LAST WEEK IN THE USA
This week is going to be intense. Tuesday through thursday I will be leading a School of Prophets in Madill, OK. This is where we teach on hearing God's voice and help people to learn how to move in the gifts of the spirit, especially with prophecy (1 Cor. 14:1).

Thursday morning they are having a missions chapel at Southwestern Christian University where I get to be the guest speaker. Then on Saturday, again in Madill, we are going to have a day (10 am-5pm) of prayer and fasting. That is going to be an awesome day of seeking God's presence, power, and voice for our lives, families, churches, and cities.

Sunday I get to speak in a church in Broken Arrow, a hispanic church in Purcell, OK, and one in OKC. Then monday I get to climb onto a plane and come home to my sweet wife and children. Only 8 more nights of sleeping and I will be home to Amsterdam....but there are just a few things to do in between then and now...:-)

Ministry at Evangelistic Temple
Yesterday I had the honor and priviledge at preaching 2 services in English and one in spanish at the church I grew up in in Tulsa. All three services had healings take place. After the second service a woman came up to me and thanked me for praying for her healing but most importantly thanked me because she said her trust in God was restored.

In the spanish service there were a whole lot of healings from back, knees, arms, etc. Nearly everyone we prayed for in the spanish service was healed. I shared from Acts 16 and Matthew 10 about being a missionary (apostolic) church. When I got to Luke 11:9 which says, "Heal the sick and tell them, 'The Kingdom of God has come unto you.,'" I started praying for the sick and they started getting healed.

What I also really enjoy is not just that this is my home church, but that I have a team of 1st year students from ORU who are traveling with me and they are praying for the sick and seeing them healed and they are prophesying and people are being touched. I am having a really great time.

SPEAKING PROPHETICALLY Although the word prophecy conjures up a weird man with a big stick that is foretelling the future, the new testament picture of prophecy is very different. Essentially it is hearing God's voice and then sharing what you feel God is saying to someone else. 1 Cor. 14:1 says that we should desire spiritual gift ESPECIALLY that we should prophesy.

This year I have by faith started speaking out what I felt God saying to people: prophesying. Some awesome things have happened. Yesterday for example, in Wewoka, OK, the entire football team was present at a church service. Without knowing it, I picked out the quarterback and told him that God had called him to lead and that others look to him for leadership.

The Bible clearly says that prophecy should always be for people's edification, exhortation and comfort. Obviously a prophetic word should never contradict scripture...if it does then it is not from God.

At every meeting, I share words that I feel God is giving to people. The end result is that people are encouraged and their faith level goes up. I love to declare the word of the Lord over people. Humbly and with great care, but also full of faith that God will fill my mouth as I speak to people.

HEALINGS, HEALINGS, AND MORE HEALINGS.
Last week, I started giving words of knowlegde for healing for people. The first time I did it was on a television program. That night, I preached in a church in Blanchard where someone's back and something else was healed. (I'm forgetting already).

Then saturday I started the day by giving a word of knowledge to someone on facebook and his right foot was healed after I called him and prayed for him. That night in Ponca City, God healed a woman's wrist and leg.

Sunday morning in Ada, Ok was AWESOME!! A couple people with back problems were healed. When I said that someone with a injured right ankle/foot would be healed...a woman stood up and said that it was impossible for here to be healed because she had a metal rod and pins in her ankle. All pain left after we prayed for her. A woman with carpal tunnel syndrome was healed. I prayed for a man with head aches for healings...and then later that night there were more healings at Oil Center where again, wrists, knees, bones spurs, shoulders and other things were healed. Mostly they were immediately healed after I prayed for them, but somethimes it would take 2 or 3 times of prayer.

Last wednesday, 3 or 4 people with a deaf ear were healed. Amazingly, someone who was not present but who we prayed for was healed. His mother sms'ed a message 5 minutes after we prayed for him and said that he was at the doctor's office and that suddenly his hearing was perfect. They did not know that we had just prayed for him.

This morning it was the same. I spoke at a youth rally in OKC of hispanic kids and a couple kid's knees were healed, a man's hand was healed and a guys elbow was healed of pain. Then this evening in claremore, I prayed for shoulders. 3 or 4 men were instantly healed. There was one guy who seemed to still have some pain. The cool thing is that I have a friend of mine (Andrew Balla) coming with me and he is now starting to pray for the sick and believing that he too can hear God's voice. Tommorrow we go to a couple of other churches and we expect to see more people touched through God's healing hand. God healed me as a child of cerebral palsey, and now I am excited to see God use my life to bring his healing power into other people's lives. I humbly thank God that I get to see this taking place.

The Value of Hearing from God
A dermatologist friend of mine, Steven A. Smith, here in Tulsa shared a story with me about how hearing God has changed his life and business. Many years ago, in prayer, his wife heard the two words "Bromide and Nickel". To make a long story short, these were the elements he used to develop a new medicine for psoriasis and acne. Now, Loma Lux is sold in pharmacies all over the world as a teatment for psoriasis. http://www.lomalux.com/dermatologist-steven-a-smith-loma-lux-story

Amos Landers was layed off a long time ago from his job. He asked God what to do and he heard "Wash Windows." He now has a business which washes many of the large high rises in Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Stillwater, etc. You can see a video where he tells about it at http://www.landerswc.com/ This man is my friend and a great blessing to my life here in Oklahoma.

Then there is George Washington Carver. This man revolutionized the agricultural world through his scientific breakthroughs. He discovered over 100 products derived from a peanut. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_Carver) Part of the way he did his research was together with God. He would fast and pray and ask God to show him all the different reasons that he had made the peanut. His legacy as a scientist and a follower of Jesus are amazing.

This year I have experienced God speaking to me in amazing ways. Five minutes ago I was chatting with a friend on facebook when I suddenly asked him if he had pain in his right foot. (He is in a city 3 hours from me and I did not know he had pain in his right foot). He answered, Wow, yes I do. I called him up and prayed for him. All the pain is gone.

Hearing God's voice not only helps us be better fathers, husbands, workers, etc...but it enables us to bring the reality of God's kingdom (His love, voice, and power to heal) into individuals lives. Just this week I have begun giving what the bible would call words of knowledge to people and every time...people have been healed. God is soooo awesome. When I have sensed something, I have stepped out and said something (this takes courage) and God has moved. Hearing God's voice does not just bring value to our lives and society, but it is also a whole lot of fun. Something anyone can do who has a personal relationship with God through Jesus.

New Video

Please click on the following link to see our latest video "Making God's Love Tangible in Amsterdam West.

It is a large file, so it may take a little to get started. ENJOY!

This week we had a fantastic week! Wednesday we had 50+ kids and mothers (We have been growing each week and the room is already too small where we are sitting). Someone had given us a large amount of marshmellows. Therefore we were going to give them out to the kids and play some games where the kids were going to eat marshmellows. Problem was, muslim kids are not allowed to eat marshmellows (gelatin may have pieces of lard). Only one girl was not muslim, so we could not have the boys play against the girls because of it.

I love living in Amsterdam West where we have such a diversity of cultures present. Our lesson wednesday was about Justice. We told the story of Jews being discriminated in WWII (Anne Frank Story and Corrie ten Boom) and then we told of the discrimination of South Africa's Apartheid and the USA's Jim Crowe's laws. Nelson Mandela and Rosa Parks were stories we shared about people who stood for justice with non-violence.

As we concluded, we challenged the kids to not talk badly about other cultures and people groups. There we have Dutch kids, Morrocans, Turkish, Surinamese, Africans, etc. We told them not to label other people groups (those morrocans or Dutch, christians or muslims, etc...) and not to let other people talk bad about people like that as well. We hear these kind of generalizations all the time. The challenge was to reach out to people different that yourself and to see how much we can learn by befriending children and people of different cultures/backgrounds.

The next day I ate a meal at a Morrocan neighborhood center. I was one of the few white people present and we ate a bunch of sea food with our hands. Our morrocan friends mostly do not use silverware and they are really big on relationships. These were just a few of our highpoints of the week.

Neil Cole's book Organic Church years ago majorly influenced the way that I do ministry. Joseph Myers book Organic Community gives some more helpful how to's behind the entire concept of being organic and "creating a place where people naturally connect." Here are some of his ideas:
1) "Move from a master plan to an organic order." Not everything has to be planned and detailed ahead of time. There is an order which already exists even among what may seem like chaos. Our job is then to discover it and work with it.
2) Patterns: "There is no oneway or pattern that leads to success in ministry. there are different models that work in different circumstances.
3) Measurement- Numbers don't tell full story, stories help to make a better picture of what is taking place.
4) Resources are in the harvest
5) Enjoy the process of building community. These are just a few of a bunch of other's idea I plucked from Myers'book.

The Fulton Street Revival: A Revival Birthed Out of A Prayer Meeting (Click on title to read full article on this prayer meeting.

IFulton Street revival that lasted from 1857-1859. In those 3 years every single church in New York City grew by over 50%, 1/3 of Ireland (100,000/300,000) came to Christ, and more than a a half million people came to Christ in the US during those 3 years.

Tim Keller in a sermon regarding this revival speaks about the one element that is found in every single revival/awakening in the OT, NT, and throughout Church History. He describes that as "Kingdom Centered Prayer" or "Frontline Prayer." It is Corporate, Intensive, Prevailing (doesn't stop), Kingdom centered prayer.

Three elements he describes are 1) Request for the grace to confess and repent from sins. (This triggers more of God's presence and it is repentence born out of the joy and assurance of God's Love. 2) Compassion and zeal for flourishing of the church. That mechanical worship of God is replaced by a 2 way relationship. 3) Yearning to know God and see his face and his glory.

Karen’s Story“Ever since I met you guys, my life has changed so much. Six months ago, I was full of doubt and did not know what I believed about God or if I would ever go to a church again. Now I find myself talking to God all day long and thoroughly enjoy being inspired every week when we get together.”
Karen had grown up going to church, but around seven years ago quit. She stopped going because the view she received of God was not one of love. Her upbringing was very legalistic and she felt looked down upon if she did not believe like everyone else around her. People who did not belong to there group or were from different religions were seen as enemies, particularly Muslims. Karen was very confused about God, the church, and her own self-worth. Disappointed, she stopped going to church full of doubt and insecurity not wanting to have anything to do with the kind of religious and unloving God presented to her.
Karen first came in contact with a member of our church at an Iftar meal, a dinner during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, hosted by Muslims. That lady told her openly and excitingly about her church (New Life West). She was surprised to find Christians who did not fear Muslims, but who shared with them and called them their friends. Still it took her six months to actually visit our church for the first time. Since then, God has been doing a radical change in her view of herself, of the church and of God. She has experienced Christ’s unconditional love and grace in her life which motivates her to not fear or doubt about God, but grow in an intimate and personal relationship with him.

Baby Dedications
Another milestone for our church this year was of dedicating our son Levi along with two other babies. That day was a celebration of not only their lives, but also a celebration of our church. On that day, the large school room we use for monthly celebrations was filled with family members, friends, and neighbors who came to witness this memorable day. One person commented, “I have been praying for years for a church in our community in which I would feel comfortable bringing my neighbors and friends who don’t know Christ yet. Now that prayer is being answered.”

A Great ‘Problem’
This last year, we had a problem in that our house was too full with people coming to our church on Sunday. However, we decided that instead of renting a building every Sunday for a service, we would take our one church and multiply it into three. This multiplication has been great and brought us into contact with new people in a very personal setting, a home. Perhaps what makes this most special is to see the people who are a part of our church. We love to sit in a home full of individuals like Karen, who have come to know Christ in the last six month to two years through our church. These people are individuals whom we have poured our lives into and now are overjoyed to hear them express their love for Christ. They are in one sense our spiritual children and we believe that their faith in Christ will cause more people to come to know Christ’s and his unconditional love.

We want to thank you for being a part of our ministry and lives here in Amsterdam. It is your generous support and prayers which keep us here sharing God’s unconditional love to the people around us. Thank you very much and God bless.

Matthew, Femke, Judah, Hannah, and Levi Helland

Apostolic/Prophetic Day of Prayer and Fasting

"You are to be a strategic, informed intercessors who know the nations...from this time forth, according to the word of the Lord, you are to be a people who go to and from in the earth with nations in your heart...you are a doorway to the nations." (Prophetic word posted on www.iphc.org about 5 years ago).

A friend of mine who is a church planter in The Hague, Holland told me a story once about a team of intercessors who came and visited him many years ago. This team went to six different locations of his city and started praying over those places. As they prayed for each one of those locations, they started praying things regarding the history of each location that they had no way of knowing. My friend, Ronald van de Molen, had studied those areas and knew what they were stating was true. He was amazed at the preciseness of what they prayed, yet what seemed to amaze him even more was that a couple years later, in each one of those 6 places in the city, a new church sprung up. It was as if their prayers were making the way for a new congregation to be started in that area.
My home country,The Netherlands (Holland) is a nation with a rich Christian heritage which like most of Western Europe has been labeled as secular and post-Christian. This can be evidenced in Amsterdam, where large churches and monuments testify to that heritage, yet less than 3% of the population goes to a church on Sundays. The influence of immigration has caused that the major religion in Amsterdam is Islam, and not Christianity. It is almost as if the effects of secularization have stopped up the historic wells of Christian faith to where now very few people have a chance to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.
In Genesis 26:18 we read a story which describes a similar scenario. “Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them.”
This is a great picture of what I believe we are to do concerning the Christian heritage of The Netherlands and throughout Europe. We are to unstop the ancient wells which gave refreshment and life to so many by revisiting the core of the message of Jesus Christ and making it relevant and tangible to our generation. This is not an easy task, yet it is one that begins with prayer.
Three years ago, we hosted the first IPHC day of prayer and fasting for the Northwest region of Europe in Amsterdam. That weekend Todd Presley, a missionary from Wales, spent 3 days praying and fasting in a home near our house. The first person that we baptized just happened to be someone who lives in the next building across to the building where he stayed for those days. It could be just a coincidence, but I believe that God somehow used those prayers at that location to bring this woman in contact with us, but more importantly with Himself.
Since that first day, we have had days of prayer and fasting in Brussels, London, Paris, and London. The idea is that every 6 months we will meet in a major city of Western Europe in order to be a part of praying that God’s “Kingdom come and his will be done in that city and nation.” This is why we describe these days as Apostolic as we believe that we are following the footsteps of the first disciples in going to new places and praying over them in order to activate and accelerate God’s work in that area.
The reason that we call these days prophetic, is because when we intentionally set aside days for seeking God and speaking to him we can expect him to speak back. This is at the core of the prophetic, to hear God’s voice individually, for others, for our churches and even for our cities and nations. This was evidenced in our last meeting in Wales, United Kingdom, where the leaders of that church felt like God had given them a lot of clarity and direction during this day of prayer and fasting. For myself, I can also say that during these different days, I have been highly encouraged by the prophetic words that have been prayed over me and even that I have prayed over other individuals. This is something that we can expect as we set aside time to seek God.
However, these days are not made to simply be an event, but to serve as catalysts to ignite the individual prayer lives of believers. Praying is not something necessarily easy. Most of us talk more about prayer than that we actually do it. This is why at these days practical tools and models are taught to help people learn how to pray.
The best way however to learn to pray is by doing it. Therefore the goal is not to just talk about prayer, but actually doing it by having not just corporate prayer, but also learning models such as the Lord’s prayer, the tabernacle, or prayer stations. At prayer stations individuals have access to tools such as: paper shredders to shred confessed sin as a symbol of forgiveness for sins; maps for nations and regions; lists of leaders and missionaries; a paper prayer wall where prayers can be written; and chairs where they can receive special prayer. These are just a few examples of tools that can be used for helping people pray. The idea is that everyone can actively and personally take part in prayer and not that they sit passively listening to other people pray away.
Our vision is to see these days of prayer spread throughout the world so that eventually we will be having days of prayer and fasting simultaneously around the whole world. Then we can even use technology and link up via internet with one another and share our praises and our prayer needs with one another.
This March, I will be having the opportunity to spend time in Oklahoma. My desire is on March 6th to help facilitate one of these days at the campus of Southwestern Christian University in the Oklahoma City Area and then another one at Evangelistic Temple on March 20th in the Tulsa area. We would love to invite people from these areas to come together for what will be a special day of learning more about prayer by praying. We believe that these will be days which will not only impact individuals prayer lives, but that will also cause things to happen in those areas as we pray God’s kingdom from heaven to earth.

31 Years Ago Today>
Today is my birthday, and every year when I am home I get to hear the dramatic story of my birth retold by my mother. I was born in Chile, South America. The doctors had said I was dying and need to be pulled out immediately. The only hospital in the city that had an incubator was the military hospital. Therefore, they snuck my mom through the back door of the hospital. Once in, the doctor gave my mother anesthesia so she wouldn't feel the cuts. Unfortunately, they gave her too much. After pulling me out of my mother's womb, my mother stopped breathing. They got her breathing again, but instead of watching her, they left her in the hall way all alone.

My mother is a nurse and knew that it was very likely that she would stop breathing again. The only nurse who came by told her that her baby boy was going to die. As she lay there, all she could do was begin to pray Psalm 23 where it says, "Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for you are with me."

She recalls the feeling of a dark cloud coming down upon her of which she could only describe as a darkness of fear and death. She was fighting for her own life and the life of her baby (me). As she prayed, she asked God to have other people praying for her at that moment because she felt she could not make it on her own.

Six months later, a friend of hers who lived in Alaska (remember we were in Chile) told my mom that on Jan. 12 she was woken up with a sudden urge to pray for me and my mother. She had no idea what was going on, but somehow, this woman was made aware that we needed prayer.

The story continues...After being brought home, my parents had an incredibly sick child. Not everything was right. The doctors later diagnosed me with cerebral palsey and let them know that I probably would never walk or talk. Cerebral Palsey is incurable and the doctors prepared my parents for what life would look like taking care of a child with CP. Every day my parents did exercises with my little limbs.

My parents then and always loved me and knew that they were going to care for me no matter what, yet they believed in the power of prayer and that God still does miracles today.

One of the people who was praying was my Aunt Candy in California. She had a weekly women's prayer meeting that got together every thursday and spent time praying together. They did what the Apostle Paul did in the Bible (Acts 19:11-12) and sent a prayer cloth (actually a tissue) to my mother in Chile. My mother sewed that cloth onto my pijamas and one month later all effects of cerebral palsey were totally gone from my little body.

When we returned to Chile, doctors could not tell that I was ever afflicted with the sickness. It was a miracle, or can I dare to say,"I am a miracle!!

I am so grateful to God for my life and my healing. I am so grateful to my parents and to all our famiily and friends who continue to love me and pray for me. I have served now 4 years in Amsterdam, Holland as a missionary and I can not tell you how important prayer has been and continues to be. Without it, I would not be where I am now and literally would not be able to do what I am doing now. So today on my 31st birthday, I want to say thanks to God my heavenly father, my loving parents and family (thanks Aunt Candy) and to all our friends who even to this day pray for me and my family here in Amsterdam, Holland.

A Simple Way to Study the Bible"."
(from Halter and Smay, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Kingdom. Jossey Bassey; San Francisco, 2008", pg. 167.
Stretch out your right hand as far as you can. Next measure the distance between your thumb and pinky. Read that much scripture only. Preferably a contained story or idea. Like the second chapter of James, or a parable or a psalm like chapter 23. After you read the scripture, ask these five questions and let people answer as they feel led:
1) What did you like about what we just read?
2) What didn't you like?
3) Was there anything you did not understand?
4) What did you learn about God?
5) Regardless of where your faith is at now, if you wer to apply what we learned about God to something in your life this week, what would that look like?

Preaching or doing a complicated Bible Study can be really hard for people to do themselves. However, if people simply read the bible and then discuss the passage using questions such as the one above, then studying the Bible becomes much easier for everybody. People remember things they have discussed easier than things they have heard and it is generally more enjoyable to talk and interact about a subject than only to listen to a subject.

Two men were given the task to provide water for two small villages. There was a river that was not too far from the villages from which they were to get that water. The first man began immediately to fill up his two buckets with water and to carry them back and forth from the river to his village. He worked very hard and diligently and did not let anyone else help him carry the water because the people were not yet "ready". (He was actually insecure and needed to be needed.)

The second man did not carry a single bucket. Instead he began making drawings and talking to other people who lived in the village and even in villages far, far away. The first man saw him sitting behind a desk writing and could not understand how he could be so lazy, pushing a pencil while he was working for his village. The second man went away and came back with pipes. With the help of the villagers he placed the tubes and pipes in places where the villagers could get the water themselves. He even taught them how to use a faucet so that they could get water as soon as they wanted. This second man was done with that village and was able to go on to a new village to do the same, while the first man had created a village that was dependent on him to get their water. He could never go on to another village, because the first one needed him.

This is a parable of being a missionary. We are sent to a place to help people drink living water (Jesus). We are there to make them dependent on Jesus and never on us. People can learn to hear the Holy Spirit and study scriptures for themselves. When we free people to know Christ themselves then that frees us to go on to new "villages"and for them to do the same with their friends and families.

Therefore, this is our challenge: to teach Christians to not be consumeristic, dependent believers who are waiting on "professionals" to feed them. Instead, that they can know God and make him known. That they can be disciples who make disciples.

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true friends; succeed anyway.
What you spend years building, someone may destroy overnight; build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; do good anyway.
Give the world your best anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; it was never between you and them anyway. -Mother Theresa

24 De wijsheid van de schriftgeleerde hangt af van de gelegenheid tot studie,
en iemand die geen zware arbeid te verrichten heeft, krijgt de kans om wijs te worden.
(Jezus Sirach 28:24)

"Your nature is a hard thing to change; it takes time. One of the extraordinary transferences that happen in your spiritual life is not that your character flaws go away, but they start to work for you. A negative becomes a positive: you've a big mouth: you end up a singer. You're insecure; you end up a performer who needs applause. I have heard of people having life changing, miraculous turn-arounds, people set free from addiction after a single prayer, relationships saved where both parties, 'let go, and let God." But it was not like that for me. For all that 'I was lost, I am found', it is probably more accurate to say, 'I was really lost, I'm a little less so at the moment.' And then a little less and a little less again.. That to me is the spiritual life. The slow reworking and rebooting of a computer at regular intervals, reading the small print of the service manual. It has slowly rebuilt me in a better image. It has taken years though, and it is not over yet." --Bono (U2 by U2)

Testimony of a New Life

“Hello, my name is Peggy. I am a single mother of three who wants to tell what God has done in my life. For a long time, I have had an on and off relationship with God. I would decide to follow him, but then disappointment would quickly set in and I would reject Him because ‘if He loves me, then why does He let this happen to me?’.

I found that I was repeatedly let down by people and running to beer as a source of comfort. It would give me only temporary relief. After drinking too much I would find myself again empty and in the need of something more. I decided that I wanted to give God another chance.

It was then that I got a flyer in my mailbox from this church. I really liked its name, New Life, because that is exactly what I wanted, a new life. Since coming here I have connected with God in a very real way. Now I have found a new peace and joy which I did not know before. I know that I can trust in Jesus and am so thankful to Him that He has given me a new life and a new community of friends.”

Healing Testimonies

A few months ago, I met a man in the park who started telling me about his struggle against cancer. For four years he had been facing an aggressive form of cancer in his bladder which required an invasive surgery every few months to take out the tumors. One day he told me that in two days he had to go back to the hospital again for surgery. I shared with him my testimony of how God healed me of Cerebral Palsey as a child and asked him if I could pray for him. He agreed, and there in the park I asked God to heal him of cancer.

Six weeks later I ran into him at the grocery store. He told me that the doctors could not find any trace of cancer in his body. He also told me that he really felt something that day in the park when I prayed for his healing. His story not only elated me, but also encouraged me to always pray for people whenever they share a problem with me. You never know what God may do through our prayers.

Holiday Outreaches

By the time you will read this, the Holidays will have passed, but now we are busy getting together 40 ‘boxes of love’ to families in our community. These boxes will not only contain food, but also the movie ‘the Nativity Story’. About 10 boxes will go to Muslim families. We look forward to telling you all the exciting news about this special outreach.

We are also cooking a 3 course meal for people in our community who have no one to spent Christmas with. Our churches’ motto is: ``making Gods love tangible in Amsterdam West’. Our prayer is that people would really experience Gods love through these Christmas outreaches.

So whether we share stories about a single mother giving her life to Christ, a man being healed of cancer, or getting the message of Christmas out to people who might have never heard it before…it is all because of you making it possible for us to be here! THANK YOU!

Personal News

Judah has just finished his first semester of kindergarten. He loves it and comes home daily singing songs he learns at school. Hannah turned 2 this fall and is a wonderful little personality who loves princesses, puzzles and books. Femke’s pregnancy with our third child is also going along really well, she is due May 1st.

We ask your specific prayers for two things: the selling of our home and for our support account. We need our house to sell before the summer of ’09 and our support account has gone into the red for the first time in three years. Even though our support has been strong, the cost of living has gone up by more than 30%. Please consider supporting us monthly if you are not, or giving a little more this new year if you are already supporting us. We are so grateful for your generous support which that allows us to continue living and working in Amsterdam.

Gods richest blessings for the new year!

Matthew & Femke Helland

People come always before our mission or vision statements, values, budgets and our programs. Don't get me wrong, I am all for these things yet as servants (leaders) we need to keep the horse in front of the cart and not the other way around. Here is a quote that explains what I mean.

For too long, church leaders have been obsessed with the search for the program, tactic, or strategic plan that delineates a goal, sets out a path, and aligns people in moving toward and realizing a predetermined future. Behind this obsession lurks the continued belief that leadership is not only about defining and shaping a preferred future but also making such a planned future happen. In this sense, no matter what words are used in regard to serving or nurturing, leadership turns into methods of controlling and manipulating others to achieve predetermined ends. In the end, people are ends to a leader's goals. (Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk, The Missional Leader. San Francisco , CA: Jossey-Bass, 2006.)