Toronto Week 3

Week Monday 16 January to 22 January

Week 3 in the school started with Ivan and Isabel Allum ministering, whose prophetic ministry is recognised around the world. It focusses on the Father's love bringing healing. They ministered on many aspects of moving in the prophetic.

Outside Catch the Fire Cafeteria

They were extremely effective in activation of the prophetic in the group, and many were blessed as we ministered to each other.

Ivan and Isabel also blessed us with individual prophecies that we recorded and were able to take away with us.

Our school essentially came to an end on the Wednesday. It had been a wonderful time and we are so glad we have done what we did in going to Toronto first (despite the cold). The Leader’s School was really foundational stuff – love of the Father, and soaking in His Presence. We have met some wonderful people, from all over Europe, some from the States , and some from Canada. There was even an Aussie there. It has been such a privilege to have been able to do this.
Below is the group photo. Unfortunately some were not able to be part of this.

LSOM January 2012

At the end of the Leaders’ School, there was another conference that we were able to join in. This conference just added the icing on the cake. Speakers included John and Carol Arnott who just ooze the love of God; Mark Stibbe from England (Father’s House Trust) –who grew up as an orphan, but now ministers strongly in the Father’s love to the fatherless; Andrew White (“Bishop of Baghdad”) who shared although in the midst of terrible trials where he is in Iraq, his congregation (4000) over there is the most joyful congregation he has ever had - because the glory of God is tangible there – they see the glory cloud, angels every day, almost 100% healings, great joy and love. He himself has had MS, though he received some healing at Bethel in Bill Johnson’s church.

To prove his point, he rang his daughter who had come over with him, but was staying in Chicago (she was in bed due to time difference).He held his cellphone up to the mike as he asked her was she happy in Chicago – she said no, she wanted to go back to Baghdad. He asked her why, and she said because of the presence of Jesus was so strong there.

Another speaker who greatly impacted us was Patricia Bootsma, who though a home-schooling mother of 6, had the Lord challenge her to tithe her time to Him (=2.4 hours per day waiting on Him) She shared some powerful testimonies, and took a workshop on “Harnessing the Power of Intercession”. Part of her own testimony is that she was at Church strongly experiencing the presence of God when she went into labour with her 3rd child, was taken to hospital, and had the baby with no pain - the attending nurse said it was the strangest birth she'd ever witnessed. The last 3 births were similar.
Each night at the conference in Toronto there was prayer and laying on of hands – one person had a vision of a large angel at the back of the auditorium.  John and Carol also shared some of their history as it was the 18th anniversary of the beginning of the outpouring there. There is a strong sense of expectancy of something breaking out again in the first half of this year. John shared that the Lord had said to him earlier “I’m going easy on you now so you won’t be terrified when the real power breaks out”. Things have been hotting up ever since they increased their level of intercession and prayer – they have a prayer house operating IHOP style, though not 24/7 yet. They have been preparing for growth by expanding throughout the whole organisation, including admin areas. We were exposed to so much but we know we have received impartation through this time.

Suddenly it all had come to an end. On the Saturday morning we had to be out of our rooms by 10 am, because other students were returning from outreach that day and our rooms needed to be cleaned before they would occupy them. There were pangs in our hearts as we farewelled others from the school. It was amazing that even though we had only spent 3 weeks together, we had got so close that it felt like family.

Our next step was to make our way into Central Toronto, where we had booked a room in a hostel close to the Greyhound Bus terminal. We planned to take the Greyhound bus down to Virginia Beach where we would be staying for 3-4 weeks.

Toronto Hostel Room

We were blessed by one of the fellow students, Adriana, from the school who transported us well over 20 miles to our hostel. The hostel in which we stayed 2 nights in down town Toronto was adequate, but the room was too small to swing a cat in! (The bed took up most of the space - see photo!) They also clearly had mice problems, as there were mouse traps just outside our bedroom door, and when we were checking under the bed to make sure we did not leave anything behind, Rod found poisoned wheat.....

We did a little bit of exploring whilst we were there. Our hostel was on the edges of what they call Chinatown, and there were shops everywhere with signs in Chinese. It was a challenge to find food we could recognise.

On Sunday night, we attended the Central campus of Catch the Fire, some 700 metres from the hostel. They only hold an evening service, have mainly young people attending it. It is held in a night club’s premises. It was a great time with a strong sense of God’s presence there.