Looking back at exactly 1 year and forward to another

A Landmark in our Prayer Missionary Journey

This month end marks exactly 12 months (1 year) of being full-time prayer missionaries at WHOP. Wow, it has been long and short at the same time; 2021 seemed to have been such a short year and sometimes seemed to be the same year as 2020 especially in light of COVID, yet in terms of how much we learnt and how much growth God brought us through, it was a much longer 12 months than it felt.

Highlights

One Thing becoming the one thing –

We were more prompted, challenged & inspired more than ever by Holy Spirit and by our Spiritual family for the One Thing as mentioned in the following 2 passages of scripture to truly become our one thing; the most important thing in our schedule & the only thing that is the object of our deepest devotion and affection…

Luke 10:42 – “But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

Psalm 27:4 – One thing I have desired of the LORD, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD, And to inquire in His temple.

As Adam Wittenberg put it; ‘In order to walk out a “one thing” life, we need to remove ourselves from the pace of our busy, distracted culture. Instead of losing ourselves in the noise of buzzing phones and blaring music, we take time to quiet our hearts and be with Jesus. Instead of running from one place to the next with no time to spare, we give ourselves to extended periods of worship and devotion. The deep things of the kingdom rarely come on the fly; rather, they are the fruit of pursuing the one thing we truly can’t live without—the intimate knowledge of God!’

So that really sums up what we were called deeper than ever into in the last 12 months, and what we have been pursuing…Has it been challenging, confronting and exposing?…On yes, so very much; but has it been rewarding?…Most definitely & undoubtedly, YES!

The emphasis being more on the inward than the outward for the first time in our history of full time ministry –

Both of us (Jean-Michel & Nicole) have each had our turn at being in full time ‘ministry’ before; but this time around in a way less conventional setting, the focus and life source (that which sustains the ministry) have been way more about what happens in the secret or in mostly unseen settings between us and God than what happens publicly for all to see. This very much links back again to the ‘One thing’ which is inseparable from the first commanded (“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind”); its only out of a place of this being the first that we can truly minister and do the second (‘Love your neighbour as yourself’)…This is in stark contrast to our previous fulltime ministry endeavours where our focus and time prioritization, as is with many, indicated we were doing things back to front.

To expose our family to the family –

We have felt so privileged & blessed being able to home school our children and take them along with us to the prayer room at WHOP, having them join us in worship and intercession on a regular basis; and exposing them to our larger spiritual family at WHOP where there is truly such a family dynamic…extra spiritual fathers, mothers, brothers & sisters! We so clearly heard God say; “All you need to do is keep exposing them to my presence, and they won’t depart from it”…they will grow up as powerful intercessors & worshipers! With the atmosphere & environment they are in, we are so confident of this…

Healing Rooms –

Having launched an official Healing Rooms at WHOP in 2021 was a dream come true for WHOP Leadership and for us specifically as it was one of the items on the WHOP dream list at 2021’s year planning meeting with drew us to joining as part of the fulltime team. Over and above this, to have been afforded the opportunity of being the Directors of the Healing Rooms has been such an honour and privelage…It has been so powerful and exciting witnessing healing take place through this ministry in special ways; and we are so expectant for even greater miracles to come as Jesus promised us in His Word!

The Return Conference –

As mentioned in a previous newsletter, this conference where Leaders of IHOP who are such humble, powerful students of the Word of God shared revelation on what God wants us to return to and how He wants us to respond as believers in the times we are in, was and incredible highlight for us and a powerful directive for the Body of Christ in this hour! Participating in this global conference live and turning our clock around as we attending sessions during the night, was truly special and so worth it!

Some of What’s to come in 2022

  • This year’s Joshua Year internship program will be the 10th Joshua Year; and we are excited about the diverse team of 5 students who have enrolled for a year which will change their lives, set a rock solid foundation of intimacy with Jesus for them and launch them into their leadership potential for what God has in store for their futures. Our role in assisting with the internship program this year will include; Nicole facilitating one of the Courses called ‘The eternal Glory of an Intercessor’ by Corey Russel, Jean-Michel facilitating Harp and Bowl training and mentoring students in Intercessory Worship…Its also really on our heart to just always walk a personal one on one road of discipleship with each student; as we do this, building their confidence and helping them see themselves how God sees them is something which is a specific passion & focus for us.
  • Our staff increases as Reece (3rd Year IHOPU student) joins the full-time staff. This is a significant step for him, and we are truly proud of him.
  • As numerous others heed the call to become fulltime Intercessors & Worshipers, it is our dream at the WHOP for our full time team to increase to 32 over the next year! This will enable us to extend our prayer room corporate hours and have 3 groups of 10 people each keeping the fire burning on the altar through prayer & worship as part of 3 different prayer watches; these would include:
  • Morning Watch – 06:00-12:00
  • Afternoon Watch – 12:00-18:00
  • Evening Watch – 18:00-00:00
  • IHOPU Students continue with their ministry training degrees at WHOP as an education location. We are expectant for more students to sign up for the next year which starts in August (as per American School Year).
  • We are excited to host Carol Campbell, the Director of Healing Rooms Africa on Saturday the 26th of February for special Healing Room training for any potential new Healing Room intercessors or just anyone who wants to learn more and grow in authority pertaining to healing, according to what the Bible tells us about healing. She will also be speaking at the WHOP Sunday evening fellowship on the 27th of February.
  • Nicole will be going along to this year’s week long Plumbline (Personality Restoration Camp) as an Intercessor. This will also take place this February. This is once again going to be so powerful as the 11 people attending experience the inner healing of Abba Father!
  • Jean-Michel will be running his first Comrades Marathon (90km – The Ultimate Human Race) in August and has a bunch of other marathons lined up as well in order to train for the big one! This is all part of an exciting journey of transformation, health & wellness; both physically & spiritually.
  • WHOP Children’s Equipping Ministry will be kick-off on Sunday evenings as part of our weekly Fellowship…Trinity who is turning only 11 in March has in many ways spearheaded the start of this; she will be serving under various adult staff members as she assists in leading children into the heart of loving Jesus, worship and intersession.
  • Jean-Claude begins full-time home-schooling as he starts Grade 1, Trinity moves to Grade 5 of her home-schooling and Hadassah still attends Miesha Day Care 3 days per week.
  • The planning phase of a week-long WHOP ministry trip begins; the trip which will be in April will hopefully include a missions trip with One Heart to Lesotho.
  • We are on a journey of reading 10 chapters in our bible per day; the goal is to read through the entire bible 2 times in the year; this is over and above our regular word meditation and bible study. So far this has been incredible for us as God has already brought so much revelation through the scripture in passages we had never noticed before…It’s like you can know more and more from within the bible over and over; and this continued revelation will never stop!!!

Thank you very much to every financial partner, what we are doing would not be sustainable without your partnership.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read our monthly newsletter, we really appreciate your support.

If you are not a financial partner, but would like to financially partner with us, here are the details:

Account Name: House of Prayer; Bank Name: FNB (First National Bank); Account Number: 62718897848; Branch Code: 230146; Account Type: Cheque Account; Reference: HVG-JN

If you would like more information about financially partnering with us, please send us a WhatsApp so we can have a coffee to discuss further. Partnership of this nature is such a blessing to us and goes a long way in covering our monthly expenses as we run full time with the ministry mission God has called us into.

If there is anything in this newsletter that you have questions about or would like more information about, please contact either of us via WhatsApp.