20 Year Wedding Anniversary: Reflection On How We Met

Major Highlight 20-Year Anniversary

© Paul Yoh

One of the major highlights of the last year was the celebration of our 20th wedding anniversary, hallelujah! We received this cool email response when we shared about it in one or our newsletters.

From our friend Randy:

Congratulations on the continued successful ministry and especially on your 20th wedding anniversary.  The last is no small feat, and in fact, in this day and age, is a miracle!  20 years of on the road ministry!  Raising a beautiful son!  Staying together...  Pushing through the lean and the stressful times with persistent love!  I am impressed and I happily celebrate this tremendous achievement.  Jesus wanted to teach by example.  You guys teach love by example.  I have always seen God's divine love flowing through you both.  You guys are a walking testament to a truly Christian life, one that is filled with adventures in faith and love.

Happy anniversary and keep in His light and on His path!

Randy

It is Hard to believe that 20 years have gone by since we said our vows to one another years back in front of friends and family in Newport Beach; boy, time really does fly by.

It is glorious to see how God's grace, love, power, and mercy has continually worked through His Holy Spirit in our lives to continue to accomplish His will that was announced from the very beginning of time:  "A man shall leave his mother and father and the two shall become one flesh."  God by His grace is continually working all the time fulfilling that goal in deeper and deeper ways—it is incredible to be more in love and feeling deeper as one with God and each other twenty years on into it all; God truly is amazing. 

We give all glory to God to have this testimony in this day of broken marriages.   Both of our parents got divorced while each of us was growing up, which greatly stacked the odds against us having a marriage that survives.  We are humbled and thankful for His incredible grace which always turns everything for good in such amazing and unexpected ways, and without which we’d likely find ourselves on the killing floor just like so many others who are trying to clean up the wreckage of a broken marriage.  Nevertheless, His mercy and amazing grace has continually overflowed by the sheer power of the Holy Spirit to make us more into one all the time.    

Divine Appointment: Seat-saving With Lasting Consequences

We get asked regularly how we met, which is a bit of a wild and crazy story, so it is always fun to retell it:

Mercedes and I met at a conference in Kansas City, some 22 years ago, a place neither of us had ever been to before.

We had both been attending Anaheim Vineyard at that time, but had never met each other there. A brief passing in the hall did have us catch each other’s eye one time though.

Mercedes’ family had come up and moved to the US all the way from Argentina, specifically for the revival that was happening at the Vineyard Anaheim in those days.  I also had been filled with the Holy Spirit and received much healing myself in the early days of that same revival.

The Anaheim Vineyard was doing a conference together with Kansas City Fellowship (what later became IHOP), and each of us, come to find out later, felt God was leading us out to this conference in Kansas City for something special. 

In fact, as I was waiting for confirmation from the Lord, those holding the airline tickets were getting a bit annoyed at my “insistence to wait upon God” as they called it,  but confirmation came from the Lord and proved to be of great importance.

A Big Meeting

A big meeting was set for the last night of the conference. I had saved a seat near the front row in the 8,000-seat auditorium, which was packed out. 

Having gone to a lake that day with some friends during the afternoon, I was surprised to come back to find my things from my seat thrown into a pile in the corner, along with other people’s clothing, jackets, and notebooks.  The ushers had decided, that at the very last meeting, after a whole week of everyone saving seats, to institute a new practice of “no seat saving” for the final and last meeting, not much time for people to get used to the new policy really. 

There turned out to be quite a few disgruntled people saying it was a little late in the day to suddenly change everything, after allowing seats to be saved the whole week.  You could definitely hear some grumbling as people were rummaging through the huge piles of clothing and notebooks, trying to find their stuff.

I finally found my stuff in the pile, and then decided I might as well go to the back of auditorium since I now didn’t have a seat.  

As I was walking by the front of the auditorium on my way to find a new place to sit, a small group of guys I had never met began calling out to me.  I didn’t know them, but went over and asked, “What’s up.”

“We save extra seats and are praying who to give them to, and we all just felt you are supposed to sit here,” they told me.  “Wow!” I said, “You have actually saved seats and are praying who to give them to?”  “Must be doing it undercover lest you get persecuted by the ushers!”   “You know,” I responded “I was going to be sitting here in the front originally, and then lost my seat to the ushers’ little game of musical chairs. I think I’m supposed to be sitting up here after all.” 

I was back near the front row again, but the seats had just been rearranged a little bit by the Lord.

I took the offered seat and soon noticed a young lady from the Vineyard I had seen once before in the hall there, sitting close to me.  “Haven’t I seen you somewhere before?” I said.  Well, as lame as that line was, it was true. We had the Vineyard Anaheim as a reference point so we struck up a conversation quite easily.  After talking a while, we also began to find that we both felt called by the Lord towards similar things.

Meanwhile, Mercedes’ mother who was standing next to her, told Mercedes after hearing us converse for a while: “I think I just met my future son-in-law.”  Mercedes was naturally quite shocked at these unexpected words.  Fortunately, I didn’t overhear this statement as I would probably have thought this was some strange Kansas City marriage-arranging cult and would have hauled out of there.  

Her mom had actually had a vision of us being wrapped in cords of love right when we met—a vision that obviously proved itself to be true in due time.

However, the cords of love came a little later as we spent the first year just being friends and hanging out after church and occasionally doing stuff together like having a time of worship with a guitar on the beach or a game of tennis.

We later began to officially date when we were both quite aware from the leading of the Lord where it was all heading—to the marriage altar. Once we knew that, we were just waiting on God’s timing to tie that old knot.

 A Ring, A Beard, and A Wedding Dress

The Lord gave numerous confirmations that he was calling us to marry.  Unusual miracles and divine occurrences continued to lead the way in sometimes amusing fashion:

When I went to meet Mercedes’ dad for the first time, I was in the middle of a Nazarite vow.  After hanging around Lonnie Frisbee at that time, I got the Nazarite bug and took on this vow for a time—I didn’t know it was going to be a challenge of trusting God and overcoming the fear of man. 

I had been going on for almost six months and I had a gigantic beard down to almost my chest as well as long hair down my back and I was looking like an old Moses doll that the cat had dug up and dragged in—not really how you want to be looking when you meet your prospective father-in-law.  It was a time of testing as I was more than tempted to shave it all off before meeting her dad, but I felt led to hold steady and continue forward with what I was doing.  

In fact, Mercedes mother had said: “I hope you’re going to shave off that ridiculous beard before you meet Mercedes’ dad.”  She had actually called Mercedes’ dad to warn him that I looked like a gosh-darn hippie and to be prepared when he meets me that I resembled a hillbilly.

Her dad’s a pretty clean-cut, straight-laced guy, so it was quite surprising when the first words he said upon meeting me were: “Mercedes’ mother said you have a big ugly beard and look like some crazed hippie but I don’t see what the problem is. I used to have a beard and I happen to like beards.”  That was more than shocking; what looked like something that would be a problem turned out to work for good, with a little twist on what everybody thought would be a negative actually turning out to be positive.  In fact,  the little warning from Mercedes’ mother actually caused him to be more positive to me just to spite her, since they had a bit of an acrimonious history since divorcing.

This was followed up by her dad saying, “I heard you got a ring already. Let me have a look at that thing.”   He responded with a disdainful “hmmff” followed by: “Why don’t you take that little thing back and keep the money and give her this instead.”  He gave me a beautiful diamond ring, which blew the little ring I’d bought away. Having some extra cash on hand, especially when you’re embarking on a life lived by faith sure helps out. I was glad to take his ring for Mercedes and take the little one I bought back to the store and get some extra cash.

Those were a few cool miracles already, especially with these things not being the normal course of action for her dad’s behavior, but the miraculous continued. 

We were looking into buying a wedding dress for the ceremony when Mercedes’ step-mom said she just happened to have a designer wedding dress on hand at the moment (not something she usually had on hand) and said if it fit Mercedes she could use if for the wedding—it fit like a glove and turned into a divinely supplied dress at just the right time for the wedding. 

Once again, God intervened and we ended up having not only the wedding dress supplied, but the location as well, saving us even more dinero.

             

Prophecy – And a Couple of Howling Dogs

When the big day came, the wedding ceremony was being conducted by prophetic minister Larry Randolph who began to prophesy over us right in the middle of the ceremony, which was pretty bold in that atmosphere with all the different kinds of people there from unbelievers to full Pentecostals.  

It got even more wild however, as right at the very moment when he was giving us these powerful prophecies some dogs in the next yard over began to howl, bark, and screech, at the top of their lungs—it seemed the dogs were giving confirmation to his prophetic words over us—if God can use a donkey he can use dogs too!! The Spirit of God suddenly fell in power over the whole place and everybody there began to laugh hysterically all while the glory poured down—hallelujah!  Not a bad way to start things out!!

Onto the Process of the Two Becoming One

Any non-Hollywood celebrity type who has been married more than 72 days will tell you the ceremony isn’t the only thing, you know, that is just the beginning of the journey.  God’s process just goes deeper into shaping Christ’s image into us as his children, but also fulfilling God’s original plan of making the two become one flesh.

The Protestant reformer Martin Luther said that there is no better school for character than marriage—the monastery was a walk in the park when compared to it.  

Luther pointed out that hanging around all day in the monastery was just an endless parade of rituals that didn’t do much to take things all that deep in life with God, neither did it challenge or stretch your soul. The marriage relationship, on the other hand, confronts and holds your selfish human tendencies accountable.

Luther emphasized that marriage stretches us in ways that teach us to know and experience the love and grace of God in a continually deeper way.  

UHS and UHK

Both of us were attending traditional Christian institutions of higher learning when we got married.  I was at Fuller Seminary and Mercedes at Biola University. 

However, there are more important schools he enrolled us in:  The University of the Holy Spirit –UHS.  This is where you learn to take up the cross and follow the Spirit’s leading as He has you step out into things that may even feel crazy at times, but then you see God’s hand as miracles happen!!! 

The Lord has also taken us through the School of Character which can be called the University of Hard Knocks— UHK.  This is where a few knocks hit you upside the head and you learn in those hard times that God is still working for your best even when you’re struggling.  You learn to yield to the Lord’s work to bring forth fruits of the Spirit as well as gifts into your life.  

Gifts were never meant to exist to the exclusion of fruits nor fruits only to the exclusion of gifts—both are needed and necessary for true maturity in Christ.  Praise God for how Paul speaks about the unlimited patience that the Lord has for us and the sheer grace of God, which works in and through us to heal and transform.  Marriage takes that process all that much deeper.  

The trials of life can at times hit us in ways that highlight our human weakness, but also work to cause us to lean into the Lord, who through the Holy Spirit pours out that unlimited patience of the Almighty, which brings us into an even deeper well of His grace and love through it all. 

We praise God that we see the Spirit of God working all the time to fulfill that plan that was announced from the very beginning of time: “ A man shall leave his father and mother and the two shall become one flesh.” (Gen. 2:24)

Check out our videos on:

"Holy Ghost Wedding Message": http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=7LK7ZPNX

"Towards a Healthy Marriage": http://youtu.be/REF_V4cuTws

Divine Bus Rescue in Eisenach

We were on our way to Sweden to minister and stopped in Germany on the way to see some Martin Luther sights and do some filming.

We arrived in Eisenach, Germany very late at night.  After getting off the train and traipsing up the street with our luggage, kid, surfboard—I kept asking myself what am I doing with a surfboard in Eisenach, Germany—and backpacks in tow, a foreboding feeling was setting in. 

It looked completely empty and there were no cars on the street, nor people around, nothing.  We found a bus station but the buses had stopped running quite a while ago.

There were no taxis around either so we looked at one of those crude maps you find at the bus stop and realized that the place we had booked to stay was about 10 miles away.  There was nothing around so we started walking in the direction of where the place was, thinking, “At least we’ll get there sometime while it is still night hopefully.  However, when we started heading to the place, the sidewalk quickly disappeared and we found ourselves on a two-lane highway with no shoulder.   “This is not going to work.” We turned around and headed back to the area we had been by the bus stop. 

I went into a gas station convenience store and was trying to look at a map in the place and see if there was a different way to go or if there was a phone to call a taxi or something.  The gas station dude wasn’t very cool though and kept shooing me out of the store, saying in broken English: “Outside! You can’t be here.”   I kept trying to ask about using the phone to call a cab or something but the dude just kept shooing me out.

Forced outside, sitting on the sidewalk with our luggage in the middle of the night in a foreign little German town, wasn’t the nicest feeling; we were praying and wondering what to do.  A city transport bus pulled into the gas station and was filling up with gas, and we began to try and talk with the bus driver; Mercedes, using some broken German left over from high school German classes, asked about cabs to the hostel where we were staying.  He gave a concerned look and said in very broken English, “I sorry, but too late, no taxis now.”   Just wonderful! The train had dropped us off in Tinytown, Germany, without buses or metros or even a cab to get to our destination in the middle of the night.  The European transportation system, as great as it is, still has its dysfunctional moments like anywhere else.

The bus driver kept saying, “I very sorry,” and then looked around.  “I have idea.” “You wait.”  He left for a minute with the bus and we said, “Well, we’ll never see him again,” but a few minutes later he pulled back up in the bus.   He tried to explain what he went to do, but it was unintelligible, anyways he was back and we were stoked.

He pulled up to us and opened the door and told us “Schnell!” (“Hurry” in German.)  He then jumped out the door and started throwing our luggage in the undercarriage hold quite quickly.  When he picked up the board he gave me a quizzical look and said, “Sorry, nicht here, ocean very far away.”  “Yeah, yeah I know.” I’ve gotten used to the weird stares and remarks lugging this crazy thing around, it did come in handy earlier in the trip though, and lo and behold I did get some surf up on a tiny piece of German coast by Denmark.

Our new German buddy started driving up the same road we had tried to walk up earlier, and it was quite clear the further he went up the road that there was no way we would have been able to walk the ten miles. The road was really narrow and had no shoulder in most places; it would have been a suicide death march.  Through broken German and English, Mercedes and he dialogued as best they could and found out there were no other routes to where we were staying.

Somewhere in the middle of the drive it dawned on us what a huge miracle this was. This guy was using a city bus after hours and going hugely out of his way to drive us to our hostel.  We were blown away that this guy was going so far out of his way for us and with a city bus. We began to thank him for what he was doing with plenty of dankeschon’s.  We offered to pay for the trip but he said, “No, Danke Gott!”  Just thank God eh! Well, praise God! If you know anything about Germany, someone going out of their way like this after hours on a city bus and changing plans and schedules is completely unusual, it is the ultra-structured society.  But the Lord supplied someone with faith, flexibility, and a little guts to help us in our time of need.  Like the good Samaritan he was willing to go out of his way and interrupt his own schedule and do something a little crazy in order to help us who were stranded.

Sometimes when we go out of our way we may not realize we are fulfilling prayers and performing a miracle for someone.

We were able to have an awesome time in Eisenach afterwards, seeing the Luther sights such as the Wartburg Castle where Luther translated the New Testament, and doing some filming there like the video we just put up (The Priesthood of all Believers) However, we’ll always remember even more the way God sent a guy driving a big German city bus to pick us up in the middle of the night when we were stranded and give us door-to-door service to where we needed to go.

Check out our video on the Priesthood of all Believers shot on location in Eisenach, Germany.

Check out this audio program on Luther’s Conversion,  an important and comprehensive program on understanding grace and Christ’s payment for sin.

Holy Ghost Bike Story in Imperial Beach

It is so amazing how the Lord brings forth divine appointments in the most unexpected places that blow your mind and go beyond your expectations.

We’ve been staying busy ministering lately: just did a service recently in downtown San Diego where we preached and ministered four times in one day and the glory of God was just poured out in an amazing way with just an increasing outpouring of his presence in each service, just amazing and glorious.  We’ve been ministering at other various places as well (we’ll be speaking tomorrow in Corona at the Vineyard youth group.)  So in the middle of all this activity God had us go on a “little ride” that turned into a radical divine appointment…

A friend of ours was passing through town recently and wanted to connect so we decided to get a little exercise in the middle of everything and ride our bikes over and grab a bite with him at a restaurant.  We had an awesome time hanging out, afterward we went outside to take off and say bye when I noticed he was taking in the “old grandma 3-speed girl’s bike” Patrick was riding (in between bikes at the age he’s at.)

A couple days later out of nowhere he sent us a little letter saying he thought Patrick should have a better bike for these long bike rides with a gift to go along with it.  Well, that was an answer to a long-standing prayer of ours and of course Patrick’s.

So with a new bike ready to go we felt led that it was time to do a ride we haven’t done in about 5 years which was to bike down to the very tip of the southwest corner of the US—to Imperial Beach—the farthest southwest point you can go in the US.

So we hit the road, actually bike trails, and with a stop at our parent’s to stay the night on the way we ventured towards our destination.  72.5 miles later we were making our way there, but biking is a bit like going on a boat, there are a lot of variables that can affect when you get there, and it was in fact the ferry boat from San Diego to Coronado Island that delayed us about an hour, causing us to arrive in Imperial beach in the night time hours.

With it being summer and all and the crowds that go along with it we ended up not finding a place to stay in a normal location.  In fact we were in Imperial Beach riding around looking for the place, which was turning out to be nowhere near the beach at all but way up inland.   So, as we headed further and further up inland into some sketchy areas, I told everybody we best keep our voices down and just move fast and just get there.

We finally arrived and I was thinking, “Well, you never know what God might do on one of these trips,” as I was sensing the Holy Spirit preparing something on the way.

The next morning we went to grab some of the stuff they call breakfast at these motels they allegedly “give” you with your room.  There was no place to sit but a young woman started waving us over to her table, indicating that she’d share her table with us.  I was a little apprehensive, hoping she wasn’t wanting to sell us some Amway stuff or something, but God opened up a divine-centered conversation right away with her.

She turned out to be a believer and I felt led by the Holy Spirit to share a Holy Ghost story of how our ministry started, and the tears started rolling down her face.  We both felt led to pray for her and the glory just came down and began to fill her and touch her and deeply minister to her.  I was looking around as we were praying thinking, “Wow! We just met her a few moments ago and here we are praying for her in the middle of all these people, and the Spirit of God is just filling her and the glory just moving—Wow, how amazing is the Lord!!!”

After we finished praying and ministering to her, she gave us a big hug and said she had come down herself from LA and was just praying and seeking God and wondering what she was doing at this strange motel in this area.  She felt that this was the answer for her little trip and that God was speaking to her through this divine appointment about her next steps in life as she was in a point of transition.  “Wow, only the Lord can coordinate stuff like this on both ends,” I said.  We just sat there a while rolling in the glory of God and enjoying the moment of such an amazing divine appointment.

When we finally said good-bye and took off, we rode through the actual beach area of Imperial beach which has been fixed up nicely as of late from its former run-down state.  I stopped in front of a little surf shop where I remembered speaking at a surfer’s bible study years back, which came through a divine appointment and divine connection as well.

I felt the Lord speaking while stopping in front of the shop out of Paul’s words in Ephesians 5:17 and Romans 8:14: “Continue on being filled and led by the Holy Spirit!!!”

Now we just gotta pedal the 72.5 miles back!!!  But the glory of God sure got the attention off those sore legs, Hallelujah!!!

God's Grace, Protection, and Leading

Encounter at Tahquitz

We just spoke recently at a conference out in the desert in Palm Springs on the Jesus People Revival and Lonnie Frisbee’s impact in that move of God. We also had an awesome time sharing about all the retreats and radical times we had experienced with Lonnie in the desert also in Palm Springs back when it was a regular haunt for the group of us that were hanging out and hanging on everything Lonnie was doing in those days.

After this conference some of us took a hike up to Tahquitz Canyon, the place where Lonnie had his radical vision and encounter with God that became intimately connected with the Jesus People Revival.

When we finally got up to the top, at the little crystal pool where the waterfall flows down into the canyon, we happened to run into a few other hikers. It turned into a divine appointment as Mercedes and I began to witness to these hikers. After sharing the gospel with them for a bit, we ended leading a young lady to the Lord there and then praying for her friend, who was saved already, but who told us she was seeking the filling of the Spirit. It was quite a wild day already, but leading someone to the Lord and praying for her friend for the filling of the Spirit right in the spot where Lonnie had his vision and encounter with Jesus, was something truly supernatural and prophetic.

The Lord then also brought back to my memory a dream both myself and Patrick had in France the night after we had a car accident (a clear attack of the enemy). We both happened to dream the same thing on the same night. In our dreams, we both saw ourselves going up a mountain to a waterfall and there the Lord met us and began to intimately speak to us.

A little later on after praying with those hikers, I jumped under the cascading water coming down in the waterfall and then, suddenly, the power of God struck me and reminded me of the dream and showed me that this was the actual place in the dream I had seen—needless to say, there was quite the encounter with God under that waterfall as the Lord met me in quite a “refreshing” way. Being under the waterfall that you saw in a dream getting hammered by the power of God after a divine appointment where you were just leading one person to the Lord and another into the baptism of the Holy Spirit up in a canyon where one of the major leaders of two revivals encountered Jesus does have that “refreshing” effect –Glory!!

A Little Background...

Well, for those unaware, Lonnie was used radically in the Jesus People Revival. The Jesus People Revival is a real study in missiology, as Chuck Smith let go of entrenched cultural church traditions—to the scorn of many other leaders in that day—and opened up to contemporary music styles, modern forms of dress and language, and most importantly, connected via divine appointment with a Hippie named Lonnie Frisbee who not only was able to speak in the language and style of the Hippie subculture but was endowed with the power of God. Lonnie preached in the cadence of the Hippie people in a way that they could hear and relate to the Gospel message he was bringing, and both he and Chuck Smith found themselves falling headlong into a radical revival that eventually would extend out to other nations. A second wave of that revival emerged in a later context in the 80's in what would later become the Vineyard. This was yet again another missiological move towards contemporary music and styles “a la 1980's” to reach the culture of that time, which was connected with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that began under Lonnie's preaching at what was originally was called Calvary Chapel Yorba Linda—later to become known as the Anaheim Vineyard. John Wimber’s book Power Evangelism (pages 23-27) notes his very first power encounter ever with the power of God as a time when a young man—Lonnie Frisbee—preached at his church (the famed and well-reported Mother’s Day service) and a radical outpouring of the Spirit took place. Wimber’s four subsequent books after this “power encounter” all begin with the word “Power” and his whole ministry was marked by equipping the saints to operate in the power of God; thus, Frisbee’s influence on Wimber can be said to be no less than massive!

I was blessed to be involved in both movements, Calvary and Vineyard, and see the importance and impact of God's power and how essential and biblically central it is to the Christian life, as well as to learn how important the impact of contextualizing the Gospel without compromising the message is.

I encountered “the Frisbeen” at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa and later was baptized in the Holy Spirit through Lonnie's ministry at the then Calvary Chapel Yorba Linda—later to become Anaheim Vineyard. Later we were able to experience even more and learn many things hanging out with Lonnie, a historically significant figure in regards to evangelism and the power of God of our time. It was truly a blessing to spend all those times in that blazing hot desert in Palm Springs and get to listen to Lonnie teach sometimes for hours on end on the importance of learning to walk in the power of the Spirit.

One of the craziest things happened on a hike up to Tahquitz when I was walking ahead of Lonnie and found half an old Bible buried in the sand; Lonnie found the other half a few moments later and began to lay out some prophecies over me. I told Lonnie later, "I thought we were going up that canyon for a hike. Instead, I end up rolling around in the dirt when I was struck by the power of God when you gave me those prophetic words." Wow, what an experience it was, hanging out with someone who had been used so powerfully in two major revivals!!

To get a little overview of Frisbee's ministry click here: http://www.graceworldmission.org/Jesus_ppl_revival.html

Old Photo with "the Frisbeen" back in the day

"Keep your eyes on the prize"

Adventures in Scandinavia

We've been experiencing many blessings while ministering here in Scandinavia. We had some awesome meetings in Sweden and Norway with wonderful outpourings of the Holy Spirit's power: It was a glorious to see how many who showed up were touched and filled in the meetings we did. It was such a joy to see God moving that way--people just getting so filled and empowered and impacted by the glory of God.

The priesthood of all believers being equipped for ministry has been a theme the Lord has laid on our hearts while in Scandinavia and we've been excited to see God empowering people with His fire and power in a glorious manner with young and old being being equipped for ministry themselves by God's presence.

We also have had some healing moves of the Lord: a young friend who got touched radically in Sweden by God's power. He was on the ground getting blasted by God's presence and overcome by the love of God for a very long time. He told us later about how he has had asthma but last time we talked with him he told us how he's been running and biking since with no problems. While in Norway we had a man with heart problems we prayed for who reported back later that he felt significantly better. He was so blessed when we prayed for him that he went out and prayed for someone else on the street who was powerfully touched too. Another minister who has had serious throat problems was touched and came back to tell us that he felt significantly better after we prayed for him also.

We did a meeting with about 35 to 45 young adults and teenagers in Norway and quite a few there got radically touched by the Lord and filled with the fire of God. The Lord also poured out his love and grace very significantly on some in a healing way and it was awesome to see the Lord moving in such a way that we were able to minister late into the night since it was a home meeting. We also did some worship in a church service; every meeting we've done has had significant moves of the Holy Spirt with the glory and fire of God being poured out in power.

The Power of God moving deep

We were also able to have a little R and R with some friends here who took us out for a few days of rest on their sailboat. We really appreciated this after traveling for over two and a half months in Europe. We've had incredible blessings everywhere we've been but also had some warfare as we shared before. Getting into Scandinavia turned into a literal nightmare with a bomb scare at the airport and then a sick pilot who stopped the flight right as we were getting on the plane. Then we were rerouted to the wrong destination and were left by the airlines stranded with no means of further travel. On our final leg of the trip that day, the train broke down and we had to transfer to a new one---never had so many things happen in one day before like that, it turned a 4-hour journey into 14 hours. We see now that the opposition came as God had so many blessings in store here in Scandinavia.

Fire and glory falling

Norway was the first country in Europe to receive the Pentecostal outpouring from the Azusa Street Revival years back and the Swedes brought the fire of Pentecost first to Latin America, so we are excited to see God moving in power and reviving the ancient places long devastated by the secularism that has crept in like decay over Europe and the religiosity that the enemy has used to leech the life out of the true Gospel of life and power.

As we've ministered in Europe in places like France and England and Scandinavia we are excited to see what God is doing; it is a blessing to see God moving as we preach and minister in many of these thirsty places. We are reminded of Argentina when we survey the land in Europe: Argentina was one of the toughest places spiritually in Latin America, and yet later had one of the biggest revivals. Nothing is impossible with God!

Getting a few waves on the Nordic coast