Today is a big day for the McDowells. We have become FULLY CONVINCED that Jesus was talking to us when He said, “As the Father has sent Me, I also send you…” Jn. 20:21. After these years of training, we feel the weight of the love for the world that drove Jesus to bring deliverance to those who had NO HOPE. Paul sums it up: “For the love of Christ compels us…that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.” 2 Cor. 5:13-15. But to understand how we got here and what’s different about today, I have to tell you about…

Yesterday.

Three kids and six years ago, when we were married, we printed on our wedding program Isaiah 61, figuring that whatever Jesus was about, we wanted to be about, too. At the time, we were being rocked by His ministry in our own lives, as He set us free, healed our areas of broken-heartedness, and planted His good news in us. We boldly proclaimed to the congregation (to paraphrase): “This is what we’re about! Slap us upside the head if you ever find us doing otherwise!” We meant it. In between then and now, here’s what we’ve been up to:

• Prayer Ministry: This is a poor name for it, but “ministering the gospel of Jesus Christ specifically to an individual’s unique areas of need through prophetic revelation” doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. Our brains fry when we try to count, but we’ve been privileged to have personal prayer times with several hundreds of people over the last seven years. When the Lord speaks, hearts open, marriages get restored, bondage is destroyed, and the indescribable value of each of His children is made abundantly clear. On one ministry trip, we only had a few minutes to pray for a young Korean woman, but as the Lord showed pictures from her childhood, tears flowed like rivers from her eyes. This young woman had almost never experienced affection in her family, and there was a mighty impact when strangers described to her through a translator her secret pain. We were sent from so far to tell her God saw her, knew her, loved her…and would free her from self-hatred. I can’t forget the older European gentleman who choked when God spoke to his depression and the abusive discipline of his childhood home. He simply believed on Jesus’ power to set him free and was jumping at the end of the prayer time, “I’m free! I’m free!” Like the woman at the well, he ran to tell everybody.
• Evangelism: This has become our burning passion, what we think about day and night! From starting a gospel service for the homeless in downtown Tacoma, to telling kids at the park about Jesus’ love, to sharing with other young moms, to college ministry, to jr. high school ministry…you name it, we like it. I remember one homeless mom who stayed with us with her young son. She listened to what we said with a furrowed brow, taking cigarette breaks outside, and then simply decided to turn her whole life over to Jesus, immediately moving to join a discipleship community. I remember one little crowd of African-American girls who gathered round at the park to hear what God would “say” about them. They were so hungry for a sense of significance, they laughed and jumped up and down when strangers accurately described details about them, and told them that Jesus had great purpose for each of them.
• Discipleship: If evangelism brings new birth, discipleship is the privilege of nurturing the young life into maturity. The folks we’ve discipled over these past years have been lodged so deep into our hearts, we can’t get ‘em out. To have spiritual “kids” who once were practicing witchcraft, suicidal, mutilating themselves, and fornicating, but are now walking in truth, being restored to wholeness, raising godly children, and making more disciples is…well, there just are no words for that kind of joy. We are addicted to discipleship, and feel, looking back, that none of our resources have been better spent than the ones poured into this. We love teaching and training, but that just flows out of our hearts to disciple, to spur others on to fully follow Jesus.
• International Ministry: What is this? Well, just all of the above, done somewhere else. In the past 7 years, we’ve been to six countries, ministered to missionaries from many different nations with teaching, training, and prayer. But that’s just the beginning, because here’s what’s coming…

Tomorrow:

For years, the Lord has been speaking to us about a major move of God among the emerging generation. We see rumblings of this around the country and world, but believe there is something coming never before seen. That’s why we think of everything that’s gone before in our lives as training…we believe that God’s going to bring together all the pieces often fragmented in the church (evangelism, discipleship, restoration of the heart, and prayer) to bring unprecedented wholeness and equipping to a generation marked by unprecedented destruction. Did you know that while in our grandparents generation, 65% were church goers, hearing some form of the gospel, only 3% of eleven year olds today are regular church attenders? American youth are essentially an unreached people group. Witchcraft, perversion, and addiction are normal to this generation, and instead of being the greatest exporter of missions, we are now the greatest exporter of pornography, secular humanism, and materialism. Our nation is now outdoing the unevangelized nations of the world in exploits of wickedness. This sounds dire…because it is.

BUT God is not intimidated. In fact, He’s never been intimidated by sin or brokenness or statistics. On the contrary, we’ve been astonished to learn how tenderly His heart is yearning for all His little ones, His lost sheep, and how little concern He has what for what kind of mire they are in, because the blood of His Son Jesus will wash it all away! We see this generation in the story of the sinful woman in Luke 7, having an extravagant love for the Savior because they will have been forgiven much. But “how then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written:
“ How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace,
Who bring glad tidings of good things!” Rom. 10:14-15

Which brings us back to:

Today:

For these past seven years since leaving the army, OJ has operated our small business. His hard work ensured our financial needs were taken care of, so we could obey as God added babies, seminary, travel, and all the ministry described above to the schedule. Until now, just about every bit of ministry we’ve done has been on our time and our dime, which taught us this: there is no such thing as “ours!” It all belongs to Him! During these years split between the marketplace and ministry, we are so glad to have learned things we couldn’t have learned any other way: hard work, perseverance, total marriage teamwork, and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit to ensure all the kids’ needs are abundantly met. But today, it’s become clear that the need is too great, and we simply must devote all our time to ministry, particularly to the emerging generation.

We thought of all sorts of great solutions to allow us to go into full-time ministry and support ourselves, but God did not care for our good ideas. He has essentially shut every one of them down, and we finally realized this is why: “…how shall they preach unless they are sent?” He’s been gently informing us that we are not the only ones who are burdened for this generation and the gospel, that there are many on this team! It took us awhile to get this idea into our heads; sorry for being slow on the uptake!

We are asking you, if you share this desire, to SEND us to this next generation. OJ has already stopped working full-time out of obedience, and there are more requests for prayer and opportunities to teach than we can keep up with. We’re sending this because we know that God is causing some hearts to leap. If what we’re talking about makes your heart skip a beat, then we want to hear from you! This is the whole church’s calling, and we want to stir up everyone to be ready to care for the new converts God will bring in through the MANY preachers He is sending to the field. We love to share the vision, train, and minister for this purpose! In the immediate, we need a team of partners praying for us, encouraging us, and helping to finance this work. Please consider if the Lord would have you SEND us; we’re dying to go!