Twyla is doing very well – thank you for your prayers! She has recovered from the attack of illness etc. that hit us. This week her sisters are visiting her. They will be celebrating her birthday (which is Friday) and just having a good ole family reunion.

I am missing her but she will be coming home to Mozambique soon.

It was Jeff’s birthday and we had made the trip out to the farm to spend the afternoon with them. When we arrived we found Heidi Baker and some of her Team (just coming in from evangelistic outreach) who had also stopped by the farm.

They blessed Jeff with some presents and prayed over him and then had to be on their way.

We stayed for supper and had a wonderful meal .. and a great time visiting with them.

Please keep them in your prayers. This is a real challenge .. moving a family from mid-America to the bush of Africa .. their only electricity is with a generator .. they have to haul drinking water .. and are quite isolated. It’s a beautiful setting but it is still “Out There” .. and there are lots of challenges getting the farm going.

Walking on water is simply stepping out on nothing but Jesus’ word. Committing yourself to his word. If his word don’t hold you up it’s all over. What kind of risk are you willing to take?

If there is no risk of sinking it ain’t water we are walking on ….

Walking on water is the ability to walk above that which is trying to sink you and kill you. It is totally supernatural.

Walking on water is walking in that place where nothing in the natural realm will help you. If you look at the circumstances it’s all over. You have to take each step with your eyes on Jesus … eyes on Jesus .. eyes on Jesus ….

Never criticize those who attempt to walk on water .. even if they failed. At least they got out of the boat.

Peter failed at least partially during his walk on the water. This did not disqualify him. He failed at several other points in his life. These did not disqualify him. Failure alone will not disqualify you. Giving up and going back will.

Peter’s stroll on the water did not make him a spiritual giant. He still had a number of failures ahead of him .. at least one huge one in fact. If we haven’t had some failures we probably are not trying hard enough. Failures in our eyes are not necessarily that in God’s eyes. Besides, he can redeem anything.

What’s cool is that when we do step out and begin walking on water .. if we get our eyes off Jesus for a bit and begin to sink .. if we cry out to him he will take our hand and everything is suddenly just fine! Remember .. Peter did NOT sink. He only began to … and that was enough of a wake-up that he got his eyes back on Jesus.

Peter’s walk back to the boat was not a walk of shame or defeat. It was a love stroll with Jesus.

It’s easy to sit in the boat and critique those who attempt to walk on water. Those who sit in the boat however miss something really intimate.

It does not require great faith to walk on water. It requires obedience to the word “Come on!” Peter did it with “little faith” — BUT he did hear “Come on” first. Hearing Jesus speaking is heart of the thing called “faith”. There can be no real faith without hearing him speaking.

It was the word Jesus spoke that first attracted Peter. It was the word Jesus spoke that got Peter out of the boat and walking on the water. It was the word that Jesus spoke that enabled him (and the others) to feed 5000 people with a kid’s lunch. It was the word that Jesus spoke that brought Peter back after his disaster during the arrest and trial of Jesus. It is the word Jesus is speaking that we need to listen to and obey, where ever we are. The word he is speaking is what is spirit and life. If we are not hearing him speaking what are we listening to?

When Peter heard the word ‘Come on’ he had no solid reason to believe it was really Jesus speaking to him. He had to believe it was Jesus, trust it was Jesus and hope it was Jesus. But the ONLY way to find out for sure was to climb over the side of the boat. What has God spoken to you? What do you need to do to get yourself into position to really and truly prove it is God? What are you clinging to and hanging on to? These are questions each of us must answer for ourselves. And only we can answer them .. only we can climb out of whatever our boat is. I pray you find that the word he speaks is more solid than any other thing in the universe.

Keep the School in your prayers. As you can imagine, there are always needs!

MALARIA TWICE AS DEADLY

Twyla and our daughter Jami made a trip to Mt. Vernon, MO and were able to spend time visiting with friends. They also visited Christ Chapel while there.

One special reunion was with Peanut .. the dog that was Twyla’s faithful companion for 12 years. Twyla had to leave him behind when we moved to Africa – this was a real sacrifice on her part – but the Lord provided a wonderful lady who loves him and he has a great life with her!! The reunion was a happy/sad occasion for Twyla but like many other things, she knows this too is part of Papa God’s plan for us.

Distributions began yesterday in flood-hit Zambezia province, with almost 6,000 people in the province’s Maganja district receiving enough rations of flour and other basic supplies to last a month.

The agency reported that it eventually hopes to provide emergency food rations to 65,000 people across Zambezia and another 6,500 in Maputo province, which surrounds the country’s capital. At least 32 people are reported to have been killed since tropical storms Dando and Funso struck Mozambique last month, and about 100,000 hectares of farmland are no longer in use.

Working with other UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), WFP has been helping the Mozambican Government to assess the scale of the crisis and the needs of those affected by the storms and subsequent floods.

At least 32 people are reported to have been killed since tropical storms Dando and Funso struck Mozambique last month, and about 100,000 hectares of farmland are no longer in use.

WFP said there are fears that people living in storm-affected areas will have no crops to harvest, jeopardizing their food security in the coming months.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=41132&Cr=Mozambique&Cr1

The people lived in their clearing, never leaving it. Yes it was confining and small but it was safe and at least they were alive. No, life never changed there and nothing new was ever experienced but as all agreed, they were safe.

Except for one lone girl. She was small for her age but her courage was large and she was determined to find out if there was anything beyond the forest. The desire for freedom grew so strong that she felt it better to die trying to find something new rather than live a life of slow death. She prepared herself and one evening when no one was watching she slipped off into the forest in search of … what, she was not sure.

Though the night was terrifying with strange noises and smells she maintained a grip on her courage and as the morning grew brighter she discovered a trail through the trees. Following it with her heart beating rapidly she began to see new sights and experience a totally new world. She never stopped or turned back, but continued on. And she never encountered any monsters! Eventually she emerged from the forest into a bright populated and fruitful land .. with even more adventures ahead of her.

Our imaginations produce monsters of all types. Fear of the unknown creates many arguments against exploration. Don’t allow your imagination to rob you of the joy of finding a new land.

What we think we know can keep us from discovering what is.

Why Judgmental “Prophetic Words” Are Usually Wrong – Kris Vallotton

1.) They represent God as an angry person who only has one response to sin and the problems of the world and that is to kill everybody.

2.) They assume that disaster leads to repentance and revival.

3.) Life and death are in the power of the tongue: prophesying disaster brings them on.

4.) They ignore the fact that we are salt and light in this earth whose responsibility is to bring change and transform our environments for the better.

5.) They agree with the accuser whose ministry is to steal, kill and destroy. When you create judgmental words that steal, kill, and destroy, you come into agreement with the wrong spirit (John 10:10).

6.) They work against the principles instituted by God for the restoration of ruined cities (Isaiah 61). Why are people judging the cities we are supposed to restore?

7.) The world already sees us as the bringer of the Law and not the Lover of the world and they already think that [the church] loves “the rules” more than we love them.

8.) False prophets promote words that instill fear. Fear is not from God. Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18).

How do you know if you are listening to the wrong spirit? Your prophetic declarations will scare people.

Just before this the Lord brought in extra funds and we had plenty of money to get her tickets, so we took that as a further indication that this was Papa God’s plan.

We have too many projects going on for both of us to be gone, so reluctantly she agreed to go … well .. not so reluctantly when she thought about hugging the kids and grandkids! So we purchased the tickets and Wednesday she left Pemba and flew to the U.S.

She has arrived safely in Austin, Texas .. enjoyed the comfort of a long hot shower and at this writing is asleep I believe since it is about 11 PM there.

Her plans are not to travel but to rest and regain her strength. To work here you really do need your health! And 3 weeks of illness really drained her.

We appreciate your prayers .. both for her in the States and for me here in Africa.

Bless you and thank you all so much for your love and support.