We're Back in Germany

Greetings everyone,

I am little sad that we didnt get to visit with President Bush. It certainly appears that the Lord has a strategic plan for the Czech people. Wow, what a ride. We are back a the YWAM base and it feels good. Our team did a little more research work on Monday morning after leaving our brothel. Our host was so nice and made us our last breakfast. After meeing with the guy who represented the owner of the large house the girls were looking at we crossed over the river into a park (I think its pretty significant that the house sits just beside the river that runs through the town) we did a creative worship project by gathering rocks from the area and making a memorial of all the things we were thankful to the Lord for. This will continue to grow as prayer teams come in to interceed for Dubi and the work that God has started to transform this town.

We also had an opportunity to find a nice pizza place for lunch to reprocess all the information the Lord gave us. We all felt that amongst all the bad we can find the Lord showing himself in the potential for beauty and good. The two guys spent the entire day before mapping out the city and gathering practical data such as where the schools, casinos, brothels, police station, hospital, etc. were. They were also able to obtain information on the history of the town as well as what the daily activity looks like. This would include how many working girls are out during the day, what do the teenagers seems to occupy themselves with, are there many older people and where do they congregate.

I led four of us in spiritual mapping the city, this would include any impressions the Lord would give us as as we prayed out specific areas of oppression, strongholds or places of favor. We did find a few pretty interesting areas that turned out to have some suspicious backgrounds. This information will be critical as other teams come in to pray in breaking strongholds. While we were out doing this "Dana", "Sharon" and two others met with a pastor and the last christian family left in Dubi. There are actually nine believers (4 adults and 5 children) left out of a city of eight thousand and the Lord opened up a door for us to meet them. They are in a building that was actually a church plant from another town and that church didnt share the same outreach vision as the plant so they want to sell the building. The church we worshipped with on Sunday in Litvinof might be willing to take this place on and so the remnant in Dubi may be able to prevail.

After lunch our team broke and the three of us stayed on and the rest went back to the YWAM base. It was sad to say goodbye but this is just the begining of God doing His new thing here and our paths may cross again. We then went to Teplice to the internet cafe where we were able to communicate last time. It is odd just minutes away is a bustling city that feels like another world. That night (Monday) we stayed in the church office of the Litvonov congregation. Carla was a wonderful woman who translated for us on Sunday and again was with us this evening. We were treated to one of the parishoner's art gallery and wine shop where he makes very fine spirits (remember THIS IS Europe). A few of the elders from the church also stopped to see us and I learned a great deal about the old history of the Czech nation. Prior to the 1600s they were a strong proud people who stood fast against the state church and the crusades, there was a significant battle and the martyrdom of Jon Hus that broke the spirit of the people. When communism took over they lost whatever heart was there and now you can just see a sort of hopelessness. The country is primarily athiest with just a few christians and a large muslim movement encrouching.

Later that evening we went back to Dubi and had a chance to pray with "Rob", his wife and another lady who is a believer (she was the one crying in the sunday service when she heard our testimony and our heart for Dubi). This was a surreal scene, I felt like I was back in socialism. They lived as a family of seven in a two bedroom apartment that had no closets. Its hard to describe the beaten down look on his face. I had shared that the Lord put it on my heart to come to his town three months ago and he just couldnt believe it, that the Lord heard his prayers for saving this church and having people worship here. The church met in the ground level of this building and there are four apartments above where the christians live. In two weeks they will know if the Litvinov church will buy the building or if they will have to move out and the light of Jesus will go out in this place.

I had also told him that the Lord had given me Isiah 43 to 44 five to pray for Dubi. He couldnt believe this either since his wife had gotten the same verse two weeks ago and he was prompted to play this in music at their last worship service but he was discouraged and passed it by. The verse speaks of not being afraid that the Lord will be with us because he is doing a new thing, streams in the desert. Just like the river that runs through Dubi. This was so encouraging for him and the others. God truly is at work here and has left a remnant. His timing is truly perfect.

This morning (Tuesday) I got up quite early and prayed with the pastor, his wife, an elder and our interpreter Carla. They get together and do this every morning and have been doing so for quite some time. As we departed they told the girls that they were welcome to stay anytime and the people of the church were touched deeply by their testimony for Dubi. We then came back to Dubi and took a few more pictures and did a little more scouting. We did find one other very important revelation. There is a spa in this town where people come for healing and recouperation from surgeries. The building is very unimpressive, it just looks like a big yellow horseshoe shaped hospital. There didnt seem to be an easy way to get in so we walked into the center plaza and much to our surprise found an almost entirely Muslim population. Wow, could this town handle one more false religion... Bhuddist, Athiest, Gypsy Witchcraft, prostitution, the mob and Muslims... Statistically the goal of Islam is to take over Europe and it is well on its way. They are sending more missionaries out than we are and the Czech is ripe for the picking since it is atheistic and they are easier to convert.

We then picked up "Rob" our christian friend and he took us to the teplice orphanage since he worked there for many years. This was a good contact but we found out that it was more like a foster home for kids in high risk situations. The other orphanage that the prostitutes use was supposed to be downtown and the children are adopted from there. This place actually looked pretty nice, clean and cheery from where we could see. The woman in charge was very suspicious of us and we didnt get too far. A good piece of news is that "Rob's" wife has applied for a job where the little ones are and an evangelical pastor's wife from Teplice already works there. This will be a great contact for later on.

We now felt that this part of our mission was done and that the Lord was telling us to go back home to Herrnhut. There will be another team following us from our state in two weeks. Please pray for safety and favor for them. This truly isn't some extreme spiritual missions experience. It is pretty serious both in the physical realm as well as totally in the spiritual realm.

Continue to pray for the protection of those who gave us favor and our team. We want to see God reclaim this land through prayer, worship and creativity.