Fire to Freedom: 5th week!

This past week and a half has been awesome! The Lord is moving and setting people free including Renita and I. We both feel like the Lord is really using us even though we are so not perfect at all. Jesus is truly walking with us, or should i say we are actually learning to walk with Him. This last week of teaching was about the Fear of the Lord. For us it really made us look inward and repent for a lot of different things that we carried for a lot of our lives. The Holy Spirit is really teaching Renita and I a lot in this season. And the students are having visual breakthrough. We got to pray with some of the students that came to us on their own and Jesus set them free from some deep stuff. Continue to hold the students and us in your prayers.

This past weekend we got to do some evangelizing in the town of Montego Bay. We took 120 meals into down town and we passed out food and prayed a lot with homeless people. It was quite an amazing experience. The students loved it and it impacted them greatly. We do evangelism once a week, last week we went to a deaf school and just loved on them. God is using us. Its awesome!! We just need to learn to step out more, we know we can be doing more!! Thank you so much for your constant prayers for Renita and I. We feel like our marriage is at its strongest point and we pray that it will continue to get stronger. We do covet your prayers and ask that you would continue to pray for breakthrough in the students lives. Thank you so much for your prayers!

This upcoming week will be even more exciting. The speaker is Nancy Harper. She is from Canada but has spent twenty years of her life ministering in the Caribbean with her husband and children. I believe she is speaking about deliverance and identity. Pray for us! The Lord is faithful!!

Josh and Renita

"But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners!" -Romans 5:8

From Renita and i both we hope all is well with you. Here in Jamaica it is beautiful and busy. We are full-time staff/leaders now with the Discipleship Training School (DTS) here in Jamaica. For those who are not familiar with the DTS, it is a 5 month long school split up into two parts. The first three months is lecture phase filled with teaching, trainins and also evangelism once a week. The next two months after lecture are called "outreach." We will be headed to St. Vincent for our outreach working with schools, street and door to door evangelism, orphanages, sports evangelism, colleges and many more things. This DTS has 14 students (at the bottom of this message they are listed by name if you would like to pray for them and staff too). We have six differnent nations represented in this school; Jamaica, America, Switzerland, England, Canada, and Barbados.
This is such an exciting time for us seeing these students being set free from different things that they have lived with for so long. It truly is sweet! The students are hungry for God and it only stirs us up as staff to be the platform that they can stand on. We are here to help them grow. We are not their God but their never-ending attow pointing them to Jesus! We got to hear all the students testimonies and man was it beart breaking. Some of these students are coming completely broken, some carrying lots of baggage and some are ready to go save the world... so awesome to have all these students going after God! We are slowly in the spirit unpacking the things that these students have been burdened with. Please be proclaiming God's truth and victory over the students and us as staff as we expose the lies the enemy has planted in some og the students and us. Pray that they would receive revelation of God's jealous burning love that crushes the head of the enemy! Specifically some of the things that coming up against if you want to pray for freedom from in the DTS is the spirit of rejection, fear of man, pride and a religious spirit.
GOD IS ABLE!
The spiritual warfare is pretty thick right now. We have been reminded from a vision that Renita had last week in the early morning. An angel came and told Renita to follow her out to our living room. In the living room stood twelve angels and thhe main message they gave to Renita was the "By the Blood of Jesus, We as Saints of God have Power in the heavenlies." In the vision she also sensed there was demonic influence among the DTS. We have been strongly encouraged as staff by God's encouragement through this vision to pray and Freedom will come to these students! Every single One! The Lord is really speaking to us! Its quite ridiculously awesome! God is working for His glory!
Please be in prayer for Renita and I in this season. Its quite busy and we need a continual supply of grace from our Father to not only walk in love with these students but to really call forth their destinies that are hidden in God! We are doing well as a couple. The Lord has been gracious to us and extremely faithful. We have felt the attack on our marriage the last two weeks the spiritual atmosphere became thicker but we have been able to walk in victory in the midst of the battle!! Praise God that the Holy Spirit is here with us and He is our comforter and our protector! We appreciate your prayers and we can honestly say that Renita and I not be able to do what we are doing without your prayers, so Thank You, Thank You, Thank You for your prayers! Amidst the business of the DTS Renita and I are continuing to discern the will of the Lord for our lives, what that is to look like day-to-day AND how our lives are to be used over the next months and few years to position us for God's best and His glory. We are really learning to lean our everything on God and the whispers of the Holy Spirit!
We do miss home quite a bit, hanging out with friends and family and especially our home congregations ACTS and WMC! We love you guys and are praying for the Lord to continue moving in both churches!! We have plugged into a great church here in Jamaica, it's just a little hard walking into our church and not really knowing anybody, but we know that we are exactly were God wants us!
We are especially joyful though right now! My parents, Tim and Sandy Lapp were just here with us and we enjoyed a super fun weekend full of cliff diving, rook, walking and talking, and really praying and ministering to each other! The same was true a month ago when Renita's parents, Ron and Erma Weaver, came for the same amount of time. We are really blessed with the families that we have! Thank you to everyone who sent candies and cards and money and lots of other things for us! You made Renita smile especially big with clothing and choclate!!
Thank You!
This past week there was a building committee meeting in Lancaster to talk about the building process of the base in St. Vincent and Mayreau, unfortunately Renita and I were not there to attend. We are still in need of people who are willing to help! We do now have a blueprint for the base in YWAM St. Vincent and Mayreau. The Lord is speaking and moving in the whole process!! It is so exciting to see God moving in the Caribbean! If you would like to get involved please e-mail us!
Thank you again for taking the time to read our blog! We appreciate and miss all of you! We pray that you are blessed and encouraged as you read and pray! Go Bless and may you walk knowing that it is not you who live but it is Christ that lives inside of you! Gal 2:20!
Josh and Renita

Pictures From the Last Two Weeks

Pic 1: The whole DTS, Staff and Students. 6 nations in all. 14 students and 7 staff

Pic 2: DTS lecture teaching (Bill Landis teaching on Gods Character)

Pic 3: Me picking a coconut for my parents and Renita.

Pic 4: Starfish found snorkeling in Negril.

Pic 5: Dave Alexander teaching on "Truth."

Pic 6: My awesome parents and Renita and I

enjoying a night out!