Standing in support of Israel, Jews, and believers in all the nations, in the name of Jesus (Yeshua). Sharing biblical truth, encouragement, news and prophecy.
At Rolland and Heidi Baker's Harvest School of Missions in Pemba, Mozambique, students flock from all over the world to spend two months soaking in God's presence, helping orphans and conducting outreaches to the spiritually needy.
A young man from Sydney, Australia, Taylor Martin, spent the early part of July in Pemba, then had to be evacuated to South Africa to complete the school due to terrorist threats in northern Mozambique.
"Sometimes I would be shaking for hours. One day I was paralyzed for eight hours on the ground." Despite the terror threat, he had remarkable encounters with God, especially when Rolland Baker laid hands on him and prayed. "Sometimes the power of God just hits you like a wave and you can't move," Martin recounts. "Five or six times, I was sent into hours-long visions of heaven when Rolland touched me."
During these supernatural visions, he witnessed remarkable things. "I saw the city; I saw streets; I saw the throne; I saw God and His angels and people feasting."
As he walked in the streets, he saw people dancing with angels. "I went to a feast, and people were eating all this amazing food like a banquet. There is food in heaven, and it's a real place."
He met a man at the banquet who seemed to be glowing more than anyone else. "Why do you shine more than others?" Martin asked.
"Those who live close to the throne shine more," he replied. The man told Martin he had been a prophet on earth.
Then they went to the man's house on a hill near the throne. "It was like a mansion in an earthly neighborhood," with furniture and windows.
"The feeling of being there is so overwhelming, the peace, the love and the joy. You have no earthly mind at all or desire to come back," he says.
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Once regarded as a hero of Western civilization, he is now derided as the instigator of genocidal policies that inflicted sorrow, disease, serfdom and death on the native population of Hispaniola, the island he discovered—and by extension—into the Americas.
Yet this admittedly flawed explorer also wrote in his journals of his passionate desire to serve Christ and carry the light of the Gospel to unreached people in the areas he found. He also saw himself playing a role in the fulfillment of prophecies related to the return of Christ.
"His own name, Christopher, which literally meant " Christ-bearer," was to him a clear indication that God had called him to do this," noted Peter Marshall and David Manuel, in their excellent book, The Light and the Glory. "He would quote in his journal such lines of Scripture as those in Isaiah, which meant so much to him:
'Listen to me, O coastlands, and hearken, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name...I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth" (Isa. 49:1, 6).
Under the Pax Mongolica or Mongol peace, Europeans had enjoyed peaceful passage from Europe to Asia along the Silk Road. But after the Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople in 1453 establishing Sunni Islam as the state religion spread by jihad, the Silk Road became impossibly dangerous for Europeans to traverse.
As an alternative, Columbus was one of many seeking an ocean route to China, India and Japan, but only he was convinced he could travel west, by his calculations voyaging from the Canary Islands to Japan in only 2760 miles.
But when he sought funding for his expedition from the monarchs of Portugal, Spain, France and England, his plan was roundly rejected as uncertain, mad and "utterly impossible to any educated person."
However, Columbus was convinced that Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain—because of their devotion to Christ—were the ones God had chosen to bring the Gospel to undiscovered lands. They had been preoccupied with wresting Islamic control over southern Spain from the Moors.
After the Spanish monarchs rejected his proposal in 1490, Columbus sought refuge and advice at the Franciscan monastery, La Rabida. He poured out his heart one night to the Queen's confessor, Father Juan Perez, about his disappointments and dreams.
"On the following morning, Father Perez dispatched a messenger to the Queen, stating that he was convinced that God's hand rested upon Christopher Columbus, and urging Her Majesty to reconsider his proposal," Marshall noted.
In late 1491, Queen Isabella invited Columbus to join her in Santa Fe, outside the walls of Granada. When he arrived, the Moors were poised to surrender, and Columbus bore witness to the last Muslim foothold in Europe removed. The timing could not have been more fortuitous, because in the exhilaration of the moment, Ferdinand and Isabella finally agreed to his plan.
In preparing for his trip, Columbus noted that others had failed when they attempted to sail west from the Azores due to strong headwinds. But if he dropped below the Tropic of Cancer and headed west from the Canary Islands, he figured the wind would be at his back.
Columbus realized it should be possible to follow those winds to his destination, then head north and catch the prevailing winds back to Spain. "It was that simple, but no one had ever thought of it before," Marshall noted.
Columbus regarded it as a revelation from God.
After his three ships departed the Canary Islands on Sept. 8, 1492, they enjoyed smooth sailing for a time. At the start of each day, the crew would sing hymns.
None of the crew had voyaged more than 300 miles offshore, and after traveling 3,000 miles westward, doubts and fears began to creep in. Some among the crew became mutinous, and the captains of the Pinta and the Nina called an emergency conference. After traveling 31 days, the captains vented to Columbus about the mood of their crews.
"If we continue one more day we'll have a mutiny on our hands," they told him.
Columbus reluctantly agreed that if they did not find land after three more days, they could turn around and go back. Undoubtedly, Columbus turned to prayer, praying as he had never prayed before.
Two days later, Oct. 11, with hope nearly gone, a shout went up from the crew. They spotted a reed and a piece of wood that seemed to have been shaped by a human being. Then they spotted a small branch with roses floating on top of the water.
The Rose of Sharon had listened to their prayers and brought an answer from the one who seldom answers early but is never too late.
At 10 p.m., they saw a tiny light some distance ahead of them. After midnight, the electrifying cry from the Pinta went up, "Tierra! Tierra!" A lookout had spotted a small cliff, appearing in the moonlight as a silvery form along the water's edge.
Columbus was the first to go ashore later that morning and christened the island San Salvador—"Holy Savior" —and prayed:
"O Lord, Almighty and everlasting God, by Thy Holy Word Thou has created the heaven, and the earth, and the sea; blessed and glorified be Thy Name, and praised be Thy Majesty, which hath deigned to use us, Thy humble servants, that Thy holy Name may be proclaimed in this second part of the earth."
When Columbus encountered the natives of San Salvador, he was impressed by their healthy appearance "with no bellies on them"—nor any clothing. Columbus gave them gifts, "So that they might be well-disposed towards us, for I knew that they were a people to be delivered and converted to our holy faith rather by love than by force."
Columbus had his men erect a large wooden cross on each island they explored, "as a token of Jesus Christ our Lord, and in honor of the Christian faith."
They found the indigenous people peaceful and trusting, and Columbus gave firm orders that they should not be mistreated in any way.
The Santa Maria ran aground on Hispaniola after the crew fell asleep. But the disaster had a silver lining—or a gold one—because the nationals were in possession of masks of gold, gold bracelets and other jewelry made from the precious metal. Columbus named the area La Navidad and decided to build a fort there, leaving 39 men behind.
He thought that when he sailed back to Europe and returned in a year's time, the men would have discovered the mine supplying the gold, so that within three years, Ferdinand and Isabella would have enough gold to equip a great expedition of crusaders to free the Holy Land from the Muslims.
"For I maintained to your Highnesses that all profits from this enterprise should be devoted to the conquest of Jerusalem, and your Highnesses smiled and said that such was your will, and that even without these gains, you had the same earnest desire."
When Columbus returned to Europe in triumph and was ushered into the throne room of Ferdinand and Isabella, with marble columns bathed "in the light of a thousand candles, the court chroniclers record that his (Columbus') deeply tanned complexion, gray hair, long nose and noble bearing reminded them of a Roman senator."
The two sovereigns "did something no one had ever seen them do before: they rose to meet him. And when he knelt to kiss their hands, they raised him up and ordered a chair brought for him—another unprecedented honor."
Then Columbus opened a large chest filled with gold objects he had received trading with the nationals, and Ferdinand and Isabella fell to their knees, lifted their faces toward heaven, and everyone sang the Te Deum.
On his second voyage to the New World, he took 17 ships with 1200 men, including farmers, priests and soldiers, but when they reached La Navidad, all the 39 left behind had been killed—"some by each other, most of them by tribes of Indians other than those they had befriended."
It seems the 39 had been rapacious with the indigenous women, taking by force as many as they could. Instead of bartering for gold, they stole it. They began to quarrel among themselves, split into factions and were apparently ambushed by other tribes.
Columbus' high-minded ideas about spreading the light of the Gospel were undermined by wanton violence, the lusts of the flesh and the love of money. Worse, Columbus chose to turn a blind eye to the men's excesses in these areas.
Many men in his new expeditionary party contracted a strange disease never seen before, syphilis, from the native women, which they introduced to Spain on their return home.
Everything began to go wrong, with their food supplies deteriorating rapidly in the tropical heat, and mosquito-borne diseases felling the strongest among them. Columbus mistakenly ordered each of the natives to pay an annual tribute of gold or be punished, but there were no mines or fields of gold to be found. The natives were also conscripted into forced labor—virtual slavery—working on their own land.
After 14 years of Spanish colonization, the indigenous population of Hispaniola fell from 300,000 to only 20,000, a sad and deeply tragic outcome.
On Columbus' third voyage to the New World, things continued to go wrong. Rebellion had broken out among the colonists, with two armed camps on Hispaniola. Columbus mishandled the situation, and word got back to Spain, so the sovereigns sent a trusted officer, Francisco de Bobadilla, to restore order.
When Bobadilla arrived, Columbus opposed him, and the officer had Columbus and his brothers put in leg irons and sent home to stand trial. Ferdinand and Isabella were shocked to see their hero in chains when he returned in 1500.
The Prophecies of Columbus
During these months at home, Columbus began to write a Book of Prophecies based on his understanding of the Scripture. His writings reflected certain beliefs—common at the time—about events that must unfold before Christ returned:
The Great Commission must be fulfilled, with the spread of the Gospel to every nation, making disciples and baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Columbus believed the Garden of Eden would be rediscovered. When he first saw Venezuela in 1498, he thought Eden might be located in its mountains.
He argued a final crusade would dislodge the Muslims from the Holy Land prior to the return of Jesus to Jerusalem.
He also wrote that a last world emperor would lead the crusade against the Muslims and greet Christ at Jerusalem once the previous steps were completed.
The Holy Spirit prompted a Christian airline pilot to speed the departure of his Batik Air flight from Palu carrying 140 passengers, narrowly averting a potential disaster with the loss of many lives.
The epicenter of a powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck Friday, Sept. 28, in a mountainous area of Central Sulawesi, 48 miles from the provincial capital of Palu. Only minutes later, underwater landslides apparently triggered a massive 10-20 foot tsunami that swept through Palu and other coastal areas.
The waves were intensified by Palu's location at the end of a narrow bay. At least 1200 people perished and smaller villages in the surrounding area were entirely swept away. Because communication has been poor in remote areas, the death toll may increase dramatically.
"All day Friday I had been feeling unsettled and I didn't know why," Captain Icoze Mafella recounted at a Jakarta church, Duta Injil BIP, on Sunday, Sept. 30.
To displace his feelings of unease, Mafella—a strong Christian—began to loudly sing worship songs on his flight from Ujung Pandang to Palu. "Usually I only hummed, but that day I wanted to praise the Lord as best I could," Mafella said.
"I think you should make a CD of worship songs," his Muslim co-pilot told him, jokingly.
When they were about to land at the Palu Airport, the wind was unusually strong and Mafella "heard a voice in his heart" directing him to circle again before landing.
The Palu airport is squeezed between two mountain ranges, and some pilots refer to airports situated in this way as "valleys of death," so once again, Mafella felt prompted to be extra careful in landing and recited Psalm 23:
"I may walk through valleys as dark as death, but I won't be afraid. You are with me, and Your shepherd's rod makes me feel safe," he said.
After they landed, the Holy Spirit prompted Mafella once more that he needed to be quick. He instructed his crew to take a shorter, 20-minute break before the plane was due to take off for Jakarta via Ujung Pandang.
"I didn't even leave the cockpit and requested permission from the control tower to depart three minutes ahead of schedule," Mafella recounted.
He received approval for the expedited time for takeoff from Air Controller Anthonius Agung, and the crew prepared for departure.
Mafella felt such an urgency that he broke with standard flight procedures and took over some of the co-pilot's responsibilities to speed up their exit.
The moment arrived for takeoff, and the plane barreled down the runway. "I don't know why, but my hand kept pushing the lever, causing the plane to speed up as it took off," Mafella said.
As they sped down the airstrip, the massive earthquake began to strike Palu, and both pilots felt the plane sway noticeably to the left and right. The Muslim co-pilot glanced at Mafella with a look of fear in his eyes.
"If I had taken off three minutes later, I would not have been able to save the 140 passengers, because the asphalt on the landing strip was moving up and down like a curtain blowing in the wind," Mafella testified.
Several minutes after takeoff, he attempted to communicate with the control tower, but there was no response.
Then he looked down and saw an unusual sight. "The sea water on the coast was forming a very large hole so that the foundation of the sea bed could be seen," he reported. "I saw circles getting bigger and bigger. I thought it was very strange."
Prior to a tsunami, the shoreline often recedes dramatically, exposing areas that are normally submerged.
When the plane arrived in Ujung Pandang, he was told the shocking news that there had been an earthquake and tsunami in Palu.
The air controller, Anthonius Agung, 21, made sure their plane—the last to leave the airport — had safely taken off before he jumped from the crumbling control tower at the height of the quake.
"They said people tried to call him to get away from the tower, but he said, 'No, the aircraft isn't airborne yet.' Then the roof started collapsing, and he jumped," Mafella explained.
Tragically, Agung broke his legs, arms and ribs as a result of the fall and died from internal injuries on his way to the hospital.
"In this difficult time, during the split seconds of decisions, he waited for me until I was safe before he jumped. That's why I call him my guardian angel," Mafella said.
Many others are calling the air controller a hero—along with Mafella.
"It is important that we hear the voice of God," he said.
"And whatever happens we must be calm, not in a panic, so that we can clearly hear the voice of God coming to us by the Holy Spirit."
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Charged with being a spy, Czech missionary Petr Jasek endured a 14-month imprisonment in Sudan where he was tortured by fellow cellmates. But Jesus supernaturally imparted peace during his confinement and he became a bold witness, winning many to Christ.
In his role as the Africa regional director for Voice of the Martyrs (VOM), Jasek went to Sudan to document the persecution of Christians, which was happening in the Nubah Mountains in clashes between the government and rebels.
He was detained by the Sudanese police at Khartoum Airport in December 2015. It seems immigration staff found a duplicate passport Jasek carried for security purposes, which led to his immediate arrest and imprisonment.
"I arrived at this cell at about 1:30 a.m.," he told VOM. He found the cell overcrowded, with people covering the floor. "They had to squeeze a little bit so they would create some small room for me to lie down on the floor."
The conditions were sparse. "I had no blanket ... two extra T-shirts and one extra pants and a toothbrush, toothpaste and soap; that was all."
Guards refused him blankets or a mattress, because he was from the Czech Republic and they told him they thought he should be used to cold weather.
At 5:30 a.m. he was awakened by the Islamic call for prayer. All six of his cellmates began praying fervently. "They showed me a place behind them where I was supposed to stand while they were praying. The rule is that me as a Christian, I had to stay behind them so they would not look at me while they are praying."
After the prayers, they identified themselves as DAESH, the Arabic acronym for ISIS. All his cellmates were ISIS fighters!
"Two days later they started to openly torture me and beat me ... I was hit with their fists into my face many times. They called me 'filthy pig' or 'filthy rat.'"
One of the ISIS fighters barked an order: "Filthy pig, come here."
"I decided at first I would not respond to these rude names and when I did not respond, I got hit with a wooden stick they unscrewed from the sweeper that was there to clean the floor."
Jasek was hit on the head, shoulders and fingers or they kicked him in the stomach and back with their boots. "At that time I was really thinking about the Lord Jesus what He had to go through when He was arrested and they also were beating Him with a wooden stick and were ridiculing Him, slapping Him.
"I became like their slave," he told VOM. "I was really [made] to wash their clothes, wash all the dishes, clean the toilet with my bare hands. They were just making fun of me. I did not resist."
"I could clearly see the Lord Jesus and how He suffered for us."
Then Jesus imparted something to him that was amazing and unexpected, considering the circumstances. "I received a wonderful peace at that time and surprisingly, when I was physically attacked I was experiencing the greatest peace in prison time ever, all these 14 1/2 months.
"I could even pray during these beatings for my family members, I could pray for other fellow prisoners and I was not moved to the point when I used to be before, because I had this peace from the Lord at this time of the physical attacks on my body.
When Jasek began to exalt and and glorify the Lord's name during his beatings, this made them even more furious. "They decided to torture me even in much worse way.
"Eventually, they decided to do waterboarding to me. It's a way of torture where a person lays on his back and they cover his mouth and pour water, which gives you the feeling that you are getting drowned.
The Sudanese guards had not intervened to stop Jasek's torture, because they were intimidated by the ISIS fighters. "It is [thought] that if these Islamists get released they will get revenge on those guards."
Jasek didn't have access to a Bible during his captivity, so he meditated on Scriptures he memorized as a young person.
"I was literally asking the Lord that He will keep my mind sound and that I wouldn't lose my mind through the situation," Jasek said. "The Holy Spirit kept reminding me some of the verses that I had memorized. This was just enough for me, to give me enough strength everyday to pray," he told VOM.
He also thought about Jesus' teaching about loving enemies. He was startled when he heard his abusers weeping late at night when they could not sleep.
"They were crying. They were also missing their family members. They were also crying to God for help," he recounted. "That allowed me to easily continue to pray for them. I was praying for those fellow prisoners, the interrogators, for the guards, for the prosecutors and for the judge, that the Lord would reveal Himself as the Lord, Savior and God."
Remarkably, one of the guards intervened to prevent the waterboarding. Jasek said he felt the Lord used the guard to move him out of the cell.
"Later on I told the guard that he saved my life and we became close friends," Jasek said. "I gave my email address and I started to share the gospel with him. He was very passionate. I told him that if he ever makes it to Europe, he can stay at my house and we will take care of him."
Then Jasek was moved to another prison where conditions were even worse.
"We were squeezed in a small room—15 by 18 feet. There were sometimes 40 of us. That was the situation and I was able to lead 40 Eritrean refugees to Christ," he said. "It was like new revelation for me. I started to be courageous and openly shared the gospel with other fellow prisoners. Later on, that resulted in them putting me in solitary confinement again."
Shortly after being placed in solitary confinement, Czech consular officers were able to bring him a Bible.
"I didn't have to do anything else but read the Bible all day. I could not read the Bible all day because I could only read when there was enough light, which was about 8 [a.m.] ... until 4:30 p.m. I had to stand reading on the bars so that I could have enough light. I was so hungry for Scripture. I read from Genesis to Revelation within three weeks."
Jasek noted that he gained a profound "new understanding of Scripture."
He was eventually removed from solitary confinement and moved to a larger prison that can hold about 10,000 people.
"I went from solitary to a cell where there were like 100 people in one cell," he explained. "We were squeezed. There were 75 beds. Only 75 could have a bed and 25 had to stay on the floor."
Amazingly, guards at the new prison allowed him and two incarcerated Sudanese pastors to hold worship services.
"The first day I came to the chapel to spend time in Scripture with the Lord. They asked me to preach. I would preach once a week, sometimes twice a week," Jasek said. "Of course, they were monitoring us and they were reporting what we were teaching about. There were two other pastors from Sudan and we knew that nothing worse could happen to us."
Preaching in prison allowed Jasek and the other pastors to witness to "people that were hopeless."
"They were real criminals — murderers, rapists, thieves, drug dealers. It was such a wonderful time," Jasek said. "They responded to our teaching. We were just teaching the gospel. It was so wonderful to see the changed life of those who dedicated their lives to Christ."
In February 2017, he was granted a presidential pardon and Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir ordered his immediate release. He returned to the Czech Republic on Feb. 26, 2017.
During the time Jasek was interrogated by the jihadis in prison his wife was in a Bible study back home and the leader stopped the study to pray for the "situation that he is right now in."
"They stopped reading and started to pray for the Lord's presence over the situation," Jasek said. "When I came home, I realized that was exactly the time when I was on my knees before the Islamists and they were beating me. But I was experiencing a supernatural peace."
"I came for four days to Sudan. But I was there 445 days," Jasek told VOM. "When you think about all the hardships and seeing what the Lord was able to do through us, then what else can we say but the Lord's ways are much better than our ways."
"We know from the words of apostle Paul that everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. I felt like I received my life back. I was first threatened to be sentenced to be executed. [Then] later on, life imprisonment. Then, my life was returned back to me. I told the Lord, 'My life does not belong to me anymore. It belongs to the Lord.'"
God's Not Dead: A Light in the Darkness is positioned, as was the case for the first movie in the series when it came out with two other God-centered films in the same year, to make it another season that the Bible gains major real estate in Hollywood.
"We saw this in 2014," said David A.R. White, God's Not Dead leading actor and Pure Flix Entertainment founding partner. "There were three faith-based movies that really hit it and that was with God's Not Dead, Heaven is For Real and Son of God. All of a sudden, we had these movies come out, and it was 'the year of the Bible' as they called it. There was a trifecta so to speak."
White was at the Los Angeles premier of God's Not Dead: A Light in Darkness at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood Tuesday evening, just a couple days after the highly successful opening of I Can Only Imagine. The Roadside Attractions-Lionsgate's movie "crushed early box office forecasts with a surprisingly strong $17.1 million at 1,629 locations in North America," Variety reported.
"Obviously, we can only be thrilled for 'I Can Only Imagine,' the Erwins (co-directors), and Kevin Downes (producer)," White said.
When asked about what the current faith-based film trifecta and God's Not Dead coming so shortly after the box office smash means, White didn't attempt any red-carpet prophecy.
"Whether or not it happens again we really don't know. We don't control that," he said.
When asked the same question, I Can Only Imagine Producer Kevin Downes said it's a win-win situation for the faith-based film industry.
"I think it's a jolt of energy. At the end of the day, we all root for each other," Downes said. "The LA Times came out with an article recently 'wondering' if Christian films were in a slump, but guess what, God showed up, and the audience showed up, and the numbers are huge."
He added, "Whether it's my film or someone else's film, it's just energizing. We are alive and well. Jesus is alive and well, and it's a great time to be making films."
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When Israel had its rebirth in 1948, it is thought there were about 25 Jewish followers of Jesus in the land. Now it is estimated there are 25,000. There are about 5,000 Arab evangelical Christians living in the land.
New York Times best-selling author Joel C. Rosenberg, also of the Joshua Fund, hosted three leaders from each of these groups at the latest Epicenter Conference at Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, California, over this past weekend (Oct. 6-7, 2017).
Sitting together on stage, with all their differences set aside, they focused on the love of Jesus to bring a report of how God is moving in the land of Israel. In the body of Christ, we don't have to agree on every political or theological point to come together in fellowship. It is very powerful when believers from people groups who are enemies let God's love override their own positions. They have a common goal that is more important than their differences and that is proclaiming the good news to the lost and dying.
Each group shared its particular struggles. The Arab Christians talked about their difficulties living in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria). They lack funds, are restricted by the checkpoints from moving freely and are hindered by the historical churches in the area. Many of the Orthodox churches don't accept the evangelicals. Since they own half of the buildings, it makes it tough for the evangelical groups to find meeting places. Also, the standard of living is low in some of the Arab areas so the youth want to leave as soon as they can. This makes it hard to grow the churches.
The Messianic Jews struggle with the Orthodox Jews, who are afraid of their teaching and reject it. Today, Jewish life in Israel is directly descending from the Pharisees. It is not like the first century, when the church was born. It centers more on tradition than the Scriptures. Not all Jews in Israel are religious. There is a growing group of atheists in Israel, as in many other parts of the world today. Some are just secular Jews and know little about the Scriptures. Still, when a Jew in Israel accepts Jesus as Messiah, they are often disowned by the family. So, evangelism is very difficult for them too.
The Jews are utilizing the internet to reach the lost. They heed the call to "Blow the trumpet in Zion" in a new modern way—through the cell phone. Apparently, Israelis use the Internet 60 percent more than even Americans. There are 7 million Jewish people in Israel. That's more than the rest of the world combined. These men told of websites—www.oneforisrael.org/met-messiah-jewish-testimonies/ and www.oneforisrael.org/ —that show video clips in Hebrew and English of testimonies of Jewish people coming to Christ. They've been viewed 30 million times.
The Arabs have satellite dishes in their homes. There are many Arabic-speaking TV programs being broadcast into the homes of Arabs, including Muslims. Many are accepting Jesus and calling into the stations with their confession to Christ. It is important that these Arab churches stay active in these areas of Israel so the new converts can have a place to grow in their faith. As Joel Rosenberg says, the war is fought in the air and on the ground. The church needs both. The technology of the "air" and the ground troops of the believers forming local churches.
Rosenberg said it was hard to calculate real numbers of believers now in the Middle East, but he gave these rough estimates:
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When Native Indian tribes from the United States, Canada and around the globe return to Washington D.C. this fall, they believe the glory of God is returning with them.
On October 20, 2017, First Nations people will fill Constitution Hall—for the first time in American history—for their Second Annual National Day of Prayer.
The presence of God is coming with them like the forgiveness they brought to the nation's capital last year, when tribes from the U.S., Canada and the world gathered at the Washington Monument for the inaugural Day of Prayer By First Nations on Oct. 21, 2017.
Envisioned by an Euchee (Yuchi) Indian, Dr. Negiel Bigpond, First Nations prayer and worship on the National Mall was heard inside the White House, which acknowledged by telephone the presence of about 75 different Native American and Canadian tribes in D.C.
In the shadow of the monument's standing, granite rock, tribes erected teepees, beat drums, danced, prayed, worshipped and, very intentionally, extended forgiveness to the nation for breaking treaties with Native American Indians.
"Last year, we extended forgiveness to a nation that never asked for it; this year we're releasing the glory of God back over America and the nations," said Willie Jock at a rally in Denver on Saturday.
An Akwesasne Mohawk, Jock read the prayer he authored, "The Power to Forgive," at the base of the Washington Monument.
"As the host people of Turtle Island, we forgive every atrocity and broken covenant ever designed to destroy us as a race of people," Jock said in Washington D.C.
Days later, Jock authored "The Prayer of the Peacemaker," which he recited at the Standing Rock Reservation in North and South Dakota beside Dr. Bigpond, Lakota Sioux Gabrielle Medicine Eagle and Chickasaw Randy Wade.
"We stand beneath the outstretched branches of the great tree of peace and invite all nations to join us as we cry out for the master of life to bring His justice, unity and peace over Standing Rock and all of the Americas," Jock said.
Jock, Eagle, Wade and other members of All Tribes D.C., the sponsor of the annual Day of Prayer By First Nations, spoke Friday night and all day Saturday in Denver at Church in the City/Beth Abraham during a vision rally that brought together Christians, Messianic and indigenous believers in Jesus Christ.
The church is the former home of a Jewish synagogue and later an Indian center.
Between the rally in Denver and the day of prayer, Jock and some members of All Tribes D.C. will visit Israel from Oct. 9-13, when Messianic Jewish believers will impart through prayer the glory of God to Indian leaders before they travel to the nation's capital.
"I believe it's going to begin on Oct. 20th as the First Nations people release the glory of God over America and the world," Jock said.
Jock and other First Nations Leaders agree with the words of Dr. Billy Graham.
"The greatest moments of Native history (lie) ahead of us if a great spiritual renewal and wakening should take place," Graham said years ago. "The Native American has been a sleeping giant. He is awakening."
Some Christians groups—All Tribes D.C among them—recognize the accuracy of a deceased prophet who declared 2017 a turnaround year and one of (God's) favor.
It's a year of God's awakening the nations and the return of His glory, according to the late prophet Bob Jones.
"Watch this year as the nations of the world come alive in the holiness of the Father, the love of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit," Jones prophesied before his death.
A website containing other prophecies spoken by Jones is maintained by his wife, Bonnie.
Jock's prayer produced peace of mind and heart even though the events at Standing Rock, where water and burial sites remain contentious issues, didn't go the way Chickasaw leader Wade hoped they would.
"We always talk about a sound, a message," Wade said. "In the Greek, the word 'sound' means to join one place to another. When we make a sound, it touches heaven. I long to see the nations make the sound of worship."
The gatherings in Israel and D.C this year will have shifting effects on the nations as forgiveness in America did in 2016.
Ojibway Cree Mary Faus, who earlier this year was invited to speak at the National Press Club on behalf of Dr. Bigpond at a church conference she attended, agreed a shift took place in the nation in 2016, and she expects another this fall.
At the rally in Denver, Faus said, "The sound that's going forth is shaking the very ground that was used to bury our people.
"The Word Himself is coming alive in the Native Bride.
"The very acts used to shame and humiliate her will be her greatest weapon to undermine the accuser," said Faus, who was chosen by All Tribes leader to emcee inside Constitution Hall on Oct. 20.
Lakota Sioux Gabrielle Medicine Eagle said prayers of forgiveness and peace bring God's glory and presence. He knows from personal experience, forgiving "white people" for the first time when he came to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in 1984.
Before his conversion, Eagle was dismayed by the Department of Interior's handling of Indian reservations, sending youth to residential schools—both parochial and public—that sought to strip them of their cultural identities.
"The word 'reservation,' according to Webster's Dictionary, is defined as 'put aside for later use.'
"God has turned around the word 'reservation'—meaning set aside—for His use. He is restoring our governmental authority," Gabrielle Medicine Eagle said.
Potawatomi Martha Schmitt, who works with Dr. Bigpond at Two Rivers Native American Training Center near Tulsa, Oklahoma, expects members of more than 75 tribes will attend the prayer event on Oct. 20.
Bigpond first envisioned a national day of prayer for First Nations in June of 2016, reserving area around the Washington Monument with the U.S. Park Service a few months later.
He believes the power of forgiveness and prayer bring healing to the nation. Others agree with him, saying All Tribe D.C.'s mission is to stir up the "governmental voice of authority rightly given to First Nations people by our creator."
There are approximately 500 tribes in U.S and 500 more in Canada. Seventy-five tribes prayed on the National Mall last year, and more are expected this year, Schmitt said.
Also in Denver, Navajo leader Ellson Bennett and his adopted South Korean daughter, Callie, spoke and led worship, respectively. Callie is in the running for two Native Music Awards: Best Female Artist of the Year and Best Gospel Inspirational Record.
Representatives from government, education and the church—three of seven mountains of influence—are invited to the day of prayer. Among the invited high-profile speakers are Kansas Governor Sam Brownback and Senator Stewart Greenleaf from Pennsylvania.
Author, speaker and internationally recognized prayer leader Chuck Pierce will represent the church in D.C.
Steve Rees is a freelance writer who loves the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, calls Longmont his home, and attends Rez.Church. He can be contacted by e-mail at:steverees@peoplepc.com.
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