In our last post, we were traveling through the hinterlands on our way to South Carolina, and we posted a list of things we need and things we already have.  Well, take the vacation off the “need” list and onto the “have” list!  Thank you for praying!  Really, God is ridiculously good.  He is also very jealous (Ex. 34:14).  The other day in the car, I prayed, “Father, magnify yourself with my life.”  The kids didn’t know this word and started firing questions.  It was fun, and made me clarify out loud what I meant.  It ended up something like this… “Lord, cause people who are blind because their faith is so small to see God show up big.  Use our lives to do this.”

I believe He’s jealous for this.  Even in little things.  The Bible says “All provision comes from Him…” and He’s been teaching us to bring our needs so under His control that He gets credit for the provision.  This often involves uncomfortable and conspicuous waiting periods and jumping off proverbial cliffs.  We often fail to get the picture, and waste our time.  For instance, we spent hours and hours searching for the right vacation spot, seeking something affordable, etc.  But there were some appointments he had for us in SC, and once those were done, He released the most amazing, affordable sweet opportunity just a few hours away near St. Augustine.  The owners said the people in it had suddenly decided to leave early, opening it up just for us…

So here we are, having a great time.  Note the palm trees and the shining sun…

OK, it's actually a beach towel that's shining...

At the moment, it’s raining…don’t worry…we’ve had a couple days of sunshine and McDowells really can’t handle very much at a time.  I burnt slightly the other day just eating lunch at Chick-fil-a’s outdoor seating.  Mmmm…it was worth it.

Switching topics…who’s the church?  We are.  Here’s us, having “church” on the couch this morning.  OJ was helping the kids while I listened to this sermon with Duncan and Patricia, OJ’s parents.  We sang along with the online worship leader and then discussed his haircut.  D & P were generally of the opinion that all the musicians needed haircuts, and OJ and I countered that we had been studying the issue particularly in this young man’s case for the last few years, and really thought his current choice was a good one.  These are things you can do with the vacationing church, freely and in great love.  Also, you can go to church without showering, as I did.

Pat, Duncan, and Suz

They were with us this weekend, helping us to corral the kiddos on the beach, and being generally awesome, generous, and loving.  And helping us to drink loads of coffee.  We walked about, some even carrying a mug in each hand.  McDowells hate to run out of coffee.  We, in turn, for their generosity and love, ministered to them from the scripture, where Paul says, “we do not cease to pray for you and ask that you would finally realize that it’s about time that you would settle down and just do yardwork.  We pray that contentment in TV watching and bridge clubs would abound, that you, being filled with all Denny’s Breakfast Specials, would prepare yourself for Sunday services by pressing your clothes into great smoothness during the rest of the week.  And may the God of all provision give you a roomy RV, allowing you to roam reasonable distances from home.”  Oops.  Wrong bible.

No, here’s what it actually says

“…we ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;¹⁰ that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; ¹¹ strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; ¹² giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.”  Col. 1:9b-12

The enemy constantly seeks to disqualify us from our inheritance, using whatever means he can.  Age, gender, marital status, busyness…you name it.  As we pray for people, we find that almost every willing follower of Jesus is attacked by some lie of disqualification, reasons that they cannot be fruitful, increasing in the knowledge of God rather than declining, and strengthened with His power for transformation.  Oftentimes, the enemy uses the voices of those around us to disqualify us.  There’s always a reason the enemy gives not to believe and obey, if not a hundred.  Often these lies revolve around us having failed to qualify ourselves, or even having disqualified ourselves.  Don’t we have very short memories! No man has EVER qualified himself, but through the blood of His Son Jesus Christ the “Father…has qualified us…”  He has done it, and so it cannot be undone, but by unbelief and disobedience.  If we believe the message that he qualifies sinners with His blood, then we have a message to preach, because, we’ve found, sinners are in good supply.  :)

Before Pat and Duncan left, we took a trip to the park.  After lunch, Ariel (our little evangelist) started a conversation with another family.  We all began talking and throwing around their basketball, and before long, OJ had engaged the couple in a conversation about God.  Pat and I engaged the kids, and told them about Jesus’ love while we got ours into the car.  A few minutes later, OJ and Duncan returned to tell us that right there on the basketball court, the couple had prayed to make Jesus their Lord.  We’ll reconnect with them to pray for their marriage this week.

They were so hungry!  There are so many hungry people…they are EVERYWHERE!  For so many years OJ and I have lived under some false perceptions, but we’re so excited to throw them off!  Here, I’ll share them before signing off…

1) “That was revival back then…oh, isn’t revival wonderful…let’s pray for revival…someday there will be revival.”  (The truth is that revival is EVERY day in the Lord)

2) “This is just such hard ground.  The soil is not fertile.”  We became increasingly suspicious when we started to realize that almost all Christians (including ourselves) believed that the soil around them was “hard” and “infertile.”  (The truth is that the ground is ALWAYS hard if you are filled with unbelief.)

Now, there’s some grain of truth in both of these concepts, but the lifeless paradigms that have been built around them desperately need to be torn down.  There’s more to say about our ongoing journey out of these false paradigms, but suffice it to say, we discovered that the problem was with our unbelief, not that of the people around us!  More later!  PRAISE THE LORD FOR TWO SOULS WHO HEARD THE GOSPEL WITH JOY TODAY!!!  Love to you.

Dear Friends,

We survived the great move of 2010.  Actually, we conquered the great move of 2010, halfway.  We’re packed up and stored and on our way South in formation.  The Sienna’s taking on the lonely road with aggression, Dad at the wheel as offensive lineman, Mom making snack passes from the front to the wide receiver (Judah), Ariel in the slot, and Samuel as the chubbiest tight-end receiver ever to toddle onto the field.  Much of the QB’s time is spent trying to get the rookie to sleep.

Go to Sleep Samuel

What do we do with all our energy?

The field, currently, is not worth more than a passing mention.  Illinois in March.  If you’ve never heard about this legendary season…be glad.  Flooded fields, naked trees, brown-green stubble.  Flaaaaaaaaat…  But we’ll find Kentucky soon, and at least our brown-green stubble will be rolling.

He's Driving, I'm Blogging!

We’re headed ultimately for South Carolina, so Grandma and Grandpa McDowell can kiss the grandbabies, and to work on building a network of partners.  There’s a lot to be done.  Here’s what we need:

• A new house back in KC central to ministry purposes
• A name for the ministry, and to register the 501C3
• Monthly Partners
• A location for the next freedom class
• A place to stay for a some family rest and relaxation in the next couple weeks (hopefully in the Sunshine state)

It may seem like an imposing list (especially the house part), but a quick look at what we already have puts it in perspective:

• THE GOSPEL!  Even in the midst of the packing/moving, OJ and I have fun Gospel stories from nearly every day this week.  Makes every day like a wild adventure!  I will share more stories in the next few days, now that there’s time for writing again.
• A full harvest field!  “Lift up your eyes…the harvest is white…”
• AM Radio in Centralia, IL  YES!!! (“Highway to the danger zo-one…”)
• Friends and family who share the vision and can’t wait to go to work with us in KC the day we return!
• Stories of transformation from the last few months, weeks, and even days that are still leaving us shaking our heads…”Did that really happen???”   I’ll share more of these, too…
• Monthly partners and friends who have already given with such passion and joy that we ARE FILLED WITH GRATITUDE AND FAITH, many from just the last few months of ministry!!!  The Lord is pouring out hope and transformation, and people are jumping on board!
• The most beautiful kiddos in the world (except for yours, of course).
• Incredible friends and family that we literally cannot wait to get back to, as much as we love a chance to get away for some rest.

So rejoice with us over what the Lord has done!  We’re gonna dance and sing, hope you are, too.

And pray with us for provision, especially monthly support and a house to move into when we return to KC in a couple weeks.

Love,

Suz for us

P.S.  One of the beautiful young ladies from the high school ministry told me a couple of days ago that she was making plans for college and a lucrative career so that she could support our ministry and others like it.  :)  OH, that’s some sweet fruit.

“Dude, you got witchcraft all over you!”

It was an unconventional way to intro the gospel, but it was true.  I couldn’t leave the store without telling the incredibly talented and forceful young manager a little bit about his reality, about the waste he was headed into, about the salvation Jesus Christ offers…

I have been asking the Lord for “woman at the well” encounters.  We’ve experienced many years of ministering to Christians through prophetic revelation, people who have a grid for watching you close your eyes and ask for revelation, who will wait patiently and hunger for the word of the Lord.  This method doesn’t exactly work on the fly at McDonalds, the park, or the well, for instance.  So we’ve been crying out, “Lord, increase our revelation to be able to speak to the lost…as a sign…”  He’s answering, of course.  The greatest obstacle is really the fear of man.

So I went for it with this guy.  OJ’s helping me to walk in boldness, always about 10 years ahead of the crowd in this.  Anyway, this guy gave me the worst possible response, “What are you talking about?”  But I was already knee deep, so I just blundered ahead, looking at him with the eyes of my heart…

“Have you ever read the Bible?”

“Yeah.”

“You know some of the things that God hates…drinking of blood, sacrificing animals to demons, crazy sexual immorality…?  Those things are direct partnership with the devil (who’s real) and God (who’s real) hates them, because they’re front door invitation to the demonic to come in, hang out, and destroy your life.  Well, whether you’re doing those things yourself, or watching others do it in your movies and music, it’s still witchcraft.”

BINGO.  We were tracking.  “I like that stuff.”

“I know.  You’re numb to it, because you’re so angry.  And you have your reasons.  But do you know what it’s doing to you?”  I jumped out there again, telling him some things he experiences because of the witchcraft in his life.  And then I told him a little of his original design, how God had made him, with incredible drive for excellence and competition.  He was an amazing young man, who will face increasing frustration and bondage and eventually death or find freedom in Jesus Christ. It’s really that simple, and that urgent.

By the end, he was shaking my hand, and asking if I’d come talk to him some more.  That young man has a destiny, and a hallmark card’s not gonna get him there.  The more we cry out for the salvation of this generation, and look at the gospel preaching that was done in the New Testament by Jesus and those He commissioned, the more we reach the conclusion that wimpy gospel preaching and indifference go together.  The more we love these young people, the more forcefully we find ourselves speaking truth.  I think often of George Whitefield preaching to the coal miners with tears flowing down his face.  If the preacher doesn’t recognize or care that the lost are lost, how will they?

The Cross means:

“It is finished.”  Abuse, pain, death, and hell…all of my worst fears, have completely and forever been taken for me by Him, my Lamb, Jesus Christ.  He stepped in and experienced the worst horrors so that every horror can be cast upon Him and off of me.

I am dead to my past, my sin, my selfishness, my debt, my guilt, my anguish, my hopelessness, my despair, my confusion, my shame, my self-hatred, my own efforts, my condemnation, and even the pain and abuse of others.

All of it, all the hell of living in a world that is overseen by the “prince of the power of the air” and the “prince of this age,” is dead to me.

That abuse victim, that neglected child, that rejection, that shame, that orphan  who was identified by failure, inadequacy, and worthlessness, that defiled person who no one wanted, riddled with sorrow and without hope, that person is crucified with Christ.  It is finished.

The Resurrection means:

I am raised with Him in the newness of life.  Immediately, upon believing and confessing, I become…not pretend to become, but actually become, a NEW CREATION.  I become beautiful, able, confident, alive.

I pass immediately into eternity, lifted out of the dirt of this world.  I am given, without earning it, every credential, every attribute of love, all the resources of mercy, unending hope, glory and power, eternal riches, and every resource in Christ.

If yesterday I was a liar, a murderer, and an abuser, in Christ, today, I receive the CHARACTER of Jesus Christ.  I am not a liar, a murderer, or an abuser, I am hidden in Christ, with God, my rags swallowed up by robes of righteousness, finally free to be pure, lovely, real, and fearless.

Through faith I blot out my old identity with the glory of His kindness, mercy, and truth.  If I rejoice in the crucifixion of my worthlessness, I can have value.  If I agree to the crucifixion of my prideful offense, I can have tenderness and trust again.  If I will cooperate with the crucifixion of my fear of man and insecurity, I can REJOICE without constraint RIGHT NOW in the GLORY HE HAS GIVEN ME AS A CHILD OF GOD.  I AM A JOINT HEIR WITH CHRIST OF ALL RIGHTEOUSNESS, no longer a slave to sin, but joyfully and willingly a slave of righteousness!

NOW, TODAY, FOR ALL ETERNITY!

The Gospel means:

That this glory is available at any moment, in any place, at any stage of life, to ANY LIVING PERSON WHO WILL HEAR AND BELIEVE.  It means there is no pain, abuse, or torment to overcome those of us who are in Christ.  We need never hang our heads and wonder what can be done.

The estranged brother in Christ our heart aches for, we can confess to be reconciled even before it manifests because He Himself is our peace, having broken down the middle wall of separation!  The prodigal child, the wayward spouse…the greatest possible pains, we live knowing that in an instant of receptivity, all pain will be more than swallowed up by glory and redemption, every sin forgotten in the bottom of the sea, all restored abundantly!

The moment that we receive we become ambassadors of reconciliation, overflowing with good news…our only pain being those who are slow to hear and believe.  We walk sure-footed among the hungry, desolate, abused, and downtrodden with the news of the King who has ALREADY COME, saying “ONLY BELIEVE, and you will BE SAVED!!!  You can crucify that life of pain and torment on the cross with Jesus and receive a whole new life, if only you will believe!”

This is the Gospel that we preach!  This is the life that we live!  This is why we are filled with joy, even in momentary light afflictions!

¹⁴ But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom^[a] the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.  Gal. 6:14

¹⁹ For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, ²⁰ and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. ²¹ And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled ²² in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— ²³ if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.  Col 1: 19-23

For those of you looking for the teachings, they are now being posted under the “Teaching” tab up at the top right hand side of the home page!  Sorry for the confusion!

You can get the freedom book from City Central Missions Base here or through the link on the right of the home page, underneath the archives.  When the page opens, you will see several products.  The Freedom book is entitled Freedom Class Manual, and we recommend getting the Freedom Resource Manual, as well.  If you buy them as eBooks, you can get them both for the price of one hard copy.

We love hearing from you!  Thank you for letting us know what God is doing.  We could not be more excited!