December 2010

What a joy for Heather and I to send our warmest wishes and our faith-filled prayers to all of you this Christmas. We feel as though a new season is upon us and our greatest desire is to see God’s best blessings pour out upon you abundantly. This month I wanted to share a simple but profound word with you which I think apropos in coinciding with this new season.

With the birth of Christ, the whole world felt Heaven and Earth converge in a moment, a real event that is still affecting real people to this very day. The fact of this blessing is abundantly evident in the millions of lives changed, miracles witnessed, sacrifices of love and life throughout human history. When the blessing of God manifests, when Heaven kisses the Earth, it creates an obvious and notable change. I remember when Heather and I lived in Nicaragua. They only have two seasons there: summer and winter. Summer is HOT. Winter is HOT AND WET. Basically, it rains for six months and then it doesn’t rain for six months. After the long summer, the ground is dry, dusty and brown. Then, with the first rain, everything goes GREEN. When the heavens pour out its refreshing rain, the earth responds with life, praise... you can almost hear it sigh! That is just how it is in the spirit world. God has said that His Word is like the rain and the snow that come down from Heaven. They make the earth to bring forth and bud (Is 55:10). “So shall My Word be that goes forth out of My mouth. It shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and PROSPER in the thing whereunto I send it” (v. 11). As brother Jesse once said, “God’s power is not released when the Holy Spirit is moving, but when God is SPEAKING” (see Gen 1:2,3). The impact of God’s Word upon creation is powerful, redemptive. It causes the earth to produce its crop, its harvest. And It will not ‘return’ without accomplishing its mission, like Jesus Himself.

God’s blessing, then, comes to us like the rain (or snow depending on the season). God said, ‘I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessings Ezekiel 34:26. However, and this is an important point, showers don’t come down from cloudless skies! Vapour must first arise from the earth, collect in the air, then return as precipitation. Jesus said it this way, “What you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, what you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Mat 18:18). So then we, the people of God, must send up the vapours of prayer which gather in the heavens as clouds. God then sends the shower. It goes up invisible, returns tangible, visible. Even though what we do on earth is confirmed in heaven, God must be the Prime Mover! What does that mean? It means that He is the One who initiates all correct spiritual activity. See, He speaks a Word to us. Faith comes to us as we hear it. We return that spoken Word back to God in a believing prayer until the cloud forms, fills from saturation and breaks open pouring out its contents upon the earth. Here’s what it looks like: The prophet Elijah says, “there is a sound of abundance of rain” (1 Kings 18:41). The word for sound in this verse is the Hebrew word qol meaning ‘voice’! God was speaking RAIN. Though God said it, there still were no clouds in the sky. So the man of God went up to the mountain and prayed into cloudless skies until a “cloud the size of a Man’s hand” appeared. Then was the Word of God manifest! God said it. The man heard it. Faith came to him to pray a believing, faith-filled prayer (James 5:15-18). He told the king to eat, but he went to pray (fasting). He continued to pray into contradictory evidence until the promise manifest. Hallelujah!

This Christmas season I want to encourage you to not be put off by contradicting information... we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor 5:7). Faith comes by hearing (Rom 10:17), not by seeing. So what has God spoken to you? Take it to the mountain, fast if need-be. Pray a believing prayer and watch the living God shower you with blessings! Where is the God of Elijah? He will come to you as the rain (Hos 6:3)!!

Much love and season’s blessings,

Kevin, Heather and family

November 2010

Fall is definitely here... the days are darker and the forecast calls for rain for 13 out of the next 15 days! PTL!! Looking forward... we are preparing for Thanksgiving. It is not celebrated, of course, as an Irish holiday, but the Americans we know will get together to thank God for His providence and His bounty. He has been so good to us all.

Looking backward... we see Kids’ Fun Fest, our annual Halloween event, in full view. And what a view it is!!! It was by all accounts the best we’ve EVER done. The theme this year was: The Pirates of Hawaii! Loads of swashbuckling was to be had in the EASIEST and most fun KFF in the 10 years we’ve been doing it. Wow! The place was packed, again. Constant prayer is making a difference! The show was flawless and every detail of the night was smooth sailing. We had the happiest parents and the happiest children ever. We had more workers on the night, 68, than we’ve ever had. The costumes were amazing, the music was amazing. My wife was amazing!!!! Heather was the most beautiful Admiral in the history of Admirals! Actually, I’ve never seen an Admiral in heels till now! But, wow, she was something else. And the team was dressed to the nines, too. The pirates heave-hoed their way through the evening, kidnapping the princess for the King’s treasure and winging an adventure through Skeleton’s Cove, jungles, etc. The good guys were hot on their trail being led by God through prayer. They rescued the Princess and brought the baddies to justice: they were condemned to the DUNK TANK... which we used to raise money for the local Hospice! The highlight of the night, as always, was the “Salvation Drama”. This year’s drama was particularly powerful. Such a vivid and living parable of the message of the Gospel was acted out on the big stage before all the parents and children. Then Heather came out and delivered a terrific message before leading the crowd in a simple prayer of repentance, just like in the drama. I even took a turn in the Dunk Tank to keep the fun alive and raise a few “bob” for a local charity. All money raise at the dunk tank went to support the Galway Hospice. You wouldn’t believe how cold that water was... yikes! Afterward, we packed up, stopped for a cast party at a local burger place that stayed late for us and then dropped off all the stuff at our new facility, which we just acquired. Everyone was truly satisfied... and truly tired!

Heather and I send our love and pray that your Thanksgiving will abound with God’s great grace!

God Bless,

Kevin, Heather, Hannah, Abbey, Matthew and Elisabeth(who I call her Kit or Kitten which is short for Ciotóg, which is Irish for “left-handed”)