Friday, May 30, 2014

Baptism

Last weekend we baptized two disciples: a 12 year old Karen boy and a Nepali mother. Please pray for Polo and Sancha as they continue their walk with the Lord and make disciples!

Spa Surveillance

Tomorrow evening (Saturday, 31st) at 6:00 we will be working together with our human trafficking partners to do an undercover surveillance operation in the two spas on our street.  One of our guys will be trained to go in posing as a customer in order to obtain valuable information that will better inform our spiritual and physical/practical strategy of attack on these strongholds.    

 

è Pray that they will let our guys in – that the evil spirits guarding the place will recognize the authority of Christ in our guys and be unable to hinder the work.

è Pray for spiritual protection over our team member and the man from the trafficking organization who will be joining him – that eyes and hearts be guarded.

è Pray that the technology we use will work,

è And that our guys will be received without suspicion and be able to obtain the necessary information and come out safely.

 

Look for an update on how things go in the next few days.  Thank you for fighting this battle with us!

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Summer Preparation

 

Interns are here! Training has begun! Please pray with us in the following ways as we prepare for the summer:

 

1.    For LJ to be filled with the Spirit as he teaches

2.    For the interns and our team to have receptive, humble hearts as we learn

3.    For distractions/opposition from the enemy to be quickly identified and removed.

4.    For the Holy Spirit to move powerfully in tearing down anything that is getting in the way of us walking in full commitment with him

5.    For practical application times to be fruitful

 

Training continues through Saturday, June 7th.

Thank you for your prayers!

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Three Battlefronts this Week

 

Please join us in prayer as we battle on three different fronts this week.

 

1.    Thursday evening four of our team members will be going into the home of a couple who are deeply oppressed by the enemy, intending to clean house both physically and spiritually.  We have connections with this couple through work some of our team has done in another part of town. We have sensed a strong need to bathe this in prayer.

 

è Edward: is a believer who has been struggling under the spiritual oppression in his home and has realized that he needs to be removed from the situation. He has asked for our help. He needs faith and the courage to break away so that he can grow strong in the Lord.

 

è Connie: Edward's girlfriend, is not a believer.  A lot of her history has opened wide doors for demonic oppression in her life, to the point that she is not currently functioning in daily life.  The "house-cleaning" is largely targeted against this demonic force. She needs deliverance.

 

è  The landlady:  (small "complex", only four apartments) is rumored to be involved in witch craft and has opposed the presence of our team members in the past. She needs to be gone when they go, and/or there needs to be a spiritual covering over our team that prevents her from seeing them.

 

è The team: Albert, Xavier, Chelsea, and Catherine will be going in to clean house. They need spiritual protection, wisdom, and strength. Pray that they be filled with the Spirit of life and truth whom the darkness cannot overcome!

 

2.    Friday morning we will be praying as a team over Court: a new complex where we are placing three Keystone team girls this summer.

 

è Very heavy spiritually with strongholds of fear, dishonesty, sexual sin, drinking, and closed doors in the hearts of the people as a result. As we pray, we will be battling these strongholds in the complex as a whole, and also praying over the apartment where the girls will be living.

 

3.    Also Friday, possibly morning or evening, we will be praying in the same way through Key: a new complex where we are placing three Keystone guys.

 

è Stongholds to pray through: the people in this complex are more open and friendly; however, there are strongholds of partying/drinking, seeking fulfillment in worldly pleasures, stealing, and rumors of some ocultic worship of Santa Muerta (death saint).

 

 

Jesus Christ came to destroy the works of the devil. Join us in praying out the enemy, welcoming the Spirit, and working/waiting for the harvest!

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Spas, New Faces, and New Places

 Spas

 

·         Thank you for your prayers for the spas. We ended up rescheduling the undercover surveillance date for next Friday, the 23rd

è Continued prayers for this are key (see previous postings for specifics)

 

New Faces

 

·         New team member: Chelsea has been working with us from another part of the city for some time and will be moving into Sharpstown this weekend to join the team for the long haul. 

è Pray for peace in the transition and clear spiritual direction for her as she begins this new phase.

 

·         Three summer interns will be arriving on May 27, Dylan, Sarah, and Lacey.

è Pray for them as they finish up school and make preparations for coming, that their hearts be ready and open to the Lord, that logistics such as jobs and travel are taken care of, and that the people they encounter during their time here will be ready to hear and believe.

 

New Places

 

·         Due to the addition of these four new faces, we are acquiring two new apartments, one for guys and one for girls.  Over the next two weeks several of our team members will be moving and getting settled in preparation for the interns coming.

è Pray especially in these next two weeks for the spiritual research that we will be doing in these two complexes, for strongholds past and present to be exposed so that we can know our enemy and begin the process of warring wisely.

è Pray also for the logistical and relational aspects of moving and new roommates, that grace and peace will reign so that God may be glorified and our neighbors will sense his presence in us.

 


Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Technical difficulties

Some of the technology we need for the surveillance tonight isn't working. Please pray for that.

Undercover

Tonight two of the guys on our team will be trained to go into the spas on our street for undercover surveillance in order to obtain information that will help us know spiritual and practically how to proceed with this ministry. This information could also be helpful in any legal transactions we might have a part in in the future.

Please pray for the physical and spiritual protection of our guys. Pray also that the information recovered will be what we need.

Training tonight starts at 6:30 and we will be heading to the spas directly after that.

Thanks!

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Moving Forward

Thank you for praying and fasting with us for the spiritual and physical doors to be opened in the spas on our street!  During the three days, God spoke encouragement and challenge to our team.  We have come away from this time with a little more understanding of God's perspective on this ministry as well the practical next steps that need to be taken for us to move forward.

 

Thank you for working together with us in prayer!

 

Please continue to lift up this ministry:

 

·         that God will help us to work together with him with diligence and patience, taking each new step in the right order and in the right way

·         for our partnership with the anti-human trafficking organization  

-       that our work together will be empowered by the Spirit and pleasing to God

-       that we will be able to communicate well and glean wisdom from each other

 

Isaiah 61:8

"For I, the LORD, love justice.  I hate robbery and wrong. I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them." 

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Will you fast with us?

Our team has been led to fast for three days this week – Friday, Saturday, and Sunday – for the two "spas" on our street.  Will you join us? These spas are brothels, places where women are sold for sex.

 

One of the goals God gave to us as a team this year is to develop a ministry to these people that not only pulls them out of that life but also disciples them for victory.  Under the Holy Spirit's direction, with much prayer, after receiving training from an anti-human trafficking organization here in Houston, we have begun the process of connecting with the women inside these spas.  We are seeking to build relationship with them, looking for a key person of peace, praying for spiritual walls to be torn down, so that these women can be set free both physically and spiritually. So far, only one of the two spas has even opened the door to us, and still would not let us in.  This is a typical response at this stage of brothel ministry because they are places where Satan has been allowed to gain a deep stronghold through greed, violence, sexual immorality, fear and oppression.  These are dark places, and God is desiring to send his light there.

 

In Isaiah 58:6-9, God says this about fasting:

"Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?  Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am'…."

 

This three day fast is for the purpose of breaking down the doors in the spiritual realm so that we can go in and begin relationship in the physical one. Please pray with us over these next three days and consider joining us for all or even a portion of this time in fasting.

 

Our God is greater than the evil that is currently reigning there. Help us fight alongside him! Nothing is impossible with God!