Sofia, Bulgaria
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
SLAVA NA BOGA!!!!!!!! (Praise the Lord!)
WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! God is doing AMAZING THINGS here! There is so much to tell!
The majority of our team of 70 met in New York at JFK airport no less than 48 hours ago.
Many of us are returning for our second and third years, and there are lots of new faces as well. This team is so God chosen its wild! There is a sweet sweet spirit among all of us and a unity of Spirit, something we pray for all year that has been answered by God!
From the get go, God let us know that this is His trip and he started off by scheduling a divine appointment right in the check-in line at Lufthansa. As several of us were waiting to check our bags, one of our new team members, Veronica Udit, looked over into the line of people waiting for another airline next to us. She couldnt believe who she saw - but her dear amazing intercessor friend Arlette!
She called out to Arlette and Arlette almost fell over when she turned around and saw her friend standing right next to her. Arlette is an intercessor and awesome woman of God from Paris. She has an incredible passion and heart for the American people and is always praying for our country and flying over to America to visit the White House and synagogues to pray as she is led by the Lord.
Veronica had called Arlette from Washington D.C the night before and asked that she pray for the trip. Arlette said absolutely - but when she left her check-in line and joined ours she just started gushing with love for each team member as she met us and began praying and blessing us right there in the line. She said she was intensely moved to meet some of us on the trip and it increased her fire to cover us in intercession! We all had serious Holy Ghost goosebumps as we felt the first spark of the intense love God had ready to pour through us on this trip as Arlette blessed us and rejoiced with us there at the airport.
From New York - to Munich - to Sofia we had an exhausting but wonderful time travelling and getting to know one another. This team is so sweet and each person is just so specifically puzzle pieced together by God to create this awesome unity among us!
Tired and exhausted we all arrived in Sofia Airport and were bussed over to our hotel where 19 of our United Kingdom teamates awaited us. A few minutes to check in and freshen up, and we were back on the bus to head off to our first night of ministry in the Gypsy ghetto of Sofia.
As our two busses travelled, Georgian informed us that, I believe, not only is the church in this neighborhood new, but our relationship with its pastor is as well. We did a little crusade at this location last summer - it was a first, for them and us, at this location, and there was no church there at the time. We had a sweet time loving on the people - but it was all so new to them. Well of course in the kindom of God nothing is wasted - returning this year the peoples hearts were softened and extremely receptive to us. As Cathee Cotton said to me last night, "Last year their hearts were so hard, this year they were loving us right back - they had recieved, were filled and had something to give!"
As we worshipped and paraded through the streets , we would stop in little areas to preach and praise. As we would parade through the people would come out to the gates of their ramshackle homes and watch us, and either allow or request us to pray for them.
Pastor Jeff Good said as he and some of his team members were walking along, a Gypsy woman came out to her gate and motioned for them to follow her back into her house. They followed her far back through the courtyard and alleys into her house where they found a woman lying in bed, all color drained from her face and eyes clouded over and milky. The sister, or friend of this woman told the translator that the woman in bed was dying of cancer and was in great pain. Pastor Jeff and the other team members with him layed hands on the woman and prayed. After about 15 minutes the color all returned to her face, she opened her eyes and the cloudy yellow milkiness was gone and her eyes were crystal clear and white!
Through the translator they asked how she felt - if they pain was still there - Her whole countenance by this point had changed - she had gone for colorless and deathlike to smiling and clear eyed - her face flushed with color! She sat up and said that the pain was gone and that she "felt whole!"
Pastor Jeff and the team members continued talking with her and he said as they chatted he mentioned if she thinks she would be able to get out of bed and get about - and she said yes! But he thinks that perhaps under her covers she was not dressed appropriately to do so and therefore stayed in the bed while they were all in the room.
The sister/friend was just crying and crying this whole time and said that she has been praying and begging God to send someone to pray for her sick friend to heal them. Pastor Jeff rejoiced telling the woman that he had only been in Sofia two hours and God arranged for them to meet and bring healing to her friend!!!!
After the parade our group converged at a stage that was set up for worship and preaching. The crowd grew huge as Georgian preached the love of Christ and the team members moved among the crowd praying and loving on everyone. There was a large alter call and then healings started to pop like popcorn in bursts throughout the crowd.
The first man to run to the stage was waving a pair of glasses wildly in the air and crying - He told Georgian that his eyes had been healed as we prayed and he could now see without his glasses. They were pretty thick perscriptions too -not coke-bottle thick, but it looked like a pretty intense perscription none the less.
There was a baby in the crowd with a neck brace that Graham Moore and some of the others from the U.K group were praying for. The mother was crying and crying as they prayed and then put her hand up to say enough prayer - and in faith she removed the baby's neck brace. As the brace was removed the team saw that the baby had lots of stitches from some very large and serious wound and was unable to turn his head.
The wild thing is as Graham was giving me this testimony last night to post today I was like "wait a minute! the baby with the pacifier and all the gauze bandages around its neck!" And Graham goes "yeah!" I said "that lady came up to me and Carrie Hays for prayer. The baby was crying and crying and so I took a photo of the baby and showed him the photo of himself in the digital viewer. That made him stop crying and we were able to lay hands on him for a long time. As I kept taking photos of him to entertain him as we prayed - he kept pointing to the camera image and shaking his head left to right (a bulgarian sign of yes - their 'yes' and 'no' headshakes are opposite of ours) So we didn't even know that he wasnt able to move his head. The mom was just crying and crying!" THAT BABY WAS HEALED!
Another woman that Carrie Hays prayed for had leg pain - after recieving prayer from Carrie she walked off into the crowd. Minutes later she returned to Carrie crying in joy and told her the pain was gone!
A woman went up to Kathy Tafil and put her hand on her breast and yelled "ISUS! ISUS!" (JESUS! JESUS!) motioning that whatever it was that was wrong with her breast had been healed!
Cathee Cotton told me about a girl in her 30's that was real thin and sickly that some people in the crowd brought up to the front of the stage for healing. Cathee felt impressed by the Spirit to lay hands on this womans stomach and when she did she said that she could feel the womans stomach start to jump around inside wildly. This woman, whose skin color was gray and drained was suddenly got flushed with color and began smiling! Cathee said "Are you healed?" and the woman said "DA!DA!" Cathee brought the woman over to a translator who said the woman said that she was very sick with pains in her stomach and now the pais is gone and she is completley healed!
It was very hard for some of us to get back on the bus last night and leave those we had become so supernaturally attached to in just a few short hours. The change in this city is just completely unbelieveable. Those of us who were there last year can not get over how receptive and hungry and open these people were this year compared to last! The love of God was just flowing like rivers through the crowd and the hearts of the people! SLAVA NA BOGA!!!!!!!!!!
Pray for us today as we depart for Lom - our third year returning to this city - we are so excited to return to this sweet northern town. Those of us who have been to Lom before in years past are just bursting with anticipation to look into the eyes and hold the hands of the ones we are supernaturally connected to. God is so awesome - doing His work - the work of sharing His love - is the greatest greatest enjoyment!
WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW! God is doing AMAZING THINGS here! There is so much to tell!
The majority of our team of 70 met in New York at JFK airport no less than 48 hours ago.
Many of us are returning for our second and third years, and there are lots of new faces as well. This team is so God chosen its wild! There is a sweet sweet spirit among all of us and a unity of Spirit, something we pray for all year that has been answered by God!
From the get go, God let us know that this is His trip and he started off by scheduling a divine appointment right in the check-in line at Lufthansa. As several of us were waiting to check our bags, one of our new team members, Veronica Udit, looked over into the line of people waiting for another airline next to us. She couldnt believe who she saw - but her dear amazing intercessor friend Arlette!
She called out to Arlette and Arlette almost fell over when she turned around and saw her friend standing right next to her. Arlette is an intercessor and awesome woman of God from Paris. She has an incredible passion and heart for the American people and is always praying for our country and flying over to America to visit the White House and synagogues to pray as she is led by the Lord.
Veronica had called Arlette from Washington D.C the night before and asked that she pray for the trip. Arlette said absolutely - but when she left her check-in line and joined ours she just started gushing with love for each team member as she met us and began praying and blessing us right there in the line. She said she was intensely moved to meet some of us on the trip and it increased her fire to cover us in intercession! We all had serious Holy Ghost goosebumps as we felt the first spark of the intense love God had ready to pour through us on this trip as Arlette blessed us and rejoiced with us there at the airport.
From New York - to Munich - to Sofia we had an exhausting but wonderful time travelling and getting to know one another. This team is so sweet and each person is just so specifically puzzle pieced together by God to create this awesome unity among us!
Tired and exhausted we all arrived in Sofia Airport and were bussed over to our hotel where 19 of our United Kingdom teamates awaited us. A few minutes to check in and freshen up, and we were back on the bus to head off to our first night of ministry in the Gypsy ghetto of Sofia.
As our two busses travelled, Georgian informed us that, I believe, not only is the church in this neighborhood new, but our relationship with its pastor is as well. We did a little crusade at this location last summer - it was a first, for them and us, at this location, and there was no church there at the time. We had a sweet time loving on the people - but it was all so new to them. Well of course in the kindom of God nothing is wasted - returning this year the peoples hearts were softened and extremely receptive to us. As Cathee Cotton said to me last night, "Last year their hearts were so hard, this year they were loving us right back - they had recieved, were filled and had something to give!"
As we worshipped and paraded through the streets , we would stop in little areas to preach and praise. As we would parade through the people would come out to the gates of their ramshackle homes and watch us, and either allow or request us to pray for them.
Pastor Jeff Good said as he and some of his team members were walking along, a Gypsy woman came out to her gate and motioned for them to follow her back into her house. They followed her far back through the courtyard and alleys into her house where they found a woman lying in bed, all color drained from her face and eyes clouded over and milky. The sister, or friend of this woman told the translator that the woman in bed was dying of cancer and was in great pain. Pastor Jeff and the other team members with him layed hands on the woman and prayed. After about 15 minutes the color all returned to her face, she opened her eyes and the cloudy yellow milkiness was gone and her eyes were crystal clear and white!
Through the translator they asked how she felt - if they pain was still there - Her whole countenance by this point had changed - she had gone for colorless and deathlike to smiling and clear eyed - her face flushed with color! She sat up and said that the pain was gone and that she "felt whole!"
Pastor Jeff and the team members continued talking with her and he said as they chatted he mentioned if she thinks she would be able to get out of bed and get about - and she said yes! But he thinks that perhaps under her covers she was not dressed appropriately to do so and therefore stayed in the bed while they were all in the room.
The sister/friend was just crying and crying this whole time and said that she has been praying and begging God to send someone to pray for her sick friend to heal them. Pastor Jeff rejoiced telling the woman that he had only been in Sofia two hours and God arranged for them to meet and bring healing to her friend!!!!
After the parade our group converged at a stage that was set up for worship and preaching. The crowd grew huge as Georgian preached the love of Christ and the team members moved among the crowd praying and loving on everyone. There was a large alter call and then healings started to pop like popcorn in bursts throughout the crowd.
The first man to run to the stage was waving a pair of glasses wildly in the air and crying - He told Georgian that his eyes had been healed as we prayed and he could now see without his glasses. They were pretty thick perscriptions too -not coke-bottle thick, but it looked like a pretty intense perscription none the less.
There was a baby in the crowd with a neck brace that Graham Moore and some of the others from the U.K group were praying for. The mother was crying and crying as they prayed and then put her hand up to say enough prayer - and in faith she removed the baby's neck brace. As the brace was removed the team saw that the baby had lots of stitches from some very large and serious wound and was unable to turn his head.
The wild thing is as Graham was giving me this testimony last night to post today I was like "wait a minute! the baby with the pacifier and all the gauze bandages around its neck!" And Graham goes "yeah!" I said "that lady came up to me and Carrie Hays for prayer. The baby was crying and crying and so I took a photo of the baby and showed him the photo of himself in the digital viewer. That made him stop crying and we were able to lay hands on him for a long time. As I kept taking photos of him to entertain him as we prayed - he kept pointing to the camera image and shaking his head left to right (a bulgarian sign of yes - their 'yes' and 'no' headshakes are opposite of ours) So we didn't even know that he wasnt able to move his head. The mom was just crying and crying!" THAT BABY WAS HEALED!
Another woman that Carrie Hays prayed for had leg pain - after recieving prayer from Carrie she walked off into the crowd. Minutes later she returned to Carrie crying in joy and told her the pain was gone!
A woman went up to Kathy Tafil and put her hand on her breast and yelled "ISUS! ISUS!" (JESUS! JESUS!) motioning that whatever it was that was wrong with her breast had been healed!
Cathee Cotton told me about a girl in her 30's that was real thin and sickly that some people in the crowd brought up to the front of the stage for healing. Cathee felt impressed by the Spirit to lay hands on this womans stomach and when she did she said that she could feel the womans stomach start to jump around inside wildly. This woman, whose skin color was gray and drained was suddenly got flushed with color and began smiling! Cathee said "Are you healed?" and the woman said "DA!DA!" Cathee brought the woman over to a translator who said the woman said that she was very sick with pains in her stomach and now the pais is gone and she is completley healed!
It was very hard for some of us to get back on the bus last night and leave those we had become so supernaturally attached to in just a few short hours. The change in this city is just completely unbelieveable. Those of us who were there last year can not get over how receptive and hungry and open these people were this year compared to last! The love of God was just flowing like rivers through the crowd and the hearts of the people! SLAVA NA BOGA!!!!!!!!!!
Pray for us today as we depart for Lom - our third year returning to this city - we are so excited to return to this sweet northern town. Those of us who have been to Lom before in years past are just bursting with anticipation to look into the eyes and hold the hands of the ones we are supernaturally connected to. God is so awesome - doing His work - the work of sharing His love - is the greatest greatest enjoyment!
