We're Georgian

John and I have settled in to a beautiful home outside of Atlanta. It is a great location, centralized to my job, church, and the school of ministry. We felt at home instantly! Our church family here is amazing. We are so blessed!! Yay God! He takes such good care of us!

Update!!

So...I am a terrible blogger! Let me quickly update you on life! John and I graduated from the first year program of Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry (with honors! :) in May. We are soo glad that we had the opportunity to be out here for a year. It has been an amazing way to start our first year of marriage as well as really dig in with God!! We are so blessed!

In June we took a vacation to the north rim of the Grand Canyon. If you have never been to the Grand Canyon...GO! It is absolutely breathtaking. We spent five days there with Graham and Bert. Lots of hiking, amazing views, John and his backpacker guitar- it was just awesome.

John has spent the last month in Bethel's School of Worship. He graduates tonight. He has also gone crazy writing and recording music. We will have to get him a MySpace page or something. It's been very exciting to see him so inspired again!!

And the biggest news of yet...we move on Monday!!! We are off on another adventure in the Atlanta area. We are taking Route 66 through Tulsa and then cutting over to Georgia. Lots of fun stops planned! Stay tuned!!

Please pray for our new home and new jobs!!! We are living by faith right now!

Day 5- Prayer Cruise

This was an incredible day!
We spent 7 hours on a boat around the island of Roatan interceding with pastors and leaders from the island. God's presence was thick! I have never been on a boat for that long- I had a rough patch for awhile when I had to lay down but it wasn't for long. One of the coolest things we saw were around 20 dolphins swimming and jumping along side our boat. It was so cool! I have never seen dolphins outside of theme park show! It was really wonderful to bond with the other leaders on the island. At the end we took turns singing worship songs we both knew in english and spanish.

Day 4

One thing that was common in Roatan was losing electricity- the entire island would go out, nearly every day! This particular day it happened multiple times. Half of us went to church this morning at Calvary Chapel and the other half went out to minister to more people- to the dump and other places. I went to church and John went with the other group. We went back to the same church we preached at on Saturday night again on Sunday night. My camera died at service- I was sad! We all worshipped and danced so much! I prayed for this beautiful woman with stomach problems. She got healed and shared her testimony with the whole church and was crying! It was crazy because I didn't really know what happened because of the language barrier-but God was in charge. She was overwhelmed and so was I.

Day 3

Saturday we went out in ministry mode! We split up in two groups. John and I went to Calvary Chapel to bring them water filters, find out what other needs they had, and pray for everyone. The other group went to a clinic to pray for the sick there. We shared God's love and created relationships. One crazy thing that happened was that the pastors of Calvary, Chuck and Tia had just been to Atlanta to take Tia's mom for a surgery. While they were there they stayed with her cousin, and they met the leaders of Bethel Atlanta. Her cousin happens be good friends with the Hales ( who started Bethel Atlanta) and Lauren's dad Steve Hale met Tia and her mom! What are the chances?? Lauren and her husband Brent were with us and couldn't believe the connection! We were all like we are moving to Atlanta for that church! Isn't that crazy!

We had a couple of hours before dinner so we all went swimming of Miss Peggy's dock (she is the one with the health clinic). Then we went to a Spanish speaking church that evening to bring the message and pray for people. Scott and Tracy spoke at the church and then called some of us up to give words of knowledge. This was me and John's first time to do this in a setting like this. I had a word about someone having pain in the arch of their right foot. Sure enough there was someone there-later we prayed and all the pain left her foot! I also prayed for a woman and four of her daughters, one of who suffers from terrible headaches (probably migraines). The pain left her head that night, and I am believing that she will never have headaches again- like me!! They were so grateful and loving! It was so interesting praying for people with a language barrier. My spanish improved over the course of the week, but it had been 8 years since I last had a class!!

Lauren prayed for a sweet grandma who I think had some sort of arthritis or something in her hand. It was all crumpled in and she couldn't move it, but God is good and He healed her and she got so excited! She ran around and made us pray for everyone in her family. John and Jordan prayed for her grandson who was a Honduran version of Paul Egan (it was crazy weird). His name was Ronald and he work at a zipline place on the island. He had fallen off and platform awhile back, hurt his back, and had never fully recovered. They prayed for him and then asked him to test it out and move around. Ronald said it didn't hurt, but he needed to lift something heavy to really test it. So the guys told him to pick up Mario (one of the guys in our group). He tried, but said he still had pain in his pack. They prayed again and told him to try to pick Mario up again. He pick him up and lifted him high! He was completely shocked that he could do that! It was crazy and hilarious all at the same time. Ronald is really on fire and passionate about God. We got to see him two more times during the trip.

Overall, around 80% of the people that were prayed for claimed healing in their bodies. I had never witnessed anything like this in my life. It was amazing. And God used me. Wow.

Day 2

On Friday we really spent the day bonding with each other and worshipping. We shared testimonies from our lives, what God was telling us for this trip, and met with pastors and leaders on the island. Here are some more fun pictures!

We're back!

Well, we made it back home safely, and it was an amazing trip! God showed up. People got healed. It was good! We have lots of stories to share....this may take a few posts...

I will begin at the beginning!

We arrived on the AMAZING island of Roatan on Thursday, April 3. We stayed at the Tri-R Resort which had a campy/retreat type feel to it. There were only 14 rooms so we basically took over the hotel. They served us breakfast each morning and there was room for us to gather, meet, worship, etc. We had really great conditions compared to what other trips experienced. John and I had our own room with air conditioning (a window unit)! Now, the power went out for a period of time everyday so air conditioning didn't matter. We could only have it on while we were there...We also couldn't flush toilet paper down the toilet. That was hard to get used to at first, but eventually we got the hang of it.

We had no plans for the first day except to rest. (We flew out of Sacramento at midnight- so our schedules were a bit off.) So..to rest many of us decided we could best do it at the beach!! Caribbean beaches are my favorite! We had dinner together on the ocean with talking parrots! They whistled and laughed at us too!

I will stop there and continue day two on the next post...I promise I have ministry stories and testimonies!

So long!

We are off to Honduras today! We are leaving a little earlier than we originally planned, but when you are flying to a tiny island off the coast from Houston - I guess you can't be too picky about what day your flight leaves. Our first day will be spent doing a "prayer cruise" sailing around Roatan interceding for it. What a great way to start! John and I are not bringing a computer nor be able to use our phones so look for news after we return on the 14th. Please pray for heaven to invade Honduras and for God to show up in love and power as we minister to the islanders. The remainder of our trip will be spend on a coastal city called Tela.

We love you guys! Thanks for all your support! We couldn't do this without you!

Posting comments

I realized I had our account set to where you all have to have an account to post comments. I fixed that so anyone can post....so post away...we would love to hear from you!

Pastoring Kids in Revival

I have the opportunity to serve/attend the Pastoring Kids in Revival conference this week. I am pretty excited about it! I do plan on going back to teaching in the fall, but I am trying to hear God's heart for me on how I am to minister to his children. I got into teaching because I want to be a mom. I love kids and I love developing a family-like relationship with them. When you have a class of 25 kids for a year, you become a family- I love that. It's the loving, pastoring side of teaching that ultimately drives me. We'll see what happens...

Honduras update

We are leaving for Honduras in three weeks! I can't believe it! We leave on April 2nd and get back on the 14th. Our first destination is the island of Roatan. It's part of the Bay Islands of Honduras on the Caribbean side. Apparently it is one of the best places for scuba diving. We do have a free day while we are there...who knows what fun we will get to have. We are on the island for a week and then we will travel to Port City on the northern coast and stay from Thursday until Monday. John is helping head the worship team and I am co-leading the children's area of ministry. We also have to have two subjects to preach/teach on at any given time. We love our team and can't wait to bring God's kingdom to Honduras!

We're moving!

John and I (and God) have decided to move to the Atlanta area near the end of the summer. We graduate from first year in May; then John will be attending the School of Worship in June and July. Following that we will be off to Georgia for the next phase of our adventure. We will be helping out with Bethel Atlanta and their school of ministry. We are bringing the culture that we have experienced out here to the east coast. It's going to be so awesome! There are about 15-20 students that are all moving over the course of the summer. We feel really connected and at home with all of them. This is completely a God thing. It is so fun to see him at work in our lives, setting us up for all the oodles of goodness He has in store for us! YAY GOD!

Visitors in NorCal

John and I have been busy with our first visitors to the Redding area the past few weeks. John's mom, sister, and nephew came out at the end of February for a week. We got to show them around the area, take them to school, and attend the Prophetic and Arts Conference at Bethel. It was crazy busy and fun!

Mike and Brandi just left us to head back to Nashvegas. We had an awesome time with them as well. It gave John and I an excuse to take a mini-vacation to San Francisco and Sonoma Valley. Then back in Redding we took them on a waterfall tour- 3 amazing waterfalls. My favorite was Mossbrae Falls. Look for pictures soon!

Update on Mission Trip

Many of you have been concerned about our mission trip to Kenya in April. We received an email about a week ago confirming that we would probably not be going. John and I were disappointed, but we know that you can't deal God a bad hand. We will be traveling to Honduras in Central America. Our team is one of the smallest mission teams and thru our meetings we have gotten close. We really are excited to be able to stay and work together as a team in Honduras. Here is the story on how God brought our new trip to us from Scott (our leader).

First of all, I want to thank you for your patience as we have waiting on the Lord for direction. We have worked extensively to find what closed doors in Kenya mean to us as a team. Eric, Tracy, Sara and I have met multiple times. Some open doors have come, but we have waited to find out what HE is doing. We did not want to just find a replacement without really searching His heart.

In the process, I met with a few of you to gauge what you were feeling. In my meeting with Denny Prins, I asked him about Honduras, a country which he had told me about many times. He spoke of the desperation that a group of pastors has for revival, how they are traveling to different areas, anointing with oil and asking for God to send revival. I kept what he said in my heart. Later that day, I met with Mary Lou (our lead intercessor for our team). She told me that the day of our team meeting (lunch at the Pewitts), when we were talking about Kenya, she heard the Lord say, "Honduras." She did not say anything, as she had no idea what it meant.

On Friday, the day when I knew we would have an answer, the confirmations came. A man for whom Pastor Bill had written a book endorsement randomly stopped by the church. Since Pastor Bill is out of town, and does not usually meet with "drop ins," I spoke with him and told him I would pass on his "thank you" to Pastor Bill. He looked at me and said, "There is revival in your eyes." I asked if he would like to hear Dutch Sheets speak, and we both walked towards the sanctuary. He stopped me in the lobby and said, "I see many dark faces in your eyes. They are not Africans. They are central or south Americans. What is going on with you?" I briefly told him the story of Kenya and our asking God what He wants us to do with our team. He told me that Honduras was a Macedonian call. (Paul was on his way to Asia, but the Lord "rerouted" him to Macedonia, see Acts 16).

We are so honored that the Lord would confirm to us what He is doing. He is so good and He showed up RIGHT when we needed him (even sent a stranger to confirm). Joaquin also had a dream for Sara a few weeks ago, that pointed her towards Latin America. I believe in each and every one of you and believe that you were chosen to go with us on this team. I believe that we were put together for a reason. I also believe that Honduras is not just a place that we have chosen instead of Kenya, but it is the perfect will of God that we go at this time.

We are very excited to start praying into this new adventure, and we will let you know when John and I know more. John and I still have a strong desire to visit Kenya/Heroes of the Nation and are planning on traveling their in the future. Our team will still be sending financial support through a fundraiser we are having this month.

Blessings and love
Alyson and John

Jesus is the healer!

So I was out on a treasure hunt on Thursday (that's where we pray and listen for the Holy Spirit to give us clues about who He wants us to go show His love to; and then we go out and find them!). We were looking for a guy in a red coat in sports authority. The Holy Spirit had told me that he would have a sports injury in His right shoulder, and He told one of my teammates that he had left knee trouble. As it turns out, we met Ed. Ed had just recently had surgery on his left knee, and had in the previous week suffered an injury to his right shoulder from overuse (swimming and weight lifting).

Ed is an awesome guy. He works in the concrete industry and he was so friendly. We asked him if we could pray for him, and he said, "Sure!" We prayed for Jesus to come heal him, and we commanded the pain to leave his body. He said his shoulder felt fine at the moment, but he wouldn't know for sure until his workout the next morning. So I gave him my phone number and asked him to call me to let me know how he's doing.

He called me yesterday to let me know that he swam a mile with no pain whatsoever and is completely healed! Come on, JESUS!! Jesus just visited Sports Authority and felt like healing up hurt!


Also, we saw a 75 year old woman completely healed of arthritis 2 weeks ago. She used to be a dancer, but she hasn't been able to from the pain. So we asked Jesus to heal her...and He DID! She checked it out, and the pain instantly left her body! Jesus is just so good, He makes me wanna jump...so I think I will ;)

The Shack

I was at a writing conference this week and hear about a book called The Shack. I bought it on Tuesday night and am about to finish it! I highly recommend it to everyone!! It is a Christian narrative story about a guy making sense of how and why God lets bad things happen in the world. It's awesome! Go read it!

Bad Blogger!

I am currently attending the final day of a writing conference here at Bethel Church. I don't necessarily feel like a writer; however, God told me to come. I have resolved to update this blog weekly- that way I am actually writing. So if anyone actually looks at this page, you can look forward to hearing from me- or John more often. God bless!