In the last post, I mentioned a few people we've been getting to know through our "adopt a block" outreach. Well, yesterday we had an AMAZING time with Carrie. She was having a rough time and Aaron and I were talking and praying for her when Chris Overstreet (the director of outreach at Bethel) walked up to us. We introduced her to Carrie and moments later he said, "I feel like God's giving me some impressions about you. Can I share?" Then, he began to speak things about her past and things she was going through in the present and things that God was wanting to do in her life. She was totally crying and touched by God. It was awesome! We prayed through a lot of things with her including unforgiveness of others and herself and prayed for the filling of the Spirit. She might be coming to church with us this Sunday which would be cool. She really needs Christian community and encouragement to really walk with the Lord again. Keep praying!
Aaron and I walked away from this whole situation totally blessed at what God did but also realizing that we want and need more!!! Like Chris, we want to be able to walk into situations where we don't know a person and be sensitive to what the spirit is saying... revealing things that we couldn't possibly know that will open them up to God! We've experienced "a measure" of this but we know there's so much more. The funny thing about yesterday was that we had already spoken some of the same things that Chris did to Carrie but when Chris said them there was an authority that went with the words. If we look at the life of Jesus we see that people were amazed not just at his teaching (words) but at his authority!!! We believe that this same authority is available to us and we want to walk in it in increasing measure!
Friday, January 19, 2007
Friday, January 12, 2007
Back to School...
After a wonderful 2 week break for Christmas with family and friends we are back at school. It's great to be home! A few highlights since being back:
Outreach- we are in an outreach group called "adopt a block" where we go and visit a neighborhood every Thursday afternoon. We've been developing relationships with the people in that community over the past months. At first it was a little weird knocking on doors and starting up conversation with strangers but we are at the place now where we can say that quite a few of them are friends. There are a few families that are really receptive to hanging out with us and some of them are quite open to God. One lady, Kerri, said to us when we walked up to her house yesterday, "I was hoping you wouldn't pass by without stopping in and praying for me." She has been to church before but doesn't seem to be walking very closely to the Lord right now. She is so open though! The first time we met her we knew it was a total "God encounter" as we prayed with her and through tears she told us she knew God sent us to her. Pray for Christina and Magdaleno (a really cool Mexican family and their kids). They're religious background is catholic but we're not sure how much of an understanding of "relationship with God" they have. They have been SO sweet to us and even had us into their house the other day for burritos! Lastly, please pray for Colby, his girlfriend Kristen and her daughter Celeste. Colby has recently left the "party scene", drinking, etc. and is in the place where he's wondering what to replace it with. He doesn't have many friends that are a positive influence and he's been really warm towards us - so we are trying to hang out with him more. We really just want the whole neighborhood to be blessed and that the people we've been getting to know would enter into a relationship with Jesus... that their lives and families would be transformed!
Class has been amazing this week. The past two days we've had a special speaker called "Steve Backlund". His teaching has been rocking our worlds... he's taught on the renewing of our mind and the importance of having an accurate, God centered view of ourselves... A lot of his teaching comes from the verse that says that "as a man thinks, so he is!". God's been challenging us both to speak God's truth and his promises over our lives and laugh at the lies that the enemy constantly throws in our direction.
We also started a new "elective" this week (churchplanting). Paul Manwarring, our teacher, is AMAZING! God has used him in powerful ways in the prison system in England (where he's from) and we are so excited to get to know him better and glean from his wisdom and life experience. We are constantly blown away by the quality of leaders here... we are so blessed!
Outreach- we are in an outreach group called "adopt a block" where we go and visit a neighborhood every Thursday afternoon. We've been developing relationships with the people in that community over the past months. At first it was a little weird knocking on doors and starting up conversation with strangers but we are at the place now where we can say that quite a few of them are friends. There are a few families that are really receptive to hanging out with us and some of them are quite open to God. One lady, Kerri, said to us when we walked up to her house yesterday, "I was hoping you wouldn't pass by without stopping in and praying for me." She has been to church before but doesn't seem to be walking very closely to the Lord right now. She is so open though! The first time we met her we knew it was a total "God encounter" as we prayed with her and through tears she told us she knew God sent us to her. Pray for Christina and Magdaleno (a really cool Mexican family and their kids). They're religious background is catholic but we're not sure how much of an understanding of "relationship with God" they have. They have been SO sweet to us and even had us into their house the other day for burritos! Lastly, please pray for Colby, his girlfriend Kristen and her daughter Celeste. Colby has recently left the "party scene", drinking, etc. and is in the place where he's wondering what to replace it with. He doesn't have many friends that are a positive influence and he's been really warm towards us - so we are trying to hang out with him more. We really just want the whole neighborhood to be blessed and that the people we've been getting to know would enter into a relationship with Jesus... that their lives and families would be transformed!
Class has been amazing this week. The past two days we've had a special speaker called "Steve Backlund". His teaching has been rocking our worlds... he's taught on the renewing of our mind and the importance of having an accurate, God centered view of ourselves... A lot of his teaching comes from the verse that says that "as a man thinks, so he is!". God's been challenging us both to speak God's truth and his promises over our lives and laugh at the lies that the enemy constantly throws in our direction.
We also started a new "elective" this week (churchplanting). Paul Manwarring, our teacher, is AMAZING! God has used him in powerful ways in the prison system in England (where he's from) and we are so excited to get to know him better and glean from his wisdom and life experience. We are constantly blown away by the quality of leaders here... we are so blessed!
Monday, January 01, 2007
Christmas Newsletter/ Update......
(Note: MOST OF YOU GOT THIS UPDATE EITHER BY SNAIL OR E-MAIL, BUT IN CASE YOU DIDN'T HERE IT IS!)
Married & Moved
Hi! We thought we’d send an “update” since we haven’t talked to most of you in a while. Our wedding was more than we could have asked for and our honeymoon in Hawaii was equally amazing. WE LOVE MARRIAGE!! A week after returning, we moved to Redding, California. Many have asked, “Why Redding?!” Well, we wanted to move somewhere away from our comfort zones for our first year of marriage to focus on one another and on seeking the Lord about our future. The reason we chose Redding was that there is a great church there called “Bethel” that is experiencing a mighty move of God, and daily seeing genuine signs of REVIVAL! We had visited before and loved it, and without a doubt we both knew the Lord was calling us there, knowing that this is a movement that we could totally partner with to do missions.
School of Ministry
A week after moving to Redding we began to pray about the possibility of going to the school of ministry at Bethel. We prayed that God would confirm it financially if we were to go. A few days later a family friend called us saying that we had been on her heart and she asked us if we needed money for anything. Long story short, she sent us a generous donation that paid for our deposit and a good chunk of our tuition. So, we are now both first year students and it is amazing! The teaching is incredible and we are blessed to be part of a school that highly values both the fruit of the spirit and the gifts of the spirit. We have deep respect for our teachers, pastors, and peers as we are seeing their wisdom, character and power. Weekly we hear unbelievable testimonies and see with our own eyes people being healed and saved. As we’ve reached out to people, prayed for them and shared the truth of Jesus with them we have been reminded that “the harvest is plentiful” and people are more open to the Lord than sometimes we realize. We are living in exciting times for sure!
When we moved here we didn’t know how long we would stay, but as we have prayed – God has put a desire in our hearts to stay here for at least another year so that we can complete the 2nd year of school. Although we both have degrees and have been to Bible School, we totally feel like what this school has to impart and teach us is absolutely vital for our preparation to minister and demonstrate the Lord’s Love and Power. We have also decided to begin the process of becoming “Bethel missionaries”. Their missions program has an incredibly large vision and we are so excited to be part of it. We are open to serving in whatever way is needed over these next couple years until we are “sent out” to the nations. We are interested in knowing if and how you would be interested in partnering with us now and in the future, so if you could take a minute to fill out the enclosed card, we would totally appreciate it!
Missions Trip to Japan, Work, & Other Random Stuff….
Part of our school is a 2 week mission’s trip in March. We will be going Japan. On the back of this sheet we’ve included more details. Other than school, Aaron is working part time building gazebos and custom cottages. Crystal is still waiting for her “work permit” but has been keeping busy cooking, cleaning and making jewelry (and looking for ways to sell some of it!). We’re starting to make some good friends and overall we are SO BLESSED by the Lord to be where we are, doing what we’re doing!!! To check on what we’re up to you can go to our blogspot: aaronandcrystal.blogspot.com (which we are going to try and update at least once or twice a month). We’d love to hear how you all are, so let us know what you are up to! WE LOVE YOU ALL!!
MAY YOU OVERFLOW with HIS AMAZING LOVE and JOY TODAY!!
Aaron & Crystal
Married & Moved
Hi! We thought we’d send an “update” since we haven’t talked to most of you in a while. Our wedding was more than we could have asked for and our honeymoon in Hawaii was equally amazing. WE LOVE MARRIAGE!! A week after returning, we moved to Redding, California. Many have asked, “Why Redding?!” Well, we wanted to move somewhere away from our comfort zones for our first year of marriage to focus on one another and on seeking the Lord about our future. The reason we chose Redding was that there is a great church there called “Bethel” that is experiencing a mighty move of God, and daily seeing genuine signs of REVIVAL! We had visited before and loved it, and without a doubt we both knew the Lord was calling us there, knowing that this is a movement that we could totally partner with to do missions.
School of Ministry
A week after moving to Redding we began to pray about the possibility of going to the school of ministry at Bethel. We prayed that God would confirm it financially if we were to go. A few days later a family friend called us saying that we had been on her heart and she asked us if we needed money for anything. Long story short, she sent us a generous donation that paid for our deposit and a good chunk of our tuition. So, we are now both first year students and it is amazing! The teaching is incredible and we are blessed to be part of a school that highly values both the fruit of the spirit and the gifts of the spirit. We have deep respect for our teachers, pastors, and peers as we are seeing their wisdom, character and power. Weekly we hear unbelievable testimonies and see with our own eyes people being healed and saved. As we’ve reached out to people, prayed for them and shared the truth of Jesus with them we have been reminded that “the harvest is plentiful” and people are more open to the Lord than sometimes we realize. We are living in exciting times for sure!
When we moved here we didn’t know how long we would stay, but as we have prayed – God has put a desire in our hearts to stay here for at least another year so that we can complete the 2nd year of school. Although we both have degrees and have been to Bible School, we totally feel like what this school has to impart and teach us is absolutely vital for our preparation to minister and demonstrate the Lord’s Love and Power. We have also decided to begin the process of becoming “Bethel missionaries”. Their missions program has an incredibly large vision and we are so excited to be part of it. We are open to serving in whatever way is needed over these next couple years until we are “sent out” to the nations. We are interested in knowing if and how you would be interested in partnering with us now and in the future, so if you could take a minute to fill out the enclosed card, we would totally appreciate it!
Missions Trip to Japan, Work, & Other Random Stuff….
Part of our school is a 2 week mission’s trip in March. We will be going Japan. On the back of this sheet we’ve included more details. Other than school, Aaron is working part time building gazebos and custom cottages. Crystal is still waiting for her “work permit” but has been keeping busy cooking, cleaning and making jewelry (and looking for ways to sell some of it!). We’re starting to make some good friends and overall we are SO BLESSED by the Lord to be where we are, doing what we’re doing!!! To check on what we’re up to you can go to our blogspot: aaronandcrystal.blogspot.com (which we are going to try and update at least once or twice a month). We’d love to hear how you all are, so let us know what you are up to! WE LOVE YOU ALL!!
MAY YOU OVERFLOW with HIS AMAZING LOVE and JOY TODAY!!
Aaron & Crystal
Japan Trip Details and Support Info
Taking God’s Love & Power to Japan!!!
Dear Friends & Family,
We hope you are all super blessed. We are doing AMAZING! Daily, we’re BLOWN AWAY at God’s goodness towards us and excited about all the things he is doing in the world! As mentioned in our update, we are going on a mission’s trip to Japan in March. There were several trip options and all students selected their 1st, 2nd and 3rd choices. Our first choice was Japan, which only had 10 spots, and with over 100 students that also put down Japan as their first choice we feel blessed and honored to have been chosen to be part of this team. There were 3 things that “highlighted” this trip to us above the others. First, Japan is a very unreached nation. Our heart is to go where many have not heard about the love and power of Jesus. Secondly, our focus will be on spending time with small groups of people or one on one. Although we love ministry that focuses on the multitudes, we were excited about having more personal, intimate contact with people. Our third reason for selecting the Japan trip is that it is being led by Eric Johnson, the mission’s director at Bethel. We are excited for the opportunity to develop a closer relationship with Eric as our hope is to partner more closely and long term with Bethel missions in the future. The following paragraph is a description of some of what we will be doing in Japan:
“Bethel Church has been building a relationship with Japan for the last 18 months. This trip will deepen this relationship. Our goal is to empower, teach and activate the local church. There will be opportunities for us to do street ministry where we will be praying for the sick and will do prophetic ministry. Japan is known as a place “where ministry is really hard”. We believe that God wants to display his power. So our team is getting ready to go and release the supernatural power of God into a nation that he loves.”
Our trip will be from March 10-20, 2007. We really would value your prayers that God would be honored and that people’s lives would be transformed. We are excited that there is a team of long term missionaries there that will be able to follow up with people and water seeds that are planted. The cost of our trip (for both of us) will be $2800-$3600 US depending on airfare prices. If you would like to partner with us financially, the details are below.
We love you all. Please stay in touch. Our new emails are:
crystalstevensis@gmail.com or aaronstevensis@gmail.com
Aaron and Crystal
**Financial gifts or letters of encouragement may be sent to: Aaron & Crystal Stevens, 18848 Country Hills Dr., Cottonwood, CA 96022. In order to receive a tax-deductible receipt, please make the check payable to “Bethel Church” and leave the memo area of the check blank. Include with the check a separate slip of paper that includes our full name and our specific trip location. This will ensure your gift is designated to us. This gift is non-refundable, and if for any reason a team member or team does not go, the money will support another mission trip sponsored by Bethel Church.
**Payment deadlines: Our first and largest payment (approx. $1,800) for our airfare is due on January 10, 2007 and our final payment is due on February 16, 2007.
**As a side note: if any of you would like to give towards our school of ministry tuition at any point, you may follow the same instructions above, only attach a note saying it is for our tuition. We will be graduating from first year in May, 2006 and also attending second year (Sept 2007-May 2008). Tuition is $3000 each.
Please feel free to call us if you have any questions! Aaron’s Cell (541) 913-5223, and Crystal’s is (541) 515-1167
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