UNITED STATES 2011 - A Prophetic Dream about Reaching the Nations

Vancouver, Washington

Sunday, November 27, 2011

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A Prophetic Dream about Reaching the Nations

It is rare that I remember my dreams when I wake up. Even when I do remember them, they aren't often very vivid. Last night I had what I believe to be a prophetic dream. It was so clear and vivid, and I woke up remembering the entire dream. At first I just dismissed it as my imagination. Yet as I sat down to spend time with God this morning, Holy Spirit spoke to me about it's significance.

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THE DREAM

I found myself in a foreign land. All around me was a desert for miles and miles, except for a river that flowed to my right. God began to speak to me about building a "modern day Noah's ark." But instead of a boat that would save people and animals from God's wrath in the form of a flood, I was to build an enormous metal vehicle with giant wheels that would collect and contain people from all nations on the earth, especially the remaining unreached people groups. This vehicle would then transport these people from every tribe, tongue and nation safely into the heaven. The schematics and blueprints were so clear. I knew exactly what this vehicle was to look like before I even began to build it. But in my dream, I found two other guys who I shared this heavenly mandate with in order to get some help in building the vehicle. When I approached them about it they simply took the blueprints from my hand, brushed me off and told me that they would build it without my help. I wan't upset at all about this, as I was just so thankful that this vehicle was going to be built, as God had commanded.

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Time passed and the two guys that had taken the blueprints from me came and let me know that they had finished building the vehicle. As they unveiled their finished work, I gazed at a vehicle that had very little resemblance of that which was laid out so clearly in the heavenly schematics. I shook my head in disbelief and told the two guys that it was entirely wrong. The vehicle in the blueprints was to be indestructible and over thirty feet tall, made of unpainted brushed-chrome with wheels nearly twenty feet tall. The vehicle they had made looked more like a Disneyland tram that was long and painted nicely to make it attractive. In my dream I believed that these guys weren't trying to purposefully do anything wrong in taking creative license and deviating from the original plans, forming a vehicle that they had genuinely thought would accomplish the task more effectively. But it was still not the vehicle that God had wanted to be built.

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Just then two large blue stones fell from the sky which the two guys caught and tried to carry with a great amount of difficulty. I then saw lips form from the sky itself and the voice of Papa God telling the two guys that they had really blown it and the vehicle not only was displeasing to Him, but incapable of finishing the task of bringing the nations and unreached people groups into His Kingdom. God then told me that I was to build the vehicle to the exact measurements that He had originally given me in the heavenly blueprints. Of course, I agreed and built the vehicle. It was an amazing thing to behold. People from every tribe, tongue and nation began to fill the vehicle as it made it's way to heaven. Then I woke up.

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SOME INTERPRETATION

As I sat in God's presence this morning, pondering this dream, it became clearer and clearer to me what it meant. Of course, most of it is pretty obvious to me, as there have been many prophecies over my life concerning reaching the nations. Much of the imagery in this dream simply confirms that which God has already spoken to me for many years now.

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As we have now traveled to nearly every continent to reach the remaining 6,000+ unreached people groups, we have tried to partner with other missionaries from various missions organizations. As a whole, most of these missionaries operate under a program which their missions organization has given them as a "blueprint" to reach the nations. It generally starts out in learning the language and building relationships with the indigenous people they are attempting to reach and spending years laying a foundation through the Old Testament leading up to Christ. Yet when we visit with these missionaries, they find that after as many as twenty years or more, they have only seen a few people come to Christ, and are frustrated at the meager fruit that the many years of their labors have produced. Of course, there are exceptions to this, and we have partnered with many different missions organizations and churches, but even so many of the churches that have been planted on the foreign mission field in the years past have turned into religious establishments that don't look much at all like the Kingdom of God that Jesus spoke of. I am not in any way trying to criticize missionaries or missions organizations that operate in such ways, nor do I think that any fruitfulness that has been produced in years passed is somehow invalid. More than anything, I have compassion on these missionaries, organizations and churches, and would love to see the tides turn for them. I believe that the vehicle that wasn't built to heavenly specifications by the two guys in my dream is symbolic of this older pattern or model of missions that may have been established with pure motivations, and may have even worked a bit for a season. It is a model that creates boxes which become limitations to the Spirit of God truly moving among the nations. It is a religion that becomes stagnant like all still water that hasn't been stirred. It is an unholistic approach to reaching a world that has needs on so many levels.

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There is an end-times harvest of souls waiting to be reaped in every nation. The vehicle described in the heavenly blueprints in my dream is one that is built with the love of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. We have seen thousands of people come to Christ in many nations over a short period of time because we have asked God, "What does love look like in this culture?" and, "What are heaven's strategies in reaching this specific people group?" Love looks like feeding the hungry. Love looks like digging a well and giving a village clean water. Love looks like rescuing girls from sex-trafficking and placing them in a loving environment where they can be healed and given back their innocence and dignity. Love looks like adopting children that have no parents and starting a children's center. Love looks like healing the sick. Love looks like raising the dead. Love looks like preaching the gospel. Love looks like starting a Bible school to train indigenous people in Kingdom culture. Love looks like dreaming with a people group about sustainable projects that will ensure their village's existence into the future. Love looks like a lot of things. And it is heaven's strategies that we must have if we want to see every unreached people group and nation brought to Christ in our lifetime. I am tired of people dying and going to hell because they haven't had an opportunity to hear and respond to the holistic gospel of Christ that I have been talking about. With a new breed of missionaries of laid-down lovers of God, the vehicle of my dream that is huge and indestructible will be filled with people of every tribe, tongue and nation.

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On a personal note, God has really been speaking to me about all of this, especially on the Iris Latin America trip. It would be so easy for my family and I to spend our lives living among a people group, learning their language and culture, hearing from heaven and bringing them to Jesus. In fact, we have done this in various settings over the years. But what the Lord has really been speaking to me about is the fact that my family, or Jesse and Tanya on our own can only bring a handful of people groups into heaven in our lifetime. But if we invest into other world-changers and train them, we can see much more Kingdom impact than simply running on our own. This was evident to me in Central America over the past two months. I saw tremendous growth in each of the team members as Jesse, Tanya and I did our best to lead them in love, in power and in freedom. I believe that this dream has something to do with our involvement in training missionaries with Iris Ministries, both in Mozambique and in Micronesia. I know that we will be able to run to the ends of the earth with this great end times army and build the vehicle of my prophetic dream according to Papa God's specifications. I am still not sure what the two large blue stones meant in the dream, but I am so in love with our God who speaks to us in various ways.

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Christian Young

EL SALVADOR 2011 - Great Photos of our Iris Latin America Trip

EL SALVADOR 2011 - Ministry in an Area Devestated by Flooding

La Pita, El Salvador
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
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Ministry in an Area Devestated by Flooding

Yesterday our Iris Latin America team once again split up in order to cover more ground here in El Salvador. One group went to a government-run orphanage for boys ages 10 to 17. The group that I was in drove to the south-eastern part of El Salvador to minister in an area called La Pita that has been recently devestated by flooding and mud slides. We went house to house praying for the families and inviting them to a church service. Mostly we just wanted to encourage their hearts and love on them as most of their homes had been flooded so badly that each familiy took their children to the street above the flood line and lived under plastic tarps until the flooding subsided. Many of the people lost their livestock which is really their livelihood. We went to pick up one lady who couldn't walk in her own strength and bring her to the service. It was hot even with the fans running. The pastor started the service with prayer and singing. Maria gave a testimony. Roberta shared a word that God had given her. Then I taught from Isaiah 43 and Psalm 40 about the waters not being able to sweep us away and God taking us from the mud and setting our feet upon a rock. After the message nearly everyone present came forward to have their hearts encouraged and receive a touch from God. We also got to drink coconut water straight from the coconut that had been opened with a machete, which is always a treat. It has been really neat partnering with YWAM here in El Salvador. They have been lovely hosts and given us great opportunities to serve alongside of them.

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Christian Young

EL SALVADOR 2011 - Holy Ghost Parties at Four Church Services

La Libertad, El Salvador
Monday, November 14, 2011
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Holy Ghost Parties at Four Church Services

Our Iris Latin America team split into two groups yesterday and led four church services in total. The group I was with first drove to a suburb of San Salvador to lead a service in a gated community where the pastor uses a part of his house as the main sanctuary. It is a small church made up of mostly children. In fact their ministry is focused around these children, most of whom come from broken homes; many of their fathers are in prison, involved in gangs or alcoholics. The violence and gang situation is so bad in El Salvador that every home and building has tons of barbed-wire fencing on it. There are even posters everywhere that say, "Do not murder" in Spanish from Exodus 20. At this first church servcice we led worship, preached, performed the luchador drama, held a children's service and had a time of prayer where people came forward for healing. We also had the children come forward and prayed for the tough situations in their families. We heard that just this last week alone there were eight gang related murders in that neighborhood alone. The people were blessed and we ended by praying for the pastor and his wife.

 

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Then in the afternoon the group that I was in drove less than an hour from San Salvador to La Libertad on the coast. This was a much bigger church with vibrant worship led mostly by youth. Our group was introduced after the worship time. We started with the luchador drama, which everyone seems to enjoy is it is quite comical. We change it up a little depending on what country we are in and what the major strongholds are...so we've added the spirit of violence and the spirit of seduction to our act here in El Salvador. Breck and Serena then shared what God had placed upon their hearts. We then had people come forward for healing and had many words of knowledge. We ended our time at that church with a Holy Ghost party including a huge fire tunnel exiting the church building where everyone got blasted by Holy Spirit as our team prayed for them. We heard from the other group that they had Holy Ghost parties at the church services that they led as well.

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Christian Young

EL SALVADOR 2011 - Trouble at the Border

San Pedro Al Barado, El Salvador
Sunday, November 13, 2011
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Trouble at the Border

From time to time on this blog I try to include some practical information that would in the future help other fellow missionaries or travelers. I consider this blog post to be one of those times. Yesterday as we entered El Salvador from Guatemala at San Pedro Al Barado we had a little glitch with one of our team member's passports. We had already heard that this would be one of the worst and most dangerous borders that we would cross. We also had prophecies that new angels would be meeting us and joining our team at every border that we crossed so at the end of one year and many borders, the angelic army would be huge. So I wasn't really worried about anything. It all seemed safe enough.

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El Salvador along with Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua is considered to be a CA-4 country. Upon entering Guatemala from Belize, our entire team was given stamps where the border official wrote in 90 days for the allowable time to be in these four Central American countries. The problem is that when we first started getting our passports stamped in Guatemala they tried to collect a fee of 24 Quetzals (about $3 U.S.) each. It wasn't until a few people in that we realized we didn't need to pay anything and those team members asked for their money back. The rest of the team didn't pay anything. This must have made the official upset as he was quickly losing his extra income. We thought that everyone had been given the normal 90 day stay in the CA-4 countries. Unfortunately that same official wrote in 01 days on the stamp of this one individual and didn't scan his passport into their system as entering the country. This is what gave us such difficulty at the El Salvador border.

 

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When the El Salvador officials noticed the stamp on this team member's passport, we had heard that they detained him and took him into an office on the El Salvador side. We went looking for him and when I found him in some obscure office, he was being reprimeanded in Spanish for something. When I realized what was happening, I tried to reason with them. They would budge and tried to keep his passport. I told them that this error was not our fault, but the fault of the border official in Guatemala. They then told me that we either needed to go back to Guatemala City to figure it out or pay them a fee of $140 U.S. to fix it (they use American currency in El Salvador). I grabbed the team members passport from their hands, left the office on the El Salvador side and walked quickly with him to the Guatemala side to see if we couldn't get them to figure it out. The El Salvador official was very upset (because he was losing his extra income I'm sure) and ran after us for a bit.

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Once we got to immigration on the Guatemala side, we made our case. They were at least more pleasant. They couldn't fix the stamp or tamper with their computer system, but could only give us an extension and a receipt number for 140 Quetzals (under $20 U.S.) that would allow this team member to enter El Salvador, but would enable him to stay in the CA-4 region for another five days. Of course our team will be in this area for another few weeks. So now we have to go into San Salvador on Monday and pay for an extension that will allow this team member to continue on with us for the rest of our time in these Central American countries. Why? Corruption. The love of money. This is why we are here. To carry God's character into countries that lack integrity. I'm not finger pointing at any one country in particular here as our family has experienced this sort of corruption on many continents. So my suggestion would be that whenever you cross a border into another country, inspect the stamp you are given in your passport carefully to save yourself the drama later. It would've been easy to correct this at the border in Belize if we would've caught it then.

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Christian Young

GUATEMALA 2011 - Headlice and Construction Projects

Chimaltenango, Guatemala
Friday, November 11, 2011
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Headlice and Construction Projects

Challenge after challenge comes our way here in Latin America. The most recent challenge has been a huge epidemic of headlice that nearly everyone on our team has been dealing with. We are staying at a children's center for special needs boys and girls and our team has been combing through eachother's hair, checking for lice, shampooing, and removing lice and eggs.

 

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As well as loving on all of the children here, we have also been trying to make the best of our time by engaging in construction projects needed around the place. We were able to paint a wall for them as well as build a set of shelves. Tomorrow we leave for El Salvador minus our Dodge Durango that again is in the shop for repairs to it's transmission.

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Christian Young

GUATEMALA 2011 - Random Pics from Guatemala

GUATEMALA 2011 - Jesse's Tale: Living on the Edge...Literally

Chilmaltenango, Guatemala

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

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Jesse's Tale: Living on the Edge...Literally

Here is Jesse's account of our adventure through Guatemala over the past few days:

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The only transmission mechanic specialist in the whole northern area of Guatemala was able to go find the parts needed to rebuild our transmission. After waiting a week for the repairs we were finally ready to move on to our next destination in Guatemala, an orphanage in a city a day’s drive south of us. After fifty miles our rebuilt transmission went out and only first gear continued working. We called the mechanic who refused to come down and help sort out why his work didn’t work. So with no other options we continued for hundreds of miles in first gear with our caravan of five vehicles and campers. We camped the first night on the way and continued our journey all the following day as well.

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That evening as we entered a small remote town on the way people gave us directions and we figured that by the map we would make it soon and not have to drive too much at night which we have been frequently warned against here in Guatemala. We soon found ourselves on a small bumpy dirt road climbing mountains. We hoped the roads would turn better but it only got continuously worse for hours into the night. Roads worse than any Africa jungle track we’ve experienced being visited by our two RV’s, SUVs’ pulling tent trailers, and a low riding Buick station wagon.

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On the way up this first narrow steep rocky mountain passage one of the trailer tires popped and was wrecked twisted underneath and off the rim. There was no other spare, this was the spare, and the other one had already popped earlier that day. There was no way to turn around, there were not many options other than to pull it on its rim or leave it behind. Ben and I ran up to the vehicles waiting about ¾ miles ahead to get help and tools. Many crazed dogs jumped out from the bushes and chased us the whole way. We threw rocks, even a tire iron but it seemed there were not enough rocks. As we ran up this mountain with dogs barking and growling at our heals every time I turned my head back all we saw was dozens of glowing eyes right behind us from the glare of my head lamp. When we unhitched the other camper to have the Durango taxi us back because the dogs, Taylor and Victor had miraculously fixed the tire. They had found a rock to beat the rim back into shape and some string to tighten the broken tire to the rim and with a can of fix a flat and our small compressor had the trailer ready to go again. I wanted to turn back seeing how it was constantly getting worse and then one young man passing by said it was only forty minutes further to the next small town. Many hours later we realized he was wrong.

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We winded back and forth up and down steep mountain slopes. The road was often muddy and slippery on the edge of high steep cliffs. The drivers had to stay very alert especially because of many areas where the road had fallen off as a landslide over the cliff. Sometimes the danger was so high because of drop offs on both sides of the road that I even had all the passengers exit the motor home and walk and I drove solo because of high chance of vehicle plummeting over the edge. We noticed that the rear vehicles had stopped again and I got out walking back to them. Just then Gillian comes running up the mountain towards us shouting, “Come quick! The vehicle is falling off a cliff.” We ran down to find that the Suburban pulling a tent trailer was on the edge of a cliff stuck with the soft edge breaking away underneath. With all the manpower we could muster we tried to push the vehicle forward and back onto the road but the tires just spun sending the vehicle nearer to no return. We unhooked the trailer and were able to get the vehicle along back on the road and then with everyone working together we lifted the trailer and pushed it up a steep hill to where we could find traction and reconnect it. We were successful; How? I honestly don’t know.It was in the middle of the night and we didn’t think we could endure anymore but locals warned us not to stay the night in those mountains because it was not safe. Everything was flying everywhere in the motor homes and people got injured just by falling objects and falling down. The bottoms of the vehicles were hitting the bumps so often with no way to avoid it, not being able to stop in the muddy holes. We completely wrecked our sewage tank unrepairably meaning no working toilet in our RV unless we find new sewage tanks for sale somewhere.

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We finally arrived in the middle of the night surprised that we had made it and found a rundown hotel full of roaches and mildew. As soon as we had made it down the last steep mountain and entered into this old town the brakes in our motor home and the station wagon over heated and stopped working. If that had happened a few minutes earlier we wouldn’t be here writing the story. But God allowed it to happen once we arrived in this town to show us that He had been with us the whole time protecting us. We slept okay regardless of the gunfire and horns blowing, and other strange noises. In the midst of all the dangerous and stressful circumstances, most all of our team had great attitudes and joy.We are overjoyed to be missionaries and these last couple days reminded us of many similar experiences around the world that we have had while carrying this Gospel to the darkest places. It is all worth it from eternity’s perspective! We are now at the orphanage making it by mid-afternoon on our third day of travel. We have a transmission mechanic coming tomorrow to look at the Durango. Pray he is better than the last one. We hope to be heading over the border to El Salvador within the next couple days. Please keep all of our team in your prayers.

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Jesse Gellatly

GUATEMALA 2011 - Ministry in San Jose and Yaxya

Yaxja, Guatemala
Friday, November 4, 2011
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Ministry in San Jose and Yaxja

We took our team back to the village of San Jose yesterday to minister where we had made contact with the Maya Itza people the previous day on our scouting trip. There was a huge political thing going in in the center of town when we arrived. We walked up the very steep street to Rejenaldo's house. Right as we arrived a torrential downpour of rain came. As the rain tapered off we all went to visit other homes in San Jose. The small team that I was on prayed for two ladies in one house; one who had knee and back pain, the other had a lot of pain in her head...both were healed. We shared the gospel with them as well. Then the lady who was healed of the pain in her head led us to her home where we prayed for her two daughters and grandson. God's healing power was present and I could literally feel waves of magnetic heat leaving my hand as they received healing. We also explained the need for a personal relationship with Jesus Christ with them.

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Today a small group of us traveled with a Guatemalan evangelist named Freddy to the village of Yaxja. On the way we spotted a man laying down on the side of the road who ended up being demon-possessed as we stopped to see how we could help him. Then we drove on to Yaxja where we stopped and led three young men to Christ. Then we found a house where a man was suffering from an extreme tooth ache. We prayed for him and his family. I gave his three daughters some toys that our children had picked out of their collection for me to bring to Latin America and give away to poor children. They were so grateful and the man's wife prayed to receive Jesus.

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Christian Young

GUATEMALA 2011 - In Search of Christ's Maya Itza Bride

San Jose, Guatemala
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
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In Search of Christ's Maya Itza Bride

The other day each member of our Iris Latin America team signed up for different ministries that were on their hearts as we are encouraging them to minister in the areas that they are passionate about. People signed up to minister in the prisons, in the hospitals, to the children, to the women and in the churches. These are all awesome areas of ministry and I know that I will join the team at various times in these areas of ministry. But I signed up to minister in the villages, especially among the unreached people groups. We have a week to be able to explore our passions in missions while waiting here in Guatemala for our vehicle to be repaired.

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I began to pull out my ethno-linguistic maps to see what people groups were in this area. I saw a large area populated by the Kekchi as well as the Maya Mopan people, both of whom we have ministered to in Belize. But then I spotted a people group called the Maya Itza in the area north of Lake Peten, which is the lake we are staying near. I began to research Joshua Project online to see if the Itza people group was listed. The Itza people weren't listed under Guatemala, but when I searched for them further on Joshua project, they were listed as an extinct language. From there I went to Google and found out more about the Maya Itza. I began to see some conflicting information about how many people speaking the Itza language were living...numbering from a handful to over 1,900. Historically the Itza capital was on Flores island in Santa Elena. These people occupied land here in Guatemala all the way to the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. They were conquered by the Spanish in the 1600's and are now located only here in the Lake Peten area. As I researched further, I found that the Maya Itza worshipped and sacrificed to the winged serpent, which I have seen all over the artwork and carvings of this area. It was evident that the Maya Itza were in dire need of the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I then looked on Google Earth to see what cities were north of Lake Peten. I saw that the cities of San Jose and San Andreas were in this area. Just to confirm that the Maya Itza lived in these two cities I asked the locals who worked at the hotel. They also confirmed that the Maya Itza live in those two cities.

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As my passion and desire is to carry God's love and glory to the remaining unreached and less-reached people groups, I decided to rent a motorcycle with Jesse and drive around Lake Peten to do a scouting trip so that others could join us in visiting these Itza towns later in the week. So this morning we got on the motorbike that we rented from some German hippies and set off toward San Jose and San Andreas. We took the road just north of us in El Remate which turned out to be an unpaved road all the way to San Jose. We noticed that all the people in this area looked very indigenous. Jesse spotted a big black snake slithering into the jungle as a huge bird almost flew into my face. We swirved around the rocks and through the mud and water on the road.

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After about an hour and a half we reached San Jose, where we asked many people where we could find someone who speaks the Maya Itza language. They told us to find a man named Rejenaldo who lived up a huge hill near the center of San Jose. Jesse got off the motorbike to hike up the steep hill as I drove up. We finally found Rejenaldo, who was a white haired older Mayan man. He was very polite and welcoming of Jesse and I. We began by simply asking questions about the Itza language and culture. He was a bit guarded about sharing information as other universities have come to him in order to gather information. Rejenaldo is only one of twenty Itza speakers in San Jose and is the chairman of a committee that is trying to keep the Maya Itza language and culture alive. He informed us that in 1950 everyone in San Jose spoke Itza but now the younger generations are taught only Spanish in school. It is difficult to spark interest among the Itza youth to retain their language and culture. After sharing that we were missionaries and not university students, Rejenaldo began to teach us some of the nearly extinct Maya Itza language. Here are some examples:

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Hello - Bishabel

How are you? - Bishia ni lech

I'm fine - Hach malo

Jesus loves you - No hoch tu ka a nil u ka tech

Thank you - Yos bo tik

Your welcome - Mish ba a li i

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Maya Itza is a beautiful language. We told Rejenaldo how precious the Maya Itza were to Jesus. In fact, we were able to share the gospel of Christ with Rejenaldo in Spanish. He was open to our message, but said that others had come with an agenda to try and convert him, his family and his village, to no avail. We made it clear that we were simply there to share the love of God. As we entered Rejenaldo's home there was a table against the wall with all of these bowls containing food and candles burning and a cross. We asked him if they were Catholic. He said they weren't Catholic but followed the religion of that area. As he explained the significance of these bowls and how they were offered to ancestors and used for healing purposes of sick people in the village, Jesse and I realized just how unreached and steeped in paganism and witchcraft the Maya Itza people truly are.

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Our scouting trip today was a success as we were able to locate the almost extinct Maya Itza people group and share the gospel and love of Jesus with one of the last remaining Itza speakers. We informed Rejenaldo that we would be bringing our team to San Jose later this week to minister and love on the Maya Itza people. We then prayed with Rejenaldo; that God would resurrect the Maya Itza language through him and that he would feel the presence, love, peace and joy of Holy Spirit. I hope that Rejenaldo will be home later this week when we return. There is such a desire in the heart of God for His Maya Itza bride to be brought to the wedding feast of the Lamb. We pray that the seeds planted today would bear much fruit and that we will have the opportunity to lead many Maya Itza to Christ. Thank you for partnering with us in prayer for this very thing.

Jesse and I finished our scouting trip by riding our motorbike around the other side of Lake Peten and praying around the island of Flores. It took us a total of around three hours total to ride around the entire lake, which is Guatemala's second largest lake.

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Christian Young