I felt strongly that God wanted me to set aside Feb. for Him – Call it an early Lent. I had already started fasting all sweets in January and the church asked us to fast in some way during Feb., so I continued and David fasted solid food on Mondays. Thanks to a book called Listening Prayer, I also discovered the pleasures of journaling at last, really enriching my time. With a 2-week school vacation this month, demands were light, making it easy to spend most mornings in my “new” leather recliner, tasting the joys of being filled up with God on a daily basis. Even though I had an amazing grace for the fast, I was slightly disappointed that it didn’t alleviate a few migraines, nor did I lose a single pound, though it did break my snacking habit! February ended up being the calm before the storm, as now I’m deep into a month chock full of hospitality, accompanied by loud construction in the courtyard that jars my “quiet time.”

The church had also planned an extended tabernacle on Feb 27th from 11 a.m.-11 p.m. that coincided with Purim and ended our fasts. David and I were among the handful of people that attended the entire 12 hours. This is still part of our vision here, so we gave it our all. It was miraculous that I was able to prepare all week and still have energy to participate fully – Another benefit of my fast? While I did most of the work ahead of time to transform the church in the visible realm, David was sweating it out as it happened, making sure the invisible ran smoothly in the technical and sound areas. When we were down to our last musical group change, he was finally able to step down and accompany on the drum set, worshiping with the last bit of strength he had left. So what does a 12 hr.”sacrifice of praise” look like? Here’s a handy step-by-step illustrated guide:

How to prepare yourself for a 12 hour Purim event: Move closer to God the month before and fast something that your flesh clamors for. Volunteer to create corners in the sanctuary where participants can enter into the story of Esther and interact with the Trinity in a personal way to break up the corporate worship time. Lose sleep the week before while creative ideas flood your mind. Meet with a small team and get it into order. Deep clean the church, move out all furniture except 60 chairs, and build corners while only spending $30. Make 6 dozen homemade traditional Purim cookies. Create worksheets for the children to get all age levels engaged in the theme. How to worship God for 12 hours straight: Get your adrenaline up by being greeted by the accolades of others for all your work. Lead the first 90 min. of worship. Try out your corners and find out that God’s presence is there, even for you! Draw a picture in the art corner and give it to someone you don’t know. Enjoy worshiping as a participant with a French Christian recording artist. Keep incense burning at the entry and refill wine and food at the banquet table. Film your youngest daughter fulfilling her destiny and leading worship! Project words for German worship team with the help of someone who actually speaks the language. Take daughter home midway through the day and stop by the local sandwich shop to refuel. Bring back a sandwich for David and eat yours in the nursery while checking on the worksheet supply and playing with your favorite kids. Repeat #4 and receive more accolades from late comers. Worship with corporate movement while the older youth team leads. When families show up for the 7-9 pm service slot, gather the children up front with shakers for the traditional reading of the Megillah (Jewish story of Esther, punctuated by making lots of noise when Haman’s name is mentioned.) Take photos. Enjoy the sermon on the deeper truths of Esther. Teach your favorite 3 yr old how to draw a face at the art table. Start policing older children whose parents aren’t, to protect the ambiance. (They can’t resist running/skidding on the laminate floors across the front of the sanctuary during our exuberant worship times, and I seem to be the only one who notices when it gets out of hand.) Breathe a sigh of relief when the families head home at 9:30. Celebrate the end with dancing until you can’t stand up anymore. Put the cutest face drawing in the world on your refrigerator. Welcome your first guest into your home the next evening – a German angel who stayed 5 days… Still praying for spring! Love, Angela

As I mentioned a month ago, we’ll be adjusting our newsletter templates to hopefully make them more “fool-proof” (today’s email clients are pretty foolish!). I can’t say that “I’ve arrived” with this design, but it’s robbed my time enough for today that I’m ready to simply write some and get it out!

February finished with such a flourish that I’m holding on to it for March Momentum. I’ll let the feedback from last month’s requests explain…

Our 12-hour worship celebration capped off the month on the 27th of February when we sang and danced before the Lord from 11am to 11pm. Since the day we chose for our “tabernacle of worship” fell on the date of the Jewish festival of Purim, we, as a church, studied the story of Esther in the Bible (where this festival has its origin) to help guide our time. Angela, Olivia and I were all involved in some of the worship leading. Angela directed the decoration efforts which included different themed “stations” where one could meditate in specific ways. I also was in charge of the technical side of things (sound, words, recording). It was a challenging and tiring but very rewarding effort that we believe was quite important in the activities into which the Lord is leading our congregation. Angela will undoubtedly write more about it. You can check out photos and videos of the time in our gallery.

This also capped off Angela’s monastic month where she swore off sweets and sleeping-in to focus on God and what He’s saying to her right now. It was a very profitable time for her, but I’ll not steal her thunder. Thank you so much for lifting her up!

Major progress was made in the project to purchase and renovate our church building to house diverse Kingdom projects. With jack hammers and any other number of tools, a small open vertical shaft was made from the basement to the attic of the building (4 floors). This was important because the first activity in the renovation is the installation of an elevator. We feel this is significant, in that our desire is to join heaven and earth in practical ways and to make the Kingdom accessible. The elevator reminds me of the dream of Jacob in the Bible of the angels ascending and descending to carry out the Lord’s plans and purposes. In the near term, this allows us to have an accurate estimate on the cost of the elevator since the companies will now actually know what opening the entire shaft will entail. The brochure has also been made to announce the project and seek funding from donors. The image at the left shows the new logo and a picture of our building with the vineyards of Guebwiller behind it.

The progress of this building project has come to a point where our pastor’s wife can turn over the leadership to others and now she can concentrate more on the establishment of the language school. Unfortunately, it was not the only thing she’s been working on and in March she will be gone for three weeks in Mexico. So, we are still in need of more forward progress on this front. This is becoming critical.

A meeting was held in February where everyone could give their feedback on the progress of the high school so far this year and their opinions about whether to add the next year in the education cycle in September or to continue to concentrate on how to make things better with just a single year of high school. I don’t believe that a decision has yet been made. Still a matter of prayer.

• Priming the pumps – In February, 3 leaders from our church spent 2 weeks in Redding, California visiting Bethel Church to connect more deeply with this ministry. In March, a dozen or so people from our church, including the pastoral couple and other leaders, will spend 3 weeks attending the “Master Builder” course at the Comunidad Cristiana Internacional in Monterrey, Mexico. In April, others may go to Bethel and Angela and I will be attending a conference in Germany with Bethel’s Pastor, Bill Johnson. This is a time of drinking deeply at different “wells” where God is moving in concrete, society-changing ways. This is what we want for our region, so that our region can be blessed to be a blessing. Please pray for strong connections with the right people that will enrich us (and them) so that we grow in our ability to impact our world.

• Hosting! – Right at this moment, we’re hosting a wonderful young German lady in our home for a week. She is here on a 6-week internship to learn about Christian Education for her university studies. Next week is the annual visit of American high school students from Illinois. We’re not as involved this year but we will be doing some things with them. We will be hosting a lady from Paris one weekend as she comes to visit the school to see if it’s the right place for her son. Then we will host a young English lady for several days who is on a “reconnaissance” visit before she comes to do a year-long internship here next year. These are enriching times for us and we are glad to be able to facilitate the visits of those who desire to drink of these “wells” here also. They, of course, can be tiring, especially for Angela as she does most of the work. Please pray for her strength during these times and for good relational connections that will grow for the future. Pray also for our family of faith here as we know that these visits will only increase and we need a team in place for logistics and hospitality.

• Teaching! – This month, Angela will be a substitute English teacher in the elementary school for one of the teachers who is going to Mexico. Please pray for her energy levels and teaching inspiration. It’s normally a joy for her, but these kids can be a handful sometimes.

• Worship! – Some of the worship team leaders will also be going to Mexico. So, this month could be particularly interesting with respect to Sunday worship and technical responsibilities. Please pray for the smooth coordination of the remaining “skeleton crew” and endurance for increased levels of responsibility for us in this area this month.

• Summer planning – Noah is home for his spring break towards the end of March and we hope to spend some time finalizing details of how he will spend his summer…hopefully in the States. This will take a fair amount of coordination and, of course, finances. Please pray for clarity and provision for Noah’s summer plans. We believe this could be a key summer for him with respect to his university education direction.

Marching with momentum!
David

Unclouded Sky (mp3 21Mb)

The Spirit of Breakthrough (mp3 20Mb)

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65 years ago this month, American GIs rolled into Alsace and declared freedom from German tyranny. This moment is refreshed for the citizens every 5 years with a parade, complete with men driving US military vehicles while tossing chewing gum to happy spectators. This year when they rolled by, I couldn’t stop the tears. And while visiting the temporary exhibition of articles, photos, and war paraphernalia, I learned 2 more details that hit me emotionally: The Nazis entered Alsace on my birthday (years before me,) and US soldiers used Barbasol Shaving Cream that was proudly made in… Indianapolis. That tube and box, and the first aid supplies displayed next to it provided the only English text in the hall. I’m glad people walk away from that glass case thinking that America was part of the healing. And here I am walking in the same role spiritually where God has sent us 60 years later. Enjoy the photos and roll over them for more details…

I think I also connected to the event because I had just discovered a French author, Joseph Joffo, that Olivia recommended to me. The first book was called ” A Bag of Marbles ,” and is the true story of he and his brother spending a year outrunning the SS as anti-Semitic activities encroach on Paris. Though they were not practicing Jews, it was clear that God had His hand of protection on them, and it was nothing short of gripping. In the sequel called ” Foosball ,” he describes a much calmer life after the war as a teenager, but befriending a certain American soldier added adventure to his days that were otherwise filled with dreams of becoming a famous boxer in Las Vegas like Joe Louis. Even though I had to wade through mountains of French slang used in that era, it was quite a history lesson. It also made me proud to be an American. When I speak to a stranger here, often they will assume that I’m English. When I correct them, without fail, their countenance changes completely, and they are eager to talk. I have no doubt that those friendly, generous GIs unloading post-war supply trucks to desperate Europeans paved the way for me.

We are also celebrating a personal milestone at the same time – 10 years on the field – and I am suddenly seeing a lot of parallels to these books. I am so grateful that God finally intervened in our small, selfish lives, healed our marriage, put us on the path of serving others, and broke my heart for France. And when we started to feel our way there independently, it looked a lot like Joffo and his brother, living on the thrill of not knowing what the next step would be until it was time to take it, and watching God lead us in supernatural ways through the highs and lows of German family training, Slovakian outreaches, Scottish life as YWAM school staff, language students in the Alps, and more staffing in the south of France. Those boys grew up fast in that book and our faith grew at the same pace during those first 5 years. But now that we’ve arrived at our “promised land,” life has become more routine, much like the second book. With our gradual assimilation into this culture, we also started struggling against the influence of the negative spiritual forces here. And just as the GI blessed Joffo and his corner of Paris, visits by other Americans (and English) have been crucial to keep us strengthened and encouraged personally. But this year some of our reinforcements are coming to stay, not just to visit, and this is the dynamic we’ve been waiting for. I wonder how much of our service here has been done in the flesh, because our bodies feel like they have aged a lot more than just 10 years! With teammates who model an interior life that knows how to listen and wait on God to win our battles for us, we hope to be much more efficient in this next season!

Unfortunately, Joffo’s dreams of tasting America’s riches never come to pass, but at least 14 of our church members have traveled to the U.S. and other countries in the last year to drink from other spiritual wells needed to hasten freedom from their French mindsets that can keep them from moving forward in their walk with the Lord. This is such a clear picture of how desperately France needs input from “the nations“- the unique callings and giftings of people groups that contribute to the rich diversity of the body of Christ – in order to have a full understanding of their identity and role in the Kingdom of God. “Freedom!” was the prophetic word declared over me during our sending-off service 11 years ago. And as Jesus works that out in me in deeper ways, I pray that I will be part of the spiritual liberation of this people in ways that will make the events of 1945 pale in comparison!

Angela

Leigh Family Prayer Bulletin – February 2010

So, for me the turn of the year is a special time of anticipation to catch the wind of the Spirit for the coming year and to more fully understand the year that just passed. What did 2009 make possible? What does 2010…indeed the whole decade…hold for us?!

In addition to hearing directly from the Lord Himself, our Father desires that His children listen to each other…(that’s what friends and brothers and sisters do…it’s called relationship). So, I’m a big fan of regular listening to voices that I know are pressing into the Lord’s heart. They have keys that will help me unlock doors.

If you don’t already have your collection of sources that speak to you, you’re welcome to mine!

Here’s a message from Bill Johnson called “The Power of a Promise” speaking about Isaiah 45:1-3 and the life that God puts on a word that He give you. This is a passage that Bill feels is important for this year. Then there are several blog posts with various prophetic voices and discussions about 2010 and a link to the archives of the OneThing conference that happens at the turn of every year in Kansas City. Why don’t you post links to sources that have spoken to you in the comments? The wind of the Spirit is blowing for 2010. Get your sails up!

The Power of a Promise by Bill Johnson (MP3 17.7MB)

2010: from Paul Leader

2010, oil, and all things related 2010 and the year of the Lord’s freedom

What lies ahead?So what about 2010?

which way the prophetic directions for 2010? The new year, snow and fresh communication routes…

onething’09 Conference Archives

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IHOP just did something truly fabulous and incredible!!! (yes The Prayer Room web stream is now free…which is totally cool…but that’s not it).

I have to back up a little bit…

In 1999, we did our YWAM training (DTS) in Hainichen, Germany. Almost every morning during our DTS, as part of my personal devotions, I’d listen to one side of a cassette tape of a 20-part Bible teaching series. The series was The Life of David by Mike Bickle. I don’t think I can overstate how much that impacted me as a teaching and as the beginning of a powerful habit in my life…listening and re-listening to very good and deep teaching messages…almost daily. Then it was on cassette and I relished long car rides when I could listen to several in a row and just get lost and immersed in the subject matter. Now it’s while I do the dishes every morning using the mp3 player on my cell phone.

After the Life of David, I discovered two other 20-part series by Mike Bickle: The Song of Solomon and The Bride of Christ Later I collected CDs and DVDs of mp3 teachings. Most were from IHOP. Then I discovered some other good sources on the Internet. Then Bethel came along. Morningstar is in there too….but it all started with these teaching series from Mike Bickle. They made me the junkie that I am today…and along the way they helped to transform me as they transformed and energized my theology and my spirit.

I’ve had my copies, collected over the years and carefully stocked on my computer. As I’ve come across individual teachings that have impacted me, I’ve tried to place them here on this blog as a way to share them. I always hesitated to put the whole 20-part series up though. IHOP trumpets often that their “copyright is the right to copy” and certainly they’ve been extremely liberal with their teaching notes. But I was never quite sure since they’ve continued to sell a good percentage of their teachings from their site, and never posted their longer series… until now!

Now, all these great, in depth, transformational series are on-line for free access at a new IHOP sister site for resources specifically from Mike Bickle.

So, I urge you to head over to Mike Bickle’s Teaching Series page and begin…somewhere! Anywhere! Start to listen. Re-listen! Then download the notes and go through them in your personal study time. It will change your life!

Don’t return to your regularly-scheduled programming! Make 2010 different! I know that the last decade, with liberal doses of these teachings for meditation, has changed me radically. I think the next one will change me too. I encourage you to jump on the bandwagon!

Happy listening!

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This year, Olivia is thrilled to have an English class tailor-made for her alone, thanks to Beckie – a British college student who is spending a year at our school to complete her French degree. In December, they read “A Christmas Carol” together while the rest of her class struggled to master the present continuous tense – Ha! I confess that I approached Christmas with a Scrooge-like attitude this year, based on past experience:

You may recall that last year we were sick and broke the week before Christmas. The year before I moaned about my husband’s inability to fill my stocking. Earlier years in Europe went unrecorded in my newsletters, but in general, they were a real adjustment for my kids, living in quarters too cramped for a nice tree, missing Rocky Mountain snow, and getting cabin fever with everything closed and no family to visit, which every other French person is obligated to do at this time of year. Going back even further, our pre-missionary holidays in Denver were still very hard on me since Christmas was couched between Noah, born on his aunt’s birthday in early Dec. and Olivia, born on my mother’s birthday in early January 2 years later.

So this year, the Ghost of Christmas Past took up residence in my soul and convinced me that this was another year to dread: Rachel would be at a rare gathering of my whole family at Christmas in the SW and I would not. Almost 14, Olivia was mourning the end of “Christmas Magic.” I imagined Noah would come home bearing only dirty laundry and an attitude. I was sure we couldn’t escape some version of the flu due to miserable weather of the rainy kind, and was extremely skeptical about the timing of Christmas money with the supporting church transition. So I announced to everyone in October that it was high time that the family started thinking about how to meet Mom’s needs for once, and threatened to leave the country if necessary (at least an hour into Germany for a day at the thermal baths!)

Then on Dec.12th I walked into a Salvation Army store and saw the Christmas gift of my dreams – a comfortable leather sofa for $200. (Our furniture was shipped with us from Denver and is starting to show its age.) When David said we couldn’t afford it, the Ghost of CP said, “I told you so,” and I came home instead with Christmas shirts for him and a funky coat for me. When I relayed the story to my parents that evening, they had the money waiting in our Paypal account the next day with a message saying, “Enjoy your couch!” And suddenly, I didn’t need to go to Germany anymore.

The next day I got to “pay it forward” by playing taxi for 2 friends. One is a very pregnant mother of 3 who lives up 4 flights of stairs with no elevator, whose husband is working Mon.-Sat. and whose car died during the coldest week of the year. She is pretty trapped because her youngest needs to be carried down the stairs and her hips are so loose that it would be easy to fall in the process. She called when her cupboards were bare to see if I could take her and the 2 youngest to the grocery store. Fortunately I was feeling energetic that day: up 4 flights of stairs, mittens and hats and coats, down 4 flights of stairs, install car seats, load carts with 2 weeks of food, load sacks into the car, entertain the kids in the car while she makes a 2nd stop, unload groceries and boys, 4 flights of stairs x 4, help put it all in the cupboards, down 4 flights of stairs, remove car seats, head home. Two weeks later she needed to do it again. This time, I paid Olivia and her friend to babysit the 3 kids while we did it, and fortunately her husband was at home when we returned to carry it all up for us!

Back at the Salvation Army the next day,I was told that my dream had already been sold the week before, (but hadn’t been marked,) and the GCP started snickering again. However, there were at least 20 other couches in the store and several were leather, so I tried them all. I loved a butter cream leather recliner the most, but it wasn’t marked either, and I was afraid to ask about it for fear of disappointment. But first I settled on my second sofa choice and the manager came down $20 since it was in slightly worse condition than my first choice. That gave me the courage to ask the price of the recliner. “$20.” As my jaw dropped, I kicked the ghost in the head and headed to the cashier. They would deliver them 4 days before Christmas and take our old one with them.

The same week, I was doing my Christmas week grocery shopping and suddenly heard live accordion music while putting a bag of frozen frog legs in my cart. Looking around, I spotted a man wearing a Santa hat playing by the entrance. It was an epiphanal moment that broke through the daily grind. I suddenly realized that I’m living my dream – celebrating Christmas in France. I got a little emotional and couldn’t wait to thank the man on my exit. Alas, by the time I got there, he was gone. Live music in grocery stores is pretty rare – I think he was Gabriel in disguise giving the GCP one more kick.

A few days later, we picked up Noah, who thoughtfully brought back a library book for Olivia’s pleasure, and did not pack an attitude! And magical weather of the snowy kind kicked in for the first weekend of Christmas break packed with festive events, completely unhampered by the flu.

When the delivery men showed up on Monday, I’m sure they had never seen an American get so excited about used furniture. And when Olivia caught a news blurb that a Salvation Army Major was shot in front of his adopted children on Christmas eve, we were both adamant about writing a letter to his family and contributing to the memorial fund – what a sobering example of the body of Christ giving their very lives to provide for others…

While it’s true that our Dec. deposits were delayed until after New Year’s, our den became a PC emergency room that month, (with Noah working the night shift,) providing a steady stream of euros. More angelic activity was evident when all our Christmas packages and last-minute Internet orders arrived by Christmas eve!

I end with a new rendition of Psalm 23, which lends itself nicely to a eulogy for burial of the Ghost of Christmas Past:
The Lord was my Christmas Shepherd, and I did not want.
He made me lie down on leather furniture. He led me beside downtrodden mothers.
He restored our souls. He led me in the path of gratefulness for His name’s sake.
Yea, though we walked through the cold, snowy streets of Guebwiller,
We caught no flu for You were with us. Secondhand coats, they comforted us.
You prepared a Christmas table before us in the presence of many froggies.
You anointed our heads with patience, and now our provision runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy has followed us all these 10 years in Europe,
but we can’t wait to dwell in the house of the Lord forever (with all of you.)

Happy New Year,
Angela

While it’s not a new message, I feel that for our assembly of believers, EGLISE JOSUE in Guebwiller, France, 2010 is a year in which we are called to come into a new revelation and experience (words that actually should be inseparable, but in Western thinking are separate):

• of our corporate identity
• in order that we could carry a corporate anointing
• in order that we could come along side our city (Guebwiller and the surrounding area)
• in order that we would bless the city
• in order that the city would become a blessing to the nations

In this audio teaching from Bethel Church in Redding, CA, Bill Johnson explains how God needs a company of people, as opposed to an individual, in order to pour out a blessing and an anointing sufficiently powerful to facilitate transformation of a city or a region. The level of blessing and anointing necessary would crush an individual, but a company of believers who are walking in unity of honest heart relationships can successfully steward such a measure of grace.

I encourage liberal quantities of this teaching while praying for your church and your city. I think this is a word for us specifically, but the same Holy Spirit is undoubtedly saying the same thing specifically to many believers around the world. Start praying and proclaiming the end result now: Jesus, make name-your-city a blessing to the nations!

Practical Steps to Change the World (mp3 9.5Mb)

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Leigh Family Prayer Bulletin – January 2010