Are We Blind?

Hello friends and family,

I count it a great privilege to be here in Mozambique and see what God is doing first-hand in this country. It's great to see many miracles, but more impacting for me has been the living testimonies I've come in contact with. I have had the chance to spend some quality time with a few of the children here who's lives have been radically touched by God's love. They have stories you wouldn't believe of hunger, hardship, despair, and redemption. Many of these once ragged street children are now beaming with the love of Jesus.

One child who I've spent some time with is named Crispen. This guy is 17 years old and for the last few years he's been having Ezekiel-like heavenly encounters where among other things scriptures straight out of the Bible have been downloaded by divine revelation. There are other children with similar stories and life-changing supernatural experiences. I feel very honored to be among these children who have so little by the world's standards yet are madly in love with their Savior. Their lives provoke me to become more poor in spirit and rich towards the things of God.

The other day Heidi told our class in tears that she had just learned that Iris' three-year-old primary school had just received the best test-score ratings in the Cabo-Delgado province. In the three years since its inception, this school has suffered considerable government opposition along with Iris' many other projects. However, the Gospel is powerful and little by little hearts are won by Jesus' unconditional love.

I just finished my last required book for the missions school, "The Hungry Always Get Fed" by Rolland and Heidi. It's a blog book full of stories of what God is doing here in Mozambique. I have thoroughly enjoyed it. In the book Heidi shares an amazing story which she shared with our class a few days back.

To make a long story short (get the book and read it!), the first three blind people that Heidi saw healed were named "Mama Aida ('Mama Heidi' in Portuguese--a very rare Mozambican name)." After the third woman was healed, God spoke to Heidi and showed her that she was really the one who was blind and that He wanted to open her eyes and the eyes of the Western church.

Much Love,

Levi

MORE HOLY SPIRIT

Hi everyone!

Things are still going well here in Mozambique. Heidi Baker is now home and has been teaching the second session morning classes, which has been great. She just finished the longest speaking tour she's ever done, I think she was away from home for like 2 or 3 months or more (can't remember exactly how long) and went through seven different nations.

She shared how she used to have a disdain for speaking in conferences (she'd rather stay home here in Mozambique), but how the Lord has commissioned her to encourage the Western church. She's mostly shared a lot of super encouraging testimonies and she's been preaching about "Intimacy Unto Fruitfulness" out of John 15.

One testimony she shared this week which was very powerful was about a meeting she recently had with some mission leaders from the West from a very conservative denomination. These missionary experts asked her to meet them and they began to tell her how they've studied all the books on missions and knew all the proper techniques to winning people to Christ, but they had so little results for all of their hard labors. They said in desperation, "we've got to have the power of God in our lives, can you pray for us?"

Heidi proceeded to invite the Holy Spirit to come and touch these humble leaders and everyone of them were radically visited by the Spirit and began convulsing, weeping and laughing as God answered their cry.

Yesterday, for the second morning session we had a very powerful meeting with some mission leaders (an American couple--can't remember their names) from Zambia who are daily caring for around 15,000 orphans and 3 to 4 thousand adults with AIDS/HIV (a bigger operation than Iris' by the numbers).

The man shared how they've been "comforting the sick" instead of healing them and "mourning with the families of those who've died," instead of raising the dead. They came to Iris because they were desperate for more of God's power in their ministry. The meeting was a partnering meeting with Iris. Heidi and some of the fourth-year Mozambiquan pastors (from the Bible school)* laid hands on them and they got really blasted. It was wonderful to watch Heidi lead this partnering service. She really honored these leaders in a tremendous way and recognized Iris' need for their help and giftings as well.

*There's a Bible school on base here as well for Mozambican pastors which goes for three months out of the year (I think they do two schools per year along side the two international missions schools--they have another set of schools that starts in June as well). There are around 100 Mozambican pastors in the Bible school here currently. Our "Missions School" has done a lot of things together with the Bible School while I've been here, including this commissioning service, which the Bible school joined us for. A couple weeks ago our missions school put on a dinner in honor of the Mozambican Bible school students. It was one of the best nights I've had here yet. We had so much fun and I made some great new Mozambican friends who taught me a few important phrases in Makua (the local heart language), including: "koranduru chinini," which means "very tasty."

DILO & EARNESTO

One guy I've been hanging out with a bit is named Dilo. He's one of Heidi's first Mozambican kids and he's from Maputo. He has a tremendous testimony of God's grace and love and how Heidi took him home from living on the streets. After he was saved he began to fall in love with the Holy Spirit. One night, years ago, when he was soaking in God's Spirit in his room, he was caught up into the heavens and the Lord visited him and told him he was going to give him the English language to help the ministry because there were going to be many people coming from the West to see what God was doing in Mozambique. God told him that he was going to use him to help the ministry communicate with these Westerners. God literally downloaded the English language to this guy and the next day he spoke. He's one of Iris' best translators.

When Heidi moved to Pemba from Maputo, she brought something like 50 of her kids with her to start a new "children's village" (the place we are now). Dilo, who is now 25, still lives in Maputo and is a young leader there. He visits Pemba quite often and is here helping out for the remainder of our school.

Another wonderful guy who I've been spending some time with is Earnesto, one of Heidi's other early children who is now a young man in his mid twenties. Earnesto's story is actually in the book "Always Enough." He has an incredible testimony of how God saved him from a life of drugs and crime. He's a very bright young man who is full of enthusiasm for Jesus. He now lives permanently in Pemba helping with the ministry here and getting ready to study computer programming at a local university.

On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays Earnesto leads teams of 'whoever wants to go' (mostly mission students) into town to visit the hospital. I went last Monday. Every person my group prayed for told us they felt at least a little better after we prayed. One guy who couldn't walk when we arrived dramatically improved and was walking around the room at a brisk pace by the time we left with a huge smile on his face.

The other mission student in my group, Sev from Switzerland, went back the next day and he said that he couldn't find hardly any of the people we prayed for the day before; most all had gone home! One guy who we had prayed for had lung problems and couldn't afford his medicine (less than 3 dollars). He was still in the hospital when Sev arrived, but looked way better (he looked pretty bad the day before) and told Sev he felt fine and the doctor was amazed at his improvement. Sev had actually bought him his medicine and brought it with him, but I guess the guy didn't need it anymore, but Sev gave it to him anyhow.

LUIS CABRAL

This is one of the guest speakers we've had over the last week. I definitely want to learn more about this guy when I get home. He currently lives in New Zealand but was born in Angola. He was incredibly funny and the Holy Spirit moved very powerfully in each meeting he led. He had incredible stories about God moving in Europe and other places.

One story he shared was about a church in Portugal which I guess is just really rocking for God right now. The Lord led him there to help out or something for a season. He shared about an extremely wealthy business man from Angola (ironically his home country) who came to Portugal for medical reasons. He was very sick with some sort of disease. The best doctors in Portugal told him that he was going to die and there was nothing they could do to help treat his disease. They told him to go home and basically to put his house in order. He was shocked and walked out of the hospital in a daze. As he was walking down the street he bumped into a lady in his bewilderment. The lady, who was unsaved, asked him, "what's wrong with you?" He told her that he had just been told that he was going to die shortly and that no medical help was available to save him. The ladie said, "oh. Well you should go to that 'so-and-so' church down the street there. They heal people with diseases quite a bit I hear." (the church is known even among unbelievers for the power of God that is moving there). The guy in his desperation walked down the street and walked into the church. He ended up giving his heart to Jesus and then getting completely healed from his disease. He went back to the same doctor the next day who was completely shocked to discover that he was totally fine with zero trace of the disease left in his body. Dr. Jesus rocks. :-)

This businessman bought one DVD from the church which was on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He went home to Angola and told his family how Jesus had healed him then proceeded to show them the DVD. As the pastor on the DVD invited people to receive Jesus, the man's family was altogether moved and they all knelt in front of the TV set together to receive Jesus into their hearts. Then the pastor on the DVD invited people forward to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, again his whole family knelt in front of the TV and they were all baptized in the Spirit and got really rocked.

Then, the next night, this man invited some of his business friends over. He told them his testimony and told them they had to watch this DVD. The same thing happened to his business friends. This process continued and this family started showing this single DVD every night at their house. A few months later the church back in Portugal received a phone call from this man and he asked them if they could send him a pastor to help start a church and some more DVDs because he only had one!

Luis and some other pastors from the church in Portugal went to answer the call and when they arrived they were shocked to find THREE THOUSAND people meeting EVERY NIGHT in this businessman's back yard, hearing his testimony and watching this single DVD over and over again. People were coming to Jesus every night and getting baptized in the Holy Spirit and power!

Today what started with this businessman's testimony of healing and one DVD is now a church of something like 20 thousand and they are planting churches all over the world.

Luis had many other similar stories which were very encouraging and inspiring, including a couple stories of people being raised from the dead in Europe.

The couple running the missions school under Rolland and Heidi Baker are Tony and Pamela Maxwell. Tony is a bit older and a constant source of humor. Yesterday all the guys in the missions school met with him for our early morning class session; we had a "men's time" together. He made a statement which I liked. He said, "I've got a power point presentation for you guys, are you ready? Here it is: if there's no power there's no point." The kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.

I'm very happy to be here. Thank you to everyone who has helped me come. Below are some journal entries covering a recent weekend outreach to a nearby village I went on with a group of around 15 other missions students. Also, there's a journal entry with more info on Dilo and Earnesto.

Please continue to keep me in your prayers for encounters with God. Specifically with regards to direction for the future. Also, my color group is leaving this Thursday for another weekend outreach, please pray for God's kingdom to come.

Much Love in JESUS,

Levi

11/14/2008
We arrived in the village after maybe a 3 hour trip. There were children singing, greeting us at the top of their lungs and beating on goat-skinned drums. We set up camp behind a few mud huts towards the edge of the village. Rebecka (team leader) asked me to help the Mozambican pastors who joined us set up their giant borrowed tent. I helped and in the process someone evidently snatched my flip-flops after I had slipped them off for a couple minutes. Also, the bag for the giant tent went missing. People won't steal stuff on your person, but if you set something down, people will often assume it's up for grabs.

We showed the "JESUS Film" that night and there were a lot of people that showed to watch it. I'm guessing most of the village was in attendance maybe 400 to 500 people, many who were children. There were probably 60-75 people who responded to the salvation call. I was exhausted by the end of the night. I shared my tent with my now good friend Ryan from Kaiser, Oregon. He's from Denny Cline's church in Albany and is currently living in Germany.

11/15/2008

After waking up we went out in small groups throughout the village praying for people. The most dramatic encounter my group had was with a man who was in a "Mozambican prison." In the villages the people are so poor that law enforcement is carried out in creative ways. If someone kills someone, for example, instead of going to prison, they are sometimes bound to a tree stump, which prevents them from moving.
This man we met was mentally insane. His family friends told us that he used to be very intelligent, speaking three languages. However, some people in the village were jealous of his unusual intelligence. From my rough understanding (through translators), these people either hired a witch doctor or directly put a curse on this man which caused him to become insane. He would run through the village at night and do crazy things (I didn't understand exactly what he had done through translation, but I think he committed some crimes or something in one of these crazy fits, so that was why he was now bound to a tree trunk). So, this man now lived in a dark dusty corner in his mother's mud hut with his leg permanently bound by a tree trunk.

We led the man through a prayer of forgiveness for the people that cursed him and prayed for his deliverance. The man's countenance improved dramatically over our time together as we continued to pray. The greatest freedom came as we worshipped the Lord together. Some of the others in my group got some amazing insight into the Lord's heart for the man and we left him smiling. This village was extremely poor. It was definitely the poorest area I've experienced.

Another hi-light of this day was witnessing a baptism service. A fairly large group went (maybe 100 people) plus there were around 20 new converts which came. We went down to a nearby river (about a 30 minute walk) and we all sang as these new believers were baptized into God's family.

JOURNAL ENTRY ABOUT DILO AND EARNESTO:

9:48 PM 11/05/2008

We just had a service with the pastors from the Bible school here on the Pemba base, there are probably around 100 of them. The meeting was set up for the mission school students to bless and honor these wonderful Mozambican pastors through prayer and washing their feet. Before the foot washing, there were a couple young men who are here visiting from Maputo that shared their testimonies. One of the guys was named Dilo and he's 25, the other's name was Earnesto. Dilo had a powerful story about how Heidi found him and took him in off the streets in the early stages of Iris. After becoming a Christian he had many experiences with the Lord which radically transformed his life. In one of these encounters the Holy Spirit visited him and downloaded the English language to him. He literally started speaking English overnight. The Lord told him it was because there were going to be many people coming to visit the ministry in Mozambique from the West and that He was going to use Dilo to communicate to these people as a translator.

Earnesto also shared his story which is in Heidi and Rolland's book, "Always Enough." He was a severely abused homeless kid who became a hard-core gangster who terrorized the streets. He was a thief and criminal and he shared how he used to go into churches and steel ladies' purses and things while they were praying. He ended up in jail. On one occasion while he was in jail he faked being dead. The guards came in and took his body out and dunked him in water to make sure he was dead. I guess he got away with it somehow and ended up getting out of jail and ended up back on the streets. Then Heidi found him and invited him to come home with her. He received Jesus into his heart and had many experiences with the Lord which radically transformed his life.

Both of these young men are now leaders in Iris' ministry. Dilo has traveled around the world preaching the gospel and sharing his testimony.

Back in Pemba

(pic: on the way home to Pemba, push starting a "camiao")

Hey all!

We're all back in Pemba and God has been really blessing me the last few days. I led worship for the first time last night for our evening class (we have a rotation of worship leaders within the school set up). It was a great time and God really showed up strong. It was the best class meeting I've had thus far. Supresa Sithole's wife, Traphina shared with us and it was AMAZING. God is really doing some awesome stuff in my heart, which has been the highlite thus far for me. Shara Prahdin (Heidi Baker's personal assistant) has been teaching most of the classes up to this point, it's all been amazing.

After traveling clear accross the nation (to Beira) by road, it is wonderful to see the tangible impact this ministry (Iris) is having on this country. There are Iris churches it seems everywhere. And we were just seeing the ones along the road. On the way home we camped at one of the Iris "bush churches" which was a great experience. We arrived after dark and were greeted by a mass of gleefully screaming children. The children immediately began corporately singing us songs and dancing. We got out of the trucks and joined them for probably 15 minutes. They just kept singing and dancing overwhelmed with joy.

I went surfing a couple days ago with my roomate Ben from England. He brought a full length long board (over 9'). With his help I was able to ride twice! It was great fun. I've been feeling a bit sick (with a cold), but getting much better today. Please keep me in your prayers for health and encounters with God.

Today's election day and we have all been interceding for America (all 21 nations represented here). There is a tremendous awareness of the critical hour we are living in globally. God's kingdom is coming to earth!!

Levi

Miracles in Mozambique

Greetings from South Mozambique. We've been doing a conference down here and it's been amazing. It was a three day ride from Pemba in the back of flat bed trucks. We had three truck loads of 30 people. It's a common mode of transport around here. We spent anywhere from 12 to 18 hours each day crammed in the back of these trucks. Fortunately, the roads weren't too bad. Nonetheless, it was truly a "baptism of fire" ;-). The team leaders figured it would be a good way to kick off the school--bonding time. We definately got pretty intimate as a group on the way down, as we were like sardines in the back of the trucks.

The conference has been amazing. There have been numerous salvations, healings, deliverances, and other incredible miracles. We've seen 3 or 4 deaf people hearing and 1 blind guy totally healed. There's been major deliverances from demons almost every night thus far. The church that is putting this conference on is amazing. We've also been doing street evangelism which has been way fun.

Love and Blessings!

Levi

In Mozambique

Hi friends and family,

I've arrived in Mozambique and everything is going great. There are almost 100 students altogether from 21 nations. We're taking a 10 day trip south for a big conference and will be stopping in villages along the way ministering. It's a 3 day journey on the back "camios" (flat bed trucks). Your prayers will be appreciated.

Much Love,

Levi

Revival Fire in Mombasa

Dear friends and family,

I am now in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania and I fly this afternoon for Mozambique. Thank you for your continued prayers. Here are some journal entries and pictures of some of the things I've been up to.

Much Love and blessings,

Levi

7:24 AM 10/11/2008
Stephen is cooking breakfast and I'm preparing to go with Lampstone on the "matatu" (public bus) to visit some children's homes.

Yesterday I spent most of the day in the house. For lunch Stephen (after his classes - he's studying journalism in university) made some good stuff. We had the common meal of "Chapati" -- something like cooked corn meal cake -- with various toppings (my favorite a cales topping with spicy peppers). mmm.

(Stephen preparing lunch)

Last night we had the first meeting of a three day conference at Lampstone's church, "Jesus is Lord Chapel." I led in worship for two songs and it was powerful. We had a guest speaker named Pastor Wilson from mainland Mombasa.

After the meeting Lampstone, Kipleting, Cyprian and myself went to a large ministry called "Campaign for Salvation and Healing Ministry Headquarters" for a "kesha" (overnight prayers). Overnight prayer meetings are common here, particularly on Friday nights. I attended the meeting until the preaching started at about 11:30 pm. I couldn't understand anything and I was tired so I slept in the car. At about 3:30 am the service ended and we went back to Lampstone's house.

(Overnight prayer--video)

PASTOR WILSON
Pastor Wilson is a very mild mannered quiet man. But when he preaches he's like most other African preachers I've come accross -- he breathes fire.

Pastor Wilson has an interesting story which he told me after the service as we sat in the office. He was studying to be a Catholic preist in the early 90's (I think '91). But, he had a lot of reservations because of inconsistitencies of the church's teachings with the teachings of the Bible. At that time his church made it a rule forbidding people from reading the Bible, because they said it would make you "go mad." But, Wilson had one secretly which he read often. Before he heard the true gospel he always had reservations about preaching about prayers to Mary and praying the rosary and all he could talk about was Jesus. He didn't know why this was and others often questioned him about it. But, he just kept preaching Jesus. Finally he had a born-again experience and this along with his studies of God's word persuaded him to leave the Catholic Church.

He's been an evangelist since about 1995. And he pastored a church for seven years. Now, however, he just travels and evangelizes.

He was explaining to me that the Catholic Church in Africa has suffered a lot of losses in numbers to the charismatic Christian churches. Many Catholics have converted to "born-again" churches which are moving in power and miracles.

Now, he said, due to the charismatic dominance there's been a big shift in the Catholic Church here. God's revival is starting to affect it. There are many "Charismatic Catholic" groups which are now thriving. These groups preach the born again experience and embrace God's whole word, including all the gifts of the Spirit, and adamently encourage all members to read their Bibles regularly.

CITY TRANSFORMATION
On Thursday Lampstone, Thomas, James and I went to Mainland Mombasa. On the way we went downtown and Lampstone took us to A-1 Super Market. The place was jam packed with people purchasing a vast assortment of goods. Lampstone tells me sometimes the place is so busy that there are lines outside to get in.

This supermarket used to be a prostitution house. Almost four years ago Lampstone and some of his "boys" took a stand against this force of darkness. They began conducting nightly open air preaching and prayer meetings on the street outside of the establishment. They did these meetings regularly for 11 months. God moved powerfully in this place. They saw many powerful healings and conversions to Christ right on the street. One evening some people even brought a dead woman while Lampstone was preaching. The woman had died a few hours earlier in the hospital. Lampstone prayed for the lady and she was raised from the dead. Many were affected. This lady is now serving the Lord in Nairobi.

Finally after about 11 months of nightly meetings the Lord spoke to Lampstone clearly and told him to tell the people that the prostitution house was closed. He prophesied the Lord's will and the next day the shop closed down. The owner decided to transform it into "A-1 Super Market."

(A-1 Supermarket)

SOUTH COAST
Lampstone's first church now has roughly 100 members. This ministry is independent now with its own leadership structure. Lampstone regularly visits and encourages this group.

(Lampstone's first church on the other side of Mombasa)

8:54 PM 10/13/2008
YESTERDAY

- Sunday morning service (led two worship songs)
- Spoke with "youth group" after service (20 to 30 year olds)
- Entire church service went from 9:30 am to about 3:00 pm
- Evening service

*We had a powerful evening service last night. (The closing night of the revival meetings with Pastor Wilson). Pastor Wilson invited people to come forward at the end of this last service to get touched by the Holy Spirit and receive prophetic words. The Lord moved powerfully and many were blessed. Particularly a couple of elderly "mamas" who experienced some dramatic deliverances from demons and were overjoyed with freedom. I was also personally touched last night in a powerful way as I received some prophetic encouragement and blessings.
- packed for Dar Es Salaam

TODAY

I am now in Dar Es Salaam. Lampstone and I rode the bus down today and it has been adventurous. Things are a little rougher in Tanzania economy wise. I played my guitar on the bus and worshipped and ended up meeting some wonderful people.

One of the guys we met on the bus was a Tanzanian who is the director of Education for the Assembly of God Church in the country. He administrates the A.G. Bible Colleges in this area. We're staying at a missions house which he owns called, "Jim's Inn." Tomorrow I leave for Mozambique!

Welcome to Africa

Greetings family and friends!

I arrived in Mombasa yesterday after my flight from Nairobi was delayed for a couple hours due to a fuel pump problem in the plane. Now I am staying at Pastor Lamstone's residence, where he shares a room with his younger brother Stephen - 24.

The room (which shares a toilet and wash area with 3 other adjacent rented rooms) serves as a sort of hub for Lampstone's "boys," five or six others. These guys (all single, mostly mid 20's) come and go for meals and will sometimes sleep here. The room is maybe 15 feet by 15 feet. The bed takes up most of half of the room. Last night I slept on the bed with Stephen while Lampstone and the rest of "the boys" prayed through the night at the church, sleeping for a few hours on the floor. This is common operating procedure for them on many nights. Lampstone doesn't sleep very much. He's always on the go.

(My friend Kipleting cooking dinner)

God is moving powerfully through this ministry, I'll have more stories posted when I get my next chance to visit a cyber-cafe.

Last night I shared at the church's Wednesday night service. I shared about seeking (Proverbs 25:2). Although I wasn't sure I would be able to put something together after traveling (I was very tired), the Lord came through and gave me some good stuff to share; all were blessed.








Thank you for your continued prayers.





Richest Blessings of God from Africa,

Levi

Eating "Balut" in Philippines

Just checking out my video posting cababilities. Here's a nice video for those of you with adventurous palettes ;-)

FINGER OF GOD FILM

If you haven't seen this film already, I highly recommend it.

"FINGER OF GOD" documentary by Darren Wilson

WATCH IT HERE:
http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=32713327

Here are a few pics from my Fall 2005 trip to Africa. This is my friend Pr. Lampstone!

Welcome to my blog!

This is my first blog post!

I'm going to use this to update you on my travels in Africa. Stay tuned!

-Levi