2005 Year-End Report

Wow! 2005 was a wild year! We saw a ton of miracles, healings and salvations and we also had the privilege of planting a bunch of churches and seeing many lives transformed by the power of the gospel. Looking over the year and what I’ve written in this blog, it reads almost like a novel. There are knives, threats, riots, tears, joy, miracles, healings and story after story of the impossible made possible and heaven coming to earth.

Here are a few of the highlights:

“But when John heard in the prison of the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples. And they said to Him, Are You he who should come, or do we look for another? Jesus answered and said to them, Go and tell John again those things which you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear; the dead are raised, and the poor have the gospel proclaimed to them.” Matthew 11:2-5


THE BLIND RECEIVE THEIR SIGHT
We saw more than a few blind eyes opened this year. This was new to us. We had seen one here or there, but many people with severe eye injuries, cataracts, macular degeneration and chronic blindness were healed this year. They all went on their way testifying to the power of God.


THE LAME WALK
Crutches, casts, canes and wheelchairs became unnecessary this year as the lame walked! Several times this year, we had the privilege of seeing a formerly lame person walk away, pushing their own wheelchair! There was a special anointing for broken bones, severe sprains, muscle diseases and tendon/ligament problems this year. It seems like almost everyone we prayed for with a broken bone or severe sprain was instantly healed! We captured a couple of “trophies” (casts, canes and crutches) and our goal is to decorate our church sanctuary with tons of miracle paraphernalia.


THE LEPERS ARE CLEANSED
We didn’t actually run into anyone with leprosy this year, but we did see many STD’s, liver diseases and chronic ailments disappear by the power of God this year. Many with Hepatitis C, Lupus and Cancer received miraculous healings. There is a peculiar anointing for cancers and liver diseases. While we didn’t see everyone we prayed for with cancer and liver diseases healed, there was a marked increase in our “hit rate” in these two areas. We are pressing in to have a “cancer free” anointing where 100% of everyone we pray for with cancer in instantly healed!


THE DEAF HEAR
God opened quite a few deaf ears this year. People with hearing loss, from 20% - 90% received their hearing back by the power of God. Many with tinnitus or ringing in the ear no longer have that pesky ringing. One, a Vietnam War vet, received hearing that he lost thirty years ago!


THE DEAD ARE RAISED!
This year was a landmark for us in that we saw our first “Dead Raising”; a little newborn baby that was stillborn came back to life as a young mommy in our church prayed. Also, we saw another miracle where a baby that was certified dead in the womb came back to life as someone who was in a meeting with Pastor Marc prayed for God to resurrect the child. The baby was recently delivered perfectly healthy!


THE POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL PROCLAIMED TO THEM
When we started this year, we had one neighborhood that we were meeting in regularly with new believers. At the end of this year, we are now in 14 neighborhoods in and around Woodstock, discipling new believers and growing house churches. These are primarily low income neighborhoods and the folks we are ministering to are the poor of our community. During the winter months, we will be pouring into these home fellowships, maturing these new believers to be a resource to their families and communities.

There is a special anointing on the Spanish speaking community around Woodstock, as dozens have given their lives to the Lord. It is our goal for 2006 to establish a Spanish speaking Apostolic Resource Center here in Woodstock, where Spanish speaking believers can be equipped and released into the harvest field of Woodstock and beyond!


2006, AND BEYOND…
We’re just getting started! Our team is growing as more believers from our church and our city realize that their lives aren’t to be lived unto themselves! They are discovering that the ultimate in living is in giving away what they possess in Jesus, namely, the power of God. Our goal for 2006 is to have 50 house churches in and around Woodstock and ultimately we want to have a house church in every neighborhood in our community.

The Lord recently spoke to us that we were to start equipping the willing remnant in the body of Christ. In 2006, we are planning a “Power School” type internship program where new recruits will come out with us on the streets for an extended period of time (8 – 20 weeks) planting churches, discipling believers, healing the sick and working miracles. It won’t be classroom teaching, but rather a real life, “live fire” experience. We’ll be starting the program with a mandatory “Boot Camp” in April. Stay tuned for more information.

Here’s to an amazing 2006! - Ryan

The “Bag of Miracles”

There has been a lot going on lately. We have been in the neighborhoods, building up new believers and working with our house churches. This last weekend we took a group down to Macon, Georgia for a few meetings and then some time out on the street. In the meetings, we saw about 20 instant miracles with people being healed from back pain, neck pain and long term injuries, most of them instantly. That’s always cool, when it works inside the building. Then, when we took a group out to a local mall and theater where we had several healings, lots of the prophetic flowing and even an encounter with a rowdy group of kids. We even got a “trophy”, a neck brace that a lady with a neck injury was wearing. She didn’t need it after she got instantly healed in the mall, so we asked her and she gave it to us! It was just like home!

A couple of months ago, we had a guy named Brad McClendon down with us from North Carolina. When he was here, he spoke about a “bag of miracles” that he had seen in the spirit. It was similar to the miracles and signs and wonders that followed the ministry of John Wimber. We prayed and received the “bag of miracles” that night he was here and the miracles that have been happening in the church and out on the road are just too good to keep to ourselves. Most of the time, I don’t even talk about the miracles and healings that have been happening in our meetings, but these are good!


SPIRIT OF DEATH STOPPED IN ITS’ TRACKS!
Here's a cool testimony from something that started 3 years ago… 3 years ago, Pastor Marc was ministering in a church in Gastonia, North Carolina. While visiting, he prayed over a prayer cloth for a lady who had suffered through 10+ miscarriages at that point and thought she could never get pregnant. Well, they did have one more miscarriage but got pregnant 9 months ago and had the baby this week and went home from the hospital yesterday. It was their 12th attempt! They had the pastor of the church call because they wanted Pastor Marc to know that they believe it was the anointed prayer cloth that stopped the spirit of death from operating and brought new life in their baby, who they finally brought home this week.


THE BLIND SEE AND THE DEAF HEAR!
These are a couple of testimonies from a recent ministry trip that Pastor Marc made to a church in LaGrande, Oregon.

A 58 year old Vietnam vet was at the meeting who had lost over 80% hearing in his right ear and 40% in his left ear and was nearly deaf. After prayer, the next week he received a phone call and instead of putting the phone to his working left ear, he put it to his non working right. He discovered he could hear perfectly in both ears!

An older lady was also in the meeting who had vision loss in both eyes but especially in one. Later that week she was to go to an eye doctor to see what they could do for her vision and the Ophthalmologist discovered her eyesight was perfectly normal and didn't understand how it could have changed so drastically! She can see fine!


DEAD BABY LIVES!
This is the testimony from a Pastor in LaGrande, Oregon, where Pastor Marc was just ministering:

I wanted to tell you about an amazing miracle that happened here recently. Tiffany (from youth group...shorter & fiery red hair) heard some rumors about a friend of hers being pregnant. When she asked her about it, the girl was very upset b/c she had just found out that she had many cysts on her ovaries and that they could not find the babies heartbeat and that the baby was dead. Tiffany talked to her and then prayed for her that cysts would be gone and the baby would live. When the girl when to a specialist so they could figure out how to flush the fetus out of her body they first did an ultrasound and found that not only were her ovaries just fine with no cysts but the baby was alive and well...well enough to not hold still for the ultrasound!

Jesus is alive!


You can always check out these and more miracles that are happening in our church by following this link.

Motivation

I have written before on “Why I Do What I Do”, but there is more to it than just the wonderful experience of changed lives and house churches. The truth is, we have had several memorable encounters on the streets that have changed us. These are the encounters I normally tell new folks coming out with us. It gives them an immediate sense of the seriousness and importance of what we are doing and encourages faithfulness. It’s also incredibly sobering.


ENCOUNTER #1
We had been in the neighborhoods a couple of months when we went by a little house on the main drag of our first neighborhood. When we knocked on the door, a couple kids came to the window. They were Hispanic and couldn’t speak great English so we told them, “El Reino De Dios, esta aqui!” (The Kingdom of God is at hand). They motioned for an older teenager to come to the door. He spoke good English and we began to talk. He told us that they were believers and they understood what we were saying. In a few minutes, the whole family (Five kids and a Mommy) were standing at the door, listening to what we said. We told them of the miracles and healings we were seeing in their neighborhood and asked them if there was anything we could pray for. The older teenager was translating this for us and all of a sudden, everyone in the family starts to tear up as he tells them about the miracles and healings. I ask what was wrong and he begins to tell me, “I wish you had come by just a few weeks ago, because our Dad died three weeks ago from a brain tumor.”

It turns out that their Dad was a Pastor, with five kids and a little wife and he had just died three weeks before, of a disease that we had the cure for! The worst part is, we were in his neighborhood and God was healing and performing miracles for his neighbors while he was on his deathbed! We went on to console them and prayed for the whole family and that was good, but the experience really stuck with me. What it showed me is that you never know what people are going through. All of the slammed doors in our face and the difficulties of preaching door to door don’t compare with that dying daddy on his deathbed, with his five kids gathered around. Every door we knock on is one closer to finding that impossible situation that Jesus can invade!


ENCOUNTER #2
We had been in the neighborhoods about six months and were in a new area close to the church. We came upon a house with a little boy who was about 4 years old, riding his bike up and down the driveway. His proud daddy was out there watching him go up and down, up and down the driveway. He had a ponytail and looked to be in his late thirties or early forties. We walked up to him, greeted him and shook his hand. I told him, “Listen, we’re here to tell you that Jesus is King and His Kingdom is on the earth!” He looked at us and said, “What’s that mean?” I told him, “Is there anyone in your house who is sick? We’ll show you what that means by bringing healing to this house.” Immediately his eyes started to water and his face got flushed. He looked at the ground and then back at us and said, “Not anymore”. I knew what he meant, and went straight to tears, but the couple others who were with me didn’t quite understand. So I asked him, “What happened?” He said, “My wife died this time last year of liver disease and left me without a wife and left my little boy without a mommy.” I looked over at the four year old and lost it. I couldn’t even imagine a little 3 year old kid having to get by without his mommy. My new friend and I just wept together. All I could do was say, “I am so sorry, Jesus could have healed your wife, but we didn’t get here in time”.

The back story is that for the last two and a half years, our church had been no more than half a mile from his doorstep. As he spoke to us, I was imagining the conferences, the meetings and the powerful worship and intercession that went on in our building. I was remembering all of the healings we had seen over the last couple of years in our church building, especially healings of liver disease. I was thinking about all of that power released in prayer and in worship. I was thinking about people having visions and seeing angels in our building. I was thinking about all of the powerful prophecy released in our meetings. I specifically thought about the prophecies about taking God outside of the church and about the coming street revival.

I then thought about how all of that power and all of that glory meant absolutely nothing to this man and his family. I thought about how the impact of our meetings hadn’t reached this family less than half a mile from our door. I thought about how the Lord told us to go and give away what we had freely received. I thought about how selfish it was to keep it to ourselves and I made a quality decision that day. I decided that as far as I was concerned, every bit of power, glory and the Presence of God that was released in our meetings would be distributed to our community. I decided that every touch from heaven would result in souls saved and the sick healed in the neighborhoods surrounding our church. I decided that I never, ever wanted to hear again, “Not anymore”.

“And as you go, proclaim, saying, The kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. You have received freely, freely give.” Matthew 10:7, 8