Brazil Kristen

Brazil Open House

2007-08-05T23:06:00.000-07:00

The open house is scheduled for Sunday, August 19th, from 2-7pm in Woodbury.

See Pictures of the Trip

2007-08-05T23:05:00.001-07:00

View Album

Get your own

trip videos

2007-08-02T14:17:00.000-07:00

check out some videos from the trip on you tube

Bob's burgers
Miracle Testimonies
Samba Music in Rio

Home again

2007-07-25T12:01:00.000-07:00

I'm back!!! Here I am, back in MN, exhausted but happy. I got back about 1am Monday morning, have got a lot to process, and am still wiped out from all the travel but I'm excited to share with folks the stuff that God has done! When I'm a bit more settled, I'll have an open-house where I can share pictures, stories, and testimonies of God's good works. I'll keep y'all posted.

Thanks SO MUCH for your prayers and support! Please keep me in your prayers this week, as I seek God for my next step

here's a few words synopsis of my extended time in Rio this last weekend:
Riding motorcyclyes into the biggest slum in Brazil. Taking cable cars between mountains at sunset visiting Copa Cabana beach, praying and prophesying over people on the street. Some sweet Samba music, and 16 + hours of driving - mostly through mountain ranges.

i'll keep updating this here blog as i sort through my pictures and such.

coming back on Sunday

2007-07-18T06:08:00.000-07:00

just extended my stay by a few days to go visit Rio De Janero w/a few friends. i'll be back late on sunday night and will see many of you next week. i'll update ya'll more then.
blessings!
Kristen

outreach update

2007-07-15T23:22:00.000-07:00

hey guys, it's been a few days since i wrote last. tonight was our last night at the churches and i finished my 4th night of preaching! it was hard, fun, stretching, frightening, and God really came through. one night i prayed for a man who couldn't really breath through his nose and he got totally healed. that night a woman w/stomach pain said she felt fire go through me hands into her stomach and the pain left. people had me pray over their babies, families, ministries, and marriages. my goodness i've never prayed so much in my life!
one night an 80 year old man came up to me with tears in his eyes just thanking our team for sharing the love of God with him. he said he saw love in my eyse and i said i saw love in his. we just hugged eachother for a long time. everyone here hugs and kisses and it's so much fun to just love on God's children.
i did street outreach one day and our group led 6 people to the Lord in 2 hours. we'd just go up to people and ask them if they'd like prayer for anything. one guy's back got healed and then he got saved right there on the street. today my roommate saw a partially deaf and blind man completley healed on the street. as her and her interpreter prayed a crowd of people gathered around them, all listing their various illnesses to pray for.
last night during ministry time i prayed with a couple women for inner healing. i just held each one of them for about 10-15 minutes while they cried and Jesus touched them. they both said they are now my Brazilian moms.
the last night at both churches that my team of 15 was at i didn't really know what i was going to speak on. i'm supposed to use these prepared sermons i've spent forever and a day working on but then other stuff was on my heart so i went with that instead. as i was speaking i really didn't know what direction i was going in or what points to make - i''d just pray for God to give me the next thing to say. and He did! He showed up, really touched people's hearts powerfully, and we had extended ministry time after each message. tonight we actually prayed for every person in the service briefly - that took a long time.
one of they guys on our team got really touched tonight and just started praying for everyone he saw. back at the hotel he'd go up to people and prophesy over them and pray for them. at least one ended up on the floor. i really do wonder what the hotel people think of us.
these last for days the smaller teams have been out at about 40 or so churches - some in different cities. we'll all come back together tomorrow and are going to a soccer game. on Tuesday we head to the beach, have a celebration night at the hotel, head to the airport on Wed and get home on Thursday.
i can't even begin to express all that God is doing here and the amazing ways he's using this team of youth and young adults. I've been stretched and exhausted time after time but God has always always moved in our midst. thanks for all your prayers! it's now 3:41am here so i'm off to bed.
oh, and I'm supposed to say "hi" to Maraiah's mom who stumbled across this blog.
Blessings!

my first church service

2007-07-13T07:23:00.000-07:00

thanks for all your prayers everyone! the service last night went really really well. i was nervous but was relieved that the church was only about 75 people or so with the nicest woman pastor. In the afternoon a Brazilian guy from our team spoke about a 5-step prayer model and then one of the American guys taught on giving words of knowledge. several people gave words and a couple were healed on the spot. other members of our team prayed for the sick that couldn't stay for the night meeting. 2 guys prayed for an 89 year old man who was blind in one eye and had many other health problems. God totally restored the vision to his eye!! and he got saved too!! at 89 years old and with not much time left to live. that was a greart start to the day :>)
our team got to mingle w/the church members and i tried to meet as many as i could. i preached on the power of sharing the testimonies of God and shared many testimonies from my own life and stories of miracles God's done on this trip. my translator and I worked well together, i tried to get the congregation involved in reading scripture on the mike, had a team member share a testimony, did a salvation message, and even called for words of knowledge for healing. i just figured i might as well go for everything i can since i'll never see anyone here again and have nothing to loose. almost every person any of us pray for gets touched. last night i personally saw a woman healed of neck pain, severe stomach pain, and a lady with an untreatable disease received some healing and pain releif too. one person even gave their life to the Lord at the end of the service!! this is so crazy cause it's all on faith - i feel peace and know God is with me but don't feel anything else. sometimes i'll get a faint impression to put my hands here or there on someone and then they say they feel heat and fire there. i'm just trying to make it a discipline to praye for anyone anytime they say they feel sick or have pain. All glory to JEsus for what he's doing here in Brazil!!!

everyone said the message at the church went really really well and really encouraged me. we all took tons of pictures w/everyone from the church and stayed late after service to eat dessert there. we're going back to the same church tonight so i'll need to do some sermon prep now.

for prayer requests i'll ask for prayer for me personally as i'm seeking God for direction on a lot of major life decisions right now. I told him when i came here that he could speak to me and tell me to move anywhere in the world and i'd go. i responded to an altar call the other day to be commissioned as a pastor and missionary and am just really seeking confirmation for God's leading and timing on that.

see updates on global's website

2007-07-10T21:24:00.000-07:00

go to http://www.globalawakening.com/ for their updates and testimonies from the trip

this stuff really works

2007-07-10T21:00:00.000-07:00

Oh my gosh, it's like we really can do what Jesus told us to do. he'll really show up and use you. sorry but this is just a big revelation to me. Last night we saw over 100 healings take place at this large church in an old warehouse building. One person prayed for was deaf from birth and received total healing. Others had injuries for 5-20 years and got totally better. I met a group of 8-10 year old girls at that church and they were so cute and giggly. I saw them dancing off to the side in worship (and they were really good too!) so me and another girl from our team went to join them. We just danced with the kids for the whole worship. I’d been praying that God would teach me how to dance earlier in the day and then a member of the church dance team came and took my hands and danced with me.

Tonight I went to a Catholic church – like no Catholic church I’ve ever heard of. They danced like crazy there! They even had choreographed dancers up on stage that led is in almost country line dancing stuff. My goodness that worship service was a workout! The speaker called our team up to give words of knowledge to people for healing so I went up and gave it a go and, all together, there were about 25 words for specific conditions given. We all prayed for the kids of the church and then they just stacked up all the chairs and our team prayed for almost everyone there. These youth and young adults came for prayer just for more of God in their lives and you can just see how incredibly hungry they are for more of him. They have such faith and expectation. On the bus ride back we prophesied over our ministry leaders on the bus and just encouraged them.

So far we’ve been going from 10am-4:30pm straight every day. I’m a preacher so I get to be in a Q & A session with the main speakers from 10-11:30. 11:30-12:30 is worship, mostly in Portuguese and then there’s 2 messages/teaching times and a ministry time from about 12:30-4:30pm. These sessions are open to the public so more people have been coming every day. At 4:30 we eat lunch and then the first ministry outreach bus leaves at 5:45. Our group of about 300 has been spread out between 5 different churches every night. We get back between 11pm-1am, have dinner, then go to bed. Tonight was our last large outreach night. Tomorrow is our final day of teaching and ministry time and then, on Thursday, they send us out on our own.

We’ll be going in groups of about 12 and doing street evangelism in the morning and then going to a church for the rest of the day. Teachers from our team will teach each afternoon and then preachers like me will preach at night. We’ll do this for 4 days and be at 2 different churches for 2 days each. I have my 2 message picked out that I plan to preach at both churches – one is on the power of testimonies and the other on crying out for more of God. I’m supposed to open the service, lead a word of knowledge time for healing, preach the message, give a salvation call, and then lead my ministry team of 10 into a time for prayer for the sick. This will be done using an interpreter into Portuguese and within whatever time limit we have because most people use public transportation and have to get home at a set time. Again – totally out of my comfort zone but thank you Jesus that you are going to show up!!

blog sabath

2007-07-08T19:21:00.000-07:00

FYI i'm taking a blog sabath and won't post anything tomorrow, aka on Monday :>)

last minute worship team

2007-07-08T18:57:00.000-07:00

"theworship team's car broke down, does anyone here sing or play an instrument?" and that's how i found myself on stage with a microphone at tonight's outreach meeting. It was a bit rag tag as we all just jumped on stage and started up. we got to do the Life Challenge classic "grace like rain" which was fun. here's another pic from the meeting - it was at a tent at the hotel where we're staying.

i gotta be honest w/you guys and say that just about everything here is out of my comfort zone. at times i've been nervous, anxious, self conscious and dealing with a lot of fear. we had a teaching earlier today on how we must feed ourselves only with what God has done and is doing but never on what he hasn't done. how we must rejoice for others who receive breakthrough in the same area we have suffered loss and not become offended. this is a hard lesson for me as many people here seem so much more in tune with the spirit and have this crazy level of faith that i wish i had. God is working immensly but the majority of me still wants to run away from all this. i'm gunna take some time tomorrow to pray with some folks about this stuff. I'm off to dinner and am excited to hear about how the other outreach meetings went tonight.

Outreach Night #2

2007-07-07T21:24:00.000-07:00

Tonight i missed my meeting bus again but they've now outlawed any group members from taking taxi's on their own so i jumped on another team bus to a church of about 350 people. The preacher was a 25 year old American missionary to Mozambique and the spirit of God just fell. i was on the intercession team w/4 other people and we just prayed like crazy for about 2 hour straight. God just kept bringing to mind all this scritpure to pray, so much that i almost lost my voice. then we joined the ministry team and i prayed for a woman to be released into ministry and she just went down under the power of God and stayed on the floor for a while. i got to minister to another young woman as well and just held her for a long time while she cried. i talked to her later and she said God was really working in her. 2 deaf people got healed and there was just a new level of breakthrough for the whole church. As the intercessors heard about the service later we kept saying "oh yeah, we prayed for that to happen, oh yeah, God showed us that too."

We got back early at 11:30pm and had a "snack" (aka full buffet) where i met a guy from Haiti and talked to people who went to other churches. One friend of mine said there was a warlock at their church and the service was just really hindered. Still God moved and my friend told me how he prayed for a 93 year old woman who had been in a wheelchair for 5 years and she got totally healed. For fun at dinner we tried imparting spiritual gifts to eachother and just praying for eachother in general. i was surounded by these crazy 17, 18, and 19 year old prayer warriors. i prayed for one friend by the hotel elivators and she got knocked to the ground.

This stuff is incredible but still a little intimidating at times. i'm getting less and less sleep and just found out i'm suppossed to have a prayer shift from 5-6am tonight so i'd best get to bed.

God Bless!

Breakin the rules & great feet of fire

2007-07-06T20:58:00.000-07:00

As I noticed our taxi driver's gas gauge on empty and realized that we were definitely lost in the 2nd largest city in the world I wondered what I was doing trying to sneak into this church service. I'll back up, tonight was our big night to go pray for people at one of 5 outreach meetings all over Sau Paulo and I really wanted to go to this surfer church where Bill Johnson was speaking. But I got to our team buses too late and they were already full . . . but then I ran into these 2 guys who said "hey, we're taking a cab and you can join us if you want to go to the surfer church." I realize now that we really weren't supposed to just leave the group on our own but hey, you gotta live a little. So we met Carlos, our nice driver, I practice my espangluegese on him and we got to the church after an hour or so in crazy Sao Paulo traffic.

This really was a surfer church, with some reggae music and an upside down surfboard for a pulpit. Check it out at www.boladeneve.com/ . It's one of Bill Johnson's favorite churches in the world for good reason. After some crazy worship and a message he had folks from our team come up and give words of knowledge about things God wanted to heal. People who had whatever was named stood up and people around them prayed. Some called friends on cell phones and prayed over the phone! Then people came up for prayer from the 50 or so people from our team and we ministered through translators. All in all a bit over 100 people got healed of everything from a bone spur that dissolved to arm injuries, lung problems, etc. About 10 of those healings were via cell phone. Bill did an altar call too and like 250 people dedicated or rededicated their lives to Christ.

I was sooo nervouse to pray for people but God showed up! I prayed for a woman who always felt like her feet were burning and nothing happened, but we prayed again and she said they were better! Another woman had really bad eyesight that needed surgery but the surgery would make her blind. We prayed, nothing happened. We prayed again and she said she could see a little bit better withouth her glasses. I was totally encouraged by the end of the night.

We've been talking about how Jesus didn't pray for the sick, he just healed them and told us to do the same. Now we still pray for the sick but we can also step out and command a sickness to heal or a body part to get better or stuff like that. It's all still really new to me and feels pretty crazy to step out in but i'll submit it as food for thought.

boa tarde

2007-07-05T19:15:00.000-07:00

i got so good at saying this phrase today (which means "good afternoon") as we handed out a gazillion fliers around town for the local outreach/ healing meetings that start tomorrow night. people were pretty receptive and a couple of us prayed for a guy on crutches - but it felt pretty intimidating to like kneel down, lay hands on him, and pray for him right on the street corner. tonight Bill Johnsons spoke to the crowd of 200+ americans that are here for the trip and, as always here, God really showed up powerfully. God's spirit is so felt that it doesn't even matter that we're worshiping in Portuguese.
For the next week or so we'll be ministering in small teams so i'll get to know some teenagers from around the US and one who came all the way from South Korea. beyond our normal schedule our team leader wants us to do street evangelism in our free time. i'm having a blast, crying out to God like crazy, and a little nervous to actually go and pray for a ton of people at tomorrow night's outreach meeting. But this place just has an open heaven over it so I'm excited for whatever stories I'll have for you tomorrow night.

Holy Spirit take over pt 2

2007-07-04T20:00:00.000-07:00

We're on day 2 of pre-trip preacher training and spent the afternoon and evening practicing a couple of the sermons. we get into groups and each preach for 20 min . . . it's been hard for me but the afternoon sermon went really well and I'm excited to have at least one i feel confident giving. for lunch we grabbed some food at the mall (yes, yes, we're suffering for Jesus). the evening preaching session was, well, interupted by God. in my group of 3 the preacher guy (everyone here is 18-29 by the way) starts sharing how he's seen God grow people's limbs longer and just crazy miracles he's been involved for. the other guy in our group is completely drunk in the holy spirit and, by the time his turn comes to preach, the night was pretty much done for. he just stands up and prays for us 2 to get drunk and we start laughing. then someone in another preaching group (there's 13 preachers all together) is on the floor shaking and i hear our teacher say "well 2 of the groups are down." yeah, i never got to practice my sermon but man did we have a prayer service! words of knowledge, prophecy, healing, deliverance . . . it was all there. one guy asked for any who HAD Not been to heaven to please come up so he could pray for us. there's at least 2 guys here who've been to heaven. you know, just normal, everyday stuff. we prayed for eachother and more folks joined us - i can only imagine what the hotel staff thinks of our group. a Brazilian youth gave me this awesome prophetic word. i'd lay my hands on people and just start weeping or, having no idea what to pray, just start speaking in tongues and get words for them. then i'd feel the fire of God on me and get so hot it's like being in the Arizona desert. this is mostly ALL out of my comfort zone. then, to end the night, this guy from Bill Johnson's supernatural school of ministry prays for me and i couldn't stop laughing for like 15 min. man is that an abb workout. we prayed from like 8-10:30 and then had dinner. over dinner my table enlightened me on demonic manifestations, and how to live your life being drunk on God. i'd say i'm having a pretty darn good time here. and IF THIS IS JUST THE 2ND NIGHT . . . I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE WHAT'S IN STORE NEXT! the rest of the team flies in tomorrow night and we begin our next round of training with Bill Johnson and Randy Clark. Below are some pics from our class that God derailed. I pray that, as you read this, your faith is strengthened and encouraged for all that God can do in your life. the crazy annointing that's going on here (my roommate has gold dust on her hands now and, as i just opened the word i'm starting to feel the heat of God again) is available for you my friends. go Jesus!

and then God crashed the party

2007-07-03T20:50:00.000-07:00

our first preacher training time went nicely - the 18 or so of us preachers all practiced part of a sermon in small groups from 8-10:30 and realized that we weren't quite as prepared as we thought. as we were closing off the night some folks noticed gold dust appearing on their hands (which happens when you get in God's glory sometimes) so we started praying . . . and dang that was a good time! the Holy Spirit showed up and we intereceded, laughed, sang, prophesied, etc. some folks had visions of angels in the room (aka angelic visitation) and you could feel the tangible presence of the weight of God's spirit. there were so many visions, words, and prophesies given i don't think i can remember them all. we prayed for over 2 hours and it felt like nothing. then my roommate and i came back and prayed in our room for a bit. oh - and during our sermon practice time i pretended to pray for healing and jokinlgy tapped a guys foot . . . but then he later said his foot had been bothering him and now felt better. he's gunna test it out tomorrow to see if it's healed but, seriously, God's just on the move here like crazy. can't wait to see what tomorrow will hold!

i'm here

2007-07-03T08:44:00.000-07:00

"please remove your shoes, 3oz liquid bottles only, distance to your gate = 5,000 feet, this train is now leaving the terminal" . . . .wow, traveling is tiring! i think the best part was around 4am this morning when they announced (in English, Portugese, and Japanese) that the Sao Paulo airport was closed due to fog and we were just going to keep circling it and hoping they'd let us land before our fuel ran out. thankfully we got in, though the view from the ground didn't look much different than the clouds. one thing i will say is they feed you pretty good on international flights. the hotel here is pretty posh - i met a group of Wisconsinites and we've been wondering around, half dazed and exploring the 5-star place. all this to say - i'm here, checked in, and ready to take a long long nap before our first training meeting tonight at 7pm (5pm MN time).

i'll fly away oh glory

2007-07-01T19:38:00.000-07:00

ahh the anticipation for airline travel is setting in.
i leave tomorrow (Monday) at 1:50pm and, via Atlanta, arrive in Sao Paulo at 6am on Tuesday morning. please keep your seat belts securely fashioned and tray tables in the upright and locked position.

Getting Ready

2007-06-26T22:00:00.000-07:00

Shopping, memorizing sermons, and trying to learn how to say "do you think you're experience problems with a demon?" in Portuguese (Voce acha que tem um demonio te atormentiando) is all part of the fun as i gear up for my trip next week. It's probably a good thing i'm not totally sure what i'm getting myself into here :>) i'm super excited and leave in this Monday, July 2nd . . . while in Sao Paulo i'll try to blog/email regularly so pop back here every so often for updates.

Deus te abencoe (God Bless)

Global Awakening Contact info

2007-06-26T19:36:00.000-07:00

For more info on Global Awakening go to www.globalawakening.com

Trip Intro

2007-06-26T19:33:00.000-07:00

For years I have read in the gospels and throughout the New Testament how Jesus and his followers ushered in a new radical kingdom that affected every area of life. They introduced people to God, brought healing, deliverance, and freedom. Jesus sent his disciples out to heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, and preach the gospel to the poor (Matthew 10:8). It’s pretty crazy stuff, but I believe with all my heart that we can live in the same reality today that the disciples experienced when Jesus walked with them.

For a while now it has been on my heart to serve in an international setting and receive training on how to do many of these things that Jesus talked about. I long to see this reality in my life and in the lives of those around me. For this reason, I have decided to serve in Sao Paulo, Brazil this July 2-19 with an organization called Global Awakening. Partnering with 30-40 local Brazilian churches as well as churches across the US, Global will gather approximately 750 youth and young adults (ages 13-29) from the US and Brazil to form a massive ministry team.

I will travel from MN by myself and plan to arrive in Sao Paulo two days before the majority of the teams for extensive preaching and teaching training. The next five days will be spent in training on how to minister salvation, healing, impartation, and deliverance led by Pastors Bill Johnson and Randy Clark. In the evenings, I will put what I learned to good use by serving on a ministry team at one of several large outreaches throughout Sao Paolo. Throughout our time, we will also be ministering on the streets and in public areas such as shopping malls. The second week I will help minister in two local churches for two days each, putting on training sessions during the day and holding outreach meetings at night. Assuming I’ll have passed my first two days of preaching training I’ll even get to do some of the preaching!

I am so excited to partner with others from the US and Brazil to impact one of the largest cities in the world. Last year’s team saw hundreds introduced to a relationship with Jesus as well as many who were deaf, blind, paralyzed, and sick totally healed.