Category Archives: Tour 3 – Winter 2012

Mar28

24 Hours on Tour

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Teri

We’re launched!

Our mini-van is packed. Our gas tank is full. Our hopes are high and we’re on the road again!

Molly, Julie, and I spent our first day in Minneapolis.(It was really day 4 but God changed out plans. More on the later!)

DAY ONE OF THE TOUR

We had a great team meeting and lunch yesterday getting to know each other better and talking about our personal dreams. We have a powerful team.

Then we were off to for a mac and cheese dinner with some college students at University of Minnesota. This particular bunch of young people were on fire in a big way for God’s Kingdom. We met at the house where 11 sophomore women live together in intentional community. We were rather blown away by them all.

One young man has a shepherd’s heart. He’s leading Bible studies and involved with leadership at Campus Crusades.

One young woman has such a heart to help physically and mentally disabled kids live full lives. She’s been spending her summers at a camp. She’s preparing for her third summer.

Another gal has started nursing school because she has a heart to see the broken and bruised healed (not just physically).

We topped off our evening with several World Race alumni and AIM friends. We spent a few hours telling our stories, talking about dreams, and encouraging each other in next steps.

They all live within an hour or so of each other, but really didn’t know they were that close. It showed us again how important a strong community is to walking out abundant life.

This morning we went to breakfast with Steve and affirmed him in his next steps of his dream journey.

While we were there, Molly ran into an old friend (she wasn’t old – just old in terms of known each other a long time…oh you know what I mean!)  Not only did Louise pray for us – she encouraged and inspired us to keep going. Her prayer was powerful and heartfelt.  Thank you Louise!

This afternoon, we spent a little time with one of Molly’s friends who is coming to the end of one season of life and asking God some specific questions about the next season.

Now we’re on our way to Orange City, Iowa to spend a day or so with the students at Northerwestern Christian College.

SO..there it is…a pretty typical 24-hours on the tour. (We did sleep a little too.)

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We want to shout out to Shannon!  She sponsored our first day and helped us reach these dreamers.

Click here if you would like to sponsor a day of the tour.

Feb22

Winter’s Final Chapter

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Teri

The final chapter of the Winter Dream Tour of 2012 is over. 

- We traveled 4,000 miles.
- Met over 500 people.
- Personally coached and prayed with about 150 people.
- Were lavished upon by new friends.
- Were challenged in our faith, encouraged by each other, and inspired by faith-filled dreamers.
- We never went without food, fuel,  or a place to stay.

We come home joyful (and a bit exhausted).

My favorite story of the whole tour is still the first one.  The Winter Dream Tour team initially started out as four of us; Katherine, Sarah, Lily, and me.  But, I felt God telling me to leave room in the van for another person.  I put the back bench seat in the van and left the camping equipment at home.

Sure enough after arriving in Georgia, we found our other person in Pei Yee.  I am so very glad God told me to leave room for her!  Read more here.  Read Pei Yee’s version here. 

Sarah’s favorite story is when we woke up one morning not knowing where we would stay that night and God came through in amazing ways.  Read more here.

Katherine would say her favorite story was about learning how to ask for what we really want.   From the very beginning, we all felt God laying it on our hearts to go to the Magic Kingdom in Disney World.  Well, that seems crazy – until God provided free tickets.  Amazing.  Read her story here.

Pei Yee’s favorite story is about Eloi.  In her prayers, she saw an image of a Hispanic man and wanted to give him a Bible verse.  She told us about it but really didn’t think that she would ever see him.   Sure enough, a few days later, she saw him and told him about the verse.  Turns out he is getting ready to head to Panama to start a 24×7 prayer ministry there.  It’s a fabulous story.  Read more here. 

We met some pretty incredible people along the journey.

We met dreamers who are in medical school, praying for supernatural healing.  We met dreamers starting law school, seeking to bring justice to the world.  We met teachers who want to bring the Kingdom into their classrooms even though they can’t use words.  We prayed with a man who’s family travels the US doing circus shows and preaching the Gospel from the high wire.

We met dreamers who are in aerospace engineering school and want to see other students come to know Jesus.  We prayed with a marine who was heading back to his base soon that all the men in his barracks would know Jesus.

We met a woman in her 60′s and a woman in her 50′s who both said, “God’s not through with me yet!  I have a lot of dreaming still left to do.” 

We prayed with pastors who dream of their churches coming alive.  We prayed with them for their church, their community, and their cities to be changed through their Kingdom dreams.

One night, we prayed along with thousands and thousands of other believers for our government and our country and for the Kingdom of God to be glorified.  We saw women in nice outfits kneeling and praying quietly.  We saw young men and women dancing around with joy.  We saw men in business suits with their arms raised, worshiping beside men with tattooed arms raised, standing beside people with long hair and hippy-styled clothes with their arms raised – all praising God for our country.

We spoke in traditional, charismatic, and Non-denominational churches.  We were in the nicest of neighborhoods, in the center of the  hood, and several places in between.

And we found dreamers and dreams of every kind everywhere.

Here are some of our favorite stories of dreamers; here, here, here, and here.

Julie (see pic to the right) joined the team as our office, moral, prayer, and logistical support in the Kingdom Dreams office.  She got to spend a few days on the tour with us.

I think her favorite part of the tour would be meeting Jen in West Palm Beach and hanging out with her as she took steps of faith and obedience toward her dream.  We went with Jen on a crazy errand to talk to the owner of a house, and found out that it was much more about the owner than about the dream.  Read more here.

Sarah, Katherine, and Pei Yee are moving on into the next steps of their own dreams.  Be watching for the posts this week about what each one will be doing.  This chapter is done, but the next is already beginning.

Thank you for your prayers!

Keep dreaming, keep hoping, keep moving.

p.s.  We’re already gearing up for the College Dream Tour with a planned launch on March 24th.
Stay tuned for more info. 

Feb21

Blessed

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Sarah

“Hey. So can I come stay with you with four friends tomorrow night?”

“Yeah!”

On more than one occasion, this has been the response of friends of friends, acquaintances and sometimes even total strangers.  When we arrive at a house, it’s not unusual to be greeted with hugs, free food, towels, and aerobeds already blown up.  When we leave, it’s not uncommon to be sent off amidst prayers and “we were so blessed by you” and even more hugs.

And so I keep coming back to this question…who’s blessing who???

Our team of 5 (complete with a little girl) come into a house and take up space for 1-3 nights. We often eat the food there (when it’s offered). We shower and use their towels and sometimes even their washing machines.  Doing our best not to be a burden, we pray for our hosts, encourage them, love on them as best we can.  We do our best to leave peace.  But I can’t think it’s easy to take care of all of us.

Instead, I have a feeling that it’s more about our Papa.  That it’s more about how they see themselves as my brothers and sisters.  That they see the work we’re doing as important in the Kingdom of God.

The Dream Tour is wrapping up, but I’m still dumbstruck by those we’ve met.  Fellow missionaries sending us off with a full tank of gas, all the canned goods in their cupboards and plenty of smiles.  Families of little ones letting us sleep on their couches and cooking every meal for us with joy.  Young couples who consistently blew up their air mattresses every time we rolled through their city (which was 3 times).

Thank you to each and every one of our hosts and fellow dreamers. Every washcloth, every non-PB&J meal, every extra blanket, every dollar and cent.

Thank you. May God bless you like you blessed us!

Jan29

Week Two PLUS Video!

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Week two:  We’ve lived a lot of life in 14 days.

I read a blog post today from Seth Godin.

“We’re hoping to succeed; we’re okay with failure. We just don’t want to land in between.” –David Chang
He’s serious. Lots of people say this, but few are willing to put themselves at risk, which destroys the likelihood of success and dramatically increases the chance of in between.

That’s what we’re doing out here.  Taking the risk.  We will not land in-between.

We live by Luke 10 principles because we put our faith and hope in Christ.  He is not disappointing.

Check out our first official video!

May you take enough of a risk today that you live a lot of life and don’t land in-between…

Jan24

A Story to Tell

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Day 9 of the Tour and already we have many stories to tell.

There are so many that we edited it and gave you some excepts…

From Pei Yee:

Sunday (Jan 15)
Whirlwind of a day. Got up early to speak at a women’s group in church, sharing about Kingdom Dreams, then rushed off to a 7th graders Sunday School class where we did a 5 minutes spiel, then rushed off again to a small Spanish congregation where we had the opportunity to share more in depth and later on prayed with some people.  Then it’s back home for lunch, rest for a few hours, then out again to their night service and then to a college group.

 

Honestly, I was exhausted. My introvert personality crying out to just “Let me be alone and rest!”  But I pushed through, knowing that God had work for us to do.  And sure enough He did, for the session at the college group was really good.  Intimate setting, amazing worship and good sharing that just led to good 1-on-1 conversations later.  I couldn’t have asked for more.
Teri giving her ‘spiel’ to the women’s group.
Intimate setting, amazing worship, good fellowship at the college group.
Wednesday (Jan 18)
Pretty much spent the whole day at home until a high school service in the evening. I was given the privilege to speak for 10-15 minutes and God put on my heart to challenge the youth to seek out and run after His given dream in each one of us through the stories of Katie Davis and Austin Gutwein.

 

Honestly this is probably the first time that I’m speaking to such a large crowd (there were probably about 150 students there) and I was a bit nervous. Don’t think it went too well but oh well, training in progress.

 
 

I then went on and attended the college meeting and then hung out with them until midnight at Applebees. Boy was I tired the next day!

More from Pei Yee’s post…

Here are excerpts from Katherine’s story:

I am HOME!  As soon I as hit the border of Florida, I felt right at home with my warm weather and palm trees. I have such peace being here in Florida and my heart burns to light Florida on fire for God.  I want to see the Kingdom come here.  This first week of the tour has been a world wind.

And then off we went to St. Augustine to see my friend Jen.

We talked to Jen about her Kingdom Dream.  She shared about how she is teaching deaf education.  She also shared how she got to become a teacher and how she wanted to do deaf education.  I was able to see how God has put that passion in her heart before she even realized it was there.  God guided her through all the trials she went through to realize that she wanted to become a teacher for the deaf community.  She is very open to having God guide her into what He wants for her.

Right now she is getting ready to go back to school to get her PHD.  She knows that this is what God has planned for her to do and she is open to it.  She is scared about getting her PHD but she knows that God is with her and He will help her in this next season.

Our Kingdom Dreams doesn’t have to look like a missionary or in the ministry.  Jen’s Kingdom Dream is to serve the deaf community in the school system.  It is people like her that can impact the workplace because she is allowing God to lead her where He wants her to be.  She is able to be in the workplace and do life with others and they can see how she has peace because God is with her.

Sarah prayed for the owner of the coffee shop as we walked out.  It was a good day.

Read more of Katherine’s story here…

Jan22

Week One

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With week one now under our tires – here are some of the highlights:

  • Almost 1000 miles
  • Over 200 people met
  • Dozens of dreams shared and prayed for
  • 5 individuals growing together as a team
  • More and more dangerous prayers going up (see story here)

One thing stuck out to us for this week…everyone has a story.  Everywhere we went; everyone we talked to had a life story to tell.   A careful ear can pick out the threads of the God-given passion of their heart in their story.  This week we were able to help people identify their passion.

There was one grandma who’s passion is to see all her children and children’s children grow to love Jesus.  There was a young lady who’s passion it is to help those who are less privileged get justice.  Another young man who loves to serve people and to “kill them with kindness”.  There was one man who’s passion it is to create stuff in business.  He loves to “see something that’s not there and create it.”  One woman’s passion is to create art which inspires and challenges others.

There is great power in understanding your passion.  Once you can name your passion – you can become intentional about pursuing it.  Intentionality leads to movement.  Once you get moving, God can steer you in the right direction.  Once your moving and in the right direction – incredible dreams can happen. The Kingdom of Heaven may just come down to earth.

Passion + intentionality + God steps in = KINGDOM DREAMS

That’s your story?  What’s your passion?

Jan20

What If Jesus Meant What He Said?

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Sarah

Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics. (Lk 9:3)

Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. (Mt 10:8)

Ask and it will be given to you… (Mt 7:7)

Consider the lillies of the field, how they grow…But if God so clothes the grass of the field…will He not much more clothe you… (Mt 6:30)

…if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you. (Mt 17:20)

These are all things Jesus said.

Some of these He says multiple times in multiple Gospels.

And for too long now, I’ve heard Christians and Christian leaders try to soften the blow.  Try to say things like His words are symbolic or a metaphor or you have to look at the context.

I believe that God is an intentional God. 

And so I believe that when He says to heal the sick, He means to heal the sick. Or when He says that He will take care of me better than sparrows or lillies, He will.  That He means it when He says He is Jehovah Jireh- the God who provides.

And I’m tired of saying I believe in His provision, but relying on my debit card.  Or that I believe in taking up my cross, but only helping people when “ministry” is scheduled.

And so, I’m starting on yet another journey. 

Known as the Dream Tour, it consists of speaking engagements with various ministries, churches and Bible studies as we road trip around the United States.  The purpose is to awaken the many sleeping giants living in American churches.  To remind Christians that Jesus wasn’t just a nice man or a good moral guide.

He is Lord. He is King.   He was a revolutionary that turned the world upside down.

That He has given each of us a dream, and there should be NOTHING stopping us.

The catch is we base it off of Luke 10.  We follow Jesus’ words to “Carry no moneybag (v. 4).”  So we start with a tank of gas and not much else, including no debit or credit cards.  We follow Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan, helping along whoever we meet (v. 25-37).  We worship and listen the way Mary worshiped and listened because we believe Jesus meant when He said she chose the good portion (v. 38-42).

I fully expect many of you to think I’m crazy to do this- to get in a van with a group of people I don’t know, taking nothing with me, and praying for God to provide food, shelter, gas and ministry.  But I’m also fully expecting God to do crazy things.  I’m expecting Him to be faithful because that’s what He promises, and to provide when I’m sure He can’t.

I’m expecting to do the impossible because Jesus said I could.

Pei Yee, Katherine, Lily, Sarah

“The seventy-two returned with joy…”  Luke 10:17

Jan15

Comfortable Shoes and Dangerous Prayers

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Pei Yee

I’m back on the road again for an adventure after slightly less than 2 months back from the World Race. I am heading out with the Dream Tour for 5-6 weeks.

The story of how I came to be on this tour is pretty interesting.

This past week I was at Project: Searchlight, which was extremely helpful in helping us find our kingdom dream and propelling us forward. I knew that my kingdom dream is to awaken/raise up the youth especially in the 10/40 window to their true identity in Christ and then they in turn, empowering others.

But I knew that at this current moment I needed 3 very important elements: community, mentorship, and being empowered. I was also very curious about healing. I wasn’t sure where I could get all these and so I scheduled a meeting on Monday with Seth Barnes who had graciously offered up his precious time to meet with us. During the meeting, the suggestion of Iris Harvest School in Mozambique came up but I knew that I needed to schedule another meeting with him again to seek out more help the next day.

I went home and looked up Iris Harvest School and it seemed very interesting but the problem was that it doesn’t start till June 1. So what am I suppose to do for the next 6 months? I’m ready to go RIGHT NOW. All day next day I kept asking God to show me and I couldn’t wait for 4:15pm to come by when my next meeting with Seth Barnes will be.

At around 3pm, this girl that I didn’t know came up to me and dropped a bomb in my lap. She said that Seth Barnes wanted to challenge me to go on the Dream Tour. My first reaction was “WHAT?” She then went on to explain what the Dream Tour was and that it was starting this Saturday. “Saturday?” the voice in my head said, “but I don’t have comfortable shoes!“

(Honestly I can’t believe that was the first thought that came into my head).

I then asked her if she was going home after Searchlight which ends on Thursday and then coming back again to leave on Saturday. She said “No”, but she’s staying here until Saturday to depart for the Tour. “Oh no, that means that I can’t go home and pack for this trip,” the voice in my head said. So, literally, whatever I brought, I will be bringing, no chance to ‘prepare’ for it. I told her that I’ll go pray about it and get back to her.

Still in a shock from the challenge, I took a walk to seek after God’s will. I was still struggling with ‘not having comfortable shoes’ (stupid, right?) when God smacked me in the head and said, “Hey! When I tell you to go, you go. You don’t go home and bury your mother and father first and then go.” Ouch.

But I still struggled to obey. I continued walking.

Suddenly God stopped me in my footsteps, I turned my head, and saw about 30 white birds suddenly flew up from the ground onto a tree. My ‘God wink’ is flying birds and at that very moment I knew I am supposed to go and I submitted.

As I thought about it, this Tour would be the perfect place to have all 4 of the things that I had ask God for: community, mentorship, being empowered, and healing. I will be with 4 other people 24/7; Teri will be leading this trip; she will be helping us along on our kingdom dreams; and we will have many opportunities to step out and be radical for Christ (healing, speaking, whatever).

I learned later that apparently God had told Teri to leave the door open and to not take out the last row of seats of the van we will be traveling in. Usually she would remove that row to have room for camping equipment and luggage. But God said leave the seats there because there will be one more person. She didn’t know when this person was going to come, maybe will be picked up along the way and travel together for 2 weeks, maybe…… So when Seth Barnes brought me to her saying “I think she’s supposed to go on the Dream Tour”, it was just a confirmation of everything.

So here I am, heading off to another exciting adventure. We will be traveling by road mainly in Florida and Texas and wherever else God leads us to. The purpose of this trip is to seek out Dreamers, to awaken the sleeping giants in this country, to encourage and spur Dreamers on. We start out with a full tank of gas and $200 and that’s it!

We ask, listen and see where God leads us to. It’s an open agenda.

People could invite us to speak at churches or small groups, we could be praying for someone in a restaurant, or just hanging out at someone’s house. Who knows. God’s the Director and the Provider. The principle behind this trip is Luke 10, where the Lord sends out the 72 disciples, telling them not to take any money with them, nor a traveler’s bag, nor an extra pair of sandals. When we enter a home, we bring peace and blessings. When we enter a town, announce that “The Kingdom of God is near you now!” We will be good Samaritans and love on people, and we will spend a good portion of our day just sitting at the Lord’s feet like Mary.

I fully expect God to show up and wreck us out of whatever little box we’ve put Him in.

Since committing to go on this tour, my prayers have become more and more ‘dangerous’. I’m asking God for big waves, things that will scare us out of our wits, situations where we it’s either ‘die’ or cling to the Lord. Shoot! If you want to live for the Lord, then live radically! Don’t live like a quiet little Sunday Christian! Seriously!

Keep us in your prayers!

Sarah, Katherine, Lily, Teri, and I.

Luke 10: 17-23

When the seventy-two disciples returned, they joyfully reported to him, “Lord, even the demons obey us when we use your name!”

“Yes,” he told them, “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning! Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you. But don’t rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven.”

At that same time Jesus was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit, and he said, “O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way.

“My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

Then when they were alone, he turned to the disciples and said, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you have seen. I tell you, many prophets and kings longed to see what you see, but they didn’t see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn’t hear it.”

P.S. I am especially excited that 6 year-old Lily (Teri’s daughter) will be traveling with us for the first half of the leg. Man, the things we can learn from this little girl, for Jesus said to the Father, “thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for REVEALING THEM TO THE CHILDLIKE”.

Jan13

Make Room For More

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Teri

Before I left Iowa to come to Georgia, I kept seeing an image in my head of the side door open on the van.  I felt like God was saying to leave the door open and make room for more people to come on the team.

So, I made the decision to leave all the camping gear and put in the back bench seat.  There would be room for more if someone else wanted to join the tour.

Well, it happened this week!

Through prayers and seeking and God opening up some doors, Pei Yee has joined out little troop.

Sarah, Katherine, Lily, Teri, Pei Yee

We’re heading out tomorrow morning for Jacksonville Florida.  With no camping gear.  With a full tank of gas and a couple hundred bucks.  And lots of faith that God is going to take our offering of five loaves and two fish and do something amazing.

Please be praying for us.

May God be glorified…