Zeke has his first Vision!

As a part of their culture, kids who attend kids church are encouraged to do "soaking time" - where they all lie down and listen to some worship music and ask the Holy Spirit for pictures. Anyway, yesterday when Taff went to her "Raising Tomorrows Leaders" class, Zeke went to kids church and had his first vision (well that he has told us of!)

While driving home, Taff asked him "So how was kids church Zeke?"

He said "Good!"

"So did you guys lie down and listen to some music today?" she asked

"ummm yes!" said Zeke.

So Taff pressed further"Did the Holy Spirit give you any pictures?"

"ummm yes!" said Zeke again.

"Well what did you see honey?" asked Taff excitedly

"ummm I saw a big strong horse, with a big tail and it had 5 eyes"

We are not sure about the interpretation of this yet, but it is SOO COOL to be part of a culture where your kids are naturally opened up to the Holy Spirit and His voice. "Imagine what Zeke will be doing at our age I thought!"

School is AMAZING!

Wow! I (Dave) have been at school now for 4 weeks and I feel like my brain and my heart are getting ripped open and cleaned out every day! This school is AMAZING!

To give you an idea of what my week looks like, I have classes Tuesday to Friday 12:45 - 5:30pm. We have a name tag which we have to wear, and these have to be swiped into machines (like credit card swipers) to clock into classes. We also have to be at 2 church services (which we are rostered into) be part of an outreach, small groups and AMT's (Advanced Ministry Training (I have chosen Prophecy for my AMT)

We have over 800 first year students on our campus (which is the church) and around 650 second year students at another campus called Twin View. We cant meet all together because we are too big for the facilities! From these large groups we are broken down into 'Revival Groups' of 80 people and then from there we are broken down into small groups of 5.

I go to class usually with Bob (a 20 yr old first year student from North Caroliner who loves Tie-dye and skateboarding and is living with us) in his pickup truck, or I ride a girls bike! which we were given or Taff drops me off. We also have started walking sometimes with the kids too now that we have a pram which is cool as we have been blessed with a house not too far away!

The last 4 weeks have been so packed, I feel like I have done 8 weeks of schooling! I have read 4 books in 3 1/2 weeks and about 50 chapters of the bible! (which is a miracle!) (I have 3 more books given yesterday to read!) On each of the books and bible chapters we read we have some questions and reports to answer to help cement some of the learning.

Some of the best things about the school for me so far have been, the amazing presence of the Holy Spirit! I also am finding I am getting more visions here than ever before (which they have told us is because of the open heaven!) God really is speaking soo much to me! Also the theme for first year is understanding 'who you are' in Christ, and this teaching has been phenominal! I have felt like my heart is getting a makeover, it has answered so many questions about why many Christians are powerless and struggling so much and encouraged me that everyone can live a supernatural life and is called to change the world!

Another thing which has been amazing is the apostolic leadership of the church. They are truly here to empower revivalists! They are encouraging us to take risks, that we will make mistakes, and they are giving us the tools that we need to change the world! They literally really believe in training, equipping and sending out world changers! Even the church runs stacks of equipping and empowering courses, of which Taff is doing one called "Raising tomorrows Leaders" - about parenting revivalists.

Sometimes with all the amazing teaching (Sons not Slaves, Righteous not Sinners, Prophecy, Intercession, Sensing God etc) it feels like there aren't enough hours in the day to 'digest it', but I feel like the Holy Spirit is doing a download on me to help out. It is such practical and yet supernatural teaching, I am soo blessed to be here!

I have just chosen my mission trip for March next year. I felt God put some places and leaders on my heart like Mozambique, Chile, Mexico etc I am excited about this and cant wait to see people saved, healed and set free from the works of the devil! In some of these mission trips students have stepped out in obedience to God and seen miracles like - babies raised from the dead, hospital rooms cleared out and hundreds instantly healed in meetings!

The cool thing is also that in our weekly outreaches into Redding the teams are seeing the same thing! I will finish with a story I heard yesterday from the leader of our outreaches. He talked about how he and a team had been out on outreach for almost 2 hours, and seen nothing happen, all their prophecies were off and they saw no-one healed. So as the team moped back to the car to leave, one of them felt the Holy Spirit tell him to go over to a group of youths sitting nearby. He thought "no, nothing is working tonight we will just leave it." But the Holy Spirit convicted him and he decided to walk over the the young people. Anyway he walked over and said "is there any way that we can bless you guys, did you need prayer for anything?" (expecting no real response) And then one of the teenagers takes his shirt off and says "Yeah I have scoliosis (curved spine) can Jesus fix that?" "Sure he can said the leader" So they prayed a 5 second prayer (its not our prayers that heal, its Jesus!) and the top half of his spine straightened instantly! The young people were amazed! So they prayed again, and the bottom half instantly straightened! Then another boy came up with a broken ankle and they prayed for him and he was instantly healed! Then another with a huge bruise from his shoulder to his elbow came up...they prayed...and it shrunk to a 10 cent piece size...then disappeared! More young people got healed and then they led them all to Jesus! HOW AWESOME IS OUR GOD!

And all this in a parking lot of a shopping centre in the afternoon!

I cant wait to see what God is going to do this year in our lives! I just want to thank everyone for making this a possibility! Love heaps! Dave