Lebanon Mircale Session

I just got back from Lebanon and I have to say that I've just had the best 8 day period of my life! So much happened that I don't know where to begin...

I went with my friend Dave, who is a charismatic priest with a major anointing. He leads a group of believers on Friday nights here in Kuwait in worship and the practice of street ministry; mainly healing the sick. He is also an extreme skier. The very first day he met me, the Canadian snowboarder, he invited me to go on this ministry/snowboarding trip to Lebanon (that was 4 months ago). so we got there right after a major storm and rode the best 2 pow days of the year! I've got a bunch of pics on fb but what is really exciting is the miracles that we saw on the streets!

Basically, the way the Holy Spirit works in Dave is through "words of knowledge." We'll be walking down the street or into a shop or restaurant, something like that and the Lord will give him a word telling him of pain in the body or sometimes emotional pain, or something in their life that we have no business knowing. So we would go around and ask people :what happened to your arm?" or "do you have a sore back?" and then usually their eyes open wide and they say something like "how did you know?" A lot of times when we (I say we because when I'm around him his anointing rubs off on me and I start to get words of knowledge as well) didn't get words we would just walk up to a group of people and ask "who wants to see a miracle?" Usuall after saying that the Lord would give us a prophetic word, but if he didn't we would just ask if anyone has pain and then pray for them. God really seems to show up when we risk looking stupid (aka have faith) and heals people. God loves everyone so much and truly desires to heal his people. Speaking conservatively I can confidently say that we saw 80+ miracles on this trip!

We saw healings of all sorts including: dislocated bones go back in place, broken ankles restored, deaf ears open up, slipped back discs be fixed, carpel tunnel leave, one guy had a bruised femur and major bruising on his butt from a snowboard crash and we saw not only the soreness go away but also the bruising! We have pictures to prove it. We saw neck pain leave, kidney's healed of kidney stones, lots of sore muscles soothed, and even one demon be cast out!

Last year when Dave was in Lebanon a bunch of soldiers were healed and then the general of the army Bahij came to see what all the fuss was about. After he was healed and Dave got a word of knowledge for a pain that his wife had (that the general didn't even know about) we were invited to come to his house when we came this year. After healing his sister of a deaf ear, his maid of a migrain, and getting a 50% breakthrough on his knee so that he didn't need his cane anymore he gave us his cell number and said that if we needed anything in Lebanon just to call him. That came in handy when we were pulled over at a random checkpoint and didn't hace our passports with us... We just told the soldiers we just came from Bahij's place they waved us on! We decided to go to the patriarch's house (the pope of the Maronite Church, NO BIG DEAL...) with this new power bestowed upon us. When we were stopped at his gates by fully armed gaurds and the car was secured for bombs and weapons we just told them we were friends of Bahij. They waved us in. The patriach (in the picture) is 91 and didn't need any healing, but we received his blessing and had him pray for us.

My faith level has gone through the roof over the last week and I've never been more excited to be a part of the Church! I have a brand new love for God and can wish for nothing better than to see more and more people be filled with this same love, joy and peace that comes with the Spirit. Looking back over a list of prophesies over my life, I've seen a lot of them fulfilled over the last couple of months. I'm so happy right now!

2011

Hi everyone, sorry it's been so long since I've had a new post. I have been unable to access the page in english and it's been stuck in Arabic. Anyways, I've been busy and had a lot of great experiences. I've started preaching on occasion which is really a lot of fun! The first time I was quite nervous but the Lord really just took over when I got up there and helped me to speak with confidence. My first day preaching was at a small service (about 25 people). It's a new service here that is run out of a little Filipino restaurant downtown. It was amazing to see their joy in being able to attend a church service. This is the first Sunday morning service the Lighthouse Church has held (Sunday morning here is the first day of the work week, so it's like a Monday morning service in Canada) and already it's growing. The restaurant is now almost overflowing so this service is going through the process of moving onto the actual church compound. The same day I preached to a group of about 20 people packed into a small appartment living room at 11pm. You must be versatile to be a pastor out here because so many of the people are on contract and only allowed to be out at certain hours of the day.

Two weeks ago I went back to the prison to distribute matresses and pillows. After we hauled them all into the prison we saw how the gaurds distributed them and it was a real eye opener. One of the gaurds would stand at the door to the massive cell (all the prisoners are held in 2 or 3 giant cells) and through the pillows and matresses in the air and then watch the prisoners fight over them. It was like watching someone through a steak into a lion den after starving the lions. Watching them fight over something like a pillow just helps you understand what prison can do to a person's mind. When you're treated like an animal you become an animal. My heart really longs for these people and I pray that God will find a way to show them his love.

Our church started the new year with a corporate fast that lasted a week.... I was sooooo hungry! But God really revealed some things to me during that fast which was amazing. I've never really grasped the concept of fasting, but now I hold the practice in high regard.

Next week I'm off to Lebanon for a street ministry/evangelism trip, not to mention they have snowy mountains there so.... I'll be SNOWBOARDING!!!!! I didn't think I'd go snowboarding when I moved to the desert, but I'll take it!

Please pray that God continues to teach me new things!

The Ministry side. Nov.8th

I realize that I havn't talked much about the ministry that's going on here because you kind of have to be careful about what you say on the Internet, but your probably interested about what God is doing out here. And he's doing a lot!
Our Church has been through a real loop in the last couple of weeks because our Senior had cancer in his brain, so people have been adjusting to keep the church functioning. It's actually been really cool because that is the type of thing that really brings the body together in prayer. I've never seen a church come together in so much prayer. He's had a succesfull surgery and is on the mend right now. Please pray for him.

I was lucky enough to visit the prisons and help distribute supplies to the babies who's mothers are in jail. It seems that a lot of maids that come and work for Kuwaiti families get thrown into prison for stealing or trying to run away from their sponser family. I won't get into to much detail but there is a lot of corruption here and people don't get the same rights as in Canada and a lot of the prisoners don't have a fighting chance even though there isn't much for incriminating evidence. It's a shady system.

I've been getting involved with a group of people who are tent-makers and do a lot of street ministry. They all have amazing testimonies of God healing people. I went with a couple of them ito the city and they took me to store where through prayer God healed two members of the staff. They welcomed us and asked us to pray for them, then they brought out their manager and he told us he was having leg pain so we prayed for him and he said he felt a cold sensation in his leg. I havn't been back to check up on it but I believe God has healed him. Through this group and a seminar called Encounter God has revealed a lot to me over the last few weeks. Each day it seems he has more for to learn, sometimes it feels like to much to handle but my faith is getting stronger each week.

Getting Settled, Oct. 25, 2010

Alright so first things first; I love the spray hoses mounted next to all the toilets! Never have to worry about doing a good job at wiping anymore. That's one of the inventions out here that I would like to see in the west. Another one would be Soap-soccer, which I did for my birthday. Basically you get a big slip and slide with inflatable walls and goal posts and load it up with dish soap. That was probably the funnest game ever! A bunch of people from the church took me out for my birthday.

Two weeks ago we had a nice patch of cooler days. Yep it went all the way down to 37 in the afternoons! Sounds hot, but it was a welcome change, but it's back into the 40s now. So I was talking with Nathan (the guy I live with) about the best way to describe Kuwait to all of you back home. This is what we came up with, "If you want to know what Kuwait is like; take a sandbox, put a Rolls Royce in it, have construction tape all around, and let your cat use it as a litter box." That description is Kuwait to a T.

Anyways, it's been really crazy around the Church for a while. About three weeks ago our Senior Pastor Jerry was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor. Since then he has been for surgery, and on the mend. It sounds terrible, and it is, but at the same time I have never seen a Church come together so strongly in prayer and fasting. It's really united all the members in a new way with this common prayer weighing on everyone's hearts. So my mentor has been up to his eyeballs taking over the senior pastors position and still trying to do his own job at the same time. But we are all quite confident that God will heal Pastor Jerry.

The smog on the coastline has really cleared up in the last few weeks enabling us to really see far out over the ocean, which is really nice because it actually displays some of the beauty of this city. The gulf street which runs around the whole city along the gulf is beautiful. There are lots of cool restaraunts with awesome architecture. Well I've got to get to work now, but I'll try to have another post soon.

In Kuwait, Sep. 26 2010

Wow! I'm actually here. I walked out of the airport at 11pm in the pitch black and BOOM, it's still 35c outside! ok... wonder what it's like in the day.... Needless to say it's smokin hot here but I'm getting used to that now. Palm trees are nearly the only vegitation out here, there are few other kinds of shrubs but not much. It's really sandy everywhere (no grass). The buildings are really cool, I've put up a couple pictures on facebook just of the view from my house. I havn't really explored the city too much but the villa's look really really nice and there are tons of luxory cars everywhere. They don't recomend swimming in the ocean because of pollution, but TLC (the Lighthouse Church) where I'm working is just across the street from the ocean so I get to see that everyday which is pretty cool. The Church compound is really beatiful because they actually water plants, trees, and grass.
Dave, Becky, and Nathan Peacock, who are my new family, are extremely nice and make me feel very comfortable. I live in one of the Church's villas, where the basement is set up for Church services as well as the main floor. We live on the 2nd floor, so it's kind of like living in a bungalow, and another pastor's family lives above us but I hardly ever see them. There are ton's of services, worship practices, and meetings always coming and going in the house, but it does quiet down nicely at night.
TLC has grown in the last 4 years from 6 services to 26 at the moment thus the need to run out of the villas like mine. I think there are 5 different villas. I've met most of the pastoral staff by now and can see why the Church is growing. This place if filled with people who love to praise God with their lives. There are like 60 different nations represented here which is really cool because I get to join in worshiping God with styles that I've never seen before.
Right now I'm working with Pastor Kieth, from the Phillipeans, with the worship and media ministry. I'm also working with Pastor Mark, from the States, with the young adults ministry. Mark is new here also and we're building this ministry up from scratch. So this is pretty sweet cause I get to see how a ministry program is built.
I'm playing drums in one of the services that is really energetic. People dancing, singing, blowing horns and stuff. So that was really fun. Also, I'm going to be playing hockey! The last sport I was expecting to play in the desert. There is only one hockey rink in the whole city but one of the pastors has invited me to play.... So I'll show em how it's done in Canada.

Burton

First Blog

Hey all, I've never made a blog before or even had the patience to read someone else's blog so forgive me if I'm doing this wrong.

Anyways, I'm so excited to go to Kuwait. I've heard lots of positive feedback about my mentor Harvey and I'm super pumped to be working in a Church that is growing at fast pace. Sorry to be leaving you all behind in the Tundra (for those who live in Calgary) but I'm going to the total opposite. I've heard that it gets into the high 50's during July and August! Crazy, but I think I'm made for that kind of Climate anyways.

So for now, I'm just fundraising and working for the summer trying to get my funds in place. Please pray for me!