We asked. You prayed. God answered. We have genuinely seen the beginnings of the parents of our neighbor children opening up to us more. When we are outside playing with the kiddos, one of the dads will sometimes come out and take pictures and watch.
Healing
Freedom for the Captives
The other day we took a break from the chaos of Bangkok in one of the city’s beautiful parks. While sitting on a park bench listening to the birds chirp and the squirrels chatter, the tranquil of the park seemed to speak deeply to me, though at the time I wasn’t sure why.
The park was built on the site of a century-old city prison and bits of the old architecture remain.
It strikes me as odd that a place so beautiful was once a place which held captives and prisoners and was a place of torment.
It makes me think of one of my favorite passages, Isaiah 61:1-4:
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
Because the Lord has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
3 To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”
4 And they shall rebuild the old ruins,
They shall raise up the former desolations,
And they shall repair the ruined cities,
The desolations of many generations.
This park makes me think of what I feel the Lord’s desire for this city is. He wants to heal the brokenhearted, proclaim freedom to the captives, open (or in this case, demolish) the prison for those who are bound, and proclaim his favor to this city. He desires to comfort all who mourn and give beauty for ashes, the oil of joy where there has been mourning and give a garment of praise to those who have been heavy laden. He desires to establish his dear ones as trees of righteousness. And then, these ones who have been broken will rebuild the ancient ruins, even those places that have been left desolate for generations. May it be so. Even on earth as it is in heaven.
Heart of a Warrior
Heart of a Warrior. I love how that sounds. Bold. Courageous. Daring. Like something out of the movie, Braveheart. Not like the name of a training on healing and deliverance. And I think that is why Tim and Olga Erickson chose this title to christen the training for Overcoming Strongholds, a ministry out of Kansas City that helps disciple people into truth and freedom.
Tim and Olga’s approach is incredibly refreshing: they threw out everything in the inner healing community that they couldn’t find scriptural basis for and went back to the Bible. Their training manual contains over 400 scriptures to back their approach.
Matt and I were incredibly blessed when we went out to Kansas City in mid-October to receive training from Overcoming Strongholds and we wanted to share a small nugget with you. The illustration shown below, The View of God Illustration, is one of five illustrations used by the ministry to illustrate Biblical truths and lead contenders into freedom.
Our view of God often will line up with something that we encountered when we were younger. Many times we believe that circumstances, the devil or the unknown are bigger than we are or are bigger than God is because we have the wrong view of God and of our new identity in Christ. We can become so focused on the situations that have wounded us, the devil or the things we do not understand that we feel defeated and lose sight of the power of God to free us. (1Co 14:33, Rom 8:15, 1Jo 4:18)
Our view of God is crucial! We must repent of the lies we have believed about who God is and who we are in Christ and allow the Holy Spirit to breathe on the Word of God to establish a refuge of truth for us (Ps 46:1). When we do, we will see the enemy of our souls as defeated, the situations we have encountered and the questions that have arisen in our souls as powerless and arise as overcomers. We must remind ourselves of the truth that God is greater and He has made us victorious. (Rev 12:11, Isa 54:17, Luk 10:19, 1Jo 4:4, Psa 56:9, Rom 8:35-39)
Jedidiah just turned 9 months old on the first. We love our little guy so much! He loves exploring and is constantly on the go, has 2 sharp little teeth, says da-da and ma-ma, when we go out he gets all the attention and always smiles at strangers! He is full of life and we are so thankful for our little one.
We were blessed during the training to be reminded of how crucial it is to build our lives upon the truths seen in the Word of God. Many times, it is easy for us as believers to get so caught up in the struggles we face that we lose sight of the simplicity of the gospel to set free the soul.
We loved the focus in the Heart of a Warrior Training on using the Word to free the captive unto raising up and discipling wholehearted lovers of Jesus. We appreciated the simplified approach to the journey to freedom and deliverance. It really affirmed to me what the Lord had spoken to my heart years ago about bringing the ladyboys of Thailand into freedom – that if we just bring them to a place where they can encounter the Lord and the truth of the gospel they will be changed from the inside out.
We hope this has blessed you! Maybe this has stirred up questions for you – we would love to connect with you! Feel free to send us an email or give us a call at 970-405-0328.
Ruach (the breath of God),
Amy and Matt Baldwin
Migrant Health Screening
One of the ministries we volunteered with while in Pattaya is Pattaya Slum Ministries. In addition to seeking to help the poor help themselves through education, skills training and income generating projects in Pattaya’s slums, Pattaya Slum Ministries (PSM) goes into the Cambodian migrant worker camps offering medical health screenings. Many people from Cambodia, Burma, India and other poorer nations surrounding Thailand come to Thailand with the hopes of making a better life for themselves. Unfortunately, most end up in hard manual labor, working construction and other jobs that Thai people do not wish to work, making barely enough to get by. Over 500 people live in just the one migrant camp we visited.
Glory Log Volume1, Issue1
…Because miracles are becoming our norm and I don’t want to forget a single one. {But I’m pretty sure I did this time.}
January 6 ::I went with friends to go love on some people at the movie theatre. We gave encouraging words to this lady and her kids. She had been hurt by the church pretty badly it seemed, but as we spoke over her and asked for forgiveness for the ways the church had hurt her, she softened. We went to King Soopers later and we gave encouraging words to these three early-college aged guys. They were pretty blown away and we asked if they’d like to experience God’s presence. Fun times. Continue reading
Restored to Royalty
Warning: The story shared in the following video forever wrecked my life. View with caution.
Despite my faith…
I really don’t like healing outreaches. I thought to myself while I was walking to the beach with a group of about six other Christians from Operation Extreme Love carrying a sign proclaiming “Free Healing.”
This really isn’t my thing. What if people don’t get healed? Jesus, you’d better show up!
A curious bar girl stopped us while we were walking. “Can you pray for my broken heart?” she asked. We did. I’m not sure what happened.
Baldwins Go Global 