Dear friends and family,We have entered the year of 2012! We hope that every one of you had a great holiday season. We have spent our Christmas at home and were blessed with Kevin’s mom that came and visited us. For New Years Eve we were invited to come and spend this time at a friend’s house in Bloemfontein, this is a city about 10 hours driving from us. We had a wonderful time there, getting to see a bit more of the country and getting out of our familiar surrounding for a couple of days.
Vision 2012.
We have been praying and asking God to speak to us about the things He wants us to be focuses on this year. Both of us received the same word about a stronger focus on the study of the Word of God. The Word of God is our foundation and to deepen our relationship with the Lord and to encounter Him in a greater measure will all come through spending more time in study and meditation on the Word. Ministry wise we will focus most of our time on a poor community called Capricorn. This community is filled with crime, hopelessness and poverty but we have truly felt and seen the love and the heart of Jesus for this place and these people. We really see such a potential in these people and for the kingdom of God to be established by them coming in agreement with the Word of God rather than the lies of the enemy. Kevin feels a strong call to focus on evangelism this year and to spend most of his time in Capricorn. He has a desire to see the people of this town saved and transformed by the power of God. He will be here most of the week and the rest he will focus on training and traveling to preach the gospel. Mariëlla is going to focus on getting more equipped into worship and learning how to help people through inner healing. As well her focus will be more on training within YWAM, churches and of course in Capricorn where she will be ministering to the ladies.
First fruits of Capricorn.
During the past months that we have spent time in Capricorn, praying for people encouraging them sharing the gospel with them. We have seen many salvations and healings on the streets of Capricorn. We have seen arthritis being healed the lame walk and people being delivered from demonic bondages, addictions being broken, jobs seen provided and whole households turn to Jesus, hallelujah! God has brought different people on our path that we see as significant and key people in Capricorn. One of them is a young guy around 25 years of age, his name is Samuel. Kevin met him and started to talk with him and saw his genuine heart for the Lord and how he was hungry for more of God. He kept meeting up with Samuel regularly because of the potential he saw in him. After a while we started to pray about the idea of bringing Samuel in to do a Discipleship Training School (one of the main schools that is connected to Youth With a Mission) we asked Samuel to pray about it and two weeks ago he came here on the base to start his DTS. It is awesome to see how God has brought us in contact with him and how much potential he has and now even the opportunity to get trained and equipped more in God and His Word.This is where our heart in pounding for, to connect with the people God sees as future leaders, to influence them, train them and release them in their communities so that they can influence others!
Another person we met is Sharon, during one of the days evangelizing in Capricorn we came in touch with her and she invited us into her house. She started sharing about after being cursed by a witchdoctor, everything in her life and house was going wrong and also lots of strange things were happening in her house during the night. Kevin started to speak life and light into her house and situation and something changed as the power of God came over her and touched her, she began to cry and wanted to give her life to the Lord Jesus Christ, we had the honor of leading her and her household to Jesus, we anointed the house, prayed over it and from that day on they had peaceful nights.
Last Friday we started to hold a Bible study group of woman in her house it was wonderful to see how God has been working in her life. Sharon is going full for the Lord as she has a desire to be a mother in faith for many and God is already using that so much as He is bringing so many woman to her house where she can share the good news with.
This is not happening without persecution, she is experiencing a lot of opposition from close people in her surrounding as her life has changed but she keeps on standing, not without tears and trouble but victorious through this all. To have a woman’s Bible study group in her house was one of her dreams and as more women will come she will soon lead her own Bible study group. A couple of weeks ago when we came by to see how she was doing there was a woman that came by her house that she invited and talked to as she is very sick with TB and addicted to drugs, she asked us if we could pray for her. After talking a bit with her she said that she didn’t want to live her life anymore in this way and that she wanted to follow Jesus. It was one of those moments where the presence of God came in the room, everybody was quit and it felt like we were standing on holy ground as she started to pray and ask Jesus to come into her life and to help her to follow Him. We prayed for healing and ministered the love of God to her. It was one of those special moments that you will never forget.
Since the last two weeks we have been asked to lead half of the DTS (21 people) on Friday from 10.30am to 2.30 pm into an outreach in Capricorn. This has been answer to prayer because there is so much to do in Capricorn that the more people the better. So for two weeks now every Friday we come in with a bunch of awesome people, we split them up into groups some go street evangelizing, another group sets up a tent and pray for healing, deliverance and give words of encouragement, some go to the woman’s Bible study, some go do house visits and pray for people and another group go to a orphanage to spend time with the children there. It is awesome to hear the testimonies when they come back and see the list of names they have written down of more people to visit and prayers requests people ask for. Last Friday there were three people added to the kingdom of God, praise Jesus!! We have their names and contact information and will follow up on them. It is great to see how God is working in Capricorn and with us starting we get more structure and God is adding onto it. Our vision is to have an everlasting impact on this community. If people give their lives to the Lord we will follow up with them, connect them with a church and a Bible study group so we can see them being discipeled. We are very thankful for this opportunity and we want to thank encourage all of you who stand with us to see the people of Capricorn brought closer to the heart of Jesus through your prayer and support.
Not only in Jerusalem.
For the past months, Kevin has felt a strong desire and a calling upon his life to preach the good news of Jesus Christ to the nations around the world. But he was asking God if this was his season since He told us to settle down here in South Africa. On the 23rd of October 2011, in the middle of the night an angel woke Kevin up by knocking him on his forehead. The angel spoke to him and said: Not only in Jerusalem. After this the Holy Spirit led him to the book of Acts 1:8 when Jesus told the disciples that they will be His witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. As we read this we can see that His disciples were already in Jerusalem waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit. There are many people that refer to Jerusalem as only their own home town or country but as we see in the Word of God that of the twelve disciples of Jesus eleven of them where Galilean and not from Jerusalem. Now because they were already in Jerusalem Jesus said to them that you will be my witnesses starting in Jerusalem. Until this visitation Kevin always believed that Sweden was his Jerusalem, but after this visitation he truly started to see that wherever in the world that God has us stationed, that is our Jerusalem.
Since the 23rd of October Kevin has been praying that if God has called him to preach not only in Jerusalem, that He would show Kevin where to go. By the grace of God Kevin received an invitation to go to Uganda to preach in Christian seminars and open air crusades by the end of April. We are very excited because we believe that this trip is on the heart and the timing of God. We expect great things to be experienced and learned through this trip.
We realize how blessed we are with all of you who are standing with us in prayer and support. God has truly been faithful to us and our prayer for you is that the Father of glory may continue to bless you with His everlasting peace and joy. Thank you so much and know that the kingdom of God is advancing as we, the Body of Christ, are marching forward in unity and oneness through His power and grace.
Love and blessings,
Kevin and Mariëlla Kazemi
www.flamesofpassion.com
