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First, an announcement. For those who want to listen to an interview I did on the The Drew Marshall Show on April 12, you can click here for the audio link. We mostly talked about So You Don’t Want to Go To Church Anymore.

And then I wanted to share this letter with you. For many folks the combination of a few of the following: The Shack, He Loves Me, So You Don’t Want to Go To Church Anymore, The God Journey and Transitions has been a bit of a ‘perfect storm’ to help them catch the reality of living in the love of the Father. I am so blessed by that. Because the reality isn’t really any of those things. We try to describe it in various ways in each of them, but it is in knowing him and how he works in us and in the world that helps us discover how to live in him, not just talk about.

A couple of weeks ago I received the following email from a sister in England that captures that perfectly. More than anything I don’t want people reading or listening to my stuff, but finding the freedom and joy of just living in the Father’s reality every day and watching him make a difference in them and through them every day, wherever they happen to be living, working or playing. That’s the gospel!

Thank you so much for Lifestream – and thanks for the Jake book and the God Journey as well. And The Shack of course.

My husband and I left our charismatic (originally a house but now an organisation) church after 18 years there, being in church leadership and both of us on staff in responsible positions in the past. You don’t need to know the reasons but it was a very painful process involving betrayal and control. I never wanted to go near a church again – but thought (now I see erroneously) we would be in a dangerous place if we had no “covering”. So we tried a few but for some reason God seemed not to give the green light. Instead we bought a small flat by the sea and spent our weekends and Sundays walking the cliffs and on the beach, listening to worship, reading books (Christian and otherwise) and enjoying each other’s company. We also invited friends down and once a month had a get together when we ate together and just rested in God’s presence for a couple of hours.

However, I still felt guilty that I hated the organisational church, loathed the thought of house groups, never wanted to darken the doors of a conference ever again, and enjoyed good teaching on the web but only as long as I closed my eyes and didn’t watch the church bit. After all the Church was the Bride of Christ wasn’t she – so really I shouldn’t hate it. Guilt… Guilt… Shame.

Then extraordinarily (well not, of course) two things happened. My husband went to Spring Harvest 2 weeks ago to man a stall for work (not to go to any meetings though, no way man!) and he discovered the book The Shack. He is not a great reader but he could not put it down and he wept his way through a large part of it.

While he was away I discovered So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore, read it on line in one sitting, found it totally liberating and then discovered the podcasts and the other stuff on your site. And of course saw the link with The Shack.

So when he came back I read it, also wept, and something has happened to me – I have been taught about God the Father and Daddy God until I know it inside out in my head, but the penny has never really dropped in my heart. Reading The Shack made the connection for me between the two but I didn’t realise it at the time until I emailed a friend and my jaw dropped when I realised I was talking about what Daddy wanted to do. I have NEVER felt comfortable referring to Father God as Daddy before although my husband found that heart relationship about 2 years ago. What a miracle. What freedom to know that all I have to do is let Daddy love me, and from that I will be able to love others. I DON’T HAVE TO PERFORM ANY MORE!

It is clear that God is shaking up organisational church all over the place. When praying the other morning he gave me a picture for the church I left (since then many others are exiting as well) but which I think is applicable worldwide. He showed me a glass beaker punched all over with holes and water was pouring out of the holes. But what was so amazing was that as the water landed on the table it did not remain in little droplets separately but it made a pool which was held together by the surface tension. If more water came near it and joined it then it became one with the first lot of water so you could not tell which was which. God is far more interested in the contents than the container and those contents do not need a structure to keep them together. (emphasis mine).

Gotta love that last line! It really says it all! God is more concerned with people coming to know him than he his preserving our religious institutions. But that is nearly impossible for those who manage institutions to understand. They are used to sacrificing individuals for the good of the whole, thinking that is God’s heart. If only they could see…

I get this question a lot, so I thought I’d post the exchange here, so i won’t have to rewrite it so many times:

First of all, thank you for the encouragement you have been to us in the last year. We left the institutional church a little over a year ago and honestly do not think we can ever go back. Your blog, book – So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore, Transitions and The Shack have been both freeing and refreshing to us.

Secondly, not asking you to critique or anything but how does your belief system differ from the organic church movement? We read Pagan Christianity and it really opened our eyes. We don’t want to start a house church because we think that can be just moving the institution to the home. If you are willing to give it, we would like your opinion on the whole apostolic house church movement.

To answer your question, In my view the organic church movement, is not very organic. How can it be when they give you all the models to follow? And I’m never thrilled with movements. They always seem to have too much of a touch of man’s plans and human efforts behind it. People create the illusion of a movement for many reasons. Some might be sincere, thinking they are providing a valuable resource for God’s people, though that is rarely the result. More often they end up only trying to validate people that they are part of ‘something special’, or to sell them their books and seminars. God just doesn’t work that way. He moves freely in the earth inviting people to him.

The apostolic house church movement is also too man-driven and program-centered for my tastes. Body life rises out of brothers and sisters who simply want to learn to share Father’s life together as friends and to have his heart in reaching out to others in the simplicity of living their lives. People doing that will find the life of the church springing up around them. It can’t be imposed by implementing any system or model, which only teaches people to play church instead of really living as it.

Thus, discipleship (learning to walk with Jesus) precedes any depth of real community together. So learn to follow him. Encourage others to do so. Follow what God puts on your heart to do together in joy and freedom and you’ll find yourselves being the church. Set up a weekly meeting with a mini-ritual and soon you’ll feel like its just a routine you’re going through. Because it is. But let God connect you with people who want to share a journey, and your life together can take on a myriad of expressions in different seasons as best serves his purposes in the community in which you live.

God wants to give us real frienships with others and teach you to share his life together. We’ll get to experience that simply if we don’t try to put something else together on our own first. Then we’ll just end up with another substitute, not the real deal.

He can do this in you. Ask him to show you and just follow what he puts on your heart each day as you learn to live in the reality of his love…

I couldn’t help but share a few loose ends hanging around my desk this morning:

My listening audience is expanding. I got this from the mother of a fourteen-month old:

Our son loves listening to you read the Jake book. He just sticks his thumb in his mouth and stares out the car window. Too cute. I wish you could see it. He knows a grandpa voice when he hears it!

Hilarious!

Drew Marshall, host of The Drew Marshall Show is a talk show host in Canada who is a real outside-the-box thinker. I game him a copy of The Shack a year ago and asked if he’d look at it. He finally got around to it and sent me the following endorsement this week:

“It took me a year to read this book simply because I had never heard of the author. Publishers send me 2-3 books every week wanting to have their authors as guests on my show. I really thought that this book was just another book. Trust me folks – IT’S NOT! Usually, because of my spiritual gift of pessimism, when bandwagons come along I usually just take a step back and let them go right on by. However, when it comes to The Shack, I’m not only on the stupid bandwagon, I keep asking the driver to stop and pick up all of my friends. Sad to admit but I can’t remember the last time a book, let alone a work of fiction, had this much of a healing impact on my life. As Brennan Manning says, “healing our image of God heals our image of ourselves.” Something is going on with The Shack and all I know is that it ain’t because of some multi-million dollar, well oiled publishing campaign.”

Paul, the author of The Shack will be on his show today. You can listen to it on-line or in the archives at their site. Also the Nashville newspaper did an article on Paul and The Shack this week.

And finally, some of you know that I spent two days this week in New York City with Brad as we were being courted by two of the most powerful publishing companies in the world. They would like to help us take The Shack to level of distribution that we could not begin to duplicate here, with a partnership agreement that allows us to control the content as well as share the entire process of how this book finds its way into our culture. Our logo will stay on the book and they also want to work with us to release some of Wayne’s titles at a wider level and to publish other books we feel have an important message to our culture. We were blessed that God would open such doors at the highest level of national dialog with no one wanting to change the message and content of people thinking outside the stale boxes of organized religion.

We sat in conference rooms with the top executives of these organizations as they shared with us how this book had touched their lives and how they wanted to help this find a broader audience than we had found. One executive told me in a personal conversation that if they had released this book a year ago by an unknown author with such a unique story, and would have sold 400,000 books in the first 10 months with all their sales and marketing forces behind it, they would have called it phenomenal. “What you people have done with THE SHACK, without any of that is well beyond phenomena.”

Of course we know that we’ve had an even more potent sales and marketing forces, A God who appears to have breathed on this book and the word of mouth of folks like you who kept passing this book along. Last week we showed up as #47 in USA Today’s Best-Selling book list. This week we jumped up to #33. We have almost 500,000 in print and still have not reached our first-year anniversary.

We have some huge decisions to face in the next few days that will affect not only the future of The Shack, but my books as well and how my time and schedule will be altered by new responsibilities. We need God to give us direction at every turn, take advantage of those doors that are his and to say no to those who are not. While the decision is incredibly important, it is not a choice between good and better. It is a choice between awesome and awesome. This is the opposite of voting in presidential elections where you have to choose the lessor of two evils. We couldn’t go wrong either way here. The level of respect and the open doors they have extended us for other things we want to do is shocking. We’re not blind as to what they want on their side of it, but we’re also amazed at how committed they were to the passion of this book and our other ideas to help people connect with the amazing love of the Father and think beyond the rigid lines of Christianity-as-religion in the 21st Century. Your prayers in all of this would be most appreciated.

A couple of nights ago a few of us were talking in a home outside Charlotte, NC about giving, and how we can live it out more relationally rather than paying an obligation many people call a tithe. Someone brought up something they had seen a couple of days before—a single mom confronted with a need for car repairs she couldn’t afford. He thought of helping, but had no idea what to do. We talked about possible options of helping people just like that as we cross them in our lives.

Just yesterday, I got the following email from him. It’s amazing what Father does, isn’t it?

At the beginning of this year I asked the Lord to show me what it means for Him to be my Daddy. I wanted to experience His love in the way that I knew He wanted for me. I didn’t know what that meant really. I just wanted more than I was experiencing. A month later I was sharing this desire to know God as my Daddy with two close friends. Immediately they looked at each other and said, in unison, “The Shack.” They gave me a copy that they, by pure coincidence, happened to have with them. I devoured it in two days.

Approximately two weeks later, I left the ministry in a fit of what I’ll call disgust. I immediately went to my friend who gave me So You Don’t Want To Go To Church Anymore. I cannot express to you how Father used that book to change my life.

I now believe that Father has answered my request to know Him as my Daddy. I could really relate to the great sadness that Mack experienced. I have experienced a similar thing myself for most of my life. Even though I know I have a long way to go, I have peace. I know that Father is at work in my life. My wife has seen the difference in me. I am excited about my growing love relationship with Father. Thank you for allowing Him to speak through you so clearly and with such love.

I wanted to share something else with you. Do you remember me talking about a lady at the car dealership who was upset because her repair was more than she could afford?

On Wednesday, I took my wife’s van to get the oil changed at the Chrysler dealership. I was in the waiting room when the service manager came in. He sat down next to a lady and began to talk to her. I didn’t hear what he said, but I saw tears welling up in her eyes. I heard her say, “Oh no! I don’t have that much money.” The two of them got up and went into the service area. I immediately said a prayer for her. A few minutes later, she walked past the waiting area with tears streaming down her face. I didn’t get to say a word to her.

She was on my mind the rest of the day and night. As I prayed for her, the Lord clearly told me to “meet her need.” Not knowing what that need was, I went to the dealership yesterday morning and asked. She needs a total rebuild of her transmission. I gave the service manager my name and phone number and asked him to have her call me.

An hour later, she called. We have since had 3 wonderful conversations about God, how much He loves her and how He wants to have an intimate, loving relationship with her. There is no way for me to be able to express what took place during those calls. I can share with you that she told me that she has no family to turn to except for an aunt who has yet to return her call. She has no way to meet this need. Wednesday night she cried until she had no more tears. At some point, she look down at her wrist where she saw the bracelet a friend had given her. This bracelet said, “Miracles Happen.” She tore the bracelet off and threw it on the floor thinking to herself, “I don’t think so.” All I can say is that a woman who thought God had abandoned her now knows that He really does love her.

Anyway, I wanted to share that with you because you had a part in it. As a result of the truth you share, I am experiencing Father’s love and that love is beginning to spill out onto those around me.

When I get home from a trip people always ask me how it went. I never know how to answer that question, because each trip is layered with so many experiences and trying to sum them all up in a word or two is nearly impossible. I think questions like, “What was your most interesting conversation?” “Who did you meet that surprised you?” “What did you all talk about in Pratt?” might lead to more fascinating conversations.

This last trip to Kansas is a good case in point. There were moments when I spoke in more formal settings—a congregation, a youth group and even a morning session in a homeless shelter. I spent many evenings in long conversations with small groups of people sorting out what it means to live deeply in Jesus in this day. And I had nearly countless one-on-one conversations with people at critical crossroads in their journey. Looking back, the days seem so rich with dozens of exchanges and recognitions of Father’s hand working in people’s lives.

What a change from the way I used to travel, where the focus was always on an event, usually where I was presenting a seminar or lecture to silent listeners! Most of the exchanges I had were surface questions that an attendee might ask a presenter. Too many times after the event the dialog with organizers rarely got back to the life of Jesus and instead got lost in sports, weather or politics. I don’t mind discussing those things too, but true spiritual hunger goes beyond the meetings to continue to share his life together. That’s what I like now. Each trip seems like an ever-running conversation with different ones spilling in and out of it as they have time and in doing so they connect with others in their area and hopefully connect with Father as well.

On this trip, I had lots of opportunity to covet. I met two people who had their own airplanes, one who had flown a small plane for 50 years off of a grass strip 75 yards from his house. The other an air traffic controller with the FAA, one of the things I’d always wanted to be. Though I did get my pilot’s license at 17, I rarely used it past 25 and now only fly when others take me up. The hobby was just too expensive for my lifestyle.

And there was lots of humor. Laughter makes us all more human, reduces our pretensions and opens the door for deeper conversations ahead. I think God must laugh a lot since he gave us such a rich appreciation for humor. I reconnected with old friends and made some new ones. In one home I stayed in the Miss America Bedroom, where she had stayed 11 years before and there was a plaque on the wall.

In the end now, it is all about the people for me. What did God do? Who did he touch or encourage to make another step in their journey? There are so many people today looking beyond the walls of traditional religious obligation who hunger to know the Living God and experience his freedom and transformation.

It’s good now to be home four days, before leaving again over the weekend. Then I’ll be back two before heading out for 12 to Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. There’s more people to meet, more lives to encourage, more grace to celebrate. I hope you’re celebrating his grace wherever you happen to be in the world today and with whomever God has places in your path…

That may just be the essence of community: I couldn’t let you go through this alone. The first time I heard those words it was a good friend who walked beside me through the most painful experience of my life. We had share some wonderful times together, but then he withdrew for a season from our relationship. I was so blessed we reconnected in the midst of my trial.

One day I asked him why he had withdrawn for a time. His answer? “I could see you were going to get hurt badly and I just couldn’t bear to watch it.”

I understood his comment. He had been through something similar and I knew how painful it was for him to walk with me through mine. I laughed, “But you’re hear now at the worst of it.”

“I know,” he smiled. “I couldn’t let you go through this alone.”

I don’t know a better definition for community. It isn’t always fun and games, but love will not let people go through their darkest days alone. As hard as it may be for us to be alongside, our passion for the person won’t let us be anywhere else.

I was reminded of that recently as I read Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom. It’s an old book I’ve wanted to read for a long time. It’s about a professor dying of ALS, and a former student who comes for the last chapter of his life. It’s lessons from the brink of death and many of them are breathtaking. Even though this man was not a passionate believer, he’d come to believe some things that are pretty consistent with the life of Jesus:

So many people walk around with meaningless life, they seem half a sleep, even when they are busy doing things, they think they are important, this is because they are chasing the wrong things, the way you get meaning in your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you and devote yourself to something that gives you purpose and meaning.

And this:

Love wins, love always wins.

I loved the book, enjoyed the lessons, but was most touched by this former student who would come and spend every Tuesday with his former professor in the last stages of his disease. He learned a lot, but also gave a lot—friendship on the brink of death.

At my brother’s funeral a number of years ago one of his best friends stood up at his funeral and said that he couldn’t bear to visit my brother as he suffered the final stages of multiple sclerosis. He wanted to remember him as he was, not in his weakened condition. When he was needed the most he couldn’t bear to go. How sad!

The meaning of compassion is right in the word itself. It means to “come to passion” and passion in the old English meant suffering. It means to run to suffering. To be there at the worst because someone we love needs us there. I love that. A good picture of that are the 9/11 rescue workers who were running into the World Trade Center when everyone else was trying to run out. Compassion means being there when it’s incredibly difficult because we just can’t imagine letting someone we love go through it by themselves.

No one enjoys walking people through dark valleys or through painful reactions, but love says, I’ll be there for you. I may not know what to do or what to say. But I just can’t let you go through this alone!

Well, Sara and I are off to the airport and an overnight flight to Washington, DC where we’ll attend the President’s Prayer Breakfast with the whole Shack team as well as hook up with other brothers and sisters in the area. It promises to be a lot of fun and all the more because Sara is going too!

But I’m going to leave you with a wonderful surprise. Some letters I get just blow me away. ‘Melanie’ sent me her story last week and I think you’ll be blessed to read of the depths of pain that bondage can drag us into and Father’s amazing ability to find us even in those depths. (I have changed some of the details to disguise her identity)

I am writing this email to tell you how much I enjoy all of Lifestream and listen to you and Brad on The God Journey podcast every week. I love the freedom that I am able to live in even when those around me do not understand what it is!

I look at my life today and realized how blessed I am and I give all the glory to Father. I have a beautiful daughter. I have an awesome career ahead of me! I am in the best shape physically that I have ever been. I have an awesome family – a mom and dad who have always been there for me – even when I didn’t want them to be. They were wise and loving enough to give me the freedom to learn the hard way but were there to help me heal when I discovered how hard the life I chose was. I have an older brother who is my bestest friend! This life of mine today is so different than the way it was headed just over 3 years ago. Let me start at the beginning.

I am a US Navy brat! My dad was Navy; Uncles were Navy, a Grandfather in Navy! Brother is in Navy! I saw through my eyes how perfect those people were. And with this all around me, I put expectations on myself that I could never achieve! Don’t ask me how I did that – I really don’t know! I was never satisfied or content with myself no matter what I did or how well I did it. I worked hard in school academically, socially and extra-curricularly. I was involved in gymnastics, dance, swimming and captain of the cheerleading drill team. I strove to achieve and I did – but it was never good enough! It was never good enough for me!

Unfortunately, in 11th grade, I started going out with a guy who lived two lives. He was also six years older than me. He was heavily involved in the drug trade in Southern California. I ended up getting pregnant. Out of the shame, I ran away thinking I would get kicked out anyway. Thinking I would be able to move in with my boyfriend, I ran to him and found out he didn’t want a pregnant teenager on his hands. I left there with a broken heart and more shame and disgust with myself. I stayed with some friends and was basically giving myself away to whoever would have me. At six and a half months pregnant, I was gang raped and beat and left for dead. In and out of consciousness, my daughter was delivered prematurely. She was three months old before I came to consciousness enough to realize I was a mommy.

My parents were there to help me. I didn’t feel I deserved their help, so I escaped with my daughter on my own again. I answered an advertisement for a talent agency that was looking for girls with dancing talent and an open mind. I went to the interview and was told I would be perfect for the performing they had in mind. The word perfect stuck in my brain! Something I was perfect for! I took the two-week crash course on being an exotic dancer. The first few performances were raw and hard. I only had to go topless and in a g-string, but it was so far removed from normal behavior for me, I was shocked at myself to how I loved the attention I received. Within three months, I had clubs asking for me by name. Within six months, I had become a feature dancer. In the area, this was simply unheard of. All this attention fueled my need to be the best. I was beginning to make lots of money and lots of perks. I was able to hire a nanny for my daughter who traveled with us all over North America.

I began to get pressured to perform in films. I refused these requests. The pressure intensified until it came to a point where I hated what I was doing. Unbeknownst to me, I was actually in breach of contract because I was refusing to perform in porn films. One night I was visited by a couple of gentlemen who informed me that they basically owned me. I didn’t know what to do. I finally said yes to do a film with them, but the first day of filming, I couldn’t do it. I was beat up pretty badly by my ‘agent’.

I took a contract to perform in Canada for a while to escape the pressure. My daughter was with me and we were having a good time, money was coming in good and I was becoming well known. My agent informed me that I could appease people by posing for some magazines. When I found out I did not have to have sex to be in the magazine, just full nudity, I agreed. In my mind at the time, that was far better. I did eight photo shoots, which ended up being in euro-mags. Little did I realize, I was falling deeper into the pit.

Just after my 22nd birthday, I was coming offstage at a club in Vancouver Canada, when these three girls about my age came up to me with a dozen roses and a basket of personal care products. They gave it to me with a message of “Jesus loves you and so do we.” I burst into tears and escaped to my dressing room. I had grown up in a church going home and new the truths in the Bible. This event flooded my brain with all the fond memories I had as a child learning about God and Jesus from my mom and dad. I immediately got on the phone and called home. They told me I was always welcomed home!

I started packing our belongings when my agent came into my hotel room. He informed me that I cannot just walk away from these contracts. He told me basically I had to fulfill every last detail to their satisfaction before they would consider releasing me. I was trapped. I continued performing but hating it once again. I found escape in chatting with some wonderful people in Christian chat rooms. Though I didn’t know anyone really, I poured out my heart and circumstances to a few people who began to pray for me. In the meantime, these three girls continued coming to this club to see me. I agreed to go for a coffee with them. They just shared the love of the Father with me and how much He loves me. They said they knew I had a relationship with God by how I responded to their first visit.

At this same time, my brother discovered where I was and what was going on. He and some people of the congregation he was involved with assembled enough finances to free me from my obligations. I was free!

So much has happened since then even. I took courses to get my personal fitness trainer certifications and began working. My daughter and I got to really know one another. I call her my miracle child. If it wasn’t for her, I don’t know if I would still be here. I don’t even know why I told you all of this.

Anyway, I didn’t start going to “church” right away. I just read the gospels over and over again discovering who Jesus is. Wow! He is something else. I am so glad I did that as I dont know if I could have loved the God of the old testament without first seeing who he is in Jesus. Anyway, I started visiting “church” congregations to become totally confused and frustrated. I became anxious and unsure of who I was as a Christian, or if I even was one. My brother had recently visited your website and emailed me the link. Wow! Thank you so much. I listened, I read, I compared to what I was reading in the bible and am confident I am right where father wants me. I have talked to some people about it and they say I am apostate which made me smile because yes, I have left religion!

I just finished reading “The Shack” which totally blew me away. Wow. Father was there with me through all of what I went through. I certainly identify with Mack when he realized that he did love papa and did trust papa.

Now it is 2008 and I am just loving this life Father leads me in. Of course, like everyone, I still have issues. Biggest issue I have right now is with men. I don’t know how I will ever really be able to trust a man to have a healthy relationship. But, I do know when Father knows I am ready, we will cross that bridge together. For now, it is my daughter and I and we love hanging out. I am able to keep busy working as a fitness trainer. This will be season two of competing in triathlons and I love getting together with my folks and brother who all love Father who has brought us together the way he has.

I guess I tell you all this to tell you thanks for making a difference in me. You and Brad have an awesome podcast. I send the link to The God Journey to everyone I email and tell everyone I know.

I just love hearing how Father pulls people out of darkness and restores them with life and with joy. No one is too far out of reach for God to rescue! Thanks to this dear young woman for sharing her story with me, and now with all of you!

The crisis continues to worsen in Kenya as you will see from the emails below. We are blessed to be able to help a significant group of people near Kitale with housing, food, blankets, medicine and supplies from your generous contributions. To date we have taken in almost $8,000.00 and money continues to trickle in. We will continue to be a conduit as long as people have it on their heart to give. Thank you all for your generosity. Here are their most recent reports:

From one of the office workers:

On behalf of our beloved brethren from here, we send greetings and appreciations for your kind love you have shown to us. Attached pictures are some of the things which we distributed in the places where our brethren have camped. We had formed 5 groups and I was leading one group and other fellow brothers. In my group, we were accompanied by the director carrying mats, blankets, rice, soap and clothes and other group 2 they were carrying some mats, blankets, maize and some beans. Group 3 was also carrying blankets, mats, soap, rice and beans. Group 4 also distributed mats, blankets, maize, rice and beans to different church buildings within Kitale region. Group 5 the same as the above groups.

According to the need of mats, we decided to distribute 2 mats for every family and there was more demand of mats, blankets and other necessary things. For health purposes, every group must be accompanied by two Red Cross representative to witness and to help to distribute in order. There is a list of needs in the office, it has helped the first part. We ask your assistance in second part. We have told them to pray and trust God for other provision that we may complete.

This support has helped over 300 families, brothers and sisters who are now seeing the love of God through God’s people. So they pray for the Lifestream ministry and the team for their great concern. More is still needed. As God enables you, we pray that you continue helping our people.
May the Lord bless you as we look forward to hear from you.

And this is from my friend, Michael:

Here the situation in Trans-Nzoia (Kitale)it is getting worse and many people have been killed. It is 20km from Kitale. Security is tight but people are armed and now there are many refugees than before. We need prayers more and continue assisting us until we tell you it is better. Things are worsening every day, it has turned to be clashes not political.

I would like to send my humble greetings to your beloved wife and the family and the entire friends and all who are partnering with your beloved ministry. I would like to inform you that I have more comments and more appreciations from the brothers who have been receiving the message we have been circulating from your one-anothering materials. This has brought more restoration, forgiveness and reconciliation. Yesterday as we were accompanying our team to distribute some items, I got a testimony when people felt and touched with the spirit and start forgiving those who burnt their houses, properties and this took about one hour from one of the lady who read the message singing forgiveness and it spread to almost everywhere when people were shouting praying loudly and forgiving those who have oppressed them.

Thank you for this wonderful message. God is preparing in this hard situation people to know Him and to see His love. I would like to say that God is the one who connected us with a great purpose for such time of this. I would like to encourage you and your team that continue standing with us until things will be back to normal because our brothers here are praying that the prayers to change this situation.

The support you sent to us , we started distributing immediately the same day Saturday evening in five different places and our team are working excellent heart as well as ministering to the needy. Our intercessory team here are fasting and praying for God for protection and for the provision especially for your ministry and with the land of Kenya. About another support, my brother, I would like to ask that please we still need your help anything you may feel as the Spirit leads you. Please help. In the pictures you received, the displaced children who need right now to learn no matter what circumstances they are passing. So our IGEM team they have volunteered to teach them as they believe God to restore things to normal. So may the Lord bless you as we help our brothers and sisters to feel the love of God.

Below are the new pictures they sent of the people they are helping, their assistance from the Red Cross, and the goods being distributed. Thanks for all your help. If you’d like to join with us or send more, please go to our Invoice Page and click on the ‘Pay Invoice’ button. You can then list “Donation for Kenya” and the amount you’d like to give. If you use the ‘Donation’ button you will need to also send me an email letting me know you wanted this to go for Kenya and not for Lifestream. All donations to this cause are tax deductible and every dime sent to us will go out for relief in this Kenyan crisis.

If you prefer, you can also send a check to Lifestream • 7228 University Dr. • Moorpark, CA 93021.