Mission to Guinea-Bissau, Africa

Today is Friday, February 17th. In just 4 days, I will be flying to Africa with a dear friend of mine, Bruce Bloomquist, from Charlotte, NC. We will be working with a missionary in Guinea-Bissau, one of the poorest nations in all of Africa. Wade McHargue, the missioary who lives in Guinea-Bissau with his wife and 3 small children will be leading the trip.

We plan to go to two areas that have never heard the name of Jesus Christ. Although this is a great opportunity, it will also present us with some potentially serious challenges. One of the reasons these areas are unreached is because they are difficult to get to. Our team will be "roughing it", hiking through jungles and sleeping in a tent. One of our team members is a young African brother named Lalas, who will be our interpreter, and as I have heard from several, is himself a fiery evangelist.

God has graciously supplied every need for me to make this trip, and has gone even beyond our need. Please keep us in prayer, as we face these and other challenges. We have counted the cost. In the light of the cross, it is well worth it. By God's grace, I will share an update at my earliest convenience. We will be returning to the USA on March 4th and will arrive home the following day, Lord willing.

MOVING TO ATLANTA, GA!

Return to Minnesota

A lot has happened since my last update in May.I have been busy with prison ministry, street ministry and planning several upcoming trips to the mission field in Mexico, Africa (2 planned trips in 2010) and possibly The Philippines and India.
I have also spent a considerable amount of time in equipping others in healing and prophetic evangelism.
I recently made another trip to Minnesota to train, teach and equip the saints there on the subjects of walking in the Spirit, personal healing and prophetic evangelism, and on the necessity of walking in love, both toward the saints AND toward our enemies.
As soon as I stepped off the plane in Minneapolis, the brother who picked me up at the airport (Jackson) and I decided to redeem the time and engage in some street evangelism. We first conversed with a man from Liberia who was sitting in front of the courthouse. After a few minutes we could see that the Spirit of God was convicting him of sin, righteousness and the Judgment to come. After a short time, he went down on his knees and, to all appearance, surrendered himself to Christ.
A little later, we were approached by a big man who was wearing gang paraphernalia. He was a very huge, tall man. Jackson handed him a gospel tract. He looked at it and said, "praise the Lord!". When he said that, I heard sadness in his voice. Immediately, I began to see into his life in a way the was surprising and even astonishing to all of us. I told him that God showed me that he was a backslider, and that God was trying to rescue him from certain death! I said to him, "Last night, your wife begged you to surrender to Christ! But, you put her off. You told her you need to get over the financial 'hump" that you're facing first, and THEN you will get things right with God! Someone has offered you a lage bag of something illegal to sell to get you out of a financial bind, but if you go through with it it will cost you your life, and your immortal soul!" He looked astonished, and told us he had his wife on the cell phone. He said, "Every hair on my body is standing up! Everything you just said is all true! Are you listening to this baby? Here let me put you on 'speaker-phone'".

Over the next 20-30 minutes, revelation, word of wisdom and word of knowledge continued to flow through me . It was incredible! This man suddenly dropped to his knees and began to repent and confess his sins! You could hear his wife weeping over the speaker-phone! Before we left him, we prayed for him, that God would strengthen him with might, by his Spirit, in the inner-man... When we prayed that, suddenly, without any expectation of it, he began to speak with tongues and shake violently! Hallelujah!!!

Before we left him, we exchanged phone numbers, and finally went our way. As we turned to leave, Andrew took off his expensive hat (it represented his gang affiliation), hung it over the parking meter and walked away.

The next day, Jackson and I arrived at the camp site, where a group of men were gathering to be trained and equipped. We spend the evening with them in prayer and worship, and afterward I shared with the brothers. Again, the "word of knowledge" began to operate through me, and I pointed to a man seated across from me as we sat around the campfire as the Spirit began convicting him about his backsliding. In a few moments, this man burst into tears and trembled all over with emotion. Within a short time, he [began to confess, repent and surrender himself to Christ. Afterward, he, along with several others, received a powerful baptism in the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues!

The next day, Andrew, the big man who had gotten saved on the street in Minneapolis, called me and asked if he could come to where we were, which was about an hour from Minneapolis. We said, "of course!" and Jackson gave him directions over the phone. When he arrived later that afternoon, we allowed him to share his testimony, to the astonishment of the other brothers who were there.

Many very interesting things occurred during my time there. Time and space will not allow me to share all the details. But to sum it up: many backsliders returned to their 'first-love", many saints received a powerful baptism in the Holy Spirit, sinners were brought into the kingdom of God and many saints were equipped for the ministry of reconciliation. To God be the glory!

Andrew invited us to stop by his home on our way back to the airport on the final day of our visit. He wanted us to meet his wife and family, and she was very excited to meet us. While there, his wife received the baptism in the Holy Spirit and his sister-in-law, who was a prostitute, and his mother-in-law, fell on their knees on Andrew's back porch-deck, and with tears, surrendered themselves to Christ. As soon as I arose from my knees in praying with these two precious souls, Andrew informed me that it was time to go to the airport.

Revival in Cokato!

We recently returned from a weekend of ministry in Cokato, Minnesota. We were invited there by some brothers in Christ who Had received powerful baptisms in the Holy Ghost while at some of the New Years "Gathering's" in Charlotte at JPM.

The meetings were marked with deep conviction of sin, both among professing Christians and also among the lost. Also, there were large numbers of believers who received powerful baptisms in the Holy Spirit.

Here are some testimonies that were sent to me via e-mail Cokato, as the result of our meetings there.

Testimonies:

"Hi Joel and Pat! We sure do miss the two of you! You have been in our thoughts so often since you were here...
Things are going well here. The hunger for more knowledge of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit continues....Since your time here with us, many have been searching The Word for more answers and for affirmation of what the Spirit is revealing to them. To put it plainly, there continues to be an excitement and desire for deeper relationships with Jesus/Holy Spirit, there are many questions -especially in the area of "Life in the Spirit" (how to live out the new things we are learning day to day). In a nutshell, people are ready to be weened from milk - and want "table food" - they want the big stuff to chew on! As long as I'm on a roll here with the "Food" metaphor, I'll say this also - We are still digesting much of what you "served" us from the banquet of God's Word during your teachings here - breaking it down and figuring out how to use it to build up our bodies, and The Body of Christ, ultimately.

Joel and Pat, I pray that you are encouraged to know that the week you were here was a very significant time for many in this community, including our family. Of course you know our son, Brett(9), was the first of our children to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Later that same evening, our daughter Anna(10) and son Sam(7) felt the very same "pounding heart" during your teaching, and were so moved that they went forward on their own during the alter call! This was NOT by our prompting at all. In fact, part of me almost wanted to hold them back as they walked toward the front to bow their little knees...as I was afraid others would think we were "forcing" this on them (Augh, Fear of Man is an ugly thing!) Truth is, I didn't even know the kids were really LISTENING to all that was being taught. Obviously, they were - and they were RECEIVING IT! How silly I was to think that they were "too young" to understand. Did not Jesus Himself say that we need to turn and become like children in order to enter the kingdom!? (Matt.18) The faith of children stirred my spirit that night. Praise God! As he received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, our little Sammy began to weep. I swooped in to see what was the matter. I asked him if he was scared...he said no. Nervous, maybe? He said no. I asked him again if he was worried he wasn't doing it right (praying in the Spirit)...nope. Finally, I asked why he was crying? All he could do was shrug his shoulders and continue to weep. Yet there was complete PEACE on his face. I stepped back, and watched my little boy raise his hands to the heavens and humble himself before His Father. We got home LATE that night, and as we were hurrying trying to get all five kids in bed, Sam stopped and asked "Should we all go in the Living Room and try out our 'new voices'?" How could we deny a request like that!? So, at nearly midnight that night, we huddled together and for the first time, prayed in the Spirit as a family. These are things I have tucked away in my heart, to ponder on in the years to come. The next day, our son Brett said to me "Mom, I really like going to the Teachings. I didn't think I would at first, but I really like them!" I looked at him, smiled and thought "What kind of kid says things like that?" I guess the kind who are newly baptized in the Spirit. Our daughter, Anna, also said to me that day "Mom, I'm glad I went up front during Joel's teaching - because the next night when Morgan (her cousin) wanted to go up front but was scared, I knew what to do, so I went with her." Since the Teachings, we have had many conversations discussing what happened when we received the Holy Spirit. We talk about the changes that have taken place, and about the things we are still working on....Life in the Spirit, as we know it. We have had great triumphs, and some difficult wipe-outs. Yet, we continue to run the race set before us! We are SO VERY grateful for your service to the Body, Joel and Pat! We love you both - fiercely. We bless you - in Jesus' name! With much love from Minnesota, Ryan and Nicolle - Anna, Brett, Sam, Rachel and Norah Erickson"


"Many came forward for salvation or repentance of backsliding (70-80 souls)

Many received the baptism of the Holy Spirit (80-100 souls)

Many healed (10-12 souls)



Entire families were touched by God. Many RUSHED forward to cry to God for mercy in response to the Word of God.



The population of Cokato is about 2600. The magnitude of what the God did from Thursday through Tuesday is staggering.



We are planning a series of follow-up events next weekend with more teaching and evangelism. Joel will be returning to equip us."

It looks like I will be returning to Cokato around mid June to continue with what the Holy Spirit started there. We are expecting the entire population to be swept into the Kingdom of God!

Hallelujah to the King - JESUS!

Speedway Cross-walk

Recently, a friend of mine, brother Rick Couch from Georgia, came to our home for a one night visit and some open-air ministry at Lowes Motor-Speedway. We loaded up the big cross and went to the Speedway, where they were having an enormous car-show and sale.
We saw many thousands of people, all walking around, looking at cars, etc...

We noticed that the largest crowd of people were those who were gathered at the "cross-walk" just across from the main entrance to the speedway. So, we decided to set up the big 10ft. cross there to arrest attention to the "message of the cross". What better place to set up a huge cross and preach that message!

The NC State Highway Patrol were there directing traffic, which was very heavy, and they would hold the people for up to 10 minutes at a time to allow vehicle traffic to flow smoothly during the big event.

As we raised up the big cross and began to preach, Rick and I were both astonished at the fact that it seemed that everyone was listening intently to the message. People weren't talking among themselves, no one heckled, nobody cursed at us. They all just quietly listened to the message, as we drew attention to the huge cross, and our reason for being out there preaching.

"YOU are the reason we came here today, and YOU are the reason Jesus Christ suffered on the cross!" we told them.

I told them that God Almighty had separated all those who hear the message of the cross into 2 categories:

1) Those who see it as foolishness. These are the people who perish, which means they will spend a long forever in the lake of fire, which is the second death. I warned, urged and encouraged them not to be in that group.

2) Those who are saved. To these, and these only, the message of the cross is the power of God! This is the only attitude and response to the message that can be acceptable to God.

We told them that the cross of Christ was necessary for 2 primary reasons:

1) We are all part of the ultimate statistic: 10 out of every 10 people die!
In fact, in the next 24 hours 146,000 people will die around the world. No one gets out of this world alive!

2) We have all broken God's law, which the Bible says is holy, just, good and perfect.

I told them that God has an obligation to uphold His law and make it honorable. That "...He can in no-wise clear the guilty". He cannot set aside the execution of the penalty for breaking his law in showing mercy to those who are guilty of breaking it.

I reasoned with the people concerning their guilt for having sinned against such a righteous and good and holy Creator.

I reasoned with them, that everyone knows it is wrong to lie, especially when someone lies to them or about them.

I tried to make them see that everyone knows it is wrong to steal: especially when someone steals from them! And everyone understands how wrong it is to commit adultery when their spouse does it! But, Jesus Christ pointed out that whenever someone looks with lust, they commit adultery with that person already in their heart!

I expounded briefly of God's righteous judgment in threatening eternal wrath and endless punishment against His enemies.

Then, I explained that the only way in which God could wisely offer pardon and forgiveness to guilty sinners was to offer His own Son up as an innocent substitute, in order to satisfy the awful demands of the justice and vengeance due those who violated God's just commands.

I told them that the sufferings of Christ make it possible and even wise and just and good for God to forgive and pardon the sinner, whenever he turns away from his own way and believes the good-news, yielding himself in full and complete obedience and love to the mercy and grace of God with faith in the blood of Jesus Christ as the only remedy for sin and damnation. I pointed out that God requires that we all must believe the Gospel "good-news" that Jesus died for our sins, was buried and raised again the third day. And that, when God the Father raised up His Son Jesus from the dead, He broke the power of sin and death over all those who repent and believe the Gospel.

I knew I had only 5-10 minutes to speak to each group, so I said these things in the most plain, pointed and personal manner possible.

As we continued to preach, we watched as the faces of these precious people would show deep conviction, as if they were thinking, "Hey, this actually makes sense! I have offended GOD! I deserve to be sent down to the lowest HELL! But God is willing to show me mercy if I will only repent, believe and obey the gospel of His Son!"

We stayed there approximately 5 hours, and we estimated that we preached over 40 times to an average new crowd of between 25-50 people each.

It was perhaps the most fun I have had open-air preaching in many years!

TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY, HONOR AND PRAISE!!!

Winchester, Va. Outreach Gathering

I recently returned from a "Gathering" in Winchester, Va; where several men from different 'front-line" ministries gathered together to pray, equip and be equipped for the work of the ministry, and then went to the streets of Winchester to gather a harvest of souls.

We saw many souls who surrendered themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ for the first time, as well as many backsliders in heart who returned to their first love! There were also several who were healed of various diseases and several who received the baptism with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues.

The saints were equipped to win souls and to heal the sick. It was a very fruitful 4 days, as we were extremely busy from sun-up till around 10 pm at night.

Results for the 4 days were:

50-60 saved

40 + backsliders restored

15 -20 healed, &

10 who received the baptism with the Holy Ghost!

To God be all the glory, honor and praise! In Jesus' name! Amen.

STORIES:

There were many interesting stories that took place while we were there.
I was asked to teach on the baptism with the Holy Ghost during a session on the first of 4 days with all the "front-line" ministers who had come to the "Gathering". After the teaching, I invited any who desired to receive the baptism with the Holy Spirit to come forward. Two men came forward. One of them, a former superintendent of schools who was also one of the main speakers at the event and the other, a man from Bulgaria. Both instantly received an enduement of power from on high through the baptism with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues!

The next day, we all went out on the street for evangelism. While carrying the cross back toward the Church building, a young 18 year old man rode up on his bicycle and asked why I was carrying the cross. I told him that he was the reason. After ministering to him for several minutes, I challenged him to surrender himself to Christ publicly, right there on the sidewalk.
The young man, whose name is Charlie, immediately jumped off his bike, threw it to the ground and fell on his knees!

That same night, when Charlie got off work, he rode his bike for an hour to get to the evening service. The following night, on his way to service, his rear tire blew. But he was determined to get to the service, so he carried his bike for over to hours so he could be there!

Earlier that same day, while carrying the cross in downtown Winchester, I saw a young man, 28 years old named Adam sitting on the steps in front of a business. As I began to talk with him about his guilt and danger in the light of the sins he had committed against God, I could see that the Spirit of God was doing a quick work of conviction in his heart. As I began to talk of the love and mercy of God demonstrated through the cross of Jesus Christ, he became overwhelmed, and right there, in the center of town, in broad daylight, he fell on his knees and surrendered his life to the Lordship of Jesus! Glory to God!

On Saturday evening, we held a healing service in a local baptist Church there. A friend of mine who lives in Baltimore, Md. came to the service, and brought his unsaved brother who had been recently diagnosed with hepatitis C. When the altar call was given for repentance at the close of the message, six people came forward, including this brother of my friend! That night, he, along with several others, was saved, healed and received a mighty baptism with the Holy Spirit, and began speaking with tongues - right there in the baptist church!

HALLELUJAH!!!

There were several others who received healing that same night, including a lady who had severe pain in her chest. She felt the pain instantly leave her body as the power of God went through her. The thing that excited me most about this woman's healing was that I did not lay hands on her. A young autistic boy who had that night received a powerful baptism in the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with tongues was one who laid hands on the woman, declaring "be HEALED, in Jesus name!" Both the woman who was healed, and the parents of this boy wept and rejoiced for a long time afterward, amazed at the mighty power and love of our heavenly Father!

These are only a few of the highlights of the 4 days we spent in Winchester. Perhaps I will have opportunity to post more in the near future.

Mexico: Report Back

Father mightily blessed and enabled us to get much accomplished. We ministered at a small Mexican Church on the first night (Sunday). Brother Harold Burkett preached. It was a good service. We got to minister to a young woman in a wheelchair who was totally paralyzed from the waist down due to an accident 2 yrs ago that severed her spinal cord. We layed hands on her in Jesus' name and asked her to get up. She tried, but couldn't. We did it again. This time, she said she felt a tingling in both legs, like her legs were asleep. We did it about 3 more times, each time asking her to "get-up". Feeling came back to her legs and she actually stood for the first time in 2 yrs!

The next day, I received a text message from my friend Bob Bauer, who works at the Pentegon, saying that he felt the Lord wanted him to send a check for $1000 to buy new clothes, shoes, socks, underwear, food, pots and pans, and other supplies for a small orphanage outside Nuevo Laredo. So we went to the orphanage and got the sizes needed so we could get what they needed. The kids were very excited to see us. We spent some time with them, then returned to the Mission Station when 3 of us (brother Rick, brother Harold and I) began installing the tracks for a "drop ceiling" in the Church at the Mission station.

The next day, I painted both bathrooms at the Mission Station, then helped Rick and Harold with the ceiling till about 5pm. Then we all got cleaned up and held a service at the church there at 7:30pm. I preached on Matt.5:43-48, and Ja.5:17. I gave an altar call and 8 people came forward, fell on their knees and began weeping and crying out to God! After the altar-call I ministered to those in need of healing. 7 people were instantly healed, although I only laid hands on 6 for healing! The 7th was my interpreter, who shared her testimony of healing with me last night before we all retired. She said she had suffered from an infection in her female organs for over 2 yrs, and noticed the morning following that service it was completely gone!

The day following that service, while we were working on the ceiling again, Brother Harold received a phone call from the pastor of the Church. He said that a woman who was ministered to the night before, who was suffering with terminal cancer in her blood, had just called him after seeing her doctor, rejoicing that she is now "cancer-free"! WOWSA! GLORY TO GOD!While 3 of us were working on the ceiling, Pat, Naomi Naska and Craig went over to WalMart to purchase the clothing for the kids at the orphanage. When they returned around 3pm, we took the supplies to the kids on our way to a small church in Nuevo Laredo where brother Rick preached. 6 came to the altar for salvation and afterward, he called brother me up to help him minister healing in Jesus' name. 5 were healed, including a woman who was totally blind in her right eye! She shouted, wept and rejoiced, as did many in the congregation for her sight being restored! Several small children were among those who were healed.

The last day we had to stop working on the ceiling at 11am because we had to go and pick up 6 cases of eggs (360 eggs ea.) And 4 50lb. bags of rice and 4 50 lb. bags of beans to give to the poor people at the colonia called Blanca Navidad. There, at 3pm, under a tent in 100 degree heat, I was honored to preach to a crowd of over 300 poor people. I taught them on the necessity of spending much time daily reading and studying God's word, spending much time in prayer and then gave a strong call to repentance for any who were living in sin or who had never been born of God. 6 came forward to repent and receive forgiveness. Afterward, because there were so many people and we had to be back at the Mission station in Texas by 7pm, I asked those in need of healing to place their own hand on the part of their body that needed to be healed, as I bound to demon of infirmity and proclaimed healing in Jesus' name. Then, I asked them to begin to do what they could not do before. 18 were instantly healed! To God be the glory!!!

The last night, after sharing the testimony of being healed on Tuesday night, my interpreter, her sister and their aunt listened as I taught them how to minister God's healing power to the sick "outside" the Church walls. While sharing, I dicovered that, although they were all raised in a "full-gospel" church, that the sister and aunt of my interpreter had never received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. So at about 11pm last night both of these precious ladies received the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues, with tears of joy and gratitude flowing down their faces! So, the trip results for this week were:20 saved, 29 or more healed, 7 filled with the Holy Spirit and many other blessed, encouraged, fed, supplied and equipped for service. 2 bathrooms painted and 75 percent of the ceiling and lighting installed in the church at the Mission Station.

TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY, HONOR AND PRAISE, IN JESUS' NAME!