Movement in the Canaries

  
Movement in the Canaries
What An Amazing Week We’ve Just Had in The Canaries… 

Here Are Some #SimpleStories of What Happened…

THE TRAINING 

We trained small groups and teams in various locations across Gran Canaria in #PioneerMission and #MultiplicationMovements Principles 
Including #FindingTheHouseOfPeace, Disciple-Making and ChurchMultiplication
Each day we began in prayer and training from the scriptures

John Wesley Through The Mountain Villages 

One morning as we practiced #HousesofPrayer for the island of 800,000+ inhabitants…God spoke to us through a prophetic word of direction;

‘Go to the villages and preach there also. I see John Wesley on his horse going to the villages…’
So we set out for the villages north west of Mogan all the way to Testarte

We met a lady who sells fruit on the mountain road. She’s from Romania- Paula said to her;
‘We are searching for the Person of Peace and we believe that you are a person of peace and just like in the Bible Jesus and the disciples were looking for persons of peace and when they found them they were baptised, their whole household was baptised! The whole village was transformed, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and joy and they went from there sharing with others and seeing lots of lives changed and seeing churches started in people’s homes, cafés and workplaces and would she like that to happen?

she said ‘yes!’

Paula then asked her about her family and where the best place to do that would be?

She took Paula’s hand and said – ‘wow we believe in similar things. Paula I’m so pleased to meet you’
No doubt the team will go back to meet her again…

In the village of Tesarte

God told us to stop the car and pointed us to a man who was working on a hill…2 members of the team went over to talk to him saying;

‘We are here because we are looking to find a Person of Peace. We are praying and looking for people of peace like in the Bible and we are really excited because God told us to stop at this house because there is a person of peace in this house and that person must be you’

And he said- ‘yes, yes’

The team continued… ‘it’s really exciting what God is doing, just like in the bible whole families and villages are coming to Jesus and receiving much joy and being changed and churches are being started in houses in bars in cafés and it’s spreading. Would he be interested in being part of it. Are you interested in talking about this more. Do you think you and your family are interested. When can we come back?’

He said weekend would be the best time and asked ‘are you evangelical Christians?’

They said- ‘its similar – but we are about reading the bible and New Testament and doing what it says’
We prayed a blessing on him and his family

A Bar in Santa Luca

This is a funny one. We had been prayer walking for quite some time in this beautiful place in the mountains. It happened to be Santa Lucia day- a major regional fiesta with parade and traditional dress. In all of this…we didn’t find any Persons of Peace

Then in the evening before leaving we sat down for a drink outside on the porch of a bar/restaurant
On the table next to us was a rowdy bunch of older men who were quite boisterous, loud and possibly quite drunk

Before we left we announced ‘the kingdom of heaven has come to this bar…’

One of the men came over to us as we were leaving and started talking to us…however he and they were talking fast and in Spanish and slurring as they were drunk and so the team members didn’t fully understand what he and they were saying

They kept saying they have a mission. And we kept saying ‘we have a mission’

But they were talking so fast and were drunk so it was hard to understand with limited language skills

One of the team members was saying to them for some reason, ‘if you were shot tonight where would you be?’ and also talking about the recent ‘terrorist attack’ in Paris and how people were just sitting in a bar enjoying their drinks then in a few seconds their lives were taken…where would they be if that happened to them?

There was quite a strong discussion for a while going backwards and forwards in ‘broken Spanish’ and quite animated, lively and at times quite volatile!

At the end of this…one of the men invited the team to talk more at his house about the Bible…which the team are happy to do

After we left the bar…I said to the team as we were driving back to base; ‘we are a special crack team of army commanders’ to which the only fluently speaking Spanish member who is new to this stuff said ‘no they were!’

It turns out that we had been strongly debating, warning and persuading a table of military commanders and officers some of whom are just about to set off to Afghanistan

They are going as peace keeping forces but if they get attacked they are allowed to shoot back but are not allowed to shoot first 
When we was warning them about getting shot unexpectedly we had no idea…but it seems the Holy Spirit who was leading our mission knew all about this and the right words to say at the right time!

In San Bartolome

Early in the week we prayer walked and went to this mountain village to ‘Spy the Land’

Straight away the spirit of Jesus led us to what we thought was the Place of Peace…a public bar. The manageress of the bar welcomed us…she even gave us some free food made by her daughter and introduced us to her sister
When we arrived back there exactly one week later we were welcomed by the same manager into the same bar…this time the team ordered some French fries and sat outside 
She said her niece had died 15 days earlier so she was not celebrating the fiesta. We prayed for her and gave her something to read about Jesus

Then a man Maria (one of our local team members) knew called ‘angel’ from over 20 years ago- saw Maria and then came over to sit at our table with us. Not only did he live above the bar (the place we had identified one week earlier as the place of peace), but he happened to be the godfather of her kids! That’s how close they were!!! (A long list close friend- they go back a long way and have both faced personal challenges and tragedies since then and fallen on hard times). We spoke to him of the gospel and prayed for him to receive freedom

A Bar in Playa de Cura

Early in the week we went to ‘Spy The Land’ here quite late at night. Before arriving we got strong prophetic direction that God was going to move strongly there…
When we got there we met a key family who were sitting in the bar and welcomed us warmly and God spoke to us that we had ‘found the household of peace’

The following day we joined a local church who hosted a Carol service in the bar and a team member shared her #JesusStory with great impact and afterwards we spoke privately to people drinking at tables sharing our stories, our lives and the gospel…as a result one lady opened her heart to Jesus and another lady was moved to tears as she heard the message

Whilst this was happening I continued to share the message of Jesus with members of the ‘key family’

A few days after this we met with the woman from this key family in the same bar and started to pray for her that she would have ‘freedom in Christ’…this led to many spirits being confronted and being commanded to leave her…this went on for a few hours. Afterwards one of the barmen came over to us and said he wanted prayer too…we spoke with him about Jesus too before leaving

Two days after this we baptised others in the sea here also (see below)

The Birth of a Church

Paula, Jo and Maria invited people they had gotten to know in their village and surrounding area and from their language class and we had the first gathering of a ‘Training Church’ in their house. One of the couples who came said that when they have got their house sorted in 2 months they want to start a church in their house which would make that a 2nd Generation church!

Baptisms in the Sea

We baptised 2 people at the beach ‘Playa de Cura’
When he got baptised today, after he came out of the water he said he felt like he had been born a second time

It was like everything was new 
She overcame her fears to get baptised, she said;

‘Today is the best day for me. When I went into the sea I got a bit dizzee- but when I came up out of the water something left me and I felt lighter and started to dance- I felt something had lifted off of me’

A Vision For The Canaries

Paula and Jo arrived in the Canaries in Nov 2014- but then went to Russia for 6 weeks- so really started in earnest Feb 2015. For the first 6 months they were homeless and looking for a Base whilst also concentrating on Spanish language study 

In Dec 2015 I went over to work alongside them training in #MultiplicationMovements and modelling #Pioneer Mission across villages from San Bartolome to Tesarte

The Vision is to see Multiplication Movements kick started across the 21 Municipalities. The gospel spread in every town and village

100 new churches
Also

7 Canary Islands

Total of 300 new churches across the Islands