Hey friends & family!
Sorry for a delay in getting our February email out. We are learning to better balance our time as entrepreneurs! Sometimes we get a bit too carried away. For the month of February we will keep it to just our top 3 stories because there are too many to unpack.
1) SUPER BOWL BLITZ:
We partnered with a ministry that focuses on loving on porn stars and those into the new age movement or Wicca (https://www.cindymcgill.org/). They go to the Burning Man and Las Vegas Porn Convention each year, to name a few events. They sort of go undercover to love on those who have faced utter rejection and pain in their lives. They have seen SO much fruit in what they are doing. So many people experience the love of Jesus without them ever mentioning His name. This causes their walls to come down and has them hungry to know what the source of this love is and it opens the door to telling them about Jesus. Many get healing, saved and leave their old lifestyle to step into their true destinies.
Anyways! They did an all day training the weekend of the Super Bowl and sent people out to Mall of America in small teams. We saw God move in crazy ways. We had 8 different colored bracelets for people to pick from and each one had words on them like, "Breakthrough" or "New freedom." We went and asked people to pick one of the bracelets we had for the Super Bowl. Then we would give them a word of encouragement for 2018 that began focused on what was written on the bracelet. God always spoke more to us about each person, and when He did, we would nonchalantly share it.
As we did, people were getting tripped out. Many asked us if we were psychic or how we knew this about them, and we then shared with them this is from God and He loves them so much. At this point, there was no resistance to the name of Jesus because they felt loved. People would tell us how they felt so loved and affirmed and that dreams they had given up on came back to life. One young guy even told us, "This is the nicest thing anyone has EVER said to me. How did you know these things about me?" We even had one young couple get SO touched they went and grabbed their mom and hunted us down so we could speak a word over her. In the entire day at Mall of America, no one ever turned us down. People are desperately LOOKING for love and PURPOSE.
2) PREGNANT WOMAN TWEAKING MEETS JESUS:
At the end of February we went to California on a working-vacation. We had a bunch of travel points stored up so our entire trip was paid for, so we figured why not!? We told God, have your way with us. We were there to slow down our pace a bit from the intensity of working 12-14 hour work days on the businesses.
There is this place with God where you are so full of Him that you pour over. We did not feel we were supposed to seek out opportunities to minister to others, but to just enjoy our trip and let God pull on us when He wanted to use us. God set us up many times and we said, "Yes!". One evening we were going to a gym in San Diego. As we looked for parking a woman begging stopped us. She asked for cash, but all we had were credit cards. She asked for food and we said, "Sure!"
After returning to her with food, we became friends with Brooke. Oh Brooke, a precious girl. She shared of the trauma of a childhood with meth parents. The things her father did to her were so terrible we cannot even mention them. The darkness she endured as a young girl broke us. We felt Jesus' love for her SO strongly. She shared quite a bit about her life, being homeless and the addictions. Jake shared his testimony of freedom from 8 years of addiction. When she heard him say he actually FELT God and has an EXPERIENCE with God, she wanted that. She also had a completely limp wrist that she could not use.
We just prayed simply asking God's presence to come on her, for her to feel His love and peace and we spoke healing to her wrist in Jesus' name. When we finished she had tears in her eyes. She said, "I feel ..... warm and sweaty and weak. What is that power? I need to sit down!" We laughed with joy and told her she was experiencing Jesus' love and healing. Then she tested out her wrist AND GOD gave her STRENGTH and MOBILITY back! She was freaking out!!! She asked if we were healers and we giggled and kept bringing her back to Jesus. It was all Him, not us.
She wanted Jesus right then and there. We led her through a simple prayer for salvation.
She then said, "I feel this peace that is better than Xanax! And I also have a high that is better than heroine, my previous drug of choice. Did God know that? What is this?!" Jake was able to tell her that he felt high as well when He experienced Jesus. She was high on the MOST HIGH. A clean high that isn't temporary. It came out at that point that she had been using meth to stay up at night so that she wouldn't get attacked in her sleep. We then understood why when we first started talking with her she seemed anxious and on edge. God is so amazing! He literally gave her a tangible peace that she could feel and overpowered the drugs she had been using!
She asked for more prayer so we did some inner healing with her for all the trauma she had experienced. She was able to forgive those who hurt her and forgive herself and she is stepping out of self hate and beginning to love herself. We left her that night with our contact numbers and email as well as the name and address to a local ministry (https://elisharevolution.com/) that our good friend leads (someone we really trust). Please keep Brooke and baby in your prayers! She said she had NEVER heard someone tell her that God had good plans for her life and she DIDN'T know this truth. She now has hope for her future and we are believing she WILL walk in freedom and purpose!
3) CRY OF OUR HEART for 4 years is ANSWERED!
Most of you know we started/lead an inner city ministry for youth. It is called Y.O.Y.O.-You're Only Young Once (https://yoyoministries.com/). Our teens/kids are unchurched and most come from homes with addicts and abuse. The majority have no father in their lives. There have been SO many times we've wanted to give up over the years because it's HARD ground, but God's given us the strength, patience and love to continue. The cry of our heart has always been God, we want to see them HUNGRY for you and get FILLED with the Holy Spirit. Over the past 4 years we had seen God transform our most traumatized and abused kids, the ones that would take out knives, throw rocks, swear at us, smoke weed during YOYO (in the bathroom), start physical fights etc. Through His love, we’ve seen them receive salvation, as well as become calm, kind, loving and JOYFUL. But we wanted more! We wanted to see them chase after God on their own! To see and know their potential in Him, their giftings! We've begun to be really proactive to speak destiny over our kids and tell them what God sees in them. We've been prophesying over them 1 by 1 a lot and have had several guest speakers come do the same. We've seen this bring a SHIFT to the youth. They are used to hearing the negative, but when they hear hope, destiny and truth over their lives, it increases hunger and curiosity, and breaks the lies off of them.
One Thursday evening this February, Jake felt led to share his testimony, as it had been a long time and we had a bunch of new kids who had never heard it. He shared a part he usually leaves out, as his FULL story can get pretty long. He shared of a time where he relapsed into drugs after getting clean and he had overdosed. He felt his heart beating out of his chest, his face going numb, breathing was difficult, and his body shutting down. He knew he was dying. He didn't know what to do! In his moment of desperation he heard God say, "God outside and pray in tongues". He left the drug house and went outside and did as he was told. Peace came over him and all affects of the overdose left and he lived. He KNEW God has saved him. (Praying moms and dads your prayers are powerful. That is the mercy and grace of God right there).
As Jake shared this, one of our girls said,"What is this tongue thing? I want it!". We were able to share how it is a prayer language (Acts chapter 2). We can pray it when we don't know what to pray, it builds up our spirit, so especially if you're fearful or anxious, it's the Holy Spirit praying in you and through you. We explained how sometimes the languages are even recognizable. Our father Ken Beaudry once spoke in tongues in Ukraine and had NO IDEA he was speaking in Russian and those who heard what he was saying were DEEPLY touched by the powerful words God was speaking. That evening in closing, as a team we asked all the teens who were truly hungry and wanting to be filled with the Holy Spirit and get the gift of tongues, to step forward. As a team we prayed over each youth 1:1.
One girl who wasn't sure she wanted the gift asked her sister, "Do I want this?" and her sister who had just received the gift, giggling with joy said. "Yes, you do!!!" The hesitant sister allowed us to pray and she began to feel warm and weak. She said she felt like her body was lifting off the ground. She was getting touched by God's presence and then she got the gift. God is SO good. He delights in hunger! We now have 4 teens filled, each with their own unique prayer language. It really is sad that the gift of tongues gets such a bad rep, but those who have experienced it and the fruit of it, know it is such a special and precious gift. God is mysterious and His ways are not our ways. He uses the foolish things to confound the "wise" (1st Corinthians 1:27).
Thanks for reading our update! We hope you are blessed!
PS If any of you have plans to go to California this year, we encourage you to check out the Elisha Revolution site above! There is a revival outpouring in San Diego. We went and the presence of God is thick!
Love,
Jake & Rachel
