What a fascinating weekend in the life of the Body of Christ.

“But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” (1 Corinthians 12:24-26)

Devotions every morning; breaking bread together with prayer and communion; building the ‘bird on a branch’ boxes to give to neighbors along with some yummy cookies and a promise to be there for them if needed; making masks; receiving aluminum cans and crushing them for the Harvest Kids; building cabinets; watching the Harvest Kids enjoying the new playground; building chicken coops; watching videos of new believers being baptized in Africa; sharing and receiving testimonies from Mexico, El Salvador, Alert Bay, BC, Kenya, DRCongo, Uganda, Burundi, Pierce County, the Harvest Vision ministry in Curlew, the greenhouse farming project on the Samish River, the farming project in west Mt. Vernon and meeting the needs – including trips to the doctor and hospital – for those that are living alone. Thanks to our faithful co-laborers that pray and financially support helping prepare and equip these saints to do the work that God has set apart for them, we will be able to send financial support to our co-laborers in Mexico and El Salvador in the morning. 

We are blessed to be co-laborers with pastors and leaders from different parts of the world that are facing the reality of witnessing people they have been called to serve suffer because of no food, water or medical help. This is especially true for countries in Asia and Africa and their requests for prayers and support through Whats App, Messenger or emails are endless and you can feel the reality of the pain they live with every day. They represent about 2.5 billion of the world’s population. Our prayers are with them and the message to them is simply:

It is difficult to witness so many suffering in the world, but God created the world and mankind not planning that our journey on earth would be fair or without suffering or that we would choose to remain here forever. Each person’s journey here has been established by God and our response to it, fair or not, will determine whether we believe in His love and omnipotent power. His ways and His thoughts are higher than ours. We know that what He could prevent with His power, He allows in His wisdom. His promise and provision for us lies in His Word.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is My Word that goes out from My Mouth: It will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:8-11)

Most people will not choose to believe.

Those of us that choose to believe in Christ have the promise of eternal life.

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people and God Himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Rev 21:1-4)

“Lord Jesus, we lift up every believer around the world that is being tempted to give up on the promise. We pray that they will choose to allow Your Holy Spirit to give them the power to overcome doubt and fear and be a witness to the truth of Your goodness, and that many people that are in Your Presence will come to faith in You and the promise of eternal life that You willingly died to make possible for us. Empower your servants to overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony so they may not love themselves so much as to shrink from death. Open their eyes that they may see the hills full of horses and chariots of fire and know that those who are with us are more than those who are against us.  In Jesus Name, Amen.” (Rev 12:11 & 2 Kings 6:8-23) 

    We are so thankful for Blake & Kylee Walker who along with a myriad of other responsibilities like maintaining a marriage, being parents and home schooling three children and running two businesses, also serve the Lord as the liaisons to Harvest Vision Ministries in Snohomish County. This includes sharing with other parents and guardians the vision of the Harvest Kids which was started with Madilyn and Hailey’s desire to help young orphan girls in central Africa have a bed to sleep in instead of sleeping on the floor of the school. That desire became a reality to Blake and Kylee and quickly involved other families and continues to bring these young people together to learn how to be true disciples, helping their own community and meeting the basic needs of children in Africa for over 7 years. The kids have raised and donated over $37,000 to purchase mosquito nets, beds, medicine, school supplies, provide clean water and land to farm and built toilets and schools.

    Thanks to everyone that helped expand this vision and get this little project completed. Now we need the pea gravel and the garden planted.

    The world sees it as a playground.

    To those of us that have a kingdom perspective – it’s not a playground – it is a battleground.

We hope and pray that everyone that visits will find a relationship with our Father in heaven.