Love Oxford

May 15th we went to Oxford to see Heidi Baker. She came to St. Aldates for the Love Oxford event. For those of you who don't know, this is the church where Gordon Hickson is a vicar. Him and his wife Rachel Hickson of Heart Cry Ministries are dear friends of ours and we had the awesome privilege of staying at their home while we attended the many festivities of the church. Unfortunately Rachel was in the USA so we didn't get to see her, but Gordon treated us with special sit down dinners at their home even though he was extremely busy with all the events. Frankly I don't know where that couple gets all the energy to do all the things they do. We must pick up the pace. Also Rachel has another few books out that you might want to pick up and read. Check out her web page for all the info.

We spent the first day passing out fliers to a free barbecue that St. Aldates was having in the center square where worship and ministry was going on and also fliers for the Love Oxford event in South Park. That night Heidi spoke on orphans and adoption. It was a very powerful and inspirational challenge to draw closer to our Father who adopted us.

The next day was Love Oxford where many of the local churches got together for corporate worship and prayer for Oxford. The gathering was quite impressive and the weather held quite nicely as it had been raining on and off for a few days. We were joined by our good friends Lorenza from Italy who is in London for studies and her fiancee Peter. Peter and Lorenza were just engaged the day before. They make a lovely couple. Talk about people who have given their all for Jesus, spending all of their youth following the course the Lord has laid out for them to finally in their midlife find each other. What a awesome testimony of the Lords perfect timing. Check out Peter's blog, he is a wealth of information with quite a testimony. It truly is a blessing to have brethren in all parts of the world. It blesses us to be a part of the body with the same goal, to see Jesus high and lifted up and all men saved.

Wow time is flying by, can you believe it is already June? We put out a newsletter in March and since then so much has happened. We started our prayer sites in the Valdinievole area of Tuscany. This was quite exciting as we felt really led of the Lord to go to the old water sources (wells) from the Medieval times and pray that healing waters would flow into the communities. As many of you may or may not know, this region since the beginning has been fought over by the surrounding territories. Some of these communities have their start as far back as 1100 AD, so that is a long history of fighting and many years of wounds and unforgiveness. Some of these communities have only in the past 100 years been released from rival territories to be their own governed communities. Then you have the very fresh wounds from World War II. So off we went to the 11 communities starting with the furthest.

This region use to be under water or marshland, in fact you could sail a ship from Larciano which is inland about 60 km. from the sea on the waterways and all communities were on the hilltops until the very powerful Medici family started the waterways projects which dried up the marshes and allowed communities to move into the valleys. Pretty amazing, so finding these wells was quite the adventure, it isn't like they have a map showing where these are. So doing what works the best for gaining information we went to the local bar (cafes) and asked the elderly gentleman (over 70) where they were. Amazing the conversations that are started among them and the directions and stories we got. In case you didn't know, older retired gentleman congregate at the bar and just hang out, talk, play cards and basically stay away from the older woman at home.

We would find these old wells some still working, others had been capped off, some communities didn't have them anymore, others had cisterns where water was stored since they were on rock, others were hidden around the corner and up the hill, but they were all there. Some communities had several where others only had 1. We went to all and prayed and made the proclamation that healing water would flow into the communities, some the Lord gave us scriptures to speak over them (PS. 24). We poured oil and wine over the spots and then took communion together. We just finished Tuesday which was Italy's day of the Republic.
One story we want to share that was just so awesome for us was on another Italian Holiday, Liberation Day. It has been raining here since October and since we are on a scooter we really have to go and pray when the weather is not a downpour and when we are not at work and those weren't lining up to well. This Saturday was perfect, we had already prayed at 5 communities and we were now at ours. We went up to Montecatini Alto and when we past the old gates. I really felt we should stop and pray but decided to go up to the top, to the fort and church and pray, which we did, there was a few wells up there.

Than coming down we passed the gates again and I felt we should stop and told Guido to turn around. There was a water source (all communities have them, water spout coming out of a wall or something). I turned on the water to see if it was working and a young man saw me and asked if the water was drinkable, which it is. He than came over and filled a bottle and Guido told him we were there praying over the water and that just opened up a whole conversation and the long and short of it we lead him to the Lord, prayed for him to receive the Holy Spirit, called a friend and got him a place to stay for a few days, took him to church the next day, or should I say he drove us to church since it was pouring rain. This is one liberation day this young man will never forget.

For 3 days we ministered to him and poured love, encouragement, prayer and teaching into him and than he disappeared. We know that a seed was planted into a young man who came here from Rome for refuge got more than he was looking for. He not only got refuge, he got set free and although he isn't totally out of the prison, at least the chains were broken. He has some work to do but he has our number, he has a bible, he has some teaching and he has the Holy Spirit and we know that the Lord found him. Now were off to pray the Green Line.

We were in Rimini a few weeks ago at a conference and went over to Fano which is the start of the Green Line, which for you war buffs was a supply line for the Germans against the allied forces that stretched from Coast to Coast in Italy, over 300 km. The locals told us that the bridge in their city was the first that the Germans blew up to prevent anyone from crossing. It was bombed also by the allied forces. The Germans destroyed a lot of it when they left. We walked across the new bridge which has a memorial on all 4 sides and prayed and asked that the Lord would send His healing across this land and that a spiritual gateway to Italy would be open and that any doorways of death and unforgiveness would be closed.

Across this 300 km. stretch was the most intense fighting outside of France to occur. Allied forces from many nations, America, Canada, Poland, etc. fought and died along with the Italian Resistance Army who opposed the Germans. It was a blood bath and many innocent non military people were killed during this time. In fact this is a very fresh wound in this region. Many wonder if this isn't the reason for so much spiritual death in the Tuscany and Emilio Romagna zone. Churches just can't seem to take hold here and find so much resistance.

We actually tripped over this information when getting a map at a local bookstore for the Tuscan region as we felt the Lord was leading us to pray in specific areas. This lone map on the battle fields of Italy peaked Guido's curiosity and he bought it and brought it home. We have never ever seen this map before or ever heard about this information. Apparently it is part of the history that many want to forget, but some of the locals have been reviving some of the old history by monuments to the dead, museums and websites so that others might be aware and remember and pray for the healing in this land. If you have information regarding this Green Line (Gothic Line) or know of anyplace we can get more please email us.

it's been a while

wow it's been active over here aside from our own personel stuff ie family, finances and work.

God has really started to shake the natives in our neck of the woods, local church has reponded to the holy spirit and to teachings. it brings me to tears to see people being freed from chains

i'm not as chatty as joyce but just thought to relay this to you