Here's a PhotoShow from our team that went to Haiti in September.
Click here to learn more about the ongoing work in Haiti and how you can be a part of it.
Here is an interview with John Booker, our missionary to Haiti.
Learn more at www.foursquarehaiti.org/wordpress/
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One of our missionaries, Daryl Martin, was recently killed in an accident while serving in Malawi. Daryl had been at the Iris Africa ministry base with his wife and two of his sons since September of 2009.
David Morrison, the Director of Iris Africa in Malawi, recently wrote this tribute to Daryl:
Daryl was a man who loved adventure and had childlike energy and enthusiasm. He was determined, no matter what the cost, to accomplish God's will. He had courage--courage imparted to him from the Kingdom of Heaven.
Daryl was a missionary marked by dedication and commitment to help Malawians achieve a healthier way of life and sustainability. Above all else Daryl accepted God's call to preach the Gospel so that the people would understand life from God's perspective and come to know the great saving grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ. He preached in village churches and taught at the Bible school. He led Bible studies with young men as well as older men, spurring them on in their relationship with Jesus Christ.
Daryl put his faith into action. He was involved in restoring boreholes in the villages so that people would have clean water. He hosted medical teams, particularly eye medical teams, so that the people of southern Malawi would have healthier eyes. He himself became an experienced "lay" physician with the ability to diagnose patients with trachoma, so that by appropriate treatment, blindness would be prevented. Also very importantly, Daryl trained Malawians in trades such as chicken and crop farming so that families would have greater sustainability.
If we were to count how many Malawian people were impacted by Daryl's life, it would run in the thousands. Daryl's obedience to the Lord has brought forth great Kingdom fruit.
Learn more about Daryl's extraordinary life at the Heart Fire Ministries website.
More information about a memorial service for Daryl will be available when his family returns to Arizona later this week.
Daryl is survived by his wife, Rebekah, and four children - Averi, Joshua, Jonathan, and Caleb. You can help the Martin family by donating to the Martin Family Memorial Fund. Deposits can be made at any Wells Fargo Bank. Use account number 5739784279.
Loving Your Muslim Neighbors
September 16-17
Grace Chapel Scottsdale
It is estimated that there are 60,000 Muslims in the Phoenix area. We invite you to a conference at Grace Chapel that will help you better understand your Muslim neighbors and teach you practical ways to show them love and respect.
General Sessions
Friday, September 16, 7 PM
Saturday, September 17, 9 AM and 6 PM
Workshops
Saturday, September 17, 11:30 AM
Topics of discussion will include where is the mission field, how to minister cross-culturally, what Muslims believe, the work of the Holy Spirit in missions, and a challenge to reach the world.
The cost is $10 per individual or $25 per family.
Click here to register.
Praise the Lord! We had our first church service in the new building this last Sunday! Thank You, Jesus, for Your faithfulness in providing not only the building, but also a number of generous volunteers to assemble it (which is no small feat)! We had a full house on Sunday. Each row of metal folding chairs and wooden benches were filled and in each seat was a smiling heart, anticipating what God would do in this exciting service!
As the worship leader approached the wooden stage, we all stood, ready to worship our generous Lord. The songs of the congregation rang throughout the entire campus. I don't believe they have ever sounded so beautiful! After about an hour of worship time, Pastor Guy took the stage, inviting Debbie Booker to come up as well. She brought us an encouraging word from Ephesians 2:19-22:
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of His household, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, with Christ Himself as the chief cornerstone. In Him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.
With Christ, Himself, as our chief cornerstone, this building is destined to be a place where many are saved, healed, and freed in Jesus Name! It is a privilege to be a part of what God is doing in this nation. God loves these people. We love these people. May He be glorified in our midst as we continue building this meeting place that more lives may be touched by His Spirit!
Click here to learn more about the Foursquare mission in Haiti.
By Bill Gowey of Reztoration
I want to thank all of you who prayed for this trip from Yavapai Apache to San Carlos Apache reservation and back. The trip was great and God's grace opened some new doors for us to be His light and share His love, hope, healing and forgiveness in new Native circles.
My plan was to start in Prescott then to Yavapai Apache in the Verde Valley, then to Tonto Apache near Payson and ending up in San Carlos, then traveling back to Prescott on Friday. But things change and I began the prayer journey on the Clarkdale Yavapai Apache Rez gifting an Apache elder and asking his permission to offer my prayers. I shared about the nationwide Tribal Prayer Journey and that I wanted to start it on his Rez. He then told me, "I don't own this Rez." To which I responded, "Ya, but you are an elder." He said, "Ya, I am" and took my gifts and gave me his blessing and thanked us for praying for the land and peoples.
My second stop was to gift the acting president of the Rez Riders motorcycle club and share about the prayer journey. I was about a mile away from where we had planned to meet and a Redtail Hawk flew up from the side of the road and flew right over me, it was close enough to spook me a little.
As I pulled into the parking lot I noticed another hawk circling 100 yards east of me and the Rez Riders president. He looked at the hawk and said that is a sign that this prayer journey is a good thing. I reached out to shake his hand and he grabbed me and gave me a hug. I shared my gifts and talked with him about things and as I was getting ready to go he told me that the Rez Riders were going to sponsor a motorcycle ride for spinal cord injuries among native peoples and asked if I would come the day before the ride and do a prayer ceremony for the riders. I said yes and thought to myself that I will change my schedule any way I needed to to be there. This is only the 3rd time I ever talked with this guy and he is really open and supportive of our ministry and wants me to hang out with him and the Rez Riders. As we shook hands we both noticed that there were two Redtail Hawks circling near us, one just to our east and one just to our west. He shook his head and said this is a good sign.
I spent the first night in Payson and attended a coffee shop church and met some new friends and reconnected with a man I had met about 10 years ago in Mesa. He had just moved back from years of ministering on the Navajo Rez. It was a good time and I got a lot of encouragement about the nation wide tribal prayer journey.
On Thursday morning I prayed on the Tonto Apache Nation and headed to San Carlos. As I rode into the Tonto Basin there were two more Redtail Hawks, one circling and one that flew over me and landed on a rock ledge. I was thinking about all the birds of prey that I have seen on this prayer journey and on the 2009 prayer journey as well. I rode about another mile and a mature Bald Eagle was circling just off the road on my left. I was praying and asking God what was up. It came to me that something had happened to the Apache people in that basin. Then, at the south end of the Tonto Basin two Bald Eagles sat in a tree over the lake. I knew this was something I needed to share with someone at San Carlos.
When I got to San Carlos I visited the traditional elder I had met in 2009. It was a good reunion. I shared about the Hawks and Eagles and asked about the history of Tonto Basin. I asked if something bad had happened there and he said nothing but shook his head as to say yes. He thanked me for coming back to visit him and gave encouragement about the nation wide tribal prayer journey.
Then I rode out to Old San Carlos. It was a prison camp for Apache, Yavapai, and other tribes who had been removed from their homeland in the late 1800's. I found a place filled with 1000's of broken beer and liquor bottles. They covered the ground at the place God sent me to pray to break the strongholds of "Drug Abuse, Alcoholism, and Suicide." I could feel the hopelessness and death. It is a place where 100's of Native people died in captivity and now it was still a place of death. I offered my prayers and then rode back to New San Carlos speaking words of life, forgiveness, and healing to the land.
A month ago I met an Apache man who is a follower of Christ. He had asked me to call when I came to San Carlos so I did and left a message. We ended up having dinner where he shared his heart for his Apache people. We talked about many things and I shared some thoughts with him and about how God had us do ministry here in northern Arizona. Then he told me of a dream he had. He said that in the dream a spiritual person had come to the Rez and talked with him and when that person had left he saw himself guiding traditional and medicine people in following Jesus. Then he said, "You are the one who has come." I did not know what to say and felt very humbled because I did not let anyone on the San Carlos Rez know that I was coming. I just went and trusted God to make the right connections.
As we finished our time together this Apache man asked if I would come back and share my story in the high school there on the Rez and asked me to come back in early fall to speak at a men's wellness camp and to run a talking circle there. I accepted his invitations and look forward to what God has in store.
On Friday morning I headed back to Clarkdale Rez where the journey started two days earlier. It was a nice day and as I prayed for healing for the land and people the burden I had felt on my way to San Carlos lifted. As I spoke words of life and blessing it was good for my soul. I turned on the highway to head towards Payson to start my journey back and there was a Redtail Hawk circling right over me, I was blessed and thanked God for His creation then another Redtail flew up off the ground and flew just a few feet above me right over me and my bike. I could not believe it, it was just exactly what happened as I was leaving the Yavapai Apache Rez on my way. I do not know exactly what that it means but I do know it was not just by chance. I know that God hears the cries of our hearts for Native people.
It was an awesome journey. I got invited to do prayers for the Rez Riders event, asked to come and speak in the high school on San Carlos Apache Rez, asked to share at the men's wellness camp, and I shared my testimony and about the Prayer Journey with many people. Then we ended the journey praying with a Yavapai elder and another brother at Pueblo Ruins near the Clarkdale Rez.
Thanks for you prayers, encouragement and support.
Reztoration
2500 West Route 66 #74
Flagstaff, AZ 86001
P.S. On March 16-18 I will be doing a prayer journey to Prescott Yavapai Nation, Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, Salt River Pima, and a few other reservations around the Valley of the Sun. I'll end back in Flagstaff on March 18 for a Marriage Tune-Up at Canyon Chapel.
Please pray for protection, favor, wisdom and for provision.
The Foursquare Church of Japan was impacted when a 9.0 earthquake, which resulted in a tsunami, rocked the country on Friday. Foursquare Missions International Director James C. Scott offers an update about the state of The Foursquare Church in Japan. In addition, Corey (last name withheld for security reasons), Foursquare's area missionary to Japan, offers a personal update about what he is seeing on the ground.
Please join together in supporting our Foursquare friends in Japan through your prayers and support.
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