BACK FROM CONGO!!

HEY FRIENDS!!



Thanks so much to those of you who prayed while I was in the Congo! I had a great team and everything went so well! You may know that the Congo is a pretty crazy place, and many have described the atmosphere as “heavy” or “oppressive”, and those descriptions are certainly accurate considering the violence and general instability that has reigned in that area for many years. To be honest the Lord gave us so much grace to be there and to bring the Joy and Peace of heaven that it wasn’t “hard” to be there at all. I know this was largely because we had so many of you guys lifting us up in prayer. We couldn’t have done it without you!


This trip seemed to be all about training. So we partnered with Cassandra Basnett and the Global Children’s Movement in Goma, Congo, and it was really cool to see what the Lord is doing there! We got to be a part of ministering to the children at their school and everyone on my team fell in love with these kids! We also got to do a pastors and leaders conference with people from around that city and region. We actually bussed a bunch of pastors and leaders in from an area that is in the “red-zone” which means it is very dangerous there and getting raped and attacked is part of their daily life. Most have family members who have been murdered by rebels and almost all of the women have been raped at some point. Its almost inconceivable to really connect with what they go through and it was very humbling to be able to speak to them about the goodness and love of God. It was a great time and we learned a lot from being with them. My favorite part was seeing my students get activated to preach and teach, impart what they have been given, and then activate the African leaders to walk in the same things. We got to teach on the father-heart of God, our identity in Him, intimacy with Him, and living a naturally supernatural life of encountering God and being a God encounter to those around us. We were also able to minister and preach at 4 different churches for Sunday services and also got to minister at a military hospital and doing a mini-healing service there. As is with pretty much everywhere we go, we got to see God heal peoples hearts and bodies. One of my favorites is when we prayed for a lady who was a victim of violent rape and she was waiting for surgery along with dozens and dozens of other women. When we prayed for her, she felt something changing, and all the pain going away, and then she got a big smile on her face because I’m not really sure if she expected it to work. So we had her go around with us and pray for a bunch of the other women in the room. It was fun to see how she got a touch from God and was willing to go around and give away what she had just received. Thank You Jesus!


Pouring into leaders in these kinds of settings is one of the biggest things that really excites me, because I know they are going to take what they learn and make it part of their life and teach it to the people they influence. The Lord really spoke a lot to me on this trip about training leaders and also training and raising up the leaders of tomorrow. I know this is an area that I will probably be spending a good chunk of my life involved with, and this trip really inspired me to go after it. Probably one of my favorite parts of the trip was being able to hang out with a couple of the main pastors from the region and get to know their hearts a little and see the sacrifices they have made to be leaders in the body of Christ there in Congo. These guys are so awesome and I truly learned so much from being around them. One of them actually recently raised a woman from the dead. These guys walk in humility but they also really walk in power!


Hey, please pray for us for this next season as we are planning on spending more time in Africa in the upcoming years. We are in a season of preparation as well as team building and seeking the Lord for strategies to see real transformation in these nations. We are very excited about the relationships that are developing and our goal is to begin to take apostolic teams over there who would bring the culture of heaven and begin to train leaders and revivalists to start a love revolution! We are in a very strategic season right now, and as the body of Christ we need to be the ones that are aggressively releasing hope to a world who is looking for answers. We have an obligation to throw aside all the distractions and begin to really seek first his kingdom in every area of our lives. The Lord is just looking for people who will believe Him to move and be powerful in their midst. LET’S GO AFTER HIM TOGETHER! HOLY SPIRIT MOVE IN US and THROUGH US!!!!!!!



WE LOVE ALL OF YOU GUYS! THANKS AGAIN FOR PRAYING FOR US!!



Aaron, Crystal and Judah

Aaron's off to Africa tomorrow!

WOW! It's been FOREVER since we've written anything here. We are
alive, well and loving life.  Judah is already almost 16 months- ahh!
It's so true what everyone tells you about kids growing up so fast. A
brief overview of us... Aaron has been working at our church
interviewing applicants to the School of Ministry.  It has been a
blessing and allows him to interact with lots of people (which of
course he loves!) and he's able to set his schedule which is really
great.  I'm loving being a mama, still doing jewelry and always having
new ideas of things I want to make and side businesses.  My latest
kick is refinishing old furniture- we'll see if I'm good enough at it
for it to actually become a side business.  As usual, I have way more
ideas than time. Ha ha. Well, I could write a lot more but mainly
wanted to let you all know that Aaron is leaving on a 2 week trip to
DR Congo TOMORROW! He is leading a team of 10 students from our
churches School of Ministry.  They will be partnering with some
awesome missionaries there and working with youth, pastors and
children doing all kinds of fun kingdom stuff.  Please keep him in
your prayers and for the whole team to be healthy, safe, full of God's
love and power- that people's lives would be radically transformed.
This will be the longest that we've ever been apart and definitely the
longest Judah's been apart from his papa... though I'm wondering if it
will be harder on Judah or on Aaron. Ha! They are pretty cute
together.  He gets back on the 26th. We'll try to get an update up
after he gets back with some good stories and pictures. =)

Pray for Aaron in Nebraska

Hey friends!

Just wanted to let you guys know Aaron is helping lead a team of
school of ministry students to Nebraska. They leave tomorrow and will
be gone for 9 days. Pray for a powerful time, for wisdom and Holy
Spirits annointing on Aaron as he preaches and empowers the team to
release what's on their heart.

Also, this past week Aaron got a pretty nasty case of poison oak... he
even has some on his face! So, please pray for quick healing & until
then that he wouldn't be distracted by it! That would be just as great
of a miracle. Ha ha. Anyways, love you all! I'll get Aaron to post
some testimonies from the trip once he gets back :)

Crystal

Hey There BELOVED!

I hope you are all doing amazing and overflowing with the joy of heaven!  I know we haven't written much lately, but we have been quite preoccupied with our little man Judah, who is pretty much the most amazing person ever!!  We are loving parenthood and enjoying this season!  I wanted to let yall know we are doing a firestorm ministry trip up to Lakeview OR this weekend, and our team of 13 will be leading 3 services, prophesying over the leaders of the church, leading treasure hunts, and doing a service in the prison.  I (Aaron) will be preaching on Saturday night and leading the healing service, and will probably be preaching at the prison also.  Please pray that God will move POWERFULLY!!  LOVE YOU GUYS!!

Hey here is a testimony from my brother Josh (kingdomrevival.wordpress.com) who is in New Zealand right now, I think it will encourage you!!

BE BLESSED WITH PAPPAS CRAZY AMAZING GOODNESS AND LOVE!!

Aaron, Crystal and Judah!


February 20th~ Auckland, New Zealand

-Leading a treasure hunt team here in NZ and we were getting ready to head back after seeing a little breakthrough and one person having an encounter on the street when we were passing a Hindu Temple. One of the guys on our team was like "lets go pray in front of it" When we got to the gate I was like "lets just go in!" so we walked right inside and were greeted by a few Hindu men dressed up and they could tell we definitly did not fit in but after giving us a few hard stares they invited us to look around. After striking up a conversation with a group of older men I asked if any of them had pain in there left knee, to which one of them said yes but didnt really want prayer but they were like "you could pray for that kid, he has a broken finger" So, I did and this boy started to feel power come on his hand and the pain start to leave! Well this got peoples attention and more kids around his age (high school) came over to see what was happening…. We started getting words of knowledge and kids started getting healed all over! One kid had severed a nerve in his arm that caused him to lose feeling throughout his wrist and cause him pain in his arm. After a few moments all the pain was gone and the feeling started to return to his wrist! Kids knees were being healed and legs, neck and backs! Then the kids started grabbing there parents to get prayer and the originally guy that said he had pain in his knee but didn't want prayer asked if i could pray for him and a smile came across his face as he was completely healed! One of the boys mom came over for prayer who had, had pain in her right hip and leg for over 15 years and the doctors didn't know how to treat it and within moments all the pain was completely gone! The husband just looked at me and asked me how I did this as I told him "its the power of Jesus!" He just responded with deep gratitude and thank me over and over. Well after this I asked the kids if they wanted to have this Jesus in there hearts and if they did to put out there hands… all of a sudden 7 to 10 hands go out and they prayed after me to be filled with Gods Spirit and to receive Jesus into their hearts! Some of them started to manifest God's presence and start shaking, some of them started to feel "drunk"… and others were overwhelmed with the power and heat going through their bodies! After this I asked who had back pain and 2 kids responded. I then had 2 kids who had just been healed and just received Jesus into their hearts pray for their friends and instantly the other two kids were totally healed!!! Over the course of 45 mins we saw 7 kids give there hearts to Jesus and 15-20 miralces happen!!! God just showed up in the power of the Spirit right there in this Hindu Temple!!

Be Blasted By Pappa's Joy Today!

Aaron Stevens

(541) 913-5223

In His Presence is FULLNEsS of JOY!  - Psalm 16:11

My wife and I fell in love this week……with the most beautiful boy you have ever seen! MR. JUDAH HAS ARRIVED!!!

We are proud to announce that our first son, Judah Lake Stevens was born November 17th at 10:28 in the morning after 14 hours of natural drug-free labor from my wife. Crystal took it like a champ! Once again she showed me why she is my hero! He weighed in at 7 lbs 11 oz’s, and thank you Jesus, he is a HEALTHY kid! Crystal is also doing really well with nursing and recovering, and being an AMAZING mother just comes so naturally for her! We are so in love with him, and I am pretty sure we are the happiest people on the planet! He is absolutely the cutest thing you have ever seen. We are constantly beside ourselves in awe of how Pappa would give us such an amazing little person. We love him, We Love Him, WE LOVE HIM!!!!!

It is fun to think about what the Lord has in store for him, especially in light of the circumstances surrounding his conception: He was most likely conceived in Rwanda, Africa on a trip Crystal and I were sent on by Bethel to teach in their Bible Schools in the region. Since then he has already been on another Bethel trip to Africa that we led to Mozambique last April. I figure any kid who has done 2 Bethel trips to Africa before he is even born is destined to see nations TRANSFORMED! We love praying and prophesying over him every day, and dreaming about the greater works Pappa has planned for him to do and how he is going to help shape world history. I now know that raising our little revivalist is a big part of our call.


Looks like he may just be getting another chance to go to Africa again soon. Bethel is planning on sending us back to do a regional leadership school tentatively planned for early next summer in Kenya. This would be a school for all the leaders over the Bible colleges in the region, some of the main regional pastors, and even hopefully some leaders involved in business and government, and we will be doing it with a small team of 3 couples. The school would probably last 3 or 4 weeks, and at this point is kind of experimental as we are trying to figure how to best sow into leadership in Africa and train up revivalists that impact the culture with Kingdom Love. We will be sharing more about this as we figure out the details. This trip is already mostly covered financially so that is a huge blessing! Please keep us in your prayers as we develop the teachings and curriculum of the school and plan all the details.

Please also pray for direction about what to do with our business and how to expand it, and we also need prayer for some extra work for me (Aaron) over the next 5 or 6 months as this is the slow season for our business. We changed the name of our business to ‘Create Freedom’ and we are dreaming for and exploring ways that we can build a business that brings freedom to the needy and helps transform economies that are struggling. We really value your prayer in these things as we have lots of great ideas, but we are wanting direction to know which are the ‘God’ ideas to put our whole hearts into.

We are definitely feeling a season shift, and are very excited about what God is doing and going to do in this next season! We are so blessed to be able to be a part of revival here at Bethel and around the world. Pappa is making His bride beautiful!

Thank you all for continually just being AMAZUNG! WE LOVE EVERY ONE of YOU!!

It Worked! Thanks for Praying!

Hey All You Amazing People!

Can I first just say that you guys totally rock! As I said yesterday, baby Judah was breech and we are excited to share the good news that he is now HEAD DOWN!!! YAY GOD! This morning we went in to the hospital for a
procedure called "version" where the doctor basically manually flips
the baby from the outside... not super pleasant but it WORKED!!!
Thanks for those who were praying.  I felt a lot of peace and grace
during the whole thing and was able to relax and focus on Jesus. =)
So, now we are just praying that he stays in that position until he is
ready to come out. =)

Thanks for your encouragement & prayers.  We love you!!!
Crystal, Aaron & Baby Judah.

Please Pray!!

Hey there amazing friends and Fam!

Alrighty... So, just had a doctors appointment and baby Judah is still breech :( So, we're going in tomorrow morning for the procedure to flip him.  They manually re-position the baby from the outside of her stomach with their hands. It can be painful so pray and declare no pain for Crystal.  We have to be there at 6:00 am... So pray that it works!!! And, that there are no complications... It's rare but they do it close to the operating room since sometimes it can end in a c section, which would be crazy. So, pray for success & safety!!! Thanks. Love you all!!

Crystal

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

Sent from my iPhone

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

Sent from my iPhone

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!