Freedom Over Fear
Hello JPM Family,
We want to first thank you for remaining loyal to the mission of advancing God’s Kingdom and your willingness to do so through JPM. Thank you for your generous donations, for your prayers and also for your engagement with us on social media!
This week, JPM Team is presently in New Mexico on the Navajo Reservation serving in the BACA – PRUITT District near the community between Grants & Thoreau.
While practically meeting the needs of this community through food and water provisions, stories and songs, new clothing and dresses, and additional necessities of life, we have encountered heavy spiritual attack.
Before we share a couple of examples of this, we want to impress upon you the craftiness of the enemy and how he attempts to undermine and underemphasize his doings amongst Christians.
The more that Christians brush things off or make excuses for seemingly insignificant occurrences, the more Satan can build on that and continue to make his way through our lives and carry out his plans.
With that being said, there have been several instances in our time here at the Reservation where we have not gotten too far into our day and we were all already exhausted. Other instances where we’ve gone to a restaurant to eat and had to wait at least 15 minutes for anyone to even address us. Now let’s pause.
This has nothing to do with impatience, inconvenience, or even quality of service, but instead, we believe it has everything to do with Satan delaying and ultimately derailing our effectiveness while on mission in this area. We felt him preventing us from physical nourishment in order to weaken us physically, to frustrate us mentally and to distract us from what we came to do.
We chose to include this seemingly insignificant story in this newsletter as a reminder to all of us to stay vigilant! Sometimes Satan is most effective when he can slide into our lives in seemingly insignificant ways and then get away with not taking any of the credit. If he doesn’t get the credit, then instead of rebuking Satan, we turn against each other, we get frustrated with those around us and he wins again.
We invite you to pray alongside us for yourselves and for us that we may mutually encourage each other to have spiritual eyes to see and combat Satan when he tries to move in our lives because he will. It’s not a question of if but when.
While the enemy will try to have his fun, God is always victorious! We got to witness this through the perseverance of many of the children along with their families as we watched them combat demonic attacks and the dwelling of evil and demons in these places.
JPM got to witness a situation where a mother has admittedly been living in complete fear of either herself or her children dying from sickness for the past two years. So much so that she has not sent her children to school for the last 2 years.
A local pastor in this area, Pastor Cecil Lewis (President of the region’s Council) was able to discern and ultimately pray against the spirit of fear in this mother. When he began to pray, the mother’s arms were crossed and her demeanor was resistant.
As Pastor Cecil continued to pray, he began to weep and the mother’s arms fell to her sides and her palms opened up. Eventually the mother began to weep and her arms were in the air! She was experiencing breakthrough and freedom in Jesus!
What a beautiful miracle to witness. The next day, the mother signed her kids back up for school and by Monday, they were in the classroom. What is important to note about this story is not whether parents should send their kids to school or opt to homeschool.
What is important about this story is that we should never make a decision from a place of fear, but instead, from a place of freedom, wisdom and truth - saturated in prayer. This mother went from a place of daily fear for her life and her children’s lives to a place of rest and assurance in Jesus who has the ultimate authority over everything - including life and death!
JPM will return again this month (November) to the Navajo Reservation to bring another donated vehicle to be used by Pastor Cecil Lewis! He has agreed to partner with us by using this truck to regularly deliver food and water to the children and families of this area. Again, providing resources such as vehicles helps limit the need for JPM to always travel to these areas to provide their needs. Instead, we aim to equip the communities to help meet their needs!
JPM will also be returning to the Roatan Islands, Honduras this month. There is a shipping container of food to be delivered from the mainland to the JPM Team. JPM will then deliver the food to the local families who desperately need it. Trucking the food across the island to places and locations which are only reachable by 4-wheel drive truck will bring blessings to the friends of Roatan Island of Honduras. This will happen the Saturday after Thanksgiving!
JPM Gatlinburg Christmas Missions Project will be our last project of 2021. As is our annual service project tradition, we will provide Christmas blessings to over 100 families in Sevier County, Tennessee! Click here to learn more about this project!
Thank you for your encouragement, your prayers, and your support for JPM; as we continue to go to the locations in this world which are desperate for food and clean water for these children and families. Because of your donations, JPM has 1 well (built via the DRILL-A-WELL Project) placed in the Navajo Reservation where we refilled 2 water containers this month to help prepare families for the upcoming winter.
Many of us have found ourselves praying for these families throughout the day and in the evenings. Many of you have received texts from us asking for prayer as we work in the battle grounds of evil. Demonic forces are fiercely at work in this region, but we serve a much fiercer, stronger God! Thank you for your spiritual partnership in this mission!
Blessings and love to you,
Joey & Cathy
