Life Changing Words Ministry
Missionary Journal
December 2007
Emma and I began to regularly minister together. We saw two healings and two gave their hearts to Jesus at the church meeting at Warli Pada.
Back at the main IPH building, we prayed for the church cleansing and for the glory of God to fall on the pastor and his wife, along with ten of the eleven persons who were baptized the day before. Most of the baptized were youth from the age of fourteen and up. Yet, this night, all of those present at the meeting received a word, vision, or experience from God. What they all shared to the pastor, which gave him a bigger picture of the fact that God would change that little slum church. They were all encouraged to ask the Lord for more visions and scripture words. The Spirit of God led me to pray a word over each of them. We knew that they knew they could hear from the Lord if they asked and expected to hear from Him.
A 'firstfruit' from IPH, Bani, came for a visit with his wife. They are currently working in Dubai. When they come home to visit their families, they always stop in to see the pastor and his family. He shared that the church they are attending in Dubai is experiencing the move of God during their prayer meetings. We had another reason to rejoice and praise the Lord.
Emma and I were in the church together. She had expressed that she was having a hard time during the worship time. She had felt that there was no where dedicated for an altar so she could go there to worship. We felt led to share about giving God the first place in our lives and that would include the church. Pastor Paul listened nicely, but it was clear that he hadn't understood everything. We continued to pray.
In one of the prayer meetings, the Lord gave Pastor a verse: Isaiah 66:1, "...heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And, where is the place of My rest?" This revelation began to make Pastor look around the room and see that there was no place that was dedicated to Him. He confessed this to us, but didn't know what to do.
The Holy Spirit began to orchestrate what He wanted through Emma and me. We asked Pastor Paul if he was willing to make a place for the Lord.
"Yes!" He said heartily.
"Will you give us permission to change things as we are led of the Lord?"
"Yes! We want Him to be the Guest of Honor in our church!"
So began our joint effort to fulfill what would later be revealed as our purpose for this trip. We measured and evaluated and measured some more. We moved the sound system from the front to the opposite side wall, adding more cable, where there was an electrical plug-in. The pastor's chairs were moved to face the pulpit that now would stand on the left side in front of the space which would become the altar area. Next, the choir and instruments were put in the back. The congregation would only see the Cross on the wall and the pulpit. There would be no more temptations to entertain the people. The Cross and the shepherd of the flock would be the only things before them.
On Thursday, Pastor and Florie came with Emma and me to the carpet shop. We purchased drapes for three windows, a large wall drape to cover the entrance to pastor's home to stop the traffic from the church going there, the plain "red" carpet with a pad that would represent an altar area, five large area rugs for the congregation to sit on, and two smaller rugs to cover under the pastor's chairs. Transforming the sanctuary cost about $710.
We cleaned the floors and made tidy the wood doors, the pulpit, and the Cross with fresh oil and stain. A new dirt-catcher rug was put outside the refreshed door. Before we even got all the carpeting down, a lady who was fighting diabetes received healing. The man who hand stitched the "red" carpet experienced a sense of peace that he had never experienced before while he was working on the altar carpet. When it was completed, the change was remarkable. The neighbors stuck their heads in the church doorway to look at the transformation...
"It looks like a holy place!" remarked one neighbor.
The other neighbors were stunned and did not say anything. Some simply said, "Wow" in Hindi.
The church members would be in for a pleasant surprise on Sunday morning. Emma and I knelt before the Lord thanking Him for giving us such a privileged opportunity to serve Him.
It was another late night getting back to our homestay place. Reema's only duty for us was to let us in the door and retreat back to bed. However, my husband found favor with her and she sometimes asked him if he wanted hot water for a nighttime bath. If he did, I would get the second half of the bucket of hot water.
Sunday morning was an interesting time. The people from the Tamil speaking church decided that they were not going to remain. They did not like having to be under any church authority, so they permanently left the church after the service, taking the almost Rs 60,000 out of the illegal bank account and keeping it with themselves – money that rightfully belonged to IPH. [The ones that did not leave with the main group, later left when they thought the service was going too long.] The Hindi speaking members were delightfully surprised and very open to hear from the Pastor about the new look.
That Sunday afternoon, Emma and I were in the sanctuary. We had been praying or reading. Four people came through the church door carrying a lady who was paralyzed. I called for Pastor and Florie. These people relayed their story... The paralyzed lady's name was Florie. They were from a city called Chembure, which is about an hour from Mulund. They had come from the hospital. The doctors there had told her that they have nothing more they can do for her and that she would have to endure in this condition for about two years and there was no guarantee that she would recover then.
Josephine is a relative of someone who knows about IPH. She lives nearby to Florie from Chembure. She was at the hospital to bring her home when she thought about bringing her to the church. The other two were Muslim neighbors of hers and the fourth person was the auto rickshaw driver.
We made the others sit in the back of the room and asked them to pray for her while we were praying for her in the middle of the sanctuary. Emma, Pastor, Florie, and I prayed for Florie from Chembure until the healing power caused her to be overcome and she fell to the floor. I sat down beside her on the paralyzed side. We allowed the Lord time to do His "inner ministry". When she opened her eyes, we asked her through the pastor to make some movement to acknowledge the healing power she had obviously received.
"Danyawad, Yeshu" (thank you, Jesus)
"Bol (say) danyawad, Yeshu," I said to her.
She began to repeat her thanks as she began to move her arm to lift it up. Then she moved her elbow. Her fingers seemed stiff, so I massaged them a little. She wanted to get up. Pastor helped her to get up off the floor. She stood on her own.
Those sitting in the back had tears in their eyes when they saw what God had done for her.
Gulam, the auto rickshaw driver, confessed his sins, asked Jesus into his heart, and received peace.
They were invited to come back on Sunday to give their testimonies. [Florie of Chembure returned with thirteen people from her community who wanted prayer the following Sunday.]
We began to make plans for the end of the year program that would be on Sunday, the 30th of December. It would recognize Jesus as the soon coming King. The invitations would invite individuals and families to celebrate the coming King. It listed the guest of honor as Lord Jesus Christ. When the invitations were printed and ready to go, we invited the Lord Jesus Christ to come to the Celebration where He would be the Guest of Honor during the Sunday service. The invitation for Him was left on the altar.
Pastor personally delivered to friends, families, officers from the society where they are living, attorneys, other pastors, and many other dignitaries. The invitations gave him the opportunity to share the gospel, but none of dignitaries came.
The Dindayal Municipal School hall was rented for the celebration program. We began to bring out the costumes that would be needed for the worship dancers. Florie chose and asked the ladies to meet to find out who would be wearing what. It was nice for me to just sit in on the meeting, while Florie led the ladies. I was so glad to see how much she had grown in the Lord and in leadership since I first met her in 1997. It is the same feeling you have when you see your own children taking responsibility in their own right. You have a sense of fulfilling your duty to them as a parent. That is what Bill and I have been to this family as we have mentored them these years as assigned by the Lord.
Everyone in the church was busy preparing, practicing, and planning for the big celebration program. The sense of excitement was because we were doing what other churches were not doing. Pastor was, like last year, helping the people to change their thinking that Jesus is a baby, to the fact that He is the soon coming King! The people need to expect Him by watching for Him.
My duty was to put the program into an organized order of presentation and to help the processional begin for the flag worshippers and for the glory ring dancers.
On December 12th we took Emma back to the Hindu doctor. He did not want to admit to the healing. He instructed the medical specialist to make a fiberglass light cast so she could walk around, but not to get it wet. When the first cast was cut off her leg, I noticed a round thumb-like print of bruising on the inside of Emma's foot. She showed me that on the opposite side was a long bruise that looked like four-finger length. It literally looked like someone had violently grabbed her foot and caused it to break at the ankle. I felt that it was clearly a demonic evidence of hindrance for the good works we had accomplished earlier on the day that she fell. Still, we were rejoicing in the work of the Lord.
I went shopping with Pastor, Florie and Emma. I wanted to get new shirts for those who are ministering in the leadership. Pastor would be able to help me with the sizes. The ladies got a new sari, or costume jewelry for their ministry gift.
Emma had an elaborate dream on the 16th showing Rohan, our homestay's son, playing anointed music on the keyboard. [1Chron 16:4] Shalan, in ministry training, throws anointing oil on Rohan. A man prophesizes over him and hugs him. The anointed Presence comes, but distractions (of worldly things and entertainment) cause the anointing to be removed.
Also, part of the dream, she saw me mingling with the people and my pregnancy was revealed to her. She felt that this meant a new dimension; a new level of God's plan was for me.
The Lord prompted her to read about a place for His Presence from 1Chron 17.
The next night I dreamt that I was at a Chinese hospital. The surgeons were explaining what they were going to do...but my thoughts are...this is not me; they must have the wrong chart or information. Emma interpreted: God will do "surgery" on the body of IPH for their sake.
The ministry team stopped going here and there. We spent our time in the sanctuary, beginning to understand David when he said, "...I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." [Ps 23:6] "...Honor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary...Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!" [Ps 96:6, 9] We wanted to spend all our time in worship, prayer, and reading. It was heaven on earth...literally!
I had a vision on the 27th of December. I was on the floor looking up. There was a white ceiling. I saw some grapes hanging down from between the boards. There were several bunches. On the left side, I saw a bright light – white inside, then blue and the outer part purple – burst through and leave a yellowish gold liquid that began to consume the grapes. This liquid flowed all around until there was no more fruit.
I heard in my spirit: "The Lord Himself has pruned and received the firstfruits in order that there may be more fruit and much fruit." [John 15:8] Then I only saw the white ceiling again and the vision was over.
The next day as I was in the prayer meeting, I raised my hands in offering myself to Him. In my left hand, I felt the weight and shape of a rectangle. I asked the Lord what it was. I then 'knew' there was money in the box. I set it down. Again, I received another box that I laid on the altar. Later, again I raised my hands and felt something round in both my hands. I asked what these were. I then 'knew' they were vials/bottles, so I asked what was in them. I heard in my spirit: "One is healing oil and the other is incense." I offered them up to the Lord with thanksgiving, but He did not take them from my hands.
My heart was so hungry for these things that I made the motion of putting them into my own heart, while asking the Lord to teach me how to use them for His glory.
Finally, when I raised my hands, He gave me an oval shaped object. When I asked what it was, He said, "It is fragrant perfume." I thanked His as I offered it up to Him before putting it into my heart.