God's favour / Prayer points

Around 24 hours to go before I fly out. It was good to be at the church prayer meeting last night especially as people prayed for me and the trip.

Each time I have been to this country I have seen God's favour and this time is no different. When I planned what I needed for this trip I realised I would need God's help. I calculated how much I could reasonably save and estimated how much I would need to earn in overtime along with praying that a certain amount would come in donations.

The overtime I get from my workplace is sporadic so I prayed and from that point there was plenty of overtime available. What made it all the more remarkable was when there was nothing available for anyone else and I was still asked to come in on a Saturday. {It was like they were finding things for me to do!}. The amount I needed to earn this way came in faster than I estimated. I've also had enough in donations to comfortably cover expenses. It was not as much as I had originally planned for but with other costs going down and the extra money coming in through overtime work it has turned out to be just right. God knows what He is doing.

My only remaining concern was over this final week of work {I fly out on Friday evening on an overnight flight}. All the extra work leaves me tired and I could really do with an easier schedule at work this week. Again no problem. Last week my supervisor came to me and told me....That's it! No more overtime. We have no more available......So all the extra work came in just as I needed it and as all costs were covered and I needed a break from overtime before I fly out it suddenly stops. There are coincidences and there are 'God-incidences'. Praise God, I am already excited about what is going to happen on this trip and my level of faith and expectation is rising.

POINTS FOR PRAYER # Pray that the journeys would go without any problems.
# Pray also that I would get rid of a cold I have had for the past week.
# Pray regarding my plans to go to Romania later this year {I know, I know. I'm not even on the plane yet and I'm thinking about the next trip but when I was there last summer it was very much on my heart to return and to one place in particular.} Pray for God's guidance and favour in His purposes.

God bless you...steve

INTERCESSORS GUIDE

INTRO...

Hi. This guide is especially for those who can't get onto the online guide I advertised by facebook and hotmail earlier. Here you will find all the prayer details you need.

WHO I'M WORKING WITH...

During my time in Kenya I will be working with 'Jubilation Ministries' which is headed by Bishop Samuel Kazungu. His ministry is based in Mombasa and he has some other churches planted in the region which I will also be visiting and ministering at.

TIMELINE....

Friday evening 15th April - fly out from uk
saturday 16th - catch domestic flight from Nairobi to Mombasa
Sunday 17th - Begin ministry at Bishop Samuel's church
monday 18th to friday 22nd - Lunch hour meetings at Mombasa city church daily at 12:30pm Kenyan time
Friday 22nd to Sunday 24th - Three day gospel crusade at MARIAKENI
During 2nd week - Crusade at Mombasa MAWENI slum area for 4 days
During 3rd week - Crusade at UKUNDA for 4 days and morning seminars {including prayer ministry for the sick}
Saturday 7th May - Fly back to Nairobi to catch late night flight back to uk.
Early Sunday morning - Arrive back in the u.k {Who knows. You might even see me at the morning service at M.P!}

The gospel crusades will include preaching, teaching and prayer ministry. The timeline and events are subject to a degree of adaptation. Africans are a lot more relaxed about schedules than we are. I will endeavour to keep you updated with changed via this blog.

THE CHURCHES...

All of the churches I am working with are part of Jubilation Ministries. They are Pentecostal churches with an emphasis on spiritual gifts {prophecy, healing ect}. There is a strong emphasis on a personal encounter and empowering with the Holy Spirit. The churches also place a strong emphasis on revival, the message of grace and getting that message out to others. All of the churches {Mariakeni, Maweni and Ukunda} are in or close to Mombasa on the coast of Kenya.

SPIRITUAL CLIMATE/CHALLENGES

The regions churches are surrounded by African traditional practices and religion. Islam is also the most popular religious grouping in the area. Their is much poverty in the region with connected social problems. Mombasa is a tourist destination with a thriving prostitution industry and a sky high H.I.V infection count. Mombasa used to be a thriving port city but is in long term decline. There is a clear spiritual hunger among the people which cuts right across the religious and social spectrum and there is a tendency to respond earnestly to the message of the gospel. However, Muslim converts are often fearful of violent reprisals, being thrown out of the family home and even death if their conversion became known. There is, therefore, considerable difficulty in many of them living openly as Christians and attending a church yet they still respond to the call of the gospel.
Churches in Mombasa have a reputation of standing together and working together. Noise pollution regulations have made street outreach difficult yet in Mombasa churches have found favour with the authorities on the issue.

GENERAL PRAYER POINTS...

Firstly, don't forget to pray for yourselves and the other intercessors. God is able to inspire you to pray the right thing at the right time. Pray for sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. I also encourage you to be open to any leading or prompting of God at any time. God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly more than we ask or think. I will remember you all in prayer as well.

Some useful things to pray for.

# For all arrangements to go to plan prior to and during the mission. {and if they don't, that it will be a 'divine' diversion}

# For all financial needs to be met. {God has already shown favour in this area}

# For God's covering and protection both physically and spiritually, for travelling mercies and blessings of health for all involved in the mission.

# For a clear awareness of God will and leading throughout.

# For the word of God to go forth unhindered and for it to bear much fruit that abides in the hearts of the hearers.

# For divine inspiration in preparation. Pray that the words to speak as I preach and teach and minister at altar calls. {I believe God has already prompted me to major on the Beatitudes as the main subject of the meetings} Pray that people would connect with the message and would experience the life of Christ in a personal way}

# For an anointing upon myself and all who minister with me. Pray for the operation of spiritual gifts so that the church would be edified and built up in the faith. Pray particularly for healing gifts, words of wisdom, knowledge, discerning of spirits ect {1 Corinthians ch 12+14}

# Pray for a supernatural favour with everyone I meet and minister to. Pray for clear communication and God's hand upon the interpreters.

# For God's 'shalom' peace and His grace upon us. For unity among us and that we would work together well.

# Pray for a release of faith among the people to believe God for all He wants to achieve.

# Pray for a plenteous harvest of souls. {If the fields are white unto harvest anywhere it is in Mombasa}

# For the bringing down of strongholds of witchcraft, occult spirits, spirits of false religion, Antichrist, and every evil thing. Pray that God would break the yoke of bondage from all who are oppressed and blinded by the enemy. Pray that people would get a revelation of the gospel, our liberty in Christ, His power to save and deliver.

# and finally {and most importantly} that in all things, in thoughts, in words and deeds, my work and this mission would be to the glory of God.


As I conclude, I just want to thank all of those people reading that have committed themselves to standing with me in prayer. I believe this is the specific time God wanted me to come to Kenya and that there are specific things He wants me to do. May you know God's favour, inspiration, blessing and strength and you stand for His kingdom.

With love in Christ Jesus...Steve Johnson

Intercessors

The first time I flew out to Kenya I had several people promising to support me daily in prayer. The second time was closer to 20 and this time the figure is well over 30. Praise God!
I picked up my passport today with the visa approved. {a formality but exciting nonetheless} and I've booked my flight tickets. The only downside is that the price went up £40 on last night when I checked it. It's still below what I originally thought I'd have to pay and I've found a much cheaper airline for the internal flight from Nairobi to Mombasa.
On a related note I saw that if I bought my main flight ticket from 'Egypt air' I could have saved £140! I have a sneeking suspicion that this is because no man in his right mind would touch Egypt air right now given the situation in the country and in neighbouring Libya! Tempting but I'd rather not take the risk.

11 days to go!!!!!

regards...steve

Intercession

During my past two visits there have been people back home praying for me while I have been in Kenya. There can be no doubt that prayer makes a powerful difference. While we know that it is the hand of God that works and does the things man cannot do we also know that God commands us to pray and that there are many things that God will only do in response to prayer. In that sense, prayer moves the hand of God. This teaches us to trust and rely on Him

Below is a link to an intercessors guide which I typed up for this mission trip. If you would like to pray daily for me while the mission is going on then put this link into your address bar at the top of your screen. {I'm hoping it works!}

"The fervent effectual prayers of a righteous man avail much"




https://cid-6a472012a6bed445.office.live.com/view.aspx/mombasa%202011.docx?Bsrc=Docmail&Bpub=SDX.Docs

Miraculous leading

It was way back in September last year that I planned this years mission work [or at least the dates for them.} I decided to try to combine statutory holidays and holiday entitlements to give me a full six weeks to use for missions in 2011. That made the Easter period vital so I put in for time off during this period. However, there was a problem.

No matter how I tried to calculate it I was left a day short of six weeks for 2011. It just didn't work yet I had a sense that this was what God wanted me to do. I put in an application for two weeks off during Easter and another week off at the end of may to coincide with the bank holiday. The rest would be used at the latter end of 2011.

I felt quite urgently to put the application in at the time although no applications at my work place for 2011 would be considered until the start of January. Again this didn't seem to make sense but I just did what I felt God wanted me to do regarding the Easter application.

GOD SEES THE ROAD AHEAD : Later on in the year the date of the royal wedding was announced. It would be during the time I was due to be away in Kenya! This means that day would count as another statutory holiday leaving me with another day of holiday entitlement spare making my total time I can take for missions add up to six whole weeks!

Now bear in mind my maths is pretty good yet even I can't take into account future changes. Yet God knows all about those and factored them in. Sometimes the things God asks us to do don't 'add up' at the time yet God sees the whole picture whereas we are looking at it from one point in time. God's view is an ETERNAL ONE. That was not the only evidence of God's hand on this though.

Several days into the new year many of us were called into a meeting with our supervisor who told us that all holiday applications for the Easter period would not be considered except for those already accepted! I turns out that many people were trying to take advantage of the numerous statutory holidays of that period to book extended holidays. Had the company accepted all those requests they would have been hopelessly short staffed. Now it all began to make sense. I am notoriously late doing things and am very much a 'late minute man'. To book this time off so early was very unusual for me and I did it only because I felt so stirred in my heart with a sense of urgency to do it. Again I can only thank God who knew and saw the whole picture. God knows what He is doing and I have no doubt that he wants me back in Kenya at this time.

God bless you...Steve

I will be flying out to Kenya in less than a month now and will be preaching and ministering at a series of gospel crusades in and around the coastal city of Mombasa.

A gospel crusade is where a group of christians have a meeting together with the specific purpose of inviting others especially non christians. There is singing and an invited speaker gives an address with an evangelistic emphasis. There is usually a time for prayer at the end especially for those who are sick or ill in some way.

Gospel crusades are usually quite exciting times as the church prepares and prays expectantly in anticipation of God doing something special. Often these meetings are marked by people coming to faith in Christ, reaffirming a commitment they made to Christ in the past and miraculous answers to prayer especially in the area of healing.

I will be working with Bishop Samuel Kazungu who leads Jubilation Ministries in Mombasa and will be working in a few of his churches in Mariakani, Makeni and Ukunda.

The last time I was in Mombasa we saw many wonderful things happen. The people are so hungry for spiritual things and are very open and sincerely responsive to the gospel. This is true regardless of background, whether Christian, muslim or traditional African religious belief. They often have a great faith for miracles of healing. We saw many on our last trip to Kenya. During the five week mission last year only one week was spent in Mombasa but that is where we saw most of the conversions and testimonies of healing. One young girl had a serious heart condition which stopped her from running around with other children. Her family wanted to take her to the capital, Nairobi, for heart surgery. We prayed for her and when I got back to England I received an email letting me know she had been given the all clear and the condition had completely disappeared. An older woman we met in her home in the slum areas had suffered from what appeared to be arthritis for years yet was healed as we prayed for her.

Mombasa is an open door for the gospel and God is clearly doing something remarkable in that city, even by Kenyan standards. One of the things that impressed me was the commitment of the churches to work together. This is something I believe has in part contributed to the favour God has shown them. Tommorow a number of people in our church are meeting together before the service to pray for the mission trip. I am starting to get very excited. Wish I was going sooner.

regards...steve

Here we go again - Mombasa 2011

Yes!!!! I'm going back again!
This time it will be Mombasa for three weeks ministering with Bishop Samuel Kazungu of Jubilation ministries. He is organising a series of Gospel Crusade meetings with lunchtime meetings thrown in. Each week I will be at a different church in the Mombasa area. Hopefully I will see some of the other people I became friends with during my last time in the city. I will be flying over there in April. I'm getting excited just thinking about it. I can't wait to see what God will do.

I will be back on here every several days with more news ect and every couple of days or so during the mission which starts on Sunday April 17th.

God bless you...steve