Friday, May 22, 2009

Tanzania Flash-Point

Prayers of the RIGHTEOUS...

Tabora - 2 people healed! 1 person could not walk and had to be carried. This person came to church, was brought forward for prayer and left COMPLETLY HEALED! 3 people have recieved the Holy Ghost in 1 church!



MARA - A small child had been having SEVERE stomach problems, and after prayer, the Lord touched him, and he was healed!!



IRINGA- 23 people received the Holy Ghost - 15 were CHILDREN!
But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven Matthew 19:14

Prayer Request

Update on Steve and Barbara Willoughby:

Thank you for your continuing prayers and show of support and love to the Willoughby’s.

After recovering from the surgery to insert the portacath, Sis Barbara Willoughby commenced her new chemotherapy regime on Wednesday, 6 May 2009.

Last week was a particularly difficult week for Sis Willoughby as she suffered from a severe reaction to the chemotherapy with nausea, loss of appetite, muscle weakness and dehydration.

On Wednesday, 13 May 2009, she saw her oncologist who gave her an IV infusion to rehydrate her. Because her white blood counts were very low, she was unable to proceed with the next chemotherapy cycle.

She will be reassessed to see whether she can continue with chemotherapy on Wednesday.

Prior to the commencement of chemotherapy, a blood test was done to measure Sis Willoughby’s CEA tumour markers. Despite not having any drug therapy for 3 weeks prior, the results showed that her tumour markers had dropped from 286 to 196. Sis Willoughby and her oncologist were very encouraged by these results.

A short update on Bishop Willoughby … for the past two and a half weeks Bro Willoughby has had increasing weakness in his left leg which at times causes his leg to drag, he finds it difficult to climb stairs and his balance is affected. Alarmed at this development, the oncologist ordered a MRI. The MRI was performed on Wednesday, 13 May 2009. The results showed that there is no reoccurrence or growth of any new tumours in Bro Willoughby’s brain. What the scan did show however was an increase rather than a reduction in the swelling in his brain. Bro Willoughby has resumed steroid therapy and the radiologist and oncologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering have been consulted to provide an opinion on the brain swelling.

Let us not be discouraged and say that God is not doing His part. He is but we must also recognize that a daily battle wages. A battle for supremacy between Fear and Faith. Some days, it appears that Fear has the upper hand and that Faith has quietly crept away abandoning us to our worst imagined fears. But a curious thing then happens. We are reminded or we suddenly see the small blessings of the day and gratitude arises and Faith reappears. It is not easy to battle Fear. It’s not easy to ignore his whispers that ‘things will never change’, ‘you are losing the fight’ or his best line, ‘just stop fighting and give up’. For every one of Fear’s whispers, we must utter the name of Jesus. We must believe that and live like fear can be defeated.

The prayer pointers for this week are as following:

1 That Bishop Willoughby will not have to undergo surgery to address the brain swelling.
2 That Sis Willoughby will have no further severe reactions to the chemotherapy.
3 That in addition to physical strength, God will grant them extraordinary emotional strength to overcome unexpected challenges.
4 That in the daily battle for supremacy, Faith will triumph.
5 That the Willoughbys will stay in their position of authority as God’s children and servants.
6 That all the God-given dreams, visions and promises given to the Willoughbys that the enemy has attempted to archive will come alive in their minds and spirits as they embrace the fact that the best is still to come in their lives and ministries.

Friends, in life, there are many uncertainties. But there is one certainty that the enemy cannot take from us – we win.

May you continue to fight.

Sandra
On behalf of Tabernacle of Joy, Singapore

Praise Report from Sri Lanka

Praise Report

From J. Prince Mathiasz (Sri Lanka/Eastern Europe):

It is with gratitude and thanksgiving, we praise God for the ending of a three decade long civil war which wrecked the nation of Sri Lanka. This war which began just two weeks after our arrival on the field to begin our very first term of missionary work just ended this week. The death of so many and the destruction of this beautiful island was very heart-wrenching and beyond comprehension.

The church in Sri Lanka and our International Fellowship had not ceased in their prayer efforts to see this war come to an end and see democracy, peace and normalcy return to this pearl of the Indian Ocean.

Thank you UPCI for all your prayers, letters of encouragement during the trouble times of civil war and terrorism in Sri Lanka. We are grateful to all of our leaders, pastors, brothers, sisters and friends of this great world-wide fellowship for your concern, and burden for the nation and the church in Sri Lanka. We thank everyone who called this week sharing their joy and prayer support.

We are so blessed to be a small part of such a great and wonderful family of God's people.
Please continue to pray that God will help, guide and bless the leaders of this nation as they face the monumental task of finding an acceptable solution to all sections of the people and rebuilding the nation so that the yearning and the dreams of living normal lives of the citizens of this country will come to fruition. People are optimistic and your prayers are very much appreciated.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Togo/Central African Report

Greetings to all of our precious friends in the Name of Jesus!

This update brings exciting news!

A few weeks back, we had a worker in our home. We got on the discussion of baptism. He asked for some literature. He then took the tracts to his pastor. After reading the tracts, the pastor requested a meeting/Bible Study with us.

Great News...At the end of this month, Pastor Simeon will be re-baptizing his church family in the Name of Jesus!!! On the Sunday that we visited his church, we had 3 receive the Holy Ghost, 4 testified of instant healings, and 2 stood and testified that after the sermon, they felt that 'skin had been removed from their eyes' as they saw the true One God! Incredible!!! God is doing great things in Togo and we are thrilled to serve here with the Adam's!

As you can imagine, the devil has not sat idly by throughout the revelation of the One God to Pastor Simeon. You may have noticed that our family was the prayer focus on the FMD Prayer Calendar for this past Sunday. We are praising the Lord for the prayer covering that was over us. Read below the story of our 'break in' on Sunday night. Please, note that here in Togo, being caught as a thief is a major crime. They generally take the thief out, put old tires around him, and burn him to death. Mike has already witnessed "a burning" in our first 5 months here in Togo! If you are a thief, you do not want to get caught!

Break-In: It seems three intruders climbed through a window in the children's bathroom around 1:30am this morning (Sunday night). The bathroom connects Hannah and the boys bedrooms. The intruders rummaged through the children's bedrooms storing their items in the bathroom until the get away. Apparently, a neighbor across the street saw them enter the window and called the police. (Although no one will fess up to calling the police now so we could get a statement.)

As the police arrived, the intruders fled via the stairwell to our roof and jumped onto another roof from there. They left their bag and flash light behind. Thankfully, the children were not awakened (this is a miracle of God, as you know how violent the African's can become when confronted). Hannah was asleep in her bed. Tied to the theives' bag, was a 'gag rag'..........

God is so good to us and surely his angels were keeping guard! As far as we can tell, the only thing they successfully stole was a gas tank for the stove that was hooked to the grill outside.
Of course, the kids are upset and scared. We ask you to please pray for our family, as we try to settle everyone back down. Bro. Adam's has been with us, guiding us through the process of how to handle this situation. Thank the Lord for the Adam's!

We want you to know that all is well and God is doing great things in Togo! Thank you so much for your love, prayers and support. We cannot be successful without you standing with us! We are very thankful for our Mission/Church Family!

Faithful to the Name and Cause of Christ,
Michael and Danan
Togo/Central African Republic