Posted in General Posts by Emily Nance on 11/4/2011
In our month in Thailand we worked the streets as secret agents for the Lord on Bangla Road- The Red Light District.
Every night we saw sex, drugs, beer, slaves. As our contact liked to call it: ''the pit of hell".
Here is a video Team Fuego put together showing our hearts for the people we saw and met.
If you want to know the truth about sex slavery and the red light district watch this video and let your eyes be open to the world that you may have never known existed.
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Posted in General Posts by Emily Nance on 10/27/2011
My teammate and good friend Vincent Farino wrote this blog about our powerful month in Cambodia. Check it out:
Cambodia! Month 9 equals Vinny needs sleepy. As tired as I was this month it was one that I will forever treasure. This month we worked with Teen Challenge that was located basically in the middle of endless rice fields. Working with teen challenge was such a joy for me. This teen challenge was specifically for males that are addicted to some kind of drug. The hardest thing to see for me this month was that the boys ranged from five years old to in their fifty's. These men and children were addicted to a range of different drugs but mostly sniffing glue. Personally I did not know that sniffing glue was such a serious drug overseas, especially for young boys. I witnessed it first hand in Johannesburg, South Africa when I was parked in a KFC parking lot and beyond the fence was a group of homeless people. A few of the men in this group of homeless people would put a bag over their face and inhale the glue and then suddenly trip out. It was actually fairly disturbing watching it from a distance, but it made this month in Cambodia more real to me.
I really enjoyed this month of ministry because I had the honor of discipling the men (ages 16 and up) each morning for about an hour and half. My main focus was teaching them why Jesus died on the cross and whom the Holy Spirit was. It is funny how when you start teaching things you actually learn more than you teach. The more I taught the more I studied and prepared for these men. The Holy Spirit would teach me so much in my efforts of teaching about Him. What a gracious God though when I have practically no resources being out in the jungle He taught me that all I need is Him. We had a powerful time this month and by the middle of the month all the men made a decision to accept Christ as their Savior and to follow Him praise the Lord! Towards the end of the month some of the men were even prophesying over each other, which was such a joy to see.
There was a family day in the middle of the month, and many of the men and children went to their knees and asked for their parents forgiveness. It was a very moving time for all of us I tear up just thinking about it.
My teammate Em's taught the children how to use their imaginations and let God bring to their minds pictures or visions of how he see's them. It was incredible to see some of their pictures.
My boys I will greatly miss them.
Dear friends Sam and Pitbull (our nickname for him). These guys are going to do great things for the Lord.
By the end of the month we became pros at picking rice and planting it:)
It was a dirty job, but we had so much fun learning from the boys on how to perfect the rice.
After a long hard day in the rice fields we would go to the nearest water hole and clean up. It was a blast!
I know what your going to say I look like Jesus... who better to look like though right:)
We would run to this bridge and see the most incredible sunsets over the rice fields and the distant mountains.
I had to put these pictures in of these two precious girls. Whenever she saw the camera pointed at her she would give us a little pose.
 What was so amazing to see this month was the affect that our prayers and words had that we spoke over these men and boys. Most of this year the Lord has really put prayer on my heart. I felt like He wanted me to study prayer and to learn how to really pray effectively. I have been reading books by Watchmen Nee, Derek Prince, and just studying God's Word about prayer and it has really blessed me this year. One example that we saw first hand was a man who had two of his sons with him at teen challenge. His sons were very young only four and five years old. The reason his sons were with him was because their mother was also addicted to drugs and she was at another rehabilitation center. When we first arrived at teen challenge you would of never known that this guy had two sons because he never played with them or even paid attention to them. After this man accepted Christ into his heart we prayed over him that he would have a new love for his children and his wife. As the days went by we saw an instant transformation in this man. He would play with his sons and you would catch him even hugging on them, which was so special to see.
These are the precious boys whose father has come back to loving them the way they should be loved. Please pray that these boys will be raised in Christ and be mighty men of God someday.
I think as believers we sometimes forget the power we have in prayer. The Lord has entrusted us with the name of His Son Jesus to use as a seal in prayers. We must use caution however on how we use that name. I have learned several valuable lessons about prayer, and that is of course we can not through prayer make God do what He does not want to do, however He waits until we pray for that which He desires to do before He does it.
Ephesians 6:18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
We have so much authority and power as children of the living God and we do not even tap into it. There is a quote by Watchman Nee in The Prayer Ministry of the Church that I really enjoy. He states, "This is authoritative prayer. Not doing anything in your strength, but doing it via the throne. Authoritative prayer is not begging God against His will, it is notifying Him of what you know must be done and He will do it." There have been so many times in my walk with the Lord where I approach His throne in prayer asking and begging Him to do things for me, when in reality He says I am not doing anything, I gave you that power and authority when you made Jesus your Lord and Savior. Another valuable lesson I have learned about prayer is that I should not thank God for the attack by the devil. What I mean by this is when I am being attacked I need not to thank God. He does not want me to thank Him for attack or trials He wants me to take the authority and victory over the devils attack and drive it out of my life. I am so thankful that He is such a patient God when it comes to my faith, and believing in the authority and power I truly have.
I know this is a longer blog, but I would just encourage you to not give up in your prayer lives, but to go even harder. It is time to stop asking and begging God to take away your problems and start taking the authority you have as a believer and cast the devil out of your life, your families' lives, and your friends' lives. The Bible says that our spirit is already seated with Christ in the Heavenly realms. It may take me a lifetime to understand that fully, and to walk in that fully, but to know that when we pray we bring Heaven to earth is such a powerful thought....
"I will give you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven." Matthew 16:18-20
I would like to leave you with this quote from Watchman Nee....
"We have His life and have been delivered out of the power of darkness and been translated into the kingdom of the Son of God's love; consequently, we possess heavenly authority. At all times and in all places we hold the authority of Heaven. We may control earthly affairs by means of Heaven..."
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Posted in General Posts by Emily Nance on 9/8/2011
Start of a new month in Cambodia! With this being the 1st of our last 3 months of ministry,Team Fuego is working with Teen Challenge of Cambodia this month. The center is about 2 hours outside of Phnom Penh in the bush of the Samrong District in the Takeo province.
Teen Challenge of Cambodia helps street children and young adult males whose lives have been shattered by drugs and many other addictions. They provide a one year discipleship training residential program where the boys are provided with care, protection, and rehabilitation. It helps the children and adults develop holistically through education-Khmer and English language learning, health, bible, art, grammar, and sports classes and we have the privilege of helping the guys out this month.
The center has around 30 students right now and they are all so awesome. Many lives have already been transformed by the students coming to know the Lord. But many still need the power of the Holy Spirit to change their lives. Many still need to be set free from the bondage the enemy has over them and they need to experience the awesome freedom the Lord has for all of them!
This week we've been helping the guys in the rice fields-gathering the rice from the rice paddies. I can't help but think about the cambodians in the 1970's who were forced to plant and gather rice everyday during the genocide led by Pol Pot of the Khmer Rouge. So many were forced into slave labor in Pol Pot's "killing fields" where they died from overwork, malnutrition and disease, on a diet of one tin of rice (180 grams) per person every two days.
Seeing older faces knowing they experienced that insane time in cambodian history breaks my heart. Over 2 million people died during the genocide-20,000 died just in the evacuation out of Phnom Penh. They saw so much, they had family members die, they were tortured and treated terribly. What it would be like to walk in their shoes for even a day during that time.
There is a huge difference though I've noticed in the cambodians. They are some of the most kind people I've ever met-even on the race. And there is definitely an investment in Cambodia from Christians. There is of course a huge stronghold of Buddhist believers but there are many that have at least heard of Jesus' name and many that are Christians.
Next week we begin our teaching with the students at Teen Challenge. Please pray for the students, for our team, and for all of Cambodia.
Much love :)
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Posted in General Posts by Emily Nance on 9/1/2011
In Joburg, South Africa I began to realize I didn't really have a heart to truly witness to people and to pray for people. At least not to go out of my way to do it.
One day as we were walking up a street to go where our guys were staying, I saw this man maybe in his 30's walking on the other side of the street who was disabled in his legs. Not sure what was wrong with his legs but he couldn't walk right and it was at a pretty slow pace.
So as I noticed him, he looked over and with a big smile on his face he said "good morning, how is it?" as most of the south african's say. So me and my squad mate (and great friend :)) Ruth small talked with him a little bit as we were walking up the street. As we kept walking up to the top of the hill we saw him chatting with another man and about to turn down another street. We walked for a few seconds more and I was talking to God saying, "Lord, I don't have to go pray for him really I can do it from here, really it's no big deal." as I walked step by step I realized, good gosh I can't do something so simple as go pray for a man that is crippled! I say I'm a missionary and willing to do anything for the Lord and I can't go pray for a man who I knew would not say no to prayer. So me and Ruth talked about it-and how disgusting we were with ourselves-and decided we had to go back to find him and pray for him.
Take into account that it was maybe a minute or 2 that we had not seen him and he was going at a verrryyy slow pace.
So we sped walk down the hill to go find him and go in the direction he was going.
We looked everywhere and he was no where to be found.
Immediately we said to each other, "Great! He was probably an angel and we didn't go pray for him! Please forgive us God! GEEZ!"
That incident really began to make me think about how I needed and wanted to find a love for praying for people, witnessing to people, and having such a care for their souls and a genuine godly love for each person. To adopt the idea of viewing others as really interacting with Jesus and seeing each person as Jesus, but also to see them as the royalty that they are-that they are sons and daughters of the King, that they can help change this world, they can help bring the kingdom of heaven to earth, and their souls will be saved!
So I'm learning and in the process of walking out viewing every single person as Jesus, as an angel, as a precious child of God, as potential to help change the world and bring the kingdom of God to this earth. The Lord has really changed my heart in this and I actually get excited to witness and am learning what are key entry ways into casually and not forcefully speaking about Christ and His amazing love for us.
Keep praying for me, my team, my squad, and all missionaries out on the field. Pray that we will see His kingdom come on this earth and with the Holy Spirit's help, that we will see true change in the lives we invest in!!!
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Posted in General Posts by Emily Nance on 8/22/2011
Tonight, as we were walking down the infamous Bangla Rd. of the red light district in Thailand I got this disgusting feeling inside of me. My spirit was so disturbed by what I saw. I mean I'm used to a lot of darkness and terrible things happening on that road but tonight was different. Americans were everywhere. Many of them were all over the prostitutes on the street and the women that work at the bars. And this is supposed to be considered cool to do according to famous singers like Lucadris who raps about the red light district.
Some of the little Thai children were trying to get the men to buy their flower necklaces (who are actually drugged by adults who use the children to make money every night) when I heard several of the men tell the kids to "F-off!" and push the kids out of the way.
One of the women that works at one of the bars was worshiping Buddha while we were prayer walking today. It killed me inside. As we were praying and interceding for the day and the night to come, the girl was praying and worshiping her god that she only knows as the right thing to do in her culture. We've talked to several girls and nobody has heard the name of Jesus and has no clue what the Bible is. No wonder they worship and pray to Buddha! As one of the girls told us "He helps us to feel good inside and gives us happiness." Yeah-if only you knew what Jesus can do for you! We have been able to talk to some of the girls about Jesus (at least the ones that can understand English) and actually gave one a Bible to read. We're really praying the Lord will work in her and touch her through reading it.
Amazingly the Lord has really blessed me and given me His heart this month and the entire race for that matter. There has been so many times where I've just wanted to break down and cry on the street there at night because I feel so much of how bad the Lord hurts for them-His little children. I just feel His sadness and want for every single person on that road to get out and find Him! He has so much more for each person.
With this being our last week here in Phuket, please pray so hard for our teams going out to the bars, and more importantly pray for the women who need out of there and that the men will no longer have the desire to come to Bangla anymore.
Also, our teams are being blessed with an opportunity to play a gig at one of the bars on Bangla. Pray that everything works out and that the music we play will minister to peoples hearts, that the spiritual atmosphere will continue to change in HUGE WAYS, that the words we sing will be prophetic over the area, that no darkness will be able to dwell there, and that ultimately salvation will come through that time!
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Posted in General Posts by Emily Nance on 8/16/2011
Here's a blog my AWESOME teammate Vinny came up with and video my AMAZING team leader Lauren created. ENJOY!!
Hello everyone I just wanted to give you a taste of what travel days look like. This video was our travel from Beira to Lichinga Mozambique- Africa.......... These were the hardest five days of my life!!!! There are key parts of the video that you can be looking for. Notice by the end of the video my V-neck t-shirt is on backwards (after sleeping on the floor of a church and waking up to my body being covered in ants I had basically lost my mind by the end of the these travel days). Also my teammate Emily's hair turns from blonde beautiful locks to a red bird's nest (the red African dirt won the battle on these travel days). It is very funny though and God gave us an exceedingly abundant amount of grace on these days hope you enjoy :) TIA -This Is Africa Bru!
Untitled from Lauren Rush on Vimeo.
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Posted in General Posts by Emily Nance on 7/18/2011
Team Fuego's month in Mozambique was pretty much a God send. We got to work with Iris Ministries-Heidi Baker's ministry-which was aweeessssooommmmeeee. Our month of ministry looked a little bit like this:
We did crafts with the girls that lived on our base-the girls were orphaned but were taken in and cared for by the staff on the base. They had a vision from the Lord that they would have a home for small girls who needed a good home. There are 4 girls and 2 aunties who take care of them.
There were a few outreaches we went to and showed the Jesus film to different villages. We had alter calls and asked people to come up for healing and many came up and were healed of random things-many body pains. One man had some really bad joint pain and he was healed and started jumping up and down so excited that God showed up.
One of our contacts on the base, Annelisa, leads a hip hop dance ministry that I was so pumped to be apart of. She goes to a local high school and invites students to come to the practices and sometimes people just stop in because they are curious.
So one day at practice we were doing the dance we had been learning and a few people came in to see what was going on. They ended up staying for our bible study after our dancing and I gave my testimony because it went along with the study we were doing. Annelisa explained to them that even though I was once lost, depressed, and much more, the LORD brought me out of that and now I am joyful and full of life because of the LORD. After the study she asked if anyone wanted to receive Jesus. 4 people ended up saying yes and gave their hearts to Jesus!
It has totally been the Lord revealing to me that hip-hop dance might be a ministry for me to be apart of in the future. I have such a love for dance, even though I've been a closet dancer for most of my life. My new viewpoint of worship and love for it has added to my love for dance as well. There is such freedom in dancing for the Lord and I know He smiles at me and is so proud of me when I do it all for HIM. I really desire to have a group of people with the same love for dance and worship-that we can come together and wait for the Lord to give us movements and allow the Holy Spirit to move in us through that.
We did a little hospital ministry this month too which was awesome. We prayed for a lot of malaria patients, and mainly just kids. We prayed to the Lord before leaving everytime we went. The first time we went the Lord showed me a leg, broken or something wrong with it inside the skin. I was a little hesitant at first believing it was the Lord that showed me that but when we got to the hospital within the first couple of minutes of being there we passed a little boy who had a broken leg. We asked his dad if we could pray over his leg but he was Muslim so he said no. But as we were leaving I still prayed over the boy believing the Lord would heal his leg.
Our Iris base hosted an event for kids in a nearby village called Assumane. They called it ASSUMANE FUN DAY! We just helped out and played games with the kids of the village that our base reaches out to every week. They've really felt called to the Assumane village and do so much evangelism and ministries there and things are definitely happening.
One of the last days we were in Lichinga, we did some evanglism in Assumane Village. We went around asking people if they wanted to accept Christ as their savior even though most are scared to because of their Muslim upbringing and Muslim influence in their families. A lot of times if you accept Christ and your family is still Muslim-they pretty much disown you and kick you out of the family-that's why so many don't come out with being a Christian. We also went around and asked if people needed prayer for healing. We prayed over several people, one in particular we prayed for an older lady with body pains and it turns out she did feel better after prayer but a young girl near by said she was healed of some sickness she had. Her friend asked her if she was kidding and she said "no, I was really healed!" And we didn't even lay hands on her. The Lord's power was that great!
The Assumane church that one of our contacts, Tyren, set up is very small and is still being built, but the people that go there are legit there for the Lord and to seek His presense. Here's a little video below of some of a worship time we had at the church.
Our month was so amazing working with Iris Ministries. Our contacts were so based off of the Holy Spirit and seeking the Lord's presense in everything they did that there was change happening in Lichinga. The Lord was working so much in what they were doing and it really showed me how important it is to work in the strength of the Lord and not just do things because it's a good thing to do. But to change that mindset to "Lord have your way, work the way that you want to work, I'm just your simple little vessel-use me. I just want to seek your presense in everything and rely fully on you.-Love Em" :)
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Posted in General Posts by Emily Nance on 7/13/2011
I have until Friday the 16th to have $903 in my support account or I'm going to be sent home.
AIM is actually really serious that I have it all in this coming Friday.
If I don't...well they will have a plane ticket for me next week to come home.
As much as I would like to come home to nice summer weather, a comfy bed, mama's cooking, etc., I really don't want it to happen.
Thanks to all of you who have been so awesome in supporting me on the race.
I've been so blessed to have all of you. So blessed.
I'm believing the LORD is going to provide for me.
If the LORD touches your heart to help a sista out, just click the support me link on my blog.
Thanks, MUCH LOVE!!
-Em
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Posted in General Posts by Emily Nance on 7/10/2011
The Lord has shown/revealed some really amazing things to me in the past couple of months.
-I definitely have a calling to missions-don't know what that looks like yet but definitely believe I will be overseas for a good majority of my life.
-Possible ministry in the future: hip-hop dance ministry, maybe teaching God's word.
-Community is essential to my life.
-I love my teammates and squad mates so much. They are such amazing brothers and sisters to me and amazing men and women of God. I'm so blessed to have them.
-Being transparent and real is essential for my inner self.
-It's okay to be okay with where I am in my life.
-Seeking HIS presense is the MOST IMPORTANT thing-in ministry, missions, LIFE.
-Worship is essential everyday. I feel like I'm suffocating without it. I crave it and crave HIS presense more than I ever thought possible. If I could I would sit, stand, dance in HIS presense worshiping HIM all day long. HE is so worthy and deserves it so much.
-If I don't seek HIS presense in everything (especially ministry) and follow what HE wants me to do-it's all in vain.
-I am the LORD's precious little girl, HIS daughter and HE is my DADDY. HE's my everything. I finally understand that.
-INTIMACY with the LORD. I used to be weirded out by that word and having it with the LORD. But HE's purified my mind and transformed my thoughts to where I want it and crave intimacy so much.
-I want to live by Phil. 1:21--For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. I want to die so much to myself. I want to literally be a little Christ.
-Interceding for people is serious and shouldn't be taken lightly. I have a totally different viewpoint now when a random person pops into my mind.
So that's just a small bit of what the Lord has taught me/is teaching me on this race. Thought I would let you all into a little of my personal growth on this journey. :)
P.S. Thanks for all the comments, prayers, encouragements, and support. You don't even know how much I appreciate it!
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Posted in General Posts by Emily Nance on 6/30/2011
Here is a blog that one of our ministry contacts, Tyren Haynes, wrote about this month that's just one of the many instances we knew the Lord was with us:::
The past Monday, we went to the Lichinga "Love" Hospital again with 3 members from the World Race Team. Victo (translator/heavily involved with hospital ministry ) prayed asking the Lord to do different things. The first room we entered into, the presence of God came in a mighty way. We didn't think about the patients, but worshipped Jesus singing softly right in the hospital room. Some of us were on our knees. An unsaved woman started singing along with us, and afterwards received Jesus Christ as her Savior. A person from our group gave another woman in the room, who happened to sing in the choir at her church, a prophetic word and ministered to her. She was touched by the presence of God and worshipped along with us in the room. After praying for the 2 children in the room, we moved into another room. This is where we received a very different sign from the Lord.
When we began praying for a child in the next room, the lights in the hospital went out. Then they came back on. We moved to another bed in the same room and began praying. As soon as we began praying, the lights went out again. Then, as soon as we said, "Amen", the lights came back on again. We were very surprised. When we left the hospital room and entered the hallway, Victo noticed that the 3 rooms we had entered had lights, but all the rooms we didn't enter were in darkness. One of the nurses was very shocked. She told us that she didn't understand why some of the hospital rooms had lights, and some of the hospital rooms in the hallway were completely dark. As the rest of us looked down the hallway, we too noticed that the only rooms that had lights were the 3 rooms that we had gone into. All the other rooms we hadn't entered were completely dark. We then realized that everywhere we walked in the children's ward had lights, including the hallway, but everywhere we didn't walk was in darkness.
We knew the sign was from the Lord, and were encouraged to know that wherever we walked that day in the hospital ward, the Lord was removing spiritual darkness and bringing the light of His kingdom.
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| Praying for a child. The woman in the front holding the child received Jesus Christ as her Savior. |
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Loving and hanging out with women and children in a room in the Children's Ward.
The parent told us that we prayed for the baby (in the back) during the previous week
and now the baby was doing better now. |
You are the light of the world ... Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. (see Matthew 5:14, 16; NKJV)
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