Christmas marks a beginning. The dawn of redemption. The commencement of the life of the Savior. The opening of the door to the Kingdom. The first coming which guarantees the second. The beginning of the end of the reign of death, pain sorrow and fear. It is the starting blocks for the race of enduring faith. Christmas is the opening movement to the great opus that leads to a cross, an empty grave, a triumphant return, a throne, a shining city and eternal joy.

Remember this as you “put away” Christmas. The birth is a start, not the finish – savor the promise of things to come.

John Bowers – Co-director

That’s what John Denver would have been singing if he had been at the Proclaim! International Gathering on the Mediterranean coast of Spain at the end of November!

The surroundings were stunning as far as the eye could see. What a setting for singing the glory of the God of all creation. And with a mission full of gifted and devoted musicians we were led into heartfelt praise and worship daily.

Tim Lusk from Jacksonville, a fellow missionary and kindred spirit, challenged and encouraged us from the word each day to unity in Christ with family and our mission community. And he and his wife Allison blessed all of us simply by their presence and interaction with us during the week.

There were 33 of us from 6 countries where Proclaim has ministry. One of the goals of our time together is catching up on the latest developments in colleagues’ ministries, in scheduled reporting times or just around the dinner table or a cup of coffee. One of the satisfying and very practical outcomes of that is seeing our community members find ways to work together and contribute to each others’ ministries.

Of course there is always time left free for just spending time together. These people have too much fun!

 CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS OF THE GATHERING

Proclaim!’s Kim Peterson regularly takes the lead on local fishing expeditions for kingdom catch. He tells about one recent outing that was particularly challenging but invigorating!:

Our pastor’s Sunday message came from I Peter 3:13-16 — how to respond to intimidators. It turned out to be a fantastic heads up prelude to that day’s fishing expedition.

As I listened to it I had a strong sense that I would soon be living it on the street. My wife Jeanne and I both had the same feeling in our spirit about what was about to unfold — Blessed opposition! And did it ever come. As if it were wonderfully choreographed. (I am convinced it was.) The morning message outline played out in real time during our 2 hour outreach foray in Hemming Plaza. Thankfully we had both made sure that Jesus was firmly sanctified, enthroned as Lord as we headed out to offer the dark world God’s marvelous light.

The first hour was smooth, just like we all hope things will be when we make efforts in Jesus’ name. People applauded and thanked us. As we played and shared, Steve and Susan Schneider spoke extensively with people one on one. We were enjoying that luscious, velvety, almost cozy sensation that feels so nice and does little good for strength and vitality of soul. God had more in mind for us and for the glory of the One who suffered all for us and for the Father’s glory.

Soon, as we continued speaking the gospel to the crowd sitting all around us, a teenager skate boarded right in front of my face and muttered, “Hail Satan” as he passed. “Finally! It has begun,” I said to myself. “Here we go Jeanne. Did you hear that?” We were both ready for action and poised to love with words of truth and hearts of compassion. At the morning service we had been alerted to God’s design for our day. How cool is that?

The teen rode by again, spewing the same nonsense but this time louder. One of his friends walked over to our sign, “No God. No life. Know God. Know life” and jeered, making a mocking gesture to his other 8 or so buddies. When the song we were singing concluded we engaged the guys directly and challenged their alleged allegiance to Satan. The subsequent interchange was heated, with gross insults coming continuously from them. We kept our composure reverent and God-trusting and our behavior gentle, not bombarding as we lifted up our Lord.

The whole bunch of them then planted themselves directly in front of us, dancing derisively and going to great effort to get us to “fold.” We, on the other hand felt increasingly more and more secure and confident in the face of their shameful display. It was as if Peter were standing there with us nodding affirmingly, smiling knowingly and pointing to the words he’d penned for such occasions. At that point I thanked the teens for staying and for coming in close to hear the words that they needed to transform their hungry and lost souls.

A few minutes later, another person in the audience approached the young men and said something to them. In the next moments they were gone. We thanked God they had come and were able to see and hear what we pray will one day liberate them and save them from destruction. God is powerful and present. The enemy is desperate and deceiving. God’s Word keeps our spiritual eyes clear and wide open to the realities that surround us; the things that really matter.

It is exciting! Nothing like it.

Proclaim! Jacksonville recently provided an opportunity for garage and attic contents to be transformed into kingdom treasure. Our huge garage sale was timely in helping raise much needed funds for our ministry. And some nice donated items supplied the need for furnishings in our new Proclaim office.

When our staff met the following week and began relating stories of our experiences and others we had heard about – we were thrilled that, as usual, the funds raised were only the beginning of the blessings God poured out. So many served and sacrificed joyfully to make it successful. And we were able to encourage other local ministries by sharing helpful resources.

We were intentionally focusing on ways we could minister to our shoppers– not only materially, but spiritually. Click here to see stories of how that happened.

Thanks to God for providing and multiplying the treasure!

Branko Kovačević, director of Ima Nade (Proclaim!-Croatia) tells about their church choir being invited recently to sing in the annual celebration of their city’s rich heritage. It was an unexpected honor that a small evangelical church would receive such an invitation from a staunchly Catholic city.

Interestingly, Čakovec is known as the “City of the Zrinskis,”  a noble family of reformers who ruled that region in the 16th century and brought the truth of God to Croatia. So it was appropriate that the choir sang at the foot of the Zrinski castle during the celebration. Clearly, God is still opening doors in Croatia so that his children will proclaim his message and share his word with others.

Following the concert Bibles were freely distributed to those who attended the concert. Praise God that after almost 500 years the believers of the Baptist Church in Mačkovec are following in the footsteps of the reformers, publicly praising God and sharing his word with all who would receive it.

From our Proclaim team that has returned from a busy and productive tour in Belarus:

We taught many music/audio classes on drums, bass, guitar, voice, music engineering/ production, and songwriting. We judged a Battle of the Bands and spent time critiquing any band who wanted to know how they could improve.

We also served in various small groups, worked on improvement of facilities, and introduced an addiction recovery program to serve the body and the community. It was a good time of connecting more folks in the area to our friends in Brest, Belarus.

We look forward to featuring the ministry in Belarus and the band Salvation at our fund raising Gala in Jacksonville April 13.

See the Proclaim website for more information and how to be involved in that event.

A visual montage of the 2012 Tour to Croatia…

Check out the rest of our videos HERE

Croatia Tour 2012 from Proclaim! International on Vimeo.

This CD from the studios of Proclaim is chock full of fresh tunes declaring the goodness of God and what it means to live for Him in an age of intellectual doubters.  The project was produced by guitarist/songwriter John Bowers and engineered by bassist/vocalist, Greg Davis, and saxophonist/vocalist Kim Peterson, with recurring rolls from a plethora of other “proclaimers.”  If you like music with a mix of Rock, Blues and Jazz with tight vocals and a hot horn section, this album is for you.

The production of high quality recordings of our Proclaim music groups is very important to our ministry for a number of reasons.  First of all, we are a community of artists dedicated to glorifying God through artistic excellence. This is something we are striving to model before young musicians worldwide.  Secondly, excellent recordings of our music helps to open doors for the believers in other countries who are trying to procure the most strategic venues for people to gather to hear the gospel.  Thirdly, concert attendees who take the music home with them have a tangible means of remembering the message of God’s redeeming love which is presented in each concert.

Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you.
Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.    Hebrews 13:7

The recent Gathering in Germany of most of our Proclaim community from their ministries around the world was the perfect setting for grieving the loss yet celebrating the life of our dear friend, colleague, and leader, Bob Johnson.  Since August we have been trying to come to terms with the reality of this loss so soon after Bob’s condition had seemed to be improving. His wife Alyce has been the one to give the rest of us consolation and strength as she has truly experienced a supernatural peace and comfort from God who has sustained her.

At the Gathering John Bowers led the teaching sessions each morning looking at some of the admonitions in scripture to “Consider . . . ” The first day began with: Consider your Leaders. This was an emotional, but uplifting and God-honoring time as we shared together so many remembrances of how Bob’s life has impacted ours in ways that are worthy of imitating.

We are sharing here a video that we watched together that morning, produced by Marj Speiser, which beautifully captures the spirit of Bob’s life and ministry.