The spiritual battle intensified
Dear Prayer warriors.
Another week has flown by and we have so many stories to tell, that I will copy some of the better reports from our participants onto the end of this letter. We have seen God work in incredible ways over the past week.
Our leadership team has done extremely well in learning the logistics of two hundred to two hundred and fifty people coming to New Orleans each week. They are starting to feel comfortable with the role they are in and are all extremely competent leaders. Last Saturday during our debriefing time, I challenged them to step up now and become the true spiritual leaders of their mission teams. AIM encourages all project leaders to realize that they are the spiritual leaders of their groups, and as such they are responsible for encouraging the participants to step out in faith and stretch themselves spiritually.
Three days later seven of us had individual experiences that were all very similar. Ranging from nightmares, to waking up feeling that there was an evil presence in the room. This all happened a little after midnight at three different locations. We immediately turned to the Lord in prayer and were able to return to sleep peacefully. It wasn’t until two days later that we put this all together during a team meeting. The connection was clear, we had raised the level of the spiritual battle, and the enemy had done the same. We were encouraged that obviously we were making an impact and that satan was not pleased with our renewed level of commitment to pray for and evangelize the city. One of the devastated areas that I have been focusing on was an area of the city where seventy percent of the population was practicing voodoo and witchcraft. So it is no surprise that we are being challenged. The greatest part of this all is the realization that Jesus has already won the victory and that these battles are minor skirmishes.
On Thursday we attended a combined meeting for all the youth mission teams in the city at First Baptist Church of New Orleans. It was such a blessing to see over six hundred young people attending, many of whom had traveled over two days to come to the hurricane affected area and to help in the rebuilding of the city.
The week was a difficult one and even though the ministry seemed to go relatively smoothly, we were all drained at the end of the week. On the weekend, we had a visiting speaker come and address our team and we divided into prayer teams and spent about two hours praying for one another. It was a great time of renewal and refreshment. I was particularly challenged to pray daily for my team and their spiritual health. We have six more weeks to go and I am praying that we all stay spiritually fresh and attentive to the Lord’s voice.
I came home to Gainesville on Monday and we were able to spend independence day together as a family. This was the first year that neither Debbie nor I were working on the fourth of July since moving to America. It was also my first as an American citizen. I will be returning to New Orleans on Friday, and have so much to do in a few days. One of my projects is to redo the kitchen floor, since it had to be removed as a result of our freezer mishap. Just what I needed – some mindless physical labor!
Please read the trip reports below and be in prayer for all of us and the mission team participants who are still to come to the city. God is doing some incredible miracles daily and we need to give Him all the Glory.
Please read and signup for updates on my blog; http://atholbarnes.myadventures.org/
God bless you
Athol Barnes
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7/5/2006 By: Tim Wright, Youth leader |
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Rock River Christian Center- Rock Falls |
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Where to start! As a youth leader on a mission trip, it has been humbling to see these kids “get it”. All the time studying, the weeks of home work in discipleship, hours of prayer, wow, God has worked miracles in these kids lives. We started off the day handing out fliers for “feed the multitudes”. Random people who need prayer. My kids got to pray with some of them. We then loaded up and went to the festival, and God answered my personal prayer, we were asked to be in the prayer tent. I got to watch as my youth talked and prayed with people. I watched several of them move out of their comfort zones to serve God. The best part of the totally awesome day was the last alter call, about 20-30 people went forward. I ran to get my kids so they could see and participate in the fruits of all their prayers and service. We formed a semi circle around them as they prayed and at the end we greeted them into the Kingdom of God! As I tear up thinking about this I KNOW God rocked my kids’ world today! I prayed for a couple of men today that God guided me to and it is incredible to be distraction free and hearing God guide me. It’s easy to preach it, harder to live it continually, and impossible to do it ourselves. |
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Cafeteria man |
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6/30/2006 By: Lisa Nicky, leader |
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Bloomingdale Church |
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Our group asked the Holy Spirit to speak to us during an exercise called “ATL” (Ask the Lord). Each student was asked to pray and then listen to the still small voice of God. One student, Heather, had a vision of running water which became dirtier and dirtier. Another student, Alex, remembered a homeless person on a bench at “Good News” (a New Orleans relief base) and felt strongly that he needed to minister to the homeless man. Alberto, for his prayer time “asking the Lord”, felt he needed to prayer walk with Alex. As they walked, the students felt they should turn left. They saw on their left a large abandoned compound with a chain-link fence surrounding it. The fence was locked, however Alberto had a strong urge to go in. As they returned from their ATL prayer walk, Alberto felt God telling him to “close his eyes and trust in Him”. Lisa, Alberto and Alex’s youth leader, sensed God telling her to break down a wall or barrier. But, “Why? Where?” So, after asking the Lord individually, the group came back together and divided up according to what they heard from God. Alex, Alberto and Lisa decided to stay and return to the abandoned building. Heather asked Lisa twice why she had a vision of running water getting dirtier and dirtier. Lisa wasn’t sure and sent Heather with a different group. Meanwhile, Alberto explained to Alex that God was revealing that he was going to find a dark room and that he would have to trust in the Lord to go in. So the three of them set off praying and came to the abandoned building which they realized was a Katrina damaged school. They reached the locked gate, and Alberto and Alex easily fit through. But leader Lisa was bigger and far more hesitant to break through. “Come on Lisa,” the boys urged, “this is the wall you have to get through.” Lisa squeezed through, fearing someone would accuse them of trespassing or looting. The three walked past long abandoned classrooms praying for safety, guidance, and praying for the former students of what we later learned was Phillis Wheatley School. The two teens were led into an abandoned cafeteria. There, they saw a sink with a strong stream of running water. Alex tried, but was unable to stop the faucet from flowing. “Hey, there’s the running water from Heather’s vision,” Alberto said. Lisa thought, “yeah, but its not getting dirtier and dirtier, like Heather described.” That was before she looked into the sink an saw a bucket filed with disgusting refuse. The water, dirty from the sink, then flowed into a dark, dirty drain in the floor. By then, all three of them were convinced that God had led them to that exact spot. They looked in the small back rooms surrounding the sink, calling out to whomever might be there. Lisa and Alex noticed Alberto standing in front of the last room. Unlike the others it was pitch black and smelled foul. Alberto knew God had told him he’d be entering a dark room, but was scared to follow through. Lisa handed him a penlight, unwilling to go herself. Alberto found shoes, an umbrella, and a toilet – all signs that someone was living there. Lisa felt oppression in the room and a need to pray for the poor soul living in such deplorable conditions. The three huddled and prayed, shedding tears for the homeless man God had told Alex he needed to reach that afternoon. They prayed for a pen, found one, and left a Bible encouraging him to seek and find Jesus. They left the bible inscribed with what they hoped would be encouraging words, as well as contact information. Upon returning to the house around the corner from the school, the three noticed a homeless man, pushing a cart full of garbage he’d picked. He was from Trinidad and had amulets which he said warded off evil spirits. He was unwilling to profess Jesus; as we offered him a cup of cold water and shared with him God’s power over evil. “Maybe tomorrow” he said. We prayed for him after he left, asking the Lord to release him from bondage. We all three wondered if he was staying at the school. Where did he lay his head down at night? Was he the one who would find our bible this evening? What a great God we serve who would speak to us and put a burden on our hearts for the many homeless people for New Orleans – the least of these – Cafeteria man. |
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The Story of one New Orleans Street |
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6/14/2006 By: Ludmilla Parnell |
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McLean Bible Church- McLean, VA |
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The story of one New Orleans Street – June 13, 2002 Today was our second day of working at Debra’s house on Jonquil Street in New Orleans Parish. Jonquil Street was just another regular street in the New Orleans area before Hurricane Katrina hit. Now, it looks like a war zone – demolished houses, debris everywhere, few people around, a lonely grungy bar at the street corner and a recently re-opened corner store. Debra has a son in second grade as well as a daughter in college. Debra, as well as others we’ve met along the way, clearly feels a strong need to talk to those who ask questions and want to hear their story. So she obliged us when we started inquiring about her own situation during and after Hurricane Katrina. Debra began by relating how she stayed in her house right up until the Sunday before the hurricane hit, not having realized how bad the situation was getting, until she got a call telling her not to come to work. After checking the news, she quickly gathered up her and her son Jonathan’s belongings and headed to her sister’s house located more inland in Louisiana. Like many other homes, her house was flooded and completely damaged from the effects of the water and the wind. She only returned home a couple of months ago to see the damage for the first time. So here we are, having spent the last couple of days at Debra’s house, tearing down walls, pulling apart sinks and floors, and removing the past. The only real signs of emotion Debra shows are in the way she tells stories of her escape, of people who couldn’t face what they found and died or killed themselves. But Debra and her son have shown strength and hope in the future, and in their desire to rebuild. And that’s how she came to know AIM and their volunteers. A month ago, she happened to come across an AIM volunteer through a flat tire situation where they connected and she asked how she could get help with her house. Nothing happened until this past Sunday night when she got a call that we were coming to help. During the last two days, we’ve prayed with her several times. This afternoon, she had to leave early to do errands that included sorting out issues related to insurance settlements. So we prayed with her to give her strength in dealing with these difficult and stressful errands. Today, a few of us decided to check out the little store nearby, and had a chance to speak with the owner about his situation. He just reopened the store recently since the power didn’t come back until March. He also narrowly escaped the effects of the hurricane and ended up living at a relative’s in Miami where he worked for someone else until he could return. He and his nephew fixed the store up and just reopened it. So I asked him if we could pray for him and what we could pray for….he had some difficulty understanding what I was asking, I think partly from not being used to having such a question asked. Finally, he just placed his hands in prayer and asked if that was what I meant. When I answered yes, myself and another volunteer joined hands with him, through his payment window slot, and prayed for him and his family’s future and gave thanks. He was very grateful and thanked us for doing this. A couple of hours later, one of the Missouri volunteers went next door to talk to Debra’s neighbor, Cheryl, who was painting the railing on her balcony. I joined him and we again went though her story of escape from Katrina, and the tragic losses many of her family members suffered in losing over ten homes between both sides of the family. So far she’s the only one back in a home, which she and her husband were given from her daughter in law who decided to leave the area and gave them the home to fix. They did a beautiful job. I just wanted to see inside so I could imagine Debra’s future home as I only now see the gutted shell. But Cheryl feels blessed in everything and was so grateful to tell her story to us. At the same time, she expressed worry about upcoming hurricanes and how another Katrina would completely wipe out anything they have left. All their savings were spent dealing with Katrina. No flood insurance so they were on their own to fix this house. Again, another opportunity to minister and pray with people. So she put her paintbrush down, and rubber gloves still on, raised herself to her knees. Together, we held hands and prayed for the family and their strength. In gratitude, she gave me a CD she had with a collection of Katrina photos from New Orleans. She kindly requested that we take time to look at it, which some of us did tonight. |
