"This Week Felt Like Heaven"

 Dear Friends and Family,

“This week felt like heaven!”  “I haven’t been able to sleep so peacefully in months.” “It’s so nice to not hear sirens going off all day and night.  It’s so peaceful here.”  These are some of what the Ukranian pastors and their families told us last week as we all gathered in the beautiful mountains of eastern Ukraine for a time of refreshment and encouragement.  The Holy Spirit moved so wonderfully in all our meetings.  Many different denominations were represented, but that didn’t matter.  God’s love, joy, and peace took center stage, as pastors, leaders, wives, teens, and children united as one Body, receiving healing, refreshment, and strength throughout the week. As you can imagine, the families were elated to see each other after being separated since the beginning of the war.  Wives and their children came from all over to join their husbands who cannot leave Ukraine - surrounding countries including England, Poland, Israel, Germany, Canada, and România. 

CLICK HERE TO VIEW A VIDEO OF OUR TRIP

We had a great team. One family specialized in first aid and crisis management. They taught workshops for those who are helping on the front lines.  Two ladies specialized in trauma counseling, some spent time with the youth and children, others of us divided into small teams to pray over couples, individuals, and families for healing, prophetic words, encouragement, etc. Many of us encouraged them in the Word of God, with Brian teaching two of the evening sessions.  All went extremely well.  Everyone kept saying how peaceful and encouraged they felt.

The days were varied, allowing time for the families and couples to have fun together.  In the pictures you’ll see the beautiful mountains that surround the retreat center.  One day we all hiked to the top of one of these mountains. Some took the chair lift, which is a ski lift in the winter. At the top we all took communion and prayed earnestly for Ukraine.  It was a powerful time of intercession.

The worship was glorious.  Many had never experienced the presence of God so powerfully before.  We know many of you were praying for these brothers and sisters to be filled and refreshed by the Holy Spirit.  Thank you for your prayers - everyone felt them!  The Holy Spirit did not disappoint.  Upon leaving, some even said, “We felt like we were in heaven!”

After the retreat, some of our team had to go home, while the rest of us traveled on to Ivano-Frankivsk where we were asked to speak on healing and the power of the Holy Spirit.  Again the Holy Spirit did not disappoint.  We took turns sharing testimonies of God’s miraculous healing power, Brian preached from the Word of God, and then the Holy Spirit came in glory as we prayed for them.  No one wanted to leave, even though the service was over hours before we stopped praying!  So many received healing.  Finally John, our leader and driver, said we had to go even though no one wanted us to leave.  We still had an eight hour drive through the mountains back to Romania ahead of us. So reluctantly, we said our good-byes to our beloved Ukranian family.  We will probably be back though, as we’ve already received invitations to do two more conferences in other areas of western Ukraine.  

Today our teammate, Teresa, and Lorena went to a local YWAM base where they were invited to minister to a group of Ukranian women refugees.  Some of these ladies didn’t know Jesus personally yet, but by the end, they all felt the presence of God powerfully.  Tanya, our Ukranian missionary friend who took us and translated for us, said the YWAM leaders always have a program planned for the ladies, with speakers lined up or a special activity.  Today for the first time, however, they didn’t!  Since we had just returned from Ukraine, Tanya had not had time to prearrange our coming. We were not on their schedule in advance. Yet when we showed up, they welcomed us warmly and said we could share and do whatever we wanted!  It was definitely a divine appointment.  Two minutes before the time we were told the meeting should end, we asked if we should stop.  They all said, “NO!”  No one wanted to leave, even though they were “excused.” So we kept sharing and prayed for each of them individually with prophetic words and encouragement.  Like the church I described above, this group too was so hungry for God.  We went on for two more hours! Even then, they didn’t stop us.  Finally, we were the ones who said we needed to go.  God is so good. Everyone felt His presence and were touched in many ways.  

Thank you so much for your prayers. You are impacting the Kingdom of God in mighty ways - more than you realize.   Hopefully from this letter you are at least seeing a bit of the fruit resulting from your prayers.  They are so important and appreciated!  Thank you again. 

Lots of love,

Lorena and Brian

Ways to give

Use the QR code for digital donations or our support address for checks:

Transforming Lives Ministry

1908 S El Camino Real

San Clemente, CA 92672

We are at the Airport heading to Ukraine

 Aug. 22, 2022

Dear Family and Friends,

We are at the airport! 

Today we begin our journey to Eastern Europe to be a part of a pastor’s conference in the country of Ukraine.  As we wrote in our last newsletter, the Ukrainian men have not been allowed to leave the country, though many of their wives and children have left. The local missionaries, John and Tanya Lynch, are bringing the pastors’ wives and children back into a safe part of Western Ukraine for a week.  Most of them have been separated for over six months!  Our desire is that these families who have gone through so many difficulties would have powerful encounters with the Holy Spirit.  

Prayer Request - pray for the safety of our team and all of the pastor’s and their families as they travel to Western Ukraine. 

We will be traveling with our good friends Bruce and Terresa Muller.  The Mullers are amazing worship leaders and teachers.  Bruce and Teresa pastored a Calvary Chapel and have been missionaries in Europe.  Last Wednesday at midnight, Teresa had to go into the ER with abdominal pain. They discovered she had appendicitis and by Thursday night they removed her appendix!  However, they are still traveling with us today to Europe!  She is recovering well but still experiencing some pain.  Please pray for her speedy recovery.

After this pastor’s retreat, we will continue ministering in Ukraine and Romania with the local missionaries, encouraging the churches and refugees.  We would really appreciate your prayers for our trip!  There are so many people that are displaced and traumatized.  Pray that the Holy Spirit would supernaturally touch and heal each one, both physically and emotionally.  A friend of ours recently went to Moldova and said all the churches were jam packed, filled with many Ukrainian refugees.  He said congregations were a mixture of Christians and nonChristians, but by the end of the services, they were ALL Christians!  The Holy Spirit showed up, bringing much healing, peace, and joy, and salvation.  This is what we want to see as well.  We know the harvest is ripe and feel so privileged to go. Thank you for your prayers.  We will keep you updated on our blog as much as possible!

Many Blessings,

Brian and Lorena

Ways to give

Use the QR code for digital donations or our support address for checks:

Transforming Lives Ministry

1908 S El Camino Real

San Clemente, CA 92672

Greetings from Mexico

Here is an update on our ministry and plans for the summer.  

First, the church in Mozambique is so encouraged to be open and receiving discipleship training!  So far this year, we have been able to conduct 36 seminars.  At each of our three day seminars we provide food, teaching, and free discipleship books.  In January we had another 2,000 books printed.

Seminar taught by one of our teams in the Nampula Province

Second, please pray for our missionary friend Kent.  He has been helping us provide the refugees in Nampula with much needed food and supplies.  In March we paid for the distribution truck to be fixed and insured but Kent has been sick with malaria and gone through so many trials that he has been unable to continue overseeing these distributions lately.  

Third, we are currently in Mexico.  We have been here since May 29th and will travel to the States in a couple of days.  We went to a fantastic missions conference for a week and stuck around to celebrate our anniversary.  Today, June 12th, we are celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary and we are more in love than ever! :)

Fourth, before heading back to Asia, we are flying into Romania and then driving into Ukraine to minister to pastors and their families with our Ukranian missionary friends, John and Tanya Lynch.  God spoke to Brian recently that we would be invited to Eastern Europe to help. That same afternoon, John and Tanya asked if we could come teach at their pastors’ conference in Ukraine! So we quickly said, “Yes!” As you probably already know, the Ukranian men have not been allowed to leave the country, though many of their wives and children have left.  The Lynches are hoping to bring the pastors’ wives and children back into a nice safe part of Ukraine for a week, uniting the families and receiving with us a refreshing, encouraging time in the Lord together.  A place has already been reserved. Please pray for safe travels for everyone, healings, and most of all, powerful encounters with the Holy Spirit as these brothers and sisters face all the difficulties from their war torn country.  

We are pictured here with the Lynch Family at our Missions Conference in Mexico.

Fifth, after teaching in Eastern Europe, our plan is to go on a ten day hike starting in Northern Italy.  Brian is using the training for this trek in an attempt to get back to full strength after his accident where he broke his femur.  He is getting much stronger and hopes to be back to normal by the beginning of the trek in September.  We will let you all know how it goes!  

Scene of hiking in Northern Italy 

Sixth, we’re heading back to Asia!  We are so excited that things are opening back up!  Our plan is to continue our discipleship ministry in several “Christian” islands of Indonesia that have gone astray by combining their faith with witchcraft.  These islands are neglected by the government, since they don’t follow the mainstream Muslim faith.  Consequently, they are poorer, without government aid for education or development.  But the good part is that we have freedom to teach, preach, educate, pray, see people healed, saved, and delivered, in the schools, churches, or anywhere!  (In the rest of Indonesia it’s illegal to do this.) We’ll be joining a powerful small Indonesian team, some of whom we’ve already met. We have other amazing open doors as well, but you’ll hear more of those stories later!  

Thank you for your prayers and support!  

Lorena

Merry Christmas!

 

Brian's Roofing Accident

 

Dear Friends and Family, 

It’s been 12 days now since Brian’s roofing accident.  Stepping into an unsuspecting hole covered by a thin sheet of insulation, my friend Rebecca and I heard a scream.  Running to the back of her house, we found Brian on his back groaning in pain.  "I heard my femur snap!" he managed to say between rapid shallow breaths. We quickly called 911.  Soon the ambulance and fire truck arrived. They gingerly slid him down the ladder on a rescue stretcher and rushed him to the emergency room. At Mission Hospital Laguna Beach, they put Brian’s leg in traction, which greatly relieved his pain. Thankfully, Brian received excellent care as he underwent a 4-hour surgery the following day. We appreciate all the prayers from those who knew of his accident and covet your continued prayers as he undergoes a four month healing process. The doctor and physical therapist say Brian is doing well.  He has a wonderful attitude, determined to give thanks in all things.1(see footnote)  He’s even decided to work on finishing a book he started, since he won’t be able to walk normally for a few months.  

The future looks bright.  Wonderful new doors are opening up in Asia. More news to come as this unfolds.  Meanwhile, we will continue to work remotely on our seminars and relief work in Mozambique.

Prayer requests

Pray for Brian’s speedy recovery

Pray that physical therapy will get him back to 100%

Pray for funds to pay our $5,000 insurance deductible and $3,000 co-pay. 

Pray for our ongoing ministry to 1,000 refugee families in Nampula, Mozambique.

Donations by mail:

Transforming Lives Ministry

1908 S El Camino Real, San Clemente, CA 92672

Electronic Donations:

Paypal and Zelle are under pastorbrianwood@gmail.com

Cashapp is under $TransformingLM

If you can't go to the city - go to the "bush, bush".

The latest lockdown in Mozambique began two weeks ago, to everyone’s dismay.  But our seminar teachers responded enthusiastically with, “We want to still continue!  The people are hungry for the Word and want to still gather together! We will go to the far out-lying areas where the government is not patrolling.”  We weren’t sure about their safety, but chose to honor their courage and determination.  Here are some pictures of one of last week’s seminar gatherings in the “bush bush.”  

Interview from Mozambique

Praise God our team in Nampula, Mozambique is equipped with a truck, supplies, and permission from the governing officials to once again start giving out relief to the refugees! They’ve been directed to help the most needy - 1,000 newly arrived families who have escaped from the northern region where insurgents continue to rampage the area.  We have enough funds to help around 750 families so far, giving each one a hoe to start a vegetable garden, soap, rice, beans, oil, spices, pan, plates, cups, and a bucket to fetch water.  We are also in process of finding gospel tracts in their languages.  The president has called for another lockdown, stricter than ever, but because we are giving relief, the team is allowed to be out helping the people and sharing the gospel!  Last weekend was the first of 17 distributions, as each one can only have 60 families maximum.  

Personal Encouragement

It appears that when we get a revelation of God’s love for us, we are then motivated and able to share His love and “be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God…able to accomplish more than we would ever dare to ask or hope.”  Hallelujah! 

I encourage you to meditate on these verses - maybe check it out in several translations.  I’m particularly enjoying this in the New Living Translation.  They are so rich and life-giving.  Enjoy!

Eph. 3:16-20, “I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him.  May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love.  And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is.  May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it.  Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God.  Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope.”

Thank you for your continued prayers and support.  Your brothers and sisters in Mozambique thank you too.  

Much Love,

Lorena and Brian