Update from India

Today, we went and visited a home where many of the leaders of the ministry to the local people came together for Leadership Development. I shared for about 25 minutes (about an hour with translation - the lady who translated can talk more than I can!!! lol)

After teaching, we had a time of prayer and I had a few prophetic words for people. Perhaps the most amazing one, from my perspective, was a word I had for the biggest guy in the room. Sort of reminded you of a dark version of Dave Carpenter. He was really reserved and as I laid hands on him, within a couple of minutes of praying in the Spirit he started to look like he was going to collapse! John Allison came racing over because he obviously saw the same thing. The guy collapsed down. Fortunately, his chair was right there. I continued praying over him. At the end of it, I asked him (via the interpreter) how he was feeling. He looked absolutely stunned! "What happened to me?" Gave me the opportunity to talk to them about the presence of the Holy Spirit. It was really encouraging for me, because I've prayed for people before and seen them go over, and to be honest, I've always had a question in my mind: Is this God, or is it just them? But this guy has never seen or heard anything like this at all. Never been exposed to ministry in the gifts of the Spirit. And was blown away, and OFF his feet!

We then prayed for two women who have HIV/AIDS, and God was certainly doing something there. We all were laying hands on them, taking our time to pray, lots of praying in tongues. At the end, one of them felt her hands were heavy, and one felt a great peace over her. It's the kind of illness that you can't tell straight away if they're healed, but I can say for certain that God was doing SOMETHING! I'm expecting some great testimonies.

Tonight, we went for tea in one of the slums. This was probably the poorest slum we've visited this trip, and equal to the poorest parts of Mathare Valley. The lady who invited us works for YWAM with the local people, and is herself HIV+. We sang songs, prayed, I brought a word, then we had prayer ministry time. My goodness me! Once again, we had to get a couple of people to somewhere safe where they could collapse. This was BRAND NEW for them, just like the guy this morning. One of them was out for it for a while.

One lady I had a word for started manifesting, but the release was almost instantaneous with her collapsing dead to the floor where she stood.

I had a word for another lady. I've been learning to slow down a bit and spend a bit of time praying in tongues, waiting on hearing more closely what God is saying. In that process, I saw her as a Nurse. The YWAM interpreter was blown away as she told me the lady I was praying for actually WAS a nurse! I kept praying, and then said that she had a healing gift but it wasn't just for the hospital, but for outside. Once again, the people were stunned. The lady works for YWAM with HIV people in the slum! God is SOOOOO good!

Towards the end, we asked the nurse lady who was on her heart to pray for, given that I'd prophesied that the Lord would use her in healing ministry. She pointed out the YWAM leader, who has HIV. So we gathered around. The nurse laid hands on her (I felt like this was the beginning of a "moving the Holy Spirit" workshop for her). Goodness me! I was almost doubled over with the sense of the Spirit's nearness. Then all of a sudden, she shot up in the air from sitting down, all but screaming. I'm not sure if that was demonic or not (I have a gut feel she was being released), but I made sure that Josh was over here taking authority. (I had a word for him before the trip that he'd be involved in a significant deliverance... and I think THAT was it!) As soon as Josh laid hands on her, she settled right down. Immediately. He spoke the peace of God over her and declared her free. She said she felt really light afterwards, like something had lifted from her. And her hands were heavy! lol

Josh and Toby prayed for lots of people, having amazing prophetic words and visions that they received for people. I kind of wonder what's going to happen to Youth Group and Red Room when those two get back!! Hold on CCH!!! I just want to thank whoever it was who told me I should take over a couple of our younger leaders with me as a discipling experience! It's certainly been that!

We're back home at John and Hazel's now. Time to wind down, though I'm not so sure that will be successful.

I've probably missed some great stories. These people are so hungry, and I think God has gone so far beyond their expectations. I was debriefing with Toby and Josh just now (over ice cream!) and we feel that we're all just beginning on a journey into what God is taking our church. I think we've only just started, and there's so much more that the Lord wants to teach all of us at CCH. We're on the brink of something really special.

OK. Stop preaching Ian! :) See you soon, Ian.