Wow, what a week...

It started with Ben breaking his leg... he slipped on water in the kitchen and somehow broke his femur.  So just as he was getting independent toddling around the house (and giving Rebecca a break), he now has a brace that will keep him in a sitting position for the next 3-4 weeks.  But thank God his leg will heal on its own and he will be good as new in no time.  But it means he will need to be rolled or carried everywhere, he can't get around on his own... so Bec is on full-time Ben duty again.

And then I picked up the U-Haul trailer to get the rest of our stuff to Colorado Springs... and left early Thursday morning.  I made it about 2 hours away until the snow and ice (in Arizona!?!) closed the mountain road I had to get over.  I spent about a half an hour stuck in the middle of the road, not being able to move, until space was cleared so I could turn around and go back from where I started.  I then had to drive 4 hours out of my way to find a 'southern route' that didn't go over 8000 feet elevation.  So that made for a fun, long trip, pulling a trailer with my (underpowered) minivan.

I forgot to mention that while I was packing the U-Haul, I managed to get the garage door off of its rails.  Good times.

I mention all of this because I could have used these things to delay our start to Spain... to say that these are signs that we need to stop and reassess what we're doing, to wait until we think everything is 'settled'.  I'm not trying to be super-spiritual here, but I think these little things are just the enemy trying to make us fear, trying to make us second-guess what we're called to do.   For me, it's made me more resolute.  It's also made me focus on the doors that have been opening for us:  residency requirements will be simple, our shipping process is going smoothly, we are steadily building financial support (but not quite complete :^)  and all of the things we need to get done, are getting done.

But also, we can't do this without your prayers.  Please pray for a speedy recovery for Ben, for peace and comfort while he is in the brace, for strength for Rebecca, and for continued favor in everything we do.

Wow! What a year. From November ‘07 to August ‘08, Bec (me) and the kids were in Arizona with my parents while Dave was on his second tour in Iraq with the U.S Army. I know that he missed us and especially those first few months of Ben's life, but he did some amazing things and got to be a warrior rather than a paper pusher. He can't tell us what he really did in Iraq until it gets de-classified in 25 years, but suffice to say; he was awarded a second Bronze Star.
Dave came to us in Arizona in August and was officially out of the military in October. He has started a web design company (www.warriorshepherd.com/design), and works as a substitute teacher in the local schools, until we move in the New Year.

Gabriella, Ben, and Emma (L to R)

Emma and Gabriella are still my girls. We still home school, although that will be ending soon with our new endeavour. Emma joined Brownies and has decided to be a famous dancer, singer, actress, and preacher! She still writes all the time and organizes classes, carnivals, and parties. She devours books and recently figured out inter-library loans. She regularly orders 4-5 books a week :0) Gabriella has taken to reading too in the past few months, she likes to read Spongebob (go figure) and Bearenstein Bears. Mostly she is into helping with Ben, and loves cooking. She loves getting on all my jewellery and big diamante clip-on earrings...she has her own sense of style and never likes what I pick out for her! Just like me though, the more colours you can get on the better!
Ben is a joy, but stinkin' hard work. He learned to walk very early but failed to learn how to fall. He uses his head to break the fall, and constantly has bruises across his forehead. He loves to dance, as soon as music comes on, his knees start bending, hands go in the air and bobs his head. He likes to be outside to watch all the quail families and point at every airplane that flies over. But he cannot stand trash trucks, they freak him out!
Me, I did some sign painting this year (www.bobsdoodlesandbugs.com), and when I wasn't ninja-catching a baby, braiding hair or packing, I have just been looking forward to our new big move...... January 10, we leave Arizona for Spain to go and establish and work in the G42 Leadership Academy (www.g42leadershipacademy.org). The first students should start arriving in March, with new semesters each three months. So it's going to be thrilling and stressful and everything in between. The girls will be going to Spanish school (PRAY for them!!), this will help them integrate, make friends, and learn the language. This will be a massive deal for them, so I am truly hoping for a miracle. Emma is looking forward to finally having her own room as Gabriella wants to room with Ben....Next year's letter will tell of the trouble those two get into together!!
But we are planning on getting a sofa bed in our apartment, so guests will always be welcome ( Brits bring PG Tips, and Americans bring peanut butter!) Mi casa es su casa.
Have a lovely Christmas,
The Hearn Family

We are pleased to announce the first term of the G42 Leadership Academy! This is a culmination of years of dreaming and planning how to best equip men and women to plant the Kingdom of God around the world.

 

We are committed to see a generation come alive, to rise up to receive their full inheritance in Christ. This means to be like Christ in character, servanthood, self-sacrifice, & commitment. It also means to live passionately & full of joy, with a deep attitude of thankfulness, worship, & grace-with great hope for the future! To live fully alive & die happy!

 

Here at G42, and our partner organization Adventures in Missions, we have a dream to raise an army of 100,000 to plant the Kingdom of God across the globe. We want to see a glorious church arise and bring dominion to the empty and desparate places on earth. That is why the leadership academy is not simply a leadership school or ministerial training center, it is also a jumping off point for people who have committed to giving their lives for Christ.

This came out of my journal that I randomly wrote in during my travels in and around Iraq. I'll try to post more as I remember...this is a short one.

I fly on an Osprey tomorrow--another first. This may sound weird, but I was just walking to the WC [bathroom] and was struck by God's glory. In the middle of what would seem to be a "God-forsaken" land--He Is Still Here. "The Glory of God Fills the Temple" I pray that I won't forget this--I won't forget what I've done [here], or what I've seen.

I recently received an email forwarded to me from a friend.  This email was written in response to the election results (P.S.  if you've been in a cave for the past week, Obama won)  and was from Dutch Sheets, who is a big deal in prophetic and apostolic circles these days.  The entire email can be easily found if you Google "Dutch Sheets election response."  I have to admit, this email got me pretty incensed, which is hard to do...  but let me point out a couple of things that I felt I needed to reassure those who have read his response and those that think that we are in big trouble because of the U.S.  election results:

1. A quote: "Was what happened Tuesday God's will?  I am quite confident it was not. "  WHAT?!?  This was the eighth and ninth sentences in the email, so I'm thinking they were an important point of his statement.  --Let me assure you, God is STILL in control here, folks.  Dutch thinks he can diminish God because he is depressed that his big prophetic statements didn't come to pass...  Let me remind Dutch and all of us: "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God." Romans 13.1

2. Another short quote and paraphrase: "God's patience and mercy ... will change to a degree and judgment will now increase" for those who supported Obama, and therefor, for all of America.   "What Can We Expect? [a list of judgments is included in his email!] - Death and Disease (satan... will have greater inroads to this nation) [?!?], - Terrorism,  -War (perhaps on our own soil) [and the list goes on...]    Because Dutch believes things did not go God's way, God is mad, and now God will hurt and destroy those He is angry with for not backing Dutch's candidate.  Let me assure you, that God is worried less about the President of the United States than about the lost, the poor, the orphan, and the widow.

3. A quote: "Like many, believing I had many promises and confirmations that God would 'grace' us with a pro-life president in this election, I failed to consider strongly enough that all promises-even scripture-are conditional 99.9% of the time."  I'd like to see your scripture references that say that God's promises are conditional 99.9% of the time.   Because they're not in my Bible. "Whatever God has promised gets stamped with the Yes of Jesus." 2 Corinthians 1:20 (TM)

4. Finally, this entire email is predicated on the supposition that the 2008 U.S. presidential election was the culmination of all history.  Again, God is bigger than presidents, He's bigger than elections, and He's bigger than the United States.  (gasp!)  God does not cease to work or to bless or to give grace because of the actions of a nation of this world.

All I know is that God IS in control, and he is coming back for a glorious church.  And I intend to help clean up the church so that when He returns, he won't be returning to crumbling facades but instead for radicals who are willing to lay down their lives.  Dutch (as those in his "stream") will watch by the sidelines so they can say "I told you so" at various intervals.  But in the end, they're going to watch from the bleachers while the glorious church, the bride, gets its inheritance.

This blog below was written by Kim Daniels, who is currently on the World Race.  She's a gifted writer–much better than me–and has had an amazing journey this past year.  This is the kind of people that we need on the battlefield with us–bold, full of the Spirit, and just real.  Her blog is full of stories like this.

Kind of like something shifted in me the night we got held at gunpoint in Johannesburg, South Africa, something shifted in me the night I found myself on the rooftop in Phnom Phen, Cambodia yelling freedom over the city with my brother Matt. Most of our squad is in Cambodia working in the slums, but 8 of us are back in Bangkok, Thailand for the next 7 days... back in the bars.

The World Race ends for me on November 21st. Just when I thought I was near done... nope! We're going to pump it up a notch at the end of this thing here. No fizzling out. The word ‘autopilot' means nothing.
Its hard to describe what it was like being back in the Nana Entertainment district again, except to say that I knew I need to be there. Not just last night. Not just tonight and tomorrow night. But in the future. As I sat sipping my water, God told me, "Kim, you belong in the strip bars."

He made me smirk at that one. I like it: I work for Jesus in the strip bars.

We went back to Nana for the first time since GATO left Thailand 2 months ago. I'd felt intense all day, and it culminated especially as I stepped out of the taxi and laid eyes once more on the chaos of  the downtown scene. The lights. The pounding music. The men. The women. The beer. The smell...

Once I get into intense mode, it takes the jaws of life to pry me out. I wanted to just get in there. I walked fast, fiercely praying through the downtown streets, blessing little kids and speaking limbs into cripples. I tend to feel the physical weight of spiritual atmospheres; it manifests itself in extreme aches in my body, headaches, nausea, stomach issues, etc etc. Over the last couple of months I've recognized it as hell's pathetic ploy to keep me at home. So whatever. I say no to hell. "Hell, no."

 

Caroline, Andi, Matt S, Mark, Gretchen, Patrice and I split into smaller groups and headed into the 3 story entertainment center, which read "Nana Entertainme". The ‘nt' had burnt out. Caroline, Andi and I went into a bar on the 2nd floor that was hidden behind a green curtain.

As we sat inside, drinking our waters, a random man named Lonny (that's what we'll call him) came in and sat down. After about 3 minutes of trying to hit on me, he realized that getting hit on was not what I was in this bar for and started to ask some different questions and listen to mine. We talked for about an hour.
His was a classic story: He'd come with his two friends from Australia to Thailand to ‘do what the Thai people do' after his 3 year relationship with his girlfriend had ended. Basically, he was here because he was angry, felt rejected, and was in the mood to dehumanize others and make them feel worthless because he felt dehumanized and worthless himself. Behind me were Andi and Caroline, praying. Behind him were his two buddies, making out with the almost naked women.

He asked why I was in Bangkok. I said, "Those girls up there", motioning with my head and turning my eyes to the girls on the poles. He followed my gaze and looked back at me. "Those girls are somebody's sister. Somebody's mom. Somebody's daughter. No matter how they ended up here, none of them are too far gone. Basically, I want then to know that they CAN get out. And if they won't yet, I at least want to tell them that their intrinsic value has nothing to do with their outward beauty or how much men will pay to sleep with them. Most of these women have never ever heard that in their life."
He played along with that for a while, saying things to make me think he agreed. I saw that he hadn't let it hit him yet, so we kept talking. I asked him, "So, Lonny, can I ask you a question?" With his yes, I said, "If you really think all those things about the girls- how sad it is that they are doing this, and how you don't think it's right- then what are you doing here?"

He looked down at his beer bottle, smiled and nodded his head as if to say, "You caught me." He said, "I'm here with my buddies. They know I don't agree, but I didn't want to be alone, so I came. And I have a pretty screwed up life, ya know Kim. Probably nothing like your's. I've been really depressed and almost killed myself a few times. I've lost the love of my life and lots of my close friends and family have died. I've had near death experiences, and have been on and off of all kinds of drugs for years. I bet you don't know very much about that."
I smiled. "Actually, Lonny, I know about all that. Our circumstances are different and I won't ever assume to know exactly what your life has been like. But I do understand depression. I was in it deep and heavy for years, and I understand the suicidal thoughts that go along with it. I get death– my dad died suddenly of a heart attack and I've had quite a few friends die in the war and in freak accidents.  I get loosing the "love of your life", and how excruciating that can be. I've been held at gunpoint; that's a near death experience if I ever heard one. And the drugs, well, I've never done pot or coke or smoked, but I was on anti-depressants for so long that it began to alter my personality. There are whole chunks of my life that I don't remember because of those doctor prescribed drugs. But your illegal drugs and my legal ones both have the same origin: using human re-doubled efforts to feel better, or to numb pain. Neither one of those ever works."
His eyes were glued on me. He said, "What are you really doing here?"

I told him about my Hero, who said that you have to loose your life in order to find it. And so I left everything behind, gave Him my life, keep giving Him more of it, and apparently it's led me all around the world.*
He told me about his Catholic background, and how it just never really worked for him and he couldn't figure out why. I asked him if he ever felt boxed in, like there were a bunch rigid standards that he could just never live up to, a list of do's and don'ts that he was supposed to keep and always found himself missing the mark. He said yes, and so his response to it all was "Forget it. I can't measure up anyways" and concluded that he was just a bad person and that God was really angry at him.
The law had brought him death.

He told me that he hated religion. And I told him that I hate religion, too. His eyebrows raised... "Wait, I thought you are a Christian..."
"I am," I answered. "But I'm not about religion. Religion sucks the life out of me and makes me want to whither and die. I'm not about a system that tells me how to live a nice life. I'm about the God who raises the dead and still makes all things new, who is also the same God that doesn't judge me on my performance or love me with condition."

That's when he broke. I watched his eyes change. They softened and then deepened, and he looked really vulnerable all of a sudden, like someone had just exposed his child-like innocence from a facade of pseudo-man pretending to be tough and calloused.
"What do you see when you step inside of Nana, Kim?"
"I see the Matrix. We're in the Matrix. Have you seen that movie?" He nodded. "Everything we see right now is not the real world. I can touch this wall, and I'm sitting on this stool, but these tangibles are not the reality of what is really going on in this bar. I've taken the red pill, and now I'm so deep into the truth of reality that I can never go back. What I see going on here is a battle for these girls' souls, and for the men's souls, too. There are lies here, accusations, greed, depression, hopelessness, lust, all things manufactured by hell. But there is also Light, and Life, perfection and beauty, restoration, hope, truth, and freedom. What I see when I step inside of Nana is it drying up. I see it not existing. I see the whole strip-bar scene going back to hell where it came from and Nana becoming a place that reflects the Kingdom of God, on earth as it is in heaven."
His eyes kept softening. "...I want what you have. If I could have whatever this is, I'd scoop it up with both hands so quick..."

"Hey, good news then. Its for you..." I said. "Jesus is especially fond of you..."**

I saw that facade begin to whither, but then something like a black sheet dropped over head. He stood up all of a sudden and got really flustered. I was surprised at how abrupt it was... He said, "Okay, um, I don't know what this is", motioning to his chest and stomach area, "I don't know whats going on, but its really unfamiliar, and... I just need to go. I'm just going to go."
I saw the discomfort in him... I saw that he'd been stirred and it freaked him out. But I smiled, thinking Oh, boy, God met you in the bar tonight. You came for sex and left recognizing your hunger for Someone else... You're much closer than you think...  "Okay" I said. "Wherever you go, look for truth. Real truth, Lonny. And don't settle until you find It."

I watched him walk away quickly, his head down, oblivious to the girls all around him. I knew that God had gotten a little too close for his comfort zone.

That's part of my dream for Thailand. It's not just for the bar girls, it's for the men here, too. That they would travel halfway around the world thinking that they'll dive deep into pleasure and ignore the pain that drives them here... but instead of meeting girls for sex in the bars, they meet God instead. Because God's Kingdom invaded the bars incognito, and they didn't even see it coming. And in the very place that they thought they'd play Jonah to keep running from Him, they crash into Him.

~~~

*Quote from Matt Snyder's mind 

**"The Shack". A must read.

...continuing yesterday's blog on the World Race training for the men about to go on an 11-month mission trip...

After the guys had done their symbolic "sanctification," we set off on a hike up and down (mostly up) in the North Georgia mountains.  While we were cruising along, the guys got to know each other a little, and got to stretch their legs a little.  Especially after Ben Messner, another World Race leader and trainer, asked to pick up the pace.  That was just opening I was looking for.  We started off on a run down the trail, over roots, rocks, and under those low-hanging branches–"Low Branch!"

Isaiah 13:3--I, the Lord, have dedicated these soldiers for this task. Yes, I have called mighty warriors to express my anger, and they will rejoice when I am exalted."

I was impressed by this group of World Racers... they quickly came together as a team, and they seem committed to the vision of planting the Kingdom of God around the world. Here are just a couple of blogs you can check out: Cameron Caviness and Miles Tiegs.

More tomorrow...