CHRISTIAN AND CHRISTY JUNG'S JOURNEYS IN WORLD MISSIONS

THE WORLD 2012 - Iris Relief Coloring Book Ideas

2012-01-31T14:24:00.000-08:00

At the Iris reunion with Heidi Baker at Pismo Beach this last year, we had a little pow-wow with Yonnie, Naomi and others who have been a part of or have an interest in Iris Relief. It was really cool to dream together about how we can respond and bring physical, emotional and spiritual relief to victims of natural disasters worldwide, and we continue to do so. In that meeting Lyle had prophesied about a coloring book that would be distributed to children worldwide that would help them understand who God is in the midst of the terrible loss they have suffered because of the natural disasters.

I know that there have been some pretty amazing ideas that have surfaced as we have continued to dialogue with Yonnie about the coloring book. I asked my friend Josh if he could come up with some artwork for the coloring book as I sat down with him and went over the storyboard that Christy, our kids and I came up with for a coloring book idea. I don't want to go into too many details about the coloring book, but our idea was to go through the story of creation, friendship with God, temptation, the fall of man, the story of Jesus, faith, restored friendship with God and natural disasters that were promised to take place more and more as His second coming is imminent. This is just one of the ideas for a coloring book. Our family wanted to call this coloring book idea, "God loves us" as it would focus on how God loves us and wants to draw us to Himself through these crazy events that are taking place worldwide; that God isn't angry with us and that He wants to be our friend.

Anyway, check out these pages that Josh has come up with so far. We would ultimately want words at the bottom of each page that could be translated into whatever language we needed it in, depending on what country we would be traveling to in response to a natural disaster. Again, these are just some ideas. Thanks so much Josh for offering your time and your talents. Please pray for Iris Relief as we want to bring the love of Jesus and the freedom that God offers everyone in tangible and relevant ways.

Christian Jung

THE WORLD 2012 - Jung Family Moving to Micronesia via Mozambique on June 9th

2012-01-20T15:40:00.000-08:00

Greetings friends, family and supporters!

HARVEST SCHOOL OF MISSIONS IN MOZAMBIQUE

On June 9th, 2012 our family will be flying into Pemba, Mozambique where Rolland and Heidi Baker, along with the leadership of Iris Ministries have asked us to staff the Harvest School of Missions, where we ourselves attended and graduated back in 2009. This is huge for us, as over the past few years God has been expanding and refining our vision to train up a generation of missionaries who can take the gospel of Christ and carry His love and glory to the ends of the earth, especially to the unreached people groups. For two months this summer we will be responsible to facilitate all classes for the 300+ students in the Harvest School of Missions, fostering an atmosphere of intimacy with God and bringing the fire of the Holy Spirit so that these students can be released into their destinies and sent out as missionaries. If you are interested in attending the Harvest School of Missions or learning more about Iris Ministries, please feel free to visit the Iris website:

http://irismin.org

NEW IRIS BASE AND MISSIONARY TRAINING CENTER IN MICRONESIA

On August 11th, 2012 our family will be flying from Pemba, Mozambique to Pohnpei, Micronesia where we will will be moving permanently, building our own house, as well as spearheading a new missions base and missionary training center with Iris Ministries. We have had an opportunity to travel worldwide to nearly every continent over the past few years, making contact with and bringing the gospel to unreached and less-reached people groups, with the knowledge that we will be training and sending an army of missionaries to these and other people groups. Our vision for the missionary training center that we will be starting in Micronesia will be modeled after the Harvest School of Missions in Mozambique and focused on training, equipping and sending students directly to the nations to reap a great end-times harvest of souls. We also want to bring revival to the islands and reach out to the broken and hurting on the island of Pohnpei as we establish a new Iris base. There are already many Iris missionaries who are interested in joining us in Micronesia and running with us to the ends of the earth.

FINANCIAL NEEDS TO REACH THE NATIONS

As most of you know we are faith missionaries who live and minister solely on the support of Christ-followers who partner with us financially to bring the gospel of Christ's love to every tribe, tongue and nation. We DO NOT go around to people or to different churches soliciting funding for our ministry. We DO share our vision and what the Lord has been doing through our hands worldwide with our family and friends, and if Holy Spirit stirs people to support us financially, we provide them with the information needed to do so. Let me just say that I have heard from our supporters that they are reaping tremendous blessings, spiritually and fiscally as they have partnered with us as missionaries. The destiny that God has placed on our lives is enormous and even seems overwhelming to us at times. We have been prophesied over, had dreams and visions from the Lord as well as a burning desire to see the remaining 6,000+ unreached people groups reached with the gospel of Christ in our lifetime. With such an enormous vision and destiny comes great responsibility and takes an incredible amount of resources to fund. We don't ever worry about how these needs will be met, we just trust that our great God will provide for them as it is He who has called us to this. Last year we had an open door to move in with some of our best friends in order to save our support money to make the move this summer. We were doing really well with this until the transmission in our Honda Civic gave out on the way back from visiting my parents in California and set us back $2,600. Amazingly, friends and family rallied around us and paid for part of the costs of the repair, and now only need to pay $2,000 off. Thanks to Iris Ministries and one of our faithful supporters helping us with Buddy Passes, the traveling expenses for us to be able to make this move in the summer is very little, considering we are a family of five. We expect that we will need to pay another $2,000 for all of us to make it to Mozambique and then to Micronesia! So our personal finances are looking pretty good. It is the construction of the new Iris base and missionary training center that will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. We don't know how this will be funded, we just know that it will. Thank you all for you continued financial support of us as a family and the ministry that God has called us to. Please FEEL FREE to forward this email to anyone else that you know of who would want to partner with us in this amazing task of seeing every unreached people group in the world reached with gospel in our lifetime. The best way to support us financially is through the Paypal button on our missions blog:

http://jungworldmissions.blogspot.com

All money donated is tax-deductible and all donors will receive a statement at the end of every fiscal year. We have even seen firsthand God do amazing things with people's tax returns as they have felt led to invest that money into fulfilling Christ's Great Commission. On our mission's blog you can also read about the stories, see the pictures and watch the videos of how God is changing thousands and thousands of people's lives worldwide by the love and the power of the gospel of Christ.

THE LAST YEAR AND A HALF OF OUR "FURLOUGH"

Coming back to the United States from Mozambique has been a time of rest and healing for our family. Living as full-time missionaries without electricity and running water (which makes normal tasks and household chores take ten times as long), trying to home school your children as well as battling sickness and spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places becomes exhausting. It also brings to the surface things in our lives that need to be dealt with in order to make the long haul as full-time missionaries. We are confident that the Lord has done an amazing work within all of us to this end. While we have been back on furlough, we have focused on getting re-energized to serve Him, yet have also had some great opportunities to continue to change the world both locally and globally. Here in the Pacific Northwest, our family has been able to spearhead the Vancouver House of Prayer where people from different churches all over Clark County come weekly under the banner of love and unity to lift up heartfelt praise and worship as well as focused prayer. We are seeing an incredible move of God here in Clark County where worship and prayer leaders are coming out of the woodwork to join us at VHOP. Please drop in and visit our VHOP Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/vancouverhouseofprayer

I have also been honored to be a part of the Clark County Prayer Connect where a handful of influential prayer leaders gather weekly to pray and cultivate unity in the body of Christ through prayer and worship events and such, including the Global Day of Prayer event held last year right on the Colombia River where our family and other friends of ours were able to lead the time of prayer and worship. We have seen our son, Jonas develop into an amazing worship leader and songwriter and over the past couple of months he has written and recorded his second full-length album called, "Every Waking Moment." You can listen to and download for free all of his songs at his Band/Musician Facebook Page:

http://www.facebook.com/jonasjungmusic

Our family has also continued to serve at Whipple Creek Church, which is our home church. Christy has been leading worship for the children's ministry downstairs on Sunday mornings for Power House. Jonas has been leading worship and teaching at Reveal Youth Group on Tuesdays, as well as helping out on the worship team on occasion during the main service on Sunday mornings. Jordan now attends youth group, too, which blows us away, and Justine attends Sunday School every Sunday. I continue to serve as a licensed pastor and just last year was made an elder at Whipple Creek Church. Once a month or so I get the opportunity to lead worship at Whipple during the main service and have been able to share about our adventures in missions with the congregation. We have witnessed a number supernatural miracles take place through the prayer ministry at our home church as well as we have had the opportunity to lead some healing services. Last year we saw people instantly healed from stomach cancer, esophageal tumors and infertility. We are right now in the middle of a church-wide 21-day fast and will be holding another healing service next week!

I have had the opportunity to take short-term trips to various countries last year. In March of 2011 I joined a team of Iris missionaries in Thailand where we began the process of starting a new base to rescue women from prostitution and sex trafficking. We ministered to the "least of these" in the brothels, streets and slums and even threw block parties where Thai people were saved and healed. In April and then again in July of 2011 I co-led a team of Iris missionaries in Japan where we responded to the devastation left from the earthquake and tsunami. Our hearts broke for the tsunami victims as we wept with them in the shelters and brought them physical, emotional and spiritual relief. You can read about what Iris Relief has done and continues to do, not only in Japan but in Thailand and the Horn of Africa as well:

http://irisrelief.org

From September to November of 2011 I co-led a team of 25 Iris missionaries from the northern border of Mexico through Belize, Guatemala all the way to El Salvador in a convoy of vehicles. It started out as a dream that we had to bring revival fire to South America in our living room when we were missionaries in Lichinga, Mozambique, and it is revival fire that we saw burn every where our tire tracks have gone through all of Latin America. From taking the gospel to unreached people groups who are the descendants of the ancient Aztecs and Mayans and seeing entire villages saved, to "stopping for the one" in the streets, slums, prisons and hospitals, we have seen hundreds and hundreds of people saved, delivered and healed and have partnered with other churches and organizations who continue to disciple them. The team continues to blaze a trail of revival fire in South America and is currently in Colombia. You can read about their continued adventures at:

http://irislatinamerica.blogspot.com

We continue to be in contact with them and are helping them as much as possible from here as they continue on through the entire continent over this next year. We were hoping to make a short trip to Peru this Spring to minister with them on the Amazon River. We will see what doors God opens for this to happen. Currently our family is in the process of making the transition back to the foreign mission field as full-time missionaries. We covet your prayers as we make this move. You are precious to us and we are so thankful to have such a phenomenal group of friends and family around us who believe in us and continue on this journey with us. We love you so much! We will keep you posted as we move forward.

Love and blessings,

Christian, Christy, Jonas, Jordan and Justine Jung

LATIN AMERICA 2011-2012 - How to Continue Following the Iris Latin America Team's Journey

2011-12-16T13:10:00.000-08:00

Central and South America

Friday, December 16, 2011

How to Continue Following the Iris Latin America Team's Journey

I have been back in the United States for a few weeks now after co-leading an incredible journey through Latin America with a team of radical Jesus-lovers. Our Iris Latin America team continues to carry revival fire through every country in Central and South America. I was originally planning on documenting their continued journey here on our blog, but have decided not to as we would like to keep our personal missions blog more about our journeys as the Jung family. Christy and I are hoping to rejoin the team somewhere in South America during Spring break this next year. Please feel free to continue to follow the team's journey at the official Iris Latin America blog:

http://irislatinamerica.blogspot.com

You can also click on the various teammates' blogs on the right sidebar of the Iris Latin America blog, as well as on our own personal blog to even get more stories, pictures and videos.

Iris Ministries has also places our Iris Latin America team under their ministry bases on the official Iris website:

http://www.irismin.org/latin-america

I hope that you are able to continue on this adventure with us through all of Latin America. It is truly a historic journey that I am honored to in some small way be a part of.

Christian Jung

UNITED STATES 2011 - A Prophetic Dream about Reaching the Nations

2011-11-27T13:20:00.001-08:00

Vancouver, Washington

Sunday, November 27, 2011

A Prophetic Dream about Reaching the Nations

It is rare that I remember my dreams when I wake up. Even when I do remember them, they aren't often very vivid. Last night I had what I believe to be a prophetic dream. It was so clear and vivid, and I woke up remembering the entire dream. At first I just dismissed it as my imagination. Yet as I sat down to spend time with God this morning, Holy Spirit spoke to me about it's significance.

THE DREAM

I found myself in a foreign land. All around me was a desert for miles and miles, except for a river that flowed to my right. God began to speak to me about building a "modern day Noah's ark." But instead of a boat that would save people and animals from God's wrath in the form of a flood, I was to build an enormous metal vehicle with giant wheels that would collect and contain people from all nations on the earth, especially the remaining unreached people groups. This vehicle would then transport these people from every tribe, tongue and nation safely into the heaven. The schematics and blueprints were so clear. I knew exactly what this vehicle was to look like before I even began to build it. But in my dream, I found two other guys who I shared this heavenly mandate with in order to get some help in building the vehicle. When I approached them about it they simply took the blueprints from my hand, brushed me off and told me that they would build it without my help. I wan't upset at all about this, as I was just so thankful that this vehicle was going to be built, as God had commanded.

Time passed and the two guys that had taken the blueprints from me came and let me know that they had finished building the vehicle. As they unveiled their finished work, I gazed at a vehicle that had very little resemblance of that which was laid out so clearly in the heavenly schematics. I shook my head in disbelief and told the two guys that it was entirely wrong. The vehicle in the blueprints was to be indestructible and over thirty feet tall, made of unpainted brushed-chrome with wheels nearly twenty feet tall. The vehicle they had made looked more like a Disneyland tram that was long and painted nicely to make it attractive. In my dream I believed that these guys weren't trying to purposefully do anything wrong in taking creative license and deviating from the original plans, forming a vehicle that they had genuinely thought would accomplish the task more effectively. But it was still not the vehicle that God had wanted to be built.

Just then two large blue stones fell from the sky which the two guys caught and tried to carry with a great amount of difficulty. I then saw lips form from the sky itself and the voice of Papa God telling the two guys that they had really blown it and the vehicle not only was displeasing to Him, but incapable of finishing the task of bringing the nations and unreached people groups into His Kingdom. God then told me that I was to build the vehicle to the exact measurements that He had originally given me in the heavenly blueprints. Of course, I agreed and built the vehicle. It was an amazing thing to behold. People from every tribe, tongue and nation began to fill the vehicle as it made it's way to heaven. Then I woke up.

SOME INTERPRETATION

As I sat in God's presence this morning, pondering this dream, it became clearer and clearer to me what it meant. Of course, most of it is pretty obvious to me, as there have been many prophecies over my life concerning reaching the nations. Much of the imagery in this dream simply confirms that which God has already spoken to me for many years now.

Heidi Baker spoke prophetic words over our family as well as Jesse and Tanya Gellatly, who are not only our close friends, but co-laborers and missionary team mates who have run and will continue to run with us to the ends of the earth. She spoke about us as being a "new model" and a "new breed" of missionaries that would run to the ends of the earth together as a team, modeling what love and family looks like.

As we have now traveled to nearly every continent to reach the remaining 6,000+ unreached people groups, we have tried to partner with other missionaries from various missions organizations. As a whole, most of these missionaries operate under a program which their missions organization has given them as a "blueprint" to reach the nations. It generally starts out in learning the language and building relationships with the indigenous people they are attempting to reach and spending years laying a foundation through the Old Testament leading up to Christ. Yet when we visit with these missionaries, they find that after as many as twenty years or more, they have only seen a few people come to Christ, and are frustrated at the meager fruit that the many years of their labors have produced. Of course, there are exceptions to this, and we have partnered with many different missions organizations and churches, but even so many of the churches that have been planted on the foreign mission field in the years past have turned into religious establishments that don't look much at all like the Kingdom of God that Jesus spoke of. I am not in any way trying to criticize missionaries or missions organizations that operate in such ways, nor do I think that any fruitfulness that has been produced in years passed is somehow invalid. More than anything, I have compassion on these missionaries, organizations and churches, and would love to see the tides turn for them. I believe that the vehicle that wasn't built to heavenly specifications by the two guys in my dream is symbolic of this older pattern or model of missions that may have been established with pure motivations, and may have even worked a bit for a season. It is a model that creates boxes which become limitations to the Spirit of God truly moving among the nations. It is a religion that becomes stagnant like all still water that hasn't been stirred. It is an unholistic approach to reaching a world that has needs on so many levels.

There is an end-times harvest of souls waiting to be reaped in every nation. The vehicle described in the heavenly blueprints in my dream is one that is built with the love of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. We have seen thousands of people come to Christ in many nations over a short period of time because we have asked God, "What does love look like in this culture?" and, "What are heaven's strategies in reaching this specific people group?" Love looks like feeding the hungry. Love looks like digging a well and giving a village clean water. Love looks like rescuing girls from sex-trafficking and placing them in a loving environment where they can be healed and given back their innocence and dignity. Love looks like adopting children that have no parents and starting a children's center. Love looks like healing the sick. Love looks like raising the dead. Love looks like preaching the gospel. Love looks like starting a Bible school to train indigenous people in Kingdom culture. Love looks like dreaming with a people group about sustainable projects that will ensure their village's existence into the future. Love looks like a lot of things. And it is heaven's strategies that we must have if we want to see every unreached people group and nation brought to Christ in our lifetime. I am tired of people dying and going to hell because they haven't had an opportunity to hear and respond to the holistic gospel of Christ that I have been talking about. With a new breed of missionaries of laid-down lovers of God, the vehicle of my dream that is huge and indestructible will be filled with people of every tribe, tongue and nation.

On a personal note, God has really been speaking to me about all of this, especially on the Iris Latin America trip. It would be so easy for my family and I to spend our lives living among a people group, learning their language and culture, hearing from heaven and bringing them to Jesus. In fact, we have done this in various settings over the years. But what the Lord has really been speaking to me about is the fact that my family, or Jesse and Tanya on our own can only bring a handful of people groups into heaven in our lifetime. But if we invest into other world-changers and train them, we can see much more Kingdom impact than simply running on our own. This was evident to me in Central America over the past two months. I saw tremendous growth in each of the team members as Jesse, Tanya and I did our best to lead them in love, in power and in freedom. I believe that this dream has something to do with our involvement in training missionaries with Iris Ministries, both in Mozambique and in Micronesia. I know that we will be able to run to the ends of the earth with this great end times army and build the vehicle of my prophetic dream according to Papa God's specifications. I am still not sure what the two large blue stones meant in the dream, but I am so in love with our God who speaks to us in various ways.

Christian Jung

EL SALVADOR 2011 - Great Photos of our Iris Latin America Trip

2011-11-15T17:20:00.001-08:00

EL SALVADOR 2011 - Ministry in an Area Devastated by Flooding

2011-11-15T08:43:00.000-08:00

La Pita, El Salvador
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
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Ministry in an Area Devestated by Flooding

Yesterday our Iris Latin America team once again split up in order to cover more ground here in El Salvador. One group went to a government-run orphanage for boys ages 10 to 17. The group that I was in drove to the south-eastern part of El Salvador to minister in an area called La Pita that has been recently devestated by flooding and mud slides. We went house to house praying for the families and inviting them to a church service. Mostly we just wanted to encourage their hearts and love on them as most of their homes had been flooded so badly that each familiy took their children to the street above the flood line and lived under plastic tarps until the flooding subsided. Many of the people lost their livestock which is really their livelihood. We went to pick up one lady who couldn't walk in her own strength and bring her to the service. It was hot even with the fans running. The pastor started the service with prayer and singing. Maria gave a testimony. Roberta shared a word that God had given her. Then I taught from Isaiah 43 and Psalm 40 about the waters not being able to sweep us away and God taking us from the mud and setting our feet upon a rock. After the message nearly everyone present came forward to have their hearts encouraged and receive a touch from God. We also got to drink coconut water straight from the coconut that had been opened with a machete, which is always a treat. It has been really neat partnering with YWAM here in El Salvador. They have been lovely hosts and given us great opportunities to serve alongside of them.

Christian Jung

EL SALVADOR 2011 - Holy Ghost Parties at Four Church Services

2011-11-14T07:16:00.000-08:00

La Libertad, El Salvador
Monday, November 14, 2011
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Holy Ghost Parties at Four Church Services

Our Iris Latin America team split into two groups yesterday and led four church services in total. The group I was with first drove to a suburb of San Salvador to lead a service in a gated community where the pastor uses a part of his house as the main sanctuary. It is a small church made up of mostly children. In fact their ministry is focused around these children, most of whom come from broken homes; many of their fathers are in prison, involved in gangs or alcoholics. The violence and gang situation is so bad in El Salvador that every home and building has tons of barbed-wire fencing on it. There are even posters everywhere that say, "Do not murder" in Spanish from Exodus 20. At this first church servcice we led worship, preached, performed the luchador drama, held a children's service and had a time of prayer where people came forward for healing. We also had the children come forward and prayed for the tough situations in their families. We heard that just this last week alone there were eight gang related murders in that neighborhood alone. The people were blessed and we ended by praying for the pastor and his wife.

Then in the afternoon the group that I was in drove less than an hour from San Salvador to La Libertad on the coast. This was a much bigger church with vibrant worship led mostly by youth. Our group was introduced after the worship time. We started with the luchador drama, which everyone seems to enjoy is it is quite comical. We change it up a little depending on what country we are in and what the major strongholds are...so we've added the spirit of violence and the spirit of seduction to our act here in El Salvador. Breck and Serena then shared what God had placed upon their hearts. We then had people come forward for healing and had many words of knowledge. We ended our time at that church with a Holy Ghost party including a huge fire tunnel exiting the church building where everyone got blasted by Holy Spirit as our team prayed for them. We heard from the other group that they had Holy Ghost parties at the church services that they led as well.

Christian Jung

EL SALVADOR 2011 - Trouble at the Border

2011-11-13T13:01:00.001-08:00

San Pedro Al Barado, El Salvador
Sunday, November 13, 2011
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Trouble at the Border

From time to time on this blog I try to include some practical information that would in the future help other fellow missionaries or travelers. I consider this blog post to be one of those times. Yesterday as we entered El Salvador from Guatemala at San Pedro Al Barado we had a little glitch with one of our team member's passports. We had already heard that this would be one of the worst and most dangerous borders that we would cross. We also had prophecies that new angels would be meeting us and joining our team at every border that we crossed so at the end of one year and many borders, the angelic army would be huge. So I wasn't really worried about anything. It all seemed safe enough.

El Salvador along with Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua is considered to be a CA-4 country. Upon entering Guatemala from Belize, our entire team was given stamps where the border official wrote in 90 days for the allowable time to be in these four Central American countries. The problem is that when we first started getting our passports stamped in Guatemala they tried to collect a fee of 24 Quetzals (about $3 U.S.) each. It wasn't until a few people in that we realized we didn't need to pay anything and those team members asked for their money back. The rest of the team didn't pay anything. This must have made the official upset as he was quickly losing his extra income. We thought that everyone had been given the normal 90 day stay in the CA-4 countries. Unfortunately that same official wrote in 01 days on the stamp of this one individual and didn't scan his passport into their system as entering the country. This is what gave us such difficulty at the El Salvador border.

When the El Salvador officials noticed the stamp on this team member's passport, we had heard that they detained him and took him into an office on the El Salvador side. We went looking for him and when I found him in some obscure office, he was being reprimeanded in Spanish for something. When I realized what was happening, I tried to reason with them. They would budge and tried to keep his passport. I told them that this error was not our fault, but the fault of the border official in Guatemala. They then told me that we either needed to go back to Guatemala City to figure it out or pay them a fee of $140 U.S. to fix it (they use American currency in El Salvador). I grabbed the team members passport from their hands, left the office on the El Salvador side and walked quickly with him to the Guatemala side to see if we couldn't get them to figure it out. The El Salvador official was very upset (because he was losing his extra income I'm sure) and ran after us for a bit.

Once we got to immigration on the Guatemala side, we made our case. They were at least more pleasant. They couldn't fix the stamp or tamper with their computer system, but could only give us an extension and a receipt number for 140 Quetzals (under $20 U.S.) that would allow this team member to enter El Salvador, but would enable him to stay in the CA-4 region for another five days. Of course our team will be in this area for another few weeks. So now we have to go into San Salvador on Monday and pay for an extension that will allow this team member to continue on with us for the rest of our time in these Central American countries. Why? Corruption. The love of money. This is why we are here. To carry God's character into countries that lack integrity. I'm not finger pointing at any one country in particular here as our family has experienced this sort of corruption on many continents. So my suggestion would be that whenever you cross a border into another country, inspect the stamp you are given in your passport carefully to save yourself the drama later. It would've been easy to correct this at the border in Belize if we would've caught it then.

Christian Jung

GUATEMALA 2011 - Headlice and Construction Projects

2011-11-11T19:07:00.000-08:00

Chimaltenango, Guatemala
Friday, November 11, 2011
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Headlice and Construction Projects

Challenge after challenge comes our way here in Latin America. The most recent challenge has been a huge epidemic of headlice that nearly everyone on our team has been dealing with. We are staying at a children's center for special needs boys and girls and our team has been combing through eachother's hair, checking for lice, shampooing, and removing lice and eggs.

As well as loving on all of the children here, we have also been trying to make the best of our time by engaging in construction projects needed around the place. We were able to paint a wall for them as well as build a set of shelves. Tomorrow we leave for El Salvador minus our Dodge Durango that again is in the shop for repairs to it's transmission.

Christian Jung

GUATEMALA 2011 - Random Pics from Guatemala

2011-11-10T08:46:00.001-08:00

GUATEMALA 2011 - Jesse's Tale: Living on the Edge...Literally

2011-11-08T07:39:00.000-08:00

Chilmaltenango, Guatemala

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Jesse's Tale: Living on the Edge...Literally

Here is Jesse's account of our adventure through Guatemala over the past few days:

The only transmission mechanic specialist in the whole northern area of Guatemala was able to go find the parts needed to rebuild our transmission. After waiting a week for the repairs we were finally ready to move on to our next destination in Guatemala, an orphanage in a city a day’s drive south of us. After fifty miles our rebuilt transmission went out and only first gear continued working. We called the mechanic who refused to come down and help sort out why his work didn’t work. So with no other options we continued for hundreds of miles in first gear with our caravan of five vehicles and campers. We camped the first night on the way and continued our journey all the following day as well.

That evening as we entered a small remote town on the way people gave us directions and we figured that by the map we would make it soon and not have to drive too much at night which we have been frequently warned against here in Guatemala. We soon found ourselves on a small bumpy dirt road climbing mountains. We hoped the roads would turn better but it only got continuously worse for hours into the night. Roads worse than any Africa jungle track we’ve experienced being visited by our two RV’s, SUVs’ pulling tent trailers, and a low riding Buick station wagon.

On the way up this first narrow steep rocky mountain passage one of the trailer tires popped and was wrecked twisted underneath and off the rim. There was no other spare, this was the spare, and the other one had already popped earlier that day. There was no way to turn around, there were not many options other than to pull it on its rim or leave it behind. Ben and I ran up to the vehicles waiting about ¾ miles ahead to get help and tools. Many crazed dogs jumped out from the bushes and chased us the whole way. We threw rocks, even a tire iron but it seemed there were not enough rocks. As we ran up this mountain with dogs barking and growling at our heals every time I turned my head back all we saw was dozens of glowing eyes right behind us from the glare of my head lamp. When we unhitched the other camper to have the Durango taxi us back because the dogs, Taylor and Victor had miraculously fixed the tire. They had found a rock to beat the rim back into shape and some string to tighten the broken tire to the rim and with a can of fix a flat and our small compressor had the trailer ready to go again. I wanted to turn back seeing how it was constantly getting worse and then one young man passing by said it was only forty minutes further to the next small town. Many hours later we realized he was wrong.

We winded back and forth up and down steep mountain slopes. The road was often muddy and slippery on the edge of high steep cliffs. The drivers had to stay very alert especially because of many areas where the road had fallen off as a landslide over the cliff. Sometimes the danger was so high because of drop offs on both sides of the road that I even had all the passengers exit the motor home and walk and I drove solo because of high chance of vehicle plummeting over the edge. We noticed that the rear vehicles had stopped again and I got out walking back to them. Just then Gillian comes running up the mountain towards us shouting, “Come quick! The vehicle is falling off a cliff.” We ran down to find that the Suburban pulling a tent trailer was on the edge of a cliff stuck with the soft edge breaking away underneath. With all the manpower we could muster we tried to push the vehicle forward and back onto the road but the tires just spun sending the vehicle nearer to no return. We unhooked the trailer and were able to get the vehicle along back on the road and then with everyone working together we lifted the trailer and pushed it up a steep hill to where we could find traction and reconnect it. We were successful; How? I honestly don’t know.It was in the middle of the night and we didn’t think we could endure anymore but locals warned us not to stay the night in those mountains because it was not safe. Everything was flying everywhere in the motor homes and people got injured just by falling objects and falling down. The bottoms of the vehicles were hitting the bumps so often with no way to avoid it, not being able to stop in the muddy holes. We completely wrecked our sewage tank unrepairably meaning no working toilet in our RV unless we find new sewage tanks for sale somewhere.

We finally arrived in the middle of the night surprised that we had made it and found a rundown hotel full of roaches and mildew. As soon as we had made it down the last steep mountain and entered into this old town the brakes in our motor home and the station wagon over heated and stopped working. If that had happened a few minutes earlier we wouldn’t be here writing the story. But God allowed it to happen once we arrived in this town to show us that He had been with us the whole time protecting us. We slept okay regardless of the gunfire and horns blowing, and other strange noises. In the midst of all the dangerous and stressful circumstances, most all of our team had great attitudes and joy.We are overjoyed to be missionaries and these last couple days reminded us of many similar experiences around the world that we have had while carrying this Gospel to the darkest places. It is all worth it from eternity’s perspective! We are now at the orphanage making it by mid-afternoon on our third day of travel. We have a transmission mechanic coming tomorrow to look at the Durango. Pray he is better than the last one. We hope to be heading over the border to El Salvador within the next couple days. Please keep all of our team in your prayers.

Jesse Gellatly

GUATEMALA 2011 - Ministry in San Jose and Yaxja

2011-11-04T17:59:00.000-07:00

Yaxja, Guatemala
Friday, November 4, 2011
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Ministry in San Jose and Yaxja

We took our team back to the village of San Jose yesterday to minister where we had made contact with the Maya Itza people the previous day on our scouting trip. There was a huge political thing going in in the center of town when we arrived. We walked up the very steep street to Rejenaldo's house. Right as we arrived a torrential downpour of rain came. As the rain tapered off we all went to visit other homes in San Jose. The small team that I was on prayed for two ladies in one house; one who had knee and back pain, the other had a lot of pain in her head...both were healed. We shared the gospel with them as well. Then the lady who was healed of the pain in her head led us to her home where we prayed for her two daughters and grandson. God's healing power was present and I could literally feel waves of magnetic heat leaving my hand as they received healing. We also explained the need for a personal relationship with Jesus Christ with them.

Today a small group of us traveled with a Guatemalan evangelist named Freddy to the village of Yaxja. On the way we spotted a man laying down on the side of the road who ended up being demon-possessed as we stopped to see how we could help him. Then we drove on to Yaxja where we stopped and led three young men to Christ. Then we found a house where a man was suffering from an extreme tooth ache. We prayed for him and his family. I gave his three daughters some toys that our children had picked out of their collection for me to bring to Latin America and give away to poor children. They were so grateful and the man's wife prayed to receive Jesus.

Christian Jung

GUATEMALA 2011 - In Search of Christ's Maya Itza Bride

2011-11-02T17:34:00.001-07:00

San Jose, Guatemala
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
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In Search of Christ's Maya Itza Bride

The other day each member of our Iris Latin America team signed up for different ministries that were on their hearts as we are encouraging them to minister in the areas that they are passionate about. People signed up to minister in the prisons, in the hospitals, to the children, to the women and in the churches. These are all awesome areas of ministry and I know that I will join the team at various times in these areas of ministry. But I signed up to minister in the villages, especially among the unreached people groups. We have a week to be able to explore our passions in missions while waiting here in Guatemala for our vehicle to be repaired.

I began to pull out my ethno-linguistic maps to see what people groups were in this area. I saw a large area populated by the Kekchi as well as the Maya Mopan people, both of whom we have ministered to in Belize. But then I spotted a people group called the Maya Itza in the area north of Lake Peten, which is the lake we are staying near. I began to research Joshua Project online to see if the Itza people group was listed. The Itza people weren't listed under Guatemala, but when I searched for them further on Joshua project, they were listed as an extinct language. From there I went to Google and found out more about the Maya Itza. I began to see some conflicting information about how many people speaking the Itza language were living...numbering from a handful to over 1,900. Historically the Itza capital was on Flores island in Santa Elena. These people occupied land here in Guatemala all the way to the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. They were conquered by the Spanish in the 1600's and are now located only here in the Lake Peten area. As I researched further, I found that the Maya Itza worshipped and sacrificed to the winged serpent, which I have seen all over the artwork and carvings of this area. It was evident that the Maya Itza were in dire need of the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I then looked on Google Earth to see what cities were north of Lake Peten. I saw that the cities of San Jose and San Andreas were in this area. Just to confirm that the Maya Itza lived in these two cities I asked the locals who worked at the hotel. They also confirmed that the Maya Itza live in those two cities.

As my passion and desire is to carry God's love and glory to the remaining unreached and less-reached people groups, I decided to rent a motorcycle with Jesse and drive around Lake Peten to do a scouting trip so that others could join us in visiting these Itza towns later in the week. So this morning we got on the motorbike that we rented from some German hippies and set off toward San Jose and San Andreas. We took the road just north of us in El Remate which turned out to be an unpaved road all the way to San Jose. We noticed that all the people in this area looked very indigenous. Jesse spotted a big black snake slithering into the jungle as a huge bird almost flew into my face. We swirved around the rocks and through the mud and water on the road.

After about an hour and a half we reached San Jose, where we asked many people where we could find someone who speaks the Maya Itza language. They told us to find a man named Rejenaldo who lived up a huge hill near the center of San Jose. Jesse got off the motorbike to hike up the steep hill as I drove up. We finally found Rejenaldo, who was a white haired older Mayan man. He was very polite and welcoming of Jesse and I. We began by simply asking questions about the Itza language and culture. He was a bit guarded about sharing information as other universities have come to him in order to gather information. Rejenaldo is only one of twenty Itza speakers in San Jose and is the chairman of a committee that is trying to keep the Maya Itza language and culture alive. He informed us that in 1950 everyone in San Jose spoke Itza but now the younger generations are taught only Spanish in school. It is difficult to spark interest among the Itza youth to retain their language and culture. After sharing that we were missionaries and not university students, Rejenaldo began to teach us some of the nearly extinct Maya Itza language. Here are some examples:

Hello - Bishabel

How are you? - Bishia ni lech

I'm fine - Hach malo

Jesus loves you - No hoch tu ka a nil u ka tech

Thank you - Yos bo tik

Your welcome - Mish ba a li i

Maya Itza is a beautiful language. We told Rejenaldo how precious the Maya Itza were to Jesus. In fact, we were able to share the gospel of Christ with Rejenaldo in Spanish. He was open to our message, but said that others had come with an agenda to try and convert him, his family and his village, to no avail. We made it clear that we were simply there to share the love of God. As we entered Rejenaldo's home there was a table against the wall with all of these bowls containing food and candles burning and a cross. We asked him if they were Catholic. He said they weren't Catholic but followed the religion of that area. As he explained the significance of these bowls and how they were offered to ancestors and used for healing purposes of sick people in the village, Jesse and I realized just how unreached and steeped in paganism and witchcraft the Maya Itza people truly are.

Our scouting trip today was a success as we were able to locate the almost extinct Maya Itza people group and share the gospel and love of Jesus with one of the last remaining Itza speakers. We informed Rejenaldo that we would be bringing our team to San Jose later this week to minister and love on the Maya Itza people. We then prayed with Rejenaldo; that God would resurrect the Maya Itza language through him and that he would feel the presence, love, peace and joy of Holy Spirit. I hope that Rejenaldo will be home later this week when we return. There is such a desire in the heart of God for His Maya Itza bride to be brought to the wedding feast of the Lamb. We pray that the seeds planted today would bear much fruit and that we will have the opportunity to lead many Maya Itza to Christ. Thank you for partnering with us in prayer for this very thing.

Jesse and I finished our scouting trip by riding our motorbike around the other side of Lake Peten and praying around the island of Flores. It took us a total of around three hours total to ride around the entire lake, which is Guatemala's second largest lake.

Christian Jung

GUATEMALA 2011 - Breaking Strongholds at the Mayan Ruins in Tikal

2011-10-30T17:03:00.000-07:00

Tikal, Guatemala
Sunday, October 30, 2011
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Breaking Strongholds at the Mayan Ruins in Tikal

The largest preserved Mayan city in all of Latin America is in Tikal not too far from the Belize border. These ruins are also the tallest of the Mayan temples. For hundreds of years the Mayans would perform human sacrifes at these temples in order to appease their so-called "gods." Our Iris Latin America team felt led to hike to the top of the tallest temple to take communion and worship Jesus. We did just that. We only had corn tortillas to use for Christ's body and Gatorade to use for Christ's blood, but nonetheless, we took communion together. As we did this, our whole team could sense a shift taking place in the heavenly realms. It was as if God was waiting for His children to come and remember the body and blood of Christ in that very place, which not only covers sin and things detestable in the sight of God, but literally takes them away. We believe that an exchange took place today; the blood of Christ which was poured out for the sins of many for the blood of humans which was spilt in vain to please demons.

Mark 3:27 says, "No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house." Our call as Christ's followers is to take His gospel and to further His Kingdom throughout the world...to every nation. I truly believe that the demonic strong man that has caused Guatemala, El Salvador and other Central and South American countries to be some of the most dangerous places on earth was bound today by a simple act of obedience on behalf of God's sons and daughters. Now it's time to plunder his goods.

The ruins were breath-taking and fun to climb. We saw more wildlife today including howler mokeys that tried to poop on us from high up in the trees. Can't wait to see what else the Lord has in store for us here in Guatemala.

Christian Jung

GUATEMALA 2011 - Embracing the Challenges in Missions

2011-10-28T19:05:00.000-07:00

Remate, Guatemala
Friday, October 28, 2011
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Embracing the Challenges in Missions

It’s not often that I talk about the challenges that we face as missionaries on blog posts, mostly because of a heavenly perspective that has been cultivated in my life throughout the years as a missionary due to the grace of God…it’s a perspective that gives the victories that we experience the spotlight and that causes the challenges that we experience to be left in the shadows. Mama Heidi talks about drinking from the cup of joy AND the cup of suffering. So today I think I’ll share a little bit about some of these challenges that we’ve been facing lately, and how we choose to embrace these challenges simply because we choose to embrace the entire journey and all that it entails.

I have had my share of mosquito bites throughout the years but Latin America wins the award for the longest lasting, most itchy mosquito and gnat bites I’ve ever had. When we were in the mountains of Nayarit, Mexico, we slept outdoors for a couple of nights on potato sack cots. The first night that we slept outdoors there, I got bit throughout the night by gnats that literally paralyzed parts of my body. Some of them bit my on the face and the mouth so badly that I couldn’t feel my lips. It was so bad that I went into the RV in the middle of the night to take some Benadryl in hopes that the swelling would go down by morning. In Dangriga, Belize I was bitten by tiny mosquitoes all over my body, but especially on my ankles. These mosquitoes would leave a little hole in your skin where you can see the blood. Most mosquito bites go away after a day or so, at least when I get bitten by them. Not these bites. They literally lasted a week and in the middle of the night I would be up for hours scratching these bites almost uncontrollably. They were so itchy and annoying. We also heard that some of the mosquitoes where we have been carry Dengue Fever, but none of us experienced any symptoms. Speaking of bugs, Jesse and I drove right through an entire swarm of honey bees in Belize that covered our entire windshield. It was a miracle that none of the bees entered the driver’s side and passenger’s side windows which were open…and many of you know about my fear of bees. Uhhhh-uhhhhh!
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We’ve also experienced some fairly major difficulties with our vehicles on this journey. Before we ever even left the U.S. for Latin America we had to do some major work on almost all of the vehicles that we purchased. Then when driving through the mountains coming out of Oaxaca, Mexico, our Ford Camper Van that we named, “New Wine” blew a transmission seal just as we pulled into a gas station to fuel up. That cost us a few days and some money to repair it. That van also seems to have problems with the radiator hose as every now and then it pops off of the radiator and looses all of its’ coolant. Just yesterday we entered Guatemala from Belize and our Dodge Durango that we named “Shekinah” lost all of the gears on its’ transmission. We hooked up a tow cable that we purchased right before leaving the U.S. and towed it to a mechanic near Tikal where we were heading. He called the only transmission mechanic in the area who met us the following morning. We were told that there would be the parts that we would need back in Belize, either at Matus Auto Parts or in Spanish Lookout where the German Mennonites live. So Jesse and I were driven 100 kilometers all the way back to the border, re-entered Belize, found the auto parts store and then called every auto parts store in all of Belize, including the Mennonites to no avail. No one in the entire country of Belize has the transmission that we need, new OR secondhand. So we traveled back to the border, re-entered Guatemala and got a ride in the back of a pick-up truck back to Temate where the rest of our team was waiting. Now our only option is to purchase a transmission from the U.S. and have it shipped to the mechanic’s shop here in Guatemala which will take seven business days (or a week and a half). We figure the transmission will cost us $1,800 plus shipping costs. The funny thing is that we don’t have the money for it! We are already over-budget on team travel costs due to these unexpected challenges. And now we will be even further behind on our schedule as we have ministries waiting for us and other team members flying in to other Central American countries to meet us. So what should we do in this situation? Stress out? Throw a pity-party? Heck no! We embrace the journey. We embrace the challenges. Our team will pray and worship together until we have financial breakthrough to get the parts we need. God called us to take this trip through all of Latin America and He is faithful to give us all that we need to complete it!

My most difficult challenge has been being away from my wife and children for so long. It is going on two months of being apart from them. I miss them like crazy. I know I will be returning back to the U.S. to be with them soon, which is comforting. But it is only by God’s grace that we can embrace such challenges as these. Jesus laid down His life that others would find eternal life through Him. The missionaries of old encountered far more difficulties than I have ever faced in order that entire people groups would hear the good news of salvation. We must be willing to count the cost and lay down our lives for the sake of the gospel as well. I need to even be willing to give up my life so that one more person can enter heaven…all for the sake of love. Love enables us to drink from both the cup of joy and the cup of suffering as missionaries.

Our team is now camped out on a beach next to a lake where we are staying for free. It is near some ancient Mayan ruins in Tikal which we want to visit tomorrow. There are signs everywhere warning us about jaguars and crocodiles. What an adventure! We don’t know what each day holds for us…which is super-exciting! Last night some of our team led a Guatemalan boy to Jesus. The children come and visit us at our campers near the lake. Please pray for us as we continue to bring revival fire through Latin America. Bless you all!

Christian Jung

BELIZE 2011 - Our Journey Through Belize

2011-10-26T14:56:00.001-07:00

BELIZE 2011 - Revival among the Garifuna and Kekchi People

2011-10-25T07:59:00.000-07:00

Punta Gorda, Belize
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
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Revival among the Garifuna and Kekchi People
Our team had originally planned to charter two small boats that would take us to the Tobacco Caye island today, but those plans were cut short due to a hurricane forming offshore. In fact it is serious enough that all of the islanders were warned to come in to the mainland. But again, we hold all of our plans loosely. We had actually thought to go to Punta Gorda and the surrounding Mayan villages the following day, but decided to do that today instead.
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Punta Gorda is the furthest city south in Belize, almost all the way to the border of Guatemala. So from Corozal to Punta Gorda, our team has had the opportunity to travel the entire length of Belize and minister from the northern border to the southern border. Garifuna people live in Punta Gorda, as they do here in Dangiriga as well. The Garifuna people are descendants of Africans and have their own language and culture. We arrived in Punta Gorda around lunch time, so we found a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant owned by a lady named Joselyn who just opened up for business three months ago. We got a chance to pray for her restaurant and anointed it with oil. She was so glad that we came. We prayed for her as well. Then her friend Judy asked if we could pray for the healing of her eyesight as she could only see things blurry out of her right eye after a surgery she had a while back. Not only was the blurriness healed in her right eye, she took off her glasses and didn’t need them anymore! Then they asked if we could visit a 91 year old lady named Lois who also couldn’t see well. When we walked into her house she could only see us as shadows. By the time we had finished praying for her, she could see the color of our skin and how many fingers Jesse was holding up! Two ladies received miraculous healings of their eyesight. On top of that, some of our team witnessed to a guy named Anthony who has been struggling with alcoholism. He gave his life to Christ and we baptized him in the Caribbean Sea!

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From Punta Gorda we traveled to a nearby Mayan village called, “San Pedro Columbia.” When we arrived we looked for the elementary and secondary school which we found with the help of a Kechki man who gave us directions. San Pedro Columbia is a Mayan village that speaks the Kechki language. The Kechki are descendants of the Mayans. We found the principal, told him who we were and asked if we could minister to the children. He agreed and our team split up into groups and ministered to the different classes. Jesse, Victor, Ben and I went to a class of the older children. We gave our testimonies, spoke prophetic words and words of knowledge over them and led six of them in prayer to receive Jesus Christ! I learned how to say a few words in Kechki. “Hello” is “Yos.” “How are you?” is “Changcha Quill?” In another Mayan dialect that I heard that “How are you?” is “Bekielech?” My love for learning new languages continues as I travel throughout Latin America. I have even learned how to speak a bit of Belizean Creole.
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From San Pedro Columbia we traveled to Big Falls where we heard that some of the children from the school there were possessed by demons. We found the area that they lived but they had all been relocated to different places. We learned that they had been mixed up in some curses that came from visits to nearby Guatemala. We prayed over that area and over one of their relatives named Jose who was having pain in his shoulders. He felt much better after we prayed for him and he even physically looked different after we prayed. We truly saw revival among the Garifuna and Kekchi people today on our journey to south Belize.
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We finished off the afternoon by visiting some Mayan ruins which we could only travel to by foot as the road we closed off to vehicle traffic. It was interesting to see and it felt a bit eerie there. More than likely human sacrifices took place hundreds of years ago at these very ruins. We continue to pray that God will have His full reward in Belize.
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Christian Jung

BELIZE 2011 - Baptisms in the Caribbean Sea

2011-10-24T21:49:00.000-07:00

Dangriga, Belize
Monday, October 25, 2011

Baptisms in the Caribbean Sea

Heidi Baker wrote a text message back to us the other day saying that we would "find the greatest treasure yet in Belize." A Belizian man named Godfrey who our team adopted into the tribe in Corozal is definitely this greatest treasure.

We left Corozal the other day on a journey to Dangriga. Along the way we stopped by the "Blue Hole" to swim and explore some caves. Our arrival in Dangriga was a bit sketchy as we weren't sure where we were going to stay. But after checking out a few spots, we found just the right place at Jungle Huts Hotel, where they are letting us stay in our RV's and pop-up tent trailers for free.

Yesterday Godfrey had told us that he wanted to be baptized as he has chosen to follow Jesus Christ since we met him and prayed for him in Corozal. So this morning, we walked with him to the Caribbean Sea to baptize him. While at the beach, Ben led another young man named Kareem to Christ and we baptized him as well. Others from our team witnessed to others at the beach. There is so much joy in Godfrey as he has truly been set free by Christ.

After doing some fishing during the day and catching quite a few catfish, our team had a time of worship in the afternoon and then headed to a park to do an evangelism outreach. Jesse had already gone and talked to the mayor earlier in the day to get permission to do so. When we got to the park, most of the children we talked to had already received Christ and go to church regularly. So we just played with them. loved on them, put on an adjusted version of the luchador skit and prayed with them. To finish the night we came back to the hotel and ate the fish that we had caught earlier in the day.

Christian Jung

BELIZE 2011 - Stopping for the One

2011-10-22T11:28:00.000-07:00

Corozal, Belize
Saturday, October 22, 2011
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Stopping for the One

When we first arrived in Belize, we felt that God was leading us to invest into the people who He would draw to us, and even take these people with us wherever we would minister. This is stopping for the one...the one who God places before us. Some of our team stopped for one man named Godfrey. He is a Belizian that is 47 years old and has grown up all his life in Corozal, where we are currently staying. Godfrey had been sober for three days when we first met him. He has lived a life of addiction to alcohol and drugs, on the wide road that leads to destruction, but he has now entered the narrow road that leads to eternal and abundant life. We have taken in Godfrey as a part of our team and he has accompanied us pretty much everywhere we have gone to minister; to the town square, to the hospital, to the villages. He also worships with us as a team in the mornings. He said that he feels new life in him and that our team gives him strength. We are investing into Godfrey all day long. How wonderful it is to stop for the one.

Our team has been stopping for the one our entire time in Belize. The first night we went to the square and just sat with the people...they were mostly drunk and hurting people. We know that these are the kinds of people that Jesus would be hanging out with. We are Jesus with skin on. I got braids put into my hair here in Belize. The people here speak English, Spanish and Kreol, which sounds like Jamaican. I wanted to fit in more here, so I had my hair done up. I got a chance to minister to Vickey, who put my braids in. Then Jesse and I went next door that evening to play cards with a guy named Renan and some other locals.

Yesterday the team went to the villages to minister door to door to families while some of us stayed back to make some much needed repairs to the vehicles. Last night some of the team went to spot alligators near the mouth of the river while Victor and I went night fishing and caught some catfish.

This morning our team had a worship time together and then prayed for a man who has been suffering with demonic attacks because of voodoo that was placed on him. He had made our team buttered chicken for dinner the previous night. Then we piled into Shekinah and Overflow and headed to the hospital to pray for the sick. What an awesome time! The nurses let our team enter every ward to pray for people. I prayed for one boy in Spanish who had a fever. The boy and his mother were then called in to see the doctor. When she left the doctor's office I asked her if her son still had a fever. She replied that the fever had left. I told her that this was a miracle. We want to empty hosptials. Jesus loves to heal the sick and the brokenhearted. Tonight we will pray together and ask God where in Belize we should go next. Our Iris Latin America team is on a wild ride!

Christian Jung

BELIZE 2011 - Our Team's Arrival

2011-10-20T13:01:00.000-07:00

Corozal, Belize
Thursday, October 20, 2011
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Our Team's Arrival

Our Iris Latin America team made it safely into Belize! We are staying at an RV Park in Corozal right on the Caribbean Sea. Our team had an awesome time of worship this morning as we are seeking God's face together as to what His heart is for us in Belize. We have no solic contacts here so our time here will be one giant treasure hunt!

Christian Jung

The Caribbean Sea next to the RV Park we are staying at.

Breck, Taylor and Natalie break open coconuts.

Communion with coconut meat for Christ's Body and coconut water for Christ's Blood.

MEXICO 2011 - Our Journey Through Mexico

2011-10-19T13:44:00.000-07:00

MEXICO 2011 - Gem Falls From Heaven

2011-10-18T12:51:00.000-07:00

The day that our team was to arrive in Actopan, Mexico this gem fell from heaven! It is perfectly cut, warm to the touch and something like fire comes off of it. We are getting reports back from ministries that we visited throughout Mexico and hearing that they are all experiencing phenomenal church growth since our team's arrival and departure from each of their cities!

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Christian Jung

MEXICO 2011 - Luchadores for Christ VIDEO

2011-10-17T20:33:00.000-07:00

MEXICO 2011 - Ministry in Oaxaca

2011-10-14T14:41:00.000-07:00

Teposcolula, Mexico
Friday, October 14, 2011
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Ministry in Oaxaca

Our stay in Mexico has ended up being extended by over one week due to the fact that we decided not to split our team as much. We are ending our ministry time in Mexico in Oaxaca state. One team went to Nochixtlan while the other team stayed in Teposcolula. I was on the team that stayed in Teposcolula.

Our team spent it’s time on the first day serving the local church by cutting grass with machetes, as well as visiting a church member who is a widow caring for her granddaughter. Her granddaughter is a deaf-mute who our team prayed for. Through questions we found that the girl had been given traditional medicine from the witchdoctor and the grandmother still had it in a bowl. We encouraged her to destroy the witchcraft, so she took it out to a field near her home and set it on fire, while praying and breaking off all demonic powers associated with it. We continued to pray for the granddaughter, but it didn’t seem that she received a healing. As we pray for the sick, often we see a complete or partial healing. Other times we don’t see evidence of healing. Determined to continue to see God’s healing hand, we don’t let times like deter us from pressing in even more to the Father’s heart. In fact, it gives me a holy discontentment and causes me to cry out for more. We finished the day leading a church service at a local church in the next town over where the local people danced enthusiastically. We prayed for those present and the Holy Spirit fell.

The following day we drove over an hour to a Mixteco village where we had to ask the local government official for permission to enter the village an go house to house praying for the sick. We were denied this request, but still prayer-walked through the village, greeting the Mixteco people who we were told were opposed to Christianity. On the contrary, the people that I greeted seemed open and friendly. We don’t come to villages wagging our finger at people telling them to repent or perish. Instead we carry the love and glory of God into these villages, heal the sick and then hopefully see open doors to lead people into a personal, hand-holding relationship with Jesus Christ. That night a few of us led a youth service at the pastor’s house where I shared my testimony and called their generation to seek and save the lost.

Tomorrow morning we begin a two-day drive to the border of Belize. We hope to enter Belize by Monday morning. I thank God for all of the fruitfulness and miracles we have seen in Mexico.

Christian Jung

MEXICO 2011- Spear-Fishing, Riding Quads and Visiting Ruins

2011-10-11T13:14:00.000-07:00

Chachalacas, Mexico
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
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Spear-Fishing, Riding Quads and Visiting Ruins
Our Iris Latin America team enjoyed a much needed break on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico just north of Veracruz, where we enjoyed some different activities. A few of us went spear-fishing one day. Others of us went quad riding on the sand dunes. We had a chance to visit some ancient Aztec ruins. Body boarding was definitely on the agenda as well. After running hard for about four weeks now, it was time for a Sabbath rest for all of us.

Christian Jung

MEXICO 2011 - Two Villages Touched by the Finger of God

2011-10-06T05:30:00.000-07:00

Actopan, Mexico
Thursday, October 6, 2011
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Two Villages Touched by the Finger of God

From Mexico City our Iris Latin America team drove two days to Actopan in Veracruz, with some major run-ins with the police along the way who wanted to pull our caravan over on numerous occasions and take our money. Even with these kinds of inconveniences, we set our faces like flint toward our destiny to bring God’s love, glory and revival throughout all of Central and South America.

We arrived in Actopan on the day of a major fiesta celebrating Saint Francis of Assisi. Although we were tired from maneuvering our RVs and pop-up trailers down narrow gravel roads and setting them up in our hosts’ covered patio area, we wanted to join in the festivities…of course, we celebrate Jesus and the freedom that He brings, so in this very vein Jesse, Breck, Taylor, Ben, Rose, Liz and I went to the center of town where we saw a crazy crowd of people chasing and being chased by a hand crafted bull carried by joyous Mexicans. As if that wasn’t enough of a spectacle, the bull had fireworks attached to it and sparks were shooting out onto all the people who were being chased by this bull. So what does the only group of white people do in a situation like this? Start chasing the bull, of course! The Mexicans went crazy and started cheering us on. At the first chance that we had, we grabbed a hold of the bull ourselves, put it on our shoulders and began chasing the crowd. They loved it, cheered us on and each of us guys had a chance to take the bull and chase people. On top of this, people were lighting fireworks all around us and the fireworks themselves were chasing people, which is pretty dangerous I must admit….so dangerous that Taylor ended up getting his finger burnt by one of them.

The Village of Chicuasen

The first full day that we spent in the Actopan area we visited two separate villages. The first village that we went to was the village of Chicuasen. Our team went door to door inviting people to a meeting we were to hold at 1pm. We visited people’s homes, prayed for the sick, and even led many to Christ before the service even started. One Mexican from the local church and I went to pray for a man that was completely blind in one eye and could barely see out of the other eye. After we had prayed three times for him, he began to see out of the blind eye, enough to follow my hand as I moved it, and then could see perfectly out of the other eye. What an amazing miracle! As the people gathered for the service at Paco’s house, our team played games with the children in the front yard. They were all so full of joy! Then we started our service off with a special treat. The men on our team have been so heavily influenced by Nacho Libre and Mexican wrestling that we have all bought luchador masks. We performed a sweet drama about a wrestler (played by myself) whose tag-team partner is Jesus Christ (played by Ted). Three other luchadors came in to wrestle me; sin (played by Ben), sickness (played by Taylor) and the religious spirit (played by Breck). I kept being overcome by these wrestlers all the while Jesus is sticking out His hand for me to tag Him and let Him fight for me. Finally, after getting beat up pretty badly, I slapped Jesus’ hand and he beat up and overcame sin, sickness and the religious spirit. The courtyard was packed with adults and children who loved our skit. I explained the more of the meaning behind the skit. Then Jesse explained the gospel even further. Nearly everyone present raised their hands to make a first-time decision to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, which was about 50 people altogether. Then we had prayer for the sick. Many were healed.

The Village of Coyolillo

After ministering in the first village, we drove another 40 minutes to a second village called Coyolillo where we heard that the villagers there were black. Come to find out upon arrival, they just had darker skin than in other villages. We also noticed that many of them had blue or green eyes. We had heard that there were witch doctors in the village and we could definitely feel a spiritual heaviness as we took the same approach as in the previous village by going door to door, praying for the sick and inviting everyone to a meeting that we were to hold at 7pm at the Salon Social. The team that I was on prayed for a man’s back and leg to be healed. He was completely healed and ended up coming to the meeting. At the meeting there was a time of worship followed by our luchador drama, which we are perfecting as time goes by. This time Rowan played the part of Jesus. Again, the skit went over well. The people loved it. Breck preached the gospel afterwards, Gillian gave a testimony of healing and Jesse gave an altar call where about 15 people entered into a personal relationship with Christ. Tons more came forward for healing, too. The service continued on into the night as the Holy Spirit was poured out in that place. As we all sat around the dinner table that evening to share a meal together, I pondered the day’s events and knew that beyond a shadow of a doubt that two villages had been touched by the finger of God.

Christian Jung

MEXICO 2011 - Chasing the Bull VIDEO

2011-10-04T09:16:00.000-07:00

MEXICO 2011 - Revival in the Streets

2011-09-30T13:41:00.000-07:00

Cumuatillo, Mexico
Friday, September 30, 2011
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Revival in the Streets

Our team has just made it to an RV park an hour north of Mexico City. Jesse, Tanya, Zoe and I, along with a few other team members have decided to stay back with the vehicles while most of the team left on a bus this morning for a three day journey into Mexico City where they will minister in the slums, see the sights and attend a church service on Sunday morning. We have a rrived here after a long day's journey from the Guadalajara area where we experienced Holy Spirit parties and revival in the streets.

Visiting the Mixteco People

While we were with Andy and Karyn Pricer from Fire Ministries in the Guadalajara area, our team was able to go with them to a part of town that only Mixteco people live. It was awesome visiting another indigenous people group. We went door to door just meeting the people, handing out CD's with the Bible and songs in their language on them. We prayed for the sick. One lady that Sarah, Jesse, Caitlin and I prayed for was completely paralized on one side of her body and received a complete healing and now has feeling on that side of her body once again. We shared the gospel with many and loved on the Mixteco people of that area.

Revival in Cumuatillo

Two days ago we traveled a few hours south of Guadalajara towards Mexico City with our new friends where another couple from Fire Ministries are missionaries. We had an open air meeting in the street near a church that an awesome young man named, "Candy" is the pastor. I got a chance to help lead worship in Spanish. Then Ben shared what God had laid on his heart. Jesse gave his testimony. At least five people came forward to receive Christ. Then we asked people to come forward to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The streets were filled with revival as the Spirit of God fell upon everyone. Many spoke in new tongues. There were words of knowledge about people who were suffering with pain in different parts of their bodies. Those people also came forward to receive healing. The streets rejoiced at the testimonies of these healings. Our team continues to carry revival fire through Latin America!

Christian Jung

MEXICO 2011 - Guadalajara VIDEO

2011-09-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

MEXICO 2011 - El Congrejo VIDEO

2011-09-24T09:35:00.000-07:00

MEXICO 2011 - The Salvation of Almost an Entire Village of Unreached Cora People

2011-09-23T08:46:00.000-07:00

El Congrejo, Mexico
Friday, September 23, 2011
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The Salvation of Almost an Entire Village of Unreached Cora People

We headed south of Mazatlan toward Guadalajara and had scheduled a three-day outreach in the mountains of Nayarit among the unreached Cora people group. Pastor Hector from La Cruz as well as some others from that area and Culiacan accompanied us to Cofardia, at the base of the Nayarit mountains where we met up with Jay and his family. Jay is an American missionary with Alternative Missions and has been living here for sixteen years. After spending the night at their base camp, we unhitched the tent-trailers, left the RV’s and packed into our two 4X4 vehicles and a couple of other pickups heading four more hours east into the mountains to the unreached Cora village of El Congrejo. It was an awesome drive with breath-taking views as we climbed from sea-level to nearly 7,000 feet. The last couple of hours were on really bad roads only passable by 4X4..

When we got the El Congrejo, we met with a man of peace named, “Magdeleno” and his family, who Jay has begun to develop a relationship with over the past five or six years. The Cora people are the descendants of the ancient Aztec people and were the last people to be conquered in all of Mexico. Their facial features are strikingly indigenous, as are their clothes, culture and way of life. The Cora are animists, some of whom have mixed with Catholicism where it has been introduced. We heard that they were a very guarded people and resistant to the gospel, but we didn’t experience this in the village of El Congrejo. In fact, the very first night we saw four young women give their lives to Christ at Magdeleno’s home…the very first converts in that Cora village! .

After spending the night in the village, we woke up, had breakfast and then hiked to the waterfall to have devotions. From there half of our team hiked further to the bottom of the waterfall while the other half went door to door, giving each of the forty families tickets that they could redeem later that evening when we were to show the Jesus film in the Cora language. The Mexican brothers who accompanied us had brought bags of food and clothing to distribute to each Cora family. We had interpreters with us as most of the Cora people don’t speak Spanish. I learned a few Cora phrases such as, “Aine pana,” which means, “Hello. How are you?” The Cora would giggle as I attempted to speak their language with them conversationally. We prayed for quite a few sick people as we visited the Cora in their homes..
We had invited the families to attend a children’s program we were to hold at 3pm. I believe that all of the children of that village came out. Our team sang songs with them, played games with them and then portrayed the heart of God through a skit. When Roberta and Guillo asked how many of them wanted to receive Christ, both children and quite a few adults raised their hands in response…about 40 in all. It was amazing to hear this once unreached people ask Jesus into their hearts! We gave out stickers to the boys and hair bands to the girls. Then we distributed the food and clothes to each of the families. They were so grateful to us. The Cora live very simply and don’t have the luxuries that even many others in Mexico have. We then attempted to show the Jesus film in the Cora language, but the DVD we were given to use seemed to be scratched pretty badly. So an awesome Mexican singer and songwriter named, “Aurelio,” sang some of his original worship songs and again preached the gospel. Almost all present received Jesus Christ publically. This is an incredible phenomenon! Almost the entire Cora village of El Congrejo had given their lives to Christ within the two days that we were with them! Our team also prayed for the sick into the night. One man’s eye that was blurry for one year cleared up instantaneously.

What our Iris Latin America team set out to do from the beginning is coming to pass. We are carrying the love and the glory of God to the darkest places and to the remaining unreached people groups of Central and South America, partnering with other churches and organizations who will continue to minister when we have gone.

Christian Jung

MEXICO 2011 - El Santuario and Ministry at the Labor Camps

2011-09-19T08:26:00.000-07:00

La Cruz, Mexico
Monday, September 19, 2011
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El Santuario and Ministry at the Labor Camps

Our team had originally been scheduled to stay at the YWAM base in Mazatlan, but they recently let us know that they were not able to do any ministry with us. So we changed our plans and Maria scheduled us to stay at a place called, “El Santuario” right on the Pacific ocean just north of Mazatlan in a town called, “La Cruz.” It is a resort run by a doctor and his wife who are Seventh Day Adventists and naturalists. So we were all vegetarians for a couple of days. It was well worth it, though, as we were able to do laundry, swim at the pool and in the ocean and have team time as well. What a beautiful place to stay!

While in La Cruz, our team split off into two teams to visit two separate labor camps; one that Maria has been ministering at for the past four years and another one that Pastor Hector ministers at every week. We had a great time. The team that I was on went with Pastor Hector. Our team was introduced, I led a song in Spanish, we shared some testimonies and then prayed for the sick. I believe that all who were prayed for received a healing..

Christian Jung

MEXICO 2011 - Bad Boys, Bad Boys. Whatcha Gonna Do?

2011-09-18T08:15:00.000-07:00

Culiacan, Mexico
Sunday, September 18, 2011
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Bad Boys, Bad Boys. Whatcha Gonna Do?

Had our first experience with the police in Mexico these last couple of days. First on the drive from Pesqueira to Culiacan one of our vehicles was stopped by the police as we were fueling up. Maria was driving and had a few of the other girls from our team with her. After the rest of our caravan had waited for ten minutes to see if the problem she was having with the police would just take care of itself, we got the call in on the walkie-talkie for either Jesse or I to come over and help out. I went over to talk to the police. They seemed friendly enough and I remained calm the entire time…but what they were trying to give Maria a citation for was in question…and they were holding her driver’s license and not giving it back to her. At first they wanted to see the registration and insurance for the Suburban and the trailer. Then they were saying that she drove illegally behind the gas station. They were asking Maria for a lot of money but when I asked them how much the ticket was they said about 250 pesos (or $25 U.S.). We asked them if we could pay them the fine right there and get a receipt, but they said that they couldn’t issue a receipt for the ticket right there. They said that they could take us to an office about five minutes from the gas station. I agreed and hopped into the back of their police car and asked Maria to accompany me and have one of the other vehicles follow us. As soon as they saw that we weren’t going to pay a bribe, they let us go.

Then as we approached Culiacan, which we found out later is in the middle of a major drug war, we got lost. As Pastor Arnoldo from Rio de Dios tried to guide us in we noticed a fleet of Federal Police with guns drawn pass us on the main road. We were supposed to head straight but the Federal Police pulled into a parking lot just ahead of us with lights flashing and guns drawn. It looked like there was going to be a shoot-out. We quickly stopped and turned around on the main road. Just then, a man in a white vehicle tried to flag us down. I asked if he was the pastor and he said, “No,” but still tried to approach the vehicles. We rolled up the windows, locked the doors and kept going, as we were already shaken up a bit from seeing the Federal Police performing drug busts. It was a scary situation. Come to find out, the man answered correctly. He wasn’t the pastor, but the pastor was in the car with him. I had the team’s safety in mind and accidentally ditched the pastor and his staff in all of the craziness. They were so patient with us. We finally met up with them, apologized, had dinner with them and then were put up into a hotel owned by a believer who attended the church in Culiacan.

Our team ministered during the church service the following day at Rio de Dios with Pastor Arnoldo. We gave testimonies and showed “The Road to Tanzania” video. After the service our team prayed for people who came forward. Our team had some prophetic words for the church and for the pastor and his wife. There were healings and impartations. It was an amazing time in spite of our near run-ins with the police!

Christian Jung

MEXICO 2011 - Pesqueira VIDEO

2011-09-17T08:44:00.000-07:00

MEXICO 2011 - Mexican Independence Day

2011-09-16T15:28:00.000-07:00

Pesqueira, Mexico
Friday, September 16, 2011
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Mexican Independence Day

Revival is breaking forth here at our first stop in Pesqueira, Mexico. After a few hang-ups at the border in Nogales, our Iris Latin America team finally arrived late in the evening on Wednesday. We were greeted by Dany and the beautiful Christ-followers at “Centro de Fe, Esperanza y Amor” with an awesome dinner of local-style tacos..
We hit the ground running the following morning, which we were informed was Mexican Independence Day. The inhabitants of Pesqueira come from all over Mexico and are mostly indigenous speakers of Triqui, Zapoteca and other languages. The church here goes house to house using large mp3 players with the New Testament in the over 300 languages of Mexico to determine what language each family in this area speaks. After gathering this information from each family, Dany then duplicates CDs with the gospel in their indigenous language and brings it to them so that they can hear the story of Jesus and respond. Our team collected money to purchase 1,000 blank CDs for the ministry here. After a time of worship together as a team, we accompanied the local Christ-followers in going house to house to help with the survey in five separate groups. It was an amazing time! We also prayed for many people. We led one woman to Christ right there in her courtyard. We also prayed for the sick and saw them recover. One boy we prayed for had some form of conjunctivitis and his eyes were red and watering really badly. He was one of the cutest kids I have ever seen, with an amazing smile even in the midst of his eye irritation. Only five hours later we saw him at the revival meeting we held and his eyes were completely normal and had totally cleared up!

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We planned a revival meeting for 6pm at the church that we were going to invite all of the people who we visited house to house. We were told not to expect many to attend because it was Mexican Independence Day and they would be attending the fiestas instead. Six o’clock rolled around and against all odds the church building began to fill with hundreds of the people that we had invited from the surrounding area. Some of our team gathered all of the children that came with their families to play games outside. At the revival meeting there was a time of worship. Then Jesse and Ted gave some testimonies of God’s love and power. Then Jesse and I spoke words of knowledge about people who were feeling suicidal that very week and who had pain in their bodies. People responded to these words and we ministered the love and power of Jesus to them. After this Dany gave the gospel message. In response to the message 45 people came forward to pray and receive Jesus for the first time! The Holy Spirit party continued as they continued to bring the sick and diseased to us. Many people from our team prayed for those who came forward. I personally witnessed everyone that I prayed for receive a healing; from back and stomach pain to eyes being opened to see clearly! C’mon Jesus! Others wept profusely as we spoke Papa’s heart over them. It was truly Mexican Independence Day as the indigenous people of Pesqueira were set free body, soul and spirit!!!

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We had planned some other activities for today, but because of the amazing revival that God is bringing to our first stop here in Mexico, we are going to do the same thing today; going house to house in other surrounding areas that we didn’t get to yesterday and hold another revival meeting tonight. I can’t imagine a better start to our Iris Latin America outreach.

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Christian Jung

LATIN AMERICA 2011-2012 - Breck Boyd's Beginnings VIDEO

2011-09-14T09:11:00.000-07:00

LATIN AMERICA 2011-2012 - Pics from Portland to Los Angeles

2011-09-13T11:10:00.000-07:00

Central and South America

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Pics from Portland to Los Angeles

Our Iris Latin America team has been making the long journey from Portland, Oregon to Latin America where we will be carrying God's love and glory for the next year. Our first stop was in Redding where Heidi Baker commissioned our team at Bethel. After spending the night at a Mary Joy's property in Redding we headed to Los Angeles where our team met up with good friends Nathan and Sarah and our new friends Chuck and Sally, who hosted us at their beautiful home. We went to Expression 58 in Los Angeles where we shared about our journey, were prayed over and ministered to people from that fellowship. We also visited the "Walk of Fame" in Hollywood and went to Griffith Observatory that overlooks Los Angeles. Then we had an awesome worship time on Sunday evening where Brock Human came and led us into the throne room of God. We also ministered to one another. Our team is bonding and we just arrived in Tucson, Arizona last night where Bob and Diane are hosting us at their beautiful home. We have truly seen God's favor every step of the way. Christ-followers that we have never even met have been so hospitable in hosting our team. Please pray for increased favor with our vehicles as we head to the Mexican border in Nogales tomorrow morning. Enjoy our photos from Portland to Los Angeles below. Love you all! Bless you!

LATIN AMERICA 2011-2012 - Heidi Baker Commissions us at Bethel

2011-09-09T22:50:00.000-07:00

LATIN AMERICA 2011-2012 - Our Fleet of Missionary Vehicles

2011-09-03T10:27:00.000-07:00

Central and South America

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Our Fleet of Missionary Vehicles

Jesse, Tanya and I have been pushing hard these past weeks purchasing and getting all of our vehicles ready for the year-long journey through all of Central America, South America and the Carribean. We have seen God's amazing favor upon us in all of these preparations. Check out our fleet of missionary vehicles below:

OPEN HEAVEN: Our 1982 Chevy Camper Van/RV

SHEKINAH: Our 2002 Dodge Durango 4X4

GLORY: Our 1995 Coleman Pop-up Tent Trailer that will be pulled by SHEKINAH

NEW WINE: Our 1990 Ford Econoline Camper Van/RV

OVERFLOW: Our 1995 Chevy Suburban 4X4

SHALOM: Our 1993 Cobra Pop-up Tent Trailer that will be pulled by OVERFLOW

We have 3 Garmin 1450 GPS units w/mapsets for Latin America and the Carribean

Christian Jung

UNITED STATES 2011 - Iris Reunion and Conference

2011-08-22T11:05:00.000-07:00

Pismo Beach, California

Monday, August 22, 2011

Iris Reunion and Conference

After Jonas and I returned from Japan, we hit the ground running once we got back to the U.S. as our family packed everything up the following week to move from the house we were renting into our good friends, the Jackson's home in order to save money to purchase airline tickets for our family to move to Micronesia in summer of 2012. Literally the day after we moved into the Jackson's home, we packed into our little Honda Civic and drove down to Pismo Beach, California to attend the "i61 Mandate" Iris reunion and the "Compelled By Love" conference.

At the Iris reunion we were able to connect with alumni who have graduated from the Iris Harvest School for Missions in Pemba, Mozambique. We were in HS11 and were able to reunite with our fellow classmates, most of whom we haven't seen for almost two years, which was so much fun! I believe that there were alumni represented from every Holy Given or Harvest School, from HG1 to HS14. We all worshipped together, and heard from Heidi and Rolland Baker, Mel Tari, Supresa Sithole and from Juanita Vinson, who is Heidi's spiritual mom. It is truly amazing how God has honored our family to be numbered with so many amazing world-shaking history-makers. One morning Heidi asked me to join a panel up front along with Steve and Cassandra Soars, Lyle Phillips, Cassandra Bassnet, Yonnie Cheng, Mark Perry, Juanita Vinson and Jake Hamilton. Heidi said that each of us had been given keys as world changers and proceeded to ask us questions based on Isaiah 61. I felt a bit unworthy to be counted among such greats, but honored at the same time. We also had a time where these same Iris missionaries shared about what god is doing in their midst around the world, from Pismo Beach, to Democratic Republic of Congo. Yonnie, Naomi and I, along with our other team mates who have been running with us shared on Iris Thailand and Iris Relief. One of the purposes of sharing was to let the Harvest School alumni know that there are opportunities for them worldwide to become engaged in. What a great time! I think there were at least 130 Iris alumni in attendance.

Iris alumni getting wrecked in God's presence at the i61 Mandate reunion

Heidi asks Christian to join a panel of other Iris missionaries

The conference was amazing as well. there were always extended times of worship and ministry as we heard from Heidi Baker, Mel tari and the others. On the first evening of the conference, I fond myself laid out on the floor, a little distance away from the huge crowd up front during the worship time. God took me up into visions of the throne room in heaven and for the first time in my life I experienced what felt as rain drops from heaven upon my hands and my face as I laid on my back. i can't even begin to describe in words the sense of God's tangible presence that I experienced that evening. I was so recklessly abandoned before Him, confessing my struggles and weaknesses. It was as though His latter rain was bringing me a time of refreshing after running so hard lately, and in preparation for the running that will take place as our teams leave for Latin America. It was also at the conference that I prayed the daring prayer of the remaining unreached 6,916 unreached people groups would become reached with the gospel in my lifetime. Let it be so, Lord! Our little mission team is small, but growing, and I truly believe that this dream will become reality as we stand in faith!

.Christian Jung

THE WORLD 2011 - Help Missions Video Interview with the Jung Family

2011-08-10T21:06:00.000-07:00

JAPAN 2011 - Successful Iris Relief Japan 3rd Response

2011-08-05T20:25:00.000-07:00

Sano City, Japan
Friday, August 5, 2011
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Successful Iris Relief Japan 3rd Response

Yonnie is leaving tomorrow morning which leaves only Jonas and I here in Japan as our Iris Relief 3rd Response team has all left on flights to their various home nations. We had a very international team this time from eight different nations; United States, Taiwan, England, Scotland, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan.

Our team spent it's last day in the Sendai area on the coast in Takayama interceding for Japan. I was talking to Jeremy, who is the pastor of Arise Church in Sendai, and he mentioned that since the Iris Response 1st Response team until now, they have given away nearly 300 Bibles. That is cool enough in itself, but what is even more amazing is that we only give those Bibles away to people who receive Christ. So it is an amazing phenomenon that just from our Iris Relief efforts since the erthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011 so many people have come to Christ. Not only that, but we have seen many healings; physical, emotional and spiritual, as well as words of knowledge and prophetic words spoken. We sat with the poeple in the shelters, temporary houses and on the streets and listened to their heart-breaking stories, weeping with them and loving them. We've been able to throw parties, feed and clothe tsunami victims, and play games with their children. For our first official Iris Relief effort, I can't see how it could've been any more successful.

At this very moment, Iris Relief is mobilizing a team from Mozambique to respond to the famine in the horn of Africa. As we continue to near Christ's return, it seems as though these types of natural disasters will continue to increase. What will our response be? Will our hearts break for the hurting and disenfranchised? And will this compassion move us to action? What does love look like after such natural disasters? As Iris Relief, we hope to be able to respond to such disasters. We want to be the hands and feet of Jesus to everyone, especially to the poor and hurting. Thank you for all of your support of us in our endeavors to be Jesus with skin on in the face of such devastation.

Jonas and I are taking this few days here in Japan together to pray more and spend time with the beautiful Christ-followers in Sano City. We are now staying at Mrs. Nakamura's house, which is a traditional japanese-style house. It makes us feel like we are on the movie set of "The Last Samurai." The other day we went swimming at a huge pool and raced down giant water slides. Yesterday we had a BBQ at Mike and Rachel's house. Today I helped Issei construct a carport to protect their motorcycle and bibcycle from the weather. Tonight we will go see the fireworks with Naga, Sam, Issei and Mrs. Nakamura. Tomorrow Jonas and I will join the worship team at Sano Revival Center; Jonas on electric guitar and me on bass guitar. Then on Monday we leave for Tokyo to catch our flight back to the U.S. This has been an amazing journey.

Yonnie and I have been talking with Mike and Rachel about what a permanent Iris presence in Japan will look like. There are thousands of completely unreached cities and villages in Japan. Please join us in praying for more Spirit-filled Christ-followers to be called to come to Japan and work as full-time missionaries. "The harvest is truly plentiful, but the laborers are few." And please continue to pray for the beautiful nation of Japan. Blessings on you all!

Christian Jung

JAPAN 2011 - Ministry in the Streets of Sendai Video

2011-08-01T09:46:00.000-07:00

JAPAN 2011 - Salvation in Sendai

2011-07-31T19:46:00.000-07:00

Sendai, Japan
Sunday, July 31, 2011
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Ministering to the Autistic Children

Yesterday we left early in the morning to go and minister to some autistic children and there parents in northern Japan. It took a couple of hours to get there but it was definitely worth it!

We had the chance to play games with the autistic children, and tell them that God can take their fears of the tsunami and earthquake away. We also got to talk with and pray for the parents of these children, who were as traumatized from the earthquake and tsunami as their children were. We saw one of the mothers receive Jesus that morning, and it was totally worth the two hour drive to get there. Just to see that one person's name be written on the Book of Life!

Ministering in Streets of Sendai

The following evening our team decided to hit the streets of Sendai. We went to a red light district where prostitution was quite obviously legal. On our way there we asked God to show us people we would see that night and we saw almost ever one of the people that God highlighted to us! One person on our team saw ten bowling pins being knocked over, and there were ten people that recieved Jesus on the streets that night!! Thank you Jesus!!

Church Services on Sunday

The next morning we went to our friends, Jeremy and Kumi's church. We had Yonnie speak on the father heart of God. That morning we saw three people receive Jesus! We also were able to prophecy over people and every one of our team members who did so were dead on!

We went to a second church service that evening, at Micah Lawrence's house church in Sendai. My dad talked about Mary and Martha and how the Japanese people are often very willing to serve. But we need to spend time at Jesus' feet, Nami and I (two of the three youngest team members) led a couple to receiving Jesus! The man had a yellow shirt with black writing on it, which is one of the things God highlighted the night before! God is so good at fulfilling His promises!

Jonas Jung

JAPAN 2011 - Story of Survival at Center for Autistic Children Video

2011-07-30T21:56:00.000-07:00

JAPAN 2011 - Party Time in Ishinomaki!

2011-07-29T02:19:00.000-07:00

Ishinomaki, Japan

Friday, July 30, 2011

Party Time in Ishinomaki!

Today we threw a huge party at the shelter in Ishinomaki. We fed over 500 people with yakisoba noodles, rented a huge bouncy castle, served shaved ice and cotton candy, had games and prizes, performed a skit portraying the gospel of Christ, prayed with people to receive healing and baptism of the Holy Spiritand distributed "The Shack" book in the Japanese language to help people deal with grief and loss. It was an amazing party! I totally believe that everyone who came not only had fun but experienced the love of Jesus being lavished upon them. Samaritan's Purse and a local baptist church came with volunteers to help us as well. This is what love lookes like to tsunami victims in Japan!

Christian Jung

Lady from the Laundry Mat we met cooked Yakisoba noodles for the party

We fed over 500 people at the party in Ishinomaki

Yakisoba noodles that we served

Our team speaks to those who gather at the party...bouncy castle in the background

Children enjoying the bouncy castle

Volunteer serving cotton candy

Volunteers making shaved ice

Children at the party paly a game and try to pop eachother's balloons

Face painting at the party

Our team performs a skit about Jesus freeing people from bondage

Our team explains the skit and preaches the gospel to those attending the party

We prayed for this baby with a heart condition and saw a drastic change

We prayed for Taka to be healed from paralization...he was baptized by Holy Spirit

Christian and Taka

This man received Christ as well as partial healing in his left eye

JAPAN 2011 - Healings at the Shelter in Ishinomaki Video

2011-07-28T03:13:00.000-07:00

JAPAN 2011 - Miracles Break Forth in Ishinomaki

2011-07-26T06:30:00.000-07:00

Ishinomaki, Japan
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
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Miracles Break Forth in Ishinomaki

Yesterday morning we left to enter into the city center of Sendai. First we got our team shopping done at the local supermarket so that we can cook at our house we're renting for the time we're here. Then we cleaned our dirty laundry at the nearest laundromat in town. (We also prayed and worshipped at a stronghold over this area, a Buddhist statue of Kan-Non, the "Queen of Heaven.")

After we got all of this done, Jeremy and Kumi Jenkins (local missionaries that will be working with our Iris Relief team) invited us over to their house for dinner that night. We had an awesome time filled with fellowship, worship, and the opportunity to pray over the Jenkins family and their new home. Following this we headed back to the house to catch some sleep..

We left this morning for Ishinomaki where there is still some major damage left from the tsunami. It was really shocking (even though I knew I would see it and tried to prepare myself before I left) seeing giant piles of rubble, buildings with their faces literally torn off of them, and wreckage filling the streets..

First we went and prayed for a conservative baptist pastor. We prayed for him as he told us that he was feeling worn out from all the work he is doing there. We prayed that God would give him peace and rest. Then we went to one of the shelters in Ishinomaki. We got out the water guns we had bought and played with the kids in the area around the shelter; getting soaked! After this we went inside the shelter and handed out invitations to the Japanese for our party we will be throwing on Friday.

During this time we prayed for an old man who was a farmer before the tsunami hit the area. He told us that his rice paddy field had been hit by the tsunami. The salt from the salt water had sunk into the field and said that he would not be able to plant anything for several years now. We prayed that his field would be fruitful again, and Rob even got a vision of the salt in the rice field rising to the surface so it can be removed. We prayed and believed that this would come to pass..

We also had the opportunity to pray for some elderly Japanese people at the shelter as well. One mans arm was hurting him and he was miraculously healed through the power of God to complete health. Another mans back was labeled crooked by the doctors and the doctors said that he was just to elderly to be healed from it. He was completely healed from his back pains through Jesus. Thank You Lord!!.

After the homeless shelters were invaded by the power of God we and a couple of kids that we made friends with at the shelter (though they do not live there) went to one of the temporary housing developments. We prayed with and simply spent time with the people living there as many pf them were depressed and traumatized form the earthquake and tsunami. One man was blind and we prayed for him and he said he was starting to see better. We pray for his healing to continue even as we had to go.

Then we took the kids that we brought with us to the temporary houses, back to their home. We met their mom and grandparents who were at home, and the kids said they would come to our party on Friday. (On the way back from Ishinomaki to Sendai we got a flat tire and dad and Naga had to change it). What a great day of ministry to the lost and hurting Japanese people! Jesus' love is definitely being brought to Japan through Iris Third Response Team. Thank You Father!!

Jonas Jung

JAPAN 2011 - "Compelled By Love" Conference

2011-07-24T17:31:00.000-07:00

Sano City, Japan
Sunday, July 24, 2011
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"Compelled By Love" Conference

"I really feel that on the first two response teams we were scratching the surface, but that on this third response team we are going to be staking the ground," Yonnie told me in a Blackberry instant message from Taiwan before we left for Japan where her and I would lead the Iris Relief 3rd Response Team. Yonnie hit the nail on the head. When disaster strikes we go into emergency mode, doing all that we can as missionaries to allieviate suffering and help the hurting. At the end of our last relief trip, Yonnie and I, along with Mike from Sano Revival Center felt as though it was time to pass the mantle on to the Japanese Christ-followers in continuing with the tsunami relief efforts here in Japan. So we decided to put on a conference called, "Compelled By Love," where we would activate the Japanese believers to do this very thing.

We just finished our conference and let me just say, the Holy Spirit tsunami that swept through during the weekend impacted the lives of all who were present. People came from all over Japan, some as far as a 13 hour train ride.

On Day #1 we had four sessions. Yonnie and I started off the first session by introducing Iris Ministries and speaking about what took place on the previous relief teams. After a lunch break, I laid the foundation of love during the second session, focusing on being moved with compassion for the least of these. At the end of that session, we all got on the floor and asked for God to "give us eyes to see" the least of these as He sees them. Then at the third session, Yonnie, Anne (from St. Stephens Society with Jackie Pullinger) and I shared stories of operating in the signs and wonders, stirring up faith for even greater things. We prayed for many at the end of that session. Some were baptized in the Holy Spirit, receiving tongues. We also saw healings and words of knowledge. Our team ministered throughout the day to those at the conference. Then after dinner, Yonnie took the fourth session and spoke on the Father heart of God. It is so key that as an Asian, Yonnie shared about this. The Japanese people can relate to her personal testimonies of the pressures of having a performance oreinted earthly father. At the end of that session, Yonnie, Anne and I stood up front and revealed the Father heart of God to those who came forward by hugging them and keeping them in our embrace. One Japanese man began to weep profusely as I held him in my embrace and spoke words of love and acceptance over him.

On Day #2 there was the Sunday service at Sano Revival Center during the morning. Yonnie spoke on dreams that have been lost or forgotten. At the end of the church service I prayed over those gathered as Father God would speak to His sons and daughters. It was a powerful time. Then our team came forward with words of knowledge concerning dreams within those present that had been lost or forgotten. Many came forward in response to the words and our team ministered to them, praying for them and prophecying over them. After lunch during the fifth and sixth sessions we activated the Japanese who attended the conference in healing and words of knowledge. As I looked around and saw the Japanese praying for one another and getting more experience in walking in the supernatural, I realized that what Yonnie had said to me about staking the ground was coming to pass. We ended the conference with a giant fire-love tunnel where everyone came through and got blasted by Holy Spirit as our team laid hands on them. One lady's hands were completely healed and were covered in gold dust as she began to play the piano once again after years of not being able to. What an amazing weekend we had at the "Compelled By Love" conference.

Christian Jung

JAPAN 2011 - Iris Relief 3rd Response Team Arrival in Sano

2011-07-22T06:39:00.001-07:00

Sano City, Japan
Friday, July 22, 2011
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Iris Relief 3rd Response Team Arrival in Japan

Jonas and I made it safely into Tokyo a couple of days ago. There was a typhoon that we had to fly through in order to get there. We took the bus to Sano City to meet up with the rest of our team. We've been having a great time connecting with one another as a team, worshipping and praying together and gearing up for the seminar that starts tomorrow. Most of the team hung out and helped at a party that was thrown for the school children here at the church in Sano this morning.

Christian Jung

LATIN AMERICA 2011-2012 - More Renovations on "Open Heaven"

2011-07-17T22:57:00.000-07:00

Central and South America
Sunday, July 17, 2011
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More Renovations on "Open Heaven"

We continue to make preparations for the year long journey of Iris missionaries through all of Central and South America. Today, Jonas and I finished up installing slate peel and stick tiles on the floor of the RV that Jesse and Tanya purchased and named "Open Heaven." It is a big improvement over the '70's orange shag carpet as you can tell from the pictures below. We needed a hard surface in order to make cleaning the kitchen and bathroom area on the road through Latin America. Jerry also came over and replaced the carriage bearing and will replace the pinion seal next week.

Christian Jung

ASIA and AUSTRALIA 2011 - Videos of Jesse and Tanya's Missionary Adventures

2011-06-16T15:11:00.000-07:00

Our close friends and missionary team mates, Jesse, Tanya and Zoe Gellatly were able to carry the love and glory of God throughout much of Asia and Australia over the past six months. I was able to be with them on part of the journey. Please check out their videos of these adventures. You can also see more on their blog: http://kingsquestministries.blogspot.com
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Christian Jung

JAPAN 2011 - Flier for Iris Relief 3rd Response Seminar

2011-06-10T10:05:00.001-07:00

LATIN AMERICA 2011-2012 - Possible Routes Through Central and South America

2011-06-01T16:34:00.000-07:00

Central and South America
September 11, 2011 - September ??, 2012?
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Possible Routes Through Central and South America

Over the past six months I've had the honor of making as many contacts as possible (along with some other Iris missionaries) for a year long journey that our team of Iris missionaries will be embarking upon beginning September 11th of this year. It is quite a challenge to try and make tentative routes for two to three teams of between 30 and 60 missionaries. We actually have contacts in every country in Central and South America and are still working on the Caribbean as that will be the last leg of our team's journey. It is really exciting making these contacts and dreaming about our teams carrying the love, glory and power of God through all of Latin America and the Caribbean. We will be focusing on bringing the gospel to the remaining unreached people groups, as well as ministering to the poor and broken of bigger cities. We will also be partnering with other chuches, ministries and organizations along the way when possible, helping them establish more permanent works among the unreached people groups. Please see below where I have marked possible routes for two teams to split up in order to cover the most ground. Team #1's route is marked with black lines while Team #2's route is marked with grey lines. The black squares are cities or areas where we have made contact with churches, ministries or organizations and will most likely be staying with them from three days to one week, depending on how the Lord leads each team. The orange and yellow arrows contain the names of the ministries in that city. There is a possibility that we will actually add a third route for a third team, depending on the number of missionaries we will have. Also notice that both teams will meet up at different points along the way, and these routes actually look a little bit like a DNA strand, as this is what was prophesied over this journey at the Iris Harvest School of Missions in Pemba, Mozambique.

Possible Central America Routes

Both teams will be tentatively entering Mexico through the border at Nogales. Team #1 will mostly stay in western and central Mexico, then will head into Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. Team #2 will start in western Mexico but then drive inland and stay mostly in central and eastern Mexico, into Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. Both teams will meet up in Colon, Panama where they will ship all of the vehicles on a ferry around the Darien Gap and into Cartagena, Colombia.

Possible South America Routes

Tentatively, both teams will start off together in Colombia,and weave throughout Ecuador and Peru, meeting up at various points. At times the team will leave their vehicles and by boat and plane, enter the interior of the Amazon to get to unreached tribes. Then Team #1 will head to Bolivia, Paraguay, meet up with Team #2 in Argentina, head back north into Bolivia again and then into Brazil where they will meet up again with Team #2 in Santarem. Team #2 will travel through Chile and Argentina, even to the southern tip of South America near Antarctica, then back through Uruguay and Brazil. Once both teams are in Santarem, they will either with or without their vehicles, take a ferry to Manaus, then travel north. Team #1 will head into Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, then fly into Caracas, Venezuela to meet up with Team #2. From Caracas both teams will fly to the Caribbean islands to end the year long journey.

Again this is only a tentative plan. Proverbs 16:9 says, "A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps." We hold our plans so loosely as we know that Holy Spirit can, and most likely will lead us on adventures we can't even imagine. I have also been excited to get one of our vehicles road and travel-worthy. Jesse and Tanya bought this RV that is a 1982 Chevrolet. Last Saturday my good friend, Jerry Morris (who is an awesome, Spirit-filled mechanic) and I replaced the Master Cylinder. This Saturday we will change another seal, tune it up and make a list of other things that would be beneficial to take this RV throughout all of Central and South America.

Christian Jung

UNITED STATES 2011 - Jesus' Last Words...End Times Harvest

2011-05-29T14:35:00.000-07:00

Vancouver, Washington
Sunday, May 29, 2011
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Jesus' Last Words...End Times Harvest

Wow! Great message today at Whipple Creek Church on "Last Words," and about how Jesus' last words before ascending into heaven were to "Go and make disciples of every nation (language group)..." (Matthew 28:18-20) What would it look like if every church in America commissioned, trained and sent 10% of their congregation to serve among the unreached people groups who have never even heard the name of Jesus on the foreign mission field, while the other 90% cut their spending of disposable income and supported them? I believe that the 6,916 remaining unreached people groups would be reached by the gospel within 10 years, not to mention the eradication of starvation and water-bourne diseases through sustainable projects and the end to human trafficking among other things. So of the over 91 million evangelical Christ-followers in America, over 9 million would be sent to reap a great end times harvest of souls and usher in the return of Christ. That would be over 1,300 missionaries for each one of those unreached people groups (where there is currently no missionary). Or we could even spread some of the 91 million out among the less-reached people groups as well to assist the handful of missionaries that have been working among them (Over 95% of all missionaries are working in areas that have long been reached by the gospel). Sound like a plan?
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The thing is, Jesus never asked us to go and make disciples of every nation, He commanded us to. Most American Christ-followers feel "led" or "called" to stay, as though it is the default. That's flipped around. We are all called to go. Going should be the norm. Being called to "stay" is a unique calling for only a handful. Why is it that 2,000 years have passed by since Jesus gave this command and still thousands of unreached people are dying daily only to spend an eternity in hell, seperated from God all because no one has come and shared the gospel of Christ with them? Simply put: Christ-followers haven't really taken the Great Commission of Jesus seriously. Most Christ-followers in America aren't even Great Commission minded by praying for these people groups or financially supporting missionaries to go bring the love of Christ to them. Bluntly put: The majority of American Christ-followers have given God the middle finger by saying through their actions that the American dream of a bigger house with a white picket fence, a nicer car, a higher paying job, etc. is more important to them then obedience to Jesus. The Great Commission was not only Jesus' last words to us before He ascended to heaven, it is the heart beat of God, who is "not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9) To the church of America: If you sincerely long to hear the heart beat of God and respond, begin by doing everything possible to fulfill the Great Commission. Even if it means laying down our lives in martyrdom to do so.
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Christian Jung

JAPAN 2011 - Amy's Iris Relief 2nd Response Pics

2011-05-11T17:20:00.000-07:00

JAPAN 2011 - Japan Relief Team Overview

2011-05-04T01:38:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!
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I made it back to Vancouver, Washington late last night from my recent two-week trip to Japan. I am still processing all that I have seen and all that happened on our Iris Relief 2nd Response Team, but I will attempt to give a brief overview of this trip.
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THE SHELTERS:
Our team visited shelters in Watari, Minami-San Riku and Sendai where families were living in areas on gym floors separated only by makeshift cardboard walls. Almost all of these families shared with us how they have lost everything in the tsunami waters; loved ones, homes, cars, businesses. We were able to just love on these families; listen to them, weep with them and pray with them. Many of these people in the shelters prayed with us to receive Christ. Most had never heard about Jesus as Japan is one of the least-reached nations in Asia. Others received physical healings and prophetic words as our team prayed for them. We gave them Japanese Bibles and were able to connect these people with local church pastors from Sendai who will continue to follow-up with them, and Lord-willing, plant churches in these areas. We distributed clothing, food and coffee in these shelters. Our team dressed up in mascot suits and brought joy to the children and adults, something they haven't experienced since being displaced after the tsunami. One thing that we kept hearing from the people in the shelters was that they were so glad that our team had come from so far to bring the love of God to them.
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THE WORKERS:
Our team went on "treasure hunts" where we just asked the Holy Spirit to lead us to the areas of devastation where He had prepared the hearts of the workers to hear and respond to His love and His gospel. In Tagajo, God led us to a group of workers who we stopped and served coffee to. They were on teams that were sifting through and cleaning up the wreckage left by the tsunami, often finding dead bodies of tsunami victims. As we loved on these workers and talked to them about Jesus, quite a few of them responded to the gospel and asked Him into their lives. We also gave them Bibles and connected them with the local church in Sendai. Some workers also received a physical healing as we prayed for them.
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THE STREETS:
There is a huge night life in downtown Sendai where the streets are lined with bars and brothels. Our team made signs offering prayer for healing and prophecy. We ministered for many hours to "the least of these" and led many people to Jesus. God was giving us so many prophetic words and words of knowledge and as we spoke these out over the people coming out of the bars, heaven touched down and miracles happened. One man who received Christ was even baptized by the Holy Spirit and ran off in tears. The Japanese people are culturally closed-off and repressed emotionally. Many have told us that it is not normal for the Japanese to be as open as they were on this trip.
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THE CHURCH:
We also got a chance to minister at the local churches in Sendai and Sano City where we had sweet fellowship with the Japanese believers. We not only ministered to them, but were ministered to by them as they prayed over us. Japan is 0.5% evangelical and most cities and villages do not have a church. We felt such a strong connection with these churches and their pastors. It is our hope to transition from Iris Relief Japan to actually establishing a permanent Iris base in Japan and continue to work in tandem with these local churches to reach Japan for Christ. There has been a shift in the atmosphere over Japan and the harvest is ripe.
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Please feel free to check out more stories, pictures and videos on our missions blog:
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http://jungworldmissions.blogspot.com
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Thank you all once again for your prayer and financial support. Heaven most definitely looks different as a result of our team carrying God's love and glory into the areas of physical and spiritual devastation in Japan. Please pray that the seeds planted would bear much fruit, for the local churches and pastors, and for the future Iris base that we would like to establish in Japan.
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FUTURE MISSIONS:
We were hoping that Christy would be able to join Jesse and Tanya in Australia and Indonesia this month for a three week missions trip to the aboriginal people but we didn't get a release in finances to do so. Christy and I have been asked to co-lead the Iris Relief 3rd Response Team to Japan in late-July to early-August of this year. We are praying about this and exploring this possibility. As the 1st and 2nd Response Teams focused on doing most of the relief work themselves, the 3rd Response Team will focus on training and equipping the indigenous Japanese believers to carry on the relief work, so it will be a smaller team. Please pray for us in regards to this. If you feel led to give toward this you can support is via PayPal on our missions blog. Then in September of this year I will be joining Jesse and Tanya along with a large group of Iris missionaries traveling by RVs and 4X4s through Central and South America. The long-term plan is for our family, along with Jesse and Tanya to move to the island of Pohnpei in Micronesia to establish an Iris base and Missionary Training Center focusing on training, equipping and sending missionaries to unreached people groups and nations. Thank you all for being such a vital part of our team. We are seeing so many lives changed forever in lands where Christ's name hasn't even been heard. Please feel free to forward this email to any others who might be interested in joining our team of prayer and financial supporters.
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On another note, Christy and I are spearheading a House of Prayer here in Vancouver, Washington. We are launching this on May 5th which is the National Day of Prayer with a 24 hours of prayer and worship. We would totally dig your prayer covering for this as well. We love you all so very much and are honored to serve the Lord by your side as His missionaries here in the U.S. and to the ends of the earth.
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Many blessings,
Christian, Christy, Jonas, Jordan and Justine Jung

JAPAN 2011 - Salvation on the Streets of Sendai

2011-05-01T09:44:00.001-07:00

Sendai, Japan

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Salvation on the Streets of Sendai

Our team was able to hit the streets last Thursday night in downtown Sendai where there is a night life with bars and strip joints. We made two signs; one said "prayer for healing," the other said, "prophetic words." Quite a few from our team wore their mascot suits; a tiger, monkey, gorilla and frog. The drunk people came up to us right away and ministry time was on. We prayed over people for hours as the cold wind chilled us to the bone. Six people prayed to receive Christ. Many people received healing and prophetic words as well. We also gave out Japanese Bibles and invited everyone to Jeremy and Kumi's church in Sendai. It was awesome!

One guy I met spoke really good English. His name was Tom. Tom even had a basic idea of what the Bible teaches. He kept saying how drunk he was and wondered why our team chose that street to minister on, saying it was like "Sodom and Gomorrah." I just told him that this is where Jesus would minister. He told me how sinful he was and couldn't believe that God would still love him. I just embraced him and told him that Jesus loves him no matter what he had done, and that His arms are open wide to receive him back. The man wept and we prayed together.

Last Day at the Shelter in Watari

On the last day at the shelter in Watari, we decided to throw a huge birthday party and bought everyone in the shelter sushi. Rachel and some others from Sano also drove up and brought birthday cake, fruit baskets and presents to give out. We also hid Easter eggs outside and had an Easter egg hunt with the children. It was so much fun just doting on the people at the shelter and after returning so many times to just give more and more love, the people were so very grateful to our team. Our team did a funny dance to the YMCA song, too. Funny stuff!

Christian Jung

JAPAN 2011 - Pics from Watari and Tagajo

2011-04-29T09:25:00.000-07:00

JAPAN 2011 - Skit at Watari Shelter

2011-04-27T20:02:00.000-07:00

JAPAN 2011 - What Does Love Look Like?

2011-04-27T06:48:00.000-07:00

Tagajo, Japan
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
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What Does Love Look Like?

Our team of nine Iris missionaries, along with our hosts and translators have been carrying the love of Jesus into the shelters and areas of devastation. So what does love look like after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan?

At the shelter in Watari love looks like serving coffee to the people gathered in their makeshift homes separated by carboard half-walls. Love looks like buying 300 pieces of chicken and feeding 40 families. Love looks like giving flowers to the people who have lost loved ones, homes and possessions in the earthquake and tsunami and giving time to them cry and grieve openly, even though it goes against their culture. Love looks like listening to their stories and giving them hugs. Love looks like dressing up in monkey, tiger and rabbit costumes and bringing smiles to children's faces in the midst of fear and uncertainty. Love looks like distributing donated clothing to families whose clothes have been washed away in the tsunami waters. Love looks like performing a skit and explaining the gospel. Love looks like praying with people to receive Jesus. Love looks like giving people Bibles and small mp5 players with the Jesus film in Japanese.

In Tagajo love looks like a treasure hunt. Love looks like serving coffee to workers who are cleaning up debris and praying with them to receive Jesus. At a shelter in Sendai love looks like embracing a young girl and speaking destiny over her life. This is a glimpse of what love has looked like as our Iris Relief 2nd Response Team has traveled through Japan. The Japanese are beautiful people. Jesus loves Japan and so do I.

Christian Jung

JAPAN 2011 - Pics from Minami-San Riku and Church in Sendai

2011-04-25T08:42:00.000-07:00

JAPAN 2011 - Beauty for Ashes, From Death to Life

2011-04-24T05:01:00.000-07:00

Minami-San Riku, Japan
Sunday, April 24, 2011
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Beauty for Ashes

Our team drove a few hours north to a place called Minami-San Riku. So far, it has been the worst destruction we have seen on our trip. This city is situated in the foothills where the enormous tsunami wave traveled. We heard that with one road exiting the city to higher ground, many lost their lives in their cars as they tried to make it from the side roads onto the main road. There simply wasn't enough time.

Once again, we went to a shelter that God had showed us through heavenly strategies. As we entered this shelter, we were greeted by the families staying there with warmth. Our mascot costumes again were a big hit with the children. Some of our team served hot coffee to the adults, while others played with and loved on children, as well as gave out toys and gifts. We were able to engage in a lot of conversations with the people we served, asking questions, empathizing and praying with them. Amy, Ruth and I prayed with three ladies who received Christ. We also prayed for the healing of their child who was suffering with a skin condition. Yonnie and Naomi led another lady to Christ. We gave Japanese Bibles to each of them. We prayed and prophesied over others, and often, just sat and listened to them share their story about how they escaped from the tsunami waters and in many cases how they lost family members. We played more group games with the children and I was even challenged to arm wrestle a young adult from the shelter. As we drove around and took it all in, we know that it the midst of it all, the beauty of new life in Christ emerged from the ashes and debris.

From Death to Life

Today we celebrated Christ's resurrection at our host's church in Sendai. We started out with a pancake breakfast. Then we were blessed by a Christ-follower from their church who brought an indigenous Japanese instrument called a koto (that came from China originally I believe) and played so beautifully for us. It was literally heavenly. We then had a beautiful time of worship in Japanese and English. During that time I was just soaking in God's presence and He revealed to me that two people present were needing a healing; one from nightmares and another from chest pain and tightness due to stress and anxiety. I mentioned this to the congregation as I led a worship song after Yonnie shared a wonderful testimony that our team acted out in skit form. I told them that they would be healed from these two things during our time in God's presence. (After the service a mother and a daughter came forward asking how I knew they were suffering from these things. They said that they felt set free during the service, but I prayed for them and blessed them nonetheless) Jeremy then gave an awesome message from Hebrews 12:25-29 and 1 Corinthains 3:11-13. At the end of the service, their church prophesied over our team. It was an amazing time at an amazing church. I really love our hosts, Jeremy and Kumi. They are such special people with such huge destiny over their lives for God's Kingdom coming to Japan.

After church our team walked to Baskin Robbins for some ice cream. It is an area of downtown Sendai that is crowded with people. So Yonnie, and then later, Amy, put on the bunny suit and hugged on and loved children and adults on the way for ice cream and back. I am telling you, our team carries so much of God's love and I am so honored to be a part of it. The bunny suit almost every time made children and families smile and laugh, which is huge during this time in Japan. Transformational life in Christ is taking place in where death's sting has been felt so strongly.

Christian Jung

JAPAN 2011 - Salvation and Healing at a Shelter in Watari

2011-04-22T07:24:00.000-07:00

Watari, Japan

Friday, April 22, 2011

Salvation and Healing at a Shelter in Watari

Everywhere you look there is devastion here on the east coast of Japan. The devastation goes beyond wreckage wrougth by the earthquake and tsunami. So many people here have lost everything, are living in tremendous fear and are in desperate need of hope. Our team has been staying in Sendai where literally every night we have felt earthquakes over 5.0 that wake us up from our sleep.

Today, our hosts Jeremy and Kumi took us to a place south of Sendai called Watari. They were praying about where we should go to bring relief and they literally heard a cry from this city. Watari is about 80 kilometers from the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

As we drove closer and closer to the coast, the damage became insurmountable. We decided we would go on a treasure hunt in the neighborhoods where homes were destroyed as we hear that some families were gathering together in homes that weren't completely destroyed, some of them freezing to death without water or electricity. We aked the Holy Spirit to be our GPS. He led us to a house where a mother, grandmother and child were cleaning out the first floor of their partially destroyed home. We gave the child candy and toys and the family were so warm and welcoming to us, which we've heard is not the norm. They even let us pray for them. We gave them a Japanese Bible that the grandmother clutched as a precious gift. They told us that there were many families at a school that had been turned into a shelter, so we headed for that shelter.

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We found a school and were met by a school nurse who again, was so warm and said she loved our international team. She showed us where the shelter was. As we entered the shelter, three of our team members dressed up in mascot costumes; Naomi was a monkey, Mark was a tiger and Scott was a crocodile. The 40+ kids at the shelter loved it and hugged our team members in costume. The adults were also so glad that we came. We handed out more candy to everyone at the shelter. We were also able to meet many people and pray with them.

One lady received Christ. Amy, Kumi and I prayed with her after we had given her a puzzle that Amy had brought from the U.S. of Noah's Ark. When we gave the puzzle to the lady's grand daughter we were informed that the child's name was Noah...which is highly uncommon a name in Japan. "This was no coincidence," the lady said over and over again as we led her to Christ. We explained that like Noah and the Ark, that God had saved their family from the flood waters and that in Jesus is our true salvation. Amazing!

Naomi, Kumi and I also prayed with another lady who had back pain. Her back was healed and we were able to share with her the gospel of Christ. Our team carried so much of God's love and glory into that shelter in Watari as we simply "stopped for the one." We have an open door to return to that same shelter next week with more supplies. Thank you Jesus!
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Christian Jung

JAPAN 2011 - Arrival in Tokyo Where the Earth is Shaking

2011-04-19T07:20:00.000-07:00

Tokyo, Japan
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
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Arrival in Tokyo Where the Earth is Shaking

Thank you all for your prayers. I made it in to Tokyo a little earlier today. I met up with Ben, another one of our team members after getting off the plane at the Narita Airport. After purchasing a SIM card to use with my Blackberry and changing US Dollars to Japanese Yen, Ben and I bought bus tickets to Sano City where we are staying for the night. We met up with most of our team membersbut are still waiting for Yonnie, Katherine and Amy to arrrive at the Haneda Airport. Our hosts here at the Sano Church are amazing and so hospitable. They took us out to a Japanese restaurant.

I'm pretty tired but felt like I wanted to update our blog to let everyone know that I made it safely. Just as I was getting onto the blog to make this post, a big aftershock shook the whole church building that we are staying at for a few moments. I just happened to be talking with some other team members, Scott and Mark about the return of Christ and the birth pains associated with the beginning of sorrows when the aftershock hit. What amazing timing! It wasn't big enough of an earthquake to destroy anything at the church building and our team is fine. I can see why the Japanese people are so unsettled and in need of hope. I know where I will go when die. Ninety nine percent of the Japanese are unreached and don't have this same assurety of eternal life through a personal, hand-holding relationship with Jesus Christ that I do. This is why we hit the road for Sendai tomorrow to bring this hope in Jesus to this precious people. Thanks again for your continued prayers. Love to you all.

Christian Jung

JAPAN 2011 - Iris Relief 1st Response VIDEO

2011-04-14T12:58:00.001-07:00

Check out this video that encompasses our IRIS Relief 1st Response Team's journey in Japan in response to the devastation caused by the earthquake and tsunami on March 11th:

JAPAN 2011 - IRIS Relief Japan

2011-03-31T16:46:00.001-07:00

Boxes of relief supplies and food being sent to Japan with 1st Response Team

A sign I saw at Starbucks on Main Street in Vancouver, Washington

Iris Relief t-shirts that have been made for our Iris Relief teams

JAPAN 2011

2011-03-24T07:46:00.000-07:00

Tokyo, Japan

Tuesday, March 24, 2011

IRIS Relief Japan

Hey guys! I just got back from a very productive journey to Thailand with IRIS Ministries (Heidi Baker) where our team began the process of starting a base that will focus on rescuing girls from prostitution and the sex slave trade. It was while we were in Thailand that the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan. I was heartbroken over the news of this. The leader of our IRIS Thailand team happens to be the leader of IRIS Relief as well and has invited me to co-lead a small group IRIS missionaries in Japan that will travel to the areas of devastation, bringing food and supplies, as well as carrying the love and glory of God to the heartbroken and hurting people there. My specific giftings (healing, word of knowledge, prophecy, etc.) and training (U.S. Marine Corps, third world experience, etc.) are needed on this team as you can imagine the physical, spiritual and emotional hopelessness that the people of Japan are going through at this moment. There isn't a more opportune time to be able to respond both practically and spiritually to the needs of Japan than there is now. After much prayer with my family, I have decided to respond to the call.

As far as raising support as missionaries, in the past we have simply shared with people what God has called us to do and given opportunity for people to partner with Him in bringing His love to the nations through us. We don't ever really ask for money. It's not our thing. So would you consider this one of those times when we are getting the word out of what God has placed on our hearts, and just see if He stirs your heart to help the people of Japan in this very practical and personal way?

My roundtrip tickets to Tokyo and back are only $840.00. I will also need approximately $500.00 to pay for fuel, food and lodging while I am there for the three weeks. I would leave on April 11th and return on May 2nd. IRIS relief has already raised a lot of money for the actual aid and supplies that we will be bringing to the areas of devastation, but any money that comes in over and above the amount needed for my personal expenses can be allocated to more of those supplies. As of this moment, I don't have any of the money needed to make this trip, yet my faith is strong. The best way to give would be via PayPal through Whipple Creek World Missions using the "donate now" button on the right side bar of our blog:

http://jungworldmissions.blogspot.com/

You will receive a tax-deductible receipt at the end of the fiscal year for your contributions if God does lead you to give. I just wanted to thank you in advance for helping us be the hands and feet of Jesus as the world around us continues to rage seemingly out of control. I welcome all responses as I would love to hear from you. Your prayers are vital as well. I feel so blessed to have been chosen for such a time as this. Love to all of you.

Christian Jung and family

THAILAND 2011 - Pattaya VIDEO

2011-03-14T16:09:00.000-07:00

THAILAND 2011 - Last Day in Thailand

2011-03-13T11:32:00.000-07:00

Pattaya, Thailand

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Last Day in Thailand

It's hard to believe that two weeks have come and gone so quickly. I am currently sitting by myself at a bus station in Pattaya, waiting for the 19:00 bus to take me to the airport in Bangkok. I spent the morning packing up. Then our team headed to a church that meets in a hotel. The service was translated into English but the worship was all in Thai, which was really cool. Also there was some special music in the tribal languages. After testimonies there was a time of teaching. A group of "lady-boys" were welcomed to the church; they sat in the back. Sitting next to me was a Thai man who smelled of alcohol. All around sat former prostitutes and transvestites who have come to Christ; many from the Tamar Center. I like this church. It's as if they have gone into "the highways and the bi-ways" and invited "the least of these" into the wedding feast. Our team got to pray for many after the service.

After lunch and some strategic planning with Yonnie at Burger King, we went back to the hotel. Since I am the only team member leaving today, the team gathered around me in the back of the taxi-truck and prayed for/prophesied over me. What a blessing it has been to be on this team and be able to help pioneer IRIS Ministries in Thailand. I will miss the team, but am excited to see Christy and the kids now. I don't think it is possible that the IRIS Thailand trip could've been any more fruitful than it was. Thanks Papa.

Christian Jung

THAILAND 2011 - Block Party at the Skate Park

2011-03-12T10:44:00.000-08:00

Pattaya, Thailand

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Block Party at the Skate Park

Had a team meeting this morning. Our hearts have been heavy because of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. We worshipped as well as interceded for Japan and for the block party we were to throw today. Tears streamed down my face as I thought of all the lost people who died in Japan, which is one of the least-reached nations in Asia.

The block party went well. Our team brought a wii system and played video games with the youth. I played on the drum set and jammed on the electric guitar with the guys at the youth center. The kids loved it. Jesse and I also skated more with the youth that showed up to the block party. There was a lot of Thai food and a pig was roasted on a spit. We did games and face painting. Into the evening our team broke off into groups and prayed for people; some for healing, others for encouragement. The team I was in prayed for a child who suffered with severe siezures. I was told that the siezures stopped after we prayed for him. Praise the Lord! Once again, the Holy Spirit was the Guest of honor at our block party in Pattaya.

Christian Jung

THAILAND 2011 - Slum Ministry

2011-03-11T13:13:00.000-08:00

Pattaya, Thailand

Friday, March 11, 2011

Slum Ministry

This morning a handful from our team walked to one of the Tamar centers to assist YWAM in their ministry to the poor in the slums of Pattaya. We met their staff and then led some worship songs in English and Thai as the poor gathered inside the ministry center. Then Lonnie spoke to them a bit and we had a time where they could come for prayer. Our team prophesied over them and we saw the Holy Spirit really touch each of them. One man, formerly a transvestite who had already come to Christ there in the past was baptized in the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues as we prayed for him. It was such a neat time of ministry.

We had a team meeting at Hard Rock Cafe and enjoyed fellowship with eachother. We discussed what IRIS Ministries in Thailand would look like in the future. Then our team had dinner with a group from Xtreme Prophetic. I was able to connect with Rob Hotchkin, who my friend Bart Hadaway had connected me with before I left for Thailand. What a great guy. On our way back to the hotel we heard about the 8.9 earthquake in Japan and our hearts broke. Yonnie, who is co-leading our team is also the director of IRIS Taiwan, Asia and IRIS Relief. She called Heidi and Rolland to get the okay for some of the team to fly to Japan from Thailand as a "first response" team.

Christian Jung

THAILAND 2011 - Ministering to Prostitutes, Transvestites and "Clients"

2011-03-10T08:57:00.000-08:00

Pattaya, Thailand

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Ministering to Prostitutes, Transvestites and "Clients"

Got into Pattaya by bus from Northeast Thailand at around 3am and slept on the floor of Jesse and Tanya's room until about 8:30am. Didn't get much sleep on the bus or the floor, so while a group from our team went to the prison to minister, Jesse, Tanya, Lonnie and I chose to relax on the beach. We swam in the warm waters of the Gulf of Thailand. There are so many tourists and the beaches aren't very beautiful, but we made the best of it.

At around 4pm our team walked to "The Crossing" which is a youth center. They have a skate ministry as well. We met the leader of the youth center, Wan, and prayed fro him. Then Jesse and I skated with the local skaters. There is also a local skate shop right next to the youth center called, "Kanong Skate Shop." They have a skate team with three guys who ride for them; Sten, Mark and Bobby. They are really good at skating. I made friends with them all as we skated together. Got some film and pics of them, too. They gave me their contact info for YouTube and Facebook so I can hit them up when I get back to the U.S. They were all interested in our FacePlant skate team. We also invited them all to the block party we will throw on Saturday.

Around 6:30pm our team took a taxi to the red light district where DeeDee, Bae and I led worship at the PHOP (Pattaya House of Prayer) for two hours. It was so neat to fill the streets of the red light district with the worship of Jesus. Then our team hit the streets and handed out roses to the prostitutes and ministered to them as well as to the "lady-boys" or transvestites and the men who had come to buy them for sex. And Irish "client" named Willem (who Jesse and DeeDee had previously prayed with as he came to sit in on our worship time) asked me to pray for him as he held hands with a Thai prostitute. I prayed that God would reveal Himself to Willem through the Holy Spirit. I also talked to a guy named Max who hugged me and wished us the best. We greeted the prostitutes, transvestites and "clients" in Jesus' name, telling them, "Pra Yesu Rah Koon," or, "Jesus loves you." Our team carried so much of the Father's love through the red light district tonight. I knew that this is exactly the kind of place that Jesus would minister.

On another note, I got a chance to add some more weird foods to my list of things tried overseas. These include: grasshopper, frog, cricket and larvae.

Christian Jung

THAILAND 2011 - Mah Pra Yesu!

2011-03-09T08:05:00.000-08:00

Buriram, Thailand
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
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Mah Pra Yesu!

Our team got up and met Roger in front of our hotel at 7:30am. We headed to his orphanage to have breakfast with him and his wife. They are such a neat couple with wonderful hearts. They would love it if IRIS Ministries could set up a permanent work in Northeast Thailand someday. After breakfast we went to the public school and began to set up to show the Jesus film to over 100 students. We led them in some children's songs in Thai while Jesse and others set up the mobile projector and sound system...this would be our first time using this awesome tool that God has blessed our team with. And it all fits into one hiking pack! We tried to show the film outside under the awning but there was still too much light to be able to see the film on the screen. So we took the entire sound system and projector upstairs to try it in a room at the school. It was a little better, but still difficult to see. The funny thing is that our screen was set up literally right next to their Buddhist idols.

The children were restless and didn't seem too interested in the film. So we fast-forwarded the Jesus film in order to cut it short. Jesse told them about the gospel and his testimony. Kayla also shared with them. Roger was translating. They still seemed distracted. Jesse asked how many of them wanted to receive Jesus. Quite a few of them raised their hands, especially the older children in the back. Not knowing exactly how we could pray with them to receive Christ, since we didn't want anything missed in the translation, I got up in front of the wild group of children and asked their teachers to get them in rows in order of their classes and to quiet them down. They all sat there with their legs crossed and their hands cupped Buddhist-style. I then had them close their eyes in the silence and repeat after me, "Mah Pra Yesu," which means, "Come Lord Jesus." They just repeated this over and over after me with breals in between to meditate on Who they were crying out to. Our team prayed that Jesus would reveal Himself to them in His own special way and enter their lives as they sat there and prayed in unison. "Mah Pra Yesu." It was incredible! I know that it was a heavenly strategy to lead the children to Jesus in a way that was more contextualized to their culture. After we finished praying they shouted with me, "Korp Koon Pra Yesu; Korp Koon Pra Jao," or, "Thank You Lord Jesus; thank You Lord God!"

We packed up the Jesus film equipment, prayed around the school and met up for lunch with Narin and others from the Pentecostal church where we ministered the night before. Then we drove 70km to the highest mountain which overlooks the entire province. On this mountain is the Hindu temple, Phnom Rung. We heard about the human sacrifices and prostitution that took place in this spiritual stronghold 700 years ago and gathered together to intercede and come against the strongholds, principalities and powers, asking for freedom in Christ for the people of this province. On a side note, it is intersting that most of Thailand's prostitutes come from this Northeast province and on this very mountain in the Northeast province, prostitution was rampant 700 years ago.

From there we visited Narin's home, church and orphanage, which is nearly completely finished and sustainable. We prayed for Narin and his wife, headed back to Buriram and had an amazing dinner with our new friends. I can't imagine our trip to Buriram going any better or being any more fruitful. After dinner we said goodbyes, got contact information and boarded an overnight bus to Pattaya.

Christian Jung