This is our second day in Arna Village. A village here is much larger than what we would call a ‘village’ back in my home country of Canada. Much larger. We had terrific meetings yesterday. God ministered to the many people who are attending – we are full house. But, being close to one another is not a problem as we are all believers and the fellowship during breaks and at meal times is sweet and focused on Jesus. It is as if we actually enjoy being with one another – because we do.

Working here is fun – because we are not having to push things onto people. They are hungry and thirsting for more of God and His Word. They are wanting to know what it is He is wanting them to do next. So, they all come with their journals and Bibles and take notes throughout the teachings – not wanting to miss anything the Lord is saying to the Church or to them personally. They are so excited to hear from the Lord – from their Bibles and from the prophetic gifting and ministry times – that they literally suck the anointing right out of us thus making our task a lot easier.

The worship is fantastic. I mean over and above great! These people long to worship their Lord and Savior. They stand throughout worship honoring the God they know and serve. They sing from the bottom of their hearts and souls and use their whole body to do so. Everyone is engaged – no one is distracted. Powerful time each time we start a service with worship.

It is exciting to be here ministering. This is not a “big name” ministry. We don’t charge them so much a service or a day for our ministry. We simply come hoping they will do their best to cover the travel costs and most times this is not the case. We are a “small name” ministry and we are willing – because the Lord told us to do so – to go wherever a door opens and simply trust God to meet the needs. And, it is amazing and wonderful to watch how He literally does so. In these smaller locations they never see the big name ministries. So, when someone like our ministry and the team appears and freely ministers they pack out each and every building we use – and draw the material right out of our hearts. A teacher’s delight. An apostle’s dream!

Thank you for continuing to pray. Tomorrow we move on to the City of Kapchagai. Again, a new location for us. We are still a little in the dark about what is expected of us when we arrive or even how many services we will be expected to minister at. But, we are going in faith and believing God will reveal Himself in fresh and new ways and guide and direct our steps and our teachings. We are believing that the transformation we have seen in each location and in the lives of the people will continue unabated as we approach the middle of our second week of this apostolic trip. More tomorrow.

Pictured to the left is Pastor Olga who leads the wonderful church that we are working with right now. We are on our second and last day here with these great folks. Not only have the majority of her people come to all the services – but believers from other churches in the town have also heard about what is happening and have joined us. As well, leaders from other churches in the same network or denomination are also in attendance. We are more than full house as it is a smallish building (see yesterday’s blog and picture).

Again today we are ministering on how to hear the voice of God. This is very basic to all aspects of life for the believer – personal guidance, Bible reading, prayer, prophecy… But, it is even more urgent and important here in this nation where the government and the state religion are against born again believers and where born again believers must be careful and discrete, guided by the Holy Spirit at all times. Powerful teaching and ministry time yesterday as we began this topic – the same is expected today. God is faithful.

Each day we get up early and spend time alone with the Lord. This is not always easy when you have three men living in close quarters as well as having to coordinate the use of the shower and bathroom – not to mention preparing breakfast and cleaning up afterwards. So, most mornings I am first up and first into the bathroom so as to then have my quiet time afterwards while the other team members shower and shave and dress. Breakfast is often (alright – always) a business meeting as we discuss the day we are about to start and the plans for who teaches, how we are ministering, the direction we feel things need to go and anything else the Lord may have laid on our hearts. Each day ends with a time around the same table as we discuss the day’s events and plant the seeds for the next day’s work. So, the morning meeting is really a follow-up of the debriefing meeting the night before.

The day is certainly full to overflowing. Meals are aways shared with those who attend – either everyone or just the leadership and those they invite. Just across the parking lot from the church building there is a small house also owned by the congregation. Limited in size it basically consists of a small kitchen and one larger room where we can sit, relax and eat. So here we eat with just the immediate leadership team. Of course, conversations always center on Jesus and what He is doing in their lives and our lives. Good felolowship as we eat lunch and supper together. I do try to have a few minutes after each meal (or before) to walk down the dirt roads (avoiding the garbage) and simply relax and unwind a bit. Otherwise the days can get long and seriously intense. There is more to life than ministering.

Tomorrow we move on to Arna Village. Someone will get us there as we have never been there before and literally have no idea where it is. We will be working with a local church there – again a Korean Presbyteran Church – for two days speaking on prophecy. These teachings, as far as we can sense right now, will build upon the ones we are doing here on how to hear God. Hearing God is, of course, essential if you want to prophesy – and you should “earnestly desire” (covet) to prophesy according to Paul’s letter to the Corinthians.

Again, your continued prayer support would be greatly appreciated.

Pastor Olga, by the way, has a box of Kazakhstan chocolate in her hands – and no you can’t have any. It is the best in the world and worth fighting over!!

Day three and the last day of the school we have been holding here in a former baptist university that no longer can obtain a needed government license to continue operating. In the picture – the actual room we are using as we train 50 leaders from various backgrounds and denominations. An excited group who are eager to learn and to grow in the Lord first and in their ministry skills secondly. Of course, building relationships is also an important part of the time we are sharing together – relationships with one another as well as with us.

Relationships are very important for Eastern European believers as many of them are living and worshipping in nations whose governments are not in favor of their beliefs or their churches. They do much behind closed doors, out of public view, and without the knowledge of those in authority. So, when they are able to come together with other believers the fellowship is very important to them and not taken for granted as it often is in the west. As well, they truly are sharing fellowship as the conversation is almost always centered on the Lord Jesus and what the Holy Spirit is doing today in their lives, families, churches and nation. They are seriously in love with and excited about what God is doing in them and through them in the lives of others.

In the Bible there are numerous “one another” verses … they believe all of them. Love one another; bear one another’s burdens, encourage one another, pray for one another… and on and on the list could go. They practice them all, all of the time. They truly understand that fellowship must be centered around the Lordship of Jesus and they know that their personal walk with the Lord is what draws them together and binds them together so that they can care for one another. Being part of their fellowship is an exciting happening often centered in eating and sharing food together – with strong coffee or green tea available afterwards to continue the fellowship long after the particular meal is over.

You may be thinking that they can have these extended periods of fellowship and value them so highly because their pace of life is less hectic than ours in North America. Not true. You may think that they are underemployed or simply don’t work as many hours as we do. That too is not true. You may believe that you live with more stress than they do and so need more time just to chill than they do. Also a total justification for a lack of true fellowship among western believers. They are as busy, as stressed, as involved and as tired as all of us. They simply value time with each other and with the Lord in the midst of their fellowship that they make it a top priority in their daily and weekly lives. They have all the same issues and desires that we have – and all the same distractions. And, on top of that they often work harder and longer for less money – but fellowship and being with other believers is top of their priority list.

They have much to teach us … we have much to learn and to adjust.

We appreciate your daily prayers – as this school ends we are heading for the town of Burundai to work for two days with a sizable Korean congregation (Presbyterian) whose pastor we prophesied over a year ago and who has been steadily building a relationship with us ever since. This is our second visit to this church.

We are in a “retreat center” today ministering to 50 leaders from various churches and backgrounds. This is really not a retreat center – it is a former baptist bible school or seminary that no longer was able to maintain its license to operate as a school in this nation. So, now people like us can rent it for training sessions. We live on campus behind closed iron fences and eat and teach in the same building in which we live. I get my exercise by walking from one end of the building to the other and up the stairs to the next floor for my morning shower as well as by walking around the grounds whenever we have a break. We are here for three days.

We arrived at 12:30 this morning from Frankfurt, Germany after travelling for two days and it was past 2:00 in the morning by the time we cleared customs, found our bags, drove into the city, found where we were staying and settled in a bit. It was a good time – tired though we were – as we were greeted by our third team member who flew in on a separate flight from Kiev, Ukraine. So, we are a bit slow today and thankful that we did not have to start teaching until 2:00p and could have a slower morning and a quiet lunch. We will minister in three sessions today and then fall into bed as we attempt to overcome jet lag as quickly as possible (12 time zones).

Our topics here for this three day seminar are:
Day One – Hearing God When He Speaks
Day Two – The Supernatural and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Day Three – The Church of 2020 (The Apostolic Model)

Of course, we are hoping to see some of the same people who attended our first three day school here last year at this time. As well, it will be good to come to know others whom we have not met before. Some who will be in attendance are the leaders of the churches where we will be ministering later in the next two weeks of meetings.

Our setting is not as informal as the picture above (an actual retreat center where we held meetings last year) but more of a classroom with a podium and a whitecoard to work with. Each leader will have a separate desk and a place to spread out their journals and bibles … as well, we will be able to record (video and audio) all the sessions as well as the prophetic ministry. We will, of course, take copies of the videos with us and package them for resale at cost to others through our Russian language web site. Teachnology is wonderful and we are learning to use it more and more for the glory of God thanks to some terrific help – my administrators both here in Eastern Europe (and his helpers) and in North America.

Your prayers for these three days and this group of 50 leaders would be greatly appreciated. Pray that we would see more and more of God’s power manifested as we pray, teach and minister prophetically. Could you pray even now as you finish reading this brief report. Thanks – greatly appreciated.

As you read this (Tuesday) I will still be in the air flying. I will be half way to Kazakhstan having left Regina mid-afternoon yesterday. I will arrive in Frankfurt, Germany later this morning, have a coffee at McDonalds and board the next flight to Almaty, Kazakhstan. We arrive there at 12:30 in the morning tomorrow (Wednesday). Eighteen hours of flying – the rest in airports waiting and moving between flights. By the time we arrive we have been through countless security checks, pat downs, full-body scans and several custom agencies checking our passports and visitor’s visa.

Planning for these trips starts well in advance of actually flying and ministering. Over ten months ago we began the negotiations for this current trip. In April we met with the leaders who invited us when they attended a function we were holding in Ukraine. Then began their planning and organizing. Among the things they/we needed to work through:
1> Which local churches would be involved in the two weeks of ministry
2> The team members that I would be bringing with me (clearning schedules-matching gifts to ministry needs)
3> The location for each day of ministry and the host pastors
4> A place to stay in each location that will house three men and give them some privacy, a place to meet, a shower – hopefully with hot water, and a place to sleep and have breakfast.
5> Topics for each location of ministry (each day) and the number of people who will be in each ministry opportunity.
6> Sorting through vast amounts of material stored in computers and filing cabinets to find teachings for each situation – and write the teachings that need to be researched and written
7> Meeting with team members to divide up the teaching opportunities so that everyone teaches in the area of their strengths
8> Obtaining of documents that needed to be filled in – applying for a visitor visa to allow us to enter the country and stay there legally for the 16 days.
9> Raising the funds to pay the costs of going to Kazakhstan ($2200.00 basic transportations costs per person). Pay loss for the time missed here in Canada where we earn a living not included – just written off as another opportunity cost.
10> Prayer focused on the different locations, various teachings, people going to be in attendance, protection, favor with man and God….
11> Final details nailed down (accomplished in Minneapolis airport on way home from apostolic roundtable with other Canadian team mmber).
12> Packing, purchasing extra clothes as needed (no laundry facilities), more extra clothes in case of travel interruptions, books to read while traveling, perscription medicines for the two weeks plus a few days in case coming home is delayed … the list goes on and on
13> Dealing politely with those who write asking to come with us as team members – almost 100% of whom do not fit the basic requirements for membership on the apostolic team (see “Team Requirements” on my main web site www.ralphhoweministries.com)
14> And numerous other small details that need to be nailed down …

Each trip is a major undertaking which must be accomplished while still doing all the normal things we do for a living and maintaining our regular family life, exercise routine, and other ministry responsibilities.

Why do we do this? Because God said “go into all the world…” and we want to be obedient to that command.

Why do we do it? Take a look at the picture above… people are hungry for more of God. This picture was taken on our last trip … it is after midnight at a local church service where we had been ministering since 5:00p

During this trip your prayers would be greatly appreciated. These trips are very trying on team members – physically, mentally, spiritually and relationally.