I don't have gas

We just landed back in Charlotte, NC. It's good to reconnect with the group down here. We're gonna rumble for three days in prayer to get equipped and launch into the next phase of our assignment for America. We spent a lot of extra time today on the road just trying to find gas stations with gas. Many empty stations and a lot or restrictions.

My Summer Tan

We drove during the night last night and came down to Tennessee to visit Kim’s dad. Oh it was going to be great. I was going to take the kids canoeing today, and we were going to spend tomorrow out in the boat on the lake. That was… until Katrina. She’s a category 4 hurricane slamming into Louisiana and Mississippi right now. She’ll cut a path straight up through the south and northeastward tonight and tomorrow. I think she’s supposed to hit us here in Nashville in the wee hours of the morning. It’s raining now, but it’s supposed to dump tonight when it gets here. Looks like we’ll be spending the next couple days indoors. There goes my last ditch effort to get something remotely similar to a suntan this summer.

Good Times

I spoke at Warren Park Wesleyan Church yesterday. They were having their annual Homecoming service. There were a lot of things going on that day, so I only spoke for a few minutes. I gave an extremely brief overview of The Cause USA and the JHOP in DC. There were a lot of people that seemed very interested in what’s going on. Taylor set up a table to distribute Life bands and raise money for the JHOP. Between this church and last week’s church she raised about $120 to help fund the justice movement. Go Taylor! I also got to catch up with a friend that’s doing missionary work in Liberia (that’s in Africa). God has given him amazing favor and many open doors with the struggling Church there. He was extremely excited about what’s going on in DC, and was curious if we could bring something similar to Liberia. He’s organizing a converence there at the end of February for about 300-400 pastors. Apparently, they want to learn how to take back their country. I’m filing this one gently. Who know? Maybe something will come of it.

It was great to see some old friends. Emphasis on “old”. The picture is me, John Castle, Ellen Fisher and Jeff Eckart. We were all in youth group together back in the day. Me, Jeff and John were tight in high school and did everything together. Jeff’s a youth pastor at Kentwood Community Church in Grand Rapids, MI. John’s a kickboxer and is married to Ellen now. Kinda funny how you can blink and 20 years go by. I would just like to take this opportunity to point out three lush, full heads of hair on mine, Jeff's and John's heads.

Homeless

We are officially HOMELESS. We closed on our Denver house yesterday which is a great thing. The sale of this house went about as smoothly as it possibly could. God definitely blessed us throughout the process. Thanks to Lew Taylor for all his help with the closing and his supernatural powers of attorney. You’re a superhero in our book.

We visited with Kim’s family in northern Indiana earlier this week. On the way back to Indy we stopped off at Purdue University to have dinner with my nephew Zach. Go Boilermakers! We’re due to speak this Sunday at Warren Park Wesleyan Church in Indianapolis. This is the church where I became a Christian in March 1986. I’m looking forward to catching up with old friends. Right after that we’ll be making our way south to visit Kim’s dad in Nashville, TN and then on to Charlotte for a three-day conference at Cause headquarters. Oh, I remember the old days when gas was only $2.00 a gallon.

Crossroads of America

Kim and I spoke at God's Freewill Tabernacle today in Muncie, IN. It was good to catch up with old friends. Kim and I attended church here for over eight years during and after college. We preached the Life message and our journey to the House of Prayer in DC. We were tremendously blessed by this church body. We have been blown away by the love, generosity and support of this group both now and throughout the years. Much of who Kim and I are is due to these folks. Many of the people there are actively engaged in praying for governmental leaders and interceding for change in America. Josh Peters, one of their son's, was recently honored before Congress by Rep. Mike Pence for his distinguished service in Iraq. This church has been involved in efforts to save the unborn for a number of years also. We pray that God bless this body beyond measure.

We're hoping that this was an effective recruitment visit also. I don't want to mention any names, but...
REBEKAH AND ALISON- COME TO DC!!!

11 going on 12

Taylor turned 11 yesterday. We celebrated all day by going to the Indiana State Fair with some friends. The kids rode rides all day and left with distended bellies full of elephant ears, funnel cakes, sno cones and cotton candy. I think this picture is particularly funny. In a brilliant display of imagination bankruptcy, this vendor tells it like it is. Come one, come all for "Fried Dough." We had a birthday party for Taylor last night, and she got a lot of gifts for decorating her new room in DC.

OK. Something disturbing has happened since the last time I was at the State Fair. My whole life I remember going to the fair to get an elephant ear or funnel cake. It was pretty much the only time of year that you could get a piece of deep fried dough dipped in sugar. But apparently the evil overlords of Fairgrounds decided to up the ante. Somewhere someone created a laboratory to research exactly what could be dipped in batter and deep fried. Judging from what I saw yesterday, they discovered that the answer is EVERYTHING. Here's a short list of some of the items I saw yesterday.
• Deep Fried Moon Pies
• Deep Fried Snikers
• Deep Fried Twinkies
• Deep Fried Reeces Cups
• Deep Fried Oreos
We also saw Deep Fried Footlong Corndogs. Now we all know that corndogs are always deep fried, but I love it that the average Hoosier cannot be pacified by just any run-of-the-mill corndog. It takes a full 12 inches of batter-dipped lovin' to satisfy.

Sunday

Go-carts! 'Nuff said.

Gone Fishin'

We're spending the weekend with my brother and his family in Kokomo, IN. We're having a lot of fun just hanging out and doing stuff with the kids. We took everyone fishing today at a private lake. This was Fisher's first time and he had a blast. My nephews Zach and Adam caught a lot of fish. Taylor caught three bluegills and Fisher caught one. More fun to come tomorrow!

Does God Still Want To Bless America?

Kim had a powerful dream last night, and I want to share it here. During the last week and half, we have driven several thousand miles relocating from Denver to DC. It’s interesting that this imagery played into the dream since we have literally seen half the country in such a short period of time.

In the dream, Kim is driving down the interstate after a long day of driving. It was early evening, but there was still enough light to see around. She was in that tired dazed state that comes when you drive long distances. It was that feeling of not really paying attention as you go along. As she was driving along, she noticed something on the side of the road that looked like road kill. Suddenly she was startled completely alert when she realized it was a baby. I don’t want to be morbid, but the baby was mangled and crumpled. Everyone else around was zipping down the highway completely ignoring it. She went a little further and there were more and more babies on the side of the road and also small children. She was completely alert at this point, and she was appalled at the complete lack of interest by the other people whizzing past. At this point she looked up at a high mountain in the distance. There was a sign on the top of the mountain like a Hollywood sign that read “God Bless America.” There was still enough light to read it, but the lights on “God Bless” were burned out. In the dream, she was left with the feeling that we cannot get weary in this desperate situation.

I believe this is a dream for the Church and not just us personally. 95% of the American Church doesn’t even talk about the abortion issue. Of the 5% that do, an even smaller percentage is engaged in some form of activity whether it’s prayer or something else. The question is this: “How long will God bless America?” How long can judgement be withheld when the blood of 46 million babies is crying out from the ground. We are living in a pivotal moment in the history of America and the Church. As we wage war in our courts to remove all mention of God and His law from this country, could it be that the blessing is fading away. We stand at a point moving into darkness when the “God Bless” is still visible, but won’t be for long. I don’t want to go into the night under a banner that just says “America" (Ps 20:7). The Church must be snapped out of her lethargic state and realize that God’s blessing on us is not automatic. It’s like we’re in cruise control completely unaware of the cares of God’s heart. BUT GOD is always for mercy. We must remember this. His desire is for repentance and mercy for America. We must plead a better blood–a blood that speaks a better word than that of Abel (Heb 12:22-24). It’s only the blood of Jesus that has paid for our sins. America needs a blood revival–not from the bloodshed of our own hands but from the revelation of the blood of Jesus. This is the light in the darkness. The light of God’s blessing is ignited by this revelation.

On The Road Again

We left DC early this morning to embark on our vacation. We're planning to visit as many friends and family as possible for the rest of the month. We just arrived back in Indianapolis. I think there might be mutiny in the ranks if we put the kids back in the car tomorrow even just to go to the grocery store. So far, here's the running tally...
Denver to Indy- 27.5 hours
Indy to Charlotte- 14 hours
Charlotte to DC- 8 hours
DC back to Indy- 13.5 hours
Living out of a car- Priceless

It's nice to have the moving part of this journey behind us. I'm really looking forward to spending the weekend with my brother Bobby and his family. The last week and a half has been a whirlwind. Some serious R&R is on the agenda for the days ahead. I just might sleep in tomorrow... if God let's me.

WiFi

It's a pretty cool morning. Maybe it's Lou Engle's bed–I don't know. I had a pretty intense dream last night about preaching. Then I woke up before 5 a.m., and for an hour and half literally felt like I got a direct download of what I was to preach for the next month. Kim and I have two or three speaking opportunities, and I have been struggling with organizing my thoughts due to all the chaos of moving. This felt like nothing less than a broadband wireless download of information. That's the only way I can describe it.

God is broadcasting. This farm has such a sweet spirit about it. Apparently, it has been prayed over for a number of years. All I can say is that it shows.

Complete Opposites

DC is the exact opposite of Denver. It has been rainy here for the last several days with heavy downpours 3-4 times a day. It finally cooled down though, so it's not too bad. We ran a lot of errands today, and got several logistical things done. We officially have a new mailing address. It's P.O. Box 15684, Washington, D.C. 20003. Write it down! Stay in touch! Send money! Just kidding. Sort of.

Tammy Faye Baker???

After some much needed rest we spent yesterday repacking the trucks and driving to DC from Charlotte. The Charlotte base is pretty cool. Big developmental plans and lots of work are in store. We got the microwave tour of the old PTL Heritage USA property. Now that’s a weird one–very surreal. In its hayday, it was the largest Christian ministry in the world. The Baker’s were on track to build an entire city down there. Now it’s like a 900-acre ghost town surrounded by golf courses and new development. Everything has been sitting vacant for about 17 years, and many of the buildings are in pretty sad shape. There have been many prophetic words that have come concerning God wanting to redeem that property and birth a massive revival and youth movement out of it. Why the old Heritage USA land? C'mon, there’s such a stigma surrounding it. One word from the Lord said that God was going to use this property because of the “widow’s mites.” (Mark 12:41-44) God still wants to honor all the small offerings that all the little old ladies sent to that ministry back in the 80’s. They weren’t for nothing! Leave it to God to raise up something wonderful from something that went so astray.

We got to DC late last night. Sarah leaves this afternoon and flies back to Denver. She’s been wonderful, and we love her more than she’ll ever know. BY THE WAY- Sarah is leaving for her second year of Master's Commission in Seattle in about a month. She is currently raising funds in order to pay for her tuition. This is an extremely worthwhile ministry and an extremely worthwhile person. If you know her, please help by making a small donation. If you don't know her and still want to help, just let me or Kim know. We’re going to try to get into downtown and do some siteseeing before she leaves. Lou and Therese Engle are letting us stay in their house while they’re gone. They’re back in California for the summer taking care of their house and some other things. It’s strange finding myself living in the house and sleeping in the bed of one of my heros of the faith. God has certainly brought us a long way from the dream he gave me almost a year ago.

Speak Lord

I don’t remember ever being this tired. We drove all night last night from Indy to Charlotte. We did pretty well with the travel, but today we found out that U-Haul decided not to honor our reservation for a storage unit. I have no idea what happened. The company was disorganized at every level. Oh well, these things happen. We spent the afternoon scrambling to find a replacement storage unit. We found one that was still close to The Cause headquarters, and we got a lot of help from some wonderful staff members. Moving our entire house again after getting no sleep has completely wiped me out. It’s actually hurting just to type right now.

I spent a lot of time last night on the road thinking about how God speaks. I’ve certainly had times in my life when I wondered why God wasn’t speaking to me, but I am more and more convinced that the Father is more than willing to speak clearly to those that desperately pursue Him. I think more often than not we mistakenly expect God to respond to our needs. Does scripture say that God responds to needs or faith? Don’t get me wrong–God has come through for my needs countless times, but it had to be out of shear mercy. It is faith that moves Him.

James 4:8 says “Come near to God and he will come near to you.” Being desperate is an eye-opening condition. When you’re desperate, you realize that you’re beyond yourself. It’s the place where you have insatiable thirst that cannot be satisfied. David understood this. “As the deer pants for the streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” (Psalm 42:1-2) Do we passively sit and wait for God to inject Himself into our needs, or do we desperately pursue Him? When and how far can I go to meet with God?

Steakburger Wonderland

Second only to leading someone to Christ is leading a friend to Steak n Shake. I thoroughly enjoyed introducing my friend Sarah to the wonderful world of steakburgers today. If you live west of the Mississippi, you may not even know that SNS is a restaurant and you definitely don’t know what you’re missing. Having been in the West for over seven years, it is my opinion that people here in the Midwest completely take this heavenly food for granted. Sarah agrees, and she has received her crown of glory.

1100 Miles Down

It has been a few days since my last entry. In the meantime, we managed to pack up the house and load up a moving truck. We just arrived at my mom’s home in Indianapolis. Oddly enough, we were able to cram a 20-hour drive into a mere 27.5 hours. Let’s start off with a good Fisher story for everyone out there keeping a log of our young man. 70 miles into the trip we stopped for our first potty break. As always, I reminded my son not to touch anything, but just do his business and make a clean getaway. I leaned over him to help him carefully execute the delicate maneuver. Turning his head upward to announce his flawless performance, he knocked my sunglasses off my collar into the urinal below. We stood motionless for a few moments, and the gentleman next to us declared, “Oooh. That sucks.” I was very fond of those glasses.

The rest of the trip was littered with similar stories to be told at another time. It was a really hard drive since we were already exhausted at the beginning, but I was looking forward to some good quiet time with the Lord. We spent the evening with my brother and his family. Now we’re just trying to get some good rest before the next leg of our trip down to Charlotte and then up to DC.

Why is it that you let your kids eat massive amounts of junk food on roadtrips that you would otherwise never let them eat?