At 8:40 AM our time on Wednesday morning—6:40 in Guatemala—my office phone rang with a call from Bob Switzer, our assistant pastor leading a mission trip of our teens and youth leaders to work in an orphanage and senior center in a fairly remote section of the country.

When Sandy, my administrative assistant told me it was Bob on the other end of the line, I thought to myself--this is either going to be really good or there are some big problems going on with this trip.

Turned out to be really good--really good.

Bob told me that the day before the team was slated to go to a small and poor village some distance away and distribute food to the people there. That seemed good. The students could get outside the bounds of the orphanage compound, do some very useful service and get a further sense of how blessed we are in our lives stateside. But then the director said that they would also be doing some evangelizing in the process.

"How is this going to work?" Bob thought. We can't speak the language; we don't know the people or the culture; these kids aren't Billy Graham. I hope that they aren't going to make the people file into the village church and get preached at before they line up to be given the meager bags of food assembled to distribute.

Then he had another thought, "We can evangelize in the way we are learning how to cooperate with God."

So the team travelled to the village. Bob spoke for a few minutes as the local village pastor translated. He told the people that the team had come from the United States to be a blessing to their country. He told them that they had come because the love of God was motivating them. He told the people that God loved them and had provided a Savior for them; that his name is Jesus. He told them that Jesus has brought us a better way to live--a Kingdom of love and forgiveness and the power of a new life within. Then he said the students would be happy to pray for any need that the people might have--any pains, sicknesses, infirmities, whatever. Or if they just wanted to be blessed the teens from America would pray for them. Again, the pastor translated.

The people lined up--not for the food, but for the blessing of the Kingdom of heaven. The students began to minister to them. Working their way through the English-Spanish thing the team listened to the needs/requests of the people. Then they did as they have been taught--they laid hands on the people and prayed. What happened next is why Bob called me so early.

Heaven invaded earth!

Fevers were dispelled in Jesus' name. Injured, hurting knees were healed. Pain and weakness was banished--to be replaced by comfort and relief. "These kids--our students--healed people!!!!" Bob said laughing and crying over the phone. Then he described more encounters with the radical goodness of God. The people began to be filled with the peace and love of God as the team prayed and they became overjoyed. Meanwhile, the pray-ers were also filled up by God's presence and power. Heat and power and tongues of praise broke out among the student ministers as they got filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit.

Time came to distribute the food. While that was going on the village pastor began relating the testimonies of the people who had been touched, healed, and blessed. Not all the students were needed to distribute the bags of food. So the others on the team began to ask the Spirit to direct them to those in the crowd whom the Lord was still moving upon--so they could give away more of the blessings of the Kingdom.

At the end of the day our students turned in--exhausted but exhilarated. Heaven had invaded a small village in Guatemala through their prayers and hands. In Luke 11:21 Jesus was "full of joy through the Holy Spirit" as he reflected upon his "mission team" having had similar experiences in ministering the good news and saving power of the Kingdom. I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.

Another good day in the Kingdom!

Summertime Greetings!

Today is the first day of summer! Hooray! Wow--I can't remember the last time I said 'Hooray!'

Anyway, it is summer and I have not posted a blog for a long, long time. Was taking time off. And now all the articles in our e-newsletter at Wellspring are linked to our blogs, so here goes a blog-announcement. I hope to get to more randomitems-substantive stuff-opinionated rants in the near future.

But back to summer nights at Wellspring. Beginning Wednesday, July 7 and on every Wednesday evening through July and August, we will be gathering for worship, prayer and presence gatherings from 7:00--8:30 pm.

These gatherings have been very special over the past few summers as we meet primarily to worship the Lord and to host his presence. We will be led in worship by various worship teams from Wellspring--different teams each week. We have not planned a teaching emphasis for those nights--though on some nights there might be words of exhortation given. These meetings are not planned as healing services, though we will most likely be ministering in healing on several of these nights. They are not designed primarily for 'Body Life' and fellowship, but undoubtedly there will be the sharing of life between various members of the Body here at Wellspring. They are not designed to be unity meetings, but on some occasions folks from other area congregations may be joining us.

Our primary goal is the seek the presence of the Lord through worship and then host his presence as we entertain what he desires to do among us.

So you can mark your calendars for Wednesday nights in July and August--7:00--8:30 pm at Wellspring. We will offer childcare for children 5 and under in our nursery. Hope to see you there.

Pastor Rick