I'm in Ekalaka, Montana at Vaughn Crago's parents house. Amazing place out in the prairie, hours from anything else. 400 people live here. Yesterday there was a huge prairie fire and Vaughn's nephew was in the middle of fighting it all.
We rode through Iowa (who knew that much corn existed in the world?) and Indiana, and much more corn.
This country is huge and unpopulated. I don't know if you knew that. But for example, Vaughn and Brandy who are often considered by us New Oxford denizens to be living in a remote place, live in downtown Manhattan compared to this place! Gettysburg area is a city complex compared to Ekalaka!
Pray with me for a couple of leaders who are really hurting themselves this week with... sin. I can see how God hates sin so much. It hurts people so bad for so long.
And pray for the leaders who have to help figure it all out and end up being blamed for not handling things well! It's amazing, but half-way repentant always seem to attack the people who want to help straighten out the hopeless messes created by that awful three letter word that God hates so much because it causes us to hurt so much.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Saturday, August 25, 2007
evening fellowship
Catalyst Team,
I have three pieces of news for you.
First, Vern Annis and I are starting a new EVENING fellowship for leaders who want to meet in the evening due to their occupations or schedules. Our first meeting is scheduled for Tuesday September 11, at Perkins restaurant in Hanover. Vern is considering starting a new church, so that will be the focus of our conversation if anyone wants to join us for it. This meeting would be perfect for anyone who is now working a secular job but feels calls to 5-fold, or full-time ministry at some point in the future. We hope to hold this one on the second Tuesday evening of each month.
Second, our next noon Catalyst meeting is scheduled for Thursday the 20'th. We often go for the third Thursday of the month, and just may settle there at this time.
I love you-all and am very excited about what God is doing right now!
That is the third piece of news I want to share with you. We feel like God is speaking about next year (2008) being a year of extreme fruitfulness and Kingdom expansion! I am very excited to get into it and watch God fight our battles and build up His church! Who knows, but that this may be the year that we take major strides into possessing the land, and taking America for God. I feel it in my soul.
Some of you have faced unbelievable demons recently. I believe this is because God is allowing you to be tested so that you can see what is in your heart. Many of you will come through as gold, tired in the fire, and more ready than ever to do the great work God has called you to do.
There are GREAT days ahead! Thanks for riding out the tough ones with me!
Gerry Stoltzfoos
717-398-9033
PS-if you are still in your fire, call me. I want to pray with you and help you win, even as many of you helped me win last year!
I have three pieces of news for you.
First, Vern Annis and I are starting a new EVENING fellowship for leaders who want to meet in the evening due to their occupations or schedules. Our first meeting is scheduled for Tuesday September 11, at Perkins restaurant in Hanover. Vern is considering starting a new church, so that will be the focus of our conversation if anyone wants to join us for it. This meeting would be perfect for anyone who is now working a secular job but feels calls to 5-fold, or full-time ministry at some point in the future. We hope to hold this one on the second Tuesday evening of each month.
Second, our next noon Catalyst meeting is scheduled for Thursday the 20'th. We often go for the third Thursday of the month, and just may settle there at this time.
I love you-all and am very excited about what God is doing right now!
That is the third piece of news I want to share with you. We feel like God is speaking about next year (2008) being a year of extreme fruitfulness and Kingdom expansion! I am very excited to get into it and watch God fight our battles and build up His church! Who knows, but that this may be the year that we take major strides into possessing the land, and taking America for God. I feel it in my soul.
Some of you have faced unbelievable demons recently. I believe this is because God is allowing you to be tested so that you can see what is in your heart. Many of you will come through as gold, tired in the fire, and more ready than ever to do the great work God has called you to do.
There are GREAT days ahead! Thanks for riding out the tough ones with me!
Gerry Stoltzfoos
717-398-9033
PS-if you are still in your fire, call me. I want to pray with you and help you win, even as many of you helped me win last year!
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Shawna's visa and attack on kids
Yesterday Shawna called the Swedish embassy in New York, and found out that her appeal was denied. She does not have a visa for Sweden. We are at a loss as to what to do next, feeling strongly that this thing is of God, but without a plan to get there.
Earlier this week, Elizabeth Monfort received a word from God about our kids being under attack. She was dead on, in my opinion. Quite a number of things have been stolen away, or are being stolen away, as Shawna's visa was.
Then there is also losses in a church planting project or two. A young Pastor's marriage is under attack.
But that devil is such a loser. And I'm going to enjoy watching him lose these battles, and the others.
Earlier this week, Elizabeth Monfort received a word from God about our kids being under attack. She was dead on, in my opinion. Quite a number of things have been stolen away, or are being stolen away, as Shawna's visa was.
Then there is also losses in a church planting project or two. A young Pastor's marriage is under attack.
But that devil is such a loser. And I'm going to enjoy watching him lose these battles, and the others.
Monday, August 20, 2007
got it... but how?
There must be a way to reach this culture, and to see America turned around in my lifetime. "Ask of me, and I will give you the nations", Psalm 2 says. I'm asking. So far, I want this nations, America. And I want Armenia.
There, I said it. I've been saying it, a lot, but mostly to God.
So far, my flimsy little plans are to plant 100 churches (at least, and for now) here in America, and another 100 in Armenia. And by plant, I mostly mean talk to God about it a lot, begging Him to let me have a little role in it.
Dan Johnson spoke over me that I am one of those people who is "up all night watching for the dawn, whose punishment is that I must see the dawn before most."
I'm not sure, but I think that MAY have been a good thing, about being a leader, or a vanguard type person.
I am eaten up about what America could be. Here in New Oxford, we spend about 25% of our budget on police protection. I wonder; if we increased percentages of people in church, (as a measure of rising spirituality) could that mean that we would see less crime and reduce our outlay of police protection cash? What would we do with $50,000 more dollars to spend a year on town improvements rather than protections?
What would be if a revival hit this nation again? If locksmiths were out of work, and prisons mostly empty? How about if most people paid their bills, and relatively few divorces occur?
So I pray about planting churches, and reaching people, and seeing the ancillary results that come from it.
Thanks for praying with me about it...
There, I said it. I've been saying it, a lot, but mostly to God.
So far, my flimsy little plans are to plant 100 churches (at least, and for now) here in America, and another 100 in Armenia. And by plant, I mostly mean talk to God about it a lot, begging Him to let me have a little role in it.
Dan Johnson spoke over me that I am one of those people who is "up all night watching for the dawn, whose punishment is that I must see the dawn before most."
I'm not sure, but I think that MAY have been a good thing, about being a leader, or a vanguard type person.
I am eaten up about what America could be. Here in New Oxford, we spend about 25% of our budget on police protection. I wonder; if we increased percentages of people in church, (as a measure of rising spirituality) could that mean that we would see less crime and reduce our outlay of police protection cash? What would we do with $50,000 more dollars to spend a year on town improvements rather than protections?
What would be if a revival hit this nation again? If locksmiths were out of work, and prisons mostly empty? How about if most people paid their bills, and relatively few divorces occur?
So I pray about planting churches, and reaching people, and seeing the ancillary results that come from it.
Thanks for praying with me about it...
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Re: pics online
Gerry Stoltzfoos wrote:
> It seems this trip affected me in a really big way!
>
>
>
>
>
> Gerry Stoltzfoos wrote:
>> Armenia Team,
>> The pics that you-all gave me should be online for you now, at:
>> http://picasaweb.google.com/gerrystoltzfoospics. Feel free to give
>> the address out to anyone who wants to see them. This will also allow
>> you to share each other's pics.
>>
>> Gerry
>>
>> PS: Thanks for being the best team yet! Good attitudes, hard workers,
>> flexible and fun. You guys were awesome! 22 baptisms, more than a
>> doxen Holy Spirit baptisms, and lots of commitments to being the
>> called of the Lord. Good stuff!
>>
>
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Re: pics online
It seems this trip affected me in a really big way!
Gerry Stoltzfoos wrote:
> Armenia Team,
> The pics that you-all gave me should be online for you now, at:
> http://picasaweb.google.com/gerrystoltzfoospics. Feel free to give the
> address out to anyone who wants to see them. This will also allow you
> to share each other's pics.
>
> Gerry
>
> PS: Thanks for being the best team yet! Good attitudes, hard workers,
> flexible and fun. You guys were awesome! 22 baptisms, more than a
> doxen Holy Spirit baptisms, and lots of commitments to being the
> called of the Lord. Good stuff!
>
Thursday, August 16, 2007
pics online
Armenia Team,
The pics that you-all gave me should be online for you now, at:
The pics that you-all gave me should be online for you now, at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/gerrystoltzfoospics. Feel free to give the
address out to anyone who wants to see them. This will also allow you to
share each other's pics.
Gerry
PS: Thanks for being the best team yet! Good attitudes, hard workers,
flexible and fun. You guys were awesome! 22 baptisms, more than a doxen
Holy Spirit baptisms, and lots of commitments to being the called of the
Lord. Good stuff!
Friday, August 10, 2007
General Council
To those who were interested,
Our next General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God is.... to be announced tomorrow. After 3 votes, George Wood was the runaway best vote getter, followed by Alton Garrison. It would be very surprising if he did not get it as of the vote we did just prior to closing today. This afternoon I had to leave the assembly hall for awhile to deal with urgent phone calls, but when I came back there was a big discussion going on about whether the next GS had to be full time. Someone put forth a resolution suggesting that he did not have to leave his Pastorate, and after discussion is was defeated by what I would guess would have been a 2/3 majority.
So that idea will take some more time to get accepted. But even having discussion about it is a HUGE step forward, which even impatient people like me have to admit. And 1/3 of the people being for it was amazing, given that it is a new idea to most, I guess.
After that decision was made, John Lindell, Pastor of James River Assembly there in Springfield, asked people not to vote for him because he would be unwilling to leave his Pastorate. He was the third highest vote-getter.
My good friend Ron Johnson did not get very many votes, to our great surprise. He would be a terrific leader I think.
The Relational Districts resolution was not considered today. There were something like 14 more resolutions added and passed out today, so the Constitutional resolutions went first. Whatever all that means exactly, I don't know, but I hope to impress you-all with phrases like "Constitutional resolutions". And I'm not betting that you are still reading this as of this point.
All I know is that they tried to squeeze about 8000 people into a space for about 5000, which left about 3000 grumpy people, and 5000 people squeezed together so tight it was mind numbing. However, even the mind was not as numb as other regions after sitting through 4 hours of parliamentary procedure.
Oh, and we are using electronic gadgets to vote. Very cool, with results of 7000 votes in about 10 minutes.
There you go...!
Gerry
Our next General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God is.... to be announced tomorrow. After 3 votes, George Wood was the runaway best vote getter, followed by Alton Garrison. It would be very surprising if he did not get it as of the vote we did just prior to closing today. This afternoon I had to leave the assembly hall for awhile to deal with urgent phone calls, but when I came back there was a big discussion going on about whether the next GS had to be full time. Someone put forth a resolution suggesting that he did not have to leave his Pastorate, and after discussion is was defeated by what I would guess would have been a 2/3 majority.
So that idea will take some more time to get accepted. But even having discussion about it is a HUGE step forward, which even impatient people like me have to admit. And 1/3 of the people being for it was amazing, given that it is a new idea to most, I guess.
After that decision was made, John Lindell, Pastor of James River Assembly there in Springfield, asked people not to vote for him because he would be unwilling to leave his Pastorate. He was the third highest vote-getter.
My good friend Ron Johnson did not get very many votes, to our great surprise. He would be a terrific leader I think.
The Relational Districts resolution was not considered today. There were something like 14 more resolutions added and passed out today, so the Constitutional resolutions went first. Whatever all that means exactly, I don't know, but I hope to impress you-all with phrases like "Constitutional resolutions". And I'm not betting that you are still reading this as of this point.
All I know is that they tried to squeeze about 8000 people into a space for about 5000, which left about 3000 grumpy people, and 5000 people squeezed together so tight it was mind numbing. However, even the mind was not as numb as other regions after sitting through 4 hours of parliamentary procedure.
Oh, and we are using electronic gadgets to vote. Very cool, with results of 7000 votes in about 10 minutes.
There you go...!
Gerry
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
travel... and stuff I love
So here I am in Indianapolis for the General Council of the Assemblies of God. I came because I feel like I should do my part, and because I continue to hold on to the fantasy that God will use this fellowship mightily in the future as He has in the past.
They told us today that in the past couple of decades, we have almost doubled in numbers around the world- to a total of something like 59 million AG people. As bast as we can tell, that means millions more people that will be in Heaven with us for eternity. That's good.
But here in the US. I guess our numbers have not grown much in the past 10 years.
That's what I dream of, and ache for. I ache to reach this culture and see America come to Christ in record numbers. I don't care much who gets it done (AG or otherwise), just that it does get done.
This is great stuff!
So yesterday I left my house about 8am, and drove until about 8pm. Mapquest told me it should be an 8 hour drive, but I did it in 12, mostly because I like meandering through those Pennsylvania hills and enjoying every mountain curve. So the first 200 took a while, and the last two hundred needed me to pull over to answer calls a lot. Not that every reason to get off that seat wasn't welcome after all those hours.
But I'm still looking forward to the ride to Montana later this month.
Upon arriving here, I got some awesome news from Lorrie back in the office. She told me that the things I care about so much- salvations, baptisms, and Holy Spirit baptisms, that we are already seeing more of them this year (in the first 8 months) than we did all last year! I am SO happy about this stuff! Hopefully this means that God is at work among us in an even bigger way than ever before!
They told us today that in the past couple of decades, we have almost doubled in numbers around the world- to a total of something like 59 million AG people. As bast as we can tell, that means millions more people that will be in Heaven with us for eternity. That's good.
But here in the US. I guess our numbers have not grown much in the past 10 years.
That's what I dream of, and ache for. I ache to reach this culture and see America come to Christ in record numbers. I don't care much who gets it done (AG or otherwise), just that it does get done.
This is great stuff!
So yesterday I left my house about 8am, and drove until about 8pm. Mapquest told me it should be an 8 hour drive, but I did it in 12, mostly because I like meandering through those Pennsylvania hills and enjoying every mountain curve. So the first 200 took a while, and the last two hundred needed me to pull over to answer calls a lot. Not that every reason to get off that seat wasn't welcome after all those hours.
But I'm still looking forward to the ride to Montana later this month.
Upon arriving here, I got some awesome news from Lorrie back in the office. She told me that the things I care about so much- salvations, baptisms, and Holy Spirit baptisms, that we are already seeing more of them this year (in the first 8 months) than we did all last year! I am SO happy about this stuff! Hopefully this means that God is at work among us in an even bigger way than ever before!
Friday, August 03, 2007
my friend rich fogle
Today I rode to Bedford and had lunch with my pastor-friend Rich Fogle. I was so impressed with what he is doing- revitalizing a church! Former Pastors failed the community and themselves, and left a broken, hurting church, But God.
God sent a man named Rich and his wife Ashley and their five kids, because He plans to reign over Bedford and make it a blessed place! I am honored to know people like the Fogle's.
And tonight we had a going away party for Shawna, my 18 year old, who is leaving next week for a 9 month Missions school in Sweden. My heart is pretty jumbled about this thing; happy and proud of my daughter, but wondering if I will still like life without the daily joy, humor, laughter, art, and class that she brings into my life.
And next week I head to General Council in Indianapolis, then to Armenia for a ministry tour there. Luke is going, and 8 others as well. It's going to be great!
God sent a man named Rich and his wife Ashley and their five kids, because He plans to reign over Bedford and make it a blessed place! I am honored to know people like the Fogle's.
And tonight we had a going away party for Shawna, my 18 year old, who is leaving next week for a 9 month Missions school in Sweden. My heart is pretty jumbled about this thing; happy and proud of my daughter, but wondering if I will still like life without the daily joy, humor, laughter, art, and class that she brings into my life.
And next week I head to General Council in Indianapolis, then to Armenia for a ministry tour there. Luke is going, and 8 others as well. It's going to be great!
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