You Can Shake the Gates!

"I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it!"- Mt. 16:18

Page 17 of 18

“On the road again . . . “

August 16, 2013 / / 0 Comments

“Where are you from?” What a terrible question for a missionary kid. About as bad: “Where did you grow up?” “Nowhere, really. Well, everywhere.” Heading up I-75, windows down, wind roaring in our ears, the kids start to reflect on the journey. “The SUV feels as much like home as anywhere.” Angela adds,”No, I think it’s airport terminals.” I keep my own counsel. I grew up in a small town, graduated with kids I knew from childhood. I don’t have much to add. I have life experience that enables me to help bridge the gap for the kids between those small town roots and their big world experience. I understand it to a degree. It’s hard for me to nail that one down, too. Well, I’m from Florida or Iowa or Missouri or Papua New Guinea or Kansas or South Dakota or even Illinois. There are a lot of choices.

The road does seem like home.

The long road this time started in South Florida and is winding its way through Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, and South Dakota. The road is a bit longer for me. From South Dakota I wing my way across the South Pacific to Australia and on to Papua New Guinea–and back again.Downtown Chattanooga, TN

Truth of the matter is it’s good to feel a little displaced and confused by what most people to consider a straightforward question. It reminds us that we are aliens and strangers in this world–that we are moving toward a city with foundations whose builder and maker is God.  It is gives us confidence to live as citizens of another, better country.

I think I’ll give a new response when someone asks me where I’m from: “Just over the horizon.”

Pray that while we drive this road and fly across this world we will be effective ambassadors for Christ.

 

Garia boy holds Book of Mark
The next generation of the Garia holding the Word of God in their hands.

Praying 40 Days to Freedom — Day 6

August 16, 2013 / / 0 Comments

August 16 (Day 6) — Friday. The Somau Garia people have a very developed system of tribal deities. Anthropologists call these totem systems. Throughout the year Garia people perform various rituals to appease the so-called gods. At the heart of this system of belief is an inherent mistrust of the supernatural, a fear of death and violence being visited upon them either now or in the afterlife. Pray for freedom for these dear ones, that they will no longer need to live in fear of the unseen, but will rest in the Unseen One. Pray that as Todd’s visit draws nigh, that the hearts of the Owens’ friends there, as well as the whole translation team, will be quickened in the Spirit. Ask that their hearts will be carried along in the direction of understanding their need for God and a desperate reaching for Him.

 

Malolo Plantation
Good times at Malolo Plantation, Madang, Papua New Guinea

Praying 40 Days to Freedom — Day 5

August 15, 2013 / / 0 Comments

August 15 (Day 5) — Thursday. Samuel is moving in Boatman Hall today, the same floor that Todd lived on as a student at Ozark. Pray for him. His emotions will be excitement mixed with the uncertain wonder of life without family close at hand. Pray that God will use this school and these people to pull back the veil a little further and allow Samuel a more intimate and empowered relationship with Jesus.

 

Praying 40 Days to Freedom — Day 4

August 14, 2013 / / 0 Comments

August 14 (Day 4) — Wednesday. Acts 12 teaches us of Herod’s hate for the church and his wicked desire to please the ruling Jews in Jerusalem. He had James put to death with the sword (the first martyr). He was wild-eyed with violent pleasure, soaking in the praise of the Sanhedrin. He had Peter put in prison, intending violence toward him. But the church had an ace up the sleeve: prayer. Many of the saints were gathered in fervent prayer. In response to their prayer an angel waltzed into the prison, woke Peter, walked him through and out of the prison into the street, unnoticed by the guards. Many of the Aruamu people and Somau Garia people are bound in prisons of fear, ignorance, lust, idolatry, and spirit worship. Yet there is a remnant of believers. Pray that those in prison will be set free from the bondage that keeps them in darkness and pray that the believers among them will boldly and courageously proclaim Jesus’ name. Pray also that hearts will be prepared with a certain hunger and thirst for God—the eternity that God has placed in the hearts of men that we might all seek him.

 

Chopper sling, PNG
Attaching a sling load to a chopper with village supplies, 2007.

Praying 40 Days to Freedom — Day 3

August 13, 2013 / / 0 Comments

August 13 (Day 3) — Tuesday. Many of the Somau Garia people live in fear and great darkness. They have had the Gospel According to Mark in their language for six years. Pray today for the people who worked on translating that book. Pray that God will prepare their hearts to throw themselves into the work again, to be changed by their interactions with the Father as the time for Todd’s trip draws near. Pray for God to fill their minds and hearts with dreams, a language that is very much alive and common among Garia-speaking people.

 

Praying 40 Days to Freedom — Day 2

August 12, 2013 / / 0 Comments

August 12 (Day 2)  — Monday. The Owen family (except for Andrew) is on the road today, heading north to take Samuel to Ozark Christian College for his first year of Bible college. This is the inaugural act in breaking the sweet fellowship we’ve known for 19 of our 22 years of marriage. Pray for Samuel as he lives away from home for the first time, as he learns new things about the Bible, the Christian life, and himself. Pray for all of us as we manage feelings of loss and as we grieve (and celebrate) this monumental change. Ask God to bless Andrew at home, working and attending classes at Edison State College where he is a student. Ask God to bless our journey and to keep our SUV running for the trip.

 

Praying 40 Days to Freedom — Day 1

August 11, 2013 / / 0 Comments

August 11 (Day 1)  — Sunday morning always brings with it a bit of anticipation. What will God do in our midst today? What will He show us through the Word and the Spirit to help us grow up in Him? Today marks the beginning of a season of prayer during which we are going to call on the name of the Lord, asking him to break through strongholds in heavenly places, shake the foundations of cultures, arrest the attention of people needing to walk with Him. Put on your spiritual armor today as you pray for the Aruamu people. Ask God to prepare hearts for the coming crusade. Ask God to turn their hearts toward Him in anticipation of this special time. Ask God to allow these people to acutely feel their deep, spiritual need.

 

Praying 40 Days to Freedom — Prologue

August 11, 2013 / / 0 Comments

In a few short hours Day 1 of the “40 Days to Freedom” prayer campaign will be posted. In focus are three groups of people: The Somau Garia people of southern Madang Province (Papua New Guinea), the Aruamu people of the middle-Ramu district of Madang Province, and the missionaries serving with these folks (including my family and me who are connected to the Somau Garia people).

Why forty days? Why now? Prayer is foundational to transformation, to real spiritual impact. Todd will be preaching a series of gospel meetings to celebrate the availability of the Aruamu New Testament in digital audio. This will be a tremendous resource for transformation in the Aruamu communities. Todd will also be spending significant time reconnecting with the Somau Garia team–his brothers in the work of translation, to encourage them, renew relationships, and prepare for a return to ministry with them in the coming months.

Ahead are forty opportunities to bless, encourage, protect and change through prayer. Forty days, forty prayers, forty moments of connection with God, with the Owen family, and with the Aruamu and Somau Garia groups of people. Join us in forty days of dedicated intercession, that these precious ones might gain freedom from fear, despair, and hopelessness and in so doing, the Kingdom of God might be established in a powerful way in them.

Thanks for joining us!

 

Please Pray — 8 August 2013

August 8, 2013 / / 0 Comments

In a few days’ time our family will be experiencing something we’ve never known. Andrew will be in Florida, Samuel in Missouri, Angela and girls in South Dakota, and Todd winging his way to the South Pacific. Transition. Adjustment. Tears. Joy. Jesus right in the middle of it all. The sweet fellowship our family has known all these years is breaking and we are being scattered across the world.

Please pray that as the boys settle into classes, Andrew for his second year and Samuel for his first, that the Father will give them clarity and creativity, will grant them insight and wisdom beyond their years, and will imbue them with a winsome humility that serves as a witness to Jesus’ life in them and encourages those around them.

Please pray that as Angela and girls spend a month in South Dakota, visiting ministry partners and family, that sweet and lasting memories will be made, hearts will be touched, and believers inspired. Pray that the strength and mercy of the Father will be showered upon them as they adjust to having all the men in the household scattered across the earth, which is to say not present with them.

Please pray that as Todd makes his way to Papua New Guinea, the Holy Spirit work deeply in Todd’s spirit to prepare him for preaching, for one-on-one ministry, for moments of remembrance and renewed relationships, for blessing to the missionaries, the national co-workers, the Aruamu, and the Somau Garia. Pray fervently for the Spirit to go out ahead, the work in the moments given Todd to share, and in the afterglow of the preaching and the trip in general.

Thank God for his kindness in providing for this unique opportunity, in preparing all involved for what He has ordained for this time, and for the purposes that are already being accomplished in it. Thank God for the transformation that He is bringing in our family’s life through the challenge and opportunities emerging from this season. Thank God for the Body of Christ, across the great span of the earth, of time itself, and across cultures.

As you pray, stop by www.shakethegates.org/resources and download a copy of 40 Days to Freedom, a prayer guide for a prayer campaign that begins in a few days’ time–August 11.

My prayer today for each of you is that God will give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation that you may know him better. Blessings!

Groaning, Joy, and Prayer

August 1, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Groaning. This word is used in the letters to the Roman and Corinthian churches to describe our spiritual state and longing, groaning. We are told that “creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time”. We are told that we who have the Spirit “groan inwardly as we wait for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” We are told that we “groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling.” Further, we are told that “while in this tent we groan and are burdened, not wishing to be unclothed, but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling.” Not only do we groan, but creation groans and even the Holy Spirit groans in intercession for us.

July was birthed in groaning and finished with the kind of joy a mother knows when she is holding her newborn close to her heart. We began the month at the lowest financial state we’ve been in the last 15 years. Our fiances were like Bilbo Baggins’ perception of his age: “ . . . Stretched, like too little butter scraped over too much bread.” Our response was to pray.

God answered those prayers in a hundred unexpected and creative ways, pouring out providence joyously and generously. God answers prayer powerfully today.

Don’t just go on my word, though. I invite you to join us in a prayer event pregnant with promise, filled with opportunity, empowered by the Spirit, each day a fresh chance to see the God of hand at work. Beginning August 11 and continuing through September 19 many prayer warriors are joining together to pray through “40 Days to Freedom”, a missions prayer event with one purpose–to partner with Jesus in setting the prisoners free. The prayer event is in concert with an evangelistic crusade being held in Madang Province, Papua New Guinea, where I’ll be serving as evangelist for the meetings. This prayer event is also in concert with a visit I (Todd) will be making to the village we served in for over a decade, to re-engage the translation of the New Testament, building on the foundation laid by the publication of the Gospel According to Mark, dedicated in 2007.

Interested. Two things you need to do. Drop me an email at prayer@shakethegates.org  to let me know that you’ll be praying with us. Then pop over to “Resources” and download the 40 Days to Freedom Prayer Guide. Then, pray with all your heart. Use the guide as a springboard and pray as the Spirit leads you to pray.

Upon my return from Papua New Guinea, all the highlights, stories, and answers to prayer will be posted right here at shakethegates.org.

Blessings and thanks for joining in the battle!

 

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