This month’s newsletter features:
- Thoughts From Our Director, Michael Hindes
- Feature Story: Sold for $60 (Telling the Story Changes the Story)
- Upcoming World Races
- Stories From The Field
- Featured Videos
Thoughts From Our Director
Healing? | Michael Hindes
… Am I missing something? I’m in the Gospels again and I keep running across these kinds of verses. Is there a deeper contextual meaning that eludes a simple man like me?
Read these verses below. Doesn’t it appear that Jesus walked with an overwhelming healing anointing, actually paid for healing by His atoning sacrifice, and expects us to walk in even greater works than He did?
Matthew 8:16-17: When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: “He Himself took our infirmities / And bore our sicknesses”.Matthew 9:35: Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.John 14:11-14: Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves. “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.
So what do you think?
Why is it so hard for us to believe that He heals? Why are our expectations so low when it comes to the miraculous? Does our life experience define reality and truth?
God has touched my life several times with physical healing. I have seen him heal hundreds of people all around the world, yet I still seem slow to go to Him when I’m in need? Why is this?
What (if any) has been your experience?
Featured Story
Sold for $60 | Marisa Rodriguez and Tiffany Berkowitz
In the Philippines two years ago, Marisa met Michael Angelo in a Manila dump (literally). At three years old, he was sold for $60, bought by a pimp in Japan. Marisa played a part in intervening for Michael Angelo, who was saved from trafficking and got to stay with his family. A World Race supporter had read Marisa’s blog and along with her family ended up sponsoring Michael Angelo and his family. This month, Tiffany Berkowitz and her squad were in the Philippines and got to follow up on Michael Angelo.
Upcoming Trips
July 2011 World Race
Beginning this July, go to eleven countries – South America, Eastern Europe, Southern Africa and Southeast Asia – for eleven months. For more information on the route and to apply, click here.
August 2011 World Race
The route has yet to be determined but you can go ahead and begin the application process. Keep checking this page; the route will be revealed soon!
Stories From The Field
Raising the Dead & Blessing Those Who Mourn
In Matthew 10:8, we read that Jesus instructed His disciples to, “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.” Here are some stories of what our Racers have learned as they’ve confronted death.
Prayers for a Dead Woman and The Things I Learned | Marlena Griffey
…A Filipino woman who was a part of the ministry center we are working with here in Manila died of cancer. Her name was Marisol, she was 28 years old and left behind four young children and a husband… the next day, fifty of us walked up the hill to Marisol’s house, laid hands on her, and asked the Lord to raise her up. Craziest thing I have ever been a part of, for sure. But after two hours of the most powerful prayer I have experienced in this lifetime, I couldn’t help but think it was also the most God-filled thing I have ever been a part of…The Day My Life Changed | Stephanie Webster
…We had been told by our contact [Pastor Gideon] that a girl had passed away on Sunday and that her sister attended his church, so we were going to possibly be a part of the girl’s funeral service…The funeral was different but similar. There was a viewing of the casket, there were speeches and prayers said. All of the girl’s classmates were there, so they sang and even had an active role in the proceedings.
Nothing from that was too life changing or altering. But the way the girl died stuck with me.
…It turns out that the Thursday or Friday before, she had fallen or hit something at school… By Sunday she was dead. It turns out that she had internal bleeding that was not seen because of the lack of electricity during her initial observations.
Touching the Dead | Samantha Moor
I have never seen a dead body before.In America we don’t interact with death like they do in other countries. The dinning room was cleared and in the center of this cold cramped Romanian row house lay the body of a slight elderly woman. She was adorned with a headscarf and scraps of beautiful fabric; flowers lay at her feet and a picture of Jesus lay across her folded arms.
I was surprised to find I was not scared.
Our contact Becky began to share with the family about how before this elderly woman had passed she had tears running down her paralyzed face as she squeezed Becky’s hand to say “Yes” to the Holy Spirit.
All I could do was pray. First, as most any curious World Racer does, I prayed to see her come back to life…
Featured Videos
Things I Never Knew | Team Habibi & Team Liberators
The Q and R squads were challenged to produce a video based on the prompt, “Things I Never Knew”.
The winning production from the Q Squad came from Team Habibi:
And from the R squad, Team Liberators emerged victorious with this video:
