I do not know where time has gone but it seems to me that each week is flying by! I have been very busy with family and health issues, so forgive the delay in getting this report to you.
The theme for the Dunamis Fellowship International Annual Gathering in Black Mountain in January, 2017, was “Enlarging the Tent: Celebrating the Opportunities and Challenges of a Growing World-Wide Family.”
We chose this theme because God is doing more than we can imagine and expanding what we believe and where we are going!
Read on to discover the marvellous things God has done and how you can join us in dreaming big dreams for the future of the Dunamis Fellowship International.
As you read, ask the Lord to stir up dreams and visions! Don’t let anything limit the vision the Holy Spirit may want to give you!
This year the team is:
- Cindy Strickler, Director of the DFI,
- Brad Long, Executive Director,
- Judy Cook of Dunamis Fellowship Alaska,
- Janet Lammers of Dunamis Fellowship Canada,
- Ben Torrey of Dunamis Fellowship Korea,
- Paul Stokes of the Dunamis Fellowship Britain and Ireland,
- Nick Krantz, Pacific North West and Lower 48 representative,
- Walter Varvel, PRMI board representative,
- Tom Willcox, PRMI Past President, and
- me (Hilary Clark).
Please pray for wisdom and discernment so that we hear clearly what the Lord’s heart is, and for protection for the team and their families.
As I prepared for the April meeting I reflected on the amazing celebration we shared in January.
Highlights in Worship, Teaching, and Vision-Casting
The Blessing of Multi-Cultural Worship
Worship leader Christel de Waard was so very sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and we were led into the Lord’s presence.
She was happy to work tirelessly with the international representatives. We are so thankful for Christel’s ability to lead worship cross-culturally.
The multi-language worship was very moving and took us to a new level.
Studying the Word
PRMI Prayer Mobilizer Martin Boardman led the daily Bible Study and was truly anointed as he took us through: the Promise, the Prayer Expansion, and the Praise Expansion.
Encouraging and challenging words!
The Promise:
(Looking first at Exodus 34 around verse 24 and then Genesis 26) where God told the Israelites to rest and attend the festivals in Jerusalem three times a year.
God promised that he would enlarge their territory and that no one would covet their land when they came to the festivals.
Expectations came along with the promises and the promises were rooted in the relationship they had with Yahweh. Genesis 26 says: “this land with room to flourish is promised to you.”
Our God is a God of celebration and his promise to us is one of expansion if we stay in relationship with Him.
Martin challenged us to consider where are those areas we need to recommit to Him.
A new call? A new direction? New possibilities? (As individuals and as a ministry.) Are there areas where we struggle to walk in obedience and love?
We were invited to receive His nourishment as He rejoiced over us.
Prayer of Enlargement:
Psalm 91 – hiding under the shelter of God’s presence; we are under God’s prayer shawl.
1 Chronicles 4: 9 – 10 – The prayer of Jabez; reflect on who you are, not limited by others.
Acts 1:14 – (All joined together constantly in prayer.) Where is our tent too small? What are the things in our lives that press upon it?
Praise of Enlargement:
Isaiah 54:2 – A word of hope, a focus that shifts from ourselves back onto God.
A lot of work goes into getting a tent ready and the first stake that went in was the guide and direction; everything lined up with that. What are the stakes we have to make sure are in the ground? God drives them in through the rocks.
We have to be firmly rooted in God’s Word–we need to keep that stake strong.
Pattern Language, Identity, and the Future of the Ministry
The pattern language we have developed is what anchors us, makes us what we are, that makes this tent “our” tent.
We are building for the next 50 years, for the next generation and the generation after that.
We are beginning to see translation into other languages. Hallelujah!
Brad and Cindy talked about the Father’s Master Strategy for fulfilling the Great Commission and how we have participated in these plans in 2016 and invited us to answer the question, “How are we as individuals being called? Say “Yes” to God and to seeing His kingdom advanced?”
It was also very helpful to consider “Why now?”
Why is God expanding PRMI in 2017?
The answer lies in the hinge point of our 50 years of ministry: we are the bridge celebrating the past and looking to the future.
This relates directly to the guidance to focus on the Prayer Strategy and building the Prayer House.
In implementing the three components of the 2017 Prayer initiative, we are invited to play out our role in the Father’s plan.
Brad led us through the four waves of the Holy Spirit and the strongholds that are trying to stop the fulfilling of the Great Commission.
We are stepping into a Kairos moment.
Why Focus on Prayer Now?
Why focus on prayer now? Jesus’ guidance for 2017 is to focus on the work of prayer.
Our 2014-16 Kingdom Opportunity: Equip, Build, and Send, has involved three years of prayer.
Our 4 Vision Initiatives: prayer, leadership development, growing the church, and mission outreach are all critical and need to function together, but the Holy Spirit is calling us to focus on prayer this year.
We have some achievable goals put in place: people, facilities, programmes, and materials for creating ministry expressions (venues) for the Holy Spirit to mobilize, equip, and deploy.
To put in place 5 to 10 fully functioning prayer cohorts. (High level spiritual warfare prayer teams led by Dunamis equipped leaders.) To connect with other prayer groups around the world. (For example, the Jerusalem Prayer Tower.)
For the global PRMI prayer army to grow. To focus on our prayer initiative–the foundation for praying in and sustaining these great waves of the Holy Spirit.
I invite you to be a part of this. To accomplish all this we will need prayer, participation, and financial provision.
What is PRMI’s Real Ministry?
Evangelism? Yes and No!
Youth ministry? Yes and No!
It is to create venues to enact Acts 1:8.
Please pray with us for the Mountain Top Equipping Events–we need anointed people, biblically sound materials, and program expressions that connect to Kingdom Purpose.
We look forward to equipping cohort leaders and intercessors gathered in geographic regions, centered at the Community of the Cross prayer house but also through the internet.
These cohorts, the vanguard of the overall prayer initiative, force us to put in place the administrative systems needed to pull us forward.
I have taken part in the online initial cohort training over the last few weeks. This was led by Martin Boardman and Mary Ellen Conners.
It has been exciting that people from India to Alaska and everywhere in- between have taken part.
We explored how the Holy Spirit brings us into the battles, shows us how to pray, how to participate in His praying work, the basic roles in an intercessory prayer cohort, overcoming strongholds enabling the kingdom of Jesus Christ to advance, and learning how we can work together and pray together.
Now we are beginning to ask what areas God is calling us into. There is great excitement that face to face teaching will take place in Korea, USA, and the UK in the next few weeks!
Multi-Cultural Blessings and Challenges
Some of the other helpful and encouraging things we learned at the Fellowship Meeting were by listening to Pastor Ahn (from Pusan, Korea) talk about the challenges of translating Dunamis for a non-English culture.
This includes adapting some chapters in the manuals with worldview issues unique to their culture, as well as including examples of how the Spirit has moved in powerful ways in their part of the world.
Pastor Felix Herrera and Pastor Darnell Roque, from Nicaragua, told how they got involved with Dunamis and how Jesus Christ, through Dunamis, has impacted their lives.
They have placed their lives and abilities in the hands of the Lord for Dunamis Project and ask for your prayers.
The Regional Director of all Central America for Young Life shared by video how his daughter was healed by the prayers of a group from a Dunamis Project event.
Pray With Us
The mission teams–especially those called to Haiti and Indonesia–need more people to be involved. Is God speaking to you?
The Youth and Young Adult ministry needs financing. Please help us pray in the finances for staff to manage the volunteers.
At meetings like the Dunamis Fellowship International Annual Gathering, there is always a tension between honouring those who prepare reports and moving into healing prayer ministry or Kairos moments, and there never seems enough time to fit everything in!
Therefore, over the next couple of months, I will be sending updates from the various regional expressions, who held meetings in February, March, and April. It is always exciting to hear what is going on and to be informed how to pray for them.
On April 28th, the Dunamis Fellowship International leadership team met and will be meeting on a monthly basis to plan the 2018 meeting. Please pray for continued discernment and expanded vision for this team.
God is doing more than we can imagine and expanding what we believe and where we are going!
This is the time to dream “big.” Ask the Lord to stir up dreams and visions! Let no limitations be put on you!
Thank you so much for all your prayers, participation, and financial provision.
Learn More
Weren’t able to make it to the 2017 Dunamis Fellowship Annual Meeting? Curious to know more about the focus on prayer, ministry initiatives, development of the Community of the Cross, and the place of the Fellowship and PRMI in the Holy Spirit’s plans for fulfilling the Great Commission around the world?
Please follow the link below to watch as Rev. Brad Long and others share their hearts on camera about the calling of the Dunamis Fellowship International and PRMI in 2017 and beyond.
