Siberia, Day 3 August 12, 2008

Today we will visit the Woman's Teen Challenge and "House of Mercy" (for homeless men) in Kultan and then to back to Zapseeb (drug district).

We start our day early 6:30am with devotion and prayer as a team. More fried eggs! And then we set out to be at a service in Kultan at 9:00am

After a long, hot 1 hour drive (its about 80 degrees again today) through the country we arrive at the gates of Kultan. Kultan is a complex that was once owned and used by the Coal Mining Company as a vacation resort. It has many buildings and acres of grounds. It is a wonderfully quiet getaway. Reminiscent of the resort in the the movie "Dirty Dancing" with big houses, a dining hall, a river for recreation. It is easy to see how beautifully landscaped this resort was at one time. Today Kultan is still a place of rest, but now its purpose is much more important. People get saved here. People get delivered here. People drop the chains of bondage here and enjoy the liberty of the cross of Jesus Christ. The Spirit of the Lord is here, and where the Spirit of God is....there is liberty.....Alleluia!

We arrive to a service that has just begun Praise and worship. The room is electric with worship.

They have been waiting for us and I was asked to preach when we arrive. The church is full of residents and staff of this Teen Challenge resort. An estimated crowd of 100 people. As I scanned the audience it was easy to see a room full of broken, beaten.......hopeful souls. They worshipped God like it was their oxygen. Some only a week in the Teen Challenge program and some have been here for months. But they all have one thing in common. After years of dying they now are hanging on to Jesus.....they know that Jesus and only Jesus can save them.

God had me speak a Word of forgiveness using the story of the Prodigal Son.

We saw the power of God's anointing this morning and a spiritual battle to keep God's Word from going forward.

The previous day my interpreter, Rustam, and I worked seamlessly to bring a word of healing. But today, he was struggling so it caused me to check every word and stumble as well. Olyia, our other interpreter sat in the crowd wanting to jump up and help but God held her back. "The battle is mine says the Lord". God was going to show all us His mighty power today. "It's not by might or by power but my Spirit says the Lord". Today I was reminded that God has ordained and appointed each day. He does not need my speaking to be perfect because it is anointed......but also he has anointed the ears of those who will hear. The healing (sozo) to be released in that room today was ordained by God before Rustam or I ever left our mothers wombs. All he needed was our obedience, trust and patience.

God was delivering and anointing every word that Rustam spoke regardless of the devils attempt to confuse us. The Holy Spirit broke through! Alleluia!!!!

The alter call was for those seeking forgiveness and those unable to forgive or accept Gods forgiveness. About 3/4 of the room came forward and I was told that some of the women in the back of the room that did not come forward were weeping. Our team moved into action and began to lay hands and pray.

The Holy Spirit took over. I was unaware of how much time was passing or what was going on in other parts of the room. I stayed focused only on the souls that the Lord put before me. As did each of our team. I was told later at night that much of the team had trouble ministering because they were crying. God is soooo good. It seemed many of the people wanted to weep but had no more tears and many had wept openly for the first time. Olyia, whom God would not allow to come forward to help during the preaching said that she felt the same thing and cried like a baby during the ministry. Praise God!

The Holy Spirit rained down and was no respecter of religion or persons. People were being slain in the Spirit physically healed and set free. This was obviously a new experience for many in attendance but it just kept happening and those touched experienced joy, joy, joy!

Personally, I lost track of time and everything else going on in the room. The anointing was so powerful that at the conclusion of the ministry time I could barely walk back to my seat. The power of the Holy Spirit is awesome! "We offer our bodies as a living sacrifice unto the Lord." All Glory to God.

Woman's Teen Challenge was our next stop at Kultan.

We all gathered in a small room with about 20 woman, some with babies. They shared their amazing testimonies with us and our team shared with them. The women were blessed by Jennifer's powerful testimony and word to them that each of them are beautiful to God. Then Kristie shared her testimony and how God will meet them wherever they are. I cannot forget the powerful words that she said God spoke to her, "Dance with Me"!

More than our audience was touched by these wonderful testimonies, "You are beautiful to God" and "God Loves You" resound in our spirits.

After a wonderful lunch we went back to the drug district of Zapseeb.


Our bodies were tired but no one suggested that we cancel. We had Divine appointments to meet.

Praise God that we did not give into our flesh.......God moved powerfully in Zabseeb, AGAIN!

This was the day that we met Maxima. He is the young boy pictured here. About 10 or 11 years old he was scared on his head and face. His eyes were empty. He was smoking a cigarette as though he was in control but you can tell that he is scared and dying a slow death in the grip of the devil. He listened as we shared our friend Jesus with him. "I'm on my own and I take care of myself, don't need any friends, he quietly told us through our interpreter. But he stayed and he listened.....I asked if we could pray for him.....he agreed and suddenly a car pulled up behind us. Without a word he left us like a shot to go to the car. He was doing a drug deal. Apparently he was a drug runner. The other boy with him stayed but I must admit it that I was discouraged. I never showed it and I never left the squatting position that I was in as to not show fear or discouragement. Just then.....as ordained by God....another young man rode up on his bicycle and said "I want to know Jesus!". Just like that! I tried not to show my surprise regarding this Divine appointment, but took his hands and prayed the sinners prayer with him. The other boy prayed as well. Alleluia! Then Maxima came back. He came back, this was encouraging. He showed us his deformed hand that he had been hiding. Boldly we took his deformed scarred hand and arm and prayed for God's healing. He accepted our prayer and I am confident that God will show him a physical sign of what was spiritually healed. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for and not yet unseen". Maxima seemed unmoved, but, he allowed the Lord to touch him and we were able to bring him the good news of Jesus Christ. "Gods word will never return to Him void". Using a cigarette from behind Maxima's ear, I did a few magic tricks that I learned years ago and promised the kids that I would teach them the secret after church on Sunday. So, "we'll see you at church" I told them.

We continued our walk to see a demon possessed drug addicted woman crawl along the wall of the building to avoid us. She would not come near us but we stopped and openly declared her freedom in Jesus' name. We spoke directly to hell and told satan...."in Jesus name let her go, loosen your grip". After some time she crossed our path again and cried out in Russian "they frighten me". Interesting because we never attempted to approach her but she was trembling with fear. Just like they did when Jesus entered a demon possessed region in the gospel !

30 minutes later, on the other side of Zabseeb while ministering to a few men. Six or seven young boys tracked us down. They were between 6 and 16 years of age and they were being led to us by the young boy who earlier gave his life to the Lord. (on the bike)

They asked to see the cigarette magic, so, I shared Jesus Christ with them and to my amazement they all bowed their heads and accepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour.

Again we invited them to church on Sunday for the secret.

What at Day! Alleluia!