A New Creature. . . an Apostolic Pentecostal blog

We are praying and walking up and down the streets of our city. I am posting these reports of what happens on our evenings of street ministry. I bought a Radio Flyer Wagon to pull along behind us as we walk. That is kind of our trademark for people to recognize us by. Chris Nord and I went walking and praying tonight in the Marion/Harrison Street neighborhood. Terry Wallin was sick. Melissa Wolfinger was, to man's way of thinking late, but right on time with God's plan. . . more about that later. Chris and I had a really good evening. We talked with a large number of people all up and down both streets. Many children really like the fliers and the Bible verse cards. We stopped and talked and prayed with Cigar Bob (This for my Dad, his last name is Smith). He really seemed to enjoy our sitting and chatting with him on his front porch for a while. As old as Cigar Bob is, he had a friend sitting maybe 10 feet away from him, on the other end of the porch, who was even older t...

We are praying and walking up and down the streets of our city. I am posting these reports of what happens on our evenings of street ministry. I bought a Radio Flyer Wagon to pull along behind us as we walk. That is kind of our trademark for people to recognize us by. Hello All, I started the walk alone this evening. My two regular companions, Melissa and Terry were both under the weather and had let me know that they would not be making it this evening. When I'd been out for maybe 30 minutes Terry called and told me he would be there in a little bit. He caught up with me down by Saleh's market. I've been going into the market every chance I get and buying a bottle of water just to have an excuse to talk to the fellow who owns the store and his son and to give them one of our fliers and Bible verse cards. Tonight I gave the owner the flier (his son was not there) and he just started reading it. There were people waiting to make their purchases and he just kept reading ...

Eight years ago I had open heart surgery at the Cleveland Clinic. May 24th of 2000, I underwent a procedure to repair a congenitally malformed (called a bicuspid) aorta valve. I'm getting side tracted, but Dr. Cosgrove was one of the few surgeons in the world repairing rather than replacing the valve. Doctor Cosgrove is now the head of Cleveland Clinic. It was very much a miracle. If I had had the valve replaced I would have had to have the surgery repeated every 10-15 years and be on blood thinners for the rest of my life. As it is now, with my repaired valve, I am on no special medication and I should never have to have the surgery repeated. I feel better than I have since I was in my 20's. Memories have surely faded over time, but I still remember the fog of pain of my first several days after surgery. My world revolved around the pain in my chest. That was my center. The sun rose and set about that pain. Other scales of time and place were meaningless. Every breath ...

We are praying and walking up and down the streets of our city. I am posting these reports of what happens on our evenings of street ministry. I bought a Radio Flyer Wagon to pull along behind us as we walk. That is kind of our trademark for people to recognize us by. Hello All, This was our second week in the Marion/Harrison Street neighborhood. Melissa Wolfinger, Chris Nord, Alex Barkley, Terry Wallin and I walked and prayed tonight. We had a wonderful evening. The weather still being cool kept many people indoors. I estimate that there were only about a half or a third of the number of people who will be out on warmer evenings, but even with that we talked and prayed with many many people. We are beginning to be recognized. The people are very friendly toward us. Lots of people wanted prayer to help them find jobs. An ancient old railroader sitting on his porch, Cigar Bob (he told us was his name), asked for healing of his broken shoulder and for his Social Security checks to...

We are praying and walking up and down the streets of our city. I am posting these reports of what happens on our evenings of street ministry. I bought a Radio Flyer Wagon to pull along behind us as we walk. That is kind of our trademark for people to recognize us by. Melissa Wolfinger, Matt Yeater, Terry Wallin and I prayed and handed out fliers tonight. It was quite cool and relatively few people were out. Terry and I were in subdued spirits, for each with our own reasons, but Melissa and Matt were really pumped up. It was a nice counterbalance. This was Matt's first time with us. Melissa has been with us every time for the past couple of weeks. I don't think we prayed with anyone, but Matt and Melissa especially talked with quite a few people. I am looking forward to warmer evenings when more people are out. Dave Stokely

Life is a battle. I grow impatient with myself. I wish for faster progress than I see within me. Sometimes it seems like I keep fighting the same battles over and over again. I make small victories, but I long for breaching the enemies walls and putting him on the run. . .I want to annihilate those deficiencies within me. . . I wonder if my strategy is wrong. I spend much of my time focused upon my failings. . . focused on the negatives, the shortcomings within me. I surely can learn from the greatest teacher of all. What was His method? How did Jesus teach? When He was asked what was most important in the Law of Moses, He replied: Mark 12:29-31 And Jesus answered him: The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as...

This was our first night walking and praying in a new neighborhood in our city.We are praying and walking up and down the streets of our city. I am posting these reports of what happens on our evenings of street ministry. I bought a Radio Flyer Wagon to pull along behind us as we walk. That is kind of our trademark for people to recognize us by. Terry Wallin, Melissa Wolfinger, and I handed out fliers in the Marion/Harrison Streets neighborhood this evening. It was quite cool and overcast, but for the weather we still had a very very good response. I only made 200 fliers and we ran a little short, even with the few people out. I'm going to need 250 minimum here also just like Middlebury Street. We prayed with numbers of people. At two different homes on Marion there were quite a large group, 8-10 teens playing catch, listening to rap music, etc. We handed out our fliers and Bible verse cards telling them we were going to be doing this regularly each Thursday evening. We wer...

We are praying and walking up and down the streets of our city. I am posting these reports of what happens on our evenings of street ministry. I bought a Radio Flyer Wagon to pull along behind us as we walk. That is kind of our trademark for people to recognize us by. It was a very different evening last night. My grandfather loved Lake Michigan. He spent as much time as he could embracing and being embraced by that lake he loved so much. He said that the water of the Lake was never exactly the same color two days in a row. Differences in cloud cover, wind. . . I don't know what all else, if he told me I've forgotten, but according to him it was never the same on two different days. . . always a little different. Last night was a good illustration of that principle in many other areas of our lives. I don't know what it was about last night, but it was just a very different night. To external appearances it looked the same as all the other Tuesday nights, but it wasn...

We are praying and walking up and down the streets of our city. I am posting these reports of what happens on our evenings of street ministry. I bought a Radio Flyer Wagon to pull along behind us as we walk. That is kind of our trademark for people to recognize us by. Terry and I just had a wonderful night tonight. Nothing spectacular, no burning bushes or anything like that, but we just talked and prayed with so so many people. Terry knows so many people. Every week we meet numbers of people from Terry's past. A little 82 year old day. I don't know why, but every week with the fliers and even since we first started praying in the neighborhood two years ago, I've gone around to her back door and left a flier. I never do that to any other house, but tonight we met her as she was shutting her garage door. She and Terry hugged and talked for quite a little bit. They used to work together years ago. Melissa the lady who was baptized a couple of weeks ago. She and Terry ...

The premise of a recent movie was that somehow a man was made God for a day. Think about that. What would that be like? To have all power?. . .To know everything? and thereby to feel everything? The Bible is pretty clear, God has emotions: Genesis 6:6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. Mankind's actions hurt the heart of God. God knows everything. He sees everything. He feels everything. It is only the big things that God notices? Nothing on earth, nothing in the entire universe is too small for God. Nothing escapes His attention: Luke 12:6-7 Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows. Sin and death entered into this world through man. It is not just man, but all of creation that pays the price for the sin of Adam. Romans 8:22 For we know that the whole ...

Lord my Strength Psalm 19:14 ( H6697 ) rock 64, strength 5, sharp 2, God 2, beauty 1, edge 1, stones 1, mighty One 1, strong 1 Psalms 19:14 Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength , and my redeemer. I have been struggling, seeking for the meaning of this compound name for months. It has been on my mind very very frequently. During prayer last night I felt release to write on this name. . . Notice what this verse does not say. It does not say that the Lord is the source of my strength. It says that, the Lord is my strength. Jehovah-Tsori, my strength does not contain Him. All that I have that is strong is Him. All other strength is an illusion. The primary translation for this word is 'rock'. O LORD, my rock , and my redeemer. . . A rock gives stability. There is no need for stability until a storm comes. Remember Jesus' parable: Matthew 7:24-27 Therefore whosoever heareth these s...

It seems like a long lifetime ago, the days before I believed in God. . . in many ways it was a lifetime ago. . . . There was a time when I looked upon the Bible as a collection of writings of questionable authenticity thrown together by men. . . little different from any other collection of ancient writings. How foolish I was. I now love studying the Bible. It is an amazing work. There are some 40 different authors, writing over some 17 centuries between the covers of the Holy Bible. There are no contradictions. It all fits and flows together far beyond any ability of a single man sitting in a single room to construct with such seamlessness , let alone all the writers from hugely different periods of time and greatly differing walks of life. The deeper I look into this mind boggling God breathed book the more amazed I become. Again before I knew God, I questioned the relevance of the Bible to the issues of today. Recently I was called to speak at a man's memorial service...