You gotta check this testimonies out!

Hey this is one of the coolest testimonies I have ever heard, and will be a huge encouragement- you gotta read it!  It's from one of my brother Josh's good friends Jason Chin. It's what happens when God shows up at Disneyland!  This is what the normal Christian life looks like.........love u guys, Aaron

i just got home and i wanted to share how my L.A. adventure went. i went down to see my best friend Jason Tax in L.A. just to visit for a week and hang out..and who knows what adventure the  Holy Spirit might lead us into:) me and Jay love to do street evangelism together..on the way down i saw a disneyland sign and i remembered the times of laying on my bed dreaming with the Holy Ghost of revival inside the theme park....i thought "wow that would be cool if that ever happened for real" so i get the priviledge of speaking at my friends church on wednesday nite and after the service a lady asks me if i wanted a free ticket to disneyland for the following day! yippie Jesus.. i thought wow those tickets are $94! so me and jason Tax and Hanna Ford go to Disneyland to have a great day in the sun with the Son...and God sets us up through one key miracle of a young mans shoulder that was in a sling...We approach him and ask if we can pray for healing.. Jesus instantly completely heals his shoulder and he removes his sling and begins to test it out..he starts crying from Gods goodness and he tells us how he could not raise it at all because of a fresh torn rotatory cuff injury. he is now raising his arm over his head and moving it as freely as the other one!!! hahaha..his friends explain how he is the star football player at their school and he would have to take the entire year off from football after his scheduled surgery! so we explain the gospel of Jesus Christ and miracles to the group of 8 or so and they all get saved and filled with the Holy Spirit and 2 of them get healed. one of scolosis and another has Jesus grow out his leg as his friends all look on. They all start freaking out! haha and heavenly momentum hits and it erupts into an all out Holy Ghost healing miracle service in the disneyland food court for 4 1/2 hours as groups of young youth go get their friends and bring them back to us for healing..they would come to us and say  "can you heal this?" as they would point to a lump on their knee or a bad ankle...we would answer something like "we can not heal anything but ...Jesus can heal everything and that same Jesus is in you now so everyone put your hand on this person and say...be healed in Jesus name!..now test it out"...really thats how we prayed.."be healed!..now test it out"" hahaha almost every miracle was instant as the looks of shock and awe are captured on everyones faces then praise and cheers to Jesus would erupt from the crowd of youth!!! flat feet are healed as arches are grown in front of everyone to witness..one girl is so scared as her friends drag her up to us..she is almost crying from fear..we tell her "hun you have nothing to be afraid of ...this is Jesus and he loves you very much" she had extreme scoliosis and a dislocated thumb that was in a hand brace. she was still very much afraid so we tell her "we wont even need to touch you because the Glory is here..just remove your brace and move your thumb around" she does and her thumb is instantly  healed..haha so we ask her "touch her toes and then check your back out" she does and her friends lift up the back of her shirt to check out her spine...they all scream because it is now perfectly straight..Jesus!! we ask her if she knows Jesus ..she says "no" we tell her "it is Jesus who just healed you would you like to know that Jesus?" she said "yes" so she gets saved and then we explain to her about being filled with the Holy Spirit and she says she wants Him too! haha..so we ask her to put her hands out in front of her and say "Holy Spirit come and fill me up i give my life to you"...she starts shaking under the power of God and blurts out..  "holy  #$%$#...oh my God" God is sooo good!!..we witnessed bone knots dissolve from knees..asthma healed..crooked knees were straightend out..eyes were healed..some protruding rib cages were pulled back into their chest, even gold dust shows up on many and 3 youth get supernatural weight loss as their once tight pants get looser and looser..and screams urupt as one young man grows around an inch taller as everyone looks on. a super cool thing was how each kid got saved and then we prayed for them to be filled with the Holy Spirit and almost every kid felt a strong manifestation of the Holy Ghost  like electricity, heat , tingling over their bodies, heavy weighty presence:) they would then ask us questions like"can you make the saddness i feel leave the inside of me" all their friends would say "i feel that way too" so we started praying in large groups commanding depression to leave them and joy to come...kids were crying, laughing, yelling Jesus! saying things like.."i cant believe this!"... "this is way better than any ride here!" these kids were getting free..Jesus!! we prayed healing for the first few kids only then we taught the youth that the same Spirit dwells in each of them and then we watched Jesus heal through their hands! we witnessed around 120-140 miracles most were instant and about 100 or so decesions for Christ..of which 50 or so were first time decisions asking Jesus to forgive them of their sins...Yay Jesus!! one young man came up to me and said "i never knew that Jesus died for me" and he yelled at the top of his lungs "J e s u s !" haha Papa loves his little children..hahaha thank you for all your prayers and being a part of my life, you have no idea how much that means to me! love you jason chin

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BACK FROM MOZAMBIQUE!!

Hey There our AMAZING Family,

Once again, thanks for your prayers and support of us on this last trip to Africa. We just arrived back from Mozambique last week. It was a powerful, fun time! On a personal note, it was a huge blessing for us to be able to spend some time with Tracy and process some things with her as we pray about our future in missions. There are few people that have the kind of experience and wisdom that she does when it comes to missions and ministry. In terms of our ministry there, it felt like the trip had a lot to do with the ministry of encouragement, as several of the settings we ministered in were very much in need of hope and life. We also saw physical healings and salvation. Tracy sent us a copy of an email that she sent Eric, the missions director, thanking him for sending us and reporting on our time there. We thought it would be fun for you all to hear a report from her perspective so we’ve posted it below.
“In 10 days time they ministered in three churches, spent four days working in the prison population, worked with 430 orphan infants, did an outreach in a Muslim village (about 200 people attended) and helped us paint and move our entire base to a new location. Some of them ministered in a Zionist church that has accepted Christ. Many people were introduced to Jesus.

They fed the hungry, most of whom were actually starving. They prayed in the market place and preached at every opportunity. Many were healed, many saved, and about 60 were baptized. They both declared and demonstrated the kingdom of God with power, grace and love. We spent the first couple of days at an Iris Ministry base. They blessed the orphans, staff and Bible School students in a powerful way. Their ministry brought comfort, affirmation and empowerment in a season of great difficulty and transition. The team also blessed our staff over and over again. There seemed no end to the ways they thought of to support and encourage us.
What blessed me the most was their team dynamic. Jesus said that “they’ll know you’re my disciples by your love, one for another. The team’s prophesies and power were great, but “love is the greatest of all.” - Tracy

Most of you have heard by now that our next big life event will be having a baby!!! We are expecting our little one around mid November. We are planning on staying in Redding for the summer, working and saving and preparing for baby’s arrival. We are excited and praying about some possibilities in Africa in 2010, but details are still up in the air (we’re waiting to get more information from the Bethel missions department) and we haven’t made any final decisions yet. Please continue to pray for wisdom and that we would hear clearly from the Lord in this season. We love all that God is doing in us and our families and the favor He has given us and we are super pumped about what He is going to do this next year!

Love you all lots and lots. Thanks for being part of our lives. =)

Aaron & Crystal Stevens

Africa her we come!

Hey loved ones!

Well we are now on the road heading to San Fran on the first leg of
our our two-day journey to Mozambique! Please pray for our bodies
that we would be able to sleep when we need to, and we would not be
worn out by traveling but rather be energized.

Here is our schedule

Thurs Apr 2 - we will arive at the Dondo Iris Min. Base and we will be
ministering to 27 Mozambican Iris staff for an evening service

Friday 4/3 - (Iris) we will be ministering to 50 school of Ministry
students during the day and then in the evening we will be minister to
half a dozen missionaries

Sat 4/4 - working w/ 30 orphan boys at iris then traveling to Gondola
to Tracy Evans and her team.

Sun 4/5-4/11 We will be teaching at a Zionist used-to-be witchdoctor
type church, now saved and on fire. We will be doing kindof a
conference for them. We will also be doing a bunch off teaching at the
prison at the Bible-school there. We also may be going into an
unreached muslim villiage and working with the kids to start being
able to serve and bless families.

Please pray in all these places that God would pour out His amazing
Love and Healing Power!

Thanks for blessing us and partnering with your prayer! We love you!

Aaron and Crystal and team

The team:Kate, Lydia, Evan, Jonah, Tony, Rebecca, Cassie, Gina, and
Leslie

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A New Revivalist is Coming Soon!

Hey there wonderful friends! We are proud to announce that WE ARE JOINING THE PARENT CLUB! Above is our First Baby Picture! Isn't our kid amazingly good looking!?! We just found out officially last week and the doc said we were six weeks along, which means that we probably conceived in Rwanda! We always wanted an African baby! We are excited out of our minds, and we know that the Lord has some amazing stuff in store for this kid. This child will have had 2 trips to Africa before even being born so you know he or she is destined to transform nations! Come On Jesus!

Speaking of Africa, we are leaving on Tuesday for Mozabique. We will be leading a team of 11 to work with Tracy Evans and we will also ministering at an Iris Ministries base for several days. We've got a great team and we'll spend a large amount of time teaching and preaching, but also doing drama, kids ministry, practicle stuff, and oureach in a Muslim villiage. Please pray for divine inspiration and that God would confirm His Word by healing, saving, and delivering tons of people. Pray that God would give us lots of words of knowledge for healing, lots of powerful prophetic words, and most of all that people would have radical encounters with the love of God!

We get back on April 13, so we're away for about 2 weeks. We may not get a chance to update our blog while we're there but we'll definitely send you a report when we get back.

Love you all!!!

Aaron and Crystal

Home Sweet Home!

Hey Everybody! Thanks for Praying! We are home and now busily getting ready for our trip to Mozambique in just a few short weeks. Thank You all so much for praying for us and making our trip a very powerful time. We love every one of you and are so blessed that you are on our team. GOD BLESS YOU WITH AN OVERFLOW OF HIS AMAZING JOY AND GOODNESS!!! Check out this video testimony --> It was amazing!

The Long trek to Rwanda

From Uganda, we got on a bus to Rwanda. From the time we left the
retreat center till our arrival at our guest house here we travelled
for about 14 hours!!! Let me say that the seats on the bus are about
"10 minute seats" so we were pretty happy to arrive!

A random fact about Rwanda- plastic bags are not allowed in the
country!!! They take them away at the border. This is to keep the city
cleaner... and by far, Kigali is the cleanest African city we have
been to. It's beautiful!

The Bible school here meets in the evenings so we've been hanging out
with Camarande (school principal) and some other pastors during the
day and then teaching at night. It's a really neat group of pastors
and they're really hungry for the Lord so it's been fun!

Tonight I was preaching and a woman got healed as I was preaching- no
one prayed for her and I wasn't even teaching on healing! She had a
hard time even coming to the meeting and was pretty sure she had
malaria but God totally touched her in the middle of the meeting.
Yesterday as Aaron was preaching the same thing happened! A womans
back got healed without anyone even praying for her! She got up at
the end and shared what had happened!

Aaron had some words of knowledge at the end of the meeting tonight
and a man who's back had been hurt in an accident got healed. He was
up at the front of the room doing push ups. We had a line of people at
the front giving testimonies of their healings. The people here are
very encouraged that God is moving.

Please pray with us that each student here and in other schools would
know that the kingdom of God is within THEM and they can bring revival
everywhere they go and that it's not just for a select few. That's
really what we've been trying to teach- it's not about the
"superstars" but about the whole body of Christ being raised up to be
powerful. This is somewhat of a new concept for many here. We want to
see lasting fruit from this trip and we know if students really get
this, they will continue to see God do great things through them!

Tomorrow is our LAST day of ministry here! It really feels like we've
been in Africa forever since we've experienced so much in a month!!!
We've had an incredible time here yet are excited to get back to the
people we love, our amazing church and our city. Every time we leave
we become more grateful for all we have at home. We are blessed! We
will post more pics and maybe some short videos once we get back- it's
a little hard to do it here! Love you all and thanks for sharing this
journey with us!

Uganda was AMAZING!

After Nambale we travelled to Uganda- the bus drive was a little less
crazy this time and very scenic! Uganda is a beautiful country. The
village we were in was lush and peaceful. We felt like we were in
paradise! More than anything we loved the people. I think Ugandans may
just be the most friendly, joyful people we've ever met. This is
definitely a place we could come back to and spend more time. Because
our time there fell on a weekend, we actually only had a day and a
half to teach in the Bible School and then we preached on Sunday at a
church. The students were so interactive and encouraging to be with
because they clap and shout amens after every good point. They are
really hungry for the Lord. The school principal, Patrick is one of
the sweetest, most humble men ever and we totally loved him! He is in
the process of building a new house so we got to go there and pray and
prophesy over it- it was a sweet time just being with him and his wife
and his beautiful family.

This was also the first time we were not staying at peoples homes. We
stayed at a beautiful retreat center surrounded by trees and natural
beauty. After being with people non stop- day and night it was a
refreshing change just to have a bit more privacy and time with the
Lord. The family that manages the retreat center treated us like
royalty and prepared amazing meals for us. We totally fell in love
with them. The mother, Eva was struggling with asthma and was having a
hard time sleeping but after we prayed for her she got healed! It was
sweet!

So, in conclusion, our time in Uganda just felt like a family reunion,
with a family we'd never met before but now can't wait to see again!
We believe God has many great plans for Uganda and the people there
are truly that nations greatest treasure!!!

Highlights from Nambale

> After leaving Nyahururu we travelled to Nambale- a small city in
> Western Kenya. We took 4 public vans to get there. The last one was
> a 14 seater... Guess how many were in there? 26!!! Oh yeah, there were
> guys literally hanging out of the door and we were pretty much stacked
> on top of each other! At one point the door almost fell off. Our
> luggage was tied to the back of the van and we thought it would fly
> off with the way our driver was speeding down the road. All that to
> say, thanks for your prayers!!!
>
> Teaching and ministry was good! Jesus keeps healing people! We've
> barely laid hands on anyone- we keep getting students to pray for
> each other and walk them through a basic healing model but we want
> them to get the breakthrough so they'll keep praying for the sick
> long after we're gone. The school principals mom got healed of back
> and chest problems and was jumping up and down. She's a pretty old
> lady - and she was really going for it in her rejoicing. it was
> such a fun moment.
>
> One of the things that greatly impacted us was that Jossin (the
> school principal) took up an offering for us on the last day. We
> stood at the front of the church as people came up and put their
> coins in a basket we were holding. Some even gave scarves and one
> man his socks! This is a very poor community so we were getting
> messed up! What Jossin didn't
> know was that several days before I had had the thought, "Gods going
> to break the poverty spirit off of the church that takes an offering
> for us". Not that we needed or wanted an offering but because we
> know what a great sacrifice that is here- especially since pastors can
> barely live off of the churches offerings. So, it was a very powerful
> moment. After that service we were hanging out with Jossin
> outside of a shop. We had just asked him how much he pays to take
> public transit to get home. As we were speaking a man none of us
> knew walked up and gave Aaron and I some money and just said "for
> the visitors" and left. The first miracle was an African giving
> white people money!!! The next thing was it was the exact amount
> Jossin needed to get home so we gave it to him. As the church gave
> us an offering just to honor us even though they had less than us,
> this total stranger was doing the same. It felt like what the church
> had done through their generosity released something in the
> community as well that caused a total stranger to randomly give
> white people money. Anyways, we're not sure exactly how it all
> works, but we felt like both these experiences were significant in
> breaking off the poverty
> spirit in that region.
>
> Lastly, we went to visit our host families daughter Mary in the
> hospital because she had gotten malaria. Next to her was a mother
> and daughter with malaria. Mary's parents and Aaron and I began to
> pray with them. Our host dad, Sebastian led them to the Lord and
> after that we prayed and their fever broke and they were healed!!!
> Before
> that, they were so hot that you could feel heat radiating from their
> bodies but after praying their temperature dropped and you could
> feel it immediately. We were also able to take Mary home as she got
> better
> as well. It was a sweet night!

Now, back to where we are right now-Rwanda... (we'll blog about Uganda
later) We had a powerful time at the Bible School tonight. Aaron
preached and tore it up and then we had some healing ministry and
Jesus healed more people. Come on!!! One of the pastors there told
everyone to bring the sick tomorrow night so we wanted to ask that you
pray for everyone that comes tomorrow to be healed. Our faith has been
growing more and more and we want to start seeing every person get
touched by God!!!

ON THE HOME STRETCH!

Hey Friends! We just arrived into Rwanda last night. God has done
great things and we really enjoyed our time in Nambale and in Uganda.
We'll try to post some more stories at a later time. We need as much
prayer as we can get in these last few days as our ministry schedule
has been very full in the last few weeks and travelling on public
busses can be tiring as well. Our immune systems are struggling a
little so pray that God would pour his spirit out on us and refresh us
and that these next days would be the best yet!!!

"You've Set Them on Fire"

(We got a few chances this week after school to visit orphans at Heroes of the Nation- soo cute!)

These were the words spoken by Sammy- the principal of the Bible School here in Nyahururu as he was driving us home after our last day of teaching. Wow! What a week. God is so good and has been totally rocking the students here. We had a teaching time on intimacy earlier on in the week and then we had a “soaking session”- (played music and got them to rest in God and hear from him). This was the first time students had done this and they had encounters with God, saw angels, heard God’s voice, etc. Later on in the week they had an outreach time in the afternoon. We encouraged them to try something new and instead of just sharing the gospel with words, to demonstrate it by healing someone, giving someone a prophetic word, etc. Almost every group of students led someone to the Lord, healed someone, gave someone a word, etc. One group even got a word of knowledge about a man wanting to commit suicide, found him and ended up leading him to the Lord. Sammy said he has never heard testimonies like this since the school started! On the last day we actually taught on healing (even though healings had been taking place all week). Aaron called out a word of knowledge about hearing problems and a girl whose ear had been deaf from birth opened up completely before she even got prayer! COME ON JESUS!!! Many others were healed instantly by fellow students praying for them. It was a really encouraging and exciting time! We had many of the students and teachers share with us that this week they’ve started experiencing more of God and the supernatural, dreams, etc. Some shared that they feel like when they go back to their churches and ministries they will go to another level by applying what we’ve taught. We’ve so enjoyed the students at this school once again, and are sad to be leaving here in a couple of days. We loved just hanging out with them, answering their hundreds of questions and sharing life with them. We preach tomorrow at church and then we are off to Nambale on Monday (West Kenya).

Prayer requests: Our health has been good- Crystal still dealing with some allergies, but other than that we’re great. We haven’t had a lot of rest lately, so prayers for endurance would be great. Other than that, just MORE and more of the same good stuff- and even increase for the last half of our trip.

God is on the move

We are now in Nyaharuru- this is where the Heroes children's village is located and where Weston and his family live most of the time. We ended up taking a public bus here on Sunday morning and arriving at the church just in time to preach! Wow, it's so good that the Spirit helps us in our weakness because we were pretty tired that Sunday morning from traveling but God came through and did good things! Today was our second day teaching at the school of ministry here. The class is a lot bigger (50+ students). They are super hungry for the Lord and curious. They have tons of really fun and funny questions and we have a possee already that hangs around after we're done and continue to ask us questions- a lot of them are single and in the hunt for a spouse so we've been answering lots of relationship questions. We laugh as we remember that time and at the same time are thankful that the search is over for us and we can just enjoy marriage. =)

Yesterday after class I prayed for a student who's leg was hurt in a motorcycle accident and she was instantly healed. She shared the testimony in class today and we got everyone with leg and back problems to stand. Then we got the students around them to pray and there were several instant healings! The students and the principal, Sammy were totally stoked. It's so exciting to see the students get activated. We love praying for people, but we'd rather have the students see breakthrough because they are the ones who will stay here and continue to bring revival to Africa! So, we are off to a good start here in Nyaharuru and loving every minute of it.

Quick prayer request- we've been pretty healthy so far but in the last few days we've had a few funky things happening with our stomachs/diahrrea- I'll spare you the details. Also, I think I'm allergic to dust! I have been sneezing, eyes burning, itchy nose since arriving in Kenya. We've been praying and it's getting a bit better but still pretty annoying. So, prayers for continued strength and health are appreciated. Thanks!

Highlights from Nairobi

We recently finished up our week in Nairobi and are now in Nyaharuru. Had a GREAT rest of our week in Nairobi. We were teaching all day at the school and then preaching in the afternoons at John's (the school principals) church- sometimes evenings we'd hang out with the students or do other things- so it was a full week. It was really great having a small class because we were able to really get to know the students and interact with them a lot. We had some good worship/soaking times where students had visions and encountered God. When we were activating them to give prophetic words we had a student that we were prophesying over and they were being shy at first so Aaron said, "it's ok if it's simple. It could just be one word". As soon as he said that, a student said, "I hear the word laughter". Immediately, the student we were prophesying over got filled with joy and began laughing super hard... she continued to laugh for half an hour. Afterwards she told me that she had recently been through a really hard situation and while she was laughing the Lord totally healed her heart and released her from the sadness she was carrying from the situation! On Friday the students shared what spoke to them from the week and what they had learned. It was really encouraging to hear that they really were getting what we were teaching and so many of them shared how they are really excited to put what they've learned into practice and impact the community around them. One student accompanied us downtown to the church we were preaching at and got totally rocked just by watching the way Aaron interacted with people along the way. That same student has already texted us telling us how much he misses us. We definitely felt so loved by them. The last day we were in Nairobi, we went for a walk through the neighborhood and ended up praying for a lady who had had pain and burning in her leg for 2 years and she was instantly healed!!! She was so surprised and excited that she asked us, "where do you pray, so that i can go and pray there and continue to see miracles?! I know so many people that need miracles"... people are so hungry for the Kingdom when it touches their lives! God is good.

Here is our "Class Photo" from the school in Nairobi!

Crystal is the BEST PREACHER EVER!

Here is Crystal Teaching on a Culture of Honor with Pastor John Translating at the Destiny Bible College. She also preached at an afternoon service today in Johns Church in Downtown Nairobi. She has absolutely been ripping it up. I so blessed to have such an amazing preacher for a wife!! Maybe I should podcast her messeges! HA!

Please continue to pray for thses students to really encounter the love and presence of the Lord and that we would really learn to be more and more sensitive to His leading and have wisdom on how best to create an atmosphere for Him to come and bring His Glory that we would be transformed!

Another quick prayer request, please pray for this teenage boy named
Teddy who we prayed for today in downtown Nairobi that God would heal his leg that He hurt badly in an accident. We are going to meet him tomorrow and take him to our afternoon service and pray for him some more, but hopefully he will already be Healed! ThanKs so much for praying! We really feel the grace you are releasing!

Loving Life in Nairobi!

Pastor John (overseer of Bible School in Nairobi, us and Wisdom (worship leader at John's church)

Although we've only been here a few days it feels like months! (In a good way). We've experienced so much in a short time. We have felt so ALIVE here! Teaching at the Bible School these last couple days (and preaching at John's church) has been totally amazing. We are in love with the students and are already wishing we had more time with them before moving onto the next school. It's been exciting to see on their faces while we are teaching that they are really GETTING IT and that it's going deep. I had one girl pull me aside after I taught today and with tears in her eyes she told me that it was exactly what she needed to hear and that she felt like I was speaking right to her. Our desire is that these students would really be transformed- not just get more head knowledge and we've really felt a grace for that as we're teaching. It feels like what we're speaking about is being released as the words come out of our mouth! The amount of time we have in each school feels like so little, but we know that God can multiply the little that we have and make the impact great, so please continue to pray for that! The school overseer, John, has been pouring out a lot, so it's nice to be able to give him a break as well - and he's told us that he's really blessed to just be able to receive this week.

We are still not totally adjusted to the time change, as we've been getting up at 3:30-5:00 in the morning and not able to fall back asleep! The beautiful thing is that we've been having the best times with the Lord- and often we get out of bed and don't try to keep sleeping because God is speaking to us so much as we lie there that we just want to get up and write it down! Although we prepared quite a bit before we came, we've been getting a lot of downloads since being here in the early hours. God's speaking to us a lot about cultural transformation and about creating a container for kingdom culture.

Well, the early rising is making my eyes want to shut right now, so I should probably get to bed. Thanks so much for your prayers. We really feel so much grace!!! And, like so many of you spoke over us before we left, it's been easy AND fun! We love you!

PS- I have to brag on my husband. He's been doing amazing and I love hearing him preach. His struggle in our 3rd year "preachmasters" class is always keeping his messages to 6 minutes but now he doesn't have to worry about that so he is thriving!!! He makes friends everywhere we go! Africans love him. We've enjoyed living in a community where we are the only "whities" and taking public transportation (which, let me tell you can be downright SCARY!)- it allows us to mingle a lot more with people and experience the culture- very fun. =)

Alive & Well in Kenya

Us with Weston, Violet, Sammy & Joy!

Hey friends! We are finally here- after months of anticipation and hours of traveling. We start preaching and teaching tomorrow. Up till now we've just had a fun time connecting with Weston & Violet and their kids (they oversee the Heroes of the Nation Children's Village and Bible Schools). We also have been able to meet some of the students we'll be hanging out with this week as well as John (the overseer of the school in Nairobi). We're loving the people- and LOVE being able to communicate as pretty much everyone speaks great English. We're getting to know some of our neighbors- we're living in an appartment high-rise community that has little shops where you can pretty much get everything you need- and several internet cafes- definitely feels a little different than the more remote parts of Africa that we are used to... though we did have a funny experience of walking down a sidewalk today on a main road and seeing a herd of cattle coming our way- we jumped across the ditch as to not get in the way- so, in spite of being in a more modern city, we are definitely still in Africa. We love you all and appreciate your prayers as we go into a full week pretty quick here!

Our schedule has changed a little bit from the last one we posted... here it is:
Sunday, Jan 18- preach at pastor John's church in Nairobi
Monday- Friday Jan 19-23- teach at Nairobi Bible School
Saturday, Jan 24- travel to Nyaharuru
Sunday, Jan 25- preach at Weston's church in Nyaharuru
Monday-Friday, Jan 26-30- teach at Nyahuru Bible School
Sunday, Feb 1- preach at Heroes High School Church
Monday, Feb 2- travel to Nambale
Tuesday-Thursday, Feb 3-5- teach in Nambale Bible School
Friday, Feb 6- travel to Uganda & teach in afternoon
Saturday-Sunday, Feb 7-8- teach at school in Uganda
Monday, Feb 9- travel to Kigali, Rwanda
Tuesday- Feb 10-13- teach at Bible School in Rwanda
Tuesday- Feb 13- fly home in afternoon!

January 09 Update --> Back to Africa!

Hey Everybody!
I hope you are all doing amazing and enjoying the GOODNESS of the Lord today! Aren’t these great times to be alive and serving the Lord?! God is pouring out more of His Spirit than he has ever done before, and miracles are happening everywhere we go! As these are days of uncertainty in the economy, the world seems to have so many questions, and we have a great chance to BE the answer ⇒ Christ in US, the HOPE OF GLORY! Come on JESUS!

WHATS UP:
As many of You know, Crystal and I are doing Internships at Bethel Church (Redding, CA) this year, and we feel extremely privileged to be a part of the family here! Crystal is interning with the missions department and is super excited to be part of a mission’s staff that has very similar passions and dreams as hers. The missions team has been wanting to start doing more with micro loans and micro enterprises overseas (basically giving out small loans to help the poor start small businesses) so she has been working on helping develop what that will look like at Bethel, as well as many other projects and tasks, many having to do with the huge feat of sending out almost 1,000 students to 40 different locations around the world for missions trips in the spring!
I (Aaron) am interning with Chris Overstreet the Outreach Pastor, who is one of the most powerfully anointed evangelists I’ve ever seen, and probably the boldest person on the planet. Not only that, but the outreach team I get to work with is absolutely incredible. I am overseeing the adopt-a-block ministry for the church where we send almost 300 people into the neighborhoods to serve practical needs and build relationships and just love on people. I am super excited, knowing that the Lord is going to touch, save, and disciple many people in our city through this outreach! Please pray for the transformation of Redding!

BACK TO AFRICA!!
Amidst all the good things going on already, we have been approached with some crazy amazing opportunities!!! Bethel wants to send us to Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda in January to teach at 4 of their ministry schools there for a total of about 1 month, about one week in each school. It will just be the two of us going, and as we think about all the other hundreds of amazing people they could have picked to go, we feel extremely honored that they picked US! We will be flying to Nairobi, Kenya on the 13th of January, and will be teaching at a 2 different schools in 2 cities, one of which is where the Heroes of the Nation orphanage is. We will then be driving through Uganda to teach there and then to Rwanda to another school, and then flying home from there on Valentines day. I’m sure the long flight back will be a date we will never forget. =) It is going to be a pretty intense schedule, packed with lots of teaching and preaching, but we are soooooo excited! The main focus of what we will be teaching on is developing a culture of Honor and also living a Kingdom Supernatural Lifestyle. We could really use a ton of prayer right now as we prepare all our messages, that God will give us some fresh words and that we would find ways to creatively communicate to their cultures!!

If that wasn’t cool enough, Bethel also has asked us to lead a trip to Mozambique for the school of ministry to work with Tracy!! This is also a huge honor! We will be going in early April, but we have already met with our team (16 radical revivalists!) and started planning. We will again be teaching in the prison “Bible school”, working with Churches in the bush, encouraging and serving the full time missionaries, ministering in an unreached muslim villiage, doing some water-filtration work and other practical work, ministering to widowed mothers who have AIDS, and whatever else we can do to serve.

Create Freedom
We have been dreaming, talking and working on developing a business called “Create Freedom”- where the sole purpose is using creativity to bring freedom to people’s lives. At this moment, Crystal has been making jewelry and other crafts, and selling them, giving a portion to ministries that are fighting poverty and injustice. Our vision, though is to use the business to create employment for women overseas, pay them a fair wage and also use the business as a way to be self supported so that we can devote ourselves to this more full time. The Lord has really laid it on our heart to see whole nations discipled and transformed by the Love and Power of God, and to see His Kingdom invade every sphere of influence of society and culture. On Earth As It IS In Heaven!! Pray for us as we work on this – that God would inspire our ideas and open up the doors that need to be opened. Also, we’re excited to announce that we finally have a web page where you can purchase jewelry, magnets and handbags that we’ve made. We are just getting it up and running right now, so keep checking back for more items. The address is: www.creativefreedom.etsy.com.

FAMILY
One of the things we are most excited about this year is that most of Aaron’s family has moved here and have joined us at the School of Ministry! His parents, Bryan and Debbie, and also his brother Eric and his family have recently moved down from Oregon and are in First Year. Josh is now in Second Year and he has seen more people healed of crazy stuff than just about anybody we know! He has seen hundreds of people healed in the last 8 or 9 months! Deaf ears are opening! Backs with scoliosis are straitening. People are getting saved! WOW! Come on JESUS! We are all so excited that we can grow and minister together and really pumped about what He has in store for us as a family team! YEA GOD! The only one left of our immediate family to come to school is Jesse so pray that God would work it out for him to be able to come next fall. Another exciting family event is that on Crystal’s side of the family, her brother and sister-in-law Luke and Janell are pregnant (finally after 10 years of marriage). This is a historic event as it is the first grandchild for Crystal’s parents Don and Marilyn. Yea God for the miracle of children!

COOL TESTIMONIES
Remember in one of our previous updates how we told you about the girl, Erin, who we prayed for and was given a “supernatural root canal?” Well, she committed her life to the Lord several months ago and has already gone on a mission trip to Brazil and already wants to go back. It really is the KINDNESS of God that leads people to repentance! She is totally being transformed- it’s amazing!!! Also, we recently got a report that at least a couple of ladies that Aaron and the team prayed for when they were on a ministry trip in Canada were completely healed from liver cancer. COME ON JESUS!!! If that doesn’t make you happy, then you probably need to make sure you are getting enough oxygen!

Thank you all so much for your dedication to intercede for us and your generosity to sow into our ministry financially. Without your partnership we wouldn’t be where we are and getting to do the things we are doing, and we have really experienced your prayers moving Heaven on our behalf. We love you all and hope you are doing AMAZINGLY well! Please let us know what’s up in your lives and how we can pray for you, and of course, if you are passing through Redding, let us know so that we can catch up!!! May God pour out His abundant Joy and goodness on you today!

Aaron & Crystal Stevens

PS- We’re not big fans of asking for money or even bringing up the subject but we know some of you guys are really excited to bless our ministry and our trips and partner with us that way, and actually we could really use it! We still need about $2500 between the two trips to Africa, and would love your help. For tax deductions you can make the check out to Bethel Church and leave the memo line blank, and send it to our address at 18848 Country Hills Dr., Cottonwood, CA 96022.

Daily Prayer Points:
Sun: Preparation for Messages we will Speak
Mon: Favor for Cheap Tickets and Smooth Traveling
Tues: Unity and Synergy for our Team Sat.: Good Health and Safety
Wed: A Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation to be on us
Thurs: Transformational Teaching Times
Fri: Power For Healing and Miracles

Our email addresses are: aaronstevensis@gmail.com & crystalstevensis@gmail.com so email us if you want E-updates from the field.

God is Moving in Mozambique!!!

Dear Friends and Family,
We hope you are all doing amazingly well! We apologize for getting this out so late. We’ve been excited to share with you about our trip to Mozambique, but our crazy schedule since being back has made it hard to take the time to write an update that would really communicate our hearts. We recently graduated from our 2nd year of School of Ministry and now have a little more time. Well, to start we are excited to say that God is alive and well in Mozambique!!! We had an incredible time and crammed a lot into a short period of time. The overall consensus of our team was that it was one of the most solid missions trips many of us have ever been part of. We know that what we did there will produce lasting fruit!!! Some highlights were:



Putting on a conference for pastors in Gondola -
Tracy organized a “by invitation only” conference for about 150 pastors and then turned it over to us. We all got a chance to teach/preach/share testimonies, etc. These pastors are the real deal!!! They have endured incredible hardships, yet are full of joy! They have healed the sick, led many to the Lord, raised the dead… and yes, we had the honor of teaching THEM! We taught on Godly leadership, power of words, goodness of God, healing, joy, identity… etc. These guys were so hungry for more of God they sat on hard benches for 4 sessions a day (sometimes 3-4 hours a session) for 3 and a half days!!! It was an incredible time. Tracy has already done a lot of follow up with these pastors since the conference and told us that they were incredibly encouraged. She said they will take the things we have taught and re-teach them to their congregations almost word for word!


Men’s Prison (or should we say Bible School???)
Tracy and her team have been ministering in the local prison for a bit over a year. When they started Tracy said she was going to turn the prison into a Bible School and she has!!! Out of the 100-150 men, only a handful of them are not yet saved. They visit the prison almost daily, going through the entire Bible as well as the Alpha Course. It was a powerful experience to spend a couple of hours worshipping with these men, teaching, releasing them to pray for each other (63 of them were healed of one thing or another!!!) and then finishing up with a baptism where we baptized about 30 inmates and one guard who had been watching us and decided he wanted in on it!!! We formed a prayer tunnel that the newly baptized inmates walked through as we prayed for them. Some of the leaders of the prison (inmates who are more mature in their faith) joined us and were praying as well. It was really powerful! They all share a small room and only eat if their families bring them food. But, they have found JESUS- and their faces are full of joy- in spite of their circumstances. Many of them return to the prison to finish up their Bible classes even after they have been released!




The Farm
So, what do these prisoners-turned-Christians do when they are released? Many of them are hired by Tracy and her team to work on one of the 2 farms that they have purchased. They mostly grow beans and corn that are then used to feed orphans!!! We spent a day working side by side with these men picking and husking corn. Aaron even got lowered down into a 30 feet deep well to help dig it. He was a muddy mess after that for sure! These farms provide not only jobs but an opportunity to continue to disciple these men once they are out of prison.

Tiki Tiki (A bush Church)
We spent a day at one of the churches that Tracy planted years ago. It was a joyful and fun celebration. Several years ago, Tracy provided seed for their crops… this village had very little at the time. Today their crops are thriving and things are looking a lot brighter. The people of the community brought an “offering” and laid it at our feet… sugar cane, corn, fruit… the procession went on for what seemed like forever as they sang in their native language, “We love to give, we love to give”. I don’t think there was a dry eye on our team as we witnessed this radical generosity. We were able to use the offering to feed the poor in the community.

Baby Clinic
We were able to visit a clinic for babies who have been born to women with AIDS. Two nurses that live with Tracy work at this clinic, providing milk and medical care for these babies who either cannot drink their mother’s infected milk or whose mothers have died and they have been adopted by another family member or person in their community.

Is it a Fit?
Most of you know one of the big reasons we journeyed so far for such a short time was to check out what God was doing in this particular part of Mozambique and see if we felt like it was a “fit” for us. We definitely feel like it is a strong option and desire to partner with Tracy before we head out there or even if we don’t go back long term. We worked really well with Tracy and her team. It felt like home from day one! While there, I (Crystal) talked to Tracy about teaching women different handicrafts and then finding outlets to sell these items. Tracy was thrilled about this idea as 90% of Mozambicans are unemployed and there is little opportunity for jobs, especially among women, particularly women with AIDS. This would be a dream come true, as I have wanted to do something like this for years. As for Aaron, there are many opportunities to teach, preach and disciple men- which is where he comes alive. These are only a couple of things that we could do there- the sky is the limit. There is so much opportunity and so much need!

The Next Step
We have decided to work this summer and intern at Bethel in the fall. This will allow us to be in Redding to re-new Crystal’s green card in December as well as be here as the rest of Aaron’s family moves here and does their first year of the School of Ministry. The internship we’ll be doing is actually considered a 3rd year of the School of Ministry. Crystal will be serving the missions department helping develop micro-enterprise projects and ideas, raising more awareness and support for Tracy and many other things! Also, we both may be leading some mission’s trips for Bethel this year, which is an enormous honor. Aaron will be interning for the outreach and evangelism department. Chris Overstreet, the pastor of that department is incredible and Aaron is looking forward to working with him and others to bring transformation to the communities of our own city. He will be taking the Alpha Course into neighborhoods that we have been investing into. So, we are super excited about this next year. We feel like our internships will be great outlets to serve and pour out into Redding and into the nations!

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR INVESTMENT IN OUR LIVES. Thanks for being part of our journey. All of you are amazing and we love you very much!


Aaron & Crystal

The YEAR OF NEW BEGINNINGS!!

HELLO there all our amazing friends and family! I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas. I know my family sure has! The Lord is really moving in my family, and my brothers are all getting set ablaze by the PRESENCE and POWER of the Lord! Josh and Jesse have joined us at Bethel in Redding, and are now doing First Year of the School of Supernatural Ministry (Me and Crystal are in 2nd Year), and now the Lord is radically revealing himself to Eric ! He has been struggling with anxiety, depression, and anger for years and has not really been walking with the Lord, but God is getting a hold of him, and he is now planning on coming down to Redding for the ministry school this next fall!! He has been getting rocked by the testimonies of the REVIVAL that is going on at Bethel and the absolute transformation that has happened to Josh and Jesse. Josh has had the opportunity to help him encounter the tangible presence of Holy Spirit, and since then he has been getting delivered from demonic bondage and is really hungry for the fullness of God, and wants to fully live for Him. Almost all he wanted to do at Christmas break is spend time in the presence of God, or read books about the Lord! Since then he has been prayer walking his own neighborhood, and sharing his testimony with everyone! It’s really hard for me to articulate how amazing this is, but I can tell you that Jesus is in the business of miracles and I really believe that 2008 is a year for NEW BEGINNINGS, and the Lord is bringing home all the prodigals and restoring families! CAN I GET AN AMEN! BE ENCOURAGED! We are truly living in the most exciting times EVER, and the Lord is pouring out His Spirit like never before! COME ON! JESUS!

BACK TO AFRICA!
We are excited to share with you about our upcoming return to Mozambique… a different area of the country and a different ministry, but still the land where we met and became good friends. =)
We will be embarking on our journey into central Mozambique with 8 other students from our ministry school and will be joining a missionary named Tracy and her team ministering there. The times we have heard Tracy speak and times we have talked with her, we have been blown away by the things she has experienced and the ways God has used her. She has been captured by Guerillas and purposely not escaped so that she could witness to them. She has led national leaders to the Lord including a president! She has seen the sick healed and the dead raised. She has jumped off of a burning ship into burning water and swum to a remote island where she lived off of the land. More than any of her radical stories and experiences we love her heart to see people truly discipled and raised up to be leaders who will impact their nation. She intentionally moves in a manner that will ensure long-term and lasting fruit, even when she knows she could move faster and increase her “stats” and have more impressive newsletters.
For us, this is more than a short term ministry trip. It is an exploratory trip to see if living in Mozambique and working with Tracy is a longer term option. Although the trip is only a couple of weeks long, we will be “covering a lot of ground” and having the opportunity to take part in all of the regular ministry that Tracy and her team do from week to week. We will be visiting the prison, ministering in various remote villages and in the churches that Tracy has planted, teaching and praying for Mozambican leaders at a conference, demonstrating God’s love through dramas, teaching and children’s ministry, and whatever else comes up when we get there! Tracy has also built a stationary medical clinic and is a physician’s assistant.
When we were talking to Tracy about what we would do if we moved back there, the main need that she sees is teaching and discipleship- both things that we are passionate about!!! She has recently started a ministry school for nationals and also teaches government officials English and leadership skills. There are many opportunities for ministry and she is very open for missionaries to pioneer whatever is in their heart, if it doesn’t already exist. In many ways, it seems like this could be a good fit! We’re hoping that as we are in Mozambique and have more time to spend with Tracy and her team, it will be clear what our future involvement is to be there. We are also “sorting out” the timing of our future missionary ventures with Crystal’s green card renewal coming up and possible application for citizenship- both of these things will require us to be in the United States. Without getting into the boring details of it, we would appreciate your prayers for wisdom and discernment about timing. We are including a “prayer reminder” with some more specifics of how you can pray.
Our trip will be from April 4-16, 2008. If you would like to give towards this trip, refer to the financial slip attached for specific instructions. Our total cost (for the 2 of us) is approximately $6300. Our airfare portion has to be turned in by January 30th and the remainder of our payment by March 19th.

Miracle in Las Vegas!

We were on a ministry trip (The Call Lax Vegas) in October where we met a really cool girl named Erin. She had been through a lot of really hard things in life and wasn’t sure how she felt about God or if she even believed in him. We hung out with her for quite a while and it came up that she had a root canal scheduled the next week. We prayed for her and the pain in her mouth instantly went away. The day of her operation rolled around and we got a text message from her saying that our prayers had worked and that she didn’t have to have a root canal!!! When we talked to her later on the phone she said that she was in the dentist chair, numbed up, when she asked if they would do another x-ray. They agreed and she watched the dentist examining the previous x-ray and the current one, shaking his head, calling another specialist for a 2nd opinion and finally they told her that her teeth were totally normal!!! Yay, Jesus! She told us that she never knew “that stuff” (healing) was real… but now she does! We have kept in Contact with her and she seems to be really curious and hungry for God, and asking good questions, and we have no doubt she will soon personally know the Jesus that healed her! It's obvious that Jesus is after her heart! Come on!

GOD IS MOVING!!
I want to really encourage all of you to be really pressing to the Lord right now. I don’t know if you have realized it or not, but we are in the beginnings of THE GREATEST MOVE OF GOD that the earth has ever seen!! The book of Acts has literally nothing on what the LORD is beginning to do right now!! The Body of Christ is just beginning to get the revelation of what Jesus tells us in John 14:12 that we will do “GREATER WORKS” than He did, because the same Holy Spirit that worked through Him, also longs to work through US! Acts 10:38 says that “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with POWER, who went about doing good and HEALING ALL who were oppressed by the devil, for GOD WAS WITH HIM.” If Jesus needed to be anointed with Power than so do we!! The really cool thing is that He is pouring out His Holy Spirit like never before. Here at Bethel we are seeing and hearing testimonies of people getting dramatically healed, saved, and set free every day, in the church, and more often even in places like Wal-Mart. There is one pastor in our church, Kevin Dedmon, who has prayed for over 10 people this last year with 4th stage cancer, often given days to live, and they have been totally healed, the cancer miraculously disappearing! I could go on all day about the crazy miracles that we have seen and heard, and how people’s lives are getting transformed. It’s truly Amazing! Even thought God is using Bethel as a spearhead of this revival, and is training and equipping hundreds (probably thousands) of churches all over the planet, this move of God is not by any means limited to them, but is really igniting in pockets all over the world in every people group and denomination. That all to say that Jesus is calling His Bride to “Arise and Shine” (see Isaiah 60) and display His wonderful Glory to a world that desperately needs it. We should be excited and expectant to see how we can be a part of seeing HIS KINGDOM COME that it would be ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN!

THANK YOU!!!!

We are really excited about this next season of our life after school gets out, but we really need people that are excited to partner with us in PRAYER for sure, and financially at times as well. Please pray with us for favor and wisdom as we explore missions and ministry possibilities. We are really honored the Lord has called us to be “covered” by Bethel, and right now we are exploring what that looks like. If you would like to partner with us longer term, and support us in Prayer and/or financially, please let us know! We really LOVE ALL OF YOU and couldn’t do what we’re doing without your encouragement, prayer, and generous giving!! Thank you so much for abundantly blessing us!! May His Glory and Goodness overtake you this year!!

Adventures in Second Year School of Ministry

Hello Friends,
We hope you all are doing amazingly well. We are great- excited about the Lord and this next season of our lives!!! We thought we’d send out a letter letting you all know how our summer was and our upcoming plans for the year… As we’ve said before, we really want to work at being better communicators about our lives and what God is doing- and we are STILL working at getting better at this. It seems that life can get so full at times and before we know it, it’s been a few months without sending out any kind of news…

Our summer:
**Aaron did some carpentry work at the same place he’s been working throughout the year

**Crystal pursued her jewelry business and we did some big shows in Washington, Oregon and California. It has been a great experience and things are going well. We are seeing that indeed this could be a way to support ourselves (at least partially) while doing missions by doing shows in the summer (if we are back in the US).

--> Crystal showing off our booth at Creation Fest last summer <--

**We went on a ministry trip with Chris (outreach and evangelism director) to the coast in August. We saw people saved, healed and encouraged. Normally our pastors take teams of 5-15 people to minister with them, but since this was a smaller church, WE were the ministry team. It was a great (and stretching) experience. We got to fly there in a 4-seater plane. Pretty sweet!
-->Crystal, Aaron, pilot Ben, and Chris O on a Ministry Trip to Garberville<--

**We got to see both of our families! Cool happenings in our families include Aaron’s youngest brother, Jesse coming back to the Lord and Crystal’s sister in law graduating from PA (physician’s assistant) school top of her class- Very cool!
At our booth (Creationfest) Crystal, Aaron, Ben (pilot) and Chris

This year:
**We are back at the school of ministry for 2nd year. So far, it has been amazing. The focus of second year is leadership training and giving students practical opportunities to step out in their giftings and get ministry experience

**We are: overseeing a ministry called “Adopt-a-Block” (relational ministry in different neighborhoods), leading small groups, helping in the church kitchen preparing meals for the underprivileged, and going on more ministry trips with different pastors and leaders

**We are going to be meeting at the missions director’s (Eric’s) house every month with other “missions minded” people to build relationships and talk about missions’ stuff. We are in close communication with Eric about next year (more on this in the next section…)

**We are planning on going to Mozambique for our 2 week school missions trip in April, 2008

After this year:
**We are excited about the possibility of joining Tracy Evans (Bethel missionary) in central Mozambique sometime after we are finished with 2nd year. She spoke at our school last year and we were amazed by her heart and her life experiences. We connected with her recently and had a great time with her and were excited about how similar our hearts and philosophy of ministry are. It seems like it could be a great fit!!! The main need they have there is for “teaching and discipleship” which we are both passionate about! She really wants to see solid believers and leaders raised up. She has a team of international and national missionaries that are running a ministry school and have planted several churches. They minister in the prisons and work with the rich and the poor!!! They are going to start free English and leadership classes for government officials, believing that if the leaders of a nation either get saved or start leading with Biblical Principles, the whole nation will be affected.

**Green card Saga- originally, we were thinking of working next summer and then going to join Tracy in the fall (2008) and staying for up to a year. We then realized if we were to do that Crystal’s green card would expire during that time and we have to be in the States to go through the “renewal” process in December, 2008. Without getting into the boring details, we need wisdom as in when to go… if we go in 2008, we will not be able to stay as long since we have to be back by December… but if we wait until 2009 after Crystal’s green card is renewed we would be able to go for longer. In any case we are planning on going to Mozambique in April for a few weeks to check things out and make sure we would want to move there… so your prayers are appreciated as we seek out God’s timing and confirmed direction for our lives.

We love you guys and would love to hear what’s up with all of you! Our info is the same as before, so stay in touch! Big hugs,

Aaron and Crystal Stevens

crystalstevensis@gmail.com (541) 515-1167
aaronstevensis@gmail.com (541) 913-5223
18848 Country Hills Dr.
Cottonwood, CA, 96022

Report on Japan and Redding Missions Trips - (A Little Late)

April 2007 - Unexpected Turn of Events
Hi everyone! Missions week has now come and gone and we are excited to share some cool stories of what God did. Some of you know the events that “transpired” the month before we left. Because we were in the process of getting Crystal’s Green card, she was not supposed to leave the country without either her Green card (which we weren’t sure when it was coming) or a “travel document” which we had applied for last year and should have already arrived a couple of months before our trip. A month before, it had still not arrived so we requested that it be expedited. Finally, a week before the trip we received a call in which they notified us that the travel document had been denied- since on the application form we had checked off one box incorrectly!!! The lady recommended that we set up an appointment at the immigration office is Sacramento and she said “she couldn’t see why they wouldn’t be able to do something for us” as we were scheduled to leave in several days. Unfortunately the immigration officer’s response was not what we had hoped and they said that unless this trip was a “situation of life and death” they couldn’t help us (which Aaron tried to convince her that it was since we have not been apart since being married!). So…Aaron journeyed on to Japan while Crystal joined “Team Redding”. As a side note- Crystal’s Green card came in the mail just several days after Aaron left to Japan… somewhat frustrating timing but we are excited to be able to travel freely from here on out!!!


Japan (Aaron)

-->Sushi with my host parents Kazuya & Mayumi!<--

WOW, THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH for your prayers and support for this trip and while I was gone! Japan was an awesome time for our team, and the Lord was so faithful to move and bless out time there with tons of great fruit! It was a little bittersweet for me, having to be away from my AMAZING wife Crystal for the first time ever (and hopefully the last!), but it was also pretty great to be a part of some real pioneering work in a country where the Gospel has had a hard time in the past, but now is on the brink of a mighty move of God! Japanese people are VERY HUNGRY for the Kingdom, believers and pre-believers! Everyday our team of 12 broke up in 2 to 4 teams and did meetings in churches and schools all over the Osaka region (2 to 3 meetings per day, sometimes traveling up to 4 hours away) in which we did a lot of really practical teaching and impartation on the Kingdom, healing, prophecy, evangelism, and parenting. The Lord really showed up and moved in every church we went to with many people getting miracles of healing, and amazing prophetic words from God, and best of all, it was really cool to see the excitement when we had them pray for each other and people would get healed!! A couple of our team went in to the hospital with a pastor and prayed for a paralyzed lady who had a stroke and had not walked in four months. After they prayed and she started moving different body parts and eventually stood up and walked, the pastor and others who witnessed it were so excited and surprised at how simple healing is! The pastor gave the testimony to his church that night (It was a large Baptist church) and shared how he was really inspired to have healing teams at their church!! Hallelujah!! We taught at a YWAM staff conference and also hosted a 2 day “Take It To The Streets Conference” where we did some practical training and then split up the people into a bunch of teams and sent them out into downtown Osaka to do Treasure Hunts (like a scavenger hunt for people where we pray for the Lord to give us clues to Where and Who our treasure is, Descriptions of the person, any Random clues, and Problems or Needs in their life that we can pray for. Then we go were our clues take us and find the person, tell them that they are TREASURE, and pray for their problem, and they get healed and suddenly really open to Jesus!). I got to see the Japanese people on my team step out in faith and see the Lord heal several people through their hands and really be used to touch people’s lives on the streets! All the other teams had tons of great testimonies too, and the people there were so excited that we found out the week after we got back that they had already started doing treasure hunts on their own and God was totally doing miracles! Looks like the seeds we planted are growing already!! The Lord is so FAITHFUL and HE IS ON THE MOVE!!

Redding (Crystal)
At the beginning of the week I felt like Philippians 2 would be a significant passage for me during Redding Missions week. It talks about Jesus (although being God) coming to earth as a servant. I love how Jesus was all-powerful… healing the sick, raising the dead, preaching and teaching with power and authority, yet he was not “above” washing his disciples dirty feet!!! We had a lot of opportunities to serve our community in practical ways. Teams went to different businesses to help with whatever they needed help with, we had barbeques and kids activities in neighborhoods where students visit weekly and on the last day we painted a low income apartment building. While we were painting, a group of students took the kids from that building out to eat and then to Old Navy to buy them new clothes. It was so fun to see them come back and show off their new clothes. We even had a few of them help with some of the painting (a little sketchy but you could tell they felt very important so we let them be!) We finished the day off with a barbeque, worship, piñatas and face painting for the residents.
As well as “practical service” we were able to minister at a few different churches and even hold several “crusades” in which people were touched by God, healed and most importantly saved! At one service, we went forward and called people out of the crowd to share encouraging prophetic words for them. This was the first time I have done this publicly so it was a bit of a stretch but very encouraging as God put things on my heart for a couple different people. Afterwards I prayed for a lady who had intense pain in her elbow and she was healed!!

A Few Other Exciting Stories
One of the highlights of the week after missions is that all the teams come back and we spend a good chunk of time sharing testimonies of the AMAZING things God did. Our Pastor, Bill Johnson, said that there were more salvations and healings in this one mission’s week than all the years combined up till now! Here are a few stories:

**LOTS of salvation on all the trips! The team that went to South Africa was invited to speak at a school and around 1000 kids gave their lives to Jesus!

**One of the students got the chance to go into a hospital room in Mozambique and pray for the sick. ALL 8 of the people in the room were healed (including deaf ears opening up)

**13 Blind people received sight in South Africa bringing the total for all the trips to almost 30!!

** There was a “creative miracle” in Australia in which a student laid her hand on a ladies ankle and the Lord created a bone that she was missing!

**Food was multiplied in Mozambique… they just kept scooping beans out of the pot and the level did not lower until the end when all were fed!

**There was a team in Mexico that taught about the kingdom of God at a local church. A week later one of the ladies from the church shared that her husband had died and was dead for 3 hours, and when she prayed, God raised him from the dead! COME ON!!

Sounds like the book of Acts, huh?

Thanks
We just want to say a BIG thank you for all who prayed for us and supported us financially. We so appreciate you. Almost all of the money that was raised for Crystal’s portion of the trip has been put back in our Bethel account for future missions trips so we are thankful for that and excited about where that may be! Love you all!
Aaron & Crystal

PS: Please pray for us that we finish strong and get everything done as the school year is ending on May 20th, and also for good job situations this summer so we can make tons of money for school next year! BLESS YOU!