Tag: evangelist

Categories
ecuador Mission

Food Bank Launch As Response to Pandemic

Last week I was on the phone with my pastor friend in Puyo, in the Amazon Jungle. I was happy because our corona lockdown in Florida finally is over, but in Ecuador the reality is very much different. Due to the pandemic, people are not able to leave their houses during regular hours, and they are only allowed to drive their car once a week. Because of this, it is very difficult just to get essential supplies for a house hold. People have to walk, and if they are not back in their house before 2 pm, they will be fined or even arrested.

Many of the people we know have family members and friends that have died due to COVID-19, including one of the ladies that took care of our team in Esmeraldas last year. In Guayaquil which is the second largest city in the nation, they are burning dead bodies in the street or even dumping them in the ocean, because they can’t bury them fast enough.

Church is Essential

My good friend pastor Carlos Marchan who has an established ministry in the area, cannot pastor his church since everything has been shut down. I challenged him to become essential, to buy food and start distributing food to people in the community like we have done it at our church in Orlando, Florida.

I asked him to buy food at wholesale prizes and we would send him the money. Starting with one ton of rice for 1000 dollars, he could make the church into a food distribution center, which would be the beginning of the temporary “food bank” in Puyo.

A few phone calls later, business people started to donate, and the next day we were able to buy one ton of rice, eggs, cooking oil and other essentials for the people in Puyo as an emergency response to the pandemic.

Documentation

Right now the pastor in Puyo is working together with my other friend who is a tour guide. He has a military background and will be able to use his vehicle to pick up the food without any restrictions.

Our friends in Ecuador will be receiving the donations through our ministry and document with photos and video as they buy the food and give it out to the people in the community, especially families and elderly people in the neighborhood who cannot make the walk to the supermarket.

The economy in Ecuador is hit hard. People have lost their jobs because of COVID-19, and when the oil prices dropped, the nation was brought to it’s knees. Oil is a main source of income in Ecuador with an export rate of 60 pct.

Categories
Homelessness

A Good Friday On The Trail

This morning as we arrived to the parking lot outside our church, we spotted this shopping cart loaded with shopping bags like ornaments on a Christmas tree. We have seen a lot over the years, but this caught my attention to an extend so I almost forgot to park in my usual spot.

Next thing I saw was a person laying next to the cart. My husband went over to see if it was somebody we knew. It was one of the elderly ladies, a very sweet woman, that I have had the pleasure of speaking with before. She was very confused and asked for a gentleman that used to come to our church for our brunch.

“Sorry Mam, we don’t have community cafe today because of Corona”, I said. “We are not serving brunch, but I can get you something else”.

I did not have any coffee, but found a cool bottle of mango juice, a small yoghurt and a pop tart. It was almost nine o clock. Some of the regular guys showed up outside the gate. But the lady didn’t want to stay. She took off with her shopping cart, heading back on the trail.

Coffee in The Courtyard

My husband invited some of the regular guys for coffee outside in the church courtyard. Just a few so we could keep the rules about social distancing. The coffee was brewing when another lady showed up. She was homeless as well. She had been living two years out of a van parked in her friends driveway.

“Sometimes they let me inside so I can watch tv. That’s nice and cool when it is hot outside. I have been living in the streets on and off. I have been arrested but now I have been out for almost a year”, she said. “I am ready to get my own place. Specially now with all this virus going around”.

The coffee was ready, so I gave her a cup, a yoghurt and a poptart. She closed her eyes and prayed, thankfully. Then she looked up and told me a little more about her life. She had worked as a prostitute, but not for the past year. I did not know what to think. This lady was at least 60 years old.

We talked for a while, and I promised to pray for her before she left. She was going to the doctor. She took up a bandana and coughed. I gave her one of our home made masks, and she gave me a big smile with no teeth. “I don’t like to go to the doctors office with all this corona”, she said.

I wish I could have given her a hug, but I have found a new way to greet people. Instead of saying see you later, we will say “Hug you later”. That made her smile. People need hugs, but most of all they need prayer.

Food Bank And Meals To Go

The rest of the day was super busy. First we arranged all the packages for the food bank and gave away a lot of frozen chicken and nice pastries for the Easter Holidays. We had a lot of nice stuff, drinks and chocolate, Starbucks coffee, creamer and chocolate milk powder.

At one point we got a phone call from one of our pastors. She had been contacted by a single mum with two kids that needed essentials. One hour later we received a pallet of diapers. Perfect timing, that is how we know that God is in control.

We gave out bags and boxes to 55 individuals and families in the community. And later today we served 50 free hot meals to go, like we have been doing it for the past two weeks during lock down.

I don’t know what other churches and ministries are doing for Easter but we are busy expanding in this season. Church is essential, and we are blessed to be a blessing. This Friday was special. It was Good Friday, and it was actually very GOOD!

Categories
Inspiration

A Day in the Studio

A few weeks ago I joined Rich Marshall in Orlando as his guest on the God@Work television show. This program, that highlights how God is at work in people’s lives around the world, is produced by GodTV and my segment will air on March 16th at 8:30pm Eastern time. I really enjoyed my time with Rich and his other guests as we explored the power of God at work in our daily lives. Please tune in and tell your friends about this opportunity. 

GodTV is on channel 365 if you have DirecTV; or you can get it online at www.god.tv/work. I am on episode 110. You can also download the GodTV app; God@Work is under the GodTV Originals section.

I genuinely hope you will watch the March 16th program and drop me a note letting me know what you think. GodTV reaches out to million 300 homes on the globe with a potential of 1 billion viewers.

If you are one of them, plz let me know!

Remember, put it in your calendar: Channel 365 on DirecTV; online at www.God.tv/work or on the GodTV app.

Categories
Mission

Church on The Beach

Last month I went on a mission trip to Ecuador to speak at a conference in Puyo in the Amazon Jungle and to visit the city of Esmeraldas which is a major seaport in the Northwestern part of the country.

Over the past year we have been ministering to a group of fishermen in Esmeraldas. It started with a random fishing trip and a bbq on the beach, and as we were eating together and sharing lives, people gave their lives to Christ. At this occasion, God gave us a vision to start building the community and supporting the families there.

I already shared how some of the businessmen in our church https://www.powerhouseflorida.com/ invested in a boat to to help a family with seven children and this time, we were able to raise funds to buy 1000 yards of nets.

Faith in Action

Coming back to Esmeraldas this time I found out that the fishermen had appointed a new leader of their fishing commune and that he was born again. He was happy to meet us and asked us to come and teach the community, and the following day he asked us to come and help them start a church.

We went out fishing and after the catch we arranged another fish bbq on the beach. People came from near and far, and this time it was much more easy to share the Word. I understood that the boat and the nets had been preaching for me.

When Jesus was preaching to the multitude, he did not only serve them the Word, he also looked to their physical needs and served them food. He demonstrated the power of God through five loaves and two fishes supplied by a little boy. Jesus was very practical and we should learn from him!

Building Church Community

As we were sitting around the fire, we realized that we were not only building the community, we were building church. These were tough fishermen, not saints. Some of them were alcoholics, but as we preached the gospel, they wanted to change.

It was almost midnight when we led the fishermen in the prayer of salvation. They received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and repented from their sins, right there on the beach. Then they started talking about getting baptized, and eight of them were ready to do it right away!

The water was there, so there was no reason to wait. Those that wanted to be baptized went out in the waves of the Pacific Ocean. It was cold and dark, but they didn’t care. This was the power of the gospel unto salvation, and these fishermen are now Fishers of Men.

I can’t wait to go back to the beach of Esmeraldas and see what God will do next time. I have no doubt. God is gonna build his church right there, as we continue to reach the lost!

Categories
Powerhouse Church

When God Connects The Dots

From Mount Elgon in Kenya to Powerschool in Orlando. Read the incredible story of pastor Brian Kibet Mosong who received the Bible in his native tongue Sabaot translated by danish Wycliffe bible translaters from my hometown in Vejle, Denmark.

Pastor Brian Kibet Mosong from Western Kenya was one of the 48 graduates at this years Powerschool in Orlando. This was his third year in Powerschool and for us who has followed him for the past three years, it has been an incredible testimony.

First time I met pastor Brian was in Nairobi Kenya 3 years ago. I had invited him to come and meet me, at FEM Family Church, Kenya. My bishop is Rev. Teresia Wairimu, and this was the opening of her new church building.

I did not know him, but we had a mutual friend in Switzerland whom I had met in 1985 in a kibbutz in Israel. My friend had been traveling in Kenya and had supported pastor Brian over a couple of years, and eventually he had called me so that pastor Brian could connect with me. That is how we met.

Connecting The Dots

I invited pastor Brian for Powerschool in Orlando, and I must admit, I was not sure that he would come. The visa, the airfare, the tuition fee would be like a mountain of obstacles, but pastor Brian had faith. He applied for Powerschool, and without money on his account he got a 10 year visa to the USA!

In June 2017 he came for the first time and attended one week of Powerschool and after spending a week with him, I got to know him even more. He wanted me to be his spiritual father, and he wanted to start Powerhouse Churches in Western Kenya. Back then he had around 70 churches in the bush and was doing a great work, from feeding widows and orphans to discipling and raising up pastors in unreached places amongst the Sabaot people in Mount Elgon.

When I heard this, I could not believe my own ears. I remembered how my parents friends had traveled out to Mount Elgon as missionaries many years ago to translate the bible into the Sabaot language. They were send out when I was a kid from my home church in Vejle in Denmark, and now God had connected the dots so I could meet a man that had been saved by the Word translated by these Danish people!

We Are his Workmanship

Ephesians 2.10 talks about us as his “workmanship” created in Christ Jesus for good deeds which God prepared beforehand for us so we can walk in them! Meeting pastor Brian was one of these “good deeds”, and I realized this was not a coincidence. Right there I made a video for my parents missionary friends who spend 25 years translating the bible to pastor Brians tribe, before they moved on to the other side of the mountain to work with another tribe. Think about it, what an incredible job!

I was so excited so I made a vlog to the Danish missionaries with pastor Brian thanking them for translating the bible to his people. People and churches are being impacted everyday by the Word of God and by this translation. People are getting saved, and every year pastor Brian comes to Orlando to bring a good report. Now there is more than 90 Powerhouse Churches in Kenya, and there is a big demand for mission in the area.

The harvest is ripe, and Jesus is calling workers for the harvest. The question is, “whom should I send, who will go? (Isaiah 6.8). Pray for workers. And if you want to go, please let me know.

Powerschool 2019. Pastor Brian Kibet Mosong is kneeling in the first row to the right.

Categories
denmark

God Is Not Done With Denmark

From one of the house meetings in March 2019. A group of Inuit believers from Greenland came and joined us!

Most of you know our story of how God called us out of Denmark, and some of you know how we were sentenced in court for instigation of quackery, preaching that Jesus Christ can save, heal and deliver people, which according to the government is a crime. 

All this happened before we came to the USA in 2011, but now it is happening again, not to us, but to another evangelist that has been in the media and now is experiencing persecution and death threats on his life like we did. It is almost the same story, a journalist comes into the ministry and collects all kinds of material, they cut and paste and make a soup of slander and lies ready to serve on television.

This time they made three programs and now the politicians are changing the laws to “protect” people and especially children from radical christianity. Several Christian families are already under investigation because the Danish government wants to remove their kids in order to protect them from their parents beliefs!

Raising Up a Standard

What is our response to this? Isaiah 59 says that “when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Lord will raise up a standard”, and this is exactly what we saw in Denmark when we were there.

People were craving for the gospel. We could not preach anywhere in the churches so we planned to do one house meeting and this grew into five meetings in different homes. People came, 30-40 people every evening. We did not know the people, they responded through Facebook, and even though Facebook shot down the live streams from the meetings because of persecution, the people kept coming.

The last night we were close to 60 people gathered in a little house in the country side, and the power and the presence of God was there. There was such a huger. We were worshipping in the Spirit, praying in the Spirit, and people went home in the power of the Spirit.

Pray for Denmark. We might be back there sooner than we know!

Categories
Inspiration

What Are You Leaving Behind?

Right now we are traveling in Denmark preaching the gospel visiting family and friends. The other day as we were heading for our next destination Karen told me to stop and turn the car around. “Did you see the sign at the roadside”, she asked, “It says “Nødhjælp fra Hjem til Hjem”… (Danish meaning “Disaster Relief from Home to Home”).

Could that really be? The sign looked very official, but it looked familiar to me. It was the name of a non profit organisation that Karen and I founded back in the 1990’s as we started collecting food and clothing for poor families in Ukraine, Belarus and Moldavia. God gave the vision, and God gave the provision – for when God guides, He also provides!

We went down the dirt road. On the right side was a barn. The door was open. I could see piles of plastic bags with clothes at the right side of the wall and stacks of wheel chairs, bikes and hospital equipment on the left side. In the doorway there was an old man in work clothes.

“Helmer?”. The man in the barn looked at me. It has been more than 15 years since last time we met, but obviously he was still here, still going strong 86 years old collecting donations and packing stuff for the next transport. Since we started the work it has been 228 trailer loads with 9 trailers last year. Hundred thousands of people have received helped over the years because of one mans vision.

This was my first big assignment before entering into full time ministry. I was visiting the former Sovjetunion when God told me to make a food drive and collect clothes for the people there. I was just a young man and I had no clue what I was doing, but the collection laid the foundation of what we are doing today.

From Home to Home

It was so cool to meet Helmer and hear about the work how it continues to bless people in great need. What started in our home has now spread to many homes. Amazing to see how this work of the Lord keep going and growing, spreading to different nations.

After this experience we went north to the coast to visit the thrift store that has been the financial engine behind the transports. Karen and I started the thrift store in 1998, as a teamwork between the church and the city, and there it was, still in the same location as a monument of the faithfulness and the goodness of the Lord.

As I entered in I found three ladies working in the store. Only one of them looked familiar. I did not introduce myself. “Do you remember me?” I asked, and when I said my name, she smiled. “This gentlemen was here from the beginning, he was here before anybody else” she explained and now we were all talking.

Old pictures came out of the drawers together with old articles from the local newspaper, and we talked about the first trip, when I brought a group of ladies to Ukraine. When they saw the poverty they were changed for life, they cried for a week, some of them gave their lives to Christ, and after this they gave themselves 100 pct to the work.

The Story Continues

It was amazing to see how the work of the Lord has not been in vain. How the vision that He gave came through, and how the seed that was planted back then is still growing for the benefit of many, even though we are not there anymore.

God has called us all to make a difference where we are at, to be history makers, trail blazers, vision bearers, life changers. Question is, what do we leave behind when we are not here anymore. What are the fruits, have we been faithful to do what He called us to do?

I live every day for him. That’s my passion, my only desire. I want to be obedient to all that He calls me to do. Not to say “no” but to go wherever he tells me to go. To Denmark, to Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando, to Ecuador, Greenland, Kenya, leaving a trail of testimonies behind.

Categories
Mission

Recap from a Mission Trip to Ecuador

Are you dreaming of going places where you have never been, seeing things that you have never seen? Watch this 5 minutes video documentary from our latest trip to the Amazon Jungle in Ecuador visiting remote places.

Categories
Powerhouse Church

Don’t You Ever Give Up Hope

This Christmas it has been seven years since we first came to America and started feeding the homeless people on Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando, Florida. Every Wednesday and Sunday after church, but also a lot in between. Even before the church was established, our family has served tens of thousands of people, and if somebody asks me if it has been worth it, I will always say “yes”.

Honestly, I don’t think about it, I just do it. If I start to think too deeply about what we are doing I might start to lose courage. Orange Blossom Trail needs a lot of change, and we all know that it’s not the food, that will change the community. It is Jesus Christ. My focus is so strong on Jesus Christ and the vision that I refuse to look back and faith in him keeps me alive and strong in all the daily problems.

I have many pastor friends now in America and sometimes I have to pinch myself in the arm when I hear about their problems, how I wish I sometimes could swab problems with them. Just last week alone, two of the people that come to our church regularly have died out in the street, but still, I am convinced that I am graced to do this job.

There is a Reason, Pastor!

Let me give you three fresh testimonies that kept me going this past week:

In our church we have this homeless man that I have fed for seven years, he always sticks to himself, he has a long beard and white wild hair, and not so long ago he told me why. “There is a reason, pastor. I want people to think that I am crazy so that they will stay away from me”, he explained. “I am not crazy, but I am so hurt by people, I just want to sit on an island alone and die”, he said. This man has been expelled many times because he has been drunk and aggressive, but last year he detoxed himself off one bottle of vodka a day and has been sober for a long time. Now he has decided to follow Jesus, and Sunday he was in our service for the first time ever and got baptized in front of everybody. Even I was astonished to see him take that turn. For many years it seemed like nothing was happening but now, all of a sudden, he is changing big time.

My Other Sheep

One of my other “sheep” have been coming to our Community Cafe for a long time. They are always around, and they are always high and drunk. They live in a different world of substance abuse and we have had many problems with one of them in particular. No matter what I say, they will never listen, so I must admit that I kind of wrote them off, still knowing that “nothing is impossible with God”.

This week I saw the impossible. I was outside the Community Cafe talking to one of the guys, and when I came into the building everybody was real quiet. I had to look twice when I saw my “case impossible” speak in front of everybody. “So many people have died out here, but this church has saved my life”, he said. “This is our street, and we must stand together to change our community. We can do it. If they could change me, you can change as well. But it takes faith in God and faith in the church”, he said.

I was stunned. This man has threatened me and my family and my volunteers over and over again. Recently we gave him the “last chance”, he has been asked to leave the facility several times, but now I am happy that we had faith, patience, and longsuffering enough to love him through. Now he is pulling people into the church.

We Saved his Life …

My last “case impossible” is a young man that I don’t remember “not high”. A few months ago he told me that he was starting in school, A young man that I do not remember “not high” on drugs told me a few months ago that he was starting to go to school. I took the time to talk to him but it looked like the word was just going in through one ear and out of the other. I also prayed with him, and next time I saw him around he was sitting down, talking to another young drug addict about Jesus Christ. “You know me from the streets”, he said, “but I have changed, ever since pastor prayed for me and I started listening to him, my life has changed. I am going back to school. This pastor saved my life!” he said.

I almost fell off my chair, I had not seen that one coming and I realized right there that our word is like a living seed. We must preach whether people like it or not. We must not stop speaking about Jesus Christ. The word is alive and has mighty power to save.

When I came home Friday I was still in awe. Two of the most impossible cases were testifying in front of other people that I had saved their lives and I did not even know it. The third “impossible” guy was baptized on his first Sunday in church. Wauv, I never get tired of serving Jesus Christ.

Happy New Years from all of us here in Orlando. We walk by faith, not by sight. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Don’t ever give up hope!

Categories
Mission

When Tumors And Cancer Disappear

In my last blog “Living With Christ is a Blast” I wrote about the adventures in the Amazon Jungle in Ecuador, how we flew into the tribes in small planes and how we drove over the Andes Mountains on motorcycles, swimming in waterfalls, white river rafting etc.

This time I want to share with you the biggest adventure of them all and the reason why we went there in the first place. I did not come for the jungle experience, I came for the “Jesus Experience”, to see Jesus touch peoples lives in the Puyo region.

First time I came to Puyo was in June 2018, and after two days of crusade, I felt there was more for me to do. That’s why I talked to the pastor in the region, and that is why we set up another crusade with four revival meetings at the beginning of December 2018.

The first night we preached in the host church in Puyo, the jungle capital of Ecuador. The pastors are Carlos and Alicia Marchan, they are wonderful people and very respected for their work in the region. When they came there was nothing. Today they have started many churches and led many people to Christ, and it is amazing to see how the church has developed and grown with the city.

It was a really good start, many people were baptized with the Holy Spirit, so we were all fired up and ready for the big meetings the following days in the downtown sports center. The next day it was raining all day which I had not expected. Only a few people were there at the beginning of the meeting, but after an hour they were there by the hundreds, including my tour guide and several of his friends, and when I called for salvation many people gave their lives to Christ.

Instant Miracles of Healing

My preaching did not take a long time at all, so we started ministering to the sick and oppressed. I will try to give you some of the highlights:

A teacher and her teenage daughter, she was completely blind on one eye and had severe pain in one side of her face. The daughter started crying when she realized that her mother’s eye had been restored and to my surprise, she started reading out loud the banner behind me on the stage, even the sentence in small print that I could not even see myself.

A woman with a severe infection in her stomach, it was so bad that she could not even urinate and had a lot of pain. We prayed for her and I told her to go the restroom and pee and when she came back her face was all lit up and she whispered in my ear that as she went to the restroom all the puss and infection had come right out of her and she was healed.

It just kept going and going on for so long. So many testimonies. Now I knew that the second crusade night in Puyo would be great. Again it was raining cats and dogs all day, even worse than the first day, we could not even go out of the hotel. The rain was so heavy that I thought people would not be able to come. But people kept coming. They said there were over 500 the second night, which was a personal miracle to me with all that rain.

After the sermon, I asked people with tumors to come to the front for prayers and one by one they testified how God healed them there on the spot from tumors and growths. When people saw and heard this, their faith exploded and soon many people poured out from the isles to give their lives to Christ and to receive healing and deliverance.

The Power of God Hit the Place

A woman with throat cancer came forth. I had talked to her before the meeting and she said she had no faith. I told her that I did not agree since she had already demonstrated her faith by coming to the meeting. And when she finally came for prayer I told her how she had now demonstrated her faith in Jesus twice in a day. First by coming to the meeting and second by coming for prayer. I asked her friend to lay her hands on her and immediately she started to swallow, which she could not do. She asked for water and after drinking a whole bottle she asked for food and then another bottle of water, she could eat and swallow without any problems. A miracle happened right there before our eyes.

I remember another lady with a huge tumor under her breast, it was as big as a cup. As we prayed for her to be healed the thing disappeared right before our very eyes. We all started crying, everybody on the team experienced the power of Jesus Christ that night. It was like an explosion. This evening many more got saved. It was so powerful. I could not sleep when I came back to the hotel.

Sunday morning I preached again in the church and again we saw several people getting baptized, healed and set free from demons of witchcraft. This was my last meeting, supposedly the end of the trip, but I have the feeling that I am not finished. It seems like we are just getting started on a whole new chapter, an outpour of the Holy Spirit in Ecuador spreading to other countries in South America as well.