February 2007

It is difficult to put down in writing all that the Lord is doing at the moment. It seems that there is a call to readiness, to be prepared for the day of visitation. There is an acceleration of what the Lord is doing inside the hearts of men and women that He has chosen for His service. There is sifting, shaking, and a separation of the precious from the worthless. The Holy Spirit is pressing on to make the ‘won’ more and more like Jesus, in every way. It is not just a matter of imitating Christ but a matter of identifying ourselves with Him in all of our actions, emotions and relationships. It is however, paramount that minds are renewed before this can take place.

In the past few days, we have seen a lot of changes to our schedule: engagements that had seemed cast in stone have been postponed or even cancelled; requests for ministry, that had previously seemed impossible for us to accommodate fell right in the middle of newly created empty spaces.   Invitations that we had been reluctant to accept, became the only reasonable thing for us to do. We do sense that there is an increased activity in the heavenly places and many more direct interventions in our lives. It is all good, but it requires us to be on the alert!

1. The third pastors' seminar in Uzhgorod, Ukraine, was well attended as usual. A few people had to be accommodated with families in town, because there were no more rooms available at the Nehemiah Centre. Most of the pastors came from the east of Ukraine, one from Byelorussia and two from Kazhakistan. We had three two hour sessions for each of the five days, with just one days break and they all wanted more and more and more! We took the entire flock, pastors, wives and children to a nearby skiing resort. They loved it and our reward was to see the joy and fun of these dear brothers and sisters, most of who have never skied before.

The seminar was sold out two months in advance. It will now be a fixed event every six months. At the summer meeting we will be able to accommodate more people, using the library as a dormitory and having tents in the garden.

2. During our stay in Uzhgorod we ministered to four different churches. On the final Sunday we had three services at three different places, which was great fun! The last one was a healing outreach and the place was packed, with maybe three hundred or more people. Healing was taking place while we were speaking. We had many words of knowledge, but the most interesting healings just happened. At the end of the service, the leaders confirmed that twenty-three people made a firm commitment to Christ and left names and addresses for the follow up, not bad!

3. After the last morning’s service the pastor told us that four men had arrived from Kiev. They had heard that we would be there and had travelled fifteen hours to receive prayer from us. We really did not have too much time so we saw them in the restaurant where we were having lunch. I really felt a strong prophetic anointing and I prophesied on those four brothers right in the middle of the restaurant, the other patrons looked somewhat puzzled! I told one man that, among many other things, the Lord was giving him a generous heart and he promptly paid for our lunch!

4. We were fortunate enough to have dear friends with us who were a great blessing. They helped with the ministry and many miracles of healing took place through their hands. I am sure that we will have many more Kingdom adventures together.

Giancarlo & Catherine