Bob Ekblad
Jun 10, 2009

This last year many of us at Tierra Nueva have felt a need to go deeper into God’s love and presence and into Jesus’ ministry of deliverance to people oppressed by personal and structural evil.

Jesus describes God as having sent him to proclaim release to the captives and to let the oppressed go free (Luke 4:18). In Acts 10:38 Peter summarizes Jesus’ ministry as he witnessed it “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power… he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.”

We want to see people (ourselves included) freed from forces like shame, fear, control, anger, abandonment, rejection, addictions, lust, and greed, as well as from indebtedness, criminal behavior, legal oppression, racism, gang and national allegiances and other macro powers.

You are invited to join us for four days and five nights of worship, teaching, participatory Bible studies, discussion and fellowship focusing on Jesus’ teaching about deliverance and getting filled up with more of the Holy Spirit.

Topics include: revisiting cosmology; hands on teaching on deliverance, inner and physical healing; the importance of forgiveness; freedom from the stronghold of shame, fear and control; deliverance from micro and macro powers; hearing the voice of God; adoption and empowerment.

Bob Ekblad and the Tierra Nueva staff will provide the teaching, worship leading and personal ministry.

When and Where: Sunday night July 26, 4:30pm – Thursday night July 30 @ 10pm At Tierra Nueva, 102 N. Pine, Burlington, WA

Cost: $145 per person or $200 per couple.

Lodging at New Earth refuge $20 a night (single bunk beds in separate women and men’s dorms) or $75 for four nights.

To register or for more information contact
and/or check our website www.tierra-nueva.org

The last two Wednesday evenings Tierra Nueva pastoral colleague Emily Martin has taken me with her to visit Mixteco-speaking farm workers from Oaxaca, Mexico who have been attending our Sunday evening Spanish service. The new arrivals from Oaxaca are some of the poorest of Mexico’s poor. They come from remote, impoverished villages where they have had minimal access to education, running water, electricity and health care. They come desperate for work on local farms to sustain their families.

I make my way up rickety stairs and knock on a hollow door before entering into a run-down room full of people and minimal furnishings. Luisa, a Mixteco woman in her early 30s nurses her infant on a stained mattress that takes up 1/3 of the room. Teen girls have big banana leaves laid out on the kitchen counter that they’re busy dishing corn, chicken and sauce into to make tamales. Paulino and his uncle Raul greet me politely, pulling out a child-size plastic chair for me in the center of the room. Raul is tired for a hard day’s work near the Canadian border where he was planting blueberries.

This night Emily download and burned onto a disk a recorded message from globalrecordings.net in these people’s particular dialect of Mixteco that effectively summarizes Abraham and Sarah’s story in Genesis. The 10-12 people living in this one-room apartment all gather around a near broken down CD player and listen intently, smiling and nodding as they hear of Abram and Sarai’s journey as migrants from Ur to the foreign land of Canaan spoken in their own language.

A 16-year-old boy holds a flip chart of drawings of Abram and Sarai’s life that goes with the recordings. This boy was recently released from an immigration detention center for minors after spending four months in custody after U.S. Internal Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided his apartment. They had deported all the adults but kept him detained in a special house for minors in Seattle since he’s an orphan with no home to deport him back to– until Emily negotiated his release to family and her own custody.

I summarize the story, emphasizing God’s call to leave all securities behind in order to be blessed and consequently become a blessing to every family on earth. These people had already left everything, embarked on a precarious journey and are here in what they thought might be a sort of Canaan. Will God meet them here as God had met Abram and Sarai when they came into new, foreign territory?

We ask if anyone needs prayer, and Paulino motions to his wife Luisa, who child now lays fast asleep in her arms.

Paulino interprets as she tells us how she hasn’t been able to lift anything heavy due to severe pain in her stomach just below her rib cage. She also has lots of pain when she tries to move her head from side to side. I invite people to put out their hands to receive the Holy Spirit. Then we lay hands on the Luisa and pray for relief. “What are you feeling I ask?” All she says is “ini” (heat). I ask her to move her head from side to side to see if there’s improvement and she says it’s lessening. We pray again and keep asking her. When it’s time to go she says the pain is all gone. Later in the week we learn that she is able to lift with no pain in her stomach. The following Wednesday we learn that many suffer from regular night mares. We invite them to place their hands on their own heads and we pray for God’s protection and relief: for dreams from heaven to replace night terrors. People are desperate for Jesus’ help and openly receive and seem to benefit almost immediately.

Last Sunday other farm workers showed up at our Spanish service. We saw five people we prayed for healed of different chronic aches and pains. It is beautiful to see people experience the reality of God—even though many still struggle to pay rent, find adequate work and help their children succeed in our complicated school system.

Signs of God’s Kingdom here but not yet are evident in the following testimony by a beloved Tierra Nueva community member Susannah Reyes.

“As I attended the past seminar at Tierra Nueva, one of the most incredible things happened to me on the last night.

I usually watch people receive prayer and have watched some overcome by the Spirit. They are sometimes not able to stand, because they are so overcome. I’ve sat back and watched this with some skepticism, yet wanting it so much to happen to me. I wanted it so much, I guess I wasn’t allowing it to happen. The more I wanted it, the further it got away from me. Or maybe the Lord knew I wasn’t ready.

Anyway, the person giving me a ride was leaving early. I got up to leave, but Elizabeth asked me to wait and receive prayer. So I stayed to worship and pray once again. Another person offered to give me a ride, so again I got up to leave. Once again, Elizabeth intervened and asked me to stay and receive prayer. So I stayed and returned to prayer.

I am an addict in recovery. I have been in remission for two years. As I stood there deep in silent prayer, I was asking for forgiveness for having been an addict and all of the hurt and wrongs I had done to my family and others, and also the magnificent temple God had given me to care for. All of a sudden I felt Bob’s hand on my forehead and he said, “You are not an addict.” At that moment I felt something deep from the pit of my stomach come up and out of my chest. It was so intense I couldn’t stand and felt myself falling. I had finally totally been overcome by the Holy Spirit. I lay there in total peace for some while.

That experience freed me. My identity was no longer an addict named Susannah. I am Susannah and I have a disease called addiction. God released me from this horrible bondage. God heard my heart. I am God’s child!”

Susannah wrote this testimony just a few days before she was found dead in her apartment by TN staff member Elizabeth—our beloved Susannah had passed away of natural causes.

Please pray for Susannah’s family and join us in thanking God for her beautiful testimony and her life. Pray for God’s continued presence and ongoing signs of Jesus’ Kingdom here and now as we minister to Mixteco and Triqui farm workers here in our valley.

I am convinced that God is longing to take us deeper into Jesus’ death and resurrection this Easter and beyond.

I have been meditating on Jesus’ words in Matthew 12:40 “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign shall be given it but the sign of Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

In the past I interpreted Jesus ’offer here to give his contemporaries the sign of Jonah as something less than the signs that people craved. But Jesus really wanted to do far more for people. He came to die at human hands to undo the power of sin and death forever. He carried the world’s sins and sicknesses, violence and oppression with him to death and burial into the heart of the earth. He did this in total submission to the Father’s will, yielding himself up to death. He showed us the way into the deepest place of baptismal death, demonstrating total trust in God.

Baptismal death is the way forward to life empowered by the Spirit– who raised Jesus from the dead.

Think about Jonah. When the storm was raging, threatening to sink the boat, the pagan sailors are described as knowing that Jonah was fleeing God’s Presence. “What should we do to you that the sea may become calm for us?” they asked him (Jonah 1:11). Jonah responded: “Pick me up and throw me into the sea (1:12). Rather than take the whole ship down with him because of his rebellion, Jonah submits to God’s judgment– or to the consequences of his rebellion. He cries out from inside a fish that God sends to swallow him:

“You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the current engulfed me. All your breakers and billows passed over me… I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever. But you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. (John 2:3,6).

Jonah partially embodies baptismal death and new resurrection life that Paul describes in Romans 6. “Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”

Resurrection power follows baptismal death in the life of Jonah and Jesus. Once vomited out by the whale Jonah heeds the original call to preach to his national enemies, the people of Ninevah. The anointing was apparently so strong on Jonah’s preaching that the whole city believed in God, repenting in sackcloth and ashes visible on everyone from the King to the animals.

After Jesus’ baptism and wilderness temptations we see amazing power and authority. Fishermen drop their nets and immediately follow him and everyone who is sick and demonized are healed and delivered (Matt 4:18-25).

Yet the sign of Jonah Jesus describes does not include the resurrection. The sign Jesus leaves his compatriots with and us too this Good Friday is simple and radical: submission to God to the point of death.

Today I feel called by the Spirit to once again lay down my life, my agendas, my theology, my everything in total submission to the Father. Jesus himself calls disciples to take up their crosses daily and follow him. Where he goes is to the cross. It is there that he saves us as we are crucified with him—the righteous for the unrighteous to bring us to God (1 Peter 3:18).

God can only resurrect the one who has died. This Good Friday and Easter weekend let us yield ourselves totally to God— not out of despair but in hope: ”But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who indwells you” (Romans 8:12). Blessed Easter death and resurrection.

Come to Tierra Nueva’s School of Transformational Ministry: Going Deeper—Word, Spirit, and Street

Dates: Friday, May 1 at 6:00pm – Friday, May 22 at 10:00pm

Here at Tierra Nueva we are seeking the Gospel that has the power to save people on the margins and mainstream of society from powers that oppress. We have been ministering among poor peasants in Honduras since 1982 and working with immigrants, inmates, ex-offenders and gang members in Washington’s Skagit Valley since 1994. Learn about particular challenges and approaches to sharing the Good News of God’s transformational love in Jesus with marginalized people in North America. Join Tierra Nueva’s ministry workers and worshipping community for three weeks focused on experiencing God’s transforming love, following Jesus, and participating in the Kingdom of God here and now. Live together with others in a lush forest alongside the Skagit River at New Earth Refuge—a beautiful new retreat center on the Ekblad’s 35 acre property. Join us in a new move of the Holy Spirit to bring together orientations that are too often kept separate in the body of Christ: word, spirit and street.

Word

How do we read the Bible with all our questions, integrating both head and heart? What does it look like to read the Bible with people who consider themselves damned? Who is Jesus and how did he come to fulfill the Old Testament? What was his ministry in his context and what might that look like in today’s world? Explore Biblical perspectives on salvation, healing, and deliverance, as well as advocacy, peace-making/reconciliation, forgiveness and prophetic ministry.

Spirit

Enter into a deeper encounter with God through immersion in the Holy Spirit. Spend quality time in worship, contemplative prayer, and soaking prayer as the wellspring of daily activity. Receive God’s love and liberation for yourself and learn how to flow in the grace and power of the Spirit. What are the gifts of the Spirit? How do gifts awakened by the Spirit guide us in life and ministry, into hearing from God and entering the Kingdom? How does the Holy Spirit guide our theological reflection and Scripture reading? Special emphasis will be placed on learning how to hear the voice of God for personal direction, healing and deliverance, group discernment, and local, national and global social issues.

Street

Learn about the streets and the margins, with a special focus on Tierra Nueva’s context. What are some of the burning social issues of our time that affect people on the margins? Meet farm workers, ex-offenders, gang members, judges, prosecutors, public defenders and others who work with people on the margins of American society. Learn about social advocacy from Tierra Nueva ministry workers who work with ex-offenders, gang members and immigrants. Visit courts and migrant camps. Read and discuss books and watch provocative films.

Schedule and Themes

The journey begins on Friday, May 1 at 6:00 pm with introductions, worship, teaching and prayer. On Sunday morning we will join the 16th Annual Farm Worker Solidarity March, walking with farm laborers and advocates from Burlington to Mount Vernon. In the evening we will eat and worship together at Tierra Nueva’s bilingual service. Each day following will begin with worship, followed by morning sessions on key topics relating to our themes of Word, Spirit and Street. Afternoon sessions will vary between hearing from judges, gang members, farm workers and TN community members regarding aspects of advocacy and accompaniment of people on the margins. There will be many opportunities to receive prayer ministry. There will also be opportunities for quiet time, recreation and celebration. Topics covered throughout the course include:

History, Vision & Mission of Tierra Nueva

Knowing the God of love and experiencing God’s Spirit of adoption

The Ministry of Jesus and the Kingdom of God

Understanding Baptism and Christian identity & authority

The gifts of the Spirit & the five-fold ministries

Cosmology 101: The problem of evil and Jesus’ cross

Developing a real-world (contextual) theology appropriate to the margins

Poverty and social marginalization North and South

Sustainable development, relief and accompaniment

Developing a Biblical understanding of prophetic ministry in personal ministry and social engagement

Being Guided by the Spirit in Ministry

Developing and leading contextual Bible Studies

Faith Formation and leading not-yet-believing people into a living relationship with God

Faith formation for people on the margins

Healing Prayer

Facilitating deliverance from powers that oppress

Christian non-violence

Pastoral Ministry and spiritual accompaniment

Understanding the legal system, advocacy & accompaniment

Advocacy before other government institutions & the social welfare system

Prophetic Evangelism

Preventative health & self-care: hygiene, nutrition and exercise

Required Reading (ideally before arriving)

Bob Ekblad, Reading the Bible with the Damned, Westminster John Knox: Louisville, 2005.

Heidi Baker and Shara Pradhan, Compelled by Love: How to change the world through the simple power of love in action, (Mary Lake: Charisma House, 2008).

Brad Jersak, Can You Hear Me? Tuning in to the God who speaks, (Abbotsford: Fresh Wind, 2003).

Charles .H. Kraft, Deep Wounds, Deep Healing, (Tonbridge, Kent: Sovereign World, 1993).

Fees (partial scholarships may be available)

Tuition $600

Accommodation $340

Food $460

Total $1400

If you have questions or are interested in applying please contact us at

Check for more information soon at www.bobekblad.com or www.tierra-nueva.org

“And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed (Mark 16:20).

In early January Nick Bryant and I spent a week visiting our Honduran Tierra Nueva colleagues. We weren’t sure how we would find the ministry, since we hadn’t sent any money down to pay our original 15 village trainers (promotores) for over a year. We have been importing specialty coffee from them and had helped them set up a water purification and bottling plant as a micro-business to supplement their subsistence farming.

Our hope has been to see a new movement of the Spirit really get ignited that will engage new and younger leaders in Jesus’ ministry among impoverished Honduran peasants. We had been dreaming with TN coordinator Angel David about ordinary poor people being empowered by the Holy Spirit to announce Good News of God’s transforming love—with signs following to confirm the words.

We have always been about concrete signs of God’s love— which have included gravity flow water projects, contoured terraces of corn and beans,intensive gardens, composting latrines, preventive health education, and reconciliation between enemies and different streams of Christians. But we all need more of God’s love coming into our lives over and over again in both social and personal ways.

On this trip we took along John Arnott and his grandson James from Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship in Toronto. John is a veteran pastor and leader of a movement that began in Toronto 15 years ago when the Holy Spirit came more powerfully than anyone was used to, transforming people’s lives in amazing ways. He and his grandson are very humble and open people who long to see God’s Kingdom come. We all got to see the love of God poured out over and over everywhere we went—which included people’s homes, village churches, community centers, coffee farms and the airport.

We rented a Toyoto 4×4 pickup that was nearly always packed out with our Honduran colleagues and new, younger people who joined us as we traveled from village to village. John generously provided money so TN could throw two entire village feasts— the first ever that people could remember in both Mal Paso and Las Delicias. Over 200 people showed up for each feast—first to worship and then to hear teaching or participate in a dialogical Bible study. We then invited people in need of healing to come forward.

In Las Delicias it seemed that nearly everyone came forward for prayer—including the village Pentecostal pastor, Catholic lay leaders and many who do not normally participate in church. The first person we prayed for described feeling heat throughout their body and immediate and complete relief from their back and neck pain.

We had this man lay hands on the next person— who experienced the same sense of God’s burning presence and total healing. Immediately we would recruit anyone who was experiencing God’s Presence to help pray for others. It was delightful to watch people witness God’s power flowing through them— effecting change that was immediate and visible. After each healing in Las Delicias we would give a round of applause for Jesus after each testimony. People were so excited to see God moving like this that they didn’t even seem to want to eat.

In several houses where we met and prayed for people we saw person after person experience God’s Presence, which brought healing, peace, joy and new hope.

In one house John showed us how to pray for an older man who had a leg that was over an inch shorter than the other due to a lower back and hip problem. He had the man sit tight against a chair and gently held his legs out as we all prayed. A whole room full of people watched the leg actually adjust out so they matched.

When I returned home I remembered this during a jail Bible study as I was looking at Joe—a strapping young part Native American, Hispanic and Caucasian guy with a Mohawk who stood with shoulders sloping leftward complaining of bad back pain. I had him sit down with his back against the chair—and sure enough one leg was over an inch longer than the other. Seven or so inmates and I gathered around him as I held his legs out and we invited the Holy Spirit. His leg adjusted out to match the other one right there in front of everyone, with guys commenting “it’s efing growing dude, check it out.”

Joe was totally healed and looked shocked and really touched as he noticed his shoulders were level. His fellow inmates told me he talked about all the time until he left for three years in prison last Tuesday.

Last week when I attended a pastors conference in Toronto I got to see the love of God poured out once again in a generous offering taken for Tierra Nueva. $42,000 was given, allowing us to purchase a 16-acre specialty coffee farm that we had visited during our trip. This farm will help sustain Tierra Nueva’s growing house church movement in Honduras (Hogares en Tranformacion) and our Underground Coffee project to help ex-offender and gang members called into ministry here in Washington State. Last week we completed the purchase of this farm and even began our first coffee harvest. You might want to try some of this delicious coffee, which you can order online at www.tierra-nueva.org

Please pray for Angel David as he pastors a growing group of young and older leaders committed to announcing God’s Kingdom- on earth as in heaven from house to house and village to village in Honduras. We want to see a growing harvest of people so delighted by the reality of God’s love streaming into their lives that they can’t resist passing it on.

Recently an old childhood friend Steve Klippert wrote me an email, recounting to me an amazing story of healing of cancer and diabetes. Somehow I was involved in this healing—but certainly not through any prayers I am consciously aware of praying over him. I had long forgotten this friend from grade school, and hadn’t had any contact for some 40 years. I have been praying quite regularly in the spirit throughout the day and at night for the past year. I have felt compelled to do this as an act of pure faith. I have also been asking God for breakthroughs with diabetes, as many of our immigrant workers here suffer from this. I am very encouraged to see that God is at work and has linked me back together with a friend who is involved in similar work. Here is his amazing testimony of healing and renewal of friendship and a call to pray for Jose’s healing too.

Testimony

My name is Steve Klippert. Shortly after moving hundreds of miles from my home where we’d lived for decades, I became very ill. The original diagnosis was a terminal condition called retroperitoneal sarcoma, a very aggressive cancer, with a death rate within five years. This “mass” abutted my kidney and pancreas. After many tests and procedures, specialists surrendered that they had never seen such a thing and that surgery was necessary. The prognosis was not hopeful and my family and I were given five scenarios: 1. mass too involved with other organs and there was nothing they could do; 2, removal of the pancreas; 3. complete bowel resection; 4. removal of mass and hope for the best; and, 5. systemic metastasis (spreading of malignancy) with hospice to be considered. As the surgeons were mystified at this mass, my wife was on standby in case of complications or need to consent to life changing procedures once the operation began. This operation was scheduled for eight hours, but expected to go longer. As we just moved, we had developed only casual friendships and were still looking for a church that was Christ-driven. We were alone and I was mad. Mad at God for sending me away, scaring me and my family, and I told Him so.

On August 20, 2008, as I was being prepped for surgery, I prayed and I was told to “find Bob”. This made little sense to me as I did not know any Bob’s, not even any of the surgical team nor their support staff went by this name. My family and I were alone, as we had only made casual friendships in the area and were still looking for a church that was Christ-driven. After surgery I awoke to amazed faces, my wife in tears and my doctors proclaiming that not only did they not find any cancer, but the mass (the size of a lemon) was successfully removed. Furthermore, I was not confined to intensive care.

I immediately got out of bed, a remarkable feat when considering the surgery, the ng (nasal gastric) tube, carotid artery port, catheter, and various machines I was attached, to find “Bob.” This was my mission, my quest that had to have an end, a meaning more than just a mere message. I only returned to my bed under the threat of physical restraint. It was that night that I felt the warmth, security and essence of God who told me softly, but firmly that I must find an old school pal that I had not seen or heard from in forty years named Bob Ekblad. This mystified me as I did not know where he was or even if he was alive. Once released, I would try to “find Bob”.

On August 25, after several days in hospital I was given solid food and the nurse brought me a regular meal: pancakes with syrup, toast with jelly and a cinnamon roll. I was astonished to see this as I was a diabetic and these sugary delights were forbidden. I ate with the finesse of a toddler, scooping the sappy grape jelly from its plastic hold when a nurse came in screaming: “The doctor forgot to order a special diet. Stop eating, it could kill you!” My blood sugar was taken…normal. They again took my blood sugar…normal. An endocrinologist was summoned and stated my diabetes was cured; he called it a “medical anomaly”, I call it God’s grace.

Once home, I googled Bob Ekblad, half expecting to find nothing or discover him selling insurance in Omaha. I read about Bob, his work with convicts and how his ministry was similar to mine as I also work with felony offenders.

I currently work for the New York State Department of Corrections in Albany, New York. I am responsible for policy management, implementation of alcohol and substance abuse treatment programs for several State prisons, the most notable is Attica Correctional Facility. Before these administrative efforts, I supervised a staff of 16 counselors and previously was a ‘front-line’ counselor working with violent felony offenders, many with life terms. I have witnessed the grace of God in many of their lives and I am especially grateful for your [Tierra Nueva’s] community reintegration efforts with those society considers to be the least, last and lost.

I realize how God through his children intercedes in miracles. If you are troubled, “find your Bob” you will not have to look that far.

In response to my question: “why do you think God wanted you to find me?” Steve wrote:

“My thinking is that you provided the answer during our phone call when you stated that you have been praying intensely and anonymously. Perhaps God wants to remind us of the power of intercession and that His will comes to those we do not know or have forgotten; that as flawed and frail humans all of us need some encouragement with something tangible and concrete and that the power of healing is not a myth or parlor game.

My first feelings were denial in “finding Bob”. I initially thought it was a result of medication or that I heard somebody looking for “Bob”. However, this message was not an echo or aberration; it was set deep within and the more I tried to ignore it, the more life it had. I became frustrated at the lack of clarity… “find Bob”. Bob who? How many Bobs did I know? Maybe I thought it was a coded message, but no matter what Bob spelled backwards was still “Bob”. Discovering the essence of this meaning became somewhat of an adventure. Every time somebody came into my room I espied their name tags, listened for nicknames or maybe I would be referred to a specialist named “Bob”.

For me in my work and continuing relationship with God, I see despair, humans who live life backwards, killing time; the keeper vs. the kept. I dwelt in this environment, adversarial without end, merit or rationale. Faith is not only tested, it is questioned. Christ knows this and He is a pretty funny guy. Here He knows I am lost, feeling abandoned and sets me off on an adventure. Not just an ordinary adventure, but an adventure to “find Bob”. Darn slick. Through you which was through Him I am healed, WOW! Not only have I been restored, but my guess is so have you. Could ANYBODY think of a more incredible scenario.. who would have ‘thunk’? Imagine me barely able to sit, plucking away at the computer and finding your ministry! It all makes sense.

Here’s a challenge- call someone, maybe your parents or a friend, tell them this story. Not that credibility is an issue, but I have all the supporting documentation for those who ask. I feel your hand upon my scar and with that an image of a man sitting on a padded surface (bed or futon like contraption) bent over engulfed in prayer. This will not leave me. I do not debate this, analyze its existence or disguise it in hyperbole. It is a core construct, that which transcends and transmutes all I have known before. I am truly blessed in the spirit and so are you. God touched you to touch me…Bob Ekblad from Bellevue Christian School, the kid who used to keep his ten speed bike in his bedroom. Is NOT Christ the coolest or what!! You know Christ and His father are high fiving over this..what a perfect plan!

He told me: “Steve and Bob, my precious children, I am not done with you yet. You must carry this living gift to all you see, through your healing others will follow. This is my design and now your duty and obligation. I spin stars upon my fingers and cure disease. You are the proof of my everlasting love and mercy”.

Praying for Jose

Three weeks ago, Stuart, a friend who owns the little grocery store by our house asked me to visit his Mexican friend Jose. Jose has stomach cancer and diabetes. The doctors have said he won’t live till Christmas. He wants to be sure his wife and children will have his social security benefits once he dies. I visited him and his family, prayed for his healing and anointed the hands of his wife and children with oil to continue praying. At that time Jose couldn’t eat but was fed through a feeding tube that went directly into his stomach. He could hardly get up from his hospice-provided hospital bed in their apartment. Gracie and I just visited them tonight and were startled by the change. Jose was up and eating at table with his family.

“I feel much better. The doctors think I’m eating just a little, but I’m eating a lot,” he said, smiling. His wife said that they have been praying together every night and feel God’s peace.

“Before we never prayed, but all of this is bringing us close to God,” she said. I told them the story of how God healed Steve of cancer in his stomach and diabetes and they were delighted. We were moved by Jose’s visible faith. We gathered around him and together with his wife Maria and three children we prayed for his complete healing.

Please pray for Jose with us—that God would completely heal him and bring others to faith through his testimony.

On November 4, election day here in the USA, I had the privilege of speaking before some 2,000 students and faculty at Messiah College in Pennsylvania. An orchestra played at the beginning while young women students processed in carrying flags of all the nations. The students lifted high their flags, and I kept thinking that these symbols of national identity were taking people’s focus off the human beings carrying them—made in God’s image and likeness. The girls placed all the flags into stands and I was surprised that the American flag was in the second row, somewhat hidden. After the opening prayer though I opened my eyes to find the flag had crept to the front left corner—the most prominent position. I thought of the first commandment:

“I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything… you shall not bow down to them or serve them” (Exod 20:1-4).

The prohibition of images is because human beings are God’s image bearers, created and placed in the temple of God’s creation as those given authority to exercise dominion (Gen 1:27-28; Psalm 8) over all of creation—including the authorities and powers. Moses, the prototype human being in a prophetic role before the powers was to be “as God to Pharaoh” (Exod 7:1).

That morning I spoke on how God had elected each and every one of us, adopting us as beloved sons and daughters. Each of us are made in God’s image and likeness, and Jesus is the perfect embodiment of an empowered bearer of God’s image. He is God’s anointed one, the Messiah/Christ, and God has raised us with Christ and made us sit with him in the heavenly places now (Eph 2:6). Through his Holy Spirit we too receive the anointing, and become little anointed ones (christians or anointlings).

On election day and thereafter, when we may tend to put hope in candidates and even “a new spirit of patriotism” (Obama) I invite people to remember rather that God has chosen each one of us, and is recruiting us and empowering us with the Holy Spirit to follow Jesus to announce his Kingdom, on earth as in heaven.

This does not mean we do not vote or promote structural change. We are called to be advocates for the poor and oppressed, to pray for our leaders and even to submit to them— but never at the expense of our highest allegiance to Jesus and his kingdom. But now is the time to remember that deep change does not happen through elections or legislation but through the process of conversion and empowerment from the bottom up.

In subsequent chapel later last week I introduced the US version of the Jesus Pledge, which I am including below. I encourage you to prayerfully read it and consider joining a group we’ve just set up on my facebook—where we’ve posted an international version of the Jesus Pledge (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=49000126270)

The Jesus Pledge

What is the Jesus Pledge? A movement of Christians from the United States who feel compelled at this time to reaffirm our allegiance to Jesus as Lord and Christ, and the cross as God’s way of overcoming evil. We, therefore, give our allegiance to Jesus and the pursuit of God’s kingdom above all else, and renounce allegiances to nation that in any way compromise our calling and identify us with war and the use of force instead of Jesus’ life-giving love displayed in his earthly ministry and in his death for the world on the cross.

Manifesto

We confess that Jesus is Lord, the full revelation of the God of the Old Testament and that before Him every knee will bow. We confess that Jesus is Christ, Israel’s Messiah, and Savior of the world who conquered the power of evil on the cross. We agree with Jesus’ call to undivided allegiance to God: “No one can serve two masters…” (Matt 6:24), and “Love the Lord your God with all your heart…and your neighbor as yourself.” We also reaffirm that: “God so loved the world…” and now sends us with that same love to our society’s outcasts and our country’s enemies. Like Jesus, we must say ‘yes’ to the kingdom of God, and ‘no’ to all allegiances that compromise the furthering of that kingdom.

As followers of Jesus Christ who are citizens of the United States, we are troubled when God’s name is overly identified with our country’s wars and laws through Christians remaining silent or actively promoting them as ordained by God. We believe any union between the name of Jesus and our government and its leaders is both idolatrous and a hindrance to the witness of the Church. Killing our enemies and enforcing dehumanizing laws in the name of God deny Jesus’ call to love our enemies and to join him as a “friend of sinners.” This is the time for genuine, widespread repentance and change.

Pledge

As a follower of Jesus Christ, and in keeping with my baptismal vows:

I renounce allegiances to the world and nation that would lead me to justify the use of violence, war or any type of force that are incompatible with Jesus’ teachings and his witness on the cross. I affirm God’s mission for the Church to serve as ambassadors of the kingdom of God, announcing forgiveness, promoting healing, peace and reconciliation – by loving and blessing those considered our enemies.

I renounce the flesh as it manifests in a spirit of national pride, superiority and self-interest that pursues our nation’s dominance for our own economic and material benefit and security. I affirm that my primary earthly place of belonging, identity and loyalty is in Jesus Christ and his body — the borderless, worldwide family of God, and embrace his way of humility, service and love of God and neighbor.

I renounce Satan, the accuser and deceiver, and turn from his lie that America is God’s elect ambassador of freedom and Christian values whose mission justifies and requires the sacrifice of human lives. I affirm God’s kingdom as manifested through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and through his Church empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Action

I encourage you to join our group on facebook http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=49000126270 and watch for a website we’re setting up jesuspledge.com where we want to provide resources to a growing movement of Christians seeking greater faithfulness and commitment.

A bunch of us at Tierra Nueva got together a few weeks ago to talk about our Spanish worship service. The tremendous diversity that is typically referred to as the “Hispanic community” has challenged us to re-think how we move forward with our faith community.

Most of the farm workers these days are far from fluent in Spanish and far from Christian. They speak Triqui and Mixteco and pay homage to a diversity of gods and goddesses. Many go to brujos (traditional healers/witch doctors) and practice a very syncretistic religion. They need to be introduced to Jesus through direct prayer and simple but dynamic Bible study. They also need church to come to their apartments or camps as they work long hours, and have large families of kids that need to get off to school early. So we’ve decided to make our Sunday night Spanish service shorter and simpler and visit people and establish faith communities in people’s homes using Luke 10 as a model.

In Luke 10 Jesus sends 70 recently appointed disciples two-by-two into every town and place. They are to look for sons/daughters of peace who will receive them. In India and Mozambique the body of Christ is growing fastest through leaders who spiritually discern which homes to visit and then practice Jesus’ approach of blessing people with peace, not moving from house to house, eating with the people, praying for this sick and announcing “the Kingdom of God has come near to you.” I got to experience the power of this last night and Salvio, Victoria, Emily, Mike, Chris and others at Tierra Nueva are stepping out in this way too.

Last night Emily encouraged me to call on a Triqui-speaking family who hadn’t been coming to Tierra Nueva for many months. Unfortunately I went alone, but you can come along now back into this encounter. After dropping my son Luke off at gymnastics I called Felipe (not his real name) who welcomed me to his apartment without hesitating. As soon as I stepped through their door Alejandra (not her real name) sat me down, offered me a soft drink and brought a bowl full of hot tortillas and meat to me and Felipe.

I wondered if they were discouraged because Alejandra had been healed of a swollen and painful leg problem several times, but the pain kept returning. I suggested that maybe it’s possible to lose healing if you are going to more than one god for help. I invited Felipe to read Exodus 20:1-4 and learned that he hadn’t been able to read for a long time, which I figured was because he’s 50 and probably needs reading glasses like Gracie and I do. In fact this had frustrated him, causing him to lose interest in our Bible studies. I suggested that we go together later to get some glasses at Food Pavilion, and then read Exodus 20:1ff’s “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me” and talked briefly about how God wants us to recognize only one healer/liberator/savior—who we know as Jesus.

“Like you Felipe or me, how would you feel about Alejandra being with another man while she’s with you?” I asked him. He shook his head. They had a big poster on their wall with the American flag on it and I said “in America many Christians pray to Jesus but also believe in the flag and put their trust in the political system. Maybe it’s because we don’t trust that only Jesus can rescue us. We want to be sure we’re protected so we go to more than one god. Does that happen in Oaxaca?” I asked. He nodded reflectively. I then asked if we could pray again for Alejandra.

Before we began praying Felipe started chatting away in Triqui to his wife. I asked him what he was saying and said he was explaining to Alejandra that we can only serve one God. I was super encouraged that he explained it to her completely on his own. I prayed for her but nothing changed. “It’s the same,” she said matter of factly. He told me more freely that he thought it was witchcraft. So we prayed against that, but Alejandra said the pain was still there. I asked if they had an idea of who is cursing them. First he said he didn’t know. Then when I kept asking he said he thought it was his ex-wife who was mad at him for leaving her in Mexico years before and not sending money, and then for his relationship with Alejandra.

I talked with Alejandra about how important forgiveness is and she forgave without hesitation. Then I prayed, sending back blessings, love and peace to the woman who cursed them and to the brujo/a. After this prayer Alejandra said all the pain left and a big smile came on her face.

After praying for Alejandra I said “let’s go to Food Pavilion Felipe to get you some glasses,” and off we went in his van. It was fun choosing the glasses together, trying to figure out the strength and model. We came back and we tested out his new glasses by him reading Romans 12:21 “do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” We had talked about this before we sent back blessings, peace and love to their enemy, and Felipe smiled and was really into the verse and excited he can read again. It brought us all great joy to see the Kingdom of God come close. So much joy that I can’t wait to go out again.

A week ago Sunday I returned from four intense days in Guatemala City working with “Estrategia de Transformacion,” an initiative that supports, encourages and trains a group of ex-gang members and committed pastors engaged in transformational work with active gang members. I also visited a former Tierra Nueva colleague who now works in a project to exhume, identify and photograph the remains of indigenous people massacred by the military in the 1980s. The trip was a home-coming of sorts as Guatemala was the place God called me to work with the poor and where I’d called Gracie asking her to marry me during some of the worst violence of a civil war in 1980.

I hadn’t been to Guatemala in 20 years, but there I was, this time to go into two prisons housing some of the most violent gang members and to train chaplains and ministry workers who currently serve the poorest of the poor. What a privilege! But my memory of the terror from the violence was also rekindled. Torture, savage killings and beheading commonplace in 1980-81, fed by US policy, are still happening, now among rival gangs of young men and the police—and the fatherless young gang members are being scapegoated for nearly everything, including the violence they have inherited.

Joel Van Dyke leads this gang ministry and hosted us. Joel is a street-wise Christian Reformed pastor/missionary and Latin American Director for the Center for Transforming Mission who’s been in Guatemala 4-5 years. He’s full of vision and passion to develop the chaplaincy ministry and many other initiatives after pastoring an inner-city church in Philadelphia for some 15 years. The first day Joel and a Guatemalan chaplain took Chris, Angel David (whose been with Tierra Nueva Honduras for 25 years) and me into the gang wing of a big prison guarded by machine-gun toting soldiers.

The guards opened the doors and left us off in the midst of 180 young men, many with tattoos covering their faces and upper bodies. Unlike our local jail, marijuana smoke, cell phone calls, a prostitute and dispute over a woman made it hard to get people’s attention for the Bible study. But we were able to get away with what we do best in Skagit County Jail. Chris played and sang over the men after I asked permission to lay hands on each one and pray for God’s Presence to heal, fill and bless them. I could sense that each hardened guy softened as I prayed, but the men had to be careful not to express outwardly that they were being positively affected.

Churches are viewed as rival gangs, and often act that way—pulling people away from their most functional family of “homies” into something often marked by legalism and exclusivity. The gangs are even more legalistic and brutal. Two of the chaplains who visit another prison shared with us that five inmates who accepted Christ and expressed a desire to change were found dead the next day, executed by fellow gang members, a warning to others not to leave the flock. Yet a number of guys told me privately afterward that they appreciated the Bible study on receiving Jesus as their personal body guard—a particular reading I do of Psalm 23 and Luke 15. I was disturbed to learn from Joel, who just finished his doctoral thesis on the gangs, that as many as 80% of the gangsters are from evangelical homes. Legalism begets legalism unless it is directly confronted and healed by Jesus’ grace and love.

That afternoon we got a tour of a forensic laboratory that deeply moved me. There we saw the bones of men, women and children exhumed from mass graves in the highlands. We were shown skulls and entire skeletons that were respectfully laid out on tables so the technicians could determine, age, identity and cause of death. I was shown bullet holes in many of the skulls, including that of a 16 year old girl. We saw storage rooms full of cardboard boxes with the already inspected remains of hundreds of yet unclaimed people labeled by name, site, village and region. My former colleague told us the lab has processed 5,000 of the 200,000+ ”disappeared” by the military during the 1980s. What is the link between the violence of the civil war and the gangs? I continue to wonder.

The next day we went to Central America’s most infamous prison to visit the gang member inmates of perhaps the most notorious gang in the Western Hemisphere. They’re arch-enemies of the gang we’d visited the day before and had proved it three years before by killing and beheading 45 of their members.

Once again the guards let us in with 110 or so inmates. We hang out and talk with a number of men, some of whom had first joined the gang while living in Los Angeles before they did prison time in the US and were deported. I later heard from Joel that many of the gang members had lost their fathers to the death squads or the war in the 1980s. Adrift and afraid, many migrated as young teens to the USA, often ending up selling drugs and joining a gang.

A few days before leaving for Guatemala I had a dream of a heavily-tattooed gangster with a hole in his right side. I saw someone fitting that description, and ended up needing to ask him where I could find a bathroom. I followed him into the dark recesses of the prison, and after using the toilet he humbly asked me if I’d like to see his cell. There in the cell this man who’d been shot in his lower abdomen, sentenced to over 120 years, one of the top chiefs of this gang invited me to sit down on a plastic chair and hear about his belief in God. I offered him a CD of contemplative flute music for worship and a copy of my book Reading the Bible with the Damned, which he warmly accepted. We prayed together for God’s peace and presence in his life and he was very grateful.

From there we went straight into Chris singing over a group of 40 or so inmates, while I once again was granted permission to lay hands and pray over each one. I then led a reflection on the call of Matthew in what turned out to be a breakthrough Bible study. I described how Matthew was a tax-collector—a member of a notorious class of people that nearly everyone hated.

“Who might fit the description of tax-collectors today?” I asked. Gangs in Guatemala force businesses in their territories to pay “protection taxes” [from themselves] and taxi drivers to pay “circulation taxes”- and the men smiled and looked at each other, acknowledging that they fit the description.

“So what was Matthew doing when Jesus called him?” I ask. The men look surprised when they note that he wasn’t following any rules, seeking God or doing anything religious, but practicing his despised trade when Jesus showed up on the street and chose him.

“So let’s see if Jesus made Matthew leave his gang to be a Christian,” I suggest, and people look closely at the next verse. There Jesus is eating at Matthew’s house with other tax-collectors and sinners and the disciples.

“So who followed whom?” I ask, excited to see people’s reaction. The men could see the Jesus had apparently followed gangster Matthew into his barrio and joined his homies for a meal.

“So what do you think you guys, would you let Jesus join your gang?” I ask, looking directly to the two chiefs of the gang? They both had big smiles as we looked at Jesus’ reaction to the Pharisees’ distain.

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” I ask them if they are at all offended to think of themselves as sick—and they don’t seem to be at all. I’ve got their attention and Jesus’ final word to the religious insiders hits these guys like a spray of spiritual bullets from a drive by:

“Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” I knew from experience that they were letting Jesus inside and hearing his call to follow. Last Thursday back in our local jail two groups of ten inmates all welcomed Jesus into their cells and into their lives after talking through this same Scripture with them.

But that day we still had to leave the prison. On our way out I wonder about the warden just as Joel suggests we thank him. We step into his office and shake hands. I acknowledge that he has a very complicated job needing lots of wisdom and ask if we can pray for him and bless him. “Bueno” he says, and I ask if we can lay hands on him. He accepts but just as we begin praying he suddenly pulls out his hand gun, takes out the clip and empties his pockets of other clips. “This is more proper!” he says, placing his gun and ammunition atop his file cabinet. He receives our blessing and we offer to pray for healing for an injury related to a machete fight that left his arm, shoulder and chest with shooting pain.

“All the pain is gone,” he tells us with a grin after we pray. We leave amazed by the truly special unique Spirit who disarms and loves both gangsters and warden.
That night and the next day we ministered to the seven chaplains and some 50 ministry workers, teaching on forgiveness and praying for God’s Spirit to refresh and renew people. The Holy Spirit came in beautiful ways, with lots of crying and people all wanting prayer. Angel David was delighted to see how God visibly touched these spiritually hungry men and women as we prayed together over each one.
I am sure there’s a need for more and more of God’s healing, transforming presence—brought right into the heart of the places of greatest wounding and pain. I’m also certain that honestly facing the truth of Guatemala’s violent past and of America’s participation is critical for forgiveness to lead to true reconciliation and peace.

Please pray for Joel Van Dyke, my former TN colleague, and the gang chaplains and other ministry workers in Guatemala—for strength, empowerment, wisdom and protection. Remember too the gang members both in the prisons and on the streets—that Jesus’ kindness would penetrate and transform hard hearts. Pray too for Angel David, who returned to minister in Honduras, excited to recruit younger people into active ministry to the poor and Chris who is now back in Burlington pasturing his own flock of local gang members. Please keep Gracie and I in your prayers as we leave next week to visit our son Isaac in Argentina.

I’ve felt compelled to preach lately on a story in the gospels that I’ve always disliked and wished I could delete from the Bible. I’ve called it a toxic text in that it seems to depict Jesus as exclusive, unfair, even mean. Now I’m finding this text extremely challenging and even inspiring.

In Matthew 15:21-18 a Canaanite woman comes to Jesus desperate for help for her daughter, who is “cruelly” demonized. Jesus ignores her, rejects her and humiliates her by referring to her as a dog, and then finally relents and delivers her daughter. What is happening in this story? What does it mean for us?

The Syrophonecian woman approaches Jesus desperate for breakthrough. Not a Jew herself, she “comes out” of her region, leaving her allegiances and securities to enter into Jesus’ Jewish world. She exercises exemplary prayer protocol. She cries out, and the text uses the same language as Exodus, where Israelite slaves cry out to God (Ex 3:9). She addresses Jesus by the Greek equivalent of the proper name for Israel’s God, YHWH, Kurios. “Have mercy on me Oh Lord!” She identifies Jesus as “Son of David,” a title that identifies him as Israel’s Messiah.

Jesus doesn’t answer her even a word. Yet the woman presses in, persisting dramatically in her intercession. Jesus’ disciples don’t help either. They cold-heartedly order Jesus: “Send her away, for she is shouting after us” (Matt 15:23). While Jesus doesn’t send her away, he excludes her by saying: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (15:24). How are we to understand the limited ministry priorities of Jesus “only”?

Jesus’ answer shows he still committed to his Father’s agenda to raise up Israel as the kingdom of priests called to be a blessing to every family on the earth (Gen 12:1-3). God had called Abram and Sarai out of Haran, Israel out of Egypt and then again out of Babylon to bring justice to the nations (Isaiah 42:1), to be a light to the nations, to open blind eyes, set prisoners free (Isa 42:6; 61:1ff) “so that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Isa 49:6). Israel had been stiff-necked, rebellious. Yet God’s gifts and call are irrevocable. Jesus’ plan is to start with the lost sheep of the house of Israel who remain the beloved of God—in spite of their offender status. He wants to see his people mobilized. He will not give up seeking after lost sheep until he finds them. When he sends out the twelve on their first mission trip he is precise in Matthew 10:5-8 and consistent with his stance here:

“Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, ‘the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons…”

The Syrophonecian woman refuses the Jesus’ time-line for ministry. Though she’s destined to be a future beneficiary of God’s coming Kingdom (once Israel becomes obedient), she refuses Jesus’ silence and rejects his “not yet.” Jesus’ silence and rebuttal provokes her to pursue him relentlessly in a way that makes her an exemplary intercessor. She comes and bows down before Jesus with a desperate prayer right out of the Psalms: “Lord help me!” Are we as relentless?!

Jesus responds by simultaneously upgrading his people’s “lost sheep” status to “children” and downgrading her to scavenger dog: “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs” (vs. 26). Yet there on her knees at his feet, like a dog before children prone to kindness to their pets, she humbles herself further before Jesus and Israel: “Yes Lord, but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their master’s table” (vs. 27). The woman humbles herself to the extreme, acknowledging the oppressed Israelites who Jesus calls to their highest vocation are her masters.

Many scholars think there is a historical basis for arguing that this woman was wealthy. I’m not so sure. But if so this woman would then be recognizing the place of the poor as bearers of the Good News to the world and her masters!. At the same time her humble yet relentless pursuit of deliverance for her daughter there and then is a call to seek the future things of God’s kingdom here and now. Jesus is willing to change his mind, to give her and us the future now.

Are we willing to leave our region (nation, ethnicity, denomination…) in pursuit of the Gospel that has the power to save? Do we love enough to cry out, follow after, humble ourselves to such extremes so as to call in God’s future promises into the present? When we pray “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven” let us expect an acceleration of God’s coming salvation. While in Korea I found myself compelled to pray for every North Korean knee to bow every tongue to confess that Jesus is Lord—since that is in God’s future (Isa 45:23; Phil 2:10).

Now I’m on a plane to Guatemala where I and my Tierra Nueva colleagues Chris and Angel David will be crying out for healing and salvation of hard-core salvatrucha gang members incarcerated in the Guatemalan prison system. We want to see them touched and converted by Jesus’ love now, so there will be no more victims of brutal gang violence. Please pray with us as we train ex-gang member prison chaplains and at-risk urban youth workers over the weekend.