A team from several C2C churches recently had the chance to travel to Mexico City to work with Pastor Carlos Fernandez and his church there.  It was a great time to reconnect, work together, minister to lots of people, make some new friends and generally see the kingdom of God moving forward in Mexico!

Pastor Carlos had attended some leadership conferences in Kirksville many years ago, but he lost touch over the years, and often found himself alone.  In 2004, God brought Carlos back into our lives, reopening a relationship with Paul Kidd and the church in Raleigh.  There was a real connection from the beginning, but in the last two to three years the relationship has truly started to flourish.  Teams from Raleigh have been in Mexico a few times each year, and Raleigh has also been very blessed to receive Carlos and his family to minister here multiple times.  Several pastors from the other C2C family churches have also had the privilege to connect with this church.

At the end of April, Paul brought a team from Raleigh including Mark Clark, Timothy Hilton, Wesley Jones and Luke McIntyre, and we met up with Doug Kreighbaum and Carlos Angeles from Pittsburg and Pat Forbes from Mankato.  We also met up with Moses Borjas, who pastors a church in El Paso and who has become a dear brother to our church in recent years.  To put it succinctly, our trip was 6 days of being constantly fed delicious Mexican food, soaking up the powerful presence of God in daily corporate meetings, meeting with leaders and local pastors from the area, enjoying long conversations with old and new friends, and for some of us, keeping an alert eye out for the nearest Starbucks.

We are very happy to report that the church is not only surviving, but thriving.  Carlos has two of his sons, Jonas and Salomon, leading the church with him and another son, Bernabe, has planted another church nearby.  His son-in-law, Ivan, and daughter Elisabet, have also planted another church nearby.  The main church has now reached over 1200 people and continues to grow.  Best of all, Carlos is raising up an amazing team of young leaders that are full of purity and hunger for God.  The church carries a strong evangelistic grace and has cultivated an atmosphere of dynamic worship.  They always love prophetic preaching and the worship teams are ready to soar into the heavens on a moment’s notice.

We look forward to watching God unfold this relationship in the years to come, and hope that many more of you also get to take part in this joining to another part of our family.   When Carlos and his sons are with us in Raleigh there is such a connection that transcends language, and we know God has so much he wants to do in both of our cultures.  I can tell you it’s a beautiful thing to see a congregation of gringos in North Carolina rocking to the beat of the Latin worship sound.  This is just a taste of our future when every tribe, tongue, and nation will worship together, and for all of us here in Raleigh, it’s been a delicious new taste.  Here’s to many more in the years to come…

by Lollie Hofer, Omaha, NE

 A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.  Proverbs 18:24.

Patrick Christian Effrein is our one graduate at Christ’s Family Church School this year.  Proverbs 18:24 isn’t the normal scripture you would choose for a young man graduating from high school but this scripture is applicable to the life of Patrick.  Instead of me explaining why, I thought it would be fun to hear from some of Patrick’s friends.

Caitlin (first grade) – “I like Patrick; he plays with us.  He cares if you get hurt.”

Johanna (first grade) – “Boys like to be with other boys but Patrick and Jared always play with us.”

Promise Joy (first grade) – “He is a teenager and usually they don’t like to hang out with little kids.  Patrick really likes to hang with us.”

Danielle (fourth grade) – “I’ve been with teenagers and some of them ignore kids.  Patrick doesn’t and he cares about us a lot.”

Micah (K4) – “I like to eat lunch with Patrick.  I love him and he loves me.  He likes to do homework like I like to do homework.  He is my good, good friend.”

Patrick, of all the things you could have been known for during your senior year, consider it of the highest honor to be called friend.  You have faithfully stuck by the children at CFCS and they recognize your genuine commitment to them.  It won’t be the same next year when you’re not here.  Congratulations!  We are proud of you.  There is a grace and gifting on your life from God where children are concerned.  Cherish the special gift the Lord has entrusted to you.  That call you sense in becoming a teacher?  Yeppers, it’s a God-thing.

Brochures are being mailed to area churches, but if you don’t receive one or want more information, please contact Wendy James at wendyjamescfcomaha@gmail.com.

by Cheri White, Omaha, Nebraska

With tears streaming down both their cheeks, my husband and his friend embraced! I could hear Don’s muffled voice saying, “I’m sorry I hurt you, will you forgive me?” And with warmth in his voice, his friend responded, “It’s all forgiven and in the past.” Then, I too, was embraced by our friend’s wife, and we both cried as forgiveness flowed among us all. Other men and women came too, with similar statements of forgiveness and many with tears.

This amazing moment took place at the business meeting of a very honorable denomination of which we had once been a part. We had left the denomination some years ago, but we had done it wrong. We had not communicated well with them prior to our departure, and as a result we had hurt our friends. In the wake of our decision we had left our friends with hurt feelings, misunderstandings and confusion – all of which needed to be healed.

While in Europe a few years ago, God allowed us to hear an amazing message on honoring our spiritual heritage.  The speaker opened our understanding to the scriptures which state clearly to “give honor to whom honor is due.” He spoke of honoring those he knew, who had walked with God before him. Those who helped him come to the Lord, discipled him, and helped him through difficult times. He challenged us to do the same! To honor those who had helped to spiritually shape our lives.

As the message concluded, my husband leaned over and told me he knew he was to write letters to the officials of the denomination in which he had grown up. He felt he was to give them honor for their influence in his life and to ask their forgiveness for the hurt caused when we left. His heart was tender as he spoke and I too, sensed God directing our hearts in this matter.

True to his word, Don wrote the letters. Our friends responded graciously and wrote or called him to thank him. Recently, some of those men invited us to the denomination’s business meeting to share publicly the letter Don had written earlier and to bring public reconciliation to the situation.

As he addressed the assembly Don said, “It is an undeserved honor to be here today.” Those words were never moretrue. We did not deserve the door of reconciliation God had so graciously opened! But, it was time! Time to repent to them face-to-face, time to embrace, time to cry and time to say the things we had held in our hearts for all those years. And so…..we did! Last week.

I cried as friends from years-gone-by embraced me and lovingly forgave me. I cried because a deep awareness of restored friendship was settling deeply inside me. It was as if I could literally feel the fragmented pieces of my heart smooth out and nestle back into the places they belonged. My heart felt whole again!

Don and I truly believe relationships matter to God. We teach it, we preach it and we try to live it. But that day……….. amidst the hugs and tears……….as forgiveness flowed………….as relationships were restored…………….

I know…………

I felt HIS pleasure………

and I was undone!

I realized something today as I was watching TV and saw several similar commercials. The self-help wave has given way to the support group model. “I think I can, I think I can” has yielded to the reassurance of “you’re not alone.”

There are support groups, or “recovery” groups, for every kind of addiction, illness, or problem we can encounter. You can get together with other people struggling with addiction to alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling, or those who deal with depression, debt, divorce and other family problems, and so on.

I’m not against any of these groups, or the mentality that causes people to form them. In fact, I believe that many times people can be greatly helped, in part, just by knowing they’re not the only ones dealing with their particular issues.

What the founders of all these groups have realized, consciously or otherwise, is that we were not created to live life by ourselves. We can’t just help ourselves through all the difficulties of life by reading a book, or attending a seminar. We were created with a need to have others around us who can see our strengths and our weaknesses, who can identify with our successes and our failures, to provide us with a sense of belonging, where we don’t have to put on a happy face and act ‘okay’ in order to be accepted.

The problem is that man was not created to group together around our common weakness and sins. We are designed to draw together around the Center of the Universe, Jesus Christ, and His strength and victory.

Twelve steps generated by human reason (or 24, or a thousand) will never be enough to free us from our addictions and weak wills. Hundreds of encouraging words from people who will affirm the fact that you don’t have to deal with issues all by yourself (but you’re probably stuck with dealing with them forever) will not set you free to live a victorious life. Only the blood of Jesus can do that. And the effect of His shed blood on our lives is applied as we walk with Him by faith, united with the family He predetermined would be the perfect fit for us, and us for them.

We were created to live in the family of God, to live in relationships centered around our yieldedness to Him. The phrase “you’re not alone – I love the Lord too” is much more powerful than “you’re not alone – I can’t lick this thing either.”

Don’t drop out of your support group or abandon treatment for your addiction. Just make those things secondary to experiencing the comfort, sense of belonging, love, and power of God through His glorious family, the Church.

You’re really NOT alone!

By Daniel Dunn, Life Church, Kirksville, Missouri

I was on a flight to Dallas recently, when a group of 16-18 year olds were boarding and the flight attendant asked them where they were headed. “To Belize to go snorkeling and scuba diving for Spring break.” was their reply. The flight attendant laughed, wished them well and said that she went across the street to Jan Harris’ back yard for spring breaks at that age. After the group passed by I watched as a fellow passenger rolled his eyes, shook his head slightly and mumbled “Kids these days…”

For the rest of that flight I reflected on that statement, the attitude behind it and the generation that it indicted. As I considered this I remembered a recent meeting with Bobby Pino, an apostolic father and dynamic church planter from the Philippines. He met with our local eldership team and mentioned that he believed that there was a move of God coming to his region and nation. This was interesting because some of our young leaders had been talking about this same thing for some time and were moving to put feet to the call of God that was stirring in our local church and the young people of our region. Imagine my excitement when Bobby next asked that we send someone to serve a gathering of youth in the Philippines. How exciting to be a part of what God is doing among kids these days!

Another recent trip brought me into contact with the kids these days that attend my alma mater Heartland Christian College (formerly NMBC). I had been invited to be a guest lecturer in a class and preach in their weekly chapel service. The worship, passion, commitment and love on display during my visit was inspiring. These young people had determined to set themselves apart for a season to seek God and study his Word! I left our time together thankful that they were gracious enough to laugh at the right times in my old stories and understanding that God is calling kids these days to a place of deep consecration and they are responding as He directs!

• With these fresh memories and the comment from the fellow passenger in mind I began to consider kids these days:
• Kids these days have opportunities, obstacles and responsibilities that are unique in history (especially in the developed world)
• There are more kids these days than in any time in human history – the harvest is great!
• Kids these days have a visibility into the world around them and the world has visibility into them like never before
• Kids these days have and want the chance to make a big difference in a darkening world where a life devoted to the Kingdom of God shines brighter than ever
• The assault from the kingdom of this world, it’s powers and systems which are openly hostile to a consecrated life makes each day  a battleground and opportunity for kids these days to triumph by the grace of God
• Finally – God loves and has called kids these days to himself and they are responding!

If we, the kids from those days, can encourage, provoke, promote discipline, serve and fan the flame of passion in kids these days, we will see a move of God among them that will shape our tomorrow! So go find one of the kids these days and find a way to help them answer the call of God any way you can. 

Jaime and Lucia Roman, John Molina, and Buck Hudson at the Heartland Missions Conference 2012.

It is amazing how God uses relationships and how He connects and reconnects people for His purposes. We’ve just opened the annual  missions conference here at Heartland, and we are once again celebrating the joinings of the Lord.

Our opening session illustrated this point: Fifteen years ago, a young Bible college student named Victor Pavlovski from the nation of Moldova came to serve as a translator in the middle of a Missouri cornfield. It was supposed to be a one-day job. He would translate for a prospective employee and then go back to college in Springfield. Instead, his heart was joined to Charlie and Laurie Sharpe and the church at Heartland. He and his family just kept coming back.

Victor grew up in a poor village where his family was part of an underground church. Teachers at his school regularly told him he had no hope in this world unless he joined the Communist Party. He could not go to college, could not get a good job, could never amount to anything.

Instead, Victor was joined to Jesus and His Church at the age of thirteen. He continued to serve God underground until communism crumbled. Today, he serves as a bishop over several churches in the nation of Moldova, and he remains our great friend. Last year, the prime minister of Moldova asked Victor to plant a church in every village in Moldova, because even he could see the fruit of Christianity where churches were strong.

Victor is one of many friends who came to Heartland this week, and I am frankly a little in awe of these giants of the faith. Men like John Reider, who along with his wife translated the first Bible on the Ivory Coast. At the age of 96, he believes God has promised to let him see one more great revival before he dies. Mark and Ruth Marques who open their gates every morning to hundreds of street children in Brazil and who have now nurtured an entire generation in the Lord. Tass AbuSaada, a former PLO sniper, who now leads both Muslims and Jews to reconciliation with God.

The list goes on and on. And, it includes our own David Buck Hudson, a true father in the faith to many churches in several nations. Tonight we were happy to see him reconnect with our friend John Molina, who came to the Bible College in Kirksville  more than a dozen years ago. Buck led one of the first mission trips for the Bible College, and it was to John’s home church in Colombia, South America. Tonight, Buck worshipped in our sanctuary with children of the children he took on that trip.

Relationships are miraculous.

So here we are at the last day of the International Prophetic School and what a time that we have had. The worship has been rich, the word of the Lord has been present, the teaching has been top flight, and the hospitality has been amazing. We have been served far more than we deserve by these wonderful people in the Basingstoke Church that have laid down their lives to put 60 plus apostles and prophets in their homes and give up they’re time to serve all day long, cooking and cleaning so that we could have a place to find the mind of Christ. These people are truly remarkable and I am glad to know them!

This morning, Ron McClean (Canada) and Monica Nordin (Sweden) spoke on the need for the prophets to be praying. This simple yet remarkable truth was unpacked in an excellent way as these two individuals shared out of their lives along with the Scriptures about what prayer can release. “Not all people that pray are prophets, but all prophets must be those that pray”. Would that Jesus would help us to make our prayer closets places that we operate out of and find our strength in as opposed to just a place that we stop by on outr way out the door or to the shower or whereever else we can find five minutes! We must be a praying people.

After this, we had a session where we were grouped in our family teams and we talked about what had been helpful and what needed work as we considered the best way to begin to communicate the truths that were being considered here in this body of teaching. This was an excellent and productive time. I am sure that those that are serving in leading our C2C family will be talking more about how to release this in our house so that we can see more prophets and prophetesses rise up and work with apostles to extend the Kingdom. I know that as we went around the room, listening to sugguestions from the other groups represented, I got the feeling that we have a lot to learn and a ways to go.

Then, Dave Richards spoke about how necessary pruning is in the life of the prophet. If we are going to grow, we have to be pruned so that we can produce more and better fruit. Jesus was very specific about the fact that he was going to prune the branches and this was to be seen as a good thing. At the same time, he talked about how apostles need to make sure and prune the prophets in the right way so they are not killed or get to frustrated that no one is listening to them. This was areally helpful teaching especially as we the apostles and prophets walk together more.

The last session was after dinner and this one was handled by Paul Kidd. Paul did a masterful job speaking (after we had some phenominal worship) on the subject of the prophet and the House of God. Paul was clear on the fact that prophets have to be about building family and seeing the glory of the Lord fill the House, even is that means that there has to be the sorting out of issues (i.e. repentance!) before the Lord can come. He really emphasized the fact that the we cannot divorce the ideas of the presence and power of God from His person. And it is the Person that is looking to dwell in the House, not just some nebulous power. This was a powerful and helpful truth.

You may be thinking that with the end of that session, that was the end, and I suppose that it technically was, but I would like to end this day’s reporting with two thoughts. The first is we were surrounded by real men and women of God that I know are highly valued in the sight of God and it has nothing to do with their preaching or anointing or anything like that. I will illustate. Ngwiza Mkandala is a man that has planted HUNDREDS (I exagerate not) of Churches and been on international boards for Church planting and overseeing that operate at the highest level. It was one of his messages 5 years ago at a conference that I was here for that started us on the path to launch Revolution Church. This guy is a big deal in the sight of man for sure. But I know that he is highly valued in the sight of God because I watched and at the end of EVERY SESSION (that’s right, I said session, not day), this humble man from Zimbabwe walked around the room picked up every ounce of trash that he could find to throw ot away, to both serve those who left it on the floor and those that would have had to come later and pick it up. At the end of the last session, this guy is serving with the ushers and picking up all the chairs so the Church can be cleaned properly for the service on Sunday. I can follow a guy like that, with that kind of revelation mixed with that kind of humility! Secondly the way that the people that were there were expressing family as the conference ended. There were real heart connections that were made as we had been shaped and formed in the presence of the Lord. The embracing at the end was like a family reunion breaking up rather then the end of conference. Thank you Jesus for Your broken Body that brought us together to be Your Body, Your Family in the earth!!!

I hope you can see that we just wern’t receiving information here, but we were given a download from heaven that is producing family in the earth. We have had a wonderful time here and I am confident that Jesus is on the move to see these gifts harnessed and working together on many different fronts.

This morning after Doug and Tom each spoke a session pertaining to the manifestation of the supernatural. Doug spoke about the theology of impartation and the Biblical importance of laying on of hands. There is something that is transferred from heaven and given to people when this occurs, so we must be careful not to relegate this to the realm of charismatic custom, but understand that God is at work here when hands are laid on people. Tom spoke about how the presence of God manifests in the Church and that prophetic people are called to help facilitate this. It was excellent and provoking to hear the stories of the moving of God in this way! We need to expect God to move in these kind of dramatic and powerful ways in everyday life like it was in the book of Acts. In between them, a man from Uganda named Clement gave us an excellent prophetic word about Jesus being on the move and how that was going to spark a massive harvest of souls. In his word, the Spirit emphasized that it was the local Churches that were going to be reaping this massive worldwide harvest. What a fantastic promise!

Chris Richards took the next session by storm, talking about the role of prophetesses. She gave insight from 4 women that Scripture mentions that were prophetesses and how different that they were but all carried the word of the Lord. She emphasized that women are to be major influencers, that their influence can operate on men for both good and evil and that this powerful influencing attribute (that all women have, not just prophetesses) is how these women shaped many significant events in the Scripture. It was an amazing teaching.

The next session Tom spoke on the way that prophets are supposed to help inspire and lead others to worship God. The meat of the teaching here was about how to flow in worship and prophetic activity and how to release this combination in Churches. It is not just for prophets to do, but all leaders and influencers can help to facilitate heaven’s worship in our gatherings and meetings. God should be present in all things that we do because the veil has been rent.

After dinner, we came back for the evening session, with Steve Thomas reading out of Revelation 4-5 about heaven’s worship. It’s not about American, British, African or any other nationality’s style of worship, but heaven’s. So we worshipped and many prophesied and we worshipped some more. In the end, the reality of the throne of God was so overwhelming to us, that all we could do was fall on our face before a holy and majestic God and allow Him to deal with our hearts and join us together. It has been a long time since I was pinned to the floor, unable to even lift my head off of the carpet, as the Lord spoke to me and dealt with me. Thank God for His mercy in moments like this!!

Well, that’s the day’s overview. I hope this provides an idea of what the day was like. The Spirit is moving so tangibly and powerfully that I am excited to see what He is going to do in our lives and in the people that He has called us to serve in the different spheres that He is graciously opening to us. Anyway, have some tea at tea time, eat some crisps, make sure you spell words like armour with a u and have a glorious day!