Dear
Friends and Prayers:
This portion of Psalm 36 is such a delight to the soul.
5 Your mercy, O Lord, is in the
heavens;
Your faithfulness reaches to the
clouds.
6 Your righteousness is like the
great mountains;
Your judgments are a great deep;
O Lord, You preserve man and
beast.
7 How precious is Your
lovingkindness, O God!
Therefore the children of men put
their trust under the
shadow of Your wings.
8 They are abundantly satisfied
with the fullness of Your house,
And You give them drink from the
river of Your pleasures.
9 For with You is the fountain
of life;
In Your light we see light.
The beauty that surrounds
us constantly proclaims God's glory. And oh, how it makes our hearts
long for multitudes to come to know God's lovingkindness, and to come
into His light. Only then will their eyes be opened to see
clearly just what a perfect and eternal shelter He really is!
In recent days of glorious spring weather, it is such a privilege to
be outdoors and admire God's handiwork, I just can't stop mentioning
it! We've been working plenty in the garden, catching up on things that
the wet winter keep us from getting to. And also we've had the
opportunity to visit with friends we haven't seen in a while, and enjoy
His presence which is so clearly represented by the bursting forth of
new life.
On Saturday we went to the Siloh Chapel in Swansea for a prayer
meeting organized by our friend Emyr Mathias. The purpose of this
special time of prayer was "to honor and give thanks to God for the
people from Korea." The main focus was to pray for Korea itself, and
the struggle that has been going on there for so long, and specifically
since the Korean War that has never officially ended. Our friend Dr.
Steve Price gave some background and wonderful testimonies of his
involvement and ministry in North Korea.
Emyr had previously asked me to take part with a few others in
leading prayer at the front. Earlier that morning while reading the
scriptures at our chapel, the Lord highlighted this section of
Leviticus 25:10 to me. "You
shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim
a release through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a
jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall
return to his family." I knew that this was to be the theme for
my segment of prayer. What I didn't know was that I would be so totally
undone when I actually took the microphone to pray for the release of
the land of Korea from the grip of the enemy of God and mankind.
There was more prayer and some incredibly anointed worship that had
many people in tears. And there were prayers of blessing for the many
Koreans who have come to Wales as missionaries and ministers over the
years. It is beautiful to see how they have come in a sense to
"re-pay" Wales for sowing the Gospel into their land in the 19th
century by the death of the young Welsh missionary, Robert Jermain
Thomas.
In all, it was a powerful time of prayer and the presence of God was
very real. We did some serious business with heaven and evidence of His
response was not long in coming. We heard the next day about top-level
talks later this week when the leaders from North and South will meet
to discuss the many very difficult issues that divide them.
Please add your prayers to those of many thousands around the world
that are asking the Lord to bring a peaceful resolution to this
dangerous and volatile situation. And more importantly that North
Korea, and other nations hardened against Christianity, would open
their doors to the eternal power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Thank you, your prayers are more powerful than you might think!
Dick
& Gladys
Dear
Praying Friends:
Last Tuesday I put up our prayer booth in the chapel again after the
annual hymn festival rehearsal here. Then Thursday I was led to
put these banners back also after having them hanging at home for a
year or so.
You can imagine our delight when we found this in our daily
readings that very same day! Psalm 20:4-5,
"May He grant you according to
your heart’s desire,
And fulfill all your purpose.
We will rejoice in your
salvation,
And in the name of our God we
will set up our banners!
May the Lord fulfill all your
petitions."
It is wonderfully comforting how the Lord continues to confirm even
after all these years that our assignment here is still on target. And
if this weren't enough, He arranged a brief visit the following
afternoon with two brothers from the state of Tamil Nadu in
southeastern India who have been friends and brothers in Christ since
their youth.
One lives and works in the UK and had called on Wednesday to arrange
to meet on Friday. The other is a pastor in India who had come for a
conference here in Wales, his first visit here. In 2015 he had a vivid
dream in which the Lord showed him that Wales was going to be the
epicenter of a great revival that will sweep through the nations, and
he feels that God has called him to move here to take part in what is
coming. Please join us in praying the God would confirm his plans and
timing for this precious brother, Titus, and his wife.
And so it seems things here are continually moving forward, ever
closer to what so many people have been praying for during many years
and from many nations. And just as the fields that overlook our village
and Cardigan and Cardigan Bay are being prepared for sowing, so are
God's mysterious preparations for the coming revelation of His glory
over this land and the nations of the world.
This scripture came to mind today and seems fitting for what is
going on here in Wales. Solomon was giving some words of advice here
Proverbs 24:27, "Prepare your
outside work, Make it fit for yourself in the field; And afterward
build your house." It keeps growing more and more obvious that
God is currently doing the outside work and getting the fields ready,
because He is preparing to build a house for Himself in the hearts of
nations.
We are privileged to be living in exciting times. It is not always
easy as turbulence increases around us, but we know we have a sure
foundation, established from before the beginning of time, and carrying
on forever in God's eternal kingdom.
"Now may our Lord Jesus
Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us
everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and
establish you in every good word and work." 2 Thessalonians
2:16-17
We send you springtime blessings in Jesus' name,
Dick & Gladys
Dear
Friends of Wales Awakening:
"I set My rainbow in the
cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the
earth... the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all
flesh." When God confirmed His covenant with Noah in Genesis
9:12-17, it became an ongoing sign of hope for all generations, right
up to our present day.
It's hard to look at a rainbow and not feel at least a flicker of
joy. And it isn't a sigh of relief that there's not going to be another
flood to wipe out all flesh. It actually belies a far greater promise.
1 John 3:8 says, "... For
this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the
works of the devil." It is increasingly evident that today's
world is awash in a flood of sin. And in Colossians 1:12-14 we read, "He has delivered us from the power of
darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in
whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins."
Now that's what I call hope,
which by far outlasts a human lifespan, or even a spinning planet. His
Kingdom is everlasting!
It seems
that spring is seriously
underway now, and that is always a very welcome time of the year. There
is a light green fringe around
the tops of many of the trees, and wildflowers have suddenly gone wild,
blooming their heads off. Lambs
are everywhere in different sizes and colors, and as we
continue to enjoy watching this season of vibrant
life
unfold around us, we are reminded constantly again of the Newness of
Life we have in Jesus!
And that, in turn, brings us yet again to focus on the heart of our
mission here—prayer for revival in Wales. And revival is all about this
amazing Newness of Life—so different from the natural world.
It is not like the springtime when seemingly lifeless trees are
dressed in glamorous green each year, because the seasons come and go.
And as the years pass over us all, generations come and go as well. But
the amazing truth about rebirth and revival is that people are dressed
in the glorious glow of eternity. By the redemption through his blood,
we are dressed in Christ Himself, and granted entrance into His
everlasting Kingdom.
Guatemala, where Gladys is from, is popularly called "The Land of
Eternal Spring." But new life in Jesus Christ is the real deal! "He was in the world, and the world
was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His
own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to
them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe
in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God." John 1:10-13
Thank you for praying with us for Wales and the nations,
Dick & Gladys