Trip to Mozambique

Dear Friends,

I want to do what our name suggests and open my heart to you. Our goal is always to open the hearts of others to the open heart of the Father, so there can be two-way communication to bring healing, meaning and destiny to man and joy and love to the Father.

So now I want to share some of our life-changing experiences and also ask you all for earnest prayer for our present situation and our need for wisdom and strength to walk this walk. The challenges and opportunities are getting greater and we are more aware of our need for daily miracles of direction and provision for the vision.

Brenda is quite sick at the moment. Please pray as she was already sick when we left Africa, but got worse when the plane landed in Chicago after circling and then bouncing a bit on the landing. She really needs a touch from God right now. Thanks for your prayers.

But on the positive side, we are both in awe at the glory of God that came down in Mozambique. We fought battles on many fronts, including stolen goods, lost luggage, sickness, and lack of sleep and showers, etc. We were confronted with mockers and perverted youth at times, along with the sincere folk. At one time I was litterly mobbed by youths and kids who wanted to grab the little trinkets I was trying to give away. To save my skin, I flung them as far as I could and they left me alone to pursue the goods.

But the power of God that we saw in response to the preaching, following the Jesus film, was enough to overpower every negative thing that we experienced. We don't know how many deaf people got their hearing in the five or six outreaches we were on, but it was at least a dozen. Several totally blind people were also healed and many other conditions were healed instantly, such as severe back problems.

A young man, Filito, 22 years old, leads most of the outreaches. He sees the same results that Heidi does when she goes out on the outreaches. We expect to be blessed to have him in Illinois for a week or so this fall.

The result was likely over one thousand souls saved and probably many more than that. The first outreach, where I preached, was in a village where they were prepared to start a new church. Our outreach night launched a brand new church.

The next night we were in a larger village where there may have been as many as 1500-2000 people show up. There was even greater receptivity there and the village chief said that he had heard about IRIS Ministries and wondered when we would come to his village. He received us with open arms. Not bad for a Muslim community.

The last few days, Brenda and I found ourselves ministering more to the pastors in training and the Holy Given School of Missions. The response was extremely encouraging. I shared the principles from "Catching Up to the Third World". I gave away all the books I had with me, but could have given away hundreds more. We ended up also ministering to all the staff. I shared a little on unity and other things and then Brenda and I ministered to each of the IRIS staff that could make the meeting. It was the first time that almost all of them were prophetically ministered to by any inside or outside ministry. Again, we saw a powerful impact on so many of them, including the Mozambiquens and Brazilians, who had come to work there.

Before we left, we were favored with a lunch date with Heidi and Lesley-Anne Leighton, who runs the Holy Given School. They so appreciate the fact that we want to help and serve IRIS Ministries by helping prepare people for foreign service. And we are so excited about the people God has put in our lives that want to be a part of this great adventure.

Speaking of people, God gave us an incredible team (21 people) and they were all a tremendous blessing in so many different ways. Each of them had life-changing experiences. One of them, Peter Beck, ended up staying there to join in the Holy Given School. He was a total exception to their policy, but God wanted him to get more completely wrecked for Jesus. When we left, Stacey Campbell was there teaching the school. Many other awesome speakers will follow her until the school ends in mid-August. Brenda and I weren't scheduled to speak there, but after Lesley-Anne saw my books she wanted me to share the message with the students and pastors.

At the end of this letter, I will copy a letter we received from Heidi so you can get a better picture of what we experienced, by someone who could speak the language and get better reports. Then I will add a long letter from Rolland with even more information that will blow your mind.

But first, I want to express that we need your prayers now more than ever. We have a vision that is so huge, as a support to IRIS Ministries, and we have many people that want to be a part of it. We need God's help and wisdom to structure and administrate the nuts and bolts of the vision and the finances that will be required.

We want to continue to do everything by faith, including the Sending Center and the classes we will teach at Wheaton, etc. We were also given more prophetic words by Shara and other young, but strong ministries, regarding changes in the way we administrate. We don't want to respond with natural wisdom or manipulation or any other strategy of the flesh. We cry out for God's strategy and His heart for all our decisions. We will go one step at a time, but we need to know enough to share the vision.

Pray that we will get lower still before Him. Waiting on the Lord is Listening, Obeying, and Worshipping. L-O-W. We need to wait on Him like never before. The harvest is so incredibly ripe and the workers are so few. God commissioned us to prepare the workers so they know how to "Die Well" before they get there and fall apart trying to get along with other leaders, like so many before them.

We are counting on many of you to pray for us during this time. After you read the following letters from Heidi and Rolland, you may understand a little more the urgency we feel.

God bless you all,

Ben and Brenda

P. S. To all who were with us on the team. Could you email me a short testimony of the highlights for you? We will try to send them out to our mailing list.