Cutting loose in worship

These Kenyans sure know how to cut loose in worship. Whether it is dancing and singing, or weeping and bowing down, they put their whole heart into every song, every service. They insist on going deep in the spirit, never considering satisfaction with anything less shallow. Above, our friend Jehosephat "gets funky" with our version of "raise the roof, push out the walls" that we taught them.
Below, some of the ladies from the worship team go for it in Swahili.

Above, two Masai warriors show us how they praise God in their tribe with their famous vertical jump dance.

Above, a holy moment of worship. We were both weeping and roaring like lions.

Growing in Faith

Dear loved ones,

We hope you are well. We have spent time the last two nights in praying in our rooms after we get home from the conference. We have found great victory in prayer as we have come against the spiritual warfare that has challenged us. We , by God's grace have been going on the offensive instead of just defending ourselves when attacks come. I feel strongly that this has been the key in coming into great peace and clarity before we go to bed. The grace of God has been incredible! Today, we split the team in two and went to speak in churches led by two of the apostles. The team that Kim led took Larry, Sharon, and Jeff to a church in town and the Lord did a wonderful work. I, Karla took a team to a church on the outskirts of Nairobi. This was a new experience for us. (Mike, Missy, and Diane accompanied me. We saw great victory. The word of the Lord is going forth and people are experiencing the delivering power of God. The apostalic work of God has received a commissioning here that is very profound and we are so honored to be playing a part. What we are seeing here makes us know that we do not in anyway deserve this honor.

Thank you for your prayers and love. You are here with us and we can feel it. Please continue to lift us up as our work here is not done yet and we will be beginning our long flights home on Tuesday.

In Pursuit of Him,
Karla

African Apostolic Leadership

Apostolic leader Meshack and his wife Jane share their hearts about the small Christian school they have for children in their home. Larry prophesied increase for them, including finances and a building, describing very accurately where their home is located and what it looks like without knowing any of it before hand.

Restoration

God is so good. When Mike taught on Friday morning, he felt the need to repent for the evil white men, and particularly missionaries had done to the people of Africa. He continued to teach and said later he was really struggling, not feeling annointed at all. Later we found out, the man pictured above, Martin, one of our translators all week, had his entire life changed because of that one moment.

Martin had been wronged by white missionaries throughout his life and had unforgiveness in his heart. He said he had a problem of hate in his heart for Americans until that day that Mike repented on behalf of others and cried in front of all of them. He said his heart changed and he didn't hate them anymore.

It just goes to show that when we are obedient, even if we don't feel like we are speaking with power, the word of the Lord always accomplishes what it sets out to do. Martin is not only a young man who's heart was changed. He's a testament to us of what obedience to the word can do.

Mike and I plan to hang this photo in our house as a reminder that it's not about how we feel about our weakness in bringing the word, but rather what God's spirit can accomplish if people will obey.

Missy

Above, members of the Masai Tribe singing a worship song to Jesus in their native tribal language. It was a powerful moment. The spirit of God fell as the men charged the conference attendees with never forsaking their God. "Die with your God," they said.
Below, Karla followed the Masai out as their were leaving the conference early. She asked them to pray and impart something of the strength and ferocity they have into her. It was holy. White and black they joined their hands. They didn't even share a language and an interpreter had to help. But Karla said by faith she believes some of that courage entered into her.

unity in the body of christ and an adventure

I am truly amazed at the work of God across the globe. This trip has confirmed in me God's desire for the whole church and the foundation which He is laying. My heart has been elarged and my spirit strengthened and I can not imagine what I would have missed had I disobeyed God. It makes sense to me now why we came under so much attack as a team weeks and even months before this mission. The work that has been launched in Kenya has been nothing less than extraordinary and it is on God's heart to do the same in Joplin.

Their is much to be said, but i must share concerning our trip to muranga. I only wish I could articulate well enough to paint a picture worthy of this adventure. Driving around 70 to 80 mph dodging huge pot holes while barely missing many vehicles head on was just the beginning. The amazing things was I was laughing so hard that I was crying because it was just so ridiculous how crazy this was. This was of course the grace of God. Well, I was thinking ok we will be stopping in this little town on the streets next to the markets and join up with an open air meeting here. That was not the case. The next thing I know we were in the middle of the jungle on a mud path sliding from right to left nearing by only feet if not inches from heading down the side of a cliff which would have been my appearing before the King Jesus. Well thank God for protective angels for they surely were our protection, it was so mindblowing at one point no one could even pray in their own language anymore, but with tongues. After about 45 minutes of this trek we arrived at the small village where hundreds of barefooted children running around in the mud, a few drunk old guys and an open air preacher was speaking on this 3 foot tall platform concerining the gospel.

I truly felt i had been initiated into the missionary life, if this was not what Hudson Taylor, Brainerd, and Paul the Apostle had not experienced then take me now Lord I was not ready to see the real thing. Seriously, it was quite surreal, their were spirits of violence and mocking all around while at the same time a grace from God to break through with the gospel because this was the call of God for these people at that moment. Larry, John, Jeff, and I all shared and while you would just expect miracles would just break out all over the place this was not the case.

Though many children responded to the call several youth standing against a wall in the background were laughing and mocking the whole event. The Lord spoke to Larry and we went over to the youth and begin preaching the gospel and God begin exposing their hearts and the laughing ceased while the Spirit had their attention. So all the while people were still preaching on the platform and this went on until dark. They had just a couple of lights to light the platform and mostly darkness covered the area. We were also beginning to realize if the rains came in again we may be staying in this village for many more days. Finally we had to leave because the storms were coming in and yes a couple of the youth did give their lives to Christ, praise the Lord.

On the way back, lets just say we were within inches of not making it out of there. I could go one, but I am weary, but my spirit is strong. The Lord is doing something here and we can not wait to see the release coming to Joplin and for that matter in nations all over the world. God will have a pure spotless bride for His Son. I have seen this more clearly than ever before.

I just pray that God will right now begin to release the fullness of His purposes in Joplin in the hearts of the people at Citiwide and all over, Spirit of God come and awaken the church to its true identity and the power available for those who believe, God wants to do something miraculous, the question is not if, but when and who. Lets hasten together the coming of the Lord Jesus to His people and believe for everything the Law and the Prophets have spoke of. I am so excited to see my friends in Joplin and impart what the Lord has done, and by the way we and many others will begin going to the nations as the Lord is calling us to this work, so pray for financial breakthrough and really contend for this release, we need this so please contend and pray for protection from the enemy for surely counter attack is at hand and on the way for what the Lord has done through His servants.

A wave has begun and its momentum is building up to cover the whole earth, the Lord will be exalted as King and all people wll bow down and confess. I bless you and look forward to seeing all of you, I love you and know God is doing something just as spectacular in our area, stay fervent, God is not like a man He can not lie He will fulfill every promise and purpose he has in his heart for Joplin. Praise God.

Mike

unity in the body of christ and an adventure

Sovereign

Dear loved ones,

We thank you for standing with us during this momentous time for Kenya. This is divinely orchestrated and the magnitude of what has been happening here is remarkeable. God has prepared a people here for this sovereign moment in history. The leaders we have been imparting to are like the first apostles. They are dead men walking, and they know it. This scripture came to me yesterday while preparing to go to the meeting. Jesus went to John to be baptised and John said I am not worthy to even unlatch your sandle. To say that we feel like this is no exageration. In talking to Larry he has said that in all his years in the nations, he has not seen anything like this. Holy Spirtit is moving powerfully with every meetin being stronger than we have ever known. In prophetic ministry this week many demonic things have been broken off of Gods servants. The word of the Lord through His servants is comeing with great clarity. We thank God for this. We have fallen in love with this people. We feel that they are bone of our bone. We are greatly impacted by our Masai brothers, as are all the leaders here. I was very blessed to receive impartation from them yesterday. I was feeling as the Spirit was falling that I can not go on if I do not receive what they are carrying. Never forsake your God, die with your God is their confession and they exhort strongly to do the same, as they tell of their beatings and imprisonment. Today is the youth rally and then the trip to Maranga. Please pray when you receive this. I believe that the Lord had me make prophetic decree last night that the men will not be harmed. All of our love to you. Yesterday a powerful annointing fell and a great crying out fell upon us as the masai warriors stood before us to sing worship in their native tongue and dance before the Lord. As the Spirit of intercession fell the burden of the Lord for the work in Jopin was strong upon me as I contended for the Word of the Lord concerning what will be released to Joplin as a result of our obedience to come here. Our hearts our constantly with you and our love for you strong. The promise of the Lord will be fulfilled, no enemy can stop it.

In Pursuit of Him,
Karla

You are a part

I want to thank you all who are reading the blog and being led by Holy Spirit to pray for Kenya, for us and the things that God is doing here. I Thankyou very much. And also, may the Lord bless you as you too are planting into this.
Friday was absolutely incredible. Every day great advances are being made for His Kingdom both corporately and in individual hearts. And you ARE a part of it!! Praise God.
The spiritual atmoshere gets very intense here at night, but we had a good time of prayer for peace and a great comfort and peace fell on all of us. God is good and we shall not fear for He is with us.
Pray for the youth meeting today, and then right after the men are going to Muranga. Pray for a great harvest. And pray for their safety in the travel and while there. There is a great need for your prayers.
Thankyou for the prayer.
Blessings,
Diane

Surrounded by wickedness

Last night when we returned from the conference, the hotel was saturated with wickedness. You could just feel it thick in the air. All kinds of ill looking characters were in the lobby. Me and Mike went up to our room to fellowship as Missy went to be with her mother. I locked myself out of my room, and had to get the hotel manager. Then i Went to Mikes room again, because I locked myself out again! I had not done this all week and now twice! Mike needed to go to the store in the lobby for water so we both got on the elevator. The manager was there on it, so me and him went back to my room.
Since Mike was gone, it gave me a chance to talk with the man, Phillip. I commented on how much prostitution goes on in our hotel, and he said this was the worst hotel in town for it, and that no 1 star hotel was even close to this. He also commented that the managment let it go on.
I said " they make money off of it, dont they?" He said yes.
"the police do also, dont they?" he said yes. "there is all kinds of evil here," I said.

He said, "you cannot even imagine. All those things that you see in movies that you think are not real, those happen in this place."
"like what" I siad.
"You dont want to know." he said And i could tell he did not want to talk about it, so I didn't press him.

I shared God with him to find out that he is a Catholic. I told him we were missionaries, and that I believed it was no accident we were booked in this hotel. (the Casino in the Lobby, Ironically, is called "Babylon")
Mike showed up shortly, and we all three talked of politics and the suffering youth of the nation, and how we beleived God was sending revival across the land of Kenya. I asked him if we could pray with him, and he said, yes, for a new job. I took him by the hand and the spirit guided our prayers. I aksed that he would shine brightly in this oplace of wickedness, and that he woulod be protected, and for God to provide for him and his family. After we were done praying he said" we need more of you in this place." He began to cry as he walked off. I can tell he is a loving father and decent man, who has suffered much. Please pray for him along with the trest of the team.

Musa Samboya, one of four members of the Masai tribe in Kenya attended the leadership conference. Other leaders from Kenya say it is amazing the group has been reached with Christianity at all. Musa is wearing some of his tribal dress.

The fields are white

Sorry we're running behind on our posts, but our schedule here is really tight. It's because the people are so hungry for God. When we finally finish the meetings, they want to stay and talk with you, then we end up ministering to people in our hotel.

But enough of the excuses. I wanted to tell all of you about our friend named "Cloude." He's a native of Congo, a musician in his 20's staying in Nairobi right now. One night on our way into the hotel, he stopped Jeff because he saw him carrying a guitar case. They talked about music for awhile, Larry ended up prophesying to him and he agreed to come to church the next night.

He came and got saved. It was amazing. Later, he thanked us over and over again for taking him "to that place." He said he wants to quit getting drunk and spending all his time in clubs and wants to follow Jesus.

Jesus wasn't kidding when he said the fields were white for the harvest. Cloude was ripe for the picking and now beams with the love of Jesus.

Continue to pray for him as we haven't had much chance to reconnect with him since that night except by phone.

Missy

Repentance

During severe tribal violence in March and April of this year, thousands of innocent Kenyans were killed. The pastors here say the blood is crying out from the land and has brought even more darkness to the country. So Thursday, the Kenyan church leaders led a time of repentance for the violence their country had nurtured. The people here are so aware of themselves as Kenyans, not just as individuals. Church leaders who took no part in the violence were weeping, crying out, falling on their knees, begging God to have mercy on their country for the evil they had all allowed.

This lead to a time of fathers and mothers repenting for inciting the youth to violence.... the major source of it.... particularly for the group that slaughtered so many in Muranga, the very place Larry, Mike and Jeff plan to visit Saturday for an evangelistic crusade.Keep them in your prayers. One of our new Kenyan friends, Samuel, said it is very dangerous and the group perpetuating the violence is like the Nazis and they have been kidnapping, torturing and killing anyone who looks like they could be British in a strange kind of historic ethnic cleansing. One of our hosts, Peter, seems to think it will be fine as the boys are joining an existing crusade that has its own security. But we can use all the prayers we can get.

As part of the repentance process, some of the Kenyan young people repented too and then they did a ceremonial time of healing by having fathers and mothers of the faith embracing spiritual sons and daughters. There were so many tears.

Their prayers are so sincere. I am moved to tears myself though this is neither my land, nor my people. I have never met these people before, yet feel like I have known them forever. I don't know how we will ever leave. It will be like cutting off an apendage. We feel that close now.

It's this spirit of fatherhood that is being imparted during our visit that is perhaps the most powerful, according to the Kenyans. It was missing for so long in the church there, but for the last 20 years God has sovereignly been preparing their hearts for the message so they are now like ripe fruit easily being plucked from a tree.

Missy

we are in a real war

God is doing so many awesome things. We thank him for that. But the enemy is also at work so we need your prayers. The hotel we are in is filled with wickedness. There is a casino in the lobby full of bad characters, and prostitutes come and go throughout the hotel, trying to sell themselves. It is very sad. We have had the opportunity to witness to some of them, And Kim bright went to meet one last night to talk to her. The lord had brought her to tears with our witness, as she attempted to proposition Larry. Boy, did she pick the wrong spirit filled man!

There has also been increasing spiritual attack on the team. Last night after dinner, I felt a spiritual attack descend on me and almost overwhelm me. It was full of condemnation and death. It tried to convince me I was surrounded by violence on all sides, helpless to do anything. It was so heavy and yes, terrifying. For a few minutes it almost seemed as if i had left the physical world, and was only peeking into it through a fog. As i walked along the street back to the hotel, I had to make a concious, concerted effort to not fall. It was almost as if i was walking intoxicated. I told our friend John Senin about it, as we walked, and he told me there were many bad things roaming around from curses being sent out and the like.

When we got back to the hotel, we prayed in a circle right next to the casino, and Larry affirmed that I could not win the battle in my own mind, that I would lose every time that way, but only by the written and then spoken word of God. I needed to hear that. Others in the team relayed they had been attacked that very day. Mike, with anxiety, Dianan, with a spirit of confusion during church, which john had also indicated for himself, and during the beginning of diner, Missy had said she came under a sudden emotional attack where she almost lost it. All these things I take as proof of REAL advance in God's kingdom. John reminded us that there was a slime that would be on us when we went out in the world, and that we need to be cleansed. The blood of Jesus, the death of him working through us must cleanse us. This becomes very evident in as land like this, but is this not also true of us in America? I know often I have forgotten this spiritual truth.

The meeting that day had been so powerful, ending up with everyone on their knees and faces before God, there were visions and porphecy, and new authority released to the team, and the Kenyan leaders. God's presence, grace, power and love were palpable.

Many bondages of pride, religion, tribalism and even sexism have come down during these meetings. The powers of darkness, as in any war, will counter attack. It is to be expected.

Pray for us to shine like the son in a land of utter darkness.

Jeff Youngblood

Larry porphesying and exhorting Meshack, the spiritual father for many Kenyan brothers.

Missy conversates with John Simba.

Larry being a microphone servant for Sharen

breaktime outside the meeting center

Kim introducing herself. Making the point that she is NOT a man. Kim is a man's name in Kenya! Also, she explained how she was looking for and had been praying for adventure, which had begun to be fullfilled during being a passenger down NAirobi's dangerous and bumpy streets.

Karla prophesying for the leaders of Kenya. Mainly that many people might not know them, but that they were on God's heart as evidenced by his sending his word in chosen vessels for such a time as this.

Our first day in Kenya is over. It's unbelievable, but at the same time it feels like we've been here forever. We are learning so much about the African people already. Our "adventure" as Kim calls it, started with our arrival to a very muggy Nairobi airport. We waited in line for probably an hour to get our visas, nervously I might add, because we are at the discretion of the agent at the counter. He almost wouldn't take Sharen's money because he said the bill's were old.

Later, we asked John Senin about it. He said the Kenyans are suspicious of old or wrinkled paper money because there is so much drug activity and counterfeiting. Pray that God will break down this spirit of deception so many people operate in here. This spirit creates an atmosphere where people are taken advantage of openly. But the brothers and sisters who met us at the airport were so warm and welcoming. We felt we had known them forever. I can't count the number of times they told us they were so happy that we had come, that they were honored by our presence.

We are trying to convince them it is we who are so honored to be here. These people have been through so much. Their suffering has wrought precious gold and silver on the inside of them, yet they bear the attitude of Jesus, who though being in the likeness of God, did not consider equality with God something to boasted about. These Kenyan pastors are hungry, looking for the word of God, longing for the prophetic. They are so grateful and receive us with such humility. They recognize Larry as an apostle and call their regional apostle, Meshack, their "father." They speak with such sweetness of each other, hugging us repeatedly and holding our hands. We flowed together in such unity with the leaders during our first two meetings and so many have already told us that their expectations have already been met. Oh to see what God will do from here.

God has been very kind with us on this trip. There was little to no turbulence on each flight, and little delay. It took us a while to get our visas and luggage, but this is to beexpected! We arrived at the hotel Sunday night around 11 pm after a grueling 36 hour trip! Everyone, though tired, seemd to be in good spirit. There was little, if any complaining. We have all felt the holy spirit keeping us, and can feel the annointing increasing for our team. Several kind brothers transported us and John Senin there. Missy takes a break to smile as she unpacks in her room.
This is a wonderful sister in the Lord, Batrice, whom we met in the Amsterdam airport. She works right across the street from the YMCA where we are having the conference. What a "coincidence." keep praying for divine encounters!


A mother daughter moment in the airport.


Sign in the thoroughfare in the Amsterdam airport. We had a 5 hour layover there.

Please keep praying for us and the leaders we are to meet with. We sense that that God wants to use us for a mighty prophetic outflow to bless the people here. Praise God!

And then at 930 EST, we arrived in Detroit!!! Everyone was pretty zonked, even though the flight was very smooth and uneventful because we had been up all night. We found a temporary resting place in the lobby of the Westin hotel in the Detroit airport.

Mike Dunson, Diana B., Karla Morgan, and Missy all "meditating" on the Lord.

We left Joplin at 2:30 AM, and here we are just after arriving at the Tulsa airport

here we are leaving the Tulsa Airport. Our Flight departed for Detroit at 6AM