Memorial service

Feeling sad today as I get ready to attend the memorial service for a beautiful little baby who died at 35 weeks prior to being born. It was going to be the first baby for a much loved couple at IHOP. Matt is American and Tash is Hawaiian. They took these photos of their baby, Adalyn Joy.

Doing assignments in the prayer room

Praying for Fashion Week in New York

Father we pray You would cause Your face to shine on every believer who is associated with this outreach. Lord we pray that the light of Your countenance would shine on their faces and the light of Your favor would shine on all their ways. We pray You would surround them with Your shield of favor. We pray that You would anoint their lips so every word they speak would be seasoned with grace. We pray you would give them the words of truth to speak.

White dove

Today during our time in prayer, I closed my eyes and saw a clear vision of a pure white dove. If I had not been in Ondrea's kitchen, I might have thought it was in the physical realm above us. It was beautiful. They taught us in bible college that a dove symbolises the Holy Spirit. Sweet :-)

Mail in Kansas City

This is the local vehicle that delivers our mail each day. I saw it arrive while I was sitting at my desk, so I ran to open the door and said "g'day" to the mail man. His name was Jim.

Teva and I

This is me with Teva, the crazy indoor cat that loves me and smothers me with his affection on a daily basis.

Praying for Perth, WA today :-)

Father God we pray You will revive the church in Perth, Western Australia with Your presence. We pray You will release a fresh anointing of Your Spirit over every believer in Perth. We pray that they would feel Your embrace, that they would feel the height, the width, the depth and the breadth of Your love. We pray that they would smell that sweet aroma of Your presence. We pray You would awaken the Church Lord. Fill them with a hunger and a thirst for You that can never be quenched.

Praying for protection for America

Father You said in Your Word that You would even deliver one who is not innocent by the purity of our hands, so Lord we lift up every perpetrator before You and we pray that You would have mercy on them and deliver them from the powers of darkness. We pray You will reveal Your unfailing love towards them and that You have plans to prosper them, to give them hope and a future. We pray that You will lift the veil from their eyes so they can see the truth and soften their hearts. We pray You will have mercy on them in Jesus name.

New laptop cover

What a bargain. I saw this online for $40 a few days ago and went online again to buy it tonight, but by using different search terms: "world map laptop case", suddenly a website popped up that was selling it for only $15. As far as I can tell, it's the same deal. I just paid for it by paypal. Oh I am soooooo stoked. Praise the Lord.

With this World Map Laptop Case, you'll have the entire world at your fingertips, and we're not talking about the internet! Printed with a large portion of the world's surface, this attractive map laptop case will school you in geography while keeping your laptop safe and sound. At 13" x 12" x 2", the world map laptop case is big enough to hold laptops 15" or smaller. (Note: 15" laptop refers to diagonal measure of the computer screen.) You'll love its zipper closure and soft surface. Makes a great gift for any world traveler!

Availability:This World Map Laptop Case takes approximately 1 business day to leave the warehouse plus transit time.

Believers in Kansas City

Father we pray that You will strengthen the hearts of believers in this city with supernatural peace that surpasses all understanding. We pray that You will release a fresh anointing of Your Holy Spirit, the anointing that breaks the yoke of oppression over them. We pray You will release joy, that Your joy will be their strength.

Rapid fire prayer for The Call (in Detroit, Michigan)

Father God we pray for the Christians in Detroit, that You would purify and transform their hearts, cleanse them of all unrighteousness. We pray You will help them to hide the Word of God in their hearts that they would not sin against You and would know Your affections towards them. Lord awaken their hearts, set their hearts on fire for You.

Breaky

Went to Jim and Andrea's place for a really lovely breaky this morning. I thought it was funny that they invited us international students - Neville, Margriet, Cindy-Lou and I from Malta, the Netherlands, Canada and Australia, respectively. Andrea told me today that they have only lived there for three weeks now. They bought the house. A young girl called Rachel lives with them. She is an associate core leader for Track 1 of Intro to IHOP-KC.

Andrea gave me a rather huge ring that belonged to her mother who died. She didn't like it and was going to sell it. It is really unusual, and probably something I wouldn't buy, but the fact that someone beautiful like Andrea gave it to me makes it special.

What a crack-up

Rapid Fire for my home city

Father we pray that You will give the church in Perth, Western Australia, the grace to love you whole-heartedly, that all of their affection and all of their attention would be devoted to You. Lord, we pray that You would take them to that secret place, where there is nothing they can see, but Your face, that they would behold Your beauty and Your majesty. Lord we pray You would pour out Your Spirit on the Church, manifest Your glory and power in their lives.

Struck by a lightning bolt :-(

So sad - this house near Ruskin Heights, which is a poor part of town, was struck by lightning. How unfortunate.

God of restoration, we pray that You would have mercy on the family who lived in this house, that You would restore what's been lost from their lives. We pray for abundant provision for them, that You would meet every need that they have - physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, socially and financially. We pray that You will reveal Yourself to them as Jehovah Jireh, their Provider and El Shaddai, the God of more than enough. Give them supernatural peace and wisdom to know how to deal with this tragedy. Amen

My sis and her kids

My heart aches thinking about Julz and her kids.

Twins adopted into an IHOP family

Oh my goodness, how sweet are these twin girls Mercy and Anna - the ones with African American Japanese genetics!

Exotic

I had an interesting day. I went to the Healing rooms and two super old ladies prayed for me. One lady told me she would love to go to Australia, but at her age, she knew that was not a reality. She said she worries about being confined to a rocking chair in her latter days. These two mighty women prayed not only for my physical health but also for the next season of my life. They prayed for new friendships with people who are like-minded and said the next season will be exciting for me! Amen.

I was very amused by the vision received by a lady called Anita in a prophecy room today - it was of a red and green mango with orange flesh. She said it was a reflection of how the Lord saw me - as an exotic person with an exotic flair who is unique. She said that God wanted me to be comfortable with the skin I am in :-)

Then I sat in the prayer room and did some assignment questions. After the prayer room I sat in the Higher Grounds cafe with Jess and Joel and we had a nice chat. Then we shuttled to the church service and I sat with Addy for a while. Addy told me she sometimes has people assume she is part Asian or Indian, I am guessing because of her slanted eyes, but she is blonde and blue-eyed and has long curly eyelashes and a Caucasian body! She doesn't know her heritage.

I was extremely blessed by Jess and Chris Calkins who prayed mighty and encouraging prayers over me during ministry time. Thank you Lord for top notch friendships in this season.

On the way home I said g'day to Bill (an African American man) and his German Shepherd dog called Bear. They live a few houses down the street. I told them I will be returning to the other side of the earth on the 30 September. He asked if I was coming back. I said I really don't know. I am sad this season will be ending soon.

Sick

Urrrgh, I woke up this morning at 5.00am and figured I simply could not make it to our 17th praying in tongues session with Ondrea, so I texted her and cancelled. However, then at 6.30am it was like the Holy Spirit came and breathed new life into me. I suddenly felt this burst of new energy, so I leapt out of bed, got dressed and headed over to Ondrea's house with a cup of tea.

She was in bed! ... [I guess I was expecting her to be up and praying, despite my absence] but she got up and let me in, washed her face and joined me at the prayer table. I made some lemon, honey, ginger and garlic tea and consumed twelve cloves of garlic. Yuck! Anyway, we prayed for one hour, which was great.

Praise the Lord I made our 17th consecutive day! The devil is obviously trying to rob me of my voice.

G'day KC

Last night I went to Life group and Peter Lerner shared his testimony, which was absolutely amazing. He told us how his parents made the decision to migrate to Israel to embrace their Jewish heritage when he was about 12. That decision involved incredible sacrifice. They gave up everything and moved into an area filled with people who persecuted them with such animosity because they were the only white American Jews present. He personally had his skull fractured, shoulder dislocated, limbs and fingers broken, face bashed, etc... and no one in authority sought justice for them because they were Jews.

The legal and government systems were corrupt and prejudiced and crazy laws made it mandatory for him to be in school, but then if they were Jewish and in school, then the parents faced imprisonment. He and his brother and sister went through absolute nightmare experiences. As part of the Israel system, he had to serve in the military and there 25 of his Jewish friends were murdered in horrific ways. He was wounded numerous times and suffered from a burst eardrum. Oh my goodness. I was overwhelmed with the intensity of his testimony.

One thing that really touched me is how his wife had a dream in which she saw him two years before she met him and God had told her that was her husband. It reminded me of the dream I had in Track 1 where I saw a guy who i'm guessing was the guy God has chosen for me to marry. I have thought about his sweet face a lot. How long must I wait for God's timing to manifest? Could he really be back in Perth? I am not sure whether I wrote it down but days ago in my morning prayer session with Ondrea, I had this weird impression that the guy I will eventually marry is an engineer. I remember years ago thinking how cool it would be to marry an engineer.

What really impressed on me was that Peter, after all the chronic suffering and pain and loss he has endured, can smile and tell of God's goodness and favor in his life. His wife, Amy, is beautiful and has a very sweet personality. Wow, God is just amazing.

I am really grateful that I was ultimately placed in this home group as opposed to Michael's home group because the one guy I thought was so cold and unfriendly in Track 1, turned into Peter - the one guy I feel the most common ground with. We are the same age. We have equivalent qualifications (well he is a vet doctor, but we have studied a lot of the same subjects). We have both had horrific upbringings. We both look healthy and full of life and vitality, despite the horrors of our past. We both love God in a way that only someone who has endured numerous battles can do so.

We share the same dislike of the Forerunner Partnership Development (FPD) mentality and agree that the majority of people we are in fellowship with now who call themselves "intercessory missionaries" are not worth sowing our hard-earned finances into. It's not that we don't agree with supporting missions - it's more that we see no fruit. A lot have not applied themselves at all - they have no qualifications and are lazy and yet expect others to pay their way. I was actually quite amused when he leaned over and said something like "I study for eight years to get my qualifications. I work a hard 14hr day in a stressful environment. I have a sore back because of the work I have done and you expect me to pay for you to laze around the coffee shop at IHOP and drink coffee". Sadly, it is true. A lot of the "students" here do just that! We both feel somewhat uncomfortable sitting in a room full of people who are looking at us as potential partners when we don't believe in them or see their fruit!

There are definitely some who are worthy of sowing into, but quite honestly, I would rather sow into North Korea missions or Exodus Cry or something I can honestly say is doing something productive.

_______

Feeling really run down today. I think the early morning prayer sessions are awesome, but the lack of sleep seems to be taking it's toll on me. This morning was our 16th consecutive praying in tongues sesh.

For lunch I went home and made pasta. That made me feel better. Then when I got to the prayer room, Andrea met me and said we had the FPD meeting at 1.00pm today, instead of on Friday. No one else got the message in time so we were the only two interns that attended. During the meeting, my throat started getting sore and I could feel my body becoming ill. After the meeting I went straight home and started the recovery process. Thank God I found some antibiotics Julz gave me to bring to KC. I thought I had consumed everything she gave me, but I have one last box.

The FPD meeting today was led by Ken Mitchell and his wife also joined us. They have the most amazing home - a super pretty little cottage-like home filled with collector's item antiques presented like a display home on two levels (including the basement). They have even converted their garage into a spare room.

I was blown away with the amount of effort and care they had put into creating the most beautiful home I have seen in Kansas City. Ken shared his extremely clever strategy for acquiring and maintaining partners - he hand writes ten postcards every day and prays over every piece of correspondence he writes and receives when he goes to the prayer room. He said out of curiosity and interest he would like to exchange postcards with me once a month when I return to Australia to have the international contribution to his life. He also has people he writes to regularly in Hong Kong, New Zealand and I think he said in Thailand. I think he's come the closest out of everyone to possibly getting me to partner with him. I like his personal touch. He actually makes all his own postcards out of photos, scanned books, pictures, etc.. whatever it is he can get his hands on! What a clever old man.