What a Joy to be used by God! Thailand Report
10/04/07 19:00
It's been almost two weeks since we returned from the
CRM Asia Conference in Thailand, and we are still
basking in how God moved for us! As the director of
intercession for the conference, Alice is rejoicing
in how the Lord let her be a part of something SO
much bigger than herself...
What a
Joy to be used by God! Thailand Conference Report
For more Thailand photos click here!
In late March, over 50
CRM staff from around the world gathered on a beach
four hours south of Bangkok, Thailand, to meet with
God and each other.
As the onsite intercession director for the conference, Alice had no idea what to expect. When asked two months before the conference if she would be willing to fill these BIG shoes, she didn't feel capable. But, God's nudging led to her say yes, and to begin yet another wonderful journey with Jesus on the road of intercession.
Here are some of the biggest praises:
- Learning persistence and seeing the fruit of our labor in prayer. God was so faithful to meet all of our needs at the conference. At the beginning of the week, the attack was strong. There was a real heaviness amongst us. Several people were sick with fevers and unable to "engage" with the Lord or with others. Our little Kadin was up at nights with a high fever, which left Mommy worried and made it difficult to concentrate on listening in prayer. But as we persisted in prayer, God did a beautiful thing! By the third or fourth day, the heaviness AND all the fevers just broke off from us. It was beautiful to look around and see what God was doing in people's hearts through the teachings and through divine moments of conversation that He ordained for different people to have with each other... to look around and see tired and weary missionaries being refreshed and encouraged with a fresh touch of God and a fresh vision... I love this "job!"
- Being able to pray "onsite with insight" for the Thai people. The first night that we were at the resort area on the beach, three of us ladies walked around the property of the three resorts we would be using and prayed. I see idols and altars with offerings to "gods" every day in Japan, but there was definitely a different feel, a different stronghold over Thailand that I sensed when we were covering the area in prayer. A few feet outside the room that we used for most of our meetings was an altar where employees would offer fresh "offerings" of cakes, rice, beer, etc. several times a day. My spirit was so grieved every time I passed by this altar.
Before we started our meetings, I spent time praying over our room, asking God for forgiveness for anything that had ever taken place there that did not bring glory to His name. We claimed authority over that meeting room, that God's spirit alone would reign and move freely in our meetings. Something definitely "broke" in the spirit. A momentum began to build and the annointing seemed to increase every morning that we met for prayer before our meetings. By the end of the week, God's presence was meeting us so strongly in our meeting times together that I know the resort staff sensed something "different" about us. The owner even came and gave us a speech and gifts the last day that we met together, promising that when we came back, there would be more rooms and bigger beds for us to sleep in!
Probably the most
exciting thing about the conference for me, Alice,
was being used in prayer for a specific CRM
missionary. Here's a very short version of the
story that I got to play a small part in: Two months
before the conference, when I started preparing in
prayer, God kept putting this young pastor serving in
Asia on my heart. He was to lead the worship at the
conference. I sensed major oppression over this young
man. When I prayed, I saw a vision of him wearing a
very heavy coat that was weighing him down.
I kept asking, “God, is this really from you?” but I never got a release to stop praying.This young man emailed me a few weeks before the conference and asked if I would help with vocals for worship. He also asked if I felt that worship needed to go in a certain direction. “Sacrifice” was really on my heart, so I wrote him and told him that I felt God wanted to speak to us about sacrifice through the worship.
Once we got to the conference, my heart was still quite heavy for this fellow CRMer. Finally, on the second morning, he told me that he was stepping down from leading the worship that week. He wouldn’t even be attending the sessions at all, because he would be meeting with one of our staff development and care counselors to work through some things.
I was in contact daily with the CRM intercession team in the States to give them prayer requests, so I asked him how the team could be praying for him.
“Please write and tell them that I am a pastor who is very burnt out. God is speaking ‘sacrifice’ to me, and I don’t know what it means right now.”
At that moment I think we both remembered the email that I sent him about “sacrifice” somehow being connected to our worship time. Little did we know that that “sacrifice” was meant for HIM – not just to be giving up the worship, but to be laying every part of his life on the altar before God. It was so neat to be used to bring confirmation to him about what God was saying to Him.
By the end of the week, God had made the boundaries of “sacrifice” clear to this young man. He is taking a very big step and releasing his church to the Lord, releasing his life and ministry in the country where he serves, to go to North America and receive counseling for inner healing. This is a HUGE step for him, and it requires a whole lot of trust! I respect him so much for stepping out in faith, which is really scary right now, and giving up EVERYTHING so that God can bring healing in his life, bringing restoration so that he can bring even more glory to His name!
For more Thailand photos click here!
In late March, over 50
CRM staff from around the world gathered on a beach
four hours south of Bangkok, Thailand, to meet with
God and each other.
As the onsite intercession director for the conference, Alice had no idea what to expect. When asked two months before the conference if she would be willing to fill these BIG shoes, she didn't feel capable. But, God's nudging led to her say yes, and to begin yet another wonderful journey with Jesus on the road of intercession.
Here are some of the biggest praises:
- Learning persistence and seeing the fruit of our labor in prayer. God was so faithful to meet all of our needs at the conference. At the beginning of the week, the attack was strong. There was a real heaviness amongst us. Several people were sick with fevers and unable to "engage" with the Lord or with others. Our little Kadin was up at nights with a high fever, which left Mommy worried and made it difficult to concentrate on listening in prayer. But as we persisted in prayer, God did a beautiful thing! By the third or fourth day, the heaviness AND all the fevers just broke off from us. It was beautiful to look around and see what God was doing in people's hearts through the teachings and through divine moments of conversation that He ordained for different people to have with each other... to look around and see tired and weary missionaries being refreshed and encouraged with a fresh touch of God and a fresh vision... I love this "job!"
- Being able to pray "onsite with insight" for the Thai people. The first night that we were at the resort area on the beach, three of us ladies walked around the property of the three resorts we would be using and prayed. I see idols and altars with offerings to "gods" every day in Japan, but there was definitely a different feel, a different stronghold over Thailand that I sensed when we were covering the area in prayer. A few feet outside the room that we used for most of our meetings was an altar where employees would offer fresh "offerings" of cakes, rice, beer, etc. several times a day. My spirit was so grieved every time I passed by this altar.
Before we started our meetings, I spent time praying over our room, asking God for forgiveness for anything that had ever taken place there that did not bring glory to His name. We claimed authority over that meeting room, that God's spirit alone would reign and move freely in our meetings. Something definitely "broke" in the spirit. A momentum began to build and the annointing seemed to increase every morning that we met for prayer before our meetings. By the end of the week, God's presence was meeting us so strongly in our meeting times together that I know the resort staff sensed something "different" about us. The owner even came and gave us a speech and gifts the last day that we met together, promising that when we came back, there would be more rooms and bigger beds for us to sleep in!
I kept asking, “God, is this really from you?” but I never got a release to stop praying.This young man emailed me a few weeks before the conference and asked if I would help with vocals for worship. He also asked if I felt that worship needed to go in a certain direction. “Sacrifice” was really on my heart, so I wrote him and told him that I felt God wanted to speak to us about sacrifice through the worship.
Once we got to the conference, my heart was still quite heavy for this fellow CRMer. Finally, on the second morning, he told me that he was stepping down from leading the worship that week. He wouldn’t even be attending the sessions at all, because he would be meeting with one of our staff development and care counselors to work through some things.
I was in contact daily with the CRM intercession team in the States to give them prayer requests, so I asked him how the team could be praying for him.
“Please write and tell them that I am a pastor who is very burnt out. God is speaking ‘sacrifice’ to me, and I don’t know what it means right now.”
At that moment I think we both remembered the email that I sent him about “sacrifice” somehow being connected to our worship time. Little did we know that that “sacrifice” was meant for HIM – not just to be giving up the worship, but to be laying every part of his life on the altar before God. It was so neat to be used to bring confirmation to him about what God was saying to Him.
By the end of the week, God had made the boundaries of “sacrifice” clear to this young man. He is taking a very big step and releasing his church to the Lord, releasing his life and ministry in the country where he serves, to go to North America and receive counseling for inner healing. This is a HUGE step for him, and it requires a whole lot of trust! I respect him so much for stepping out in faith, which is really scary right now, and giving up EVERYTHING so that God can bring healing in his life, bringing restoration so that he can bring even more glory to His name!
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