I can’t tell you howexcited I am about what God is doing outside the church building walls. I knowthere are lots and lots of ministries in town doing GREAT things and I lovetelling about what God is doing in and through them. So check out spotlight too!

I mentioned last month, that the Lord wanted us to focus ona few new things this coming school year. I just love this time of the year,Fall season, with the Biblical holidays of Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Feastof Tabernacles. As an educator, and having four children in school, the Autumnseason has been the beginning of the new year for us. Although it has not beenwithout ‘pressing through’ (warfare), I am excited about the new God is bringing thisyear.

The first is CITYWIDEworship/prayer.  I love what one ofthe guys said when asked what it was…”it’s a citywide prayer meeting smotheredwith worship..with people coming from different churches..to pray for our city.”It’s also referred to as ‘harp and bowl’ style of worship/prayer.  Last month our pray time was focused forschools and the education system in our area. One of the things the Lord saidto me in the beginning was not to worry  if 5 or 50 showed up. We just needed to start.A building was provided that wasn’t in one particular church and was centrallylocated. The location is at the fellowship hall of the San Joaquin Gardensretirement center, which is in the middle of Fresno. Who would havethought!   

The other thing started is CLUB HOPE… …Bringing HOPE to the world around us….How? throughworship and prayer. We know the power of shifting atmospheres through worshipand the power of prayer. So we’ve started to gather on campuses, (CSUF and afew H.S.). We are intentional in being in the ‘open’ outside the classroomwalls, so others may join us or those who seek prayer, may receive it. Theseare student led groups.

Another new or change is the 7M schools of ministry.  The last school year I met with a group ofyoung ladies for pre-leadership training, and with a writers group. This yearthose will be slightly changing with companies and discipleship classes. I willshare more about that vision in the next update.

So that is the latest. Remember us thismonth in your giving and consider being a monthly financial partner.  We’d really like to get a computer, projector,support the clubs, financial support for some of the leaders,  and even have enough to  lease a building in the future JDonations can be made out to 7MWIN, sent to P.O. Box 25266, Fresno, CA 93729.

On a personal note, although I enjoy being in full time volunteerministry, I will have to be cutting back a little and on driving ( I drive about 2000 miles a month).Although I do believe a ‘person  is worthyof their wages’, my desire is to be a ‘tentmaker’, and get  paid employment in the marketplace so I willcontinue to look. Please keep us in your prayers, as we will you. 

Don’t forget to keep an eye out on events on the website andFresno H.O.P.E. group page on Facebook.

Bless you all.

 

One of the ministries we specifically pray for is Joni and Friends, Central CA. We go there 1-2 times a month.  Joni and Friends visions is to accelerate Christian ministry in the disability community and their mission is to communicate the gospel and equip Christ honoring churches worldwide to evangelize and disciple people affected by disabilities.  

Our prayer is that every local fellowship in Fresno would become aware of their ministry and have some type of ministry to the disabled. This can look differently depending on the congregations.Maybe it would mean simply providing child care for a family with an autistic child…so the parents could go out or going to their home to pray for them just to encourage them.  Although I would love to see all healed and believe it is possible, I do know while on earth, there is suffering. 

Coming up- Joni and Friends with Pacific University will be co hosting a seminar soon- called Beyond Suffering Seminar. It will be held Oct. 1-2, and registration is at fresno.edu/beyondsuffering. Priority registration expires Sept. 10^th, $80 per person or $20 for students with ID. After that it goes up

CEAI started in 1953 as the National Educators Fellowship. The mission of CEAI is to "encourage, equip and empower Christian educators serving public and private schools.' If you'd like to know more about the newest Central CA area of CEAI, email frisch@ceai.org. Forest and Cheri Risch are the Central CA area directors. I serve on the local advisory board of CEAI.

Our next event will be: Teacher Encouragement and Prayer Breakfast,  August 28th, 9- noon.  Venue: First Baptist Church Fellowship Hall, 1400 Saginaw Way, Fresno. RSVP frisch@ceai.org.

Always great to hear Mike or someone from the GAP ministries at Citybuilders. If you're looking for Christian in-home care ministry call The Gap (222-6992.

Check out the great articles on SALT magazine, they spotlight many ministries and organzations in the Central Valley www saltfresnomagazine.com. Some of my good friends are writers for SALT.

I really enjoy it when I can join the Citybuilders group that meets the first Wed. of every month. These are leaders of faith based non profit ministries. I'm so encouraged when I hear the amazing stories of what God is doing in this valley through these ministries. Just to name a few, the hosts Evangelicals for Social Action (ESA) , Youth For Christ, The Gap, Christian Educators International Association, Childhood Evangelism Fellowship, Intervarsity, Rescue Mission, the list goes on.

One of the aspects of this ministry is networking.  I am a networker and connector. I love working with other ministries and supporting what they do as well. I’m going to add another section to this blog called 'spotlights ’. Each month, I hear about or meet someone in ministry (church or marketplace)  doing great things, and I’d like to ‘spotlight it’.

So this update,  I’d like to highlight a few: On June 11^th we co-hosted with The Healing Place a workshop on “A Team approach to healing and deliverance’. Since we both are involved in healing ministry, we thought it would be great to add to our understanding of healing  ministry. George Freemen and Keith Martens of Kingdom Ministries taught the class. Many commented how they enjoyed it and learned a lot.  We all received a binder, and were given incredible insight to the team approach for healing and deliverance. I think every church in Fresno who has a heart for healing ministry should have George and Keith out. I don’t want to go into extensive detail about the class, but I will say, it was well worth the $20. We also continue to meet with other healing ministry leaders in the healing network.

The other ministry I’d like to highlight is ‘Harvest International Ministry’, which is an international apostolic network. When I was looking for an apostolic network to align with, I applied with H.I.M. (I’ve been going to Harvest Rock church and HIM conferences the last 15 years). I was accepted and became a HIM pastor.  As their website states “H.I.M. is a powerful network of churches, ministries, mission organizations, church networks and marketplace leaders committed to loving and helping each other fulfill the Great Commission”.  My husband and I were blessed to attend the HIM leadership conference  in June in Pasadena .  We were encourged by  leaders like Jack Hayford, C. Peter Wagner , Cindy Jacobs and James Goll and Che Ahn. I’ve built some wonderful friendships with people from all over the world the last few years and I love hearing about what God is doing all over the world through the many ministries of H.I.M. network.  

On another note, we just hit our 3 year mark as a ministry. Each summer I like to take time to seek the Lord on any new direction He’d have us go or changes to be made. We’ve seen so many answered prayers (which I also need to write about) and new prayer groups starting in the city. We truly are becoming a city that prays. This year we sense the Lords direction to focus on 1) starting the monthly Friday Encounter Citywide Worship/Prayer nights, 2) prayer and evangelism on campuses with ‘campus awakening’ clubs and 3) training and equipping through the 7M schools. Each of these focuses involves networking with other ministries. We also are intentional in seeing the generations and different streams come together through the Friday Encounter nights and in the schools of ministry.  

Again, we can’t do this without you. All involved in this citywide ministry are volunteers with very busy schedules. As we continue to pray for a breakthrough of a release of a building for the 24/7 community center, your financial and prayerful support are greatly appreciated.

If you’d like to know about upcoming events you can check out our new FB group page- Fresno H.O.P.E.

 

Spring is here! Where has the time gone? We certainly are enjoying the cooler days in the central valley, which is quite unusual for us, although I suspect the high 90’s will soon be upon us. We’ve been quite busy, it seems the many encouraging words I’ve heard about acceleration and new beginnings are coming to pass. Here is the latest:

Fresno H.O.P.E.- Prayer continues strong in the city. In early May, we cohosted with Christian Educators International Association an event to honor educators on National Day of Teachers and prayed with them. Our desire is to see  teacher prayer (after school or during lunch) on every campus, and having opportunities for them to receive prayer at the prayer rooms. We also want to see student prayer clubs on every campus. 

It has been a few weeks since Regional Sacred Assembly (RSA), a 12 hour day of prayer, worship and fasting. The highlights: The Presence of God, many streams (churches fellowships) represented, generations praying and blessing each other, great worship and intercession for the seven spheres of influence withlocal representatives from these arenas leading prayer. We also believe the RSA was the beginning of the FIREHOUSE-a dream to have a 24/7 community center in Fresno, with the local Body of Christ from many churches coming together to pray, worship, and be a training center. Please pray for a release of a building(either donated) or funds for a building lease to start this. We have our eye on a few places, and we hope to be near CSUF.

We love NETWORKING and on June 12th, we will be co-hosting with The Healing Place ministry, a class on healing and deliverance to be taught by Kingdom ministry leaders. This event is set from 9 am-noon at VCF. We are seeing such a need for healing prayer, but the laborers are few. We’re hoping churches will send folks so as to develop their own teams for healing prayer.

We continue to EQUIP and train the Body of Christ in the central valley. We offer a variety of classes that include:Hearing the Voice of God, Intercession, Healing Prayer, Gifts of the Spirit, Waking Supernaturally, Naturally, etc. This is a great resource for those smaller home fellowships or youth groups. Small groups building community provide a place for discipleship, which often can’t happen in a Sunday morning service.

 Please pray about becoming a regular monthly financial donor. We’d love to be in a building by end of summer. This will be the first of its kind in the Fresno region. 

Blessings to you! 

I have met so many who are waiting to walk in their destiny, some waiting for years. As a spiritual coach, I often ask them  questions like, Where is your alignment? Who do you align yourself with? Who speaks into your life? Who do you listen to?   Alignment often refers to our bone structure being properly aligned. When it is out of alignment, we often walk off balance or experience pain somewhere. Sometimes if it is so slight, we tolerate it. If we are to be properly aligned with our  physical body, what of our spirit and soul for growing healthy?

Who do you align with for your growth spiritually?  Are they teachers?  Are they pastors? evangelist? Most in American churches align themselves with pastors and/or teachers.  Although I have been fed by many who are teachers and pastors, it has only been the last 15 years where I have aligned myself with apostles and prophets in a different way than pastors or teachers. 

When I was a young Christ follower, I was fed milk, but now that I am older I desire meat. There are specific ministries where I receive meat. They are apostolic ministries or churches. I strongly believe the apostolic and prophetic gifting is alive and well. 

I have found apostles and prophets have a gift to see and call out destiny.  Pastors are great for nurturing and caring and teachers for teaching, but apostles bring something different.  Some of the characteristics of apostles are being pioneers, trailblazers, and being spiritual mothers and fathers, who release destiny. They call up others into a higher place. They are not 'better' than pastors, or are to replace pastors, they just have a different function. 

 I’ve seen many in the Body of Christ, searching for something more, and I often wonder if what they are looking for is this alignment with spiritual mothers and fathers, apostles and prophets.  Many are hungry for ‘fathers and mothers’ but instead only hear and align with teachers, which are good, but they are not all fathers.  I will testify, since I have aligned with apostles and prophets and apostolic/prophetic ministries, I have moved forward and grown stronger in my calling and destiny. It has been so enriching. 

So if  you are feeling you are not moving into your destiny and have been looking to for a long time, I ask, Who are you aligned with? 

(For more information about the leadership gifts and their functions, you can take a class with the 7M school of ministry).

Prayer…when I think about prayer, I think...it’s about intimacy with God. It is not,necessarily how it is seen on TV, kneeling beside the bed and folding hands saying a ‘rote’ prayer. Prayer is speaking and listening to the heart of God.  It can be in the car, or while walking, any time, any day.  A culture of prayer is a lifestyle of prayer. 

Each week I hear another rejoicing report of answered prayer. This week, a young high school senior, asked me if I would pray about finding a partner to go on rides with at grad night in Disneyland (she didn’t want to do the dancing party scene like many do). It was a simple request to the Father who loves her so much. So we brought it to the Father.She called me two days later, reporting happily that she had found someone! Yes, God listens to our prayers. Although they may not always be answered in the way we think, He cares about us and hears our heart. I love it!

 One of the missions and vision of Fresno H.O.P.E. is to encourage a culture of prayer outside the church walls and in the marketplace.  I’ve seen too many leaders,whether they be businessmen or educators, get burnt out or taken out by the enemy.  I wonder, How is their intimacy with God? Do they know how to go to the ‘secret place’ with Him? And hear from Him?  Do they know how to wear their spiritual armor and use their weapons of warfare? Life brings it’s challenges and when we have intimacy and know how to hear the voice of the Father, Son and Spirit, it helps us through those times.

One of our desires is to see our region covered 24/7 with worship and prayer. I’ve said it many times, if we want to see transformation in our city, we must have prayer as a foundation for change.  This is not about preaching another sermon, or just staff gathering for prayer for their local church, although all of that is good. This is about having a place to pray for others, receive prayer, and or just rest in the ‘secret’place. It is about seeing individual lives transformed, who will then help bring transformation to the city. This is about establishing a culture of prayer in our region.  Already, our region is almost covered 12/7. Take a look at the website under ‘prayer roundtable and see the list. New gatherings are starting every month. Let me share about a few:  

·I received a call from local youth who wanted to gather for worship and prayer.So we met and they planned a night of worship and prayer. It was awesome to join them, and see how they organized the gathering, and prayed for their highschool campuses. I suspect these gathering will continue, and we encouraged all of them to gather weekly on their campuses for prayer.

·We were also very excited to move into another prayer room in central Fresno. ETC (Entrepreneurial Training Center) has allowed us to use a room for prayer. We are very excited about being able to teach classes there as well.

·And last Saturday, was a time of worship and prayer with our mayor. She is a woman of prayer, and has a genuine heart to see transformation in our valley and knows the importance of prayer. It is not about a single churches agenda, but about calling out to the God who cares about cities.

And two more new gatherings in May are coming.On May 4^th, we will meet with Christian Educators InternationalAssociation for National Day of Teachers, we will meet at Fresno First Baptist4-6 pm, for a time of fellowship, honoring and praying for educators.Information will also be given abut CEIA.

One of the next exciting days we are preparing for is the Sacred Regional Assembly on May 22^nd at Peoples Church, Ground Zero. If you’ve gone to the "CALL’, this is very similar, a day (10 am-10 pm) of worship, prayer, fasting. People will be coming from all over the valley and the state as well.

Another California network prayer initiative is the ‘adopt a street’. Currently Harvest Evangelism has a website and page where you can sign in to ‘adopt a street’canopy of prayer for CA. 

So, there you have it… these are just a few of the wonderful new things happening in our valley, as we create a culture of prayer.