Conference Weekend

This last weekend we had over 100+ people at our house for a conference that began on Friday and ended Sunday...it felt somewhat like a retreat, being at our home and having a few meals together. About 1/2 of the people where from out of town (Kansas City & Orange County). As you can imagine it was a full weekend, especially since from Thursday through Wednesday we were housing lots of people each night...people slept everywhere, outside on couches and pews to inside on the floor and in the kids room (our kids slept with us).

The Kingdom of Heaven Belongs to Children

But Jesus said, "Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."


Our children praying over our friend Brittany from Orange County this weekend.

Prayer 4 IV

On Tuesday about 30 of us went up the mountain to Lizards Mouth to worship Jesus and pray over IV...it was such a sweet time, as 20 students from a ministry school in Kansas City known as IHOP joined us to celebrate the King and His kingdom over our city!

"Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."

My Boyz

I love these guys, it's such a honor to father these boys!

Encouraged - Jesus is good news!

These 2 amazing women of God, Rachel & Allie, were a part of the fellowship a few years ago, both are living incredible lives for Jesus today...this video is the two of them talking about the goodness of Jesus & IVC:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrFMbp1Lxls

Halloween Weekend in IV

Here are a two pictures from the weekend, more to come. God did some amazing things both Friday & Saturday night...several people prayed to receive Christ, others who have walked away from the faith got reminded of Him, and a lot of people got loved-on through variety of ways like a bathroom to use, water to drink, a hamburger to eat, a place to throw up, or a ride home.

Jesus loves, His kingdom is advancing in Isla Vista.

Jeremiah Turned 2

Baby J turned 2 this month, we are beyond thankful for our little man!

Fun Picture of Hope

Our friend Derrin took this picture of Hope in front of our home

24/7 Prayer - Halloween Week

It is that time of year, where the church in IV is on their face asking God for miracles, protection, and salvation in IV concerning Halloween weekend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlNFmOCamPk&feature=player_embedded

If you are not familiar with 24/7 prayer it means people are praying for 24 hrs. a day for 7 days...feel free to join us from a distance or come to the prayer shed (behind 6686 Del Playa) beginning this Saturday.

This is an e-mail sent from Annalisa, the gal spearheading the week of prayer:

My name is Annalisa Morris and I am a 4th year at UCSB. I was just e-mailing to invite anyone and everyone to join in on a campus-wide 24/7 Prayer Week that is being put on. The week of 24/7 prayer is not under any specific ministry, we want it to be a campus-wide event where all the movements unite together to cover UCSB and IV in prayer. We believe that there are college students that are hungry to see Jesus transform this campus and city, so we're inviting any and all of the different Christian movements on campus and in this city to come and join in a week of 24/7 leading up to Halloween. All of the prayer will take place in the prayer shed behind 6686 DP it will begin midnight the 23rd and end midnight the 30th. If you are interested I'd love to have you email me a time slot you would want. I'll attach a sign up sheet that's blank so you can look and choose. There are 1hr slots and we're hoping to get all of them filled. You can sign up as a movement, or Bible studies can sign up together, or individuals. Please feel free to contact me for further information.

Phone: 408-464-5291
Email: annalisamorris@gmail.com

Thank you so much, blessings Annalisa

Inheritance & Idenity

In a few weeks IVC will be hosting a conference on Inheritance & Identity led by Jacob Reeve. I may be sharing a few things too, but I will be incredibly full this weekend with all the people visiting from out of town and those that live locally...it should be an amazing weekend and hopefully a refreshing one as we will be cooking up the Jesus Burgers both Friday & Saturday night the weekend before, which is Halloween weekend!



A 3-Day Jesus Encounter hosted by IVC and led by Jacob Reeve
Why ask God for the things He has already given to you?

November 5th - 7th
- Friday @ 7pm
- Saturday @ 10am & 3pm
- Saturday @ 8pm (ministry night)
- Sunday @ 4pm

Cost: $10 - suggested donation (includes lunch Saturday)

Location: TBD

http://www.jacobreeveministries.com/

Jacob Reeve is a man of faith who loves Jesus. He is an author and an artist with a powerful teaching gift. He is the founding pastor of Isla Vista Church and currently a pastor on staff of a church in Camarillo. Jacob enjoys sharing a life of faith, hope, and love with his beautiful wife and six children.

Jesus Burgers

It has been 3 weeks of serving up Jesus Burgers this school year and God is blowing our minds...tons of great things are happening on the street of Del Playa every Saturday night! God is good, so good!

Keep praying for IV, for the church to be courageous, and for His prodigals to come Home.

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:34)

IVC in the Westmont College newspaper

An incredible bother named Lucas Bell, who is apart of the IVC family, writes for the Westmont newspaper and did an article on Jesus, heaven, and IVC this week...check it out:

http://homepage.westmont.edu/horizon/articles/?p=1477

We Love Our Kids

Our friends Nate & Derika took some pictures of the kids this weekend.

We are so grateful for the different stages of life that each of them are in right now...so much fun and so much learning going on for everyone!

Need prayer, healing, or a spiritual reading?

This Saturday during Jesus Burgers we dragged the recycle bin into the middle of the street right in front of the DP house - on one side of the bin there was a sign that said, "free prayer" and on the other side was a sign that offered spiritual readings and prayer for healing.

As you can imagine with hundreds of people walking up and down the street the signs grabbed people's attention and caused them to stop and begin conversations with us. The spiritual readings is just a term that people in IV can relate to more than prophecy. And sure enough, we had people approach us all night wanting to get prayer and a spiritual reading. I wish I had the time and was able to record all the stories from this night, as I know they would be such an encouragement to many! Maybe one day we will do some kind of video and post a few of these stories each week as the love of God shows up in such powerful ways over people both sober and drunk every weekend in IV.

"for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." (Matt 5:45)

One quick story: a guy approached me, definitely a little under the influence, telling me he is an atheist, but wanted prayer...I thought that was a little comical, but prayed anyway. As I began to pray for him God started showing me stuff about His family, divorce, broken friendships, stuff about music, and a few other things. After I got done praying he just looked at me and said, "That was gnarly. That was absolutely gnarly man." I was able to witness to Him, as I often do after these kind of reactions that God knows him, desires a relationship with him, and how good Jesus is!

One more: another guy approached a few of us as as he has been in and out of jail and wanted prayer...as we prayed, the love of God came all over him and he began to open his heart and receive what we were saying. Afterwards I talked with the guy and was able to share my story of how I started drinking at 12, got into all sorts of problems, and how Jesus set me free to be a son of a King!

Be praying for IV, God is on the move...pray that believers would be courageous, full of love, and walk in the power of God to be able to do stuff that only God can do!

Growing in Life

Often I find myself reminding people that growing in God is a process, which is why it's important to enjoy the journey of faith that God has us on...it seems at times b/c of our culture we are made to feel that we always need something else - the grass is greener on the other-side syndrome. As the result, believers in Christ can be made to feel like they need to arrive somewhere in God. When truthfully they've already arrived as they're in Christ today, seated with Him in heavily places, complete, have been given everything pertaining to life and godliness the day they accepted Jesus into their life, and our sons and daughters of the King (Eph 2:6,Col 2:10, 2Pet1:3, 1Jn3:1).

This is why I find myself reminding people that the Christian life is not about trying harder, but learning to receive more...grace is what grows us, not self-effort, which is why only God can grow us, change us, and make us like His Son.

Watching baby J eat His meals is messy, due to the fact that he is learning how to eat. As for Samuel, who is four years older, there is a noticeable improvement. To me this models a lot of the Christan life, as we abide in Him and believe in Him, we grow in Him. We learn to eat without half of the food on our face, on the floor, and in our hair...growing in God is messy, life is messy, and if we are going to love His people we must become ok with mess.

People grow in the soil of grace, not in law...if we want to see people grow in God we better give them room to fail, take risk, and try to feed themselves. Fathering and mothering is what the generation to come will need to become the sons and daughter they're made to be.

"For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel." (1 Cor 4:15)

Jesus Burgers

Tomorrow night around this time the "Gideon Army" will be giving out Jesus Burgers and sharing the redemptive love of Jesus with countless lives...please pray for us as we worship and pray from 8pm to about 10pm in the prayer shed, then hit the front to be greeted by hundreds of partiers.

Jesus' love is the solution to the problems of IV, may His church demonstrate this tomorrow night.

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Rom 5:8)

Family Pictures

Our awesome friend Liselle took some family photos of us last week...all 4 of our kids are in the picture, one in womb!  If you have not heard, Holly is pregnant - we found out Sunday morning!

"Just as you don't know the path of wind and how bones are formed in the womb of a pregnant woman, so you don't know the activity of God who makes all things." (Ecc. 11:5)

Our New Sunday Location

The end of this month will be the completion of our 8th year in IV as a church, and the beginning of our 9th year...in that time IVC has probably meet in about 25 locations throughout IV, including parks, beaches, backyards, houses, theaters, etc.

We have always been able to relate to the call of Abraham, as it says in Hebrews 11:8 that "By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going."

IV is our promised land, and like I am always telling the fellowship, church is not a day of the week, a building you are in, a meeting you go to, but it is a family you belong to...our mission is to see IV redeemed by the redemptive love of God, IVC is blessed to be apart of that.

This next year God is moving the IVC family to a church building located less than a 1/2 block from our home - literally you can easily see the steeple and the church from our house.

We are so thankful for this bigger location as we are rapidly outgrowing "The Sueno Tabernacle." And due to the location of the church building, we will be able to maintain our dinners together, which is always a sweet time of fellowship afterward.

Ah, God is so good to us - faithful to the end! We believe this next year will be a significant year in the history of IV, as we are seeing a move of God arising in our city!

Be praying for IV and that believers would live radical lives of faith for Jesus and His kingdom - "From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force." (Jesus)

Encouraged

Two years ago a beautiful sister in the Lord was introduced to Holly and I, along with the IVC family...she has graduated UCSB now, moved to Spain, and is still living an amazing life for Jesus.

She wrote a blog this week to different churches that she has been apart of, to the IVC family she wrote,

"When I went to college, I never though that I would find a place as satisfying as my church back home, but I found you (sadly 2 years in) because of a weird encounter in Greece with a certain armenian (who we all love) who became my spiritual sister and introduced me to all of you. And what a wonderful bunch you are. You showed me that it is ok to look weird, to let my hair down…basically to become God’s little hippy. I love being God’s little hippy. You taught me that no matter how much I stressed,(and no matter how scared I was to lead worship for you), that God speaks through those who are weak and who are willing. Thank you for teaching me to live the life of Jesus."

http://tecontamara.wordpress.com/2010/09/09/a-lot-of-love/

We love you Tamara, missing your incredible love and generous heart in IV...thanks for all you sowed into us and for the life you're living!

Our Adopted Daughter

Well we have several college-age adopted daughters, Annalisa was the first one that God asked us to come alongside and provide family for about two years ago...this is a blog that she started, I hope you track with her b/c she is amazing and lives a radical life for the King of kings!

http://annalisamorris.wordpress.com/

By Grace Alone, Through Faith Alone

Excellent quote by Martin Luther, the man who initiated the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s:

'The heart of man finds it difficult to believe that so great a treasure as the Holy Ghost is gotten by the mere hearing of faith. The hearer likes to reason like this: Forgiveness of sins, deliverance from death, the gift of the Holy Ghost, everlasting life are grand things. If you want to obtain these priceless benefits, you must engage in correspondingly great efforts. And the devil says, "Amen."

We must learn that forgiveness of sins, Christ, and the Holy Ghost, are freely granted unto us at the preaching of faith, in spite of our sinfulness. We are not to waste time thinking how unworthy we are of the blessings of God. We are to know that it pleased God freely to give us His unspeakable gifts. If He offers His gifts free of charge, why not take them? Why worry about our lack of worthiness? Why not accept gifts with joy and thanksgiving?

"and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith," (Phil 3:9)

Holy Spirit

From the book Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray:

If the church will return to acknowledge that the Holy Spirit is her strength and her help, if it will return to surrender everything and wait upon God to be filled with the Spirit, her days of beauty and gladness will return and we will see the glory of God revealed among us. This is my message to every individual believer: Nothing will help you unless you understand you must live every day under the power of the Holy Spirit. God wants you to be a living vessel in whom the power of the Spirit is manifested every hour and every moment of your life, and God will enable you to be that.

"And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit..." (Acts 2:4)
"...be filled with the Spirit," (Eph 5:18)

Freedom in Christ

Today a brother came over that has been struggling with depression, along with other serious stuff for some time. After listening to him and asking God to visit us I began to pray over him; speaking not to my brother, but to the spirits that have been tormenting him. What happened afterward was amazing...he didn't feel anything crazy happening in his body, as some people do when being prayed for in this way, rather he sensed God coming around Him and holding Him as a father would hold his son. It was powerful, and as this was happening, God filled him with incredible joy and hope! This was the first time he felt either one of these emotions in some time. We both stayed in my garage full of joy as we experienced the manifest presence of God together in our midst.

The Scriptures tell us it was for freedom that Christ set us free...Jesus paid too great a price for any of us to live under the hand of the enemy whose plan is to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). Jesus promised to give us life and life abundantly...thankful to see this firsthand tonight in my garage!

"The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil." (1 Jn 3:8)

Baptism

Ryan and myself baptized two brothers today in the ocean..it was such an honor to be in the water with Phillip & Scott!

Baptism is such a great picture of a marriage covenant with Jesus..as the wedding ring reminds oneself that they are forever married to their spouse, baptism serves as a symbolic reminder that our lives belong entirely to Jesus Christ.

Healed in Jesus' Name

This was the FB status from a gal in the fellowship today:

My doctor re my examination: "well it looks like your prayers have been answered. This is the best you've looked in 10 years."

This gal got prayer last week in our home from Yves when he visited (check the post on the 30th to see a picture)...we had a night of worship and prayer for one another. During the night Yves taught on healing and then prayed for all who needed it in their body. This gal has had colitis for years now...no more in Jesus name!

"These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues...they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." (Mark 16:17,18)

Our Casa Is Your Casa

This last month has been crazy full with people staying at our house and visiting us. So much joy, dependency on Him, and fun for our kids and us! Not to mention a lot of the students are returning back to IV, as the UCSB school year starts next month...praise God!

Living with about 25 people for 2 1/2 years (05-07) radically changes your mindset and your capacity for people visiting and staying at your home...in the best possible way! Holly and I view our home as a gift from God, as we want to do with everything that has been given to us. It's actually one of the easiest places in my life to see God's faithfulness, as the story in how we were able to move into this home from timing, price, and location was more than we could ever ask or imagine!

We love our home and are glad it can serve as a blessing to our family, students in IV, IV Church, and people that visit from out of town. I always say there are only 2 ways to live: open-handed or white-knuckled. The blessing is always in living open-handed and surrendered to God and His purposes in the earth.

"Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow." (Js 1:17)

Becky Jo with our kids, her 4 girls that are 6yrs and under, and 1 in the womb...this momma is amazing, and only 28yrs old!

We love this family!

This family was with us all last week - radical testimonies of healing

http://www.healingallnations.org/ 

Bryan & Mercedes praying over the children...this couple is so special to our family, as God shows up powerfully every time they visit us: www.graceworldmission.org

Del Playa Last Night

God received so much glory last night as about 15 of us ministered the love of God on Del Playa to many people...we had a big sign out that said, "Free Prayer," which was to our surprise a big hit amongst those on the street partying.

Here is a Facebook status from a brother in the fellowship about last night:

Kyle Heiner:

"Saw about a dozen people healed (just at my hands) last night in Jesus' name! About 20 others all around me were also praying and healing people's bodies and lives on Del Playa Drive... Broken arms, broken hearts, Jesus does it all! The glory! God is so good!!! His Kingdom is at hand... and He loves you so much!"

Over the last 9 years of doing ministry in IV, we have seen God growing a community of believers who want to live radically for Him. We believe this year will be a breakthrough year of seeing greater fruit as we step into the ministry of Christ when He walked the earth.

Please be praying for the believers in IV and those living at the DP House this year...pray that the Gospel goes forth, that lives are changed, and that His people live courageously in their city.

"You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him." (Acts 10:38)

Papa Jim & Nana's Visit

Papa Jim and Nana came to visit at the end of July and we had a great time up on Paradise Road in our cabin for the week.    

We were able to go to the river a bunch of times and the kids loved fishing and swimming.  We got to see deer (Jeremiah LOVED the deer and would point out the window and yell "deer" over and over), wild turkeys, and horses.

We also go to go to a ranch and see some horses and animals one day.

The kids most of all loved just getting to be with Papa Jim and Nana each day and play with them!

We are so thankful for them and who they are to us and to our kids!

Text Messages

Here are two text messages I sent out to a bunch of brothers the last two days:

This text came to me as a revelation reminder last night while hanging out with God:

"Our greatest priority in life brothers is to know God, not just about Him, but to actually know Him - John 17:3"

This text was sent to a friend who was struggling with condemnation, later I forwarded it to a bunch of guys & two gals:

"Abraham lied, Moses killed, David raped...you're a new creation today, your identity is a butterfly even if at times you feel like a worm. God sees you in Christ - loved, accepted, and pleasing to Him. How many sins made you a sinner? Answer = 0. You were born into sin. And you didn't become righteous by doing righteous works, you became righteous by faith in Jesus! It's finished, now our role is to receive our inheritance as partakers of the divine nature who have been given everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him. The gospel in not ok news, but super good news...grace brings us into rest, while works bring us into striving. Rest today in what Jesus has done for you...in that you will naturally live out the life your heart so longs to live."

JOY

J - Jesus
O - Others
Y - Yourself

This week has been full of JOY, as lots of the IVC family is starting to come home! During the summer people have gone all over the world...Turkey, Thailand, Haiti, Hawaii, New York, and different cities in California and the rest of the country with the good news of Jesus!

As hard as it's seeing people come and go all the time due to living in a college town one of the greatest rewards is hearing stories of what God is doing throughout the world!

I love what the Apostle John said in 3 Jn 4,"I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth." Gnarly, he had no greater joy then knowing that his spiritual children were walking in the truth.

It really is pure joy seeing people fall in love with Jesus and walk it out in wherever God has called them to go...God is good & always doing good stuff for all who believe!