So often in the scriptures we hear references to enlarging our tents and it immediately brings to mind a greater space to provide for our families.  Specifically,  Is. 54:2 says: “Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitation be stretched out; do not hold back, lengthen your cords and strength your stakes.”  What a picture of God’s promise to His people to expect His blessing as we continue to seek His reign and rule in our lives.  These past weeks the Lord has enlarged our tent in regards to our ministry for the Lord and we are humbled beyond words.

 Several weeks ago I had the joy of leading a prayer segment for a movement of prayer and city transformation called God of the City.  Unlike any other time when I have been asked to pray, I was asked to pray for healing for those in need at this gathering.  I was humbled at the joy of praying, believing in a God who is still in the process of healing me to allow me the privilege of praying this for others. Luke 4:18-19 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor.  He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” These have been a guide to my life and ministry, specifically to proclaim good news to the poor.  I remember, like it was yesterday, reading these verses in the Holy Land in the very place that Jesus spoke them.  There was a breaking of my hard heart as never before for the least, to broaden my tent and not hold back as Christ Himself came from heaven in all His glory to dwell among us and deliver us from our sins.  Amazingly our Lord’s first message was from Isaiah and a word to preach good news to the poor.  This has embedded in my heart the priority this should be for every Christian as it is for our Lord.  Recently with this season of cancer the ministry of God’s healing as He speaks of bringing sight to the blind is ever before me.  I am overwhelmed with this broadening of our tent of ministry to pray, believing by faith for others for healing in the mighty name of Jesus, no matter what they are facing.  This time of prayer at God of the City confirmed this new area of ministry as I was able to share in the power of the Holy Spirit that we are to Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me Bless His holy name.  Bless the Lord, O my soul and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy. Ps. 103:1-4  The Lord led me to invite everyone up to the platform who needed prayer for healing and over 100 people came forward.  I was shocked and overwhelmed at God’s goodness to let me pray over His children for a faith in a Holy Omnipotent God who is able.  I am thankful beyond words for the incredible prayer warriors that serve God of the City to unite and mobilize the bride of Christ to bring glory to God and transformation to our city. 

This past Saturday we had the joy of being a part of H.I.S. BridgeBuilders’ Thanksgiving outreach in San Antonio through our ministry there in the inner city.  My parents and twin brother, Mel, bless me by their obedience to enlarge their tents daily to embrace the least of that city.  We gave away  hundreds of bags of food and clothing.  My father asked me to share and immediately the Lord led me to Luke 8 where the woman touched the hem of Jesus’ garment and she was healed.  We asked people who needed to be healed from sin and needed salvation to come forward as well as those who needed physical and emotional healing.  In God’s providence there is now an immediate connection when you tell a crowd of people you are battling Stage 4 lung cancer. They now look at me and know I’m in need just as much as they are.  What a joy to see how God has opened the door of greater ministry through what the enemy intended for evil. 

He is enlarging our tent as well in our personal family.  This past Sunday, our son Michael asked Caitlin Sammons to marry him and they are now engaged.  We are overwhelmed by God’s goodness and grace as we love others, He meets the desires of our hearts.  Our childrens’ first response when they found out Michael was engaged was: “We have a new sister.”  Caitlin is an amazing Godly young lady.  We celebrate this marvelous blessing as He enlarges our tents in every area of our lives. 

We praise God for each of you in this season of Thanksgiving and thank you for enlarging your tents to pray for us and be a part of our ministry to the least.  We now have 115 BridgeBuilders 300′s who have committed to pray for our healing and to give $100 per month to our ministry.  If you would like to join this group, please e-mail manderwald@hisbb.org.  May God remind us daily that we are each blessed abundantly to be a blessing to others. We love you and thank God for you!

This past week was another example of God’s leading and us following as we seek God and a greater surrender to Him and His will and not our own. For most of us, the prospect of going to the cancer hospital is not exactly the kind of ministry assignment we would desire. The Lord is showing me that this is one of the most strategic places we can minister to people in great need. This past Wednesday, as we went to our oncologist at Baylor, we continued to thank God for his leading us in our next steps. This truly is an incredible journey of faith of asking God and hearing Him answer in our time of need. God is so faithful if we will be faithful to earnestly seek Him. So often in our times of need, we seek the counsel of many men and not the leading of the Holy Spirit to direct us to the path we should take. Whether the decision is about family, financial, or physical needs, God’s word will be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our paths.

I am thankful for the doctors at Baylor, at M.D. Anderson, and at Cedars Sinai.  They are truly a gift from God as his instruments of help.  However, God alone is the healer. It is amazing the peace that comes when you don’t look to the counsel of this world to be your ultimate source of guidance in areas of your life. The Word says “call to me and I will tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” God longs to give us His peace and path if you will be still and listen to His voice. I am thankful for all of the doctors, but each time we meet with them, they give us multiple options.  It is for us to pray and hear the direction we are to go. What a peace there is when you know that the God who loves you and has allowed you to be in your situation of great need is the same God who will make a way through the valley of the shadow of death. It humbles me that your prayers are lifting us up to go through this with peace and the praise of God in our hearts. Because of Him, I don’t go to my doctor expecting my healing.  I go expecting my God to heal me however He chooses and am looking forward to how I can minister to my doctors and to those in the hospital. This week my doctor was laughing and very open to our time of prayer.  We are thankful for the relationship that we are building with this wonderful doctor.  He asked me when I wanted to come back for my next appointment.  I asked him if he normally asks the patient when they want to come back. He said he’s learned with me that I will do whatever I’m led to do by God.  We are thankful for God’s leading and his peace that passes understanding that we pray is a continued witness to our doctor. 

When we were leaving the hospital, we saw a lady named Sharon who was extremely upset and wouldn’t talk to her husband about what the doctors were saying. She was anxious and fearful and couldn’t go any further in her battle against cancer. The Lord was clear, go and pray for her. I went up to her and shared with her that I too had cancer but I would like to pray for her. She was overwhelmed with gratitude. All she said was yes, yes, yes, please pray. She was shaking and completely overcome so we went together to the throne of grace to cast our cares on Jesus. We prayed and she repeated these words near the end of our prayer; “Jesus save me! Jesus help me! Jesus heal me!” When we finished praying, she was at peace and ready to take her next steps in her fight against cancer. What peace we forfeit when we rely on the world to give us what only our Creator and Great I Am that I Am can provide. After we prayed, I knew this was why I went to the hospital. Nothing was changed with my condition; there was no new information, just the joy of praying for Sharon.

I was reminded of my new ministry by my beautiful daughter Grace. She is the youngest of our 4 children, and unknown to me, did a short video testimony for our youth ministry. I was humbled by her words and God’s goodness to continue to keep my heart open to the needs of others before my own. Please go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TobmuRkgmak to watch Grace’s video testimony. I am prayerful, more now than ever, that in whatever situation you are facing you will fervently seek God.  Remember, He loves you and has plans to bless you and to prosper you with a future and a hope.

           Much of the journey of the life of faith is learning to be utterly dependent on an utterly dependable God.  We are living daily dependent on God with our fight against cancer and are confident that he will heal us whenever and however He chooses.  It is amazing to see how over and over God’s people are at an apparent dead-end and God makes a way for His people and for His glory.  In many of these instances God uses His people to be the very answer to the prayers of the people praying.  Clearly the gift of Moses to deliver his people is a reminder of “delayed but not denied.”  The 40 years Moses was learning to walk with God in the desert of his life, he was being prepared to be God’s agent to set his people free.  This culminated in Moses risking his life before Pharaoh to demand the release of the Hebrews.  For decades the people prayed and now their prayers were being answered because one man who encountered God in a burning bush heard and obeyed the voice of God.  I am certain that we all have said if God would speak to me in a burning bush I would certainly hear Him and obey Him.  The reality is that He speaks to us every time we open His Word, the Bible.  The question is do we listen and obey. 

              My heart is burdened greatly during this Christ exalting season of giving thanks and celebrating the birth of our Savior.  Every day during these next two months, our staff will encounter 1000s of people in our cities that are praying to be delivered from their current state of despair.   In this season of great disparity, our ministry attempts to meet needs of our communities.  We host a wonderful outreach on Christmas Day at 2:00 in Turner Courts gym (refer to hisbridgebuilders.org for directions).  Years ago after opening our presents in our home with my family and parents, we decided to take some bags of fruit and candy to BonTon to celebrate Christmas.  I will never forget the sight as we went from house to house – no Christmas tree, few if any toys, and an empty refrigerator.  It was no different from any other day.  Last year on Christmas day the community residents stood in line around the gym waiting to be served.  Each year we order an 18-wheeler from Feed the Children with 800 boxes of food and household supplies. We give each child one toy, give away clothing (both new and used) and feed the community Christmas dinner.  The cost for the single day is about $15,000.  I am hopeful that we will receive this necessary funding so that we can answer the prayers of the residents of the inner city on Christmas day .

                We are thankful that 112 people have said “yes” to BridgeBuilders’ 300.  We are prayerful that God will lead some of you this Christmas to become a BridgeBuilders 300 by giving $100 monthly to the ministry and praying for my healing.  If you desire to participate, please contact Mary Anderwald at 214-377-1551 or manderwald@hisbb.org.

         Today we celebrated the Habitat home dedications of Clifton Reese and Carla Robinson in Bonton.  We are grateful that a man who once slept in a car and sold drugs is now reconciled to God and to his wife, was trained as an optical lab technician in the BridgeBuilders clinic and is working in the lab and is now a first-time homeowner.  His heart is to let his house be a lighthouse for Christ for the neighborhood children as he has four children of his own.  We celebrate also with Carla who said she never dreamed she would have a house of her own.  She too works in the clinic.  At the dedication she said that her home is the “house that love built.”  I know for Clifton and Carla, their dream may have been delayed but through Christ, the church, and HIS BridgeBuilders, their dreams were not denied.   

         In over 2000 scriptures in God’s Word, He tells us to go and to give in His name to the least and the lost.  I pray the delay in the answer is not because we are not listening or obeying to the still small voice of God.  God is speaking.  I pray we are listening.  The poor of this nation and the earth are crying out.  Let’s not delay any longer.  We love you and long to walk with you to reach the lost and the least.  Please consider helping us this Christmas to continue to share His love and light through your giving, serving, and praying. 

         Prayerfully the delay will be over soon for many who are crying out to God.