God Spots – my last post.

The year is 2010.  It is the last day of November. Before I blink, it seems likely the new year will be upon us.  My beautiful young bride of 38 years is bringing everything together in anticipation of this Christmas season.

There are many things to be thankful for and the privilege to write over 1200 God Spots ranks very high on the list.  I began experiencing and writing about God Spots at a time when life was the hardest.  It was a time when I wondered if I would live to see the next day.   In response to my need, God honored me by showing His presence daily as an encouragement.

It was in this daily display of authenticity, God Spots were born.  A God Spot became defined as:  ”When God periodically authenticates His presence and I get to blog about it.”

During the dark times, I would lie awake at night or arise in the morning with the thought… “God. If you don’t show your presence in my life, I don’t know if I will make it through the day.”  It was in these dark times, God’s light would shine the brightest and a God Spot would be given life.  It was in His light, I was given life.

I am thankful for the last four years and all the struggle they brought.  It was in the struggle, I was given new strength and knowledge.  I learned what a nonstop migraine headache of over 1 year felt like.  I learned what it felt like to be imprisoned.  I learned what it felt like to lose everything of physical value and gain everything of spiritual value.

I learned what God’s grace and its sufficiency felt like.  I learned what true friendship felt like.  I learned the value of a faithful wife and steadfast son.  I learned that life is not about me, but is about the love of Jesus and new fresh passion for consuming His Word.  It was in this love of Jesus, I became friends with many people in the “land of blog”.

Notable blog friends who became intertwined in my life were Ichabod of Canada, Bajanpoet of Barbados, Richard of Truth from the Hip, Marianne of Heaven Awaits, Jim Thorner (my monk buddy), Daune of Freedom in the Dance, Tiffany of Every Season under the Sun, Colleen of Deep Breath Ministries and of course Michelle of 2 Fast 2 Furious who invested in my 70 hour bus ride to California and my uncommon friend Federico who has become a best traveling buddy.

I know I will have neglected to list people with significant impact on my life. I ask your forgiveness and to you the unnamed, I especially want to say thank you.  Your thousands of comments and words of encouragement will forever be a part of me.

I hope to publish my account of being blinded by the light in the near future.  Be looking for it on Amazon in the months ahead.

God bless and may He continue to blind you with His light…. God Spots.

Love you all,

archie

Incredible Stories of Treasure Hunts

 

Jim Taylor November 14 at 11:48pm Report

Not sure if you are familiar with the concept Archie .. there are a number of Churches and groups who do this .. My wife and I led several teams for some years doing this .. and we still do it in Africa at times…

Mark 14:

12 And the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the passover, his disciples said unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare that thou mayest eat the passover?
13 And he sendeth forth two of his disciples, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water: follow him.
14 And wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the goodman of the house, The Master saith, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples?
15 And he will shew you a large upper room furnished and prepared: there make ready for us.
16 And his disciples went forth, and came into the city, and found as he had said unto them: and they made ready the passover.

Treasure Hunts are based on this and similar Scriptures where Jesus, who only did what the Father showed Him, gave specific commands to His followers and as they carried them out, the will of God was done.

Note above that the disciples wanted a question answered. Jesus gave them an assignment.
- Go into the city.
- Look for man carrying a pitcher of water. (this is a CLUE as to WHO to look for .. mostly women carried the water)
- Follow him where ever he goes
- When he goes into a house, approach the head man and ask “Where is the room for the Master?”
- He will show you the room.
- Get it ready.

We do the same things. We spend time fellowshipping with and worshiping the Lord.
We ask for clues as to who He wants us to share with.
We write them down.
We compare them and pray over them.
Then we go look for the clues.

EXAMPLE: During prayer my grand-daughter and I got the following clues:
- A blue baseball cap
- A couple who have had a recent sadness in their lives and God wants them to know He is aware and that He wants to restore joy to them.

So we set out. Every time we saw someone wearing a blue baseball cap we would approach them and tell them, “We are on a Treasure Hunt and our first clues was a blue baseball cap.” This opened the door to talk to them further. We found some who wanted prayer and we prayed for them, but they did not fit both clues.

After a half hour or so we met a couple, both wearing blue baseball caps. We stopped them and shared with them the clues. As we mentioned the sadness they both burst into tears. We knew we had found THE treasure we were seeking! It was so cool to see God minister to them. They received a real sense that God actually knows them .. that He is aware of their situation .. and that He is working with them regardless of how they feel!!

It’s not hard to do … EXCEPT there usually is no assurance that you are hearing correctly. You must take that “leap of faith” and get out of the boat. The worst thing that will happen is you will be totally embarrassed and humiliated. That is not always bad.

One evening during prayer we felt we were to go to a Mazzio’s Pizza that was next to a WalMart. We checked by phone and the only Mazzio’s next to WalMart that we could find was in a town 25 miles away. As we got ready to go we got the message that we were going to meet a young girl, unmarried, pregnent, who had decided to keep the child. God said we were to tell her He was pleased with the decision and to make sure she knew the baby would not be a problem.

So we wrote it down and put the note in our pocket and set off.

In Mazzio’s we ordered pizza and began to pray .. there were 8 of us. We got words of knowledge for the waitress and ministered to her. She was amazed at how God could know her life and prayed with us, then said “let me get my friends”. She brought two girls who sat down the group began to minister to them. They both gave their lives to Jesus. Then the one girl said, “Maybe God already told you, but I am pregnent”. I handed her the note and she began to weep as she read it.

It turned out that in addition to the pregnancy she had be diagnosed with pre-cancerous cells on her cervix, but because of the pregnancy they could not treat it until after the baby was born. Yet she chose not to abort, but to have the baby. And of course the fear was there .. 7 more months of cancer growing inside!

But God had clearly said the baby would not be a problem.

The ladies gathered around her, laid hands on her tummy and we prayed. As we did her womb grew hot.. almost uncomfortably so. We assured her God was healing her and she would have no problems.

As we talked with her we found she did not own a Bible. Being right next to Walmart we ran over and bought her a Bible! Now how cool is that?

We followed up with her … met the baby girl after she was born .. and kept encouraging her. She had no cancerous cells to deal with!! The last time we met with her she was doing great!

I have lots of stories similar of how God led us to people … how He read their lives to them and showed them His love … of how many came to Jesus because of a demonstration of the Kingdom. Supernatural evangelism is supposed to be the norm in the Kingdom. It’s not hard. We just have to get out of the way and get religious misconceptions out of our heads and hearts.

God loves people! He wants to show them His love. All we need to do is co-operate with Him.

Please note we do not say or believe this is THE ONLY WAY to evangelize. It is ONE WAY among many that Papa God uses. It is effective when God calls for it!

Blessings

Jim

 

 

HOW GOD SENT ME TO A VILLAGE IN ANDHRA PRADESH

Guest Post by Ann Johnstone

It seemed a crazy idea right from the start, and my friends and family told me so! After all, I had never met Lilly Pushpa and her son Babu. My only contact with them had been by email. A year earlier Lilly had seen my name and contact details on a US web site that was a resource for house churches around the world. And so began a year-long correspondence by email.

I really knew very little about Lilly and Babu except that they had started up a number of house churches somewhere in central India with very few resources. I told them I would pray for them. They wanted me to come to their village and speak to their house churches. Then my son Michael, his wife Suzan and their young family were due to leave Australia to work in India and so I decided to accompany them. Our family had spent three years in India some years previously, so it has always been a second home to us.

Whilst planning my Indian itinerary, I believed God was directing me to spend some time in the village where Lilly and Babu lived. They gave me the details, and it seemed I would have to travel by train to Rajahmundry, a decidedly non-tourist area, and from there take a bus and finally an auto-rickshaw. No problems! So I planned my journey.

I emailed Lilly and Babu that I was going to visit them and they were very excited. They would meet me at the station and accompany me to the village. To me it seemed quite straightforward; but not to my friends and family. They had all kinds of reservations. “What if you get to the station and nobody is there?” … “What if Lilly and Babu don’t really exist? After all, all you have is an email address. You don’t even have a picture of them!” Yet somehow I knew that all would be well. After all, it was God who was leading me.

Yet there were times when I was just a bit nervous. When the train neared Rajahmundry, the people in my carriage appeared to be placing bets as to whether I’d be met by anyone. I stepped off onto the platform with my backpack and scanned the crowd. How would I recognize them without a picture? I stood there waiting … and praying.

Then suddenly out of the mass of people came a voice, “Hello sister Ann. I am Babu!” and I was met by a large middle-aged woman and her adult son, both beaming with happiness. We embraced and set off together on our journey to their village. First, however, I waved to the people on the train to assure them all was well!

And thus began three of the most amazing days in my memory.

After a cup of chai we took a bus and then an auto-rickshaw out to the village, arriving after dark. There I found about ten of the local home church leaders, both men and women, waiting to greet me. Some had come a long way on bicycle. After a simple meal I spoke with them and encouraged them for around thirty minutes. I was impressed by their humility and gentleness.

I didn’t sleep much that night as it was hot and very humid. Although there was no air conditioning, there was a ceiling fan which worked while the electricity was on (about half the time). I shared a room with Lilly. She was very protective towards me.

The next day we had three combined meetings of the house churches, all on the roof of Lilly’s home. I met more of the leaders, and was asked to speak at each meeting. As I cannot speak Telegu, only English and Hindi, Babu translated for me.

For two or three hours that afternoon Babu took me around to each of the houses in the village. Some were very primitive dwellings, but everyone was so eager for me to pray for them. I was constantly struck by the similarity to Jesus’ day, with its similar flat-roofed buildings, poor people, especially children, flocking around me, all wanting prayer … prayer for healing, prayer to bless their families, prayer for protection (there is some opposition to the work they are doing in the village).

There were children everywhere, all wanting to see me, have me pray for them and teach them some songs, which they learned quickly and sang lustily. A couple of times I hid in the house for a brief rest but the children were peering in the windows, waving madly! Babu told me he had never seen anything like it.

From the start I was particularly drawn to the humility of Lilly and Babu. They are real servants at heart. Before I left two days later, they told me they wanted to give me a special blessing. They sat me down on the bed and brought in a basin and jug of water. They then knelt down and bathed my feet very tenderly, and then dried them with a towel – I must confess I was deeply moved.

So the journey that had begun so tentatively, and with little encouragement, was a wonderful experience. Next year I am sure I’ll be going back to that little village. I can hear the children calling me.

Ann Johnstone

http://www.annjohnstoneministries.com/

http://annjohnstoneministries.blogspot.com/

God is faithful and delights in blowing our socks off!

Jim Taylor 

November 4 at 5:31am Report

As most of you know, we have been praying for a vehicle here in Mozambique.  Awhile back I told Lane, our son-in-law, to sell Twyla's Chrysler which we had left with them in Texas.  We would put the money into the bank toward purchasing a vehicle.  He challenged me asking if we had thought about sowing it as seed toward a vehicle here?  I had not.  I don't know why not since I do believe that.  Anyway I repented and we put the word out. A friend from Tennessee emailed me about a widow in his church that needed a vehicle.  We pointed him toward Jami and Lane .. and now that lady has a nice car.

 

A month or so later we received an email from a church which said they felt impressed to buy us a truck!  It seems Jami was forwarding our newsletter to the Pastor and his wife and they felt God speak to them. In a short time the money was in Mozambique and this truck had been located in Maputo, 1500 miles south of us.

 

Our Base Director was in Maputo on Iris business and he chose to drive it up here.  This saved us from going down and driving it up .. or from hiring a driver there to bring it up and then paying his way home!  How good God is!!

 

When our Base Director was driving the truck up from Maputo he drove after dark one evening, trying to get as many miles as he could that day.  Shortly after he stopped for fuel he had 3 trucks come up behind him.  They began moving around him, trying to box him in and run him off the road.  The Lord helped him and he was able to avoid the trap and get away from them!  (It is dangerous to travel after dark here.)  But God had His hand on this vehicle from before the time we even knew of it!  And now, here it is!

 

The truck is a 2000 Toyota Hilux 300 Tiger

4 Wheel-Drive

5-Speed transmission

Diesel engine

It is equipped with lots of extras (air condtioning, CD stereo, fog lights, roll bars, push bar, anti-theft system, leather seats etc.)

The speedometer says it has about 75,000 miles on it.

 

We took it to town today to do some shopping.  We are having a dinner Saturday with 2 Mozambican families and we needed to get chicken and vegetables.  We will have 20 or more people here.  The last couple pictures with Twyla and the two Mozambicans are just after we got back from shopping. The lady does our laundry and waters for us.  She has been teaching Twyla how to cook Mozambican foods.  The young man is a good friend.  He went along so he could translate for us … and he wanted to ride in the new truck!

 

God is GOOD!!  ALL THE TIME!

 

Thank your for standing in prayer with us.  Because of your prayers we now have a nice vehicle to do all the work we are called to do.  Twyla and I are both still in a kind of "shock".  For months we prayed and believed.  SUDDENLY!!  Here it is .. a visible answer to prayer.

 

Bless you ..

 

Jim & Twyla

 

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