Dear friends,

We were reminded by the Holy Spirit, while teaching others, that all relationships begin, continue, and end with communication. This was part of our multi-cultural training and since then, has been our experience. We apologize to you that we have let our
communication to you lag. It hasn’t seemed like we had much of anything to relate and yet we have so much to relate. Its not always easy to put into words what God is doing and calling us to do in our lives, but today, we ask Him to anoint this letter with good, clear communication to you.

God called us to come home and "prepare" for all the change that was coming. Perhaps God knew that was going to be President Obama's battle cry, or maybe that is God's battle cry and He is speaking it through Mr Obama. :) Either way, there have been many changes in the world, in our home nation, and in our personal lives. We are "preparing" ourselves and others for the "last days". Our greatest calling is to "hear God and do what He says". This requires that we press into more of God through prayer and study of His Word, that we grow in spiritual wisdom and understanding, and that we speak what we have seen and heard, “that the Kingdom of Heaven is near“, and then watch God confirm His Word just as He did in the days of Jesus ministry on earth. We have seen Him do it in several other countries, but now He has called us to be HERE and that means to us He wants to speak and do the same things HERE. Is there anything more exciting that we could relate to you? We are certainly not the first or only ones to hear this. Many voices are reverberating with the same message: that the last days are here, prepare the way of the Lord; that the Kingdom of Heaven is here, rescue the perishing far and near.

God called us home but He has never changed our assignment or anointing. We have sat quietly for some years, waiting for His direction, learning from His Word, spending more time with Him. Our beginning here in the US is not unlike our beginning in other places. First and always is prayer. Without prayer, we know nothing, we can do nothing, we are powerless, and we are without relationship with or connection to the Head, The Lord God Almighty. We have been so thrilled to find a group of men and women who meet weekly with the purpose of praying and growing in corporate prayer as a part of the body of Christ. We have reveled in so many answered prayers there. Sometimes, someone comes one time to personally ask for prayer. They have never gone away without God showing up and bringing ministry to their lives in whatever fashion they needed. Others come regularly and their spiritual growth is so obvious that we rejoice together with the encouragement of seeing each other growing and being knit together in closer fellowship and unity of the Spirit. We are praying for and expecting revival, harvest, and harvesters.

The gifts of the Spirit, operating in and through the church, are for two specific reasons: to mature the Body of Christ, and to equip and send out the Body to produce more body of Christ in the world. We see the same operating in the physical realm: babies are born, grow up, and reproduce more babies. The beautiful difference is having godly babies that become godly and holy adults who reproduce godly babies who learn to overcome the enemy by the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of their testimony so that they do not love their lives, even if it means death.

Let me share some of the testimonies of answered prayers. Several different families have seen rebellious children come back to them and ask for help to get their lives straightened out. We saw a depressed, ragged youth minister come in, ready to commit suicide because of intense grief and struggle but, God delivered him from the afflicting spirits of his soul and gave him renewed hope of God's love and acceptance. We know of marriages that have been miraculously restored and got to hear personal testimony of one this past month that, after seven years, was being restored. We have seen people on their death bed in the hospital walk out of there within days after prayer was lifted up for them. We had one man walk into the prayer meeting recently to share his testimony of how God's love through the prayers of His people had caused him to be healed. He had been severely crushed at work from his waist down, was paralyzed, and never expected to walk again. Did we say he "walked into the meeting to share his testimony"!?
Yes! We have heard wondrous reports from returning missions trips of Gods power through prayer. We have a young policeman in our prayer group that tells how God's authority is displayed through his life as criminals submit to that authority instead of fighting him. Another young man came in devastated that his employers were going to "test" him in his welding skills and he felt sure he would fail and lose his job. God gave truth to him from different parts of the prayer group that restored and strengthened him. He later reported that the Lord brought him a very skilled welder, probably the best in all of Springfield, to teach him and help him improve his skills and he passed the tests successfully and praise-worthily. A young lady has been receiving wonderful visions from the Lord that have transformed her life, brought healing to her past, and is revealing the future, bringing encouragement to not only her and all of us. And the list goes on and on as the prayer meetings do.

There is no program, there is no method, there is no substitute for prayer, and even more powerfully is the corporate prayer of the Body coming together in agreement and unity. If one person puts 1,000 to flight, two put 10,000 to flight, how much more when multiple persons are present.

As we wrote above, God has directed us first to prayer. We have been praying specifically for our neighborhood, our communities and churches around us, and family members. That's our Jerusalem. We learned through a recent survey that only 25% of the people in our area attend church. That makes this area a mission field.

A policeman friend has made us aware that gangs, witchcraft, drugs, and perversion are on the increase in our city. There is a huge need for the Kingdom of heaven to come down and God's will to be done here where God has planted us. We are excited for every change we see beginning to happen as God's angels and Holy Spirit are working to bring that into being. We are so thankful for the relationships God is building for us in our neighborhood, surrounding communities, and for the continuing relationships with those we still hold dear and precious to us throughout the world.
A recent communication with our dear friends from India, who are missionaries now in Mozambique, told us of a government orphanage the Lord has drawn them to. Their going and participating in loving on those children in their spare hours is causing doors to be opened to those children that have never before existed. God has directed His focus on that orphanage and is now bringing His rescue to those children through His servants. We can't be there physically, but we are there in every way through prayer, asking God to complete His rescue and make that orphanage a House of Prayer, where children are changing the world all around them through changed lives and prayer.

Our assignment, our anointing has always been to make disciples of people
everywhere, baptizing them, teaching through the Word to operate in the
Spirit, training them to go and join the Harvesters all around the world.
In the past couple years, God has been bringing people to us, often to our
home, so He can speak into their lives, minister to their souls, their
bodies, and their spirits. One young couple spent the past year with
us learning the Truth while starting a home group of their own among other
young couples to spread the Truth. God has done a vast healing and
deliverance in their lives, has grown them up quickly and significantly, and
is ministering through them in a way that is so awesome. Along with studies
of the Word, we have had fun teaching them practical things of life like
processing a deer, canning vegetables, baking and sewing, leadership skills,
and even some marriage counseling. Then they got married. We don't see
them as often since they are adjusting to their new life but they try to come
monthly at least. As soon as they left to prepare for their marriage,
another couple ask to begin coming weekly and we are
getting acquainted and growing in fellowship with them while God teaches and
trains and changes their lives. What a rewarding task we have been given.

Our heart is being drawn more and more to seeing a Prayer and
Discipleship Center opened. This would be a place where anyone could come
to pray, be prayed with or be prayed for throughout the week. They could learn in small group settings how to grow from spectators in the church to being participators in
what Jesus is still doing in the earth today. They could learn from a
variety of different experienced teachers who have "been there and done
that". We know wonderful teachers from many different walks of life that
have rich things to share with those who are hungry to know and experience
more of God. God once spoke to us that "we would know who we are from the
inside out" because of the graces of God that He put in us before we were
born. So many people are still searching for that significance and
understanding of why God would create them when their life is nothing but a
mess. They are longing for a "way out" of the mess. Others have been
healed and are longing to know how to help others find their way out. So
many are hungry to have a more solid foundation of the Truth in their lives
and thankfully God is raising up teachers in a Big way through media that
can reach people even in their own homes. But being alone, learning alone,
maturing in these things alone aren't enough. We have got to connect, learn
how to love one another, learn to accept and be accepted by one another,
learn to submit to one another, learn the power of God and the authority He
wants to operate in and through us as a BODY. Like the Realtors learn to
say...everything is about "location, location, location." There is a great need in our immediate area for such a place for people to learn and grow together.

We also want to grow and know more. Recently, we attended a healing meeting at a local church. John was healed of an old wound to his shoulder and went home and did twenty push-ups to prove to himself he was healed. We believe in healing, we have been able to participate in healings, but these people had more tools that we feel would be very beneficial to us. They have a school where they teach and practice hearing God and seeing people healed; it can even be attended online. We very much want to participate in that. This would be another part of discipleship we would have to share with others. We simply lack the finances to register at $350 per person, per class....and there are three classes. That makes a total of$2,100. This is only the first of 12 levels. We don’t expect to need all levels as some are for special certification.

We are connected with other ministries and have been invited by several
to share in their work.
1. We are still connected with LAMP Ministries and the wonderful family we spent three
years in Mexico with. The Leader, James, has been traveling to several countries,
each of which are begging that someone come and train pastors.
2. We have a connection with a Baptist university student pastor who has been taking
students to the reservations in South Dakota the past four years. He was
showing us the extremely poor conditions of the people...equal to any third
world condition we have seen. He has discovered their bondage of
hatred and has been leading the students to go to the national monument, the
gravesite of the three hundred Indians massacred in the last great battle, to
intercede over it that God would deliver them of their hatred and give them the
truth that sets them free. There are less that 2% Christians among them.
3. We are connected with people who are regularly going to Haiti and
Nicaragua through Project Hope, a local ministry in Springfield Mo. who has
opened their building to us as a prayer meeting place.
4. We are connected with the Indian missionaries in
Mozambique, Africa that we mentioned above. We also have a brother in Kenya whom we met and ministered with in India. He has returned home and is doing effective work there.
5. We still have wonderful friends among the YWAM who have faithfully been
serving world-wide for many years. We still have strong connections with
men of God (our other families) in India.
6. We have a family connection with a single mom who is living in Costa
Rica and hosting orphans from Nicaragua in her home.

This is part of our greater vision because discipleship is not only about maturing the believer but, giving them opportunities to operate as part of the Living Body of Jesus Christ in the earth today. There are numerous opportunities both nationally and internationally, both locally and abroad, where those we disciple can be plugged into seeing Heaven come to earth and the Great Commission being fulfilled in the greatest Harvest of all time. Jesus is coming soon. Prepare the way of the Lord.


Hearing God and doing what He says....John & Joyce Clouse

Ministry donations to:
LAMP International Ministries
PO Box 14431
Springfield, Mo. 65814
(for John Clouse)