May 12-13, Elim Bible Institute & College, Lima, NY
Thursday: Today Marci and I are flying to Rochester NY in preparation for a weekend of ministry on the Elim campus in Lima, NY. After graduating from Elim Bible Institute 36 years ago, I’m returning to speak at this year’s graduation ceremonies.
Here’s an overview of the weekend as best I can see it:
- Arrive today around 5 pm in Rochester, go to dinner with Mike & Terri Cavanaugh (President)
- Settle into our lodging, we’re staying in a guest apartment on the campus
- Friday 7:00 pm I speak at the Baccalaureate Service
- Saturday 2:00 p.m. I speak at the Commencement Ceremony
- Sunday 9:00 & 11:00 a.m. I speak at the two regular weekend services of Elim Gospel Church, the campus church.
- Sunday 5:00 pm depart from Rochester for home
Here’s the messages on my heart for this weekend:
- Friday I’m going to tell personal stories from my own journey, from Elim till now
- Saturday I’m going to speak of Jesus’ most common teaching
- Sunday’s message is “Naomi’s Redemption” (I’ve been asked to bring a Mothers Day message)
Friday 11:00 pm: Marci and I are having a grand time with our Elim family. Reconnecting with old friends, making new friends. Tonight’s Baccalaureate service was graced of the Lord. At the close of the message, a bunch of the students came forward to express their wholeheartedness for the Lord. We ended up having around 15-20 minutes of response time around the altar, which was very sweet, and not typical for a college Baccalaureate. I told stories, personal stories. Ended with the baseball film. Good responses to the message.
Saturday 4:30 pm: We had an excellent Commencement Service just now. Great spirit in the midst, much hope and expectation for the future, much looking to the Lord for help and guidance, a very sweet spirit of worship. The Lord graced me to speak on Jesus’ most common teaching. It was a great honor for me to be the speaker for the class of 2017. The Lord is good!
May 4-7, Tomsk, Siberia:
Wednesday morning: Our flight to Tomsk is delayed. And it’s snowing right now here in Nizhnevartovsk, on May 3. Welcome to Siberia, Bob. Looking at the weather forecast, Tomsk will be cold and rainy this week.
Wednesday 5:30 pm: Our plane is sick. They are bringing another plane to Nizhnevartovsk to fly us to Tomsk, and they say we will be departing around 2:30 a.m. Which means we have another 9 hours before departure. Which means, yes, the BANYA! So we’re preparing for a banya time together.
Thursday 2:00 a.m.: We’re back at the airport again. Just about the longest check-in process I’ve ever experienced. And we’re finally through Security and ready to board another plane which, miraculously, appears to be out on the runway. So we did supper, then banya, then got an hour of shut-eye in a hotel, and now we’re back at the airport. Siberian adventures. I least I got the chance to beat Sergey with the bunch of branches in the banya.
Thursday 10:30 a.m.: I’m now in the breakfast area of my hotel, have just finished, and am enjoying that they have the Stanley Cup playoffs on the TV. Our drive through the main drag in Tomsk was lined with ornate buildings, a nice Main Street. Population of 600,000, 100,000 of those apparently students in the local universities. Flat as a pancake. Lots of white birch everywhere. They also have piles of snow still sitting around. After arriving and getting settled, I was able to sleep for 1.5 hours before I had to get up before breakfast closed down. So today is just a series of little naps rather than an overnight sleep. My room is a very spacious, nicely furnished suite. I’m spacey, but need to find direction in the Holy Spirit for the meetings, it’s been fuzzy for me.
My sessions in Tomsk:
Thursday 5:00 pm (we are 12 hours difference from Kansas City)
Friday noon
Saturday evening
Sunday 11:20 a.m.
Thursday 10:00 pm: I think this afternoon’s session went very well. After much ambivalence, I ended up speaking on the life of Lot, and sensed during the message that we were going in a good direction. The group responded with enthusiasm. But this group is so enthusiastic, I think if I had just stood there they would have been enthusiastic. I asked how many had come from over 100 kilometers away, almost every hand in the room went up. Stunning, these folks have come from all over. One woman greeted me afterwards who has come 2000 kilometers by train. They’ve exerted strong effort to be here, and now that they’re here they’re ready to roll.
The facilities of our host ministry are quite impressive, especially for this part of the world. And they continue to build on their complex grounds. This camp is being held in a room that holds around 200 people, and I’m guessing close to 180 people were in the room. And four years ago, they purchased a large facility in the city that will be our venue for the Sat/Sun conference. I’m told it’s a vast sanctuary. So after being moved by our tour of their facilities at this one location, on the weekend I’ll see their main meeting place. I’m told that 1,000 people gather typically on a Sunday. While there are other small churches in this city, this is apparently the only large evangelical church in Tomsk.
My translator told me that in this region they are able to grow potatoes, cabbage, carrots, onions, squash, berries. Nizhnevartovsk is further enough north that I think their crops would be more limited.
Friday 3:30 pm: Today I spoke at noon on the groaning prayers of the Holy Spirit. (Rom 8:26-27) The room was very alert and engaged. At the end we had time for questions, and they asked some excellent questions. Then we had a time of practice—activating the groans of the Holy Spirit in prayer. I’ve never heard anyone speak on this topic, so my hunch is that most everyone in the room hasn’t either. They seemed interested and eager for a new way to pray in the Holy Spirit.
Next session: I’m speaking Saturday 3:00-4:00 pm in the afternoon session of the conference. My participation on Sunday has not been finalized yet. Because of major hassles with Aeroflot Airlines, I have been forced (at no small expense) to change my outgoing flights. Their service starts Sunday at 11:00 a.m., and I have to hit the road around noon. So if I am to preach on Sunday, they’ll need to mix up their service order on my account and get me on the platform earlier than usual. I may end up not speaking at all on Sunday, we’ll see.
Saturday 6:00 pm: Today I spoke on “a word-centered secret place,” and the grace of the Lord seemed to be upon us. Working with the translator, I took 70 minutes—which means it was a 35-minute message. I had to cut out chunks of the message to make it fit in the time we had. It’s virtually impossible in a context like this for me to know how well the message was translated, or how effectively they caught what was being expressed. I must release all that to the Lord. Despite several limitations, the call to the secret place went forth. I give thanks to God.
Today’s meeting was larger, in their main sanctuary. I would guess close to 600 folks were gathered. This event is catalytic for this region, helping to spark and empower the prayer movement in this part of the world. I believe many more events like this will happen in Russia under Sergey’s leadership, but for now I think it's perhaps the fourth such conference in Russia that is specifically calling the nation to prayer.
Tomorrow (Sunday) I will start the long trip home (it’s not easy to get home from here). If you’re interested, here’s my travel tale. When I checked in with Aeroflot in Barcelona Spain, to fly to Moscow and then Nizhnevartovsk on Tuesday, they would not check my bag to Nizhnevartovsk. I had bought two separate one-way tickets (Barcelona-Moscow, and then Moscow-Nizhnevartovsk), and they would not check my bag to the second destination. Their policy is that on a single one-way ticket they will check bags only to the first destination. No matter that the next flight is the same airline and same day. No. I must exit Security, go to baggage claim, retrieve my bag, go back to the airline counter, recheck my bag and get a new ticket for the next leg of the journey. This is their company policy, and nobody will make an exception for any reason. So it was in Barcelona that I realized my return itinerary is bad. I had assumed Aeroflot would check my bag all the way to Kansas City. I was wrong, real wrong. They will check it only to Moscow. And then the next flight, they will check it only to Amsterdam. And then in Amsterdam I must check in at the counter to Delta. It would be impossible to do all that and make my connections. Aeroflot is the only airline in the SkyTeam Alliance that has this insane policy. So bottom line, I have had to change a ticket twice, buy an entirely new Moscow-Amsterdam ticket, and purchase an overnight hotel in Moscow. All because Aeroflot refused to hit a couple computer buttons and check my back through for me to my final destination. That unique policy is costing me nearly $1000. Sometimes education is expensive.
May 2, New Life Church, Nizhnevartovsk, Siberia:
Monday noon: I have just boarded my Barcelona flight for Moscow. Already the adventure has begun, ha. Getting to this point has been relatively smooth, with the only angst being that it took forever for my checked bag to arrive at the Barcelona carousel. But now I’m checked in with Aeroflot and on board, headed for Moscow.
But here’s the thing. I have two one-way flights with Aeroflot, one to Moscow, and the other from Moscow to Nizhnevartovsk. And because I bought two one-way flights instead of a single ticket, they refused to check my back to Nizhnevartovsk. Instead, I will have to exit Security, collect my bag in Moscow, go to the Domestic check-in at the airport, and check in all over again for the flight to Nizhnevartovsk. It’s not a big deal for me, it’s just a time-consuming hassle. And for them to check it all the way through to Nizhnevartovsk is the push of a computer button. But no. Aeroflot seems intent on upholding its international reputation, ha. Thankfully, I have a long layover in Moscow so will be under no time pressure. I’m telling you, getting from Santander Spain to Nizhnevartovsk Russia is no small feat.
Tuesday 3:00 pm: Greetings from Nizhnevartovsk, I have arrived safely. Managed to sleep for around 4 hours after arrival, then off to lunch with the pastor. Now I’ll grab another nap before tonight’s meeting. It’s a bit odd to arrive in a city at 4 a.m. and it be daylight. The mornings are interesting, you have daylight for several hours before the sun actually comes up. There are still piles of snow on the ground. There’s a river in this city that freezes over solid in the winter. When it begins to melt this time of year, apparently it makes loud cracking noises in the melting process. I’d like to hear that, I’ve never heard such a thing, apparently it’s very loud.
Wednesday 8:45 a.m.: We had a marvelous meeting last night. The house was full, great spirit in worship (worship was led by Philip Renner, son of Rick Renner; Philip has recently moved to Tulsa and serves at a church there called Millennial Church), and the Lord graced the message with a strong anointing. On the secret place. What a delight to reconnect with this pastor and church after 17 years!
April 28-30, Santander, Spain
Saturday: It’s 1:00 pm, and I’m listening to Penn Clark teach. I did the first session, and he’s doing the second. Last night I got bumped off my message during the worship service, and felt to speak on waiting on God. So the message was spontaneous I closed with the baseball story. It seemed to ministry in a strong way to the saints, and afterwards there was a protracted time of personal ministry to many. Very sweet. Then this morning, I spoke on the secret place. The room is packed, attendance is strong. And the Spirit is strong among us.
I have now finished my teaching times in Spain, and have Sunday off—the pastor will speak. Then Monday morning early I will be flying to Siberia. The trip will actually take almost 24 hours. It’s a crazy itinerary: Santander to Madrid to Barcelona to Moscow to Nizhnevartovsk. I’ll have to check in twice because I’m using 2 entirely different airlines (the second time in Barcelona as I transfer to Aeroflot). After a long layover in Moscow I’ll arrive into Nishnevartovsk around 4 a.m. I was at New Life in Nishnevartovsk in 2000, I’m looking forward to returning after 17 years.
This trip came at the invitation of Sergey Shidlovskiy, who has invited me in the past to Almaty, Novosibirsk, and Vladivostok. Sergey’s events have a primary emphasis on prayer, especially calling the body of Christ to come together for corporate prayer. Here’s the schedule as I understanding it:
-Tuesday evening: I speak (it’s the tail end of the conference in Nishnevartovsk)
-Wednesday: I fly with the team to Tomsk, Siberia
-Thursday to Sunday: I minister with the team at the prayer conference in Tomsk
-Monday: return home
April 24-26, Lugo, Spain
Monday 3:00 pm: Hello from the highway, we are driving Madrid to Lugo, a 5-hour trip. Six of us are in this van: John and Jeff, missionaries based in Santander and our hosts; Penn and me are seated behind them; and in the back are Chris & Joan Wood. We enjoyed lunch at Betel with Elliott, and now have a nice ride. We’re having a pleasant time surveying the countryside. We just passed a massive cross on a hill which marks Franco’s burial plot. My hosts are dropping all kinds of interesting trivia on Spain.
Monday 9:00 pm: A happy arrival into this charming city of Lugo. There’s an amazing stone wall around the old city, I’ve seen photos of it, hope to see it in person. We’re leaving shortly for a dinner together.
Tuesday 9 pm: Today I passed on the tourist activities so I could stay back and pray. It was the right decision. I was able to prepare adequately for this afternoon’s sessions. We were able to walk from our hotel to the church. The host church has 250 people in it, it’s one of the largest churches of this entire province. A number of leaders have come to the conference from surrounding towns. Those who have come are very eager to receive, many of them are writing notes the entire time. So it’s great to minister to such an eager group. Our first session launched around 4:30 pm, and after worship I taught two sessions. The first session was bringing out principles and lessons from the life of Lot. In the second sessions, I spoke on the groaning ministry of the Holy Spirit, Rom 8:26-27. The Lord helped us, it was an excellent time. With a group of around 50. Now Penn Clark is teaching on giving, just marvelous. The group has swelled to around 120 as some folks from the local church have been able to join us. This is a strong turnout for an event in Spain.
I’ve been surprised by the price of fruit here. It’s like around half the price of fruit in USA. I want to buy all this fruit cuz it’s so cheap!
Thursday morning: Excellent meeting last night, the last night of our conference here in Lugo. I spoke on the secret place, and at the conclusion almost the entire room came forward to receiving anointing with oil, to be anointed with greater grace for the secret place. They seemed to receive the message very openly.
It’s a chilly but bright morning in Lugo, and this morning we’re heading for Santander, Spain (pronounced sun-tun-DARE). We’re hitting the road at 9:15, which is an early start for a Spanish day. First, before we leave town, we are swinging by a facility to witness the food distribution ministry of this church, they have quite an aggressive outreach of mercy to their region, even though they’re a small church by USA standards. Then we will launch into the 6-hour drive to Santander. Our hosts are speaking of taking some back roads so that we can enjoy the sights of the region better. Nicer scenery, longer trip.
John Mark Hill, my host, started a church in Santander 5 years ago, and now they run around 90 people. That’s a strong launch for this region. We’re doing a weekend conference at his church. I’m scheduled to speak Friday night and Saturday morning, the first two sessions of the weekend. After that, the sessions are divided between Chris & Joan Wood and Penn Clark. I’ll have Sunday off, smile.
April 21-23, Betel Church, Madrid, Spain
Thursday: Greetings in our Lord Jesus! Today I am launching on the longest trip I’ve ever taken—a total of nearly 3 weeks. Here’s how it happened. I planned a trip to Spain, which was designed for 12 days including travel. That’s about my max. Then, an invitation to Siberia came along. The only feasible way to make it happen was to go directly from Spain to Russia. After prayer, I decided to say yes to Russia. So a week in Russia means the whole trip will involve 18-19 days. This is the first time in memory that I have strategized the laundry I will need to do half-way through in Spain in order to refresh my clothes for the second leg of the journey.
This is my second visit to Spain, and my host is the same American missionary who hosted me on my previous visit. His name is John Mark Hill and he’s based in Santander. He is good friends with my friend, Penn Clark, and after he had brought Penn to Spain for a few events, Penn suggested that I join them for a conference. That’s how the last event came together. And now that we know one another, John Mark has invited my return.
When I first arrive in Madrid, however, I will begin with another ministry. Elliott Tepper leads a ministry in Madrid called Betel, a ministry that primarily targets drug addicts. Elliott is a grad from Elim Bible Institute in NY, as am I. When he went to Spain as a missionary, his initial plan for ministry went belly up. In desperation to know what to do next, somehow he began to minister to addicts. And that had the spark of God upon it. Today, Betel is one of the strongest Protestant ministries in Spain, and has bases in 20-some nations I believe. While Elliott is still pastor of the Madrid base, he spends much of his time traveling the world to strengthen the various Bethels all over the world. It’s a ministry that bears some resemblance to Teen Challenge, but also with some differences. The main difference being, they provide their program graduates with jobs, and thus establish communities comprised largely of ex-addicts who are walking in victory and finding success in the marketplace. This strategy has made their base in Madrid one of the strongest churches in all of Spain, with something like 600 adults in the community.
Last year I ministered at a conference in Monterrey, Mexico, where Elliott was also ministering. He happened to be in Mexico visiting the various Betel bases in that nation. It was our first time to really connect on a personal level, and he expressed an interest in hosting me in Spain. When the trip with John Mark Hill came together, I contacted Elliott and he seemed eager for me to make a stop at Betel. So I’m starting the time in Spain by ministering at Betel this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Friday night is for the Betel community, Saturday night is being presented as a night for the churches of the region to join us, and then Sunday morning is the regular weekend meeting.
Also joining us on this trip are Chris & Joan Wood, pastors of Zion Fellowship in Canandaigua NY (where we pastored before them). Chris and Joan live in close proximity to Penn Clark, and when the Spain trip came together, Penn asked if they might want to join us. And they did! It’s my impression that Chris & Joan will be with me at Betel this weekend. Then on Monday we will be collected by John Mark Hill and Penn Clark, and will go from there to two other cities in Spain during the next week—Lugo and Santander. Those events will be more conference-like, meaning there will be multiple sessions each day, which means that all of us will have turns at speaking.
Friday midnight: I felt drawn of the Lord to speak on envy, and the Lord helped us. At the close, around 25-30 folks came forward to indicate their response to the Lord. With great sincerity. I think it was a good launch to the weekend. I think we got the sound system conquered, so Elliott is able to translate for me effectively.
Betel keeps track of how many sign into their program, even if they stay for only a minute. Since inception, 250,000 have come through their doors in Spain. Elliott says most churches in Spain have someone who’s come through their doors.
According to Elliott, Spain “cures” its heroin addicts by giving them methadone—which is actually far more addictive than heroin. Heroin turns people into thugs who rob and steal exorbitant amounts every year to maintain their habit. With methadone, people are peaceful. And rendered incapable of functioning. But it’s cheaper to give them daily methadone and free housing, than to have them stealing to support a heroin addiction. In the 80s and 90s addicts flocked to Betel, searching for help. I understand the amount of traffic to Betel has slowed, now that the government is doping the people with methadone. But Betel’s international reach continues to enlarge.
Saturday 5:30 pm: We’re back from a tourist outing, something I rarely do on a ministry trip. Our host Elliott took me and the Wood’s to downtown Madrid "for lunch". I didn’t realize it, but in the process he had plans to show us around the old city. And he didn’t realize it, but it happened to be a “flag day” in Spain today, and the downtown was crawling with people. Elliott is an excellent tour guide, so we got to see and learn about some amazing sights. And had lunch in what is claimed to be the oldest restaurant in the world (http://www.botin.es/en). Opened in the 1700s, it has been in business ever since (I think perhaps it’s no longer operated by the original owners). And my, was their food delightfully flavored! Salad and roast chicken. A real treat. A hint to the wise: When in Spain, eat the olives. And the cheese.
Saturday 10:30 pm: Tonight I spoke on worship, and the group responded eagerly to the message. During the message itself they seemed rather impassive and hard to read, but at the close when I invited a response, the entire altar area filled with folks, and they were eager to give their hearts to the Lord. The worship team went for it, and we had a marvelous, prolonged time of ministry to God’s saints and to the Lord. Very sweet. Now we’re sitting down to our dinner.
Sunday 7:00 pm: This morning’s service started at 11:30, but by the time the service actually got launched, it was edging toward noon. Excellent spirit in worship. The Lord enabled me to preach on Heb 12, and again the altar filled with folks eager to respond to the word. The people are reserved in their facial responses while I’m preaching, but they have ways of showing an eager spirit after the message is finished. Although they speak the same language and although there’s a lot of traffic flow between the two places, the latinos of Mexico and S. America are quite a different people group from the Spaniards, in terms of temperament and social manner. Spaniards are more reserved. Something I was able to identify on this trip is that when it comes to Spain and Mexico, the baby now parents the mother. What I mean is, Spain is the natural parent of Mexico, but Mexico is now the spiritual parent to Spain. Spain imports much of the spiritual fervor of Mexico and the Americas in order to find fresh faith and fervency. Which is wonderful.
After the service, we were taken for a 30-minute car ride to one of the properties Betel owns (Betel is based on around 450 properties worldwide, owning around 50 of those, the home base being just one of those properties). This place is a palatial home that Betel was able to purchase for an excellent price when real estate prices bombed. It now houses around 12-15 men who are in Betel’s program as well as two families (the complex has 2 separate 3-bedroom apartments) who bring spiritual oversight I think. When you consider only the real estate that Betel holds, you realize the amazing reach of this ministry. It has been such a delight and honor to be with them and partner with them in ministry this weekend.
Next up: John Hill and Penn Clark arrive here around 1:00 pm on Monday (after a 3-hour drive to get here), and after collecting us will take us an additional 5-6 hours of driving, until we arrive in Lugo, Spain. Meetings will start on Tuesday, and I think will run Tues to Thurs. I do not know the schedule of meetings at all, nor do I know if we’re all speaking at one location or if we’ll be divied up to go to different churches simultaneously (I think the latter is quite possible). So the rest of our week here in Spain will be a bit of an adventure as we discover what will happen. The plans may be rather fluid and spontaneous, I don’t know. John and Penn are tremendous brothers, and already I’m looking forward to our times together.
April 9, Destiny Christian Church, Niagara Falls, NY
Friday: Today I’m flying to Buffalo, and then zipping up to Niagara Falls, NY. This will be my second time at Destiny Christian Church with Lou & Louisa Perez, the first time being 10 years ago. I’ve been with Lou & Louisa at some other events in NY, but now finally get the chance to be with them again on their own soil. The city of Niagara Falls has been bleeding for a number of years, with their city population taking a real hit and also the general vibrancy of the area. While Niagara Falls, Ontario has kept its energy, the city on the NY side has been slogging through mud. May the Lord visit this region with fresh power and grace in the Holy Spirit!
I’m scheduled to speak Saturday morning at a breakfast meeting, and then Sunday morning.
Saturday 5:00 pm: I made it to Buffalo last night! I finally arrived at 3 a.m., and got to my room in Niagara Falls at 4 a.m. But thanks to the Lord’s help, I made it. Up at 8:00.
We had a 9 a.m. breakfast meeting this morning. A group of around 30 leaders, a good turnout. And an excellent breakfast thanks to Panera Bread. I spoke on the life of Lot, my first to do so, and from the response it seemed the group really appreciated the message. Lot represents the believer who has lost their sense of sojourn. There are strong lessons to be learned from the tragedy of righteous Lot’s life.
My hostess is Sicilian, and tonight I’ll be served a spaghetti and meatballs feast. Along with three other family and friends. Will be great! By the way, Delta continues to have cancellations today as it recovers from this week’s chaos, and I’m over here hoping my Sunday flights will be in good order, smile.
Sunday 9:15 pm: Hi from home. Great flights today, got home on time, thank the Lord. This morning we had a great time in the Lord’s house. Good spirit in worship, good spirit in the receiving of the word. Everyone seemed to have profited from gathering together in the Lord’s name on His day. So once again I have returned home with a grateful heart for being able to have a small role in the furtherance of the kingdom of our Christ.