Hey everyone, it has been a long time since my last post, but I wanted to let you guys know what I have been up to and what is ahead!

We concluded our European outreach in mid-June and we finished strong. God took our team to some amazing places such as Berlin, Prague, Herrnhut, Geneva, and Southern France. I really got a heart for those places, especially France, and I look forward to one day returning there if that is indeed what God has for Lizzy and I.

Speaking of Lizzy, we are getting married in 23 days! I returned home on June 23rd to relax, spend time with my family and get things in order for the big day such as getting a visa permitting me to enter the UK to get married. Lizzy and her parents also came to New York for about a week to meet my family and it was such an amazing time. We had an engagement party, went into New York City a couple of times and also toured Long Island a bit. It was great seeing my future in-laws and such a blessing to see our families come together.

Now I have been home and doing some things here and there at my church and just relaxing after a year and a half of ministry. It has been a lot of fun, but I now I am ready for the next season! I leave Sunday night to go to England and be with my gorgeous fiance and her amazing family. It has been a challenge being apart these past two months, but it certainly has been growing and no doubt part of God’s plan for us.

Please pray with us as we count down the days until this amazing day on September 25. My best man and one of Lizzy’s bridesmaids still need a significant amount of money for a plane ticket from Hawaii. They are both on staff at YWAM and the support money they live on is drying up and flying half way around the world is expensive these days!  Please pray for this need and if you can help out all please let me know, it would so greatly be appreciated by not only these two wonderful people, but Lizzy and me as well. Thank you very much.

I will continue to keep you updated on all the things we are doing. This is an incredibly exciting time for us and we are looking forward to what is ahead! Thank you so much for walking with me this past year or so, you are all greatly loved!

-Greg

Hey everyone, sorry I didn’t get a chance to update last week, we’ve been keeping very busy. It was an amazing time of evangelism as we saw a man from China give his life to the Lord right in the heart of the Red Light District! We also had some great talks with people and got to prophesy over them and really bless and encourage them.

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This past week was very fruitful. We had the students lead out each outreach this week, and one day they decided it would be good if we all made five of our own tracts and handed them out to people in the city center.

So I was partnered up with one of my students named Grace. We saw a woman sitting by herself eating her lunch, so we decided to go talk to her. She was just about to leave as we approached her and we began talking. She was from Poland and was having a real hard time. We began telling her about Jesus and how he wants to have a relationship with her. She told us that she was done with Church because she has seen the Catholic Church back home do some horrible things. She said that she believed God desires us to have a family, but how can priests talk about families when they don’t have any of their own?

I told her that God does desire family and he desires relationship. Grace asked if she could pray for her and she said yes. While we were praying tears began streaming down the woman’s face. She told us that we came at just the right time. That day she was contemplating life and wondering if their was something more to it that she was missing. The next day was her 30th Birthday. We told her that God wanted to have a real relationship with her and she began crying even more. I asked if she wanted to accept Jesus right there, but she said no, she wasn’t ready. So I gave her the salvation tract that I made which has my email on it. I told her to read it and email me if she wanted to talk. It was perfect too, because the tract was all about having a relationship with God!

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Later that week, some students decided that we would go into the Red Light District at night to worship and bring Heaven down. Our focus was to be worship, and to talk to people only if we felt led to. So I brought my guitar and set up right on one of the bridges in the middle of all the action as well as Lauren, who was playing guitar also and singing, and Daniel who was playing djembe (African drum).

We worshiped there for about an hour or so and really felt the presence of God. People began stopping and listening to what we were doing. We could sense Christians were walking by and becoming convicted by our worship. Others were jeering at us and mocking us, but we kept on singing and playing to the Lord.

About 45 minutes into it, a man with a guitar in his hand came up to us and stopped to listen. He stood there for about 10 minutes and then began to cry! The Holy Spirit was ministering to him right there. We weren’t sure if we should talk to him because we didn’t want to interfere with what God was doing, but finally Joel, a man on our team, decided to go talk with him.

The man was French and could only speak a little English, but he completely understood what we were doing and that he needed Jesus. Joel led him through the Romans Road and the man said he believed. Joel prayed for him and tears were just streaming down the man’s face. He accepted Jesus that night, and all we were doing was worshiping God. It wasn’t our persuasive words that spoke to him, it was the atmosphere of  high praise.

As Joel was still talking to the man, a police officer came up to us and told us to stop. Even though we have worshiped in the Red Light District many times, he told us we weren’t allowed to play. Many police officers past us that night, some even listened to us, but this one told us to stop. We believe it was the enemy trying to hinder us, but it was too late!

God is doing amazing things and we are expectant for more in our last week in Amsterdam before we head to Berlin! Please keep us in your prayers and God bless.

Hey everyone,

Across twelve time zones, I’m back in Amsterdam again, this time leading a team. We arrived on the 3rd and already have seen some cool things. The spiritual climate of this city has changed since a year ago and people seem much more open to the Gospel. Brothels are closing down, live sex shows are losing business and the Amsterdam Church is coming together and seeking the Lord corporately. This is an exciting time for Amsterdam, and just the beginning of bigger things.

On Tuesday, our team went out with a ministry called the Prayer Station. This ministry was actually started by the Brooklyn Tabernacle in New York, so those who are from Smithtown and are reading this should recognize what the Prayer Station is all about since we do it at SGT as well. Basically, a bunch of people put on gaudy red vests that read “Prayer Changes Things”, or in Dutch “Bidden Helpt”. They then go out into the center of the city by twos and ask if anyone needs prayer. Simple, huh?

I was paired up with an amazing woman named Berna (she is the wife of the man in this picture, but she herself is not pictured). We made an amazing team as she would initiate conversation in Dutch, while I would pray for that person. When I got a word for them, Verna would hand it over to me and I would pray and prophesy over them.

Verna was led to go talk to a certain girl, so we went over. Unfortunately, I can’t remember her name, but she was from Iran and was touring around Europe. We asked if we could pray for her and she said we could pray for her uncle. His 21 year old son had just passed away and he was grieving his loss. Even before she said this, I felt the Lord give me Romans 8:28 which says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” I told her this and also the story of Joseph, how he was sold into slavery by his brothers, but God used it to save Israel by bringing them into Egypt during the famine. In the same way, even though God did not mean for her cousin to die, God will turn the situation around for His glory.

After I shared this with her, she seemed completely different. Verna then gave her a tract about Jesus that had the sinners prayer on it. She asked her if she wanted to accept Jesus, and she said yes! Right there on the spot she entered into the Kingdom of God. I gave her my email and asked her to stay in contact and ask any questions she may have about Jesus. I also told her that God sees her and hears her as she cries out to him while looking at the stars. She started to smile as she told me that she does that all the time.

A short distance away, a girl on the team also prayed over a woman with arthritis in her wrists. After she prayed she said the pain was completely gone!

This week has been amazing, and it is just the beginning. We are extremely excited to see what God has in store for us and for Europe!

Hey everyone, it’s been a long time since my last post. As many of you know, I went on a trip to China, along with 8 other amazing people, to share Jesus with the people there. It is a closed nation, so I wasn’t able to access facebook while I was there or talk openly about what I was doing through this blog or any other means of communication. Now that I am back in America, however, I will share a few stories of what God did in and through us during this incredible trip.

Our team went to five different cities while we were there. First we flew into a large city in the Northeast called Dalian, then we traveled about four hours north to another city called Dandong which is located right on the North Korean border. We then traveled south on a 14 hour long train ride to Beijing, then took a 35 hour train even further south to a city in the Sechuan province called Chongqing. After about a week, half of our team traveled to a city close by called Nanchong due to security issues while the rest of the team stayed in Chongqing. The Nanchong team then came back and joined the rest of the team for the final two weeks of the trip, then we all flew back to Kona, but not before debriefing in Tokyo for five nights. The trip lasted a total of 10 weeks, starting in Mid-September and ending on December 2. It was an absolutely amazing trip and God did so many things, but for the sake of time I will highlight only one event from each city.

Dalian

The majority of our time in Dalian was spent setting up relationships with the local Chinese in the city. We spent a lot of time with college aged students and got several opportunities to share the Gospel. However, one of the most significant experiences there happened in a small apartment building where the power of God broke out in a strong way.

That morning, we all thought we were getting in a bus to go to a mountain village outside of the city to pray for and teach at an underground church, but we ended up at the pastor’s apartment instead, which was situated on the fringe of the city. While there, some 20 or so women, and some men, came all looking to be prayed over for healing. We broke up into several groups and I, along with 2 girls from my team prayed through a translator for 3 Chinese ladies, all of whom had diabetes.

We prayed for the first lady, but nothing significant seemed to happen, although she said she felt joy and peace after we prayed, so I know something happened in her heart. We are believing by faith that that she and the other 2 were healed of diabetes.

The next woman wanted to speak in tongues. She has prayed for it many times in the past, but she has never received her prayer language. So we began to pray and she started to speak out in tongues! As soon as she did, we all started to laugh and cry as the joy of the Lord broke out in the room. Faith was also released and we knew that the Holy Spirit had showed up.

As we were praying for her, I noticed the lady we prayed for first. I didn’t see her doing anything out of the ordinary, but I felt like God was doing something in her as well. I was going to ask what was going on, but I stepped out of the room for a minute to use the bathroom and forgot about it. When I came back I found out that she received her prayer language as well while we were praying for the other lady! It was incredible as we watched the two of them speaking in tongues and laughing together.

We then prayed for the third lady. We found out that she used to pray to idols before she was saved. While we were praying I felt a pain in the top left side of my neck. This indicates idol worship, so it was a confirmation of what to pray against. She said she periodically sees dragons, phoenixes and snakes in the natural that aren’t really there. In fact she was seeing images of snakes right there in the room as we prayed. So we prayed for her and broke the curse off. She said the images went away and that her chronic neck pain that she has had for years was gone!

Dandong

The focus of our time in Dandong was to partner with the base there in interceding for North Korea. We could literally see North Korea from the window of the prayer room there and we got to spend several hours praying and prophesying over the nation.

We also got the amazing opportunity to take a boat trip down the river that separates the two nations. We got incredibly close to North Korea — 20 feet away at times and got to see people clearly going about their daily lives. We also saw armed guards patrolling the river bank making sure no one tries to swim across.

Beijing

Our trip to Beijing wasn’t at all what we expected, it was much better. One of the girls on our team had a friend living in the city, so we got to partner with a friend of her’s and he showed us around Beijing and hooked us up with many ministry opportunities. Besides touring Tienanmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall and other amazing sites, we had a chance to pour into a lot of different ministries.

We got the opportunity to meet up with an underground Youth With a Mission base and hang out with them for a few hours at night. The Discipleship Training School they were running was completely underground. The students were not allowed to leave the building for 3 months as they wanted to lay low and not attract any attention to themselves.

We prayed that day and asked God what He wanted us to do when we went there. I felt like He was saying that we were to release joy and just have fun with them, not necessarily preach to them. So we decided to bring them ice cream and have a dance party with them and play games. It was so much fun as we watched these guys dance around and enjoy God and each other. You could tell that staying in one building for months was training to drain them, so this was exactly what they needed. At the end, I shared a quick, five minute word on the pleasure of the Father over their obedience to follow Him. We then prayed for them and they were so blessed and encouraged.

The next day we found out that the police discovered them and broke up the operation. We were worried that our involvement alerted the police, but we were relieved that it was due to something else completely, but it was still upsetting to hear. Thank God though, we found out later that they all got together in a different city and continued on in their school.

Chongqing

After the longest train ride of my life we arrived in a city called Chongqing. As soon as we got there, we found out that there was a security issue arising, so we weren’t able to move into the apartment they had provided for us. Instead we all checked into a hotel and tried to get situated. There weren’t many opportunities for us to do much due to the restrictions that were placed on us, so we were given the opportunity to go to a nearby city called Nanchong were some contacts were pioneering some things. Half of our team was divided on whether or not to go, so we split up. I, along with 4 others, decided to go there, so we went for about 5 days while the other guys stayed back.

Nanchong

One of the main things we did in Nanchong was hiking. The city was completely surrounded by mountains, so we climbed them on a daily basis and we prayed and prophesied over the city from the high places. We had some amazing times up there speaking destiny into the city and taking the territory for God.

On the way back from one of these times, we passed by a music store and I felt an urge to stop in and check out the guitars there. I told the team I wanted to stop in, and they said they would come with me. Immediately the store owner, in broken English told me to have a seat and play a Yamaha guitar. I quickly had a crowd of Chinese gathered around me waiting to hear what I had to play. To told me to play a song, so I started playing “You Won’t Relent” by Misty Edwards. All of a sudden and guy started playing drums along with me and everyone was clapping their hands and singing along. We were having a worship set in the middle of a Chinese music store!

A few days later I was in an internet cafe and found out that God told a friend of my mom’s to give me a check for $200 and that I had received a check that weekend as well for $89 from selling some things on ebay before I left. I decided to go back to the store and buy that guitar which was only $100.

I went in and told him that I would buy the Yamaha and that I needed a hard case for it. He grabbed a case from the back and opened it up. Inside was a beautiful guitar which was $300, but he was willing to sell it to me for about $230. He also threw in the case, a set of strings, a strap, some picks and a tuner for free. I felt like God was saying it was a gift from Him. It was completely covered, plus more by the money that had just come in. During the entire outreach I felt like God was releasing me into worship and that this was a confirmation that I was to pursue leading worship.

Chongqing

Our team came back to Chongqing for the final two weeks of our outreach and were welcomed into our new apartment by the rest of our team. It was so good to all be back together and we were ready to finish strong.

Since we were gone, the guys back in Chongqing were able to make some amazing connections with a few college students in the city. They randomly met a guy named Jimmy by skating in the city square, so we got the chance to hang out with him and his friends a few times while we were there.

On one of the last night we were there, we went out to dinner with Jimmy and a couple of his friends. One of the guys on team really got an opportunity to share the gospel with Jimmy as my friend and I talked to Jimmy’s friends. It went incredibly well as my friend led Jimmy to the Lord right there at the dinner table!

The next day we went to Jimmy’s university to follow up on him. He took us to his dorm and we got to answer some questions he and his roommate had about God. We opened up so many things to them and also got to prophesy over them and encourage them. They said that no one has ever explained who God really was before so clearly and were super encouraged by the prophetic words we spoke over them.

As we were leaving, Jimmy gave me a big hug and began to cry. He told me that he was like my big brother and that he loved me. He said he has never felt love before like the love our team had shown him over the past couple of days. It was such a beautiful moment. If we had done nothing else the entire time we were in China besides hanging out with Jimmy, the trip would have been worth it.

We passed Jimmy’s contact information on the long-term missionaries in the city and headed out of China two days later. It was such a growing trip and one of the most amazing times of my life. It was time to go back to Hawaii, but there one last stop we were to make, and it was quite a significant one.

Tokyo

There is a rule that exists in YWAM. It is a really good rule, but at times can be a very frustrating rule as well. That rule is that someone on staff in YWAM cannot date someone who is a student. This is a very hard rule when you begin to have feelings for your outreach leader and can’t express those feelings for 6 months.

This is exactly what happened to me and my outreach leader and best friend, Lizzy. We began to have feelings for each other at the end of our last outreach to Amsterdam last June. Many awkward times lay ahead as we had to deal with the silence and miscommunication of not being able to express our true feelings with each other until I joined on staff with YWAM.

Both of our staff encouraged us separately as we sought guidance to wait until outreach was over to speak openly with each other and pursue a relationship together. So, technically outreach was over as soon as we landed in Japan on November 27. On the 28th, I took her to a Japanese garden and we have been together since. (Don’t worry, I called her dad for his permission first.)

God has been so faithful to me this past year and I can feel his pleasure over my life each and every day. I am so looking forward to see what He has in store for me in 2010 and beyond!

Last Wednesday (September 9) a team of 8 of us that are going to China went on a fatih journey.  We went out into Kona with $40 total ($5 each) with a few requirements to fulfill:

1. Give 3 prophetic words to strangers per person on team
2. See 1 person instantly healed per team
3. Give 2 prophetic words over a government or public official per team
4. Give personal testimony with gospel message per person on team
5. Pay for someone’s gas to be filled to full
6. Get free groceries and receive a word of knowledge of whom to to them to
7. Pray for sick in hospital of clinic with team
8. Share the gospel of love publicly as a team
9. Provide a meal for a homeless person and eat it with him or her as a team
10. Worship in the streets publicly
11. Pray/prophesy over a struggling business with the owner or manager

We were to go out at 9:00 am and not come back until at least 6:00 pm.  We were also not allowed to beg for money, but could raise some any other way.  Our team accomplished all of these tasks save a few personal prophetic words.  To tell of the entire day would take much too long, so I will highlight a few of the events of the day.

After prophesying over a struggling business, we split up into three groups.  Some of us went to Borders, some to Wal-Mart, and I along with 2 others went to a grocery store.  We went to see if we could get some groceries donated to us, but they said no and suggested we go to the local Catholic Church that has a food pantry.  After this I felt that if we were going to do this, we need to do it as a team and seek the Lord’s guidance step by step.

So we all gathered at Borders and prayed.  We felt God say a few different things like “groceries at 10″, worship at the pink candy store, and get fruit from the farmers market.   At this I felt led to have someone call the church since it was right next to the market, but it wasn’t much help at all.

After worhipping by the old candy store and getting some lunch, we walked down to the farmer’s market.  We asked a few of the fruit stand owners for some fruit, and they donated 2 big boxes of papayas, bananas, pineapple, passion fuit and red peppers.  It was amazing to see God’s provision, now it was time to seek His direction.

I felt like God was telling us to bring the fruit to a particular street in a poorer neighborhood.  So we walked from the bottom of the street to the top searching for a house to donate the groceries.  We considered each house, but did not feel God’s leading on any of them.  We finally reached the last house and felt like God was telling us that it was it.  It turned out we were right!  The woman who answered the door was and older woman from University of the Nations.  She had just gotten back from Switzerland and was exhausted from her trip.  She did not have any fresh fruit and really  wanted some, but was too tired to walk down to the market and was worried about going down there.  We had exactly what she wanted — papaya, bananas and peppers.  It was amazig to see her blessed and to see God’s direction in all of it.

At this point it was about 5:30 and time to buy someone’s gas.  We felt led to go to a particular gas station, so we got there and waited.  We felt led to wait for a blue car so we sat for about 30 minutes waiting.  All the while our faith was dwindling as we worked out in our heads that we had about $20 left after lunch and a few other things we bought.

I felt led to stand up and read some accounts of miraculous provision to boost our corporate faith.  It was mainly for myself though since I didn’t think we could fill a gas tank, especially since it costs $3.88 a gallon here in Hawaii.  So I read 1 Kings 17, 2 Kings 4 and Luke 9.  After this we prayed together and were ready to see a miracle.

It was late though, so we decided that we would go up to the next car no matter what the color.  After we got denied I felt God telling me “I told you to wait for the blue car.”  Thankfully the next car was blue.  We asked her where the needle on her gas gauge was, and she said it was on empty and that it takes about $40 to fill.  So we went in and counted out all our money.  It came to $21.95, but I was still confident that tank would be filled.  We went out and watched as the woman pumped the gas.  The counter stopped at $21.95 and my heart sank.  I thought it was nice that we could have blessed her a little bit, but I still wanted to see a miracle.

I began to walk away, but one of the girls on our team asked if we could look at the gauge.  We looked and were stunned.  The needle was about 7/8 full!  It was just a little off the full mark.  This was absolutely a miracle as 21 dollars definitely would not have done that.

The same Spirit that worked through Elijah, Elisha and Jesus is still in the business of providing all our needs.  We just need to have a little faith.

Last night we went to the streets of Kona, Hawaii to bring the glory of God to the lost. Two guys and myself were walking past the public volleyball nets when a guy (Daytona) and a girl (Jo) called out to us asking if we wanted to buy some marijuana from them. We walked over and said that we didn’t need anything. They then asked if we were looking to party, again I said no, but told them we were telling people about Jesus.

I started asking them questions and Jo quickly opened up. She had been raised in the Church and had seen healings and miracles on a regular basis, but had fallen away and started doing drugs. She decided that, since she was young, (she is currently 18 years old) its alright to do whatever she wants to now, and later on she will give her life back to God. She said she understands that what she is doing hurts God and she said she loves Him and has a relationship.

My heart broke as she was telling me this. It was obvious that she is living in rebellion and does not truly have an authentic relationship with the God that loves her unconditionally. While she was talking to us, I got a word of knowledge that she is called to be a mentor and a teacher. About a minute after I felt this, she said that her dream is to become a drug rehab counselor. I knew that the word I got for her was from God so I told her that she is called to help people and give them purpose in life. She told me that many people have told her that in the past.

At about this time, I also got a word of knowledge for Daytona that hadn’t said a word the entire time. I told him that he had an extremely creative mind, and a wild imagination. God had given him this gift. I told him that people don’t know this about him since he is very quiet. They both said this was right. He had plans to go to school soon to pursue a degree and go into some kind of science field (I forgot which). He also told me that he was arrested before and had given his life to the Lord while there. He said it was what got him through his incarceration.

I felt that this was his time to re-dedicate his life to Jesus, so I asked him if he wanted to, and he said yes! So I had him repeat after me a prayer of repentance and re-dedication to God. It was such an amazing moment as we got around him and Jo gave him a big hug. We tried talking him through some practical ways to live out this new life, but Jo was all of a sudden in a rush to leave. I was kind of bummed that I didn’t get a chance to speak to him more, so we prayed for revelation to hit him as we walked down the street.

As we were praying, we saw Daytona sitting on a rock wall by himself. Apparently Jo had gone into a store. This time I was determined not to hold anything back. I went right up to him and told him that he needed to get baptized in the Holy Spirit. I briefly explained it and, with his permission, started to pray over him. I invited the Holy Spirit to come and flood his body. I asked him if he felt anything while we were praying, and he said that he felt faith rising up. God wants to release this on the streets! People need to feel the power of the Holy Spirit! We talked with him a little after this, basically telling him of God’s provision as he was still trying to sell drugs. I gave him my cell number and am praying that he will call me.

These are the kind of things God is longing for His children to walk in. We need to bring Heaven to the streets of our towns and cities. We are called — even demanded to preach the Good News, heal the sick and cast out demons. But we will only come into our full potential if we have zeal, birthed in love, and perfected through boldness and unity. Let us work together to set the captives free, and let’s have faith to see it happen!