Colombia 2013 - Mission Trip

Hello dear friends,

So we are going to Columbia on a missions trip at the end of March!! We will be working with street kids, widows, prostitutes as well as partnering with local churches to take services and bring revival to the city!
During our time there we will be staying in the same building as prostitutes kids live, which will be a amazing opportunity to pour love into their lives and restore the standard of unconditional love into their families. We just got home from our first meeting with our team and are really excited for this trip which we believe will be life changing!!

If you would like to donate towards this and sow into us and the nation of Columbia you can do so by following this link and under the section 'Give Today' type our names.

https://missiontrips.ibethel.org/

Thank you so much and soon we'll be updating our blog with more infos.

With Love!

Daniel and Christine

Latest from Redding.

Hey everyone,

So it’s been a while since our last post (sorry we’re working on posting more regularly) so we thought we would give you guys an update on what’s been happening with the Oliveira’s lately!

Ministry Trip

This year we get the opportunity to go on ministry trips with leaders from Bethel. I went on my first trip just a few weeks ago to Ventura in Southern California for 5 days with Jason Chin- who oversees treasure hunts in the Church and various other evangelistic ministries.

We went to a small church down there who also have a part-time School of Ministry. They are a really hungry, lovely group of people who are going after revival in their city. I just loved getting to know some of them and being able to really encourage them. We did Treasure Hunts with the Church and ministry school students, three church services and took the classes at their ministry school also. We did a lot of prophetic ministry, praying for healing and prayer ministry. God did so many wonderful things over the few days but here are a few of my favourite testimonies:

- On our way down there which was a 10 hour drive we wanted to start reaching out to people. So every place we stopped we would look for people we felt the Lord wanted us to pray for. In this one petrol station our leader Jason got a word of knowledge that someone had a lot of knee pain and back pain and so he went around the shop asking people if they had any pain. Finally the manager of the shop who had just come on shift heard him and said “that’s me, that’s me…I was just telling my colleagues how much pain I was in”. And so he brought her over to where we were sitting having lunch, got her to sit down and checked if her legs where the same length (as when they’re not can cause a lot of knee and back trouble). It turned out one was a bit shorter than the other so he prayed a simple prayer and the shorter leg shot out so visibly, to be the same length as the other. She was so amazed that she started screaming and shouting saying “I felt that, did you see that?” and she jumped up and all the pain was gone. It turned out she was a believer but she’d never really experienced the supernatural before but was so hungry for it. We prayed and prophesied over her for a bit and the presence of God really came that she was almost falling over and we had to hold her up- and this all happened in a petrol station! Her life was radically touched that day and she told us that she’d been praying on her way in to work asking God to help her get through the day as she was in so much pain and then He sent us.

-On Saturday night at the church service one of the word of knowledge’s called out was for flat feet. A lady from the church who is also in the school came up and I ended up praying for her. Because she had flat feet it put a lot of pressure on her toes which was causing her some pain. I’d seen the Lord form arches for a man who had flat feet last year in the healing rooms and so I had total faith for it. So I started to pray for arches to be formed and really for a creative miracle but nothing was really happening. However, I saw the woman again the next evening and she came up and told me that an arch had formed in one of her feet (the one which was causing her pain) which was amazing but we still wanted to see the other one formed. And so I prayed again for the other foot and again nothing really happened. Then I saw her again on the Tuesday and the other arch had formed and she had brand new arches!! I really loved this woman’s faith and perseverance and it taught me that sometimes miracles are gradual and we just need to keep going after it!

That’s just a few of the things that happened. I had such an amazing time and really felt that the Lord increased my capacity to love each person put in front of me! I loved to be able to encourage, bless and love each person and release some of what we’ve been getting here at Bethel!

Thanks to everyone who was praying for me while I was away!

School Planting

A big part of our year here is something called ‘Tracks’, where we get to focus in on one area of ministry for the whole year. Daniel and I are both doing the School Planting Track. This includes a class every week where we are learning how to set up and run ministry schools similar to BSSM and also schools to influence different spheres of society. This track covers everything, from vision and mission statements to budgeting and scheduling. In addition to this our class is split into 3 teams and we are designing model schools. These model schools are aimed at influencing some of the different spheres of society- the Political sphere, the Education sphere and the Business sphere. Over the last 2 years or so Bethel has really felt God beginning to call them to focus on bringing kingdom influence and revival to the different spheres of society. Therefore they have started to really explore how to do that and one of the things they have started to think about is designing schools for people in these different realms, which bring kingdom values and principles relevant to their particular sphere of influence.

My team is designing a school for Ministers of Education and the country we’re focusing on is the DR Congo, and Daniel is in the team for Political Leaders in Kenya. We are designing 3 day seminars for these leaders focusing in on different challenges these countries are facing in relation to these spheres and looking at how we can bring kingdom minded solutions and values to these problems. As you can imagine this is a very challenging project which requires a lot of work and research but its been such a learning experience and giving us real insight into what’s involved in starting a school as well as how to bring the kingdom of God into these spheres of society without needing to have a big Christian banner over it! Although these schools we are designing are model schools (meaning we aren’t necessarily going to go to these countries and do the school) Bethel has strong links in these countries and even some ministry schools there, and so, some of the material we come up with might well be used in the future. It so exciting to think of how we can bring revival in different, creative, relevant ways and not just think the answer is to try and get everyone to come to church. The Kingdom of God is a lot bigger than just the four walls of the church, it can and is breaking out in every sphere of society, how can we play our part in our particular sphere of influence?

Mission Trip

We have recently found out that we’ve been accepted to go on a mission to Columbia with a team of about 20 students for 12 days at the end of March 2013.  We will be going to the city of Medellin where we’ll be partnering with a group of local revivalists to do crusade style evangelism, lead treasure hunts, minister to street kids, widows and prostitutes and equip local believers to see lasting revival in their city. For decades Columbia has been known as a hub for drug and sex industries but after years of oppression and conflict the nation is hungry for transforming revival and we are so excited to be a part of that happening in one of Brazil’s neighbouring countries.

As you can imagine we need to raise quite a bit of support to be able to go on this trip and so if you would like to sow into us and the nation of Columbia you can do so by following the link below and enter one of our names in the Give Today section and follow the instructions:

https://missiontrips.ibethel.org/

 We need to pay our deposit to secure our place on the trip by 7^th December so if you would like to give we would much appreciate it.

So that’s us for us now! As we said, we’re really working on trying to blog more regularly as we want to keep you more informed and in the loop of what’s happening here and with us. We really appreciate your ongoing support and prayer!

Love,

Christine

Brazilian Elections

Dear friends, as some of you know, my Dad, his name is Francisco Helio, is a pastor and a politician in Brazil, and in this year’s election he’s running for a high position in the government, one that he used to have a few years ago. The position pretty much puts him as second authority in the city where he lives, and where Christine and I will be living.

In the past year I’ve been thinking a lot about the opportunity we have to influence decisions that will affect a whole city, and to bring God’s values and kingdom’s principles back into the political realm in Brazil and influence culture. What would it look like to live as a present day’s Daniels and Josephs, two men that changed the course of their nation and it’s leaders because of the presence of God in their lives? And what would it look like to walk in such wisdom and favour?

This has been a big thing in my heart, and more and more I’m dreaming and flirting with God about what could happen if we use this opportunity for His kingdom and glory. And I truly believe that these dreams and passion to influence this realm of society comes from God’s heart for my family and it is something i would be very much involved in once we're in Brazil.

My dad was one of the first Christians politicians in our city, and when he was first elected for that position (back in the 90’s), he opened the door for Christians to come in and have a influence in what goes on in the city, now, the same way he was used to open a door for the church to get into politics, I believe God wants to use him to open a door for the Kingdom to come in,

which is exciting.

So why am I saying this to you? I’m glad you asked. The elections happen in a week. Keep my dad (Francisco Helio) and his team and our city (called Uberlandia) in prayers. And if you have any word for him or his team let me know and i'll pass it on to them.

Cheers!! And much love to all y'all!!

Daniel

2nd year blog begins!!

Hello friends,

Greetings from California! We’ve been back here just over a month and time is flying by!! We’ve just finished our 4^th week at school and once again it has been amazing and we feel so blessed to be here! It’s been so good to be back and reconnect with friends from last year and also start to form so new relationships…you meet new people nearly every day here!

From day 1 in 2^nd year we could sense the shift! It is a big step up from 1^st year! We are now treated as leaders and expected to act like leaders. There is much more responsibility on our part to make the most of the year which creates ownership and in effect is training us to be leaders. It now feels like we are in a Leadership Training School, which we love! On our first day back we had Kris Vallotton and Bill Johnson and there was no warm up. Kris jumped straight into his leadership training, which was amazing and of course Bill was as deep as ever! Another big difference is that the whole year is much more together. 2^nd year is a lot more about the whole class and what God is doing corporately among us and not just our individual journeys. This creates such an atmosphere of unity and it also means there is free access to any of the leaders in 2^nd year, not just our assigned pastor!!

What does it look like when the Kingdom comes?

Our times with Kris Vallotton have been incredible! He is the senior overseer of the school and carries its vision. His vision is the raise up world-class leaders to go all over the world and bring the Kingdom of God, and it seems like it’s 2^nd year where this ‘really’ begins to happen! He wants to teach us how to think for ourselves and think like leaders so we know how to get answers to the worlds problems! A big emphasis this year is us learning how the kingdom works, how the spirit world works instead of just knowing methods and theories and so he is taking us on this journey this year!

So in our first week we where discussing ‘what it looks like when the kingdom comes?’ and ‘how does heaven invade earth?’. We discovered it’s so much more than just signs, wonders and miracles breaking out- even though these are a big part of the kingdom coming. Kris says miracles are never meant to be an end to themselves but rather an invitation into a superior kingdom and a catalyst to cultural transformation. There were places where Jesus performed many miracles such as Capernaum, Chrorazin and Bethsaida and yet those cities where not transformed and so the kingdom couldn’t have fully come. So after quizzing us on what we thought it looked like and dialoguing about what kingdom looks like in all different aspects of society, Kris shared his thoughts which are amazing and thought you all might like to read:

Here is the link:

http://www.kvministries.com/article/2012/09/12/when-kingdom-comes

Building a History with God

In contrast to that Bill has been talking to us a lot about our ministry to the Lord as our primary ministry! He has been sharing keys from his life and relationship with the Lord, which has been amazing. He shared on how our ministry to the Lord (worship) is our no.1 ministry and it affects everything we do- evangelism, love for people etc. He talked about how familiarity with God is so dangerous as we lose that wonder and awe of him and often worship can become so familiar that we begin to lose that and forget that when we come to worship we need to bring an offering- it is sacrificial! He also warned about having multiple agendas in worship and that our agenda should only be to worship him because of who He is! This was a huge wake up call for many of us as here we have worship almost everyday and so familiarity is always around the corner! This message changed my life and focus on the importance of worship and true worship that actually costs us something- “inconvenience is the way to breakthrough in kingdom living”- Bill Johnson

Another day he talked about building a history with God, which really is just spending time with Him and developing an intimate relationship with Him and getting to know Him! This is our true history with God, its so much more about our relationship with Him rather than what we’ve done for him. Bill says history with God is made when no one is watching and you can tell that his history with God is why he’s in the place he is today! Bill says ‘If you’ll make history with God, he’ll shape history through you” and this rings so true in the life of Bill Johnson! I believe this is how you become a revivalist- its through the times when no ones looking!

So that’s just a few things we’ve been learning which we hope bless you!! There is so so much more, evident in the fact that I’ve nearly filled up a whole note book already from taking notes in class!

Thank you all for all the prayers and support. We always keep in mind the ‘tribal anointing’- that what is ours is yours, and we believe that everything we’ve been getting in the spiritual here is available for all of you at home too!

With love!

Christine

Is that time of the year again, time to say bye bye...

For those of you who don’t know yet we are going back to California this Sunday to do the 2^nd year of Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry so, it’s almost time to say good bye to friends and family before we head back, but before that, there’s still time for one last blog update, we hope you guys enjoy it.

Summer in Ireland

So this summer has been a great one for both Christine and I, we were really looking forward to come home and spend some good quality time with family and friends, which we did, and also to partner with what God is doing here and to pour everything we’ve learned last year into what’s happening here.

Since we got home, we were amazed by how people are so hungry for more of God, it was fun to just run with what’s happening here, we feel that there’s so much momentum in the Land, all over the place people are speaking one language and carrying one statement, and that is, ‘Let your kingdom come, and Your will be done on earth, in Ireland, as it is in Heaven’, and I believe that this is just too attractive to God.

This summer we had amazing opportunities to speak at different meetings, pray for people and prophesy, and everywhere we went we were so encouraged by people. We want to thank everyone for all the encouragement, support, and opportunities, it meant a lot to us, all of it, and it was a lot of fun to just run with you guys and partner with what God is doing around the place. We had the privilege to meet some amazing people and we are looking forward to keep developing relationships and walk this journey together.

Another great thing this summer was to be able to get involved with worship around the place, Christine was really looking forward to be reunited with her keyboard and we had a lot of fun worshiping our Daddy with our brothers and sisters. We also got the opportunity to start doing some outreach with our church here-Emmanuel, Belfast through a tool we learnt in Bethel called ‘treasure hunts’. Basically we all meet up and ask God for clues (words of knowledge) about where to go, who we are going to meet and anything they might want prayer for- we are finding Gods treasures!! We got the opportunity to pray for healing for people, encourage many and just share the love of God with all we encountered. Here is a great testimony from Kathryn and Ryan from one of the mornings we were out:

“One of the clues we had was the name ‘Ashley’ and we also had McDonalds as one of the clues so we went there and checked out the people sitting outside, no-one really stood out to us so we went in and Ryan decided he would buy a milkshake, as he was ordering, he then started to say to the guy "we were praying before we came out today and asked God to lead us to people to meet because He has things to say to you and I feel like it might be you" I looked at the guys name badge and yep it was called Ashley. He said "who has things to say to me?" And we said "God" he took a step back and was said "wow....my mum just became a Christian a month ago and I've been really looking into it, I've been reading the Bible and had been looking into other religions" 2 of the other McDonalds staff then leaned in to hear our conversation, we just affirmed him in his search for God and told him that it was pretty obvious that God was looking for him, he was visibly moved and said that he would be thinking about it all day!

Who knew God loved McDonalds?!!!”

People everywhere are hungry for something more and its so surprising how open so many people are. These guys are going to continue to go out and we’re so excited to here all the amazing things that are going to happen when they just step out!

Enjoying some quality fun time with Hannah and David during the summer. 

2^nd year

So after an amazing summer we are now ready to go back for more!! The 2^nd year program is focused on training and raising up leaders to be able to bring and sustain a revival culture. We also get to really focus on areas we feel called to and want to grow in as well as being given a lot more responsibility such as leading the first years in outreach and mission trips. Another great thing about 2^nd year is that we get the opportunity to travel with some of the Bethel leaders/pastors on their ministry trips to different churches/conferences as part of their ministry team, we’re both really excited about that.

We really feel that long term this year will be really beneficial and a great investment into our future ministry and all we feel called to do in Brazil (and Ireland). We are so excited about this amazing opportunity and want to really thank everyone who has supported us both financially and prayerfully to get us here!! Thank you!!

Well, that’s it for now, but we can’t wait to keep you all updated in all God is about to do in our lives this year, and looking forward to hear all that is happening back home.

See you guys on the other side of the big river (the Atlantic).

Lots of love.

The Oliveiras

Unconditional Love calls sons and daughters back home.

So the story is familiar to most of us, a father and his two sons, the youngest son came to his father and asked for his share of the family’s money. The father, rather than try to control, punish or manipulate his son out of the idea, decides to let the son have his way, and so the drama begins.

With all the money he has, the son takes off to a far way land and treats himself with the best money can buy, and with that, he wastes all his wealth in wild living, and to make things worse, a famine hits the land and the whole country goes broke.

In the midst of that recession and with no money left, the only thing left for him was to find a job at a local farm feeding pigs and with a salary so low that he couldn’t even afford to eat what the pigs were eating.

As he hit the bottom, he remembered the life he had at his father’s house, and realized that even his father’s servant had a better life than he now has. One last desperate idea comes to mind, go back to his dad’s land and beg for his dad to give him at least a place to stay and a job to pay for his living, after all, he realizes that the way he treated his father was so dishonoring, that he wasn’t even worthy to be called a son anymore, much more be treated like one. As sad and humiliating as it was to go back with nothing and defeated, he takes off and heads back to his father’s house.

Once he gets close to his fathers house, his father sees him, and moved with compassion, he runs to his son, threw his arms around him and kisses him. The son then turns to his father and says: ‘Father, I made a big mistake, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; but please, make me like one of your hired servants.’

But the father turned to his workers and shouts: ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate, for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found! Hurry, Let’s celebrate!!’

I’m not sure how long it took from the moment this kid left his father’s house to the moment he returned, but during this time way from his father’s presence, love and care, he went from a place where he knew he had rights over everything his father owned to a place where he was gonna have to work and perform to be treated as a servant. See, this kid has now a new mindset, he thinks and sees the world differently. A son became a performer, trying to work hard to earn something he once had for free. A son goes from a place of abundance to a place of survival, just like that. And he knew he deserved that. He came back to the father’s house indeed, but not as a son, but as a servant, as a performer.

Here’s the thing, what this kid didn’t expect to find was his father’s unconditional love towards him. That despite everything he did, he was still a son, he was still family. His survival mindset brought him back as a servant, a performer, but unconditional love made him a son again.

Truth is, if we just look around, we’ll see that all over the place sons and daughters are trying to find their way back into the father’s house, performing and working their way into some sort of affection, acceptance and love. They are everywhere, in our families, workplaces, schools and yes, in our churches. To be honest, sometimes we are the ones walking in those shoes and in need of that love.

So to finish it off, here are the big questions; what would happen if we start to walk in unconditional love? What if, just like the father in the story, we celebrate, champion and fully accept people as they are and love them into a place of true relationship with the Father God?

And two, What if we become fully aware of the unconditional love that has been lavished on us everyday of our lives? What if we open ourselves up to accept that there’s nothing we can do to separate us from the love of God?

Today unconditional love is not only calling us back home, but is also giving us permission to let go of all striving and performance and live in the fullness of our greatest purpose, which is intimacy, as sons and daughters, with our heavenly Father.

Unconditional love is always calling sons and daughters back home, and today is a great day to walk in unconditional love.

Daniel

My Life Psalm

So today I was reading my Bible and came across Psalm 84 and it totally wrecked me!!!

Here it is:

How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty!

My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord;
my heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God.

Even the sparrow has found a home,
and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may have her young—
a place near your altar, Lord Almighty, my King and my God.

Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.

Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.

As they pass through the Valley of Baka,
they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools.

They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.

Hear my prayer, Lord God Almighty;
listen to me, God of Jacob.

Look on our shield, O God;
look with favor on your anointed one.

Better is one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
 than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor;
no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.

Lord Almighty,
blessed is the one who trusts in you.

David’s level of desire and hunger to be in the presence of God so inspires and challenges me. He was a man who wanted nothing more than just to be with God and know Him which is so evident from statements such as “Better is one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere’. He was so committed to worshipping and being in the presence above anything else. I want to have that kind of value for the presence of God, I want to have that kind of hunger and I want to keep my focus on that one thing.

So I’ve decided this is my life Psalm, this is how I want to live my life. I am committed to being with God above all else. I don’t just want to do things for him and know all about him, I want to learn how to BE with Him, how to be in his presence and stay there sometimes without even having to say a word. That is true friendship!!

Christine xo

Last update from the US (for now).

Hello friends,

We are into our final week of school!! It’s so hard to believe we are on the final stretch, it feels like its gone so fast but at the same time it feels like we’ve been here forever and it’s truly become home. We are sad to be leaving this amazing place and especially leaving all the people we’ve become so close to over the last 9 months but at the same time we are so looking forward to seeing you all at home and sharing all we’ve experienced and seen this year.

This year has truly been life changing in so many ways. We came here primarily to get more activated in the supernatural, to grow in our gifts and get more prepared for ministry but God’s vision for this year was so much bigger than ours. We did get all we came for but we also got a lot, lot more. I think one of the biggest things that has happened this year is the transformation of how we see ourselves. We have both grown in our identity as a son/daughter of God and what that actually means. We have had new revelation of the father’s love for us and our identity as children, that he loves and accepts us 100% all the time and we never have to strive, perform or try to earn his love and acceptance. There is so much freedom in truly, truly knowing that and that’s what we have and still are experiencing. We’ve come to see ourselves as heirs of God which means we are royalty, not merely sinners saved by Grace as so much of the church have called themselves for years. God has a much higher opinion of us than that and it’s time to start seeing ourselves as He does and living from that place of royalty and sonship- it’s a lot more fun and a lot easier.

Another major thing that has happened in us this year and that Bethel is so good at is that we’ve really learnt how to do life well. By this I mean we’ve learnt how to live in a healthy way with healthy relationships with each other and with others, where we get our needs met. This is so important and not many churches teach on it or even acknowledge it. God has given us emotional and relational needs, not only spiritual needs and its so important we get healthy in these areas in order to live well. We’ve learnt a lot of tools in this area to do with communication, having healthy boundaries, doing healthy confrontation and more, that are all vital for successful living and to have a successful ministry.

These are just some of the things that God has done in us this year, there is too much to write it all down but to me they are probably some of the most important. We need to know who we are and how to do life well in order to be able to minister effectively to people. We need to know that we have the kingdom of God living inside of us so we can release it to others and see them saved, healed delivered. So thank you for supporting us both financially and prayerfully this year, it has been so beneficial and such an incredible experience.

So what’s next for us?

As some of you know, we have been praying about going to Brazil after the school. We have been in touch with churches and different people about that and everyone is really excited about us moving over, it’s pretty set that we will be going and working with my parent’s church.

There we’ll be leading the youth and getting involved in different social and evangelistic projects (such as outreaches to homeless, street kids, poor neighborhoods and working and ministering to prostitutes and transvestites). Another big thing in our hearts that we will be doing there is to start classes to teach and activate people into the prophetic, healing, evangelism and into this culture of  Love and Honor that we have been learning here at Bethel Church, and eventually develop and plant a school of ministry over there, which takes us to my next point.

Bethel School of Ministry’s 2^nd year is a lot more focused on leadership; the program is designed for us to keep growing and learning but also to equip us to take this culture outside Redding as leaders. During second year we get to lead 1^st year students at different outreaches and mission trips, and get to be a lot more involved with the church. We also get to travel more with Bethel Church leaders (like Bill Johnson, Kris Vallotton and others) in ministries trips around the US and the world, which is such a blessing and honour.

Also, in 2^nd year we get more specific teachings in the areas that we feel called to, such as, Christine and I get to take a class on school planting with the person who oversees all BSSM around the world, which is pretty amazing, We get to see how they do things on day to day bases, how they deal with everything and also get to receive a lot of their wisdom just by being with them.

We feel that personally and ministry-wise that 2^nd year would be really beneficial for us, not only for everything that we could get out of it, but also to go deeper in relationships we've made here and for building life long partnership in this place, which we think will be essential for us in the future. We also feel that there’s still so much we could and want to get from doing life in this environment and culture.

Partnering with us.

So there’s a few ways you can partner with us for the next part of our journey:

One of the ways is prayer.You could keep us in prayer. Pray that God would continue to open doors for us to walk in the fullness of our destiny, for Him to keep bringing people that will pour into our lives as well as people that we would be pouring into, for relationship and partnership that will bless and help us to keep growing, for our families and more, whatever you feel like God is saying over us, declare it and pray. We highly appreciate your prayers.

You can also partner with us financially. Having shared the great stuff about second year, we still have one challenge, it costs just as much as the 1^st year of school, $4200 each.

During the summer Christine and I will be working to save up for the year ahead, and if you would like to partner with us financially, you could donate online on www.ibssm.org, by clicking on the ‘Give Online’ and then ‘Give to Tuition - Make a donation to a student's tuition.’ Then just put one of our names in and donate.

Also feel free to contact us for any information on other ways you could support us.

We 100% believe in what God has been giving us, and in what He’s gonna do in and through us in Brazil and other places where we’re getting involved, and for that I believe that your partnership with us, whether through prayer, financial or in any other way is reaching and affecting more than just our lives, but it is an investment in the expanse of His Kingdom. We have had so much favour and grace during this season here at Bethel, we think this has created momentum for so much more, which makes us excited about all that God will do next year.

So this is it for now, can’t wait to see some of you guys in Ireland soon, and please get in touch if you want to spend some time together, we’re looking forward to it.

Love and Blessings

Daniel and Christine Oliveira

 

Mission Trip stories...

Hello everybody,

Well, we’ve been back from our mission trip a few weeks now so, think it’s about time we updated you all on how it went. It was an amazing trip, so much happened in and through us (too much to write it all down here) so I’ll just give you some of the highlights for now and pretty soon we will try to give more details on everything that God did during those days.

More than anything else, this mission trip was a time to step into a supernaturally natural lifestyle for us. Through healings, miracles and through seeing people being loved by God and accepting Jesus into their life, both Christine and I were activated into this mindset and a deeper realization that wherever we go and whatever we do, we carry the kingdom of God with us -the fullness of it. God was showing us in so many ways what it looks like when we walk consciously that Jesus, the Hope of glory, lives inside of us.

I hope you enjoy reading the stories and that somehow, our week would encourage and bless you guys.  

So it all started on a beautiful Monday morning, we left Redding at 5.30am and didn’t get to LA till 6pm or so. Once in LA we decided that go out and eat would be a good idea, the plan was to walk to a Mcdonalds (located only a few blocks away from where we were staying) eat and walk back to unpack and get things ready for the week ahead, normally, it shouldn’t take us a lot of time to do that, the thing was, God had other plans for the night.

On our way to Mcdonalds we were overwhelmed by the amount of homeless people we met. We decided to stop and talk to some of these guys, soon enough we were sharing about God with pretty much everyone we met or walked passed us on the street. On that ‘walk’ to Mcdonalds we saw God stepping in and people getting healed, saved and delivered. It was so much fun to just love people and see God showing Himself to people. The short walk had turned into a long spontaneous outreach. And yes, it set the standard for the rest of the trip.

In LA we were mainly working with an organization called Hope for the Homeless. It was great just to serve them and help them out with their weekly outreaches. They were a team of about 5 guys who faithfully serve the homeless of L.A week in, week out so we got to encourage them, prophecy over them and teach them more about the prophetic and supernatural, which they loved. Two main outreaches we did with them were at Venice Beach and Skid Row. These two places were full of homeless people, the need was quite overwhelming and we quickly ran out of food and other supplies we were giving out, but we never ran out of love J. Everyone we encountered was hungry for prayer, hope and encouragement and we got to give out lots of that.

We met a lovely woman at Venice Beach called Victoria who was in her forties and was living on the streets with her partner. We talked with her a while and heard a bit of her story and then found out she had back pain so we prayed for her back and the pain eased and she felt the presence of God. We also encouraged her with some prophetic words we got for her and just loved her the best we could in that short encounter. We could see how impacted she was by God’s love for her, it was beautiful.

We also set up a ‘Destiny Reading’ table at Venice Beach, which was a lot of fun. There’s quite a lot of mystical stuff going on in that area, and our Destiny Reading table team was pretty amazing. People were coming over for us to read their destiny and we got to prophesy and speak true destiny over their lives, some people were rocked by what God was saying to them and kept asking how did our guys knew so much haha, it was amazing to share God’s heart with them through all that. Our God is so creative. 

At skid row we met and talked to a lot of broken hurting people but one that stands out is a woman called Shelia. We talked with her for a while and found out that she’d been baptized years ago, a few of us got to speak truth over her life and remind her that she was a princess in God’s eyes, that she was a daughter and that God was longing for a living relationship with her. She was so undone and overwhelmed by God’s love, it was beautiful to watch. Her sister came over to us while we were praying for her and started to pray with us, by the end of the prayer Sheila was trying to describe to us how she felt the Holy Spirit while we were speaking, there was such a purity in that moment, by then we were all feeling God’s love and presence around us, we would’ve stayed in that place with that woman all day if we could.

A lot of people got encouraged and saw hope in that place that day, which is incredible considering how ‘dark’ that area is.

Also during our week, we went to Disneyland. We thought it would be a good idea to have a day off to relax and ‘rest’ our minds from all the intensity of school. We got there, split people into teams of fours and went on to have fun.

A couple of hours later we came across our missions trip leader and she start to share how they had been praying for people and that someone got saved and a girl walked out of a wheelchair. Christine and I looked at each other and to the rest of our team, and we knew what we had to do. Here’s the story.

A couple of months ago Bill Johnson shared a message that really challenged me, long story short, he was talking about how God speaks through parables, how sometimes He hides things not from us, but for us, that in the process of searching and finding those things character and faith are built, and that builds the foundation for the revelation that was hidden in what he said. Why does He hide it? Because He wouldn’t give us something that we are not ready for, and also because if we could see it, we could have it, that’s how things works in the Kingdom.

So once we heard what God did through our leader, we knew we had to go after the same stuff. Christine, I and our two friends saw this girl on a wheelchair not long after that, we told the girl that God had just healed someone at Disney and asked if we could pray for her, she said yes. We pray, God shows up and heals her, she walks, haha, two years after a horse felt on her leg she feels pain free again, Come On!! Then her mum asks if we could do the same for her nerves problem, we then explained to the girl who got healed that the same God who healed through our prayer could use her, and we asked if she would like to pray for her mum, as she had just experienced the power of God, even though she was quite surprised and nervous, she says yes and prayed for her mum, God shows up again and her mum felt a lot better by the time we left her. How awesome is that?

After that we started to pray, prophecy and encourage other people around the park. Our day off  had turned into a fun God-filled day. On total 4 people got out of wheelchairs and some other people gave their life to Christ on that day. It was incredible. On that day God really spoke to us all about living a ‘supernatural’ natural lifestyle. That just like Jesus said in Mark16.17-18, signs and wonders would follow those who believe. We learned that there’s no ‘turn off’ ministry time and ‘turn on’ fun time, we carry the Kingdom of God with us wherever we go, that Jesus the hope of glory lives inside of us, therefore He’s with us anywhere, anytime, and that He’ll always back us up if we decide to step out and release his kingdom into places and people’s lives. It was a good day.

After that day there was a shift in our ministry times, we felt more confident that God is always good and that he had good plans for every single person we encountered on our way.  We got to minister more homeless, prostitutes and transvestites at the red light district on Friday and Saturday night, and on Sunday we got to speak at a meeting in the Angelus Temple building, which was a lot of fun, we saw more people getting healed and rocked by God’s love. On Monday morning we drove back to Redding and that was the end of our mission week.

We would like to thank everyone who supported us on this mission trip, as I said, not only did we get to love on people and see them getting saved, healed and delivered, but we were transformed by God’s love for us and revelation of His Kingdom. We were activated into this lifestyle of His goodness. This wouldn’t have been possible without your prayers and support.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading our mission trip ‘report’, and we pray that you would somehow be encouraged to seek more of God and His Kingdom, and that you would be more aware of what you already have available through Christ, the hope of glory who lives inside of you.

We will be updating this again pretty soon, as we only have less than 2 weeks left of school, stay tuned!!

Love and Blessings

Daniel Aloe-vera

Hey everyone,

We just wanted to write a quick update before we go on our mission trip to L.A on Monday. Firstly, a huge thank you to everyone who helped us with this trip, we really appreciate it. We’ll be away for a week with a team of BSSM students in L.A working mainly with two different ministries there- Hope for the Homeless and Oasis of Hollywood.

During our time there, we will be doing a variety of different things such as- homeless ministry in some of the cities worst neighbourhoods, kids ministry including an Easter outreach, 2 nights out in the red light district ministering to working girls, transvestites and whoever else we encounter over there, we are going to the ER of a local hospital to pray for people and will probably be doing some Treasure Hunts as well as some other things. Our goal is just to love and serve the people we encounter and demonstrate to them the love, honour and value they deserve, all the while bringing the supernatural. We are believing for salvation, healings, miracles, signs and wonders and really just want to serve the ministries we are partnering with. Fun fun.

We are so excited to go and release everything we’ve been learning and receiving at Bethel over the last 7 months and see the Kingdom of God expand in L.A. Please partner with us in prayer over the next week or so. We really need people covering our team in prayer. We are going to some of the most dangerous places in this country, so please pray for our safety and protection and also for our journey down there and back (we are driving- it takes about 10 hours). Also pray for unity within our team and of course that we’d see God touch so many people through us and we’d bring transformation and revival to the streets of L.A. Come on!!

We will update you all, with testimonies etc when we get back.

 Love you all!

Have a great week!!!!!!!

Daniel & Christine Aloe-vera.