here i am in darjeeling... drinking tea

ever heard of darjeeling tea? i've had alot of it in the past two days.
i am in upper northeast india on the border of nepal. today we visited an awesome church in milik, (no, not milk.) outside of darjeeling. we drove through tea gardens at about 6,000 feet elevation. beautiful mountains covered with green tea bushes in perfect lines around the mountain. the border of india and nepal is watched very closely by the indian government, because terrorist groups will cross into the indian jungle to hide.

it seems like we have been all over northeast india. we arrived on sunday after 14 hours in the air. i sat by this really sweet young man named sanju (Lord I pray that you would reveal Yourself to him and his entire family and that they would be saved.) we talked for hours and i asked him so many questions about indian culture and history. we watched a bollywood flick and i have to admit i really loved it. it seems so cheesy at first because they dance and sing and everything is so over the top. but then the plot thickens and by the end i was so into it.
so this is how you say hello in nepalese - it sounds like "je-me-se" and this is how you say thank you - sounds like "dan-ya-bat."
i love these people. they are so beautiful. their children can break your heart with one look of their big brown eyes.

so on sunday, we had two services. one in the afternoon and one in the evening. people were getting set free and falling out in the Spirit. and boy did we get acqainted with some of the bondage here - there is lots. witchcraft and generational curses abound. the idolatry and demon worship has ruled for thousands of years.
but God is moving and things will not stay that way. they are already changing.
then on monday we dedicated the prayer room and brought out the maps and banners to be hung on the wall. our trip leader taught on prayer and then we went around the entire facility praying over each room. we had a powerful time, and it was only just the beginning. we had another service that night even more powerful than the first day, and many people were set free from demons. i saw some things i have never witnessed before.

on tuesday we traveled to kalimpong and check in to a beautiful hotel overlooking the himalayas. breathtaking. that night we went to a very alive and growing church to minister. the pastor of that church has such a heart for the city and his wife is an intercessor. God has revealed the territorial spirits to him and so he understands the spiritual dynamics of what is going on in the city. he seemed to know where every church is located and where there are no churches. the service was very powerful. our trip leader preached and then called on our team to pray for people. it was intense. when there is a language barrier, you must totally rely on the Holy Spirit to give you discernement as to what is going on in people's lives.

the next day we went up into the mountains. we took our host - an incredible man of God and an apostle in his own right - the pastor with a heart for the city, the pastor's daughter - an awesome girl who leads praise and worship, two young people from that church, and then of course our team. we had some incredible breakthrough and the fact that the local pastor came with us was very strategic. let's just say the devil is coming down in that region, and the dragon took some serious injuries. praise God! pray for the region of the world that is called southeast asia. pray for revival! bhutan, bangladesh, nepal, burma, india and the rest. pray for the power of God to fall and the Gospel to be spread across the land and received.

after our trip to the mountains we went by our host's spiritual mother's home to pray for her. we had an incredible time of prayer for her as we saw what a faithful and devoted intercessor and lover of Jesus she is. while we were there, a young girl came down the stairs. she was strikingly beautiful - as many are here - and she seemed to want to avoid us. the second i saw here my heart just went out to her so strongly. as we were beginning to leave, our host asked for all of the young girls in the home to come down stairs so that we could pray for them. he asked me specifically to pray for them. i was so excited to pray for them, and for this girl especially because i felt that God was after her heart and yet she was being pulled by the world. i prayed that they would follow Christ and give their lives to Him, and that they would walk in purity and be used of God in their generation. as we left and headed toward the car, the girl chased after me to say thank you. i held her hand and asked her name so that i could pray for her. she told me her name and i told her that the second i saw her i thought "God can use that girl." i encouraged her to just go for God and not allow the devil to trip her up. she started crying and told me that she was leaving for college in the big city of calcutta the next day. i told her to be strong and pray and ask God to send her others who are walking with Him to encourage her and stand with her and that He would. i also told her - because she is so beautiful - to watch out for any young men who would try to deceive her. i told her that God has ONE man for her and to save herself for him, and until that time to give her heart to God and that he would fill her heart more than any man ever could. i know that this was a divine appointment. i just had that one moment to talk with her. so i took hold of it with all my heart and said whatever God gave me to say. it's crazy how God can do stuff like that. just let you meet someone out of the blue and let you connect with them and speak into their life and fill you with such a passion and a love for them in an instant.
praise God. okay what else. so that night we had another incredible service at the church in kalimpong and God gave me the privilege of speaking to the youth in the service. i had five minutes to address the youth. oh boy was i excited about that. the youth are in the service with everyone else, so before our trip leader came up to speak, the pastor introduced me and i shared out of ephesians where it says that God can do imeasurably more than we asked or think. i told them that beofre i gave my life to Jesus Christ I thought that living for Him would be boring, that He would take away my good time. but the reality was, when I finally decided to follow Christ, He made my life more exciting and adventurous than it had ever been before, mentioning the fact that i never thought i would be standing there in india talking to them. i told them that if they would give their lives completely to Jesus Christ, He would take them places they never thought they would go. i also encouraged them to prepare to be used by God in their city. and i challenged them to go out and tell the other young people in their city. i got pretty choked up at that point.

there are so many young people in this area. we drove through the streets during the time that they were all getting out of school and i thought my heart would jump out of my chest. when we go into churches, usually about half are people who appear to be under the age of 25. it is very exciting to see what God is doing. there is much more to do.

we prayed for like very single young person in the church that night. even little little guys maybe 5th grade or so. so cute! they need so much. they need identity. they need to grasp hold of their destiny and purpose in God. Oh please pray for them. many of them had deep deep hurts in their hearts and have seen too much, more than any person should ever see. pray for God to sweep over the young people! He is already beginning to do that. the pastor's daughter told me that a worship movement began here in 1997. the young people began to sing and write music prophetically and God has released something new in the worship through this music and through dance. it's very exciting.

so i am in an internet cafe right now and we are about to go have dinner. one last thing i will say. the western influence here is staggering and at times sickening. i saw a boy with an eminem shirt on today. all of the junk and the media is here. they play our music everywhere. God forgive us. we go to india and bring back eastern mysticism to our culture and then we send them some lude media. agh. disgusting. pray that God will use the media to break open new avenues of revival and cleansing in the culture. praise God! i believe He will do it.

ok, that is all. i miss you - well not really - and i love you - that is true. i'm not sure if i will come home or not. i guess you will find out eh?

please keep praying for us. we still have much ministry and prayer adventure left.

ehem.

this is my new blog... do you like it? i'm so excited... i created this blog to chronicle my trip to india and i named it after a book that my mom used to read to me when i was a little girl. it's a story about children who travel all over the world in a red hot air balloon telling other children about Jesus. they meet all sorts of children and at the end of the book there is a picture of the children waving goodbbye from their balloon and there are many children waving back smiling from all over the world. i love that book. i remember the joy and the excitment that would thrill my heart as my mother would read through the brightly colored pages. telling people in other parts of the world about Jesus...! what could be better? so i dedicate this blog to that childhood inspiration... and to the joy of sharing the love of my friend Jesus with the precious people all over the world.