June 2011
It has been another wonderful month! God is always moving and we are so thankful to be His hands & feet. If you have been a partner with us for very long, you may have heard me mention my “dream” of having a mass outreach all across the world with 50 evangelists reaching the lost all in the same weekend. Well, it looks like this may come to pass. I have prayed about this for many years!! I’ve been asked to be a part of a global outreach with the goal of touching millions around the world. Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke, Cindy Jacobs, Dr. Lauren Cunningham (Founder of Youth with a mission YWAM) , and many others are teaming together to be a part of this event. We are currently planning to hold this outreach weekend in May of 2012. This energizes and ignites me very much because it has the potential to bring in a great harvest of souls and possibly train tens of thousands of people on how to share the Gospel!!
As many of you know, I train the local church on how to effectively share the Gospel, and then join them to win their city. I often ask people who come for the outreach if they know at least ten scriptures on how to lead someone to Christ. Only three to fifteen percent raise their hand. So when I imagine that people all across this nation and other nations will be TRAINED to lead people to Christ, I stand amazed at God’s faithfulness. I have already held a conference call with a key leader of this movement, and I am already working diligently to make this effort a success! THANK YOU for partnering with me to see this great harvest of souls!
My wife Trisha and I were honored to have lunch with Dr. Dennis and Ginger Lindsay (current president and CEO of Christ For The Nations Bible Institute). Dr. Lindsay wants to send me to represent C.F.N.I. as a young leader at Regent University in Virginia to be a part of a steering team for Empowerment 21. This is a major event where pentecost is discussed and the future of the church. The top church leaders from around the country will be in attendance. It is such an honor to be asked to do this!
Recently I was also given oversight to the evangelism student ministry at C.F.N.I. It is a real honor to be a part of raising up the next generation of evangelists. As you know, I am the instructor of evangelism there and will start leading the evangelism student ministry next semester. As you partner with us you are a part of raising up the next generation of young evangelists that will touch this nation and the nations of the world.
It was a joy to be with a good friend of mine, Pastor Harold McKeehan in Gans Oklahoma this past month. This is a church that has partnered with me for over a year now, and I appreciate everyone there. As always, God showed up and peoples lives were changed!
I also had the honor of being with Pastor Sam Hinn at The Gathering Place. As some of you may know, Pastor Sam Hinn has taken on the role as the interim pastor at our home church, Heartland World Ministries, while Pastor Steve Hill has been battling cancer. Pastor Sam travels from Sanford, FL to be with Heartland once a month, along with many other duties he now carries. He has been a tremendous blessing to Steve Hill, our church, and me personally. At the services I held at The Gathering Place, many souls were saved and people were touched by the power of God.
Pastor Sam said that a deposit was made into the church, and he was excited about what God had done. Immediately after the Sunday morning service, he received a call about a member in his church who already led someone to Christ in the grocery store! Praise God!! He wants us to come back and hold an Acts 29 weekend.
Please continue to pray for Pastor Steve. A doctor told me he has experienced a medical miracle. However, he has not been cleared of cancer so continue to lift him up in prayer.
We were also blessed to minister at Trinity Lighthouse Church in Denison TX with Pastor Raymond England. We had some powerful services!! Souls were saved and people were healed! The Sunday night service had a strong manifestation of the power of God! We have been invited back to hold an Acts 29 outreach weekend.
And lastly, we just finished services at Oasis Church Assembly of God with Pastor Barney Huie in Garland, TX. We started the week with an Acts 29 outreach weekend, and around 30 people went out into the city. We received testimonies of people getting saved at their front door! Then we started some revival services that started Sunday and ended Wednesday night. Around 40 people were saved. All of the services were powerful. During one of the services at night many testified of being healed.
Over this past month many were healed, around 150 people repented and turned to Jesus, churches were ignited to preach the Gospel to the lost, and I had the honor to preach to many pastors at an area-wide pastors meeting, as well. A couple of new areas opened up to us to mobilize their entire area to reach the lost. There will be several churches coming together real soon.
We cannot say thank you enough for all of your prayer and support! You are a blessings to this ministry more than you will ever know. So much is happening and starting. We currently need to bring another assistant onto the team so please pray that God will lead us and send us the right person. As always, please continue to send us any of your prayer requests! We’re praying for you!
Together in the harvest,
Joe Oden