to the mission by their very aged grandmother while Rebekah was in America. The staff told her to come back when Rebekah was here.

Before Rebekah returned, the grandmother died and the boys were left in the bush.

Thankfully, they found their way back to Rebekah this week.

They are now home at Mission Moroto praise the Lord.

We are praying for more sponsors for these precious children.

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RESCUES #128-130

These sweet boys, Charles, Joseph and Tomas ages 11-13 came yesterday with their very aged grandmother asking for help.

They’re hungry and have never been to school.

They are now home at Mission Moroto praise the Lord.

Mama Rebekah is so happy they will start first grade tomorrow ❤

We are praying for more sponsors for these precious children.

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RESCUES #123-127 Candace Achia, baby Chloe Lokawa, Andrew Ichomar Lokawa and Gideon Kiyong.

On December 16, 2021 about 9:00pm, raiders came to Loyakaromoe village. In the conflict, Hellen Nakiru, who was large with child was shot and killed leaving 5 orphans 2-years-old to 13-years-old.

Their teenage uncle has been trying desperately to take care of Anyakun, Achia, Kiyong, Ichurar, and Ilakawa and today the 4 younger ones made it to Mission Moroto and are clothed and eating a sugar cane snack.

They are now home at Mission Moroto praise the Lord. We are praying for more sponsors for these precious children.

READ HERE ABOUT SPONSORSHIPS

RESCUE #122 Welcome Mark Meveku!

He and his brother John Matao recently lost their single mother. She was working in the mines nearby and was killed in a collapse.

They are now home at Mission Moroto praise the Lord. We are praying for more sponsors for these precious children.

READ HERE ABOUT SPONSORSHIPS

RESCUE #121 Welcome John Matao!

He and his little brother Mark Meveku recently lost their single mother. She was working in the mines nearby and was killed in a collapse.

They are home at Mission Moroto now praise the Lord. We are praying for more sponsors for these precious children.

READ HERE ABOUT SPONSORSHIPS

I am Angel Gabriel Ilukol from Kaabong District. The story from my mother is that when she was pregnant with me there was no sign of pregnancy. Her stomach was perfectly flat unlike my brothers and sisters when her stomach was very big.

She felt sick and was admitted to the hospital. She grew thin and when the nurses were massaging her stomach they said she had a stomach disease. Later, they realized she was pregnant and they told her that she was going to die or the baby was going to die. By God’s grace I was born and we both lived.

Later, as I grew I felt sick and was admitted to the hospital. My body didn’t have enough blood. They went to all my family but my body rejected all of their blood.The brother of my father was also admitted to the hospital and sacrificed his blood for me. It was a match and I was healed.

Thereafter at home we went to collect Tamarind fruit. I would climb up to the very tips and get the fruit. I was sitting on the highest branch and there was a large stone below and I fell. I was saved by God. Two weeks later, we walked 4 kilometers to a river to fetch water. We were attracted to a fig tree full of fruit down by a pool in the river. 5 of us went down to get the fruit. I climbed up into the tree and began throwing down fruit. Suddenly, a crocodile came up from the pool and shook the tree and I fell but I caught my self on the lowest branch by my right hand. The tree was shaking and I was growing tired of holding on. The water was boiling and went from white to green and then the tree stopped shaking and I was able to grab on with my legs and jump to the river bank.

Thereafter, they took me to herd goats but my heart wasn’t happy as I saw others going to boarding school. I forced myself to go to boarding school and my eldest brother hated me for it and told me not to come back home. It was 2008 when I joined school. The teachers loved me as I was working hard to please them. Even holidays the teachers traded taking me home to stay at their house. I finished my secondary school in 2014 and managed to get 19 aggregates Div II.

I felt again sick with a disease I don’t know what up to now. I kept coughing up blood and was admitted to the hospital and I got healed. A certain soldier wanted to sponsor me but my father refused. He said he already had a sponsor for me from Moroto. I came to Moroto in 2015 and my new sponsor was a white lady named Gabby. She disappeared with my paperwork. I sat at home for 2 years. In 2016 I met Pastor Noah and he told me to come to Rupa. I came and got to meet Bill (now in heaven). Bill was sick so he couldn’t take me in. Noah and Simon told me to go work that land at home and they would work on a way forward for me. In 2017 Noah told me to go join Joseph Longoli and John in school at primary 7 where I managed to get 16 aggregates. Then we joined Nadunget Senior Secondary School in 2018 up to now. That’s why I give thanks and glory to God for the wonderful life He has given me and delivered me from all those former troubles. Thank you, Angel Gabriel Ilukol.

“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”

“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!

“A mighty flame follows a tiny spark.” ― Dante

Read the beginning of the series HERE

I started putting out prayer requests to let our prayer warriors know that I was going to Liberia in October. My friend Bruce Marshall called and said, “Mercy is going with you right?” I said, “Well brother, her passport is long expired and we have issues with her citizenship status and we don’t have time or money to get it all sorted out.” He said, “Matt! She has to go! Hire an immigration lawyer or whatever you have to do. I will pay for it. I will pay for her trip. She has to go!” I gulped and said, “Yes sir, I will get to work on it. Long story short, many crazy miracles came together for this trip. We had to fly her to Washington D.C. to get a Liberian passport. There were so many complications. Finally we found out that Mercy’s blood father’s brother went to law school with the deputy ambassador of Liberia. He heard about our situation. Walked into the embassy and said, “Just add a new page to her old 2007 Liberian passport and I will sign it.” And they did. By pure miracle we boarded the plane on October 8, 2015 which “just happened to be” her 21st birthday and we flew to Monrovia, Liberia! But the miracles were only beginning.

As we were preparing to go, Mercy reconnected with her blood sister, Olive through Facebook, and let her know that we were coming to Monrovia. We arrived in Monrovia and drove to a gas station out in the bush where Mercy’s blood family was to meet us. I will never forget the next few moments. Their SUV pulled into the parking lot and Mercy’s biological father, full blood sister, and two half-sisters piled out all smiles. We embraced with tears in all of our eyes. They kept hugging me saying, “Thank you for saving Mercy!” “Thank you for saving Mercy!” Then Mercy’s sister Olive came up and hugged me with tears in her eyes and said, “My American Daddy!” I thought my heart would burst out of my chest. What a beautiful night. But still more miracles were to come!

Later that week, we had a family reunion at Olive’s house and dozens of Mercy’s aunts, uncles, cousins, and other family members came but the most amazing thing was that her grandmother whom she lived with when she was a tiny girl came. Up until that day her grandmother had believed Mercy’s was dead. For years family told her that Mercy had “gone to America” to get well but her grandmother just knew that this was euphemistic for “she went to heaven.” When they met and embraced that night the angels in heaven must have been dancing and shouting. It was an amazing night. We ate and ate wonderful Liberian dishes and laughed and told many stories. The most memorable thing for me was toward the end of the night when the family had Mercy and me stand and they all lined up and came forward crying to hug me, thank me, and present me with gifts. Then they “gowned me” with the garb of a village chief and declared me an Honorable Paramount Chief of Kalabeh Chiefdom. But even more miracles were coming…

I knew that day in June 2015 when Pastor Martin V. Paye Sr. called me and asked me to preach a crusade and do pastor and youth seminars in Liberia that it was a message from the Lord but I couldn’t have known how thrilling each and every service would be. What a joy to stand on that stage night after night and see the people flood from the surrounding villages and neighborhoods to hear the gospel and then to see the altar packed each night as hundreds came to trust in Jesus. Each day we would visit a different school and share Jesus with the children, hold pastor seminars and youth seminars. The Spirit moved in power and I was overjoyed to be a part. Thank you Lord!

When Rebekah and I were in Rwanda in January we felt led along with our brother Ndagijimana to start a school and call it Mercy’s House in honor of our precious daughter Mercy. Now in Liberia I shared this thought with Pastor Paye and he was all in. God had already supplied $10,000 to buy the land in Rwanda for Mercy’s House and now Pastor Paye told me about some land in Monrovia that would be perfect for a Mercy’s House. As I held little orphaned Liberian children in my arms as they came to hug on me every day, I knew we had to do this! We finished our trip and went back home praying that God would allow us to open a school in our daughter’s home town named after her. Quickly after arriving home we went to Colombia for another wonderful mission trip and then shortly after God provided the money for the land in Monrovia. Mercy’s House was on the move to become a reality. Praise God! CHARGE HARD INDEED!

Aflame For God 24 – BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOD

“Reckon then that to acquire soul-winning power, you will have to go through mental torment and soul distress. You must go into the fire if you are going to pull others out of it.” — C.H. Spurgeon

Read the beginning of the series HERE

In early 2014 I was sitting in my recliner ordering plane tickets for a preaching tour of Colombia in April. My daughter Brooke, who was working full time and in nursing school came over and sat on the arm of my chair and said, “Hey dad, I want to go to Colombia with you.” I said, “Don’t tease me like that, I would love for you to go.” She said, “I’m serious! I have the money. Please order my plane ticket.” And so I did. We flew to Colombia in early April and met our translator Oscar, whom Brooke had never met. The next three weeks were some of the most miraculous of my life as we preached all over central and northern Colombia. In one of the crusades in Bogota, I preached with an evangelist from Switzerland. After one of my sermons he said, “That is the most powerful message I have ever heard. Are you on TV or the internet?” I said, “No sir.” He said, “You will be. The world will hear from you.” I immediately sensed that God was showing me that this was my personal mission critical from now on. You can read my journal of that precious time HERE. Brooke was so blown away by the Holy Spirit on this trip that she came home, quit her job, quit school, and moved to Colombia full time. Not only that, Brooke and Oscar, my translator and best friend, fell in love on this trip and were married August 20, 2016 but I’m getting ahead of myself 🙂

Brooke began working first in a wonderful orphanage in Medellin, Colombia with our dear sister Enith Diaz, whom I call the Mother Teresa of Colombia. God supernaturally anointed Brooke as she moved into this orphanage at 20 years of age speaking only a tiny bit of Spanish in a place where noone spoke any English and within a few months she was completely fluent in Spanish with a perfect accent. Miraculous! Brooke worked there a year touching scores of lives and then moved to Bogota to work for Mission Critical on our Project Shield. Read her miraculous stories HERE!

We had another wonderful Colombia mission trip in September 2013. God continued to tug at my heart for more crusades around the globe and my phone began to blow up with requests for me to come to all 5 occupied continents. So far I had only been going to Colombia but I knew there was more to come.

In November of 2014 our daughter Rebekah had to come home from Zambia on an emergency medical flight. She had been suffering with pneumonia for months and the antibiotics they were giving her at the village clinic wasn’t helping. She could have died. She lay on our couch for 6 weeks as her mom nursed her back to health. One night in late December 2014 we were sitting on the balcony of our apartment talking and praying and she said, “Daddy, you have to come to Africa with me! I want you to see my orphanage and meet my children, you have to preach for Pastor Mbewe, meet Pastor Tendai, and we have to go to Rwanda and preach for Pastor Ndagijimana! Africa seemed to me as far away as the moon. I had never even crossed the Atlantic! I quickly figured out a budget of what it would take to do all that she asked. “Rebekah, it would take $10,000 to do what you are saying.” I said. She replied, “That’s OK Daddy. God has $10,000. Let’s pray right now.” I sheepishly bowed my head and she prayed so boldly that God would give us $10,000 soon so we could go. Then she lifted her smiling face and said, “There Daddy! We are going to Africa!” I gulped and said, “Yeah, great, sure.” We didn’t tell another soul about that conversation and yet two days later a man mysteriously wired $10,000 into my bank account!!!! We quickly bought our tickets and left for Africa in mid January 2015! Oh the miracles! Oh the crusades! Oh the joy! Below is a summary video of that historic trip.

Things began to really explode in 2015! The Holy Spirit put two words on my heart over and over again… CHARGE HARD! And we did. Rebekah and I came home from Africa, spoke at a Tres Dias retreat, then headed out for more crusades in Colombia. Then we went to Belize and preached a week long crusade in the dump on Ambergris Caye! Wonderful moves of God. Then we went back to Colombia with a mission team. Oh what a glorious trip. We went on to Medellin where we were blessed to speak in the one of the most dangerous prisons in the world! The fire fell! We came home and I received a call from a pastor in Monrovia, Liberia Africa, our daughter Mercy’s birth town. “Matt, would you please come and preach a crusade and do a youth rally and pastors training?” I instantly replied, “Yes! I have been praying for 7 years that God would let me go see my daughter’s birth home! October? Yes I will be there… Oh my! God was ramping this ministry UP!!!!

Aflame For God 23 – Mercy’s House

“The furnace of affliction is a good place for you, Christian; it benefits you; it helps you to become more like Christ, and it is fitting you for heaven.” — C.H. Spurgeon

Read the beginning of the series HERE

In the midst of this dark time I was driving one day to go preach and my then 20 year old daughter, Rebekah, was riding with me. She could see the devastation on my face. She turned to me and said, “Daddy, please don’t be so sad.” I said, “Sorry sweetie, I’m trying.” Then she said something so anointed by the Holy Spirit that it changed my life forever. She said, “Daddy, remember, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego didn’t see Jesus until they were in the furnace and Daddy, seeing Jesus is worth the fire.” It hit me like a brick! I knew she was right! We had experienced Jesus during this dark time like we never had before and Jesus is worth the fire! I was immediately healed of my discouragement. When I arrived at the place I was to preach I told them, “open your Bibles to Daniel chapter 3” and I preached a powerful message called Jesus Is Worth The Fire. I finished the sermon with the last verse of Daniel chapter 3 which is verse 30 “Then the king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to even higher positions in the province of Babylon.” The furnace is for promotion! The only thing that burns is your bonds! You are thrown in tied up but after the Fourth Man appears your bonds are loosed and you walk out without the smell of smoke on you! This was perhaps the most prophetic sermon of my life and I have preached it all over the world. Our furnace was the launching pad for our greatest most miraculous season of ministry we have ever seen so far.

Rebekah moved to Inner City Los Angeles to work at the Dream Center for a year and quickly rose through the ranks to become a leader there. At 21 years of age she became the “Adopt A Block” leader for Nickerson Gardens, the largest government housing projects west of the Mississippi. God used her mightily there. You can read her blogs from that time HERE. I continued traveling regularly to Colombia, preaching and rescuing orphans. In January of 2012 I decided that I would take one whole day with a yellow legal pad and pen until I could come up with what I thought God wanted me to spend the rest of my life doing in one sentence. After praying and crying all day and writing, writing, writing I stepped outside to prayer walk around the apartment complex. At one moment while praying I stopped, looked into the night sky and said out loud, “Lord, I just want to know what Your mission critical is for me!” I froze. That’s it! That’s what the name of our ministry will be. I ran inside and searched to see if Mission Critical International had already been used as a ministry name and it looked clean! Later that night I identified my one sentence mission critical… “Passionately pursuing Jesus on His mission among the nations and mobilizing others to join us in this thrilling adventure!” That Spring I flew to L.A. to spend a week working in the streets with Rebekah. It was one of the most thrilling weeks of my life and we founded Mission Critical International that week. We worked one night trying to come up with a logo for the ministry with no success. I climbed into one of the bunkbeds in the Dream Center for a good nights sleep and I had a dream and saw our current logo on a billboard. The next morning I excitedly grabbed my Macbook and created what I had seen in my dream. It is precious to us. My son, Luke was so excited when I shared with Him what the Lord had showed me in L.A. He and I worked and worked to develop our website we have today.

2013 was a year of much sickness for me but God was preparing me. He was keeping me hungry for Him. I spent a third of the year in bed and finances were at an all time low but it was the beginning of the promotion for sure. In January Rebekah 24 at the time came to me and said, “Daddy, I know you love Colombia but God is calling me to Africa!” I said, “Great! That makes sense since He gave you an African sister. That has been on my mind.” She worked hard and God provided and she left for Zambia, Africa in February 2013 to live in the bush with no running water, no electricity, and help establish an orphanage! She fell in love with the people, the country, and the continent. She lived there two years. Read her miraculous stories HERE!

Our daughter Brooke, 17 at the time spent the summer in Colombia working in an orphanage. You can read about her experiences HERE.

I was planning in early October 2013 to travel to Bogota, Colombia on a mission trip with my oldest son Luke. My dear friend Bruce surprised me with an invitation to Newport Beach, California the first weekend of September to wed his two precious daughters in a dual ceremony atop a 300 foot long yacht in the harbor. The first of many miracles began when I stood at the altar of Celebration Church of the Woodlands and my pastor, Frankie Mazzapica prayed over me for healing and I never spent another day in bed after that. Then Lisa and I were at the airport getting ready to leave for Newport Beach. We knew God had to be our source because we only had $11.00 to our name, didn’t know how we would finance our stay in Newport Beach, where the money would come from to go to Colombia in 3 weeks, and more. While we were waiting in line to get on the plane I received a message from Colombia that there was violent rioting throughout the country and maybe we should’t come. We took a deep breath, asked the Lord to take over, and walked onto the plane. Everything miraculously worked out and we had a glorious trip to California and then Luke and I traveled to Colombia together and teamed up with a wonderful translator I had met on a previous trip named Oscar Useche. Read all about it HERE. We spent a week in the orphanages and then Oscar said, “I have pastors from 4 churches asking me to have you come and preach while you are here.” I said, “Great! Let’s do it. So Luke, Oscar, and I went to 4 churches in two days. I preached a sermon that God had blown my mind with a few weeks before as I was reading Mark chapter 2. The sermon was entitled The Recipe For A Miracle and God used it on this trip in miraculous ways that I had never before experienced. Whole crowds would flood to the altar at the end of the sermon weeping and crying out loud to God in desperation for Him. The anointing was so obvious that the pastors said, “Please, come back and do a trip that is just preaching crusades!” And so we started praying and planning for such a trip to be scheduled in the spring of 2014.

Spiritual and financial miracles were happening all around us and we begin to see that we were being “promoted to even higher positions in the province of Babylon.”

Aflame For God 22 – Global Evangelism Explosion

“Love is perfected in the fire of God.” – Samuel Chadwick

Read the beginning of the series HERE

Totally unbeknownst to us, my worship leader of our church I pastored was currently and had been for years systematically sexually abusing his two teenage adopted daughters, one of which was our son’s (who was away in the Navy) girlfriend. She eventually cried out to him and then to me, I discreetly confirmed everything, and then brought in law enforcement to investigate. Once he and his wife got wind of the fact that I knew the truth, the war was on! I convinced them to bring the 16-year-old daughter who had cried out to me to stay with our family and after dropping her off they fled the city. They of course were very popular in the church and launched a campaign of lies to try and cover for this horrendous sin and they successfully convinced many of the church of his innocence and that she was a rebellious lying girl and that I was totally in the wrong. It was nightmarish! The battle was terrible! Our church disintegrated before our eyes. I was out of a job as a pastor by late spring of 2010 and our family went through a terrible time. Law enforcement pursued them and eventually after years of evading it the whole story came out finally and the other daughter was rescued.

But back to the girl that they dropped on our doorstep… For the first three months she had such horrible night terrors that she would scream and try to throw herself out of windows and fight us and then pass out and then rise up to fight again. We took every mattress in our house and placed them on the living room floor in a circle around the mattress that the girl slept on and we all slept in the circle around her. Many nights frankly we sat up all night reading the scripture or singing Agnus Dei around her. After 3 months she finally had a breakthrough and settled down to a happy life in our family. After she turned 18 she married our son and they gave us 2 of the most beautiful granddaughters. Sadly, her demons still plague her horribly and she left him over a year ago to be a lesbian and now lives with another woman. We currently have our granddaughters living with us.

But back to the spring of 2010 right in the midst of this battle… Lisa (her first trip) and I went to Colombia in April, 2010 and were able to spend a week with Heidy and another girl Ginary. It was precious and magical and we made great progress in their adoptions. But the war was far from over. Shortly after we returned from Colombia, the turmoil in our home was so great that our African daughter Mercy couldn’t take it and ran away. She was gone for 1 year. Our world stopped turning. The government canceled our adoptions in Colombia. We had our last church service the next Sunday and closed the church down that next week. It was a terrible time… The darkest time of our lives… We lost everything. We lost our adopted children, we lost our house, we lost all of our possessions, we lost our health, and worst of all we lost most of our friends. But we knew we were in God’s will and we kept swinging.

I was dead inside but the only thing I knew to do was keep following Jesus and so I made 3-4 more trips to Colombia taking dozens of people and God poured out His Spirit and many lives were changed. Eventually we were blessed to help over 35 orphans get adopted into Christian homes in Houston, Texas, Praise God! You can read about these miracle stories HERE. I preached everywhere and God blessed mightily. We worked many Tres Dias weekends and we saw many miracles. But our family struggled terribly during this time. For two years I prayed that I could just go to heaven. I was tired of the war…

Aflame For God 21 – Jesus Is Worth The Fire

“Fire is the chosen symbol of heaven for moral passion. It is emotion aflame. God is love. God is fire… It is by a holy passion kindled in the soul that we live the life of God.” – Samuel Chadwick

Read the beginning of the series HERE

Rebekah and I arrived back in Houston that Sunday and our feet were hardly touching the ground. We had spent five amazing days in the presence of Jesus and loving on His lambs and we were full up to the brim. Three days later, as the Lord would have it, I was to speak at a three day men’s retreat called Tres Dias. Ironically, this is the same ministry where I first heard my friend Allen talk about orphan ministry and God got ahold of my heart. I was so excited that I was going into this set of weekends, (the men’s weekend followed by speaking at the women’s the very next weekend.) so full of the Holy Spirit. I felt as if I was floating on a cloud as I arrived at the camp that Thursday. I was oozing joy and excitement and everyone around me could feel it. I was to speak twice that weekend, once on The Means of Grace, and once on The Life in Grace. What better subjects to talk about after just spending a week under the waterfall of Grace in Colombia. I preached my heart out both times and showed a video of the pictures from our trip with a song playing in the background by Steven Curtis Chapman called “What Now” The first line of the song says, “I saw the face of Jesus in a little orphan girl.” The presence of the Lord was powerfully present and I knew lives were being changed. After I showed the video it was time for lunch. As I walked into the lunchroom a man walked up to me with tears in his eyes and said, “My name is Luis Escobar. I am from Bogota, Colombia. I speak both languages fluently. I know the city, the government, the culture. I have experienced the grace of God today, I know God spoke to me today, and I am at your service.” I couldn’t believe it and yet I could. I hugged him and said, “I have been praying for you for six months.” We began then to plan the next trip and we set out to pray about whom the Lord would have come with us. Luis did end up going on that trip and became a huge blessing to me over the years.

We also immediately started working on adoption paperwork for Heidy and Ginary to become our daughters. During this time, someone mentioned to me, “Hey have you heard about National Orphan Sunday, November 8, 2009?” So I started checking into it and found that Chrisitan Alliance for Orphans and Steven Curtis Chapman’s ministry and others had organized a national day to recognize the plight of the orphan and were encouraging churches across the country to have a special emphasis that day. We quickly began to plan and promote Orphan Sunday at Heritage Church where I was pastoring at the time. When the day came the church was filled with people and there were dozens of former orphans from all over the world who had been adopted. Someone commented that it looked like a miniature United Nations that day. It was one of the best days of my life.

There were many other amazing providences that led up to this trip as well. One that especially sticks out in my mind was a prayer meeting that David Richardson, Allen Pate and myself had in my study. We had all been feeling the pressure and the spiritual warfare leading up to this trip and we agreed to meet at my place and get on our faces before God and seek His help and power. Before we began to pray, David mentioned some men that the Lord had laid on his heart regarding orphan ministry. We wrote down three names and prayed for them and for God’s leading. One of the men’s names was Chris Dinkler, a brother that we had met at Tres Dias. It was a powerful prayer meeting and afterward we dried our eyes and hugged each other goodbye. About twenty minutes later, my phone rang and it was David and his voice was shaking and he told me that just after he and Allen left my house, his phone rang and it was Chris Dinkler calling to say that for “some reason” he and his wife couldn’t quit thinking about Colombia and the orphans and that he wanted to get more information about going with us. Chris did go with us on the January trip and I’ll never forget as long as I live the words he said as we were leaving the last orphanage on the last night headed to the airport. We were standing outside the gate of the orphanage on a dirt road in this inner-city slum and with tears rolling down his face Chris said, “The next time someone tells me they want to see Jesus I’m going to tell them, ‘I can give you the street address where He lives’.”

This time my daughter Brooke as well as Rebekah and Beverly made sure I knew they wanted to go. It was a total stretching of our faith because at this time I had been out of work for about 18 months and money was really tight. For just me to go in January would require a huge miracle. We set about to pray for people and pray for money and God answered big. My co-pastor and best friend, Chuck Carpenter, also expressed interest in going but he too had no idea where the money would come from. I began to walk the streets of my neighborhood every night crying out to God to pay our bills and somehow get us all to Colombia in January. One morning my phone rang and a dear friend from a previous church I had pastored said, “I hear you want to take 5 or 6 people with you to Colombia and I want to pay for them! Wow! So all of us including Chuck, Luis, Chris, and several others were going to Colombia!

We had a wonderful trip and I have written about it HERE.

Things were going really well and miracles abounded but something happened just before we left that would prove to be a catalyst for the most difficult period of spiritual warfare we have ever experienced.

Aflame For God 20 – All Out War