Well, August was crazy to say the least. As we said in our last update, August started with the Elav Intensive (a week focused on the house of prayer). It was amazing but long with teachings, times of prayer, worship, and outreaches every night. Then came a week of prep for the Elav Conference. The Elav Conference was amazing. Again, lives were touched and changed. The Holy Spirit showed up every night if not earlier. Prayer and intercession went up for Israel and Tel Aviv, and a call was made for those who felt called to the house of prayer. The youth and young adults had to be kicked out of the building at the end of the night because they wanted to stay and continue in worship and prayer. I (Stefan) played on 3 different worship teams, and we were blessed to be able to minister to numerous youth.
It was fun to watch God use us when we felt like we had nothing to give. One of the afternoon sessions was on fulfilling our calling in God in the seven mountains of society where we feel called. For example, some felt called to influence the music industry as musicians used by the Lord, and so on. So we were praying into the areas that youth were feeling called and I (Samantha) didn’t feel like going up and praying. I was tired and at the time had bad back pains. But as I was sitting there, I saw this girl walking back and forth from one prayer minister to the next. Then they made a call for those who still needed prayer to raise their hands and she did, but still no one came up to pray for her. Then she walked to the other side of the room to find someone. Finally I thought, “what am I doing? I can pray for her!” So I walked over and had a lovely time of praying for her and her future. Immediately the Lord started releasing words of destiny over her. For me (Stefan) it was a blessing to see how she'd been wandering around for a while--not knowing where she fit into the plans God has for her, and then seeing her receive answers from the Lord about who He made her to be. To me that was priceless.
When Elav ended, we had hoped that things would calm down, although we had a feeling it wouldn’t. Indeed, we stayed very busy. We had multiple good-byes in 2 weeks for people who are like family and dinner meetings to get in while people were in the country. In addition to that, we were getting back into the swing of home-group and life.
We are excited to share that we have officially entered the season of full time ministry with Succat Hallel. Many people have asked us what that will mean for our ministry. Well, there is no specific answer from the ministry itself other then several hours per week in the prayer room between the 2 of us, either on a team or just joining in (in the audience so to speak). So, our plan is until baby comes is for each of us to do about 15 hours in the prayer room. We will also help out with some administrative things; we will be part of the start up of a media/sound team, and I (Stefan) will continue working on music during the day. With these tasks we will aim towards 15 hours a week. We will see how it all plays out with my (Samantha's) pregnancy now being in the third trimester.
We are excited for the future. We are still in the two youth and young adult watches. We have also joined watches where we are interceding for the USA, for revival among youth and young adults, and one focused on Song of Songs, as well as 2 others in which the topics change in accordance with the discerning on what God would want us to focus on. So it is fun and exciting and we will see what God does in the near future. Oh, and it is fun to watch as God continues to release the rest of the finances that we need. I think we are down to $200 left to come in monthly.
Also right now we are directing a lot of prayer towards the situation in the Middle East; the unilateral vote that's about to take place this month in the UN to create a Palestinian state with the 1967 borders (which were never borders but cease fire lines), the Durban 3 conference in which they plan to accuse Israel which is the only democracy in the Middle East as a racist and apartied state (and this while every Arab nation surrounding us is killing their own people in cold blood by the masses). So we ask that you join with us as we direct prayer towards these issues. One issue that even the Palestinian government is concerned for is that if the UN does vote for a unilateral Palestinian state with the 1967 borders, the people might feel that now it's theirs to take by force, which could escalate the violence in the land. So we are encouraging and challenging you today; lets not be passive with this. By passive we mean this; "God is in control, He'll do what He wants after all, so why should I be bothered taking this on?" Let's not miss out on what God wants to do through our prayers in this situation. Let's take our stand before the King as Esther did and understand that He wants our prayers at this time. We're not called to sit on the side and watch, we're called to reign and rule with the King of Kings. Let's enter into this place where our prayer make an effect in the earth today. Especially I (Stefan) want to encourage you to pray in this manner; there are tons of prayers in the Psalms especially, for example Psalms 2 where the enemies of the Lord are addressed with His judgement. That's good, but there's something else. Pray God's blessing on the Arab people around us! Pray destiny over them. Pray that our Christian brothers and sisters in the Arab world would walk strong as they see their countries blow up in violence, that at this time God would visit them in His power with signs and wonders, and dreams and visions of Yeshua.
To hear what Rick Ridings shared on this subject click on the following link. We recommend it, it was an excellent night. https://files.me.com/timesone/a2iei4.mp3
