An Overview of Our Trip

We have returned home after an amazing, God-filled week. You were probably wondering what happened to us. Well, we are here and everyone is ok.

First of all, thank you sooo much for all your support and prayers. I wish you could see the faces of these leaders as i shared with them of all those in America who gave wonderful gifts and were praying for all of them. They were so thankful and full of love. This trip more than any of the others I have been on has the promise to radically begin changing the church of Iran. Thank you for being such a wonderful part of that!

Second, why didn't you get any emails from us this week? Good question - happy I asked it. I tried several times in the early part of the week to log on to Google Groups, but never could get through to the website. I just figured it was down for awhile. Eventually, through some tricky computer maneuvering, I did get to the site - and found a big, nasty message from the Turkish government - "This site has been officially banned by Turkish Superior Court, law...". Amazing! Google banned by Turkey! Made me once again thank God for our freedoms here! So I'll try to make it up for you this week with some summary type emails.

Let's see...where to begin. Well, an overview would probably help. With your help, we raised enough money to bring 6 Timothies (house church leaders) out of Iran for an entire week. In addition, 7 Pauls (leaders of leaders) were able to stay over an extra 5 days (they were there the first week for a previous conference). Our team of 5 (Marcia, Robert, Carolyn, Kamran and me) joined them each day from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. for training in Healing Prayer. These 13 were the ones we identified as the most promising and gifted in this ministry. Meanwhile, another conference with about 20 Timothies was occuring in the next meeting room. We would all join together for worship and meals.

Our time was intense - and so blessed. They are sooo hungry for learning how to help the people of their nation find healing and freedom. All my lesson plans went out the window the first day as we began engaging in dialogue about this ministry and their specific needs. It was a mixture of teaching, discussion, wrestling with how to apply this in Iran, praying for one another, praying for the Timothies in the other group, and more.

The first day (Monday - a special 2-hour welcome/intro) we all felt awful - headaches, confusion, body aches, etc. I could barely concentrate. Tuesday morning when we began again the same feelings hit us. I had just talked about God's heart for unity in the church and that this ministry MUST contribute to that and never detract from it. So, in unity we encircled the room and began praying for God's protection. Robert led this time. Then we paired off and began praying for one another. We waited for the Spirit to tell us what to pray. There were many amazing stories from this time alone! When we finished we all marvelled at how prayers offered in unity had a powerful effect. And that was just the first morning! It just kept getting better.

I am going to ask them to write me testimonies of what God did this week in their lives. I'll include them as they arrive. For now, know that this is only the beginning of many more great things to occur with this ministry. God is moving in this country. And we all are privileged to be a part of it. Thank you again!!!!

In His Grip, Mike