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Saturday, October 29, 2011

A Door of Hope - for 7 billion!

Dear Friends and Praying Saints:

"And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; Then I will say to those who were not My people, You are My people! And they shall say, You are my God!" Hosea 2:23-24

At some point during November the world's population will reach the mind-boggling total of 7 billion people. That's not a bad return for an initial investment of two! BBC says that the number of people alive on our planet today has increased more in the last 50 years than in the previous 200,000. (Read: since the world began)

But God's most amazing investment was that of only One - Himself. In John 14:6 Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." Then in verse 9 he answers Philip's question. Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father;"

It wasn't much earlier that Jesus had said, "I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture." (John 10:8)

What exciting times we are living in today. As the impending storms of this troubled world loom darker and closer, so do God's workings in the hearts of men.He is calling people to Himself in unprecedented way, saying "You are my people." And through His sacrifice at Calvary He enables as many as will to respond, "You are my God."

We want to encourage you today to remember that you are part of the doorway - the body of Christ. Daniel prayed a powerful prayer in chapter 9:3-19. And I'd like to exhort you to make some time to pray through these verses. Here's a sample,
"8 O Lord, to us belongs shame of face, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against You. 9 To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, though we have rebelled against Him.
18 O my God, incline Your ear and hear; open Your eyes and see our desolations, and the city which is called by Your name; for we do not present our supplications before You because of our righteous deeds, but because of Your great mercies. 19 O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and act! Do not delay for Your own sake, my God, for Your city and Your people are called by Your name.
"

Stand in the gap as you apply it to the world around us today, and allow the Holy Spirit to break your heart. It may make your face to shine like Moses' face did. Your prayers DO make a difference

So let your light shine! Go ahead, be a rainbow!

With the joy in Jesus in our hearts,

Dick & Gladys


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Tuesday, October 18, 2011

From sweet dreams to home sweet home!

Dear Friends and Prayers:

We got home Sunday night after an amazing two weeks in Mallorca. Back in wet, windy and cold Wales, it seems like a sweet dream that we were really there at all!

With average daytime temps near 80 F. and mostly sunny skies we enjoyed an absolutely perfect two weeks. We are so thankful for God's wonderful care for us in every detail of our stay.

Mallorca, like the rest of Spain, has traditionally been a stronghold of Roman Catholicism. But the effect of contemporary culture has taken its toll, and pretty much decimated the influence of Christianity as in most of modern Europe. So we were very glad to learn of groups of evangelical Christians.

Besides enjoying the natural beauty of this rugged island, we were really blessed to have so much contact with other believers. At the home church we attended our first night there, we met saints from Chile, Brazil and other Latin American countries. It was great to worship in Spanish again, with songs that I learned in Guatemala back in the 70's. (Yikes, could I be that old?) There was even the dedication of a baby in that evening's meeting.

We had only hoped to find a church to visit during our time there, but the Lord was way ahead of us, as usual. Immediately we found ourselves connected with Javier, the leader of this local group which has recently gotten started in a nearby town. From that group came invitations to visit and share together with some of the families.

Gladys has such a gift with people that puts them at ease, and we found ourselves with many opportunities to share and encourage them in their faith. Most of them are quite new believers, and others haven't yet made the commitment to Christ, but are being drawn by God's love.

Almost everywhere we went we found opportunities to speak to people about the goodness of God. With no effort at all we just stumbled into divine appointments. It was so much fun!

In my early morning excursions to pray I discovered several beautiful places. My favorite was a golf club overlooking the Badia d'Alcúdia. The patio of the club restaurant was mine alone and had stunning views of the Mediterranean sunrises.

The next morning I took Gladys with me, and we found that Margarita, who opened the restaurant at eight o'clock, was a believer, but had left the Catholic church years ago. She said the priest ("cura" in Spanish) "couldn't cure himself, much less anyone else." Twice we were able to pray with her and she was visibly touched and encouraged by God's loving presence, as were we ourselves. Another one of God's "setups."

Gladys had seen rabbits for sale in the supermarket, and been hankering to try one. So she asked Margarita, a local Mallorquiña, about how to fix one, and she shared her own recipe for preparing roast rabbit, a typical delicacy. So we invited Javier and his wife Maritza to have supper with us at our apartment, and had a delicious Mallorquin meal of paella and roast rabbit. Hmmmm good!

As wonderful a time as we had, and with such perfect weather, the last few days we both found ourselves missing home. We are so thankful for the opportunity we had for a relaxing break. But even moreso for the opportunities we had to share with new-found brothers and sisters about God's plans for Wales and the nations. Mallorca is indeed a "dry and thirsty land", and we believe it too will be touched and blessed by the coming move of God in revival power and blessing!

Please remember the islands and nations of the Mediterranean that were once so close to the heartbeat of true Christianity, and are now so very far away.
And thank you too for your continued interest in and prayers for our work here in beloved Wales,

Dick & Gladys


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Friday, October 07, 2011

Greetings from sunny and warm Mallorca!!

Dear Saints and Praying Friends:

We are once again amazed at God's goodness! In early September we were hoping to be able to take a break somewhere warm and sunny, but thought we would have to settle for a place where we could drive to in the south of England and pray for some real sunshine.

But the Lord surpassed our expections by far. He graciously provided us not only with the funds to fly but also the gift of two weeks in a beautiful time-share resort in the mountainous northeast of Mallorca. We are staggered by His constant goodness!

We arrived late Saturday night, and by Sunday evening we found ourselves in a small house group in a nearby town with brothers and sisters from several nations. As only God can do, we met a member of the group working here at the resort who invited us to his home for the meeting. So we have been blessed with lots of fellowship with Spanish speakers, and hope to be as much of a blessing to them as they have been to us. We've been treated to wonderful typical meals, and tomorrow are off to a small farm with a young Brazilian family to get an idea of rural life here.

In the week before we left home we very blessed with lots of visitors. A precious young couple from Singapore stayed with us while attending a conference at Ffald-y-Brenin. And then we had the privilege of spending some time with a group of pastors from their church in Singapore last week.

We spent an amazing time of prayer with them at the chapel in nearby Blaenannerch whre Evan Roberts cried out, "Bend me, Lord." Amid many tears and heart-rending intercession and prophetic prayer, I believe we were so empowered by the Holy Spirit that we actually bent some things in the heavenly realms.

Also we recently enjoyed spending time with old friends from Mendocino and Gospel Outreach when we all cameto Christ in the 70's. What a blessing it was to compare memories and see the fidelity of God over so many years.

Another highlight last month was the 5th prayer meeting concerning Gods's plans for Rees Howells' Bible College of Wales in Swansea. The main focus this particular session was the situation of Israel and the Palestinian request for statehood and Israeli land presented before the U.N.

Rees Howells and the members of the College played a key intercessory role relating the formation of Israel in 1948. You more information about these meetings and the effort to restore the Rees Howells legacy of intercessory prayer at http://www.theforgewales.org.uk.

Isaiah 2:3 says,"Now it shall come to pass in the latter days That the mountain of the LORD's house Shall be established on the top of the mountains, And shall be exalted above the hills; And all nations shall flow to it." This is just one of many scriptures on which we can base our intercessions!

Praying God's promises for Israel and the nations,

Dick & Gladys


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