Forerunner Mission

Who said this?

2011-08-23T12:11:00.000-07:00

Here is your challenge: Read the quote below and tell me, who said this? Was it:

a) Leonardo da Vinci

b) George Washington

c) Jonathan Edwards

d) Napoleon Bonaparte

"I know men; and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man. Superficial minds see a resemblance between Christ and the founders of empires, and the gods of other religions. That resemblance does not exist. There is between Christianity and whatever religions the distance of infinity…

"Everything about Christ astonishes me. His spirit overawes me, and His will confounds me. Between Him and whoever else in the world there is no possible term of comparison. He is truly a being by Himself. His ideas and His sentiments, the truth which He announces, his manner of convincing, are not explained either by human organization or by the nature of things.

"The nearer I approach, the more carefully I examine, everything is above me; everything remains grand—of a grandeur which overpowers. His religion is a revelation from an intelligence which certainly is not that of man. There is there a profound originality which has created a series of words and of maxims before unknown. Jesus borrowed nothing from our science. One can absolutely find nowhere, but in Him alone, the imitation or the example of His life … I search in vain in history to find the similar to Jesus Christ, or anything which can approach the gospel. Neither history, nor humanity, nor the ages, nor nature, offer me anything with which I am able to compare it or to explain it. Here everything is extraordinary. The more I consider the gospel, the more I am assured that there is nothing there which is not beyond the march of events, and above the human mind."

SNOW DAY!

2011-01-10T13:38:00.000-08:00

Thus begins week two of my job hunt, and my major item on the agenda has been snowed out! That of observing math and Spanish at the local middle school in hopes that it both helps me settle on the age group and subject matter I'd most like to teach (middle or high school? math or Spanish?) and allows me the opportunity to meet a prospective employer (as I hope to be considered for the middle school math position which is open yet have not made headway in gaining an interview!)

Please pray that the Lord will open a door of employment for me. In order to be with my family during the end of December, which to me is the highest priority due to my father's recent diagnosis of Lou Gehrig's disease, I had to give notice at my previous position teaching preschool and Kindergarten Spanish. Honestly, I am very happy at the prospect of something else. I do not feel at my highest working with mass 2-6 year olds, eleven classes a day, and keeping their attention long enough to learn a foreign language is another thing altogether! Very draining. As Jay goes back to finish his college degree next Monday, my situation in Kansas City is changing from that of a indefinite temporary season to four more years minimum, which also increases my desire to find a means of income more suited to my temperament and giftings!!!

My hope is to find a school district who will hire me to teach math or Spanish and co-apply to the state for a temporary authorization certificate. This can be renewed as I follow the requirements of taking a minimum of nine education credit hours per year. Teaching would keep me on a similar schedule as Jay, enabling us to hopefully do overseas missions most summers.

As we begin a new year, most of us usually take a moment to reflect on the previous year....Last year at this time I was contemplating moving to Kansas City, beginning to job search (deja vu!), and beginning to get to know Jay. Now he is finally living here all the time, I am job searching, and we are getting married three months from yesterday! The more that changes, the more that stays the same...I also am happy to be living in a nice house with four single women, three of whom are involved with the House of Prayer. How wonderful it is to live with godly people, such an encouragement, after living by myself most of last year! And for more encouragement, I believe Jay and I will be joining a marriage teaching focused small group called "Love & Respect" with IHOP-KC which conveniently runs from next Monday till late March. When I skipped an opportunity to do this course in seminar form in Mozambique to lead a weekend bush trip, I had a feeling I would come across it again at a more fitting time!

I pray that God would give you and I both a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of our hearts enlightened that we may know the HOPE to which He has called us, the RICHES of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and the immeasurable greatness of His POWER towards us who believe! (Eph. 1:17-19)

IHOP-KC in the News

2010-11-11T15:43:00.001-08:00

IHOP-KC was featured as the cover story in November’s edition of Charisma Magazine. The article is entitled “We Won’t Stop Praying.” This edition also includes a highly favorable editorial about IHOP, as well as an article by Mike Bickle called, “Why the Church Must Pray.” There will also be a Conference Call with Mike on prayer on November 16, at 8 pm CST. To read the digital magazine online for free, visit the Charisma site at www.charismamag.com.

It's pretty cool! IHOP-KC has gotten a lot of controversial press in the past, and there's still a lot of online stuff saying that we are a cult! This is nice to be spoken of VERY positively from such a widely-read Christian publication.

On a personal note, I'm in the last few days of my online IHOP-KC eschool class on Song of Songs. Pray that God breathe's life in to my final paper! I will be outlining a portion of the Song in detail with Scriptural cross-references to Biblical symbolism, and then writing a 3-5 paper on how that particular passage identifies to my life! It is a little intimidating to compile my commentary/outline...Mike Bickle's on the whole song is 152 pages! Prayer welcome. :)

Angie :) <><

I'm Getting Married!!!!

2010-10-31T15:10:00.000-07:00

"My cup runneth over....!"

I'm sure most of you already know through facebook, but....I AM ENGAGED TO BE MARRIED!!!!

On October 15th, Jerald Jay Stratton, III, aka "JJ" or to me "Jay", took me star-gazing at a nearby lake. He brought a blanket and candles and treats (including my fav extra dark Lindt truffles ;). We slow-danced as jazzy Ella Fitzgerald played on his laptop, and he began to tell me what I meant to him. I felt him reach into his pocket and shuffle something behind my back before he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I said, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" ;) He proposed with a family heirloom ring, which I learned minutes later when we called my parents was in fact my grandmother's engagement ring! I bawled. It was beautiful, and such a blessing! All my grandparents have been gone for many years, so it is so special to have my maternal grandmother's ring. It is also an extravagant blessing for us financially and much bigger than I ever expected. Haha! :)

We will be getting married in St. Louis on April 9th, 2011. Pray for us as we plan for the wedding and more importantly our marriage and future life together! The Lord is stirring our hearts and minds to certain avenues over these next 4-5 years which we are very excited about---but more specifics to come on that later! In the meantime, we've enjoyed spending each weekend together in these past two months since he officially moved to Kansas City. He still works four ten hour days all over southern Missouri during the week, mostly out of Rolla and Springfield. I'm looking forward to when we will see each other every day...but this is a great improvement to every third weekend! It has been great to attend Forerunner Christian Fellowship (with IHOP-KC) together and enjoy time in the prayer room.

Other highlights over these past two months have been seeing family and friends at several weddings in the St. Louis/Illinois area. First we celebrated with my cousin Debbie as she wed a wonderful man from Kenya. Then two weeks later my very good childhood friend Jonathan Block married at the family farm where I spent many hours adventuring during summers growing up. Then two weeks after that, we visited Rolla and stayed with Martha and James Cameron and went up to St. Louis for Jay's company team building day at Dave and Buster's. Beforehand we met my parents at a few reception sites, and were happy to find the least expensive option to be very beautiful (and be running a special for April!)

Now to Him who richly provides for all our needs according to His riches in glory be blessing and honor and praise! :)

It's beginning to look a lot like...fall!

2010-09-21T11:29:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it is FALL?!!!!

The next thing you know, we will barely enjoy anticipating Thankgiving because they will be piping Christmas music the day after Halloween!

The leaves are turning, the wind is blowing, and change is blowing in the wind....at the end of September I will be moving yet again, but this time for a bit longer chunk of time, I believe. I will be rooming in a house in Grandview with several young women either on staff or interning or students at IHOP. I will finally have the fellowship I have been desperately needing! Jay and I are looking at joining a small group at church, Forerunner Christian Fellowship (with IHOP-KC).

Things are continuing to heat up. There have been over 1000 commitments of faith in the past three weeks through the YWAM and the "Greater Grandview" 20+ church outreaches, and each one is connected to a "Local Link", someone trained to personally disciple or connect new believers to a suitable mentor. The Awakening evening Thurs-Sat services will discontinue Oct 9th, but God has more and not less planned for the community here as we go deeper in the place of prayer and prepare for the next wave...believing for a Great Awakening, which will not only touch primarily the "greater" (worldwide) house of prayer community, but our neighbors, our co-workers, our schools, our youth, and our generation!

God, send revival that not only the whole church will notice, but the likes of which bring the fear of the Lord into our entire society!!!

This year for me personally has been a season of testing and deep pruning. Tested by isolation, removal from ministry within the body, working "under the sun" in a position that I do not have vision or passion, seeming fruitlessness. "A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones." Proverbs 17:22 The confession of my mouth did not always line up with truth as I battled feelings of abandonment from God and disconnectedness from His love. He has reminded me many times that this is just a season of testing, but I have had to confess bitterness and not trusting His leadership. I would receive moments of encounter in the Word, but could not seem to encounter Him in a deep and lasting way. I believe He needed me to run into my pride and barrenness and show me how desperate I am without Him before He can use me to the extent He desires. I now know that where I thought myself strong, I am weak. Where I thought myself gifted, I am barren. Where I though myself humble, I know how great is my pride. Where I believed myself steadfast, once alone, I falter. Where I believed I trusted and had great faith, I met my despair apart from Christ. I know more fully it is completely a gift! It is He who moves in me to will and to act according to His purposes. It is only when I DIE that He can truly LIVE in me. When I am WEAK, He provides the strength. The harvest, the fruit, is not for me to provide. The truth He taught me in Africa had to be proven through the fires of testing: "If I raise the dead or sweep the floor, or even take a nap, the pay's the same....My bread is to do the will of the One who sent me."

TO HIM BE THE GLORY! AMEN.

What....?!! April?!!!!

2010-04-16T20:11:00.000-07:00

I don't know how it happened so fast, but it is over halfway through April, 2010!!!! Many changes have transpired since I last wrote. Mid-March I moved into my new abode in Independence, KC, where I serve as resident manager at a non-profit transitional apartment program for 17-20 year olds who have aged out of foster care or young women with babies who have no other support structure. I don't receive a salary, but am provided with a two-bedroom apartment and utilities in return for being available evenings and weekends to do resident checks, drive them to get groceries, etc. I feel very blessed to work with wonderful ladies and have this position where God has brought four young women and one guy into my life to pray for and mentor. This is a program run through a state grant so I am somewhat limited, though at least one if not two of the ladies who run it are Christians. Pray for open doors for the gospel to be presented! Pray for words of knowledge and wisdom and boldness for me to glorify Christ! I got to pray for healing for one of the girls who had a cold last Saturday. It didn't lead to too much conversation but I hope and believe it was a step.

My second job is teaching Spanish full-time at a high-quality (read: posh) preschool in Leawood, KS. I just completed my second full week, and boy am I tired!!! Learning to tailor lessons for 10 classes of 2-5 year olds and manage two jobs is a challenge! However, I believe it will only get easier as time goes by. Pray that I grow in patience and love and work as unto the Lord!

As if this weren't enough, I registered for eschool with the Forerunner School of Ministry at the International House of Prayer-KC this past week and began my first course. Tentative plans are to complete the first year of the Bible school as I work. My first course is one I have actually been listening to (on tapes from the 90's!) for the past ten years, Mike Bickle's Song of Solomon course. I'm excited to study it again in depth though, as life experience has opened the latter part of the book up to me a lot over the past year, but I also feel a need to experience breakthrough in the basic "dark but lovely" reality of a believer. For though I am dark in my sin and weakness, through Christ I am lovely before God! Pray that head knowledge moves deep into my heart as I am made perfect in love, to walk boldly and confidently before God!!! (1 John 4:16-18)

God's grace has helped me start getting up early and spending an hour at the IHOP-KC prayer room on my way to work, and what a difference it makes! I hope to learn to get to bed earlier and soon lengthen that time to two hours. I would have a lot of trouble being alert to have time in prayer and the Word in my apartment in the mornings, and I'm so thankful to be able to go somewhere that is so focused and energized. By the time I get there I am wide awake and ready!

I'm super blessed, I can't even say how much, to be dating an amazing man JJ Stratton, who is passionate about God and moving up here to KC in about six weeks! We had a blast when he came up for the Passion for Jesus conference this past weekend, worshipping and ministering together. He is also looking into the Forerunner School of Ministry at the International House of Prayer.

Friends in Kansas City, now is when I take a moment to apologize for not looking you up sooner! I could make all the excuses, transitions are busy, blah, blah, but rather I'll just say, let's get together now!!!! I don't care much for living alone, though I haven't had much time to think about it the past two weeks, and I'm eager to prioritize friendships, if you will all forgive me! :)

Revival Coming to Rolla!!!!

2010-03-06T13:26:00.000-08:00

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

God is so faithful! Back in December of 2004 when He moved on me to organize a 24 hour prayer day at the BSU in Rolla, I never would've guessed I'd find myself back in Rolla doing 24/7 intercessory worship! Basically, my previous job opportunity didn't work out and though I'd had another interview, I was free at the time to come to Rolla and sow into what I believe God is stirring up here. I'm pretty much leading worship sets 8-10am Friday through Wednesday, and also last night I did a second set 9-11pm. It is a blessing for me to see others hear the whispers of the Lord and raise up intercessors to press in for spiritual breakthrough for Rolla as a town and the Missouri S&T campus! The prayer meetings are thin and weak but the Lord shows Himself strong when weak and broken people say YES to him in obedience!

I just heard last night there is a group of people who desire to raise up a house of prayer in Rolla. Wow.

This has such an impact on me, though I haven't lived in Rolla for five years, because of the two times in my life that I heard the internal audible voice of the Lord, one of them was about Rolla!

In 2002 I was in Costa Rica serving at an orphanage, and it was a Sunday afternoon. I was fasting during lunch and laying on my bed praying. The Holy Spirit came and filled me and rested on me in an amazing way I have never felt since. There are no words to describe how amazing it felt, like a blanket of warmth completely surrounding me but also within me. It was like an orangey heat and a flower blooming...there really aren't words!!! I was so at peace and filled with the love of God. My natural mind reacted almost on its own, "God is here! Quick, ask Him something!" I still think that's funny. But more strange is I found myself whispering, "When is it coming? Lord, when is revival coming to Rolla?" And I heard the intonation of these words, though I don't believe it was out loud, "When you cover it in prayer." I just rested in His presence and enjoyed. Then I though I felt it start to lift and I found myself asking, "When? When is it coming?" And again He said, "When you cover it in prayer." THREE TIMES this dialogue took place! I don't know why I had to ask again and again, but I did and He answered.

Since then I've prayed and thought about this many times. What exactly does it mean to "cover it in prayer?" The only thing that ever seemed to really be a complete covering was praying all the time, praying without ceasing, praying night and day. And I didn't get a sense that the "you" meant just me, but a corporate "You," the Church.

So...that was the summer after my sophomore year of college. By the time I was about to graduate in December of 2004, two and a half years later, I had gradually felt led that before I left Rolla, I needed to organize a 24/7 prayer day, just to be faithful to the word of the Lord. The Lord blessed my non-administratively gifted efforts over a three week span and we managed to have worship leaders and bands and intercessors come together at the Baptist Student Union for an entire 24 hour period.

I actually felt led to stay in Rolla seven months after graduating. Finally I moved on. Nothing much happened, but oh, well, at least I was obedient. :)

And now, to be "randomly" connected to my friend who is organizing it at a time when I just "happened" to be free (I have two interviews later this week in Kansas City so it is unlikely I would've been free later in the year, or even this month)...I'm just thankful to be caught back in the swirl of what I believe God is preparing to do in this area!

In addition to worship and prayer, they are hosting prayer walks every day from 4:30-5:30pm and plan to have a prayer booth in the middle of campus on the opening day of the St. Pat's celebrations this Wednesday. I can't wait!

On a side note, please pray for wisdom as I contemplate several different avenues of work and IHOP and living arrangements in Kansas City, and for favor in my interviews. One is the second interview with a non-profit transitional home as the residential manager. They help young people 17-20 learn to live independently and move ahead in education, whether getting their G.E.D. or trade school or college. Many have aged out of foster care and a few are single young mothers. The position involves checking on the young adults nights and weekends, some case management, and offers an apartment and utilities, NO salary. And its in Independence, a half hour drive from IHOP. The other position is near IHOP teaching Spanish to 2-6 year olds full time.

Technically, I could do both, but as I was hoping to just get a part time job and have more time for the prayer room and ministry, or classes, I would probably prefer not to be so busy. Or I could hit it hard for six months and really save up and then do an internship...

There is also a great living opportunity near IHOP with two amazing Christian girls...very tempting...

February Finds Me...

2010-02-16T23:14:00.000-08:00

...enjoying the prayer room any time night or day at the International House of Prayer-Kansas City...prayerfully waiting to hear back about a job I interviewed for Sunday involving a live-in respite position caring for a young woman who has had a stroke (I really want this one--believe it may be the "perfect job" I was asking the Lord for on Friday when I came across it!)...February finds me...gratefully accepting the hospitality of Lorelei Lyons, my Mozambique Harvest School friend whose room I am staying in until God opens the door to something more permanent...this is a beautiful house near IHOP and an answer to prayer!...

It finds me speaking at the Baptist Student Union in Rolla, MO, this Thursday about the gospel of the kingdom and God's hand in Mozambique....bringing my amazing new boyfriend, JJ Stratton, to St. Louis to meet my family!...(yay!)...

February finds me growing in excitement over the new waves of awakening God is bringing to the United States...anticipating and praying into another GREAT AWAKENING that will shake the intellectual humanism which has poisoned the Ivy Leagues and for Boston to be the Jericho that will fall and release revival to New England and all of America...!

God is doing a new thing in the earth, and I want to be a part of it. So Feb finds me asking...how...?

Nampula 10 Day Outreach

2010-01-14T13:10:00.000-08:00

Warning: this is long and probably should be divided into chapters! And I skipped so much. :) So just print it out and put it in your bathroom or something and maybe you'll eventually finish it. :-P

Nampula 10 day seemed to get off to a rather bumpy start, between some miscommunications with Mozambican leadership, and having a translator who was not really present for the first few days (which no doubt contributed to the miscommunications.) Matt and I would think that we were finally on the same page with the Moz leadership and something else would come out that we'd had yet another misunderstanding! So we experienced some growing pains during the first couple of days, for sure. Cross-cultural Ministry 101!

When we arrived in Nampula we met up with Pastors Tanueki and their two teenage children, as well as nephew and two others from their church. P. Chico was waiting to connect with P. Tanueki to determine our plan for the rest of the trip, to come under P. Tanueki's leadership and what was on his heart for the region. One of the places P. Tanueki had wanted to visit with an outreach was Gile, in the northern part of Zambezia province. He was overjoyed that we were game to go there. After two days of driving, we arrived in Gile after dark to a crowd of church members lined up to greet us, singing and dancing. At first they said we wouldn't do an outreach that night, so we set up tents and cooked dinner. Then around 9:30pm they decided to do the outreach. Some of the team were already collapsed exhausted in the tents. Matt was game so Rollo went and they struggled to get the system going. The movie started around 11pm I believe. I was going to eat with the team and rest then try to bring a group over to help with ministry time. It was one in the morning and everyone was exhausted so I left it to Matt and decided to get some rest to be ready for the seminars and ministry in the morning. (You'll have to hear Matt's story of the evangelism!)

It ended up being a good idea to tag-team, and we did that a few other times. I was needed to translate for the women's seminar and again for the men's/church leaders. (That clearly shows how DESPERATE we were for translators!) Our main translator did the children's ministry with Lorena Wood, Rolland Baker's sister who we were very blessed to have join us as a last minute addition. For the women's seminar, I got to work with Florinda Tanueki and Harvest schoolers Cassandra and Jenny, and it was the highlight of my trip!

The church there has no pastor, and the night before I'd connected with the woman, Feliciana Domingos, who was hosting us, to learn that she had indeed BUILT the church, most of it alone (sozinha, sozinha, SOZINHA! she made sure I knew) and she said, without food and little water for a week! She kept praying for God to send help, and He finally sent some people and they helped with the roof. She was so grateful we had come! It helped me overcome a little of my tiredness to see how much it meant to her that we were there. This woman would love to go to Pemba and meet Mama Aida and attend the Bible school. She certainly has some of the determination of
Mama Aida. I'm so excited that they are teaching women now! Someone had given me a Portuguese Old and New Testament Bible before I left for outreach, and she could read Portuguese very well, so I was able to give her a Bible--the only one in the church!

Feliciana was a great help in facilitating the seminar, bringing up tough questions and issues the women in the church were struggling with. (What do we do if our children don't want to come to church? What if our husband started out in the church and now he's started drinking? What if he leaves? What is the church's stance on ceremonial circumcision?) It turns out, as she introduced some of the women, that she had really gotten the word out and several of the women were visitors from other Christian churches in the city. Florinda Tanueki shared about the husband being the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, and how to respect your husband and cause him to value you. I'd been told that there wasn't much affection between husband and wife in this culture, and that became apparent as she felt it necessary to teach them and share about many specific ways to show affection...etc.etc. Jenny's ears and face were getting red, and she didn't even speak Portuguese. :)

Then I got to help translate for the men as Fred Dykstra shared his powerful testimony and about men loving their wives and treating them with tenderness. Pastor Chico then preached a fiery sermon, continuing the theme. Our team came together for lunch and shared our experiences. Two groups had gone prayer walking and ministering in the village, one group did children's ministry and two helped with the seminars.

It was really cool in Gile to meet a Bible student from a nearby town who KNEW Matt and I from our school! Mariano recognized us shortly after we arrived. It struck me what an influence the small Bible school in Pemba was having all over northern Mozambique. Here we had driven 2 days WAY out there, and there is someone who knew us! Then it happened again in another town with another Bible student!

In spite of previous talks of staying in each place two nights, the pastors really wanted to minister in a village about 50 minutes back the way we came, so instead of back-tracking we decided to move camp. There was no established Iris church in Uape, but they had a Catholic influence so they had at least heard the name of Jesus. We set up the film outside of the main part of town, in an open soccer field right in front of the house where we made camp under the cashew trees. As often surprises me, people come out of the wood-work and we had a decent sized crowd. Our group worshipped and prayed during the film (after enjoying the most amazing lightening storm out over the valley!) and then a few of us gave testimonies. During ministry time, I was surprised that the healings weren't coming very quickly. I'm not used to having to pray two, three, four times and call in reinforcements just for a fever or stomach ache! We prayed a long time for a mute girl who did not begin to speak.

However, a large majority of the crowd wanted to receive Jesus!

I was able to see the fruit of it the next morning. Our plan was to wake up early, pack up, grab some breakfast and be off because we had a long drive back to Nampula province. We did the first part as planned, but then plans changed a little. Thirty-six people had returned the next morning to write down their names because they had received Jesus and wanted to be discipled! They wanted a church in their town. It was a mixed crowd: men, women, teenaged boys and girls, and even children. The pastors spent awhile talking with them, and then Cassandra did a great summarized teaching about the work of the Holy Spirit and we prayed over them to be baptized in the Holy Spirit! We gave money to P. Tanueki for the construction of a small church, and loaded up and were off by about 8:15am! We rode along the bumpy dirt road, laughing and singing and praising God for the Fruit. I couldn't believe all the Lord had done in that short time. :) Pray that God raises up a pastor to come to Pemba for training for that new congregation in Uape!

When we arrived in the next place to minister in the area of Niamoto, we were pleased to see more shady areas for camping, and to learn after 4 days of dusty traveling that there is a nearby "river" to clean up in! The river ended up being just a hole surrounded by tall grasses, but we had quite a little adventure as the local woman bathed us! :) Then the guys had a chance.

I had a great conversation with a critical member of our team as dusk fell which proved to be a huge turning point in him and in the week. He shared how God had convicted him for his "funk" and he really opened up to everyone and became an active participant in the group. I had just before this been pretty fed up and had it in my heart to just get through it and somehow "deal" with him. But God broke in and showed me again that He is not content for us to just tolerate each other, but to love each other and to go out of our way again and again if necessary to tear down walls and be reconciled and partner with each other. I'm so grateful for this breakthrough because as he stepped up a lot of pressure came off of Matt and I.

We were blessed to have the Tanueki's teenaged children to lead the worship for the evening evangelism, and their nephew and church friend to lead very vigorous dancing. I swear these guys had come across a Richard Simmons "Sweatin' with the Oldies" video somewhere. The crowd at the film seemed pretty lively, but as Angie G. and Krista shared testimonies, all eyes were on them. Angie's story of personal healing in comparison with the woman with the issue of blood who pressed to Jesus for healing seemed to tangibly raise the faith and expectation level of the whole crowd. Krista shared about being involved with witchcraft and the whole crowd admitted going to the witch doctor before she shared about the power and freedom in Jesus. We had an amazing ministry time! Countless people received Jesus and the majority pressed forward for prayer. The healings came quickly and joy on their faces was obvious as they were healed (which is not always the case.)

The next day we had a women's seminar again, as well as children's ministry. The men had dispersed by afternoon so we didn't get a chance for a men's seminar, but at least there is a church and pastor already established there.

The next night we went to show the film down the road. Lorena had helped throw together a play of the story of Jesus birth, which we acted with narration before it became dark. The equipment malfuctioned and we were not able to show the film, so the crowd began to disperse. Our team pressed the pastors to have ministry anyway, and finally as several people gave testimonies and preached, the people came back and there was some powerful ministry. We had a blast praising God on the way back to camp...."In the highways, in the hedges...I'll be somewhere, a-workin' for my LOOOORRRDDD..."

This brings me to one of the more spectacular things which happened on our trip. We had FOOD MULTIPLY at least THREE TIMES!!!

The first morning in Niamoto I'd bought some extra food items, thanks to Lorena's prompting, to make breakfast a little more of a treat: 50 hard-boiled eggs and a few huge pineapples that were really inexpensive, as well as enough rolls for 2 each since they were rather small. The 35 in our group all ate an egg sandwich and some pineapple slices. Then Ernesto, one of Heidi's adopted sons from the original bunch in Maputo, cut the remaining 15 eggs in half and began to distribute egg and bread to the groups of village children, women, and men who had gathered around our camp. EVERYONE ate.

I got to be honest, I was thinking, "what are you starting Ernesto when you can clearly see that there will not be enough for everyone," but thankfully, I just stayed out of it.

I'd bought a pig the neighbors had butchered (with loud squeals at 4am!) for lunch and again first we all ate and then we fed the villagers. Zito, the Pemba youth who served as our chefe de cozinha, told me later, "There shouldn't have been enough because the people just kept coming, but I looked and the rice just didn't go down and there was always more meat." (And I have to say, that was the best pork I've ever eaten in my entire life!)

The next day I just thought, well, we'll have to pack up camp and then drive for awhile until we reach a town where we can buy some bread for matarbichu, breakfast. Clearly, we won't have enough bread if any. I had bought 140 rolls, enough for 2 each person for 2 mornings, and I'd seen Ernesto and the others hand out rolls to all the villagers the day before. To be honest, I was just hoping everyone would have good attitudes about starting the day with a delayed breakfast because that had been a bit of an issue in Uape amongst some of the Pemba Mozambicans.

And yet there was a bag of bread and surprisingly full! We each ate a roll and again handed out rolls to the village children, women, and men.

At the time I was too preoccupied to make sense of what had happened these three meals. It really wasn't until the leaders were sitting together in Nampula a few days later talking about the week when Ernesto and I were talking and I put some math with what we had seen. It was really convicting--it doesn't matter what awesome stuff God does, it takes eyes to see and ears to hear to really recognize His hand. At that time Ernesto said, "we should feed the Nampula church after service tomorrow." My initial thought of course was, how are we going to have enough? And then I laughed. How silly. God's heart is clearly to feed the hungry, and how do we see His provision unless we are willing to go out on a limb?

We also built a latrina at this church since there wasn't one in the area, and then we had a great public health address given by our lovely nurse Mandy, with the aid of Garrett's amazing graphic drawings, and Eric was only to happy to provide further visuals, acting out how to USE said latrine. :)

So we had a great service at the Tanueki's big church in Nampula city on Sunday morning, and after an hour of vigorous dancing showed the Christmas drama again. Pastor Chico preached. Finally it was time for lunch. As I looked at the crowd and the two pots of arroz e feijão I thought, we'll serve the church but I think our group may have to fast until dinner...and OF COURSE, EVERYONE ate, first the church and then us, and at the end village kids kept coming in off the streets to eat, and women were taking tons of leftovers home wrapped up in whatever they could find. God is always better than I give Him credit for.

A mighty rainstorm pelted the tin roofed church for a long time before Matt and our camion of supply shoppers returned to the church. It was just as well, it was better to be in the shelter of the church than back at the chicken farm.

When we returned, several tents were flooded out, but God blessed us again through the owner of the farm as he graciously opened his home to about six people for the night, and also gave us use of two HOT-WATER showers! Yes, at this point clearly the most difficult parts of our 10 day were in the past. :) After the heat of Gile, we camped in the shade for the rest of the trip, and when clouds rolled in Thursday night from Friday on through to our last night, Tuesday, the weather was in the beautiful 70s, even dipping into the 60s.

I had prophesied in one of our prep prayer meetings that this trip would be like ministering in the cool of the day as opposed to the heat of the battle (like Matt's difficult color group outreach when it was horribly hot and people were dropping like flies). I have to say the second morning when we woke up in Gile and it was so hot, I was like, huh? Maybe got that one wrong. But after that morning we didn't wake up hot for the rest of the trip, which is quite a small miracle in itself. God was so gracious to us. (Niassa/Tete groups, please don't hate us!)

The last two nights we set out from the chicken farm to towns 70 or 80 km away. Again, spiritually hungry, hungry people were fed. The second night the sound messed up again and Ernesto actually narrated the film as people watched it. In our weakness He is glorified!

One of the most powerful moments of the week was our goodbye service in Nampula church just before setting off back to Pemba. First Pastor Tanueki and then Florinda shared at how touched they were by our group. They said over and over how thankful they were to have food and water, to feel a spirit of unity with our group, that we were willing to go wherever they felt called to minister, even as far as Gile, and that they were treated with respect. They were very emotional and near tears as they mentioned past groups of internationals and Mozambicans from Pemba who did not supply them with water, and made them eat last and even comments that made them feel worse than slaves. Apparently there are some more deep seated issues between the Makua from Cabo Delgado and those in Nampula, that the northern people thinks of the Nampula people as lower than themselves. The humility and acceptance and love which they had treated us with from the beginning of the trip was magnified as I realized how they had set aside their feelings in agreeing to partner with us on this trip when they had such hurt from past experiences. All week we had no idea. As they spoke there 20 year old son began weeping with wrenching sobs. We prayed over all of them as they wept. God really used this trip to begin tearing down walls between Pemba believers and Nampula believers as well as missionaries.

It wasn't until we were riding home when God brought back to mind my spiritual encounter the night before. I had even mentioned it to Randy that morning before we left the camp in case his group had any nightmares or any encounters.

I was sleeping in my tent when I felt the presence of terrible evil over me. It was strong and fearful, like I've never felt before. I had a sense that it was two principalities over the area. (I don't know how I knew this.) I knew all I had to do was say the name of Jesus, but it was like I couldn't even talk. Finally, I told myself to just whisper, and I whispered, "Yesu, Yesu, Yesu" a little easier each time, and as I said His name, the heaviness lifted off of me and moved a little back toward my feet. And suddenly I said, "I bind the spirit of rejection! I bind the spirit of rejection! In the name of Jesus" and then it tried to come back and I said "In the name of Jesus" a few times "I bind the spirit of rejection" and it went away. I lay in my tent, I don't think I opened my eyes the whole time, and just prayed for the peace of God so that I could fall back asleep, and I felt safe and fell right asleep.

When this came to mind the next day as we were leaving camp, I was like, "Wow. What was that? That was freaky." "Full-on" you might say, Sarah. I'd never experienced anything like that. And I don't know why I bound the spirit of REJECTION. It seemed pretty random. But later on the way home, God connected it with what took place in the church. He wants to bring healing to the spirit of rejection the Nampula Makua are living under, and it begins in the church.

Then I was just thankful God let me participate in a new way and have greater insight into the spiritual warfare that is going on in the region.

Our trip may have gotten to a rocky start, but the camion roof ripped all the way down as the sun was beginning to set, and we took it off in Alua just in time for the spectacular African sunset behind the magnificent iselbergs! It was like a gift from our Papa. We worshipped God and we were all full of the Spirit for hours as the camion made its way under the stars to Pemba. What a way to bring it home!

******************************************

For my part, I think the trip was God's tailer-made plan for me called "How to Kill Angie Softly in 10 Days". He surely revealed my weakness to me in a new depth, as well as His strength. He showed me how much I need Him, in order to show the simplest kindness to anyone. That it is from Him and not from any goodness of my own. Thank you, Matt, for being patient with me when I was crabby and just wanted to throw myself on the ground like a baby who just spilled Kool-aide all over itself and have a good cry. God also brought ministering angels to me in the persons of some members of the team just when I needed them! Thank you, you know who you are. :)

The Gospel of the Kingdom

2010-01-14T13:08:00.000-08:00

As I sit here in my parent's house in Hillsboro and look back on the past year, it's hard to believe all that God has done since last May when I made final preparations to attend the Iris Harvest School in Pemba, Mozambique. I am so deeply grateful for this life-changing experience. I feel so blessed to have been chosen and provided for to go and be stretched in so many ways, to have my "box" blown apart several times, to see the hand of God and feel the presence of God in ways I had only heard about. I'm so thankful for all the kingdom friendships which were established, for the bond that nothing can bring as quickly as the "frontlines."

My prayer is that I would have LEARNED the lessons God went to such lengths to teach me. The truth about the upside-down kingdom--that it belongs to the poor in spirit, the desperate, those who allow no other props to get in the way. It is beyond reasoning. The One who gives all to serve all by going the lowest is given authority over all. The one who serves little, gives little, fights to manage what they've attained, is given little authority.

I have seen blind eyes open, lame walk, the deaf hear. I have seen food multiply on several occasions. I have seen hundreds of people receive Jesus at the same time. I've seen a church planted in a day, new believers eagerly asking for a pastor to disciple them. I've seen believers with one change of clothes asking not for clothing but for a Bible. I've met a single woman who built a church alone with her own two hands so that we would come.

Who did this things happen to?

They were all poor, unknown to the outside world, off the map in the bush of Mozambique.

The kingdom comes to the least of these.

And yet, I've also seen a white American girl healed of bruised and badly sprained ankle just in time to join a weekend outreach group. I've seen a white South African man healed of a badly torn ligament in his knee in an instant. I've seen a South Korean girl's leg grow out 1/2 inch to match the length of her other leg. These were all believers.

So God's kingdom is not only for the actual poor. It's for all those who call upon His name! The gospel of the kingdom doesn't mean I can only expect His hand only to touch the lost in Africa, or even the lost you meet in the supermarket, but even "rich" believers in America.

The Church in America is nearly as unreached as Mozambique, probably more so, when it comes to the Gospel of the Kingdom. We've been preaching the Gospel of Salvation for years. It is critical. But it is NOT the whole gospel which Jesus commanded to be preached in the whole world and then the end will come. I've heard it described as the door, say the front door of a house. You enter the House, the family of God, through the finished work of Christ on the cross. But if you don't understand the gospel of the kingdom, it's like opening the front door to a grand house and looking straight into the back yard.

Salvation is a gateway TO SOMETHING. To the Kingdom of God. A topic Jesus preached on more than any other topic. And yet something we consider so seldom.

For those of us who want to see what the House, the Kingdom of God, actually looks like, for those of us who believe and are hungry and nearly starving for the Truth of the Kingdom, a gospel that has the POWER to transform lives--not to just save the soul, but to save, heal and deliver--I invite you to read accounts of my personal observations during these past few months in Mozambique.

I wrote an update of the 10 day bush outreach I got to co-lead with another Harvest staff member, Matthew Hedges, and Mozambican pastors from Pemba and Nampula province where we ministered. I'll be writing more as the Spirit leads me to digest what I've seen and heard.

Thank you again for everyone who prayed for me. I needed every last prayer! And thank you for those who gave to financially support this. I know it is a good investment. ;)

Back from the Bush and On to America!!!

2009-12-19T04:17:00.000-08:00

Howdy, friends and family! It's been awhile since my last update, and I can't begin to say how much God has done in that time! Right now I'm in South Africa preparing to fly back to the U.S. this evening. After so much, with the school and extended outreach, it's hard to believe HS11 is over!!!

I will be spending Christmas with my family in Colorado (praise God, it was actually $100 cheaper to fly into Denver!) and then stopping by Kansas City on the way back for the Onething conference at the International House of Prayer. I'm so excited to see family, and jazzed to be meeting up with so many friends from various arenas at Onething: Christian Outreach girls, Harvest School 10 and some 11 peeps, other friends from Rolla and Springfield. Fill me up, God! So I can pour out anew!

I don't have a camera (after mine was stolen at the last school), so I'm dependent on getting pics from other people. Right now I'm on my friend Henk's computer and I'm going to take advantage of my access to his pics to give you a quick peek at HS11! (see slideshow!)

More than Conquerers

2009-11-18T14:18:00.001-08:00

Please lift me up along with the rest of the team as I will be joining my friend Matt's outreach group to travel a good eight hours tomorrow to the bush. We will be ministering in a place known as the biggest witchcraft stronghold in Cabo Delgado province. Iris had built a church there but a strong wind came from inside the structure and blew the four walls out. But we go in the knowledge that though the enemy is out to steal, kill, and destroy, his main weapon is scare tactics. We go in the knowledge that the blood of Jesus is stronger that any force that comes our way. We go forth in joy and love and confident we didn't send ourselves but this is God's mission and He has eveything in control.

Novemba' in Pemba --- Hotter still! :)

2009-11-14T04:29:00.000-08:00

Blessings from Mozambique!! After several fun and adventure filled weeks, I have finally grabbed an opportunity to get some internet time and update you all to what God has been doing here at Arco-Iris and Harvest School 11.

The 24/7 prayer week ended with a celebratory worship service, and we all thanked God for breakthroughs and blessings He has given us individually and as a body. However, as the night closed, the Holy Spirit seemed to bring us to more intercession and expressions of hunger to know Him more deeply and to see true and total transformation in the neighborhoods surrounding the base as well as Mozambique as a whole. People have mentioned, even though we worship two to three times a day in the school, how much they miss having the prayer room going with the additional worship hours in the afternoons or evenings. I can just see a permanent 24/7 prayer house on the Pemba base, equipping and discipling missionaries and Mozambicans...and those same people who are operating as worship or prayer leaders or sound equipment or gatekeepers, after spending time seeking the Lord and getting full, being the same people going into the bush bush for evangelism and teaching and going into the barrios visiting people house to house.

Back in America, the whole house to house evangelism technique seems invasive and pushy. Here, people are honored to have a missionary visit them, and almost without exception want you to pray for them. It usually only takes a visit or two before they receive Jesus. Then continues the life-long discipleship.

But there are so few here to do the work!

More news on the front: I got to lead my first bush outreach last weekend! There was a marriage seminar for missionaries and students here in Pemba at the local hotel, so the two teams that went out last weekend were not the color group teams, but optional extra volunteers. A few had been on a 8 hour one way bush trip the weekend before, and they and the others carried the excitement and zeal that only voluntary lovers have. It was an amazing trip! I was so blessed by my group of 15 students, a few with noticeably more experience than myself. One has led six Discipleship Training Schools with YWAM, and he was always ready to fill a need. Our group had a very positive attitude, even when one student was up sick all night the second night, and a couple others were not 100 per cent.

The first night's outreach began (after a bout an hour of dancing, of course) with my team presenting a simple narrated drama of the parable of the wedding feast. There had been at least three drunk people coming up to dance with us earlier, and the idea that our heavenly Father is preparing a great party which they are invited to seemed to strike a chord with this village. The main pastor from Pemba, Pastor Jose, was with us and he used our drama to preach the gospel. It was well received. As the team prayed behind the truck, I kept my eye out. Sure enough, he went ahead and led people in a prayer of salvation as well as offering prayer for healing. Usually, we watch the Jesus film first, then present, preach, and pray. So I got the team ready and we prayed for some of the many who raised their hands for prayer.

One man the team prayed for had cataracts on his eyes. When I approached the group, he had already received some sight. They prayed and he received his sight and most of the cloudiness cleared up. He also was motioning about pain in his neck, so they prayed for that. They grabbed a translator and learned that his guy had an amazing story. In this mostly unreached area of Africa, he had never gone to a mosque and never gone to the witch doctor. He was raised as a Christian. (This is believable because the larger town we were just outside of had some Catholic and Assembly of God ministries.) We asked about his neck. The translator said, "The pain in his neck is gone. Also, he used to be blind and now he can see."

He had faithfully served God, and was so humble and so touched that God would heal him.

They wrapped up the prayer time and began the Jesus film. Our group congregated across the clearing under the stars, far enough away from the loud film and generator to hear each other, and far enough away for me to play guitar and lead some worship. We pressed in for a little while in prayer, that the people would be set free from addiction to alcohol we'd seen in the village and know hope, and then it was like something shifted and we had the victory and we were all filled with joy and just worshipped God under the million stars. They are so amazing when there is no electricity meaning no lights in the villages! They only showed 30-40 minutes of the film because it was late, so then we went up and prayed for more people and it was time to go. Pastor Jose talked about returning Sunday morning because, "Tem muito fame aqui." There is a lot of hunger here.

Saturday flew by. We had a church service I was asked to share in which was mostly an audience of children, some small group prayer amongst ourselves, children's ministry because there were constantly dozens of village children around our camp, and prayer walking/visiting in the town. We arrived at the evening evangelism town when it was still light. I was amazed to watch children fearfully run 100 ft away just when I moved in their direction. A large crowd of hundreds gathered instantly. All eyes were on us. The people seemed interested but apprehensive. While the sound guys were setting up for music and hte film, I decided to start some singing so I led our group in the 3 or so Makua songs I know, and then we threw together a drama: the parable of the good Samaritan. This involves us supplying someone who could tell it in Portuguese, and then we grabbed the local pastor to translate Portuguese to Makua. God had provided a few on our team with some Portuguese, including a Brazilian girl. Another was very good at telling the stories. She had a degree in Spanish but had just learned Portuguese in Brazil for one month in June! We were blown away at how quickly she had learned the language. After that was done, we decided to do another, and we had just neared the conclusion of the wedding feast when the music blared from our speakers and the crowd flocked toward the camion. Dancing began. I was so thankful for the fact I had been running so much this school. I was able to dance just about the entire time 2-3 times a day on outreach and really give it my all and not get tired!! (When I say "dancing," just picture jogging and jumping in place for 40 or 50 minutes at a time.)

Pastor Jose greeted the town and explained that this was NOT a political event. He then asked me to come forward and showed the apprehensive villagers that we both have eyes and ears and mouth and nose...five fingers...that we are both created by the same God, in His image...that there was no need to think we were different from each other. I could see the crowd visibly relax and nod as they realized it was true! (He also said some amusing things about that their babies are like "acunhas" (whites) at birth but they become black because they live in a hot climate...not exactly true, but what are you gonna say...? It was clear this was a commonly accepted theory. :)

Next, Pastor Jose welcomed forward the president of the village, who said a few words. We try to involve the chiefs as much as possible. The more they are honored from the start, the more healthy the relationship is in the future and it softens their hearts to the gospel.

We had amazing intercessory prayer this night during the film. God spoke to us and was really present and gave us a lot of passion for this village. We seperately had pieces of a puzzle--when Pastor Jose was praying earlier, I had seen a picture in my minds eye, just a flash of angels coming from all directions like time-lapse photography, from really tiny far away to huge and looming in a circle above the crowd, against the orangy pink sunset sky. It was a really quick thing like, "WOOOOSH" and then gone. (It reminded me of Daniel 9 when the angel Gabriel said, "As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given...") Then later when we were praying, one of the guys felt God wanted him to pray while he walked a circle around the crowd, seven times like Jericho. Others joined him and eventually we sat out in the clearing behind the crowd and prayed. One girl had a vision of a dome of angels over the crowd, and in the center was a circle through which the water and fire from heaven flowed down. This reminded me of what I had seen earlier, so I shared that. It seems like we were building from the initial circle of angels a dome as we encircled the crowd with prayer! :) Another had been praying for this area to be a safe place, where the people were shielded from any demonic manipulation and witchcraft and mind-control spirits, and could have eyes to see and ears to hear the Truth.

We went back to the truck and I woke the sleepers for a time of group prayer before the film ended. Just after they showed the empty tomb, but before they showed the living Christ, the projector overheated!!! Hundreds of villagers streamed away to their houses while we looked to see if we could get the film up and running again. Inside, my thoughts screamed, "noooo!" They need to hear the message of salvation still! But as Pastor Jose began to share, all remaining eyes were glued to him. The much much smaller crowd was completely quiet and still, a very rare thing on bush outreach. It was then I realized that the ones remaining were nearly all men and teenage boys. They are the ones who have authority in the village and in their homes in this male dominant culture, and if there are only a hundred for us to share with, the most strategic. I watched Pastor Jose speak with in fatherly tones, clearly and with authority. Many hands went up to soberly receive Jesus, including the man with the president of the village. Praise God! We had great expectations stirred up during our intercession, and I feel that maybe God needed to encourage us with more visions and words of knowledge and Presence THEN, so that when circumstances went awry we would see through that to His kingdom coming.

During the ministry time, we got to pray for a deaf mute whose hearing and speach improved noticeably! He was beaming. May God continue that healing. I got to pray for several others, a young woman, a teenage girl, a little boy...they were all sick and very miserable looking. Afterwards, they were beaming. It was such a joy!!! Sometimes on outreach even when they get healed they don't show much joy because they think you are going to charge them money for it like the witch doctor and they are very poor so they might try to hide the healing. But when you assure them it is free and encourage them to thank Jesus, it is so much fun to see the transformation in their faces!

Sunday morning we returned to the village we ministered to the first night. We did a "teatro" of the parable of the sower (after an hour of dancing/worship of course), and again Pastor Jose preached off of it. There was a great response, and many were healed. I got to pray for an older woman who could barely see and each time we prayed she could see farther and farther! Each time the smile on her face grew. Her leg was healed, and she began stomping it on the ground and laughing. My friend Naomi behind me prayed for a woman with a big goiter on the back of her leg and it shrunk down and went smooth. I prayed for a woman who was very demonized and kept being disruptive and swinging a stick randomly. The children and crowd just laughed at her. My heart went out to her. As I held her hands she calmed down completely, but then suddenly she would strike out behind her and yell. She yelled, "Saia, demonios!" Be gone, demons. We were loading up the camion and I had to leave. It is hard to walk away when people are still in bondage. Apparently, during the church service a few of our group had prayed for her and gone to her house because they had said there were idols there, but they didn't really see anything. (Oftentimes the witchcraft fetishes, which are open doors to give the demons authority in someone's life, have to be destroyed before they can be delivered, or healed if the sickness is related to witchcraft.) But I have hope because God will not forget her. He sent us, and he will send more, and the young little Iris church is there, too.

Back at camp we loaded up, enjoyed our chicken lunch (thanks to the early departure, we didn't have time to make the beans so we had to get chickens. How unfortunate. :) The ride back was fun and seemed faster than the 5 1/2 hours out. We came back with spirits high. "Our God is mighty to save, He is mighty to saaaaaavvvee!"

This week since has had its challenges. I caught some bug from I believe contaminated water, and emptied my guts (for the first time in Moz) a couple times on Tuesday. It cleared out quickly but I still think its time to take some dewormer. Yum. ;) Then Wednesday we dug a worm out of my roommates butt cheek. (She was also on the outreach with me.) Many others from our group battled stomach bugs, colds, etc. Then Thursday another girl in my house was diagnosed with malaria. Only two from the school have had malaria, and they are both Lizzie! Praise the Lord, she has very close friends who have put themselves on a rotation 24/7 with her. They are amazing, fanning her when the electricity is out (we are on a generator now for about 4 hours in the morning and 4 hours in the evening), helping her to the bathroom, giving her meds, etc. God bless the Mercy redemptive gift people out there!!! I'm so glad for them. I have other school duties, and they have completely freed me to continue with that. I feel actually quite useless when I am home. They are so on top of it. I just get them drinks and make them pancakes. And give up my bedroom. She's in my room and I'm in her little one because mine is breezy and one of the toilets is right off it.

Today I had a fun swim at the beach and last night the directors of the school, Nathan and Sarah, made made a great goat curry dinner for my color group, so don't think it's all suffering here, either.

Praise God, I have an entire testimony about His provision, but this blog is really more about the outreach so I won't tell all the details but I will say, God knows our needs before we ask Him. I will tell you the full testimony soon. He has completely provided for all my needs for the extended outreach!!!!!!!!! I was asked to co-lead a ten day bush outreach with fellow staffer Matt, so you can please pray into that! I'm hoping to still have a couple of days to visit Jon and Carla in Dondo before I fly back to the U.S. on December 19th.

Thank you all for your prayers! Thank you for being patient with me while I'm out of contact! But please, e-mails (angieschachner@yahoo.com), texts (+258 823 131 029), and facebook messages very welcome! I don't have my own pictures, but I will try to get some from some students to put some visuals to all this!!

So please pray:

For Lizzie and pray no one else gets malaria!
For the upcoming 10 day bush bush adventure!
For health, as I now have a cold which is keeping me from sleeping all night!
Electricity to get fixed, as the generator 8 hrs a day costs Iris $1000/day!!!
Water -- The city is also on water shortage. (Bucket showers only.)
Praise for mostly very good health and increased fitness!
Praise for grace to lead with joy and peace!
Praise for financial provision!
For future direction when I return in Dec!

God bless you!

Ajira :) <><

Harvest School 11 -- Hungrier Still !!!!!

2009-10-25T05:15:00.001-07:00

It’s hard to believe it is already the 25th of October!!! My experience with the staff and students of Harvest School 11 has been nothing short of awesome. The students have brought such a hunger, Day #1 worship was at the intensity that we left the last school!!! The students mentioned sadness that this school was two weeks shorter than the summer one, but I said, “Well, God knows how long you have and He can accelerate everything so you get exactly what He brought you here to receive.” Acceleration has been so obvious, especially to the staff as we were almost all at the last school together. People often talk about someone’s ceiling being the next person’s floor, but we’re actually seeing it in an incredible tangible way!

The word spoken over me by the directors as they prayed for the staff on week one was, “grace, grace, grace.” And I’m happy to say, God has extended His grace for me to walk in some things I’ve always wanted and finally am walking in, such as waking up at 4:40am each morning Monday through Friday and running on the beach, then having plenty of time to clean up, spend in the Word, and have breakfast and get to class before 8:00am without feeling rushed. Some of you might know me well enough to realize what a miracle this is!!!! My normal schedule back home was more like, get up with 30 minutes to rush out the door and be 2-3 minutes late to work each day! Praise God. There have been two days, last Thursday and then this Wednesday, when I was so tired and decided to “sleep in” to 6:30am or so, and I experienced such spiritual attack both days! I asked for grace the night before, but the next day my perspective was off, and I battled voices of accusation all morning or on Wed all day. The directors were praying for me Wed when I mentioned I hadn’t gotten up like usual at 4:40am, and Nathan reminded me of what our guest speaker had said about life in the Spirit being like 440 3-phase power going through our AA battery flashlight systems. 440 Power!!! So I believe God is giving me the grace to get up--I pretty much have jumped out of bed at that time—but if I bypass the grace He’s offered, He’s allowing my protective covering to be removed to be tested by the enemy to stretch me and bring me unto maturity. It sounds harsh, but it makes me so happy! He loves me too much to leave me the same and is unrelenting in the work He’s begun to bring me to maturity!!!

So this Wednesday I learned the 24/7 week would begin Saturday, thus making Harp and Bowl training imperative for Wednesday night. After seeking God’s peace all day, as I headed up to the Prayer Hut I felt His peace. A majority of the school showed up to the training, and even though I’d never done it before, His grace was all over it! We had something like 5 circles of 7 or 8 people going around doing spontaneous singing and choruses and prayer leaders! People who had never sung much before by the end were having a blast!!! Praise God. Then Matt my friend and staff person in charge of the 24/7 prayer week, shared his heart on intercession and the night ended with everyone facedown in awe of God. I ended up doing about 40 minutes of worship just because no one would leave! And it was an extra meeting. They have school meetings with guest speakers Monday and Wednesday. This school is just so hungry!

Last night I led opening worship and Harp and Bowl (music and intercession) for the 24/7 prayer week, and our “rapid fire” prayer line had like 40 plus people in it! It took over an hour! Ha ha, so not so rapid fire. But the point is to get people praying, and wow, a spirit of intercession was on us for Mozambique like I hadn’t anticipated! It was powerful.

A new thing from last school are the worship teams leading 2 one hour sets a day, which I believe will energize our unity and prayers throughout the week, as well as stretching and releasing these “musicianaries” into new levels of anointing and authority in worship. Can’t wait to go to tonight’s sets and just be a part of the crowd and enjoy!!!

I could go on forever, but this blog is already really long. The worship training I’m doing on Fridays went really well this first week! Extra people keep asking if they can come if their Friday practical mission assignment is at a different time. My prayer is that when we start going on bush outreaches the week after the elections, many of the groups will incorporate worship and intercession in their days as they bring in the harvest!

God is doing so much in me and in the school, I could blog everyday! Maybe I will try, but the base internet blew out and it’s hard to have time to get down here to the hotel, or even if I do it may not be working. TIA, This Is Africa! God bless you all! Please comment, please e-mail, and please let me know what’s going on in your lives!!! I CAN check e-mail on my phone, it’s just hard to type a lot compared to a keyboard on a computer…

Angie ;) <><

South Africa

2009-10-01T12:14:00.000-07:00

I've arrived in South Africa! I'm at a hostel in Joburg with fellow staffers Merari and David. I actually slept a little on the way over, so I'm happy about that, a 2 hour nap and later 3. But I plan on sleeping a lot tonight/tomorrow!!! Merari leaves in the morning, but David doesn't fly out till Sat so hopefully tomorrow he will walk with me to a market or something and I will basically just hang out here for 2 days, enjoy the peace and solitude, before jumping into the community and school-prep work in Pemba!

God is already stirring our hearts as we shared at dinner tonight and I have great expectation for what He will do this school in my life and in David and Merari and all of us!

Praise the Lord, I received enough support to pay for the extended outreach plane tickets with a final $500 from Victory! Well, I'm having trouble with LAM booking my return flights in Dec, so I just bought Sunday's ticket to Pemba, Mozambique, and I will get the extended outreach flights when I get to Pemba. I'm thinking of flying to Beira in December and maybe looking into taking a bus to Joburg from there. It's 17 hour bus ride, followed by 17 hour plane ride, followed by a 7 hour layover and then short flight to Denver....not exactly ideal, but it will undoubtedly be a lot less expensive.

God bless you all and thank you for your prayers!

He loves us and His love won't relent! No compromise!

Angie :)

Tour of Missouri -- Finance Update

2009-09-30T08:24:00.000-07:00

This past week I was blessed to be able to visit friends, family, and church family in Columbia, Kirksville, Blue Springs and Grandview (KC), Springfield, and Rolla!!! Jess, Ash, Amy, Mir, Corey, Abby, Noah, Isaiah, Kyle, Heidi, James, Herb, Sarah, Nathan, Greg, Emily, April, Nikki, Lindsay, Josh, Kara, Matt, Dana, Phil, Pete, Karayah, Corry, Emerson, Josh K, Nick, Bonz, JJ, Bob, Mary, Rahman, Winata---you guys are all awesome!! I finished the trip VERY encouraged spiritually and with a fresh excitement to go back to Pemba.

Sunday night I got to share at Jill Czapla's Bible study at the Roth's house. Then Monday my mom hosted an open house for various friends who I hadn't been able to really see during my time home. Tuesday my brother came home, and I got fired up from the Colombian :) preacher/prophet/firebrand Kate Berndt Buitrago when she came to visit. Last night I was up late finishing all those last minute packing items...had to get a little creative rearranging items so I could bring pretty much everything I wanted and my bags stayed under 50lbs each...

Praise the Lord, and thanks to the saints, a lot of support came in over this past week!! Right now I only need about $420 more to finish paying for my airfare.

I'm boarding the plane from St. Louis at 3:15pm this afternoon, stopping over in Atlanta and then the long 18 hour haul to Johannesburg, South Africa. It's fun to be going back to a place I've been before--several of the other students from this past school are coming back on staff, and we're going to meet up and overnight together in Joburg. My flight to Pemba is not until Sunday. Pray that it is booked ok. I've been having a lot of delays working with the Mozambican airline, trying to book the cheapest route through e-mail, and having to repeat the same information over and over. As of now, though they say I'm booked, the fare has not shown up online in my account. Pray that when I arrive at Joburg I can resolve it at the LAM counter and am not delayed from getting to Pemba Sunday.

Thank you all for your prayers and support! King David said the men who stayed behind received the same reward as those who went to war. Some of you I know are itching to be on the foreign mission field, and I'm just very blessed and humbled to have your support as my time has come to go.

Angie :) <><

Support Update

2009-09-17T10:51:00.000-07:00

The countdown begins: in thirteen days on September 30th I'll be flying back to Africa! A HUGE thank you to all those friends and family who have been keeping me in prayer!!! I have so many praise reports I can't even list them all, but I will say again that I didn't get sick other than a common cold during the entire school, and when I came down with the 104 degree F fever the night before our ten day outreach, God heard your prayers because the fever broke by morning! I woke up drenched but feeling NORMAL praise God, took a shower, and jumped on the truck.

Another testimony is that I flew into Johannesburg pretty late on the Sunday I was going to fly back to the States, and when I got to the counter they had already given away my seat. I was surprised to run into my friend from the school, David, and see had missed his flight, too, so we both went to see what they could do. At first it looked like they were going to charge us $250 each to fly stand-by the next day, but then God softened their hearts and they went ahead and printed the stand-by tickets for free. A guy from the church David had been working with in Johannesburg, Garreth, had waited around to see him off, so we were both able to stay at his apartment for free and enjoy great God conversations and go to his church the next morning which was great. (And I got to surprise my housemate by showing up at church. Miss you, Helena! ;) That afternoon Garreth and Helena saw us off at the airport, and they took our luggage and checked us in so we weren't stand-by after all!!!

Prayer Needs:

Health -- I liked being healthy last time. Let's do it again! :)
Grace to abide in Christ when there are many demands on my time
Unity and fellowship in my house and in my outreach group
Wisdom to know when and how to give when surrounded by so much need
To hear the voice of God; discernment as I pray and minister to people

Financially I've been so blessed. I want to thank all who were able to give. I truly believe your investment in the kingdom of God will reap great reward, both now and when Christ returns. The exact amount I needed came in in just the nick of time last May! And God has blessed me big time to get some delayed paychecks over the summer. For this next season here's where I'm sitting, or rather standing in faith:

Financial Needs:

Airfare to Joburg, South Africa: $1515 (paid)

Air Joburg-Pemba+outreach to Beira:    $800
Traveler's ER Medical Insurance:   $150
Malaria Meds, travel food and
   lodging, misc:                                  $300

Guitar: (Donated! see blog below!)

The ticket to Joburg has been purchased, but I'm still praying in the rest.

Total still needed, approx: $1300

If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation, which I can apply to my airfare and Visa expenses, etc, you can write it to "Victory Church" with "Angie Schachner-Mozambique" in the memo line.

For non tax-deductible contributions simply write them to me, "Angie Schachner".

All financial support can be mailed to:

Victory Church
1 Victory Drive
Pevely, MO 63070

A Perfect Day -- from Heidi's point of view

2009-09-14T20:40:00.000-07:00

Check out this story written by Heidi about one of the outreach trips I was on:

http://www.irismin.org/news/44.php

This day WAS indeed amazing. There are several witnesses that the Starbucks (of which I think I got the last cup!) truly multiplied. Everyone got some! And it wasn't weak. :) Heidi's definitely got me with the idea that roughing it doesn't have to mean Ricoffy.

The double wedding was interesting. Heidi used it as an opportunity to talk very simply about AIDS prevention--faithfulness between husband and wife. The couples were shy, especially the younger one. It is rare to actually have a wedding ceremony in their culture, so they both had children together already, but solidifying the commitment sets a new precedent the church is bringing into the culture. Many times, when the going gets rough the man will simply leave and find another woman. It was beautiful to see how the church strengthens the family unit.

The whole wedding/church crowd moved across the road from the church as we began to walk the 20 minutes to the lagoon for baptisms. I looked to see why several hundred people had stopped and gathered, and it was then I saw Heidi had lifted up the little girl, Joanna, with two hands. Her mother and many testified she had never walked before in her life. We celebrated and then moved on with the party down to the crystal clear salt waters of an ocean inlet, where singing surrounded new believers as they were immersed and raised up to new life in Christ. I got the chance to connect with several visitors from France, England, and good ol Kentucky. (Manuel, Bryan...! :)

After the last person was baptized, Heidi and Crystalyn and soon dozens of others took off swimming out into the lagoon, playing on the sandbar and apparently (which I found out the next day) leading those 6 village boys into the Kingdom.

After she took off back to Pemba for the children's birthday celebrations, my team split up into groups of about 2 foreigners and 3 Mozambican pastors and Bible students and we went house to house, praying for the sick and sharing the Good News. The first person we prayed for was an old blind man my friend Taylor and I saw the day before and we wanted to visit. After Taylor and I prayed for a little while, the rest of our group joined us in praying. The man said that he was in pain all over his body from arthritis. We prayed for him, commanding the pain to go and submit to Jesus finished work on the cross. Pain left his upper body, but he said his legs still hurt. So we thanked God and moved to praying for his legs. We asked him to stand up and walk. He said the pain was gone!!! He began to walk very shakily and with each step he was more steady. He turned around and walked back to us, a very different man than the one we had first approached, crouched over in pain. Praise God! I have to say, I was a little disapointed not to see his eyes turn from whitish-blue to gray to brown, but I'm so thankful he felt touched by God and loved by us due to the healing of his arthritis. The pastors were able to share the Gospel with him more adequately.

This town had a great environment. At first the night before people seemed not sure what to make of us, but by this day everyone wanted us to visit and pray for them. It had a stronger Muslim presence than many other villages, but people were very curious and open. It was the kind of place that had me wondering what if someone stayed for 3 or 4 weeks and just focused on this village....I'm excited for the young church there in Mecufi!

Back to Pemba!

2009-09-13T11:51:00.001-07:00

Time is flying! In a few short weeks by the grace of God I will be boarding a plane to return to Pemba, Mozambique. I will be returning to the Iris Harvest School of Missions which I attended and graduated from this summer, only this time as staff. God has made this so clear in my heart that this is His will for my next steps, and it has been so encouraging watching every door open in the natural to make it possible.

These include being released from my teacher aide commitment at Mapaville School for the Severely Disabled, having the funds (due to school salary payments I continued to receive over the summer) to pay off my remaining debt, and the support is coming in for airfare, my primary expense in this next adventure.

One AMAZING way God has blessed me in this past week is by providing me with a new guitar!!!! I'm so blown away. He led me to give my previous guitar away in Mozambique last summer, and I was so blessed and happy to be able to supply an amazing Mozambican servant of God with his own guitar. He worked with the school doing language training, translating, and he works with the worship team, the daily children's ministry for the village lunch feeding program as well as Sunday mornings with the children's ministry.

So when God made it clear in the last week of the school, He was calling me back for the fall, I knew I would be working with the worship ministry. I would need a guitar! While I was praying during a few days of retreat in South Africa before I returned to the US, I felt like the Holy Spirit told me to go home and pick out a guitar, exactly what I needed and wanted, and He would provide.

The body of Christ is so awesome! God led an experienced music minister to help me pick out a guitar, and when he asked my budget, I just told him, honestly, God said to just pick one out. Then he told me that he felt like God wanted his ministry to buy me a guitar!!!! We went the next day to the music store, and I came home with a Taylor 210e Dreadnought Acoustic-Electric Guitar. It has rich tones, is much smoother to play and easily 5 times better guitar than the one I gave away! I told the guy at the store on the way out, "If God tells you to give something away, don't hesitate, just do it!"

Our Father is sooooo good to us! Did He have to give me such a nice guitar? Unquestionably, I could've made it by which a much lower quality guitar. But He loves to give us good things! He just doesn't want us to let THINGS derail our abiding in Him, our relationship with Him. John 15:7 says, "If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you."

It reminds me of the Bryan and Jenn Johnson song:

Where You go I go, what You say I say
And what You pray I pray

Thank You, Lord! He keeps impressing upon me the importance of entering His rest. If I rest and abide in Him, He'll tell me what to do next, and even what to pray for! Then I know it is in His will and it's just a matter of making every effort to stay in His rest and obey His word until I see the word manifested. (See Hebrews 4).

When I make the effort to put prayer first, I touch on this place in the Kingdom of God where everything seems so easy! I definitely feel like a baby at this, baby-stepping my way into learning how to abide and obey, how to hear and discern the specific guidance of the Holy Spirit, to be thankful when I feel like I'm only hearing a little, because a thankful heart prepares the way to hear more. But it has been so fun over the past few months because I know my Father is so patient with me, and He enjoys me in the journey. Amen!

2009-09-08T22:00:00.001-07:00

The Great Commission

2009-09-08T12:45:00.000-07:00

Check out this dynamic video and song Tears of the Saints featuring Leeland and Delirious.

Ooo, Holy Spirit conviction fall! It hurts so good!!! :)

Let us be the generation that brings the Gospel to every nation, tribe, and tongue! Wycliffe Bible translators believe translations of the Word of God will be available in every language or in process of translation by the year TWENTY TWENTY-FIVE! That is right around the corner, folks!

However, a little study on the verses in Matthew that we call "The Great Commission" reveal that the key emphasis is not so much on the word "Go" as it is on the process of making disciples! It is more accurately, "As you go...make disciples..." What kind of disciples? "...teaching them to obey all the things I have commanded you..." So you mean that all the commands you gave your disciples are fair game for us today, Jesus? It's not just for the early church? "..and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age."

In Mark he is a little more pointed, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation..."

I had such a rich experience on the extended 10 day outreach with Arco-Iris (Iris Ministries) and I felt like I was in the book of Acts because, let me tell you, a new church planting movement in an unreached people group IS the early church! They experience all the things that the early Apostles faced when they first began preaching the good news of the Kingdom. The good news is confirmed by signs and wonders, hundreds receive the gospel and give their lives to Jesus, and the Lord is adding to their numbers DAILY. The GREATEST need in this hour is for discipleship!

As I was reading the parable of the sower recently, God showed me that this is the current sitation in Mozambique. The seed is being sown on the highways and byways, and a lot of soil is proving to be initially receptive! But the soil that receives the seed and sprouts a plant which goes on to produce mature fruit--this is only the people who hear the Word and UNDERSTAND it. How we as the body of Christ foster the move of the Spirit in Mozambique and other major revival hotspots worldwide will go a long way to determining the longevity of the impact of the revival.

So, how do you disciple THOUSANDS of baby churches with a small number of mature believers? Well, it's not going to happen overnight, that's for sure. And it's not going to happen without LOTS of aid and resources coming from the more mature Western churches. But it's also not going to happen without the manpower! Mozambique NEEDS mature believers who are willing to give it all up, lay it all down, and give themselves to the painstaking daily grind of discipleship. There may be Mozambican pastors who have raised 3 or 6 babies, children or adults from the dead, yes, but the average Christian child in the West who has completed 6th grade Sunday school has a greater knowledge of the Scriptures.

There is need for a great exchange. We desperately need the Mozambicans' zeal for the Lord and exuberance in worship; we need their child-like faith without which the Kingdom of God cannot be entered into in the here and now and which is ushering in the supernatural so often that blind eyes opening and deaf ears hearing and the lame walking and the demonized being set free has become expected and almost commonplace. We need to take the Lord and His Word at face-value and to dream so big our dreams are only possible by His supernatural intervention.

And yet we have so much to offer, and I'm not only talking about our material wealth! The average Western Christian has had hours of Bible instruction, studying the Word, small groups, Sunday school. We are so far ahead in the knowledge department, yet I feel as far as myself, perhaps years behind in applying that knowledge toward making disciples! Toward ushering in the Kingdom of God! We've gotten full and fat at the feast, and so comfortable we've forgotten that we eat so we have the energy and the bread to go out and feed others!!!!

Years of Bible study, and yet we so often feel like we are never really ready to share the Gospel, never really ready to teach--oh, just one more class, one more year, one more seminary. While the world out there is getting saved without us. It's a lie from the devil that we're "not ready" to paralyze us and keep us inwardly focused, while God is revealing Himself to Muslims in dreams and visions at an incredible rate! My friend Anna was in Iraq last year and when she would be invited into homes with groups of Muslim women she would begin sharing by asking if any of them had had a dream of a man wearing a white robe (Jesus) and many of them would say yes! And then she would explain the Gospel to them! God doesn't NEED us! He WANTS us to partner with Him, for us to be a part of it all! We are blessed to be able to see the prisoners set free from bondage, to see the people He has prepared for such a time as this, to see His Bride come in! Our job is so easy! But we just need to be willing. Willing to go. Willing to make disciples, whether here or there or wherever we are.

A Few of the Prevalent Things

2009-08-25T01:09:00.000-07:00

Papa Tony, one of the leaders of the school, with the help of a few guys sang this song to us the last week of school. I was amazed at how much information about the school it conveyed! So I decided to share it with you all. Sing this to tune of "These are a few of my favorite things..."

Beans and rice, rice and beans, so sorry no noodles
Sometimes small bits of meat, how we hope it’s not poodles
No water, no power, so we run to latrines
These are a few of the prevalent things

Malaria, diarrhea, and sick little babies
Head lice, long worms, and people with scabies
Ricoffy, not Starbucks, no buffalo wings
These are a few of the prevalent things

Wind and red dirt, how it fills up our houses
It clogs up our ears and even our noses
It gets in our shorts and seasons our beans
These are a few of the prevalent things

Liters of Germ-X, we apply it in large swipes
If the shower’s not working, we scrub down with wet wipes
Perfume, we use bunches, until our eyes sting
These are a few of the prevalent things

The top bunk, it swings and sways, will it remain standing
Or will the bed upon my head make an unscheduled landing
I lay there in fright, pretend I’m soaking
These are a few of the prevalent things

Sometimes my roomies, they don’t flush the toilet
The ambience of the throne room, you that just spoils it
And eight girls and one mirror, that’s hugely annoying
These are a few of the prevalent things

Our kitchen’s so small when everyone is in it
To fix a meal, now that’s a thrill, hey wait a minute
Isn’t that my stuff in the stew you’re cooking
These are a few of the prevalent things

To live above with the saints in love, oh that would be glory
To live below with the saints I know, now that’s another story
But I’m dying to self as I’m sanctifying
These are a few of the prevalent things

Can’t ever sleep late ‘cause the roosters start crowing
If I make it through that, then the breakfast bell’s going
They beat it to death, ‘til we’re hard of hearing
These are a few of the prevalent things

Sometimes in the school hut, Holy Spirit makes a landing
That’s so fun and when He’s done there’s no one left standing
Snockeroodled folks on the mats, crying and laughing
These are a few of the prevalent things

Long truck rides on Thursday, we’re off to the bush-bush
The big bumps and hard seats, they’re so hard on the tush-tush
Eat tuna spaghetti, get tangled up in tent strings
These are a few of the prevalent things

We peed in the weeds, please don’t tell my mother
Boys all on one side, girls on the other
Behind capulana walls so there’s no one peeking
These are a few of the prevalent things

Show the Jesus Film, then we preach, then we start praying
The crowd pushes forward, they don’t what we’re saying
But God understands, so we witness healings
These are a few of the prevalent things

The blind see, the deaf hear, the lame take off running
Just like in the Bible, it’s really quite stunning
Can’t wait for tomorrow, to see what it brings
These are a few of the prevalent things

Lower still, poor in Spirit, that’s what Heidi taught us
Be humble, show mercy, that’s always a big plus
In the dirt with the poor, sharing your things
These are a few of the prevalent things

So soon the school’s over, wow, it seems it just started
Knew nothing in June, now I’m fully imparted
No longer a slave, but a son of the King
These are a few of the prevalent things!!!

*************************************************************************************
Praise the Lord! I've been asked to staff the next Iris Harvest Mission School, which means being back in Pemba October 5th. I really feel the Holy Spirit on this! I'm excited about the group that is being gathered for staff, and working with our wonderful and gifted directors, Nathan and Sarah Kotzur. My heart is to provide opportunities for students who come in with a desire to learn how to play guitar and sing and lead worship to grow and develop those skills (because there were like 30-40 people at the last school!), as well as organize the 24/7 prayer week and teach on 24/7 prayer, connecting intercessory prayer and worship, and the power of worship warfare, especially in connection with the mission field.

I had kind of became the "outreach girl" in the last school, going on the 2 weekend trips with my group and then jumping on 3 more weekends with other groups. The last weekend trip was during the 24/7 prayer week back at base, and our team ministered in a village with prayer and worship groups on a rotation back at our camp from 7:30am-5:30pm. That day was the sweetest day of communion with Jesus I've experienced in a very long time, and the night evangelism was so easy! The whole village received Jesus including two Muslims I got to pray with, and there were many healings. The medical tent also reported an amazing grace all day for salvations, deliverances, and healings. It was truly fruitfulness which flowed out of intimacy, and it is this connection between worship and evangelism which I would like to explore more in the next school.

I will be coming back to Missouri August 31. My initial thought was, why leave Africa in between? However, I believe God is leading me home for some divine appointments, to take every opportunity to "tell of His wondrous deeds" to my friends and family and co-workers and churches back home.

Thank you all for your support!!! Please call me or e-mail me if you want to get together during the five weeks I will be back in the states!

Angie "Ajira" Schachner

Harvest Graduate!

2009-08-10T14:21:00.000-07:00

Last Friday marked the end of an era in the lives of 90 Iris Harvest School of Missions students. Maybe 10 weeks doesn't exactly qualify as an era, but a day in the mission school feels like three days on the outside, and if you're on bush outreach, a day can feel like a week.

This school has been the most accellerated, concentrated period of spiritual grow in my life. I am so grateful to have been a part, and I know I am sooo blessed to have made it here. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for me. I have definately been blessed with divine health. People have been down with mild level malaria, food related sickness, diarrhea...been touching and playing with kids who have scabbies, lice, conjunctivitis, AIDS...the worst I've had is a head cold.

Also, thank you to all those who contributed finanially to this endeavor. You are truly a critical part to bringing the good news of the Kingdom to the unreached, and absolutely essential to send laborers into the harvest, because THE FIELDS ARE READY!

Tomorrow, my roommates and I clean out my house here and Wednesday they head back to America, Canada, and Australia, as I set off with nine other members, or should I say, agents, of Bondfire into the bush bush. I have been looking forward to this for over four months. We're going to get some dirt under our fingernails, get a little saddleworn, and hopefully reach the end of ourselves and learn greater dependence on Holy Spirit.

Please pray for safe travels, divine health, team unity w the Mozambicans, divine appointments and feel free to ask for the gift of tongues in Sena (the tribe and language where we are going). Love you all!

Outreach Fever: Starring Jesus the Healer

2009-07-14T12:01:00.000-07:00

Praise God! I'm updating via my cell phone, so I'll have to keep this short.

I went on my second bush outreach last weekend! We saw many people receive Christ both nights after the Jesus film and most were healed, though at times we had to pray two or three times before the healing manifested. The first night Heidi was there and I got to see her in action in this new bush village scene. After briefly preaching, she asked if there was anyone present who was deaf. A man in his 20s came forward. After about five minutes of prayer his ears were opened! Many received Christ and the crowd grew. Various other visitors, such as Che Ahn and Chad Dedmon and Mozambican believers from Pemba, gave different invitations for prayer: for people who suffer from nightmares, the deaf, mute, children with learning disabilities to pass their classes...people would raise their hand and two or more Moz Bible students, mission school students, visitors, or translators would go pray for them. I ended up praying with a lot of different combinations of believers. My Portuguese is improved enough I can tagteam with a Moz pastor or Bible student and actually KNOW what is going on!

The second night it was just my color group. We arrived in the village early enough to have light to set up and gather a crowd. I had learned some Makua worship songs since last outreach and I put them to work, singing loudly and dancing and getting participation from the 50+ children who were rapidly gathering. Moz pastors took over as my songbase quickly ran out and I noticed older women off to the side of the clearing. I used my few Makua phrases, greeting and introducing myself, before sending them into gales of laughter by taking pictures of them and showing them their image in my digital camara.

I had so much fun, I've jumped at the opportunity to head back out tomorrow with my roommate Caitlin's color group! I wanted to tell you also of a pretty amazing healing service God ambushed me with, but it will have to wait! Mbaka iwara iquowe! ( Later!)

Bush Outreach

2009-06-17T07:42:00.000-07:00

The past two and a half weeks have been so full, I feel like I’ve been in Mozambique much, much longer!

We were divided up in groups to spend a few days in the bush doing evangelical and medical outreaches. Orginally, these outreaches were planned for just one trip for the whole summer, but they decided up double us up, so instead of waiting till July, I also got to go last weekend! The town we ministered in was only two hours away. A dozen Mozambican Bible school students and as many international mission students loaded up in the back of a truck along with a generator and sound equipment. We sang praise songs in Makua and Portuguese as we bounced down the road to our mystery destination.

Our caravan arrived just before dark, hastily set up tents, and headed by flashlight in the dark past dozens of mud huts to the town center, the center yard of their wall-less school. The Iris outreach veterans were still setting up the sound and projector and generator to show the Jesus film in Makua, so while we waited we made friends with the rapidly gathering crowd. On the walk I had a chance to chat with the pastor of the local Iris church. He said there were 46 people in the church, and that the Jesus film had been shown in that town three years before. I asked how many lived in the town. He would only reply over and over, “muitos pesoas”, many, many people.

We danced to an African choir on the screen as a crowd continued to build and the last light faded. This is probably the second and possibly the first film most people there had ever seen, at least in the Makua language.

My “color group” Aqua fanned out in pairs to quietly intercede during the movie. I found it strange that no one sat down, but three hundred or so villagers stood watching it. Finally, some in the front began to sit in the dirt at the forty minute mark and eventually most people sat down for the 2 ½ hour long movie. Afterwards, my Brazilian group leader asked people to come forward if they would like prayer for healing. Many wanted prayer. Some prayed to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior! It was pretty loud in chaotic to me in general. The speaker was so loud my ears bled, and everything was translated to Makua because they don’t speak much Portuguese in the bush. There were drunk men in the back mocking, children just laughing at the sight of the “acunas”, as we whities are called here, and then the very sincere twenty or so who really wanted prayer.

Welcome to outreach in the bush!

The next day we had a church service in their small hut, which included a warm welcome from the local congregation and prayer for the sick. After this, the medical tent was open and people lined up to see the doctor and receive prayer for healing. I went back to the campsite to clean up lunch and play with the children, but my friends got to pray with a teenaged boy who was deaf and mute. After quite a while praying, my friend spoke the kids name into his ear, and the teenager said it!!! All the kids nearby who knew him and knew he had never spoken in his life became very excited and they all wanted prayer. Praise God! His hearing is not completely restored, so we prayed for him again that night. We just loved on him and I believe he felt God’s love and hope. We will keep praying!

That night we were supposed to go to a different town down the road to show the Jesus film again, but we received word that the elders of the village changed their minds and did not want us to come. This was sad to hear, but I knew that the village we were in, Naquita, had many more people that had not been at the movie the night before. This time we showed the film in the church yard. The whole atmosphere was much more positive. There were still guys in the back smoking, and we knew this town had a lot of people addicted to drugs, but on the whole there was a greater joy and spiritual hunger. After the film, I got to pray for a lady who felt sick and see the joy in her face when I learned through an interpreter that she felt great and that she wanted to pray to receive Jesus. Her name was Lucia. Praise God! There were more people in this smaller crowd who responded to the call for prayer and salvation than the much larger crowd the night before!!! We walked home with a great sense of jubilation. God is advancing his Kingdom in Naquita!

When we arrived back in Pemba, we were blown away when we heard testimonies from the other team that had gone out that weekend. They had a modest response after the film the first night, with Heidi Baker and internationally known missionary to Mexico, David Hogan. leading the ministry time. But what really was amazing was the second night when Heidi and David had gone home and it was just the Mozambican and international students and the regional pastor, Pastor Jose. One of the guys gifted in soccer drew a crowd on the soccer field where they set up for the movie, doing amazing tricks and wowing all the kids who gathered. They said there were 300 or so people when the light went off and the movie started. The outreach team prayed the whole time. When the movie was over and the lights were back on, they were blown away to see about 2,000 people had gathered on the soccer field!!! When people were invited to raise their hands if they wanted to receive Jesus, at least 800 people responded!!!! My friend Rachel prayed for two people who were completely deaf and after the third prayer, God opened their ears!

What you should remember is that this is a Moslem country! But God is preparing the way. They are so hungry for abundant life available in Jesus!

First Days in Pemba

2009-06-02T07:41:00.000-07:00

Hello all!

I've finally gotten a chance to get on the internet! I can't believe I've only been here in Pemba since Friday! So much has happened. My bags and I got here safely, and the first few days were great, with time to get into town, go to the beach, and get full nights rest for the first 3 nights and catch up on sleep after 3 days with pretty much no sleep.

The weather here is gorgeous, really not too hot, very breezy. The base is built up on a slight hill, so the sea breezes reach all the students cabins.

Sunday church was awesome as they prayed over the Mozambican Bible students and the Harvest school students who arrived. We all danced on the stage holding hands. They are pretty amazing dancers in church here! :) Quite a workout.

Monday was initiation to the nth degree. It was children's day, a holiday, and one of the two biggest days of the year for Iris. The other day is Christmas. We were all tasked on teams (I was part of the Sister Act II singing dish-washing crew ;) and fed the whole village in addition to everyone on base. The count was 2,410 people we fed lunch!!!! Wow!!!!! I didn't see a lot that went on with the children's ministry, but heard it was great.

Today was our first day of class--it started off with Randy Clark teaching the first session, with ministry time, and followed up with Heidi Baker doing the second. We finished about 1pm in time for lunch. The afternoons we have time to connect with the Iris kids in the children's center or have other meetings and opportunities. This morning was so powerful, and it's just the beginning!

To top it off, the 80 or so mission school students are soooooo amazing! They are so passionate for God, and many have tons of missions experience to offer. We range in age from 18 years old to in their 50s.

God bless you all, I don't have much time today, but hopefully soon with have some amazing testimonies to share! There have already been healings among the students. Actually one quick highlight for me so far was going out on my porch to play guitar and worship, and opening my eyes at the end of the first song to see 30+ students all over the hill in front of my cabin all lost in worship! Amen!

Angie :) <><

I'M IN AFRICA!!!!

2009-05-28T09:35:00.000-07:00

Praise God, my visa WAS missent from DC and ended up returning there last Friday and sitting until with the help of the Hillsboro post office manager, I called and got them to literally RUN it downstairs to catch the truck AS IT WAS PULLING AWAY to load the last air express mail to St. Louis on TUESDAY. They arranged for it to go to the post office by the airport, so Wed morning I dropped by before 9am and picked up my passport and visa in time to get to the airport for my 11am international flight!!!! (Thank God no Daryl-esqe midnight drive to DC, though Mom was game! :)

Tuesday was the most "pressed but not crushed" day I've had in eons. The whole reason the post office gave for it not arriving in St. Louis successfully last Friday was $2.30 short on postage. Seemed weird bc they had said it was $17.50 to overnight it back so that was prepaid. When I finally picked it up in St. L, the lady at the counter said, nope, she doesn't know why they have it written I need $2.30 more because the $17.50 was plenty!!!!!!! So my conclusion was this was all about testing me to see how I stood up under stress! Thank you for so many of you who were warring in the spirit with me on this one. I gave a high sigh of relief when I was finally sitting on the plane.

The flights over were delightfully uneventful and we even got to South Africa one hour early. I sat next to a young woman from Memphis who was going to South Africa on a mission trip! We had wonderfully encouraging "God conversation". There were other church groups all around me on the plane. The family of God is everywhere! There was another girl across the aisle originally from St. Louis who recognized me from volleyball in high school! She went to Tower Grove High School! Small world.

Early night in tonight in Johannesburg, South Africa. I'm staying at a backpacker hostel near the airport and I fly out to Pemba, MZ, early tomorrow!!!! I'm looking forward to sleeping!!! Only 1 hour of sleep and a few restless cat naps on the plane for the past 2 nights. It's a little chilly here in the evening. I forget how far south we are. But the heat should greet me tomorrow in Pemba!

Love you all and thank you again for praying!

Visa time!!!

2009-05-08T21:22:00.001-07:00

Pray for favor with the Mozambican Embassy so I get a 90 day single entry visa!!! Pray that nothing gets lost or misplaced and I get my visa and passport back in plenty of time!

Financial Update

2009-05-04T16:53:00.000-07:00

Raising support for an endeavor like this has been a faith-stretching and building experience. I'm so thankful and humbled at all the generous giving!!! Praise God, this past weekend I was able to share in Rolla and it was a great experience---just talking about all that God is doing in Mozambique and all He has done in my life in the past year has gotten me excited afresh! God is mighty. He is in control. His leadership is perfect and good.

Praise! I have all I need to pay for the mission school and outreach! That's $2900.

Praise! I have $1300 which I can apply to airfare, Visa, travel medical insurance.

I'm still standing in faith for God to provide about $1100 more to finish covering the airfare, water, and immunizations, etc, as well as purchase some Bibles and have something to bless the ministry with as God leads.

One of the Scriptures that has encouraged me in this is Haggai 2:6-8, " ⁶ "This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. ⁷ I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,' says the LORD Almighty. ⁸ 'The silver is mine and the gold is mine,' declares the LORD Almighty. ⁹ 'The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,' says the LORD Almighty. 'And in this place I will grant peace,' declares the LORD Almighty."

" 'The silver is mine and the gold is mine,' declares the Lord Almighty."

God has a plan. It involves the whole earth coming under the leadership of the God-Man Christ Jesus. Right now it looks like the Great Commission. And God has all the wealth and power to accomplish His purposes. We just get to jump in the river. :)

Mozambique Show in Rolla!!!

2009-04-23T22:39:00.000-07:00

I'm excited to say I will be back in good ol' Rolla, MO, this coming Saturday, May 2nd, at 7pm at the Vineyard church to share through music about God and just a little bit about what He's doing in Mozambique! I'm looking forward to seeing my old church family and anyone who can make it out for some worship focused songs. I'll be doing some Christian covers and songs I wrote in the past year. The show is free, just consider if God is leading you to make a donation to help me get to Africa! :) And back. (I suppose.)

I was hoping to sing with my sister backing me up with her beautiful harmonies, but unfortunately she had an obligation come up. :( That bad news came with a very positive twist--I'm going to have the LONG awaited pleasure of singing with the enormously talented singer/songwriter Bonnie "the Bonz" Cox! She's helped me out with BGV's on past recordings, and vice versa. I'm glad to finally get to sing with her in public! Also, I would not be where I am as a worship leader or songwriter or musician without the encouragement of her husband Nick Cox, who has agreed to provide percussion.

It looks like with everything going on this time of year, this will be the only show. Thank you, Springfield. Hopefully I'll be able to work something out when I get back!

Yesterday I was reading these verses in the Book of John, Chapter 12, which really summarize WHY I am going to Mozambique. "²⁵The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. ²⁶Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me."

I especially like the part where He says, "where I am, my servant also will be." Jesus is moving in Mozambique. He is stirring hunger in the hearts of the unreached to know the hope only found in Him; to believe in His goodness and the tenderness of His leadership with the faith of a child. The Gospel is not an ancient manuscript explained into obscurity and irrelevance by scholars. It is a living reality--the reason their mother who was blind can now see, the reason their brother who was lame can now walk, the reason there is enough food on the table to provide for the abandoned street children their father brought home. They are drinking Living Water and eating the bread of sacrifice as they become evangelists for their own countrymen. I want to learn from these!

Prayer

2009-03-22T19:31:00.000-07:00

As I make all the necessary practical preparations for Mozambique, God has been continually and gently reminding me to place spiritual preparation in first place. Why do I want to go to Africa in the first place? God is omnipresent, and my greatest desire is to fellowship with Him. However, I have many props and distractions in my comfortable life which can easily get in the way of seeking Him first. I want to live the sermon on the mount lifestyle!!! To store up treasures in heaven, to not waste my life energies on that which will not endure. I want to find my happiness, like the Mozambican Christians I hear about, by following Jesus prescription in Matthew 5:3-12...one which stands out to me is "Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for THEY WILL BE FILLED."

Although oftentimes their stomachs are not filled with food, certainly not as much or often as we are accustomed to, their joy is deep and lasting as they feast on the inner righteousness Christ offers! Lord, that I too may learn the secret to be content whatever outward circumstances I encounter in this life!

This is my first prayer request.

My second is that I may be filled with Christ's love so that it overflows on those I encounter and I am empowered with the grace to serve others sacrificially. I love my way. I love being comfortable. I like the easy road. But Christ's love compels me! He says, there is a better way. He says, be filled by pouring out freely that which I have given you. Encounter me as you serve your brother. His love reveals that my way will not leave me satisfied.

Again, is this not something that I could learn here? One of the greatest reasons I am going to Iris Harvest is that the testimony of Roland and Heidi Baker is such that I desire to be discipled by them. I want to learn to pour out freely my life's energies as they have.

When we think about missions, too often we think about converts. Jesus did not ask us to make converts, He asked us to make disciples. And yet how many intentionally disciple other believers unto maturity? The Western church is full of believers with fire insurance, drinking milk and spiritually bored, bickering and wasting time. There are young people meeting Christ who DESIRE to be discipled, to be led down Christ's narrow and radical path, but there are few more mature believers stepping up to the task. As a member of the younger generation, I ask, I beg, "Challenge us!" We don't want to waste our lives playing games. Let us discover a Lord more fascinating than anything put out by our consumer, entertain-me driven culture! Let us discover a Bridegroom with fiery love, jealous for our affections! Let us discover a King who leads in righteousness and justice, who inextricably links relationship with Him to our treatment of the poor, neglected and abused. Let us discover a Savior and a mission, a great co(operative) -mission, worth giving our lives. I want to run in ministry with Christ because He has drawn me in intimacy, and I desire the whole earth to know the peace and grace found in Him. Let us become believers whose highest aim in this life is to grow in love and meekness. Let me.

These are the prayer requests of my inner man.

Other prayer needs:

*That I will trust God for His leadership in my life, especially in the area of financial provision.

*Financial provision.

*That I will discern the leading of the Holy Spirit as I prepare some sermons to have ready.

*For God to empower me with administrative skills so nothing slips between the cracks.

Financial Support

2009-03-20T13:55:00.000-07:00

I've been getting asked how people can contribute financially to my mission trip to Mozambique. I really appreciate your support! There are two options, tax-deductible or non tax-deductible. Tuition for a foreign school is not an acceptable non-profit contribution according to our friends at the IRS, but the travel expenses are covered under "Victory Throughout the World" ministry at my local church.

If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation, which I can apply to my airfare and Visa expenses, etc, you can write it to "Victory Church" with "Angie Schachner-Mozambique" in the memo line.

For non tax-deductible contributions (which I can apply to the $2500 tuition at the mission school), simply write them to me, "Angie Schachner".

All financial support can be mailed to:

Victory Church
1 Victory Drive
Pevely, MO 63070

An Iris Harvest School of Missions class from '08

*******************************************

Financial breakdown

Non-tax deductible expenses:

Iris Harvest School of Missions Tuition=$2500
10 Day Outreach into the bush bush= $ 400

Total=$2900

Round-trip airfare STL to Nairobi=$1500
Round-trip to Pemba, MZ= $500
Visa= $20-60
ER Medical Insurance= $150
Books, Water, Equipment= $200

Total=$2410

Est. Grand Total=$5300

I'd like to bring some Portuguese/English Bibles with me, too, as they are very valuable to missionaries there as well as Mozambicans who are learning English. There are other requests....I'll keep you updated.

Welcome to My New Blogspot!

2009-03-08T20:00:00.001-07:00

Friends, family--

I'm going to Africa!!! I just received the acceptance letter for the Iris Harvest Mission School in Pemba, Mozambique, this past Thursday for their summer session. This has been a long time coming! There are many details to take care of in the next few months. The school session is June 1- August 10 followed by a 10 day outreach into the bush bush to bring the gospel to unreached villages.
Mozambique is located in southern Africa on the east side across from Madigascar. The Pemba base where the school is located is in the north part of the country (right on the beach!!!)

Most of us are probably unaware that there has been massive revival in Mozambique for the past 8 or 9 years leading to the planting of over 8,000 churches and countless salvations. The spiritual hunger encountered by Roland and Heidi Baker, founders if Iris Ministries, and other missionaries, has paved the way for a great harvest in Mozambique, one of the poorest nations in the world, and up till the 90's a nation ravaged by a 20 year civil war. The need is great for training Mozambican pastors to shepherd their new flocks and continue bringing the gospel to unreached villages. New believers need to be discipled and there is a continuing need for homes for vast numbers of orphaned and abandoned children so they can be raised up in the love and truth of Christ.

My friends, Carla and Jon Reinagel, just joined Iris Ministries with a 2 year commitment. It is so nice to have the inside advice on preparing for the school, Africa, the missions base, getting Visas, packing, spiritual preparation...the list goes on. They are located in Dondo at one of three Iris bases in the country. You can read about their adventures from their blogspot here.

I'm very excited about my new blog--my friends and family have gotten so spread out, this way I can keep you all informed about what God is doing as I follow His call to full-time ministry as well as I stay connected with you and what God is doing in your lives.

Angie :) <><