NLV provided a love gift to Vineyard Indonesia during Yusak’s recent visit, and we are thrilled to hear from him that that it went toward 200 food packs that were distributed to 4 villages in Boyolali, situated near the Gunung Merapi.

Fred Thomas, from the Inland Vineyard Christian Fellowship in California, who visited NLV in November,
is seen below helping with the distribution.

Some members of NLV went to Chiangmai earlier this year to visit the student hostel, called Faith Garden that we helped set up. We’ve been going regularly there now for about 3 years, since we have started this mercy works together with a lovely Thai-Christian couple, to enable youths aged from 13 – 18 to have a place to stay while they study secondary school in Chiangmai City.

These children are from the hill tribes (Hmong or Karen people amongst others) and come from the mountainous areas in Northern Thailand. Faith Garden was set up for these kids to have a place to stay while in the city, to keep them from mixing with potentially bad company. At the same time, they worship the Lord every night, play with each other, study with one another and most importantly, they still have a sense of family and bonding while they are away from their home. This is what we experience every time we visited and stayed with them.

On this same trip, a visit was made to the Thai-Burma Refugee Camp to see where many of these kids came from. From the account we received, it was an eye-opening experience. The camp is vast, accommodating some 160,000 people, and a sense of claustrophobia can grip you, arising from seeing that many people confined in a small strip of land. You will also be affected by their shared hope of one day being able to return home and immensely touched by their strength in making the arduous journey to this camp from Burma. The camp has been around for so many years, that some of the teenagers you meet will have been born and raised in the camp, and have never set foot out of it. But they are grateful, because at least they are safe. In this way, the news headlines that one often quickly dismisses become real flesh and blood.

If you wish to read more news on the plight of the Burmese people, click here and here. There are many more articles.

During this trip, contact was made with a committed Christian Karen, who having made the journey out from Burma himself, he feels deeply for those Karen people who are still in Burma. We learnt from him recently, that he had been back to his father’s village, earlier this year, to distribute warm clothes, blankets and mosquito nets. In the process, he came across two nearby villages, which together have a population of 600 people.

The area the villagers are in faces a problem with malaria. The villagers cannot afford to meet needs, like mosquito nets, blankets and clothes. They struggle to get food to eat. The area also has the problem of land mines.

The villagers have asked for help. Some of the needs are for: (a) 600 blankets; (b) 600 mosquito nets; and (c) 600 sweaters.

Initially, we were a little bit overwhelmed by their needs, which amount to several thousand dollars. But we have decided to take up this cause, and share about this need to people we know personally. We rest in the assurance of the bigness of our Lord – that He is the ultimate provider of all needs.

Here is a video of John Wimber teaching and serving at the same time.

By Francis Frangipane
www.frangipane.org

Appointed Times
In spite of escalating turmoil in our world, there remains one last, great outpouring of mercy during the end times (see Matt. 24:14; Acts 2:17).

This supernatural season of grace has been predetermined. It is an “appointed time” of the Lord. For those unaware, an appointed time is, in truth, an open display of the sovereignty and power of God. In it we discover with absolute certainty that nothing is impossible for God. For this is a season when God fulfills His will on earth, fulfilling in the process His promises, and the hopes and dreams of His people.

The Psalmist wrote, “But You, O Lord, abide forever, and Your name to all generations. You will arise and have compassion on Zion; for it is time to be gracious to her, for the appointed time has come” (Ps. 102:12-13). There is an appointed time coming for Israel, and an appointed time for you and me. If the Lord has promised, He will certainly bring it to pass. Recall: Abraham and Sarah had waited in faith for a quarter of a century for the promise of God. Finally, as they neared one hundred years of age, the Lord told Abraham, “At the appointed time I will return to you . . . and Sarah will have a son” (Gen .18:14). One year later, “at the appointed time” (Gen. 21:2), Isaac was born to aged parents!

While there are, indeed, appointed times of judgment (see Mark 13:33), the phrase most frequently represents a time, preset by God, when He reveals “wonders, plans formed long ago, [that unfold] with perfect faithfulness”(Isa. 25:1).

Demons may stand arrayed against the Lord; nations may align themselves to fight Him. It does not matter. He who sits in the heavens laughs. For He makes “all things [His] servants” (Ps. 119:91). Even His enemies’ plans for evil are reversed and made to serve the purpose of God (see Gen. 50:20; Rom. 8:28; Acts 2:22-23) .

If God gave you a vision, a spiritual hope or dream for your future, there will be an appointed time when that which God spoke comes to pass.

Thus the Lord assures us, “Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets, that the one who reads it may run. For the vision is yet for the appointed time. It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; for it will certainly come, it will not delay” (Hab. 2:2-3).

If you have a vision or promise from God, that vision also has a time of fulfillment. Write it down and place it where you can see it every day. Though it tarries, wait for it. For it will certainly come to pass at the appointed time.

Appointed Servants of God
When the Lord manifests Himself openly in an appointed time, He actually moves through a power grid He established in hiddenness during the time of preparation.

His work appears suddenly, but its preparation may have taken many years. Either way, an appointed time flows through appointed people. He predestines the time of their breakthrough in advance, even as He works silently within their hearts in preparation.

Consider the Lord’s word to His disciples: “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain” (John 15:16) .

Every disciple feels that, at some point, he or she chose Christ. Yet, the deeper truth is that God chose us before the foundation of the world and has been working in us. At the appointed time we choose Christ, but only after He chose us (see Eph. 1:3-5).

We could not even come to Christ had not the Father drawn us (see John 6:44).

Yet, He who chose us also appointed us to bear much fruit. The same power that worked surrender in us and then inspired our faith continues to work in our hearts throughout our days, appointing us to bear fruit.

The idea that we can just sit quietly in church is a deception.

You may look at your life and feel unfruitful. But God is not done with you yet. Do you believe God has chosen you? Then believe also that He has appointed you to bear fruit.

The Enemy’s Work
One may argue, “But I know people who were good Christians who have fallen away.”

Yes, but in many cases you will find that, at some point, they fell into deep disappointment about some failed spiritual expectation.

Disappointment is not just a sad, emotional state of mind; deep disappointment actually can sever our hearts from faith.

It is the enemy’s work.

Demonically manipulated disappointment can actually “dis-appoint” a person from God’s destiny for their lives.

I have known many who were doing well, moving toward their appointed destiny. The future God had for them seemed almost close enough to taste. Then they became disappointed in someone or something. By accepting into their souls this demonically manipulated disappointment, their faith turned dormant; a bitter winter took over their souls. It is here, even in the throes of disappointment, that the righteous learn to live by faith (see Hab. 2:1-4).

We all face times of disappointment. I went through a time when the promise of God seemed like a foolish spiritual fantasy. For nearly three years I had not been involved in pastoral ministry. No doors would open. God was doing a work in my soul to cause me to trust Him, but I felt abandoned and cut off from my calling. In a moment of abject honesty, I prayed, “Lord, You promised that those who believed in You would not be disappointed. Master, You know all things. Look at my heart. I am full of disappointment.” The Lord simply replied, “You’re life is not over.” Of course, I knew that. I was a healthy young man not older than forty. Yet, the spell of disappointment had flooded my soul with darkness, causing me to conclude erroneously that God was done with me.

Listen well my friend: Satan can stop our destiny if we accept the power of disappointment into our lives. Once we accept the heaviness of a deep dis- appointment, backsliding is often not far away. You see, dis-appointment cuts us off from our vision, and without a vision people perish.

Are you carrying disappointment in your heart? Renounce it. Forgive those who have let you down. Have you personally or morally failed? Repent deeply and return to your Redeemer.

Holy Spirit, I ask You to remove from my brother and sister the paralyzing sting of disappointment!

Beloved, the Spirit of God has come to release you of the effect of the dis-appointment. He reminds you, your appointment with your destiny is still set.

We are glad for the prompting to give in regard to the recent flood disaster in Pakistan. NLV contributed $200, while on the spot collection was $120. We decided to channel the $320 through Mercy Relief.