The Downfall of Skype

4 months is a long time to go with out seeing your best friend. Its an even longer time to go only seeing your girlfriend through a screen. But after 4 months of skype dating Kristen came to Kona. For two months we had a word of the Lord for her to come to Kona and me to go back with her to South Africa, with a stop in Michigan to meet her family. Finally at the end of July she came to Kona, every ones excitement and anticipation was high waiting for her to get there. People wanted to know would it be weird? We had never been in the same room together whilst dating at this point. Would I be nervous? Would she? Would it be weird? I was to excited to sit in the days lecture, I got to the airport 30 minutes early and waited at the door for 15 minutes, and then.  

I saw her.

I don't remember what she was wearing, but I remember her face. Her smile. It was radiant. Kirsten has an ability to light up a room when she smiles. That day her smile made the kona sun dimmer. We were both stoked out of our minds. We had a ball those ten days, at first it was a little overwhelming but that lasted only a little bit after that we got on with enjoying being in each others presence. Eating costco pizza and watching The Cosby Show, going for Thai food, drinking tea. Or simply just being with each other. But my time in Kona had come to an end it was time to go to Africa. 

Circuit Riders

How do you summarize five weeks of intense revival training? Well I can't, however I can tell you this, I feel so so equiped to bring revival and spread the gospel, better then ever before. Circuit Riders was a five week training course on how to bring the gospel and see revival happen. But more then that it was a gathering of people. 300 wild men and women converged on Kona to be trained and love the Lord together. For me and so many others it was a reunion of friends, and the end of a story. Friends I have made over the last three years came, some that I had not seen since my DTS and others that I had not seen for a few weeks. We laughed worshiped and reminisced about past times. I was sitting at the cafe with my friend Sarah and we began to discuss all the plans for the future we and our friends had, our community was scattering all over the world. Our time in Kona was coming to a close, my time on those shores was almost over. Kona had been my home the past three years, (two and a half at the time) and now the Lord was leading me to pursue Kirsten and go to Africa. It was a time of closure it was a time of new beginnings and it was a time of radical faith, healings and salvation. I even got arches after 25 years of flat feet. God has been moving for years but something is stirring in the earth, revival is a reality and God is going to do it in our lifetime. 

The End of DTS

DTS was an incredible journey, I saw me student grow from everyday run of the mill Jesus lovers to rapid wild in love with the gospel missionaries. But for me personally it was an incredible journey of growth. Its hard to say what was solidified then and what is still being worked out. I will say this learning to lead and to be in a relationship with a woman half way around the world was the hardest thing. When you are pushed out into leadership all of your insecurities about being a leader come to the service and you can either ignore them or deal with them. I chose to deal with them as best I could. What do you do when you feel like everyone around you thinks you are a crappy leader? What do you do? You go to God and ask him who you are, you go back to the word of the Lord that got you there in the first place you man up and press in. Some times when life gets hard its easy to lay down and say woe is me, I'm not going to lie and say i never did that. I had plenty of moments where thats how I felt and I needed Kirsten or one of my co-leaders to call me out of it. At the end of DTS when I looked back at all that we did on the west coast I was incredibly proud of my team, I had a feeling of accomplishment that continued to grow as I went into the next season. The Circuit Riders

Back Again

Hello dear readers, its been a while. 3 months actually, any way a lot has happened and I am going to be bringing you back up to date on the journey. I know what you long term readers are thinking to yourselves, "Alex, you've said this all before, but I am still wondering what happened in Pakistan, and what about what happened in the northeast?" Well those are fair questions. Here is my answer, I am going to give you some titles to hold you over for now so that you your taste buds are whetted, then as the next few weeks come along you can read all about it. I dont know if I will ever fill in the blanks with pakistan, I would love to, but it was two years ago so my memory is a bit hazy. Now for the last three months.

The end of DTS

The Circuit Riders

The Downfall of Skype

Home Again and Gone

Michigan

Stuck Once More

Another cheep ticket

Reunited in Africa

Masi

Our Engagement story

I know everyone out there is dying to hear the story about how I asked Kirsten to be my wife, well you are just going to have to wait for a bit, I will tell you this, she said yes! These are the working titles for the next few updates so they are subject to change but I wanted to tell you all the wait is over and I am back.

The Next Step In An Adventure

My side of the story. As you have all read, the Seattle House Of Prayer is a dream of mine. The plan was to launch in the fall. I had a staff committed for two years. But all of that began to change. Two things happened this spring, One I started to date Kirsten, two God began to call my staff elsewhere. No one likes to go back on a commitment, it never feels good and always is awkward, I love all of them and we are all still good friends so its worked out well. But what I am learning is that our decisions change our plans whether we were planning on them doing that or not. So now for the adventure. Africa. South Africa, Cape Town to be more precise. That is where I am headed for the fall, but there it will be the spring. But here is the real adventure, Revival and pursuing the heart of the one I love.

What we did on Outreach

One adventure is over and a new one has now begun. But before we really get into the meat of what is next lets take a look at what my team accomplished on outreach. God is good and moves when we partner with his heart. We spent ten weeks working our way up the west coast, and last friday our DTS came to a close back here in Hawaii with graduation. However, before we as a team left the mainland we took a look at what we had done and took some stats. So here is what we did by category:

Salvation's

6

Full Gospel preached

18 times

Healing or partial healing

11- 9

Received Holy Spirit

10

Times of Communion

10

Prayer walks

16

Prophetic Acts

4

Time of outdoor worship

6

Acts of Mercy Ministry

10

Times of teaching or preaching

16

People Prayed For

500-1000

We will never know how many people we actually affected because of the ripple of our lives. But I do know this, The Kingdom was advanced on the west coast and, people know about Jesus a little more because of it.

The Adventure Begins

Last week the Lord told Kirsten to start raising money to come to Kona, for the first two weeks of August. And so the adventure begins. Getting from Cape Town to Kona is no small thing, they are literally on other sides of each other on the globe. But she is obedient to the Lord and has never had a lack, so she began to ask her friends for help by donating 20 dollars each. within 5 days she got $360, and another $360 pledged to her. We don't fully know what the final price for a roundtrip ticket will be, but we know we have a lot to go. God is Good and has never left us lacking, and both of us have always gotten to the place God called us to. We did it with your help. Will you help to people in love be in the same place for the first time in two months? Will you help by donating 20 dollars or more? Leave a comment or email me at afgraves@gmail.com.