Gilad's Home Coming

Friends, this is a big day. One we've been praying and waiting for a very long time. A day of proof to the world of the effectiveness of those who pray. Less than 24hrs ago Gilad Shalit was reunited with his family. Five years after being in captivity in the hands of the hamas Gilad came home.
Why is this such a big deal? Simple; we here in Israel remember a man by the name of Ron Arad. Another soldier that once kidnapped never came back. This day will be forever known as the day that we remember that there is such a thing as a God of miracles.
Gilad has been gone since the 25th of June 2006 with the outbreak of the second Lebanese war; 2006-2011. Folks, that is 5 years. Today we complete 1940 days in which Gilad sat wondering if he's ever coming home. We need to realize the scope of this period. There were things that didn't exist at the time, like i-phones or i-pads, things we take for granted.
Now as for those who knocked on the doors of heaven and prayed until their knees were raw and their knuckles bloody, I commend you and say what I believe God is saying, 'Well done good and faithful servants!'
And let's not stop now. This is just the beginning of things to come if we do not stop our persistence. I want to encourage all of us to be a nagging generation, just like the widow who would not stop asking until the justice she asked for was given to her. Lets do this until justice is given to the poor, until the unborn finally have a voice, until the trafficking industry is brought to it's knees and until He returns to rule and reign from Jerusalem.
Amen

Yom Kippur And the Lack Thereof

We were walking last night to a friend's house. On the way we ran into some kind of protest. As we got closer we realized it was for animal rights.
Ok, not too surprising. Here in the land you will find weirder things. The kicker was when we came back home, as we passed through the same area we saw an unusual sight. A group of ultra orthodox Jews and regualr looking people with a table set up with signing forms gathered around a truck. To their right and their left there were crates full of live chickens... but not alive for long.
It then connected for us, earlier the protesters were crying about the shedding of innocent chicken blood that was about to be shed. There were people waiting in line to sign up to have a chicken to be spun over their heads and the heads of their family, to remove thier sins, after which the same chicken would be put out of its motion sickness misery by the swift slitting of it's throat by a Rabbi.
Ladies and gentlemen, behold the new and improved tactic of atonement, in which God's chosen have solved, yet again, the problem of not having a temple any longer with the sacrificing of bulls and rams. Now you can have your new and improved, compressed down in size and less messy... chicken sacrifice!
If that's not enough, Israel has once again proven that yes, we are a democratic country, meaning; you can state your opinion loudly as long as no bones are broken and no blood is shed. So then earlier the Animal Rights protesters had their chance to loudly defend chickens.
This coming out of a country that, by quota kills more unborn babies per year than any other country in the world. With this in mind we can pray the following; that the chosen ones, on this day of atonement will receive a full revelation of their state as a people who are still running from their God and repent (meaning; make a complete u-turn) and come back to the more important things... like taking care of the orphan and the widow and calling for justice for the voiceless.
God help us all in this season of sobering and awakening to the true reality of where we are as a nation.
While saying that we also remember what God did for us through Yeshua and receive that for our selves and for those in the sphere of our influence. Our God took care of atonement once and for all and our God is no chicken either.

Wow, I don't know how to word it other then that. Last night our intercession was for abortion here in the land. 1 out of every 4 pregnancies in Israel ends in abortion. So we are simply calling for Gods justice to come and for revelation to come to this generation. But I have to tell you, there is something about being pregnant and getting to pray into the issue of abortion. It was just powerful last night. I thouroughly enjoyed it.

Then thism morning is when we pray for the United States. And it moved me to tears, crying out for God to have mercy on America, that He would open up ears to His truth about Israel. Then we prayed for our leaders that God would stir their hearts with His truth.

I tell you there is nothing like praying for what God puts on your heart. I encourage you, if there is a house of prayer around you to go and join in what God is doing. If there isn't find a friend or two and start praying for what God puts on your heart, because if it's on your heart it's on God's heart. And now is the time to pray.

August Update

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

July Update

The month of July started with the basics of every month and one or two changes. Our Sunday meeting at Succat Hallel became a worship practice for our conference this coming week. Tuesday continued as our youth watch of Harp and Bowl. And Thursday nights we continued on the streets. As well as I (Stefan) had other practices 2 days a week for 2 other bands for the conference.

The first 2 Thursday nights of this month went very well. The first week we met a teenage couple from France and prophesied over them. The next week the people God brought to us were Arabs. Two of them hung around and were very open and listened. What I (Samantha) found interesting was when things broke open on the streets the first two weeks were to the Jew first and the third week God brought the Arabs (Gentiles).

We also had a staff retreat at the beginning of the month with Succat Hallel. We drove up to Acre to have a time of prayer on a boat at sea facing the Lebanese border. Rick (the founder of Succat Hallel) has been getting dreams and visions about praying protection over the waters concerning the surrounding nations and their behaviour towards Israel. So we went up to have a time of prayer over the water. I (Samantha) had been looking forward to this. I really felt it was right and good that we do this. But from the minute the boat started until we ate lunch on land I was sea sick. Pregnancy + boat ride... not good :-). We had our time of prayer on the boat and then a little more on land. Then we headed to Herzaliya for fun in the sea and then headed home. It was a good time to connect with people we don't see that often.

The following week was fun as we had the privilege of hosting and touring my (Stefan) sister and brother-in-law around Jerusalem. When we toured them around the Old City somehow we got lost on our way to the Holy Sepulchre. But when did eventually get there I (Samantha) had the privilege of explaining to some Muslim women what the site is and to let them know as a Christian that I don't believe the site has any special powers, but is a good historical site (to explain; the sepulchre is a site riddled by idolatry, a place that replaces the worship of God with the worship of relics. Unfortunately the old city is full of Christian places such as these where people bow to Mary and the saints instead of going straight to God through what the word clearly says Jesus came to give us the ability to do). After the Old City we went and celebrated both of our 2nd Anniversaries. Then in the middle of dinner we received a phone call from the Rick, the founder of Succat Hallel (more about that phone call a little later).

The rest of the week was filled with love. We had a wedding of one of my (Stefan) good friends. The morning of the Lord brought in the money for their gift. The next day we celebrated a friends engagement.

The last week of the month was the start of the ELAV Intensive. The first half of the week was prepping and Friday it stared. In the middle of the week I (Samantha) had my ultra sound to make sure all the baby's organs are developing properly, as well as we found out we are having a baby girl!

The Intensive started on Friday and went through Thursday Aug. 4th. (This is one reason this update is coming out now, we were extremely busy). The Intensive was great. It was an amazing time of learning and lots of worship. We went out on the streets 3 times and 2 people gave their lives to the Lord and another 2 are very close. Saturday and Sunday a group of Arabs from Nazareth joined us. It was a powerful week.

Now back to the phone call: so Rick, the founder of Succat Hallel called me (Stefan) to talk to me about something that had been a long time in prayer. He let me know that they've been praying and they felt that starting September 1st they needed to step out by faith and guarantee us with $1,000 a month to help move us into full time ministry with Succah Hallel. A few days later I met Rick and found out that since they prayed and heard the Lord and stepped out, the money for September had already come in. Wow! Glory be to God. This week I sat with my manager at King of Kings to talk to him about me quitting my job and moving into full time ministry with the House of Prayer. Amazingly he was delighted with what had come about in this process and told me that he had felt that this was right for us. He said he'd seen me working for King of Kings as janitor and knew that this door for full time ministry needed to open for us because that's where our hearts were drawing towards. So as of September 1st I will be done with my job and we will be full time with Succat Hallel. For more information about Succat Hallel visit www.jerusalempraise.com

The Lord had spoken to us about holding on as long as it took until He opened the door and now He did. So we walk into this new phase in our lives with our baby on the way with confidence in what He told us and also with an amazing gift from Abba. We get a bonus pay from my (Stefan) job for the years I worked at this job which will provide a financial pillow for this next season as we move into full time ministry.

Obviously we are aware that the $1,000 that we get through Succat Hallel and what is already coming in from you, our supporters, is a little bit short of our financial need per month, but we remain in a place of trusting Him that He will provide for us as He did until now. With that said, now to the practical. If you committed in November or December to support us monthly, now, we believe, is the time. We need around $300 more a month to meet all of our needs. We do understand what is going on in the world with the economy. The money form Succat Hallel in the past year would have had our rent covered but now because of the decline of the dollar we are in need of more. But still in all this we are witnessing God's faithfulness. The Elav Conference is tomorrow and we booked a room at an Inn, to be closer and more rested. We did not have the money, but we knew this is what God wanted. 1/3rd of the money came in and we kept praying for the other 2/3rds. The other night at dinner I was looking at a note that had been on our refrigerator for 2 months, and that night I saw behind the note a $100 bill. We open and close our refrigerator door every day and see it every day. We both never saw any money behind that note until this week. Now the price for the Inn is still not fully covered but we KNOW our God will provide for us. So I want to encourage you in your finances and in your giving if God has put it on your hearts to give. God is Faithful to provide.

June Update

The month of June, even though it had been as busy as our previous months this past season, did not have many things to it other than the usual schedule that goes on in our weeks which we normally inform you about, plus one more thing; I (Stefan) had and will continue to have band practice with a couple of groups that will be playing at the Elav conference in August.

Tuesday nights with the youth, which used to consist of worship in the beginning, a short message and then worship and intercession have now switched to a whole two hours of worship and intercession instead. This in relation with our street ministry and the Elav conference that is coming up. For anyone who is not aware of what the Elav conference is; it's a three day youth and young adult conference that will take place in Tel-Aviv from the 14th-16th of August. This was started out as the One Thing conference in 2007 and has now taken the Israeli name Elav, meaning 'Unto Him'. A conference designed to draw young people into a deeper passion for the Lord and a zeal for the house of prayer. So you know, God TV will be airing the conference LIVE. So stay tuned for that. We will make sure to send a short reminder right before for those interested to watch.

Thursday nights outreach has picked up a notch since we last mentioned it. We've been going out faithfully for a while but only recently we've seen something new happen. In the past two weeks God broke out in the supernatural on the street. We knew this was coming and the Lord had promised that if we were faithful in our part He would visit us. In the past two weeks we've seen a few people get prophetic words and one Jewish Orthodox young man get miraculously healed from stomach problems. The young man was informed that we would pray for him in the name of Yeshua and he agreed to be prayed for as long as this was not an inroad for conversion. He was astonished when he realized that he was healed, more so that Yeshua would do this for him. It was amusing to watch him trying to tell a friend that the Christians got him healed while his friend who was a little drunk was trying to tell him not to convert. Such is the atmosphere in the are where we minister. Drunks, people who are passed out on the floor because of too much alcohol, and among them the Lord walks in signs and wonders and a furious love that reaches into the darkest of places to deliver the oppressed, open prison doors and bring freedom and life to the lost.

So this is the month of June in a nutshell. Short and sweet and full of surprises from Heaven. Please keep as we mentioned, the Elav conference in your prayers. We've asked God if we could have testimonies from the streets before the conference and He was faithful to reveal His hand of love. Now join us as we pray and lift up these very crucial days from August 14-16. Some people are doing a 40 day fast for this conference. That's already started but if you feel led please join us in prayer and fasting for what God is about to release in Tel-Aviv in this season. We would also like to be able to stay at the near by hotel so that Samantha, who will be 5 1/2 months pregnant by then will have a cool place to sleep and nap if she needs to, so please join us in praying for the money for that to come in.

May Update

May started off full force. We had our first Dr. appointment for the baby. We found out the baby is about a week older then we thought. Then I (Samantha) rushed to a friends bridal shower. It was a blessing to be able to bless a young bride to be who has no family in Israel. I helped her organize and plan the wedding. So the next week was spent finishing the wedding organizing, celebrating the birth of the country I love and live in, and then pulling off a wedding. Just to give you a quick picture of the week, which with being pregnant I felt better for; Sunday and Monday we finished wedding details. Tuesday was Independence Day. Wednesday was another friend's wedding, as well as one last party for the bride and groom to be that same evening. Thursday was an all day event for our friends wedding of setting up, wedding and then tearing down. Then Friday and Saturday was the annual Pro Life Conference in Tel Aviv.

We both love Independence Day in Jerusalem. It goes from a somber day of remembering and grieving the lost soldiers that gave their lives for the country which started the previous night and then flings into independence day celebrations the next night. So Monday night, just as the ceremony for the beginning of the celebrations was ending on live TV we took off to join the huge celebration down town . The celebrations include circle dancing in one area while in other areas of town there are stages with live music and some famous musicians. You buy inflatable hammers and bats with the Israeli flag on them and hit each other. What is really common here though is the use of snow foam spray (shaving cream like). People buy these large spray cans and spray each other. In recent years the streets downtown would be white as after a snow storm from so much foam. The amazing thing is that it is not rude to bat and spray people you don't know. For that evening only, everyone is one big family and no one gets offended. You literally spend the evening together rejoicing as one in the fact that we have a nation we call our own. You also enjoy cotton candy and munchies from sale stands all over the street. And you hope you are able to catch the fireworks that you don't know when or where they are. We were on our walk home when the fireworks started and I sat down in the street and enjoyed the colorful light show, or to be more accurate, the part of it that made it above the one tall building in the way. Then Tuesday is a day of picnicking in parks and hanging out with family and friends.

The Pro Life Conference in Tel Aviv was very enlightening. I (Stefan) believe that for us at this time of expecting a baby it had a more personal impact on the issue. We found out that abortions in Israel are illegal but can be legalized if you can get a counsel to grant that your case is worthy of one. Also you can have an abortion in Israel up until the day before the child is born. And if there is any "problem" or "possible problem" with the fetus the mother and father are encouraged to abort the fetus. It was very sad to hear about the reality of abortion in the land. We had meetings about abortion, about the stories of babies rescued and we had times of prayer for the issue. We also went out and did two seiges, one on the boardwalk and one infront of the abortion clinic. Just to explain the term, "doing a siege"; we basically stand for as much time as is decided, normally not less then an hour. We stand in silence with a piece of red tape on our mouths which has the word life written on it, which represents the silence of the babies that can't cry out for themselves. It's not a demonstration, rather a place of standing in the gap for the unborn. I (Stefan) knew the next day when we went to do the siege at the clinic that God was loudly speaking to us that we were on the right track with His heart in what we were doing. Half way on our walk to the clinic we came across a bench which to our amazement had two pairs of little children shoes. They were just sitting there with no one to claim them. I pulled out my camera to take a picture because of the significance and my camera highlighted the shoes and automatically went to the "Human" setting for the picture. Yet, there was no human being in the frame! I took that as a sign for us from the Lord that He was saying, "Well done! You're on the right track. Keep doing what you're doing, I'm watching and listening. Cry out for My silent beloved ones." On our way back I pulled my camera out again for another shot of the shoes. Again the camera went for the "Human" setting. That was the last time it did. We were aware that what was done was in the Spirit. Even in the issue of abortion we do not fight against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities in the heavens.

After that the month seemed to slow down, or at least go back to normal. As we wrote earlier we figured out what was missing for me (Samantha) to get health insurance and one of our pastors went with me to translate and I received my insurance. This was a major breakthrough since this would cut down the costs of Dr visits and medical test a gross amount. I was able to register for and get the insurance of the Dr we had already visited. It is a blessing to not have to pay for Dr visits.

We finally finished Mike Bickle's book The Seven Mandates of a Forerunner with the youth. So as of now we have gone out to the streets the last two Thursday nights. The first week was great. In my opinion (Samantha) it's because there was not much youth out and we were able to just hang out and worship. The vision is to create a Kingdom Culture among the lost, just be who we are in private out in public. I (Stefan) believe that as we do that we pull on Heaven and create an atmosphere of His presence where He comes and touches people. In past times we've seen people healed and deeply touched by the Lord. The second week was good too. Unlike the recent week though, there were way more kids on the street this time. We normally see kids as young as 14 and 15 get drunk, throw up, get into aimless fights and all kinds of trouble. A big prayer request is that as we as a group go out we would be focused on the streets. That we would be listening to Holy Spirit to know what to do and when. We are excited about being on the street. We need wisdom in how we act and what we portray. While believing for the supernatural realm of Heaven to penetrate our midst we want to be in step with what the Father is doing just as Jesus was. Even as He himself said, "The son can do nothing without the Father". It is so imperative that we are in fine tune with Him in this.

As usual we have been at Succat Hallel every week on Sundays and Tuesdays. We still enjoy the youth and young adult watches. God is definately moving and has captured the hearts of these few young and faithful. We are looking forward to the summer when more youth can come because school is out and they will have some extra time. The last Tuesday of the month Jon Mark asked me (Stefan) if I would like to share on what has been on my heart. It was a small crowd that night but it was very good. God's been speaking to me about repentance as not just turning from sin but out of the context of John in Revelation the first chapter, hearing the Lord and then turning to see the voice that spoke to him. In turning John saw Him and from that moment of seeing Him there was nothing that could distract John's focus. Interestingly turning is repentance. Repentance is realigning whatever is out of line so that we do not miss Him. It's crucial in this season that we get this and allow our lives to be in a daily pattern of turning toward Him. So that we do not just walk in purity from sin, but we also don't miss where He's going. We knew that last week this message of turning toward the Lord really hit home for those in the room. We wait now for God to show us what is on His heart, where He will go and what He will do so we can join with Him just like Jesus did.