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Monday, April 30, 2007

An Update on our children

Dear Friends & Prayers:

A friend recently asked me about the most important people in our lives - our children! So here is a brief update of where they are and what they're up to, from left to right.

Peter, 28 in July, has just finished his first five years in the U.S. Marine Corps and has re-enlisted. He is currently stationed at the USMC Recruit Training Depot in San Diego, and is currently waiting for his promotion to sargeant. Then he will go to recruiters school, and from there be stationed somewhere in the U.S. to work as a recruiter. Any volunteers?

Grace lives in New Orleans and will be 26 in June. In two weeks she finishes her first year in Tulane School of International Public Health, and will be coming over to visit us in late summer. After she graduates next spring, she's hopng to find placement with a Christian agency to work in her field of study. She loves children and hopes to be able to make a difference in their lives through her work.

Dicky is 21, and graduates as an industrial design major in a few weeks from University of Louisiana in Lafayette. He will be coming to visit us at the end of May, and then be moving to the Dallas area to hopefully find work as a product designer.

Mike is 24, and lives in Louisiana an hour north of New Orleans. He studied computer drafting and design, and works in the petroleum industry doing detailed computer mapping for oil exploration and drilling sites. He works mostly out of his home, and travels from time to time when they open up new areas. He really enjoys his work, and the ability he has to dedicate time to his music - he is an avid guitar player and writes his own songs.

We miss our kids sorely, and without a doubt this is the biggest sacrifice we've had to make in being here. But we know the Lord has His hand on each one of them just as He has on us, and we are extremely grateful that He is watching over them with infinite love and care.

Thank you for your prayers for our family, for us, and for our work here.

In His loving hands,

Dick & Gladys


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Monday, April 23, 2007

Praying for the Nations!

Dear Friends & Prayers:

Last Tuesday I had the privilege of attending a small prayer meeting with a group from Llanelli. They are all involved in different degrees with the Celebration for the Nations event planned for late July. Recently they commited to prayer for an hour and a half every day at five in the morning, so being a guest at one of their homes, I went along. It has been several years since I've been to an early morning prayer group, and it was a very stimulating and challenging experience.

My friend Kyooday is from South Korea, and there were two young ladies from Eritrea, which became independant from Ethiopia in 1993 after a long and terrible guerrilla war. The other brother is an elderly Welshman who owns and operates the local Christian bookstore. These intercessors from different nations with vastly differing experiences brought a powerful element to the prayer. Having experienced bloody guerrilla warfare during my years in Guatemala, the intense praying of the Eritrean ladies brought back long distant feelings to my heart, and I knew they had survived much worse turmoil than I could have borne.

The prayer room is wallpapered with a world map, and I could feel that it is a place where they do business with God! During the hour we spent praying in the Spirit, I witnessed the how burdens the Lord laid on each one's hearts came rolling in, were "dealt with", and were rolled out again as if it were some kind of large industrial warehouse where huge lots of freight were being moved and redirected. One of those burdens was for the people of North Korea, suddenly and violently cut off from family and loved ones in the conflict of the 1950's and still under one of the world's most represive regimes. Please remember these people in your prayers, and that the believers there have grace and favor to share God's love in safety.

Later I received an email from a Welsh woman who emigrated to Canada thirty years ago. She eventually became a Christian, and in 1999 began hearing from the Lord about a coming move of God in Wales. (That was the same year the Lord gave me the vision of the coming Welsh revival!) I'd like to share one of her experiences here:

"One night while praying God spoke very clearly to me. He first showed me a picture of a rusty old ship off the coast of Wales.....this was the Body of Christ in the ship.They did not want to go with the new wave of His Spirit that was coming over Wales. It will be nothing like the country had ever seen. Then He showed me myself atop a mountain and I watched as a huge tidal waved flooded Wales. He showed me over and over a HUGE tidal wave covering Wales!"
And in another email she said, "For years I have thought that my visions and dreams of a Welsh revival were just that........ a dream. But my spirit has soared throughout this day and I no longer feel ALONE.! God bless you both for obeying our God and answering his call.......in His love, Diane."

And here's another email I got on Thursday.
"I am an intercessor in Newcastle New South Wales in Australia. I came to Wales in February 2006 stayed at Myrth Tidwell and prayed in the town and came down to Cardiff - praying for Wales and retagging the wells to bring the anointing back here to Newcastle. Lord Jesus showed me so much, and of course my heart was enlarged with love for all HE wants to do in your precious country."

Isn't it awesome how the Lord is continually confirming what His plans are Wales? We are so encouraged by the many evidences that keep mounting up. And as we meet more prayers and hear more news from afar, we are ever more determined to press on in this adventure.

We want to encourage you also to press on into God's heart in prayer, and to thank you once again for lifting up Wales and the nations of the world before His Throne!

Dick & Gladys

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Monday, April 16, 2007

His mercies are new every morning!

Dear Friends & Prayers:

This last week has been a busy and fruitful time. Thanks to no effort of our own, we were able to enjoy several meetings of a Revival Conference in which the speakers were Dr. Colin Peckham and his wife. Mary was saved as a teenager on the Isle of Lewis during the Hebrides Revival of 1949, and Colin was born and began his life in the Lord's service in South Africa.

Their testimonies and teachings were both inspiring and challenging. It was also of great encouragement to us to see the many others that were drawn to and touched by the meetings. We have known of course that we are far from being alone here in our quest for the Lord's visitation, but we were glad to see many others at the meetings, and made some new friends as well. We pray that for all who came, the several excellent teachings directly on the subject of revival will not be shelved away, but rather will have ignited a hunger and seeking after intimacy with the Lord of Revival!

Another part of our activities in the last week was work in our garden. We had over a week of dry sunny weather, drying out the soil enough to make it perfect for preparation. After going over it with Alex's rototiller on Friday, yesterday afternoon Gladys continued the interminable harvest of stones, and I made the raised beds ready for this years planting.

The Most Precious Seed!
As we work there is always the allegorical element of our work and lives here in the spiritual realm, and our physical labor is really prayer at the same time. Hearing the stories of conversions in revival made me think about that concept. I was also "saved and converted" in the Jesus Movement in the early 1970's. But our lives in Christ do not consist of some past experience but rather an ongoing relationship and process

Like the work in our garden, it is a ongoing cycle of activity, not a static event. Each year we need to clean up the remnant of last year's harvest, work the soil, plant new seed, and care for the plants during the growing period. And so it is with the Lord. Indeed, we are blessed and touched from time to time by His Spirit, in His word, in worship and in teaching, but today is really all we have in which we can act on our faith.

Paul writes in Acts 17:27-28, "so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, (re-read: and find him!) though He is not far from each one of us; For in him we live, and move, and have our being..." And so our prayer and determination is that we might seek Him, the only good and perfect One. And may He be the Seed that is daily planted in the garden of our soul. And may the power of His love and Resurrection be the seed and the fruit in our lives, and the lives of those around us.

Together with you in His love, praying that the knowledge of His grace be made known to a needy world,

Dick & Gladys

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Friday, April 06, 2007

"I wish I would have died instead of your son,"

Dear Friends & Prayers:

Yesterday I received a copy of this email from a dear friend of mine, and felt I should share it with you. I just got off the phone with him and he said it would be fine to send this out.

Hi Tom,

I enjoyed your recent message on river rapids.

My family and I recently had to make a totally unexpected Class VI run down an previously unexperienced river in life. As you might know, on March 19, 2006 a car with four drunk occupants hit my only 23 year old son's Volvo head-on, killing him instantly, with lights off, on the wrong side of the road, speeding at 60 or 70 mph at 2:30 AM on a curve and hill. Izzy Daniel never saw him until it was too late.

One year and one month later the trial is finally over. The undocumented, uninsured 20 year old, with no insurance or driver's license, agreed to a 10 year prison term with deportation upon release. Grace, my wife, Eunice, my 25 year old daughter, and I were asked to present oral impact statements and show the video we prepared on Izzy Daniel's life. God was present as we addressed the court and the young man. Each told him in our own words that we did not hate him or despise him but wanted him to know God and never hurt anyone again. Many in the court cried as we quoted several Bible verses to him. The young man addressed the family and begged for forgiveness, "I wish I would have died instead of your son," he stated, "... through this I have met God in jail." The judge closed with some wise words and a challenge that the young will never forget. I believe that the court saw how Christian's behave under tremendous pressure and how they forgive and love those that hurt them.

I reviewed the years that Izzy Daniel and I had ministered side by side in the PK Conferences in Anaheim, LA, Oakland, San Diego, Boulder and Washington DC. Pray for the Vega family as we close this sad chapter of our life and move on with our lives.

Israel "Izzy" Vega

Jesus Christ did die instead of us. According to tradition, today is Good Friday. And as I child I used to wonder what was "good" about having crucified Jesus. But eventually I learned that it was not only "Good" Friday, but actually should be called the "Best Friday" because God gave the incredible solution for the "Worst Day Ever" when Adam and Eve turns their backs on fellowship God and eternal life. And Easter Sunday could well becalled the "Best Day Ever."

It is because of Jesus' death and resurrection that we have such great hope. I know Izzy and his family share this great hope, and that their son is in glory with the host of witnesses of Hebrews 12. Please pray with us for them, especially for Izzy Daniel's mother. Also please pray for the young man in prison, that the Lord use this tragedy, and his salvation, and give him a deep relationship with Himself and powerful ministry in prison and beyond.

Have a joyous Resurrection Sunday, filled with hope and new life in Jesus!

Dick & Gladys

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Monday, April 02, 2007

Some great Revival teachings . .

Dear Friends & Prayers:

During the last week the cemetary at the chapel has had many visitors and has filled up with flowers. We've learned the tradition is that the days leading up to Palm Sunday family members come and decorate the tombs of their loved ones.

A friend recently sent me a couple of messages by Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, which are from a six-part series on Revival that he preached in 1959 during the centennial of the 1859 Revival. I then found that the whole series can be downloaded on from internet, and I have been extremely blessed and encouraged in listening to them. I'd like to invite you to give a listen to them and be challenged and stimulated.

Here is the description of the second message which particularly blessed me: "Drawing from Exodus chapter 33, some of the preliminary aspects of revival are considered, how they are distinct from the ways of the world and extraordinary in view of the normal operation of the Church, and even outside of the official church altogether. Particular attention is given to how God deals at first with a man or small group of men, who are called apart from the camp to intercession and to sanctification and how God may use very ordinary men for this purpose." Also, the 5th message about the Glory of God is exceptional.

Saturday we spent most of the day at Ffald-y-Brenin, a spectacularly situated retreat center not far from us. With other volunteers we worked on the extensive grounds and beautiful gardens. We regularly attend the monthly day here, and have made lots of wonderful friends. Many of these folks as well have also been specifically called to Wales and are conscious that we are somehow part of God's extraordinary plans for this small nation and revival.

Thank you again for your prayers, and also your seeking the Lord for His plans for you and your area. As we draw closer to Him, He delights in drawing closer to us!

Dick & Gladys


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