The Beginning of The End

As the semester draws to an end we are reminded of the amazing weekend we recently had with John Paul. He came on Wednesday, March 13th to visit Streams Canada. On Thursday morning he met with the leaders at the Coopers’ house and that night he spoke to all the interns. Over the next couple days he taught us about soul rule vs. spirit rule and the power of agreement.
Saturday night Streams Canada hosted ‘An Evening With John Paul Jackson’ at a local Mennonite church. Around three hundred people attended this event. Worship was led by Kelly Steeper, one of our leaders. John Paul spoke about the difference between the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
The next morning John Paul talked at The Way, the church we’ve been attending. Afterwards we all left for the protocol ceremony (discussed in the previous blog).
It was an important weekend that began the end of this trimester.


~Hannah Stinton

"I Will Hear From Heaven...."

This last month we’ve been taught a lot about protocol and healing the land. Last weekend Streams Canada got to experience the power of protocol.
The Bible states four things that defile the land:
1. Idolatry-Jeremiah 16:18
2. Immorality-Leviticus 18:22-26
3. Broken Covenant-Isaiah 24
4. Innocent Bloodshed-Numbers 35:33
When the land is defiled it defiles the people.

God gave the stewardship of North America to the First Nations people. When the settlers came over from Europe, instead of asking for permission to come on the land, they stole it. All over North America the land is scarred by broken treaties that our governments made with the First Nations people and with their innocent blood. The land is defiled.
In 2nd Chronicles 7:14 the Bible says ‘If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my name and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.’
When we go to protocol the land we do the exact opposite that was done by the settlers. We ask permission to be on the land instead of taking it. We love instead of hate and mistrust. The whole process of protocol is all about honor and respect.
Tom and Nadine Zawacki’s church in Washington did protocol with the First Nation there. They asked permission to be on the land and repented to them for all the things that the settlers had done to that tribe. They did what 2nd Chronicles said to do and within six months after the ceremony 26 churches joined in a 40 day period of praying, fasting, and repentance.
Streams Canada felt like it was necessary to ask permission from the Tsawwassen First Nation to be on the land since God had entrusted them with it to begin with. John Paul got in contact with Linda Prince, the former Grand Chief of Canada, about the idea. Through prayer and God’s grace, things fell into place perfectly and within two weeks Linda and John Paul were sitting in our living room explaining the importance of protocol.
At first the ceremony was to take place in the home of one of the chiefs and only John Paul, Eric, and Joni were invited. By the weekend that had changed and it was being held in the Long House and all the interns were invited.
The ceremony took place Sunday afternoon. Tom and Nadine Zawacki joined us from Kennewick for this occasion. We stood in the Long House entry way while we waited for the ceremony to begin. We entered, following the drummers, with John Paul, Eric, Joni, Tom, and Nadine in the lead. They sang the ‘Welcoming Song’ while we walked in a long procession around the Long House fires twice before taking our seats. The ceremony began with explanation about the Long House and the Tsawwassen First Nations culture. Then John Paul, the Coopers, and the Zawacki’s presented the elders with gifts of blankets and oil and some of the interns presented gifts they had brought. After that John Paul asked permission to be on the land and repented for our ancestors sins against them. The request was granted and the elders presented our five leaders with gifts.
So this last weekend all of us at Streams Canada got to witness first hand an act of healing the land. We can’t wait to see what will happen next!

~Hannah Stinton

In Your Dreams!!!

Tom Zawacki and Dawn Coffin were here again this last weekend to teach the 202: Advanced Workshop In Dream Interpretation. They flew in from the Tri-Cities on Wednesday afternoon and Tom gave impartation that night. He talked about Hebrews 10:9 which says “ He sets aside the first to establish the second.” A lot of the time God will strip away the old things in our lives to bring us the new things He has for us. When God created the world the first thing He did was separate light from darkness. This is a process that He also does in our lives.“ The closer I get to the Light the more of my shadows I see,” says Tom.

The next morning Tom went to the Coopers and spoke to the leaders and Dawn came to the intern house and talked to the interns. Dawn talked about how we grow spiritual fruit in our hearts. We really need to make sure its good fruit not just for our sakes but for the people around us who will be receiving it from us. We also need to make sure the fruit we eat from other people is good because it will effect us regardless of whether it’s good or bad.

The 202 started Thursday night and ended Saturday night. We interpreted each others dreams as a whole on a white-board and in small groups. We also studied dreams in the Bible and ‘street dreams‘ which are basic dreams that are common to hear when interpreting dreams on outreaches. It was a good ‘hands-on” learning experience. All of us have a new grasp and understanding on dreams after this weekend.

" Excuse Me, Do You Have A Dream......?"

All trimester we have been looking forward to having a man named Recie Saunders come and teach. This last week he was finally here. Recie is part of an Itinerate Ministry Team and teaches all around the world. He arrived in Vancouver on the 28th of February and left on the 2nd of March While he was here, he talked a lot about prophet evangelism and what that looks like.
He told us not to go into evangelism with an agenda but with love. “Ask God to break your heart for the things that break His heart,” says Recie. “Also remember that Jesus is the Lord of the Harvest and it’s not our job to get people to change their minds or get them to the point of saying the sinner’s prayer.”
In the past the church has gotten a bad reputation for being judgmental and abrasive when it comes to evangelism. Many well meaning Christians have given Christianity a bad name by condemning people in the name of God. Since many people of the world have experienced a harsh form of evangelism, if we tell them that we are Christians or say words like ‘God’ or ‘Bible’ they put up walls and won’t listen to what we have to say.
Recie taught us to use regular language rather than Christian lingo while giving prophetic words on the street so people will stay open to us. For example saying “good things are coming your way” rather than “you are blessed”, or using ‘the Great Spirit’ rather than ‘God’ or the ‘Holy Spirit’.
Friday afternoon all the interns hit the streets of Granville Island to practice dream interpretation and giving ‘spiritual readings’ on people. It was raining a little but that stopped no one. We split into groups of three and walked up to people and asked them if we could interpret their dream or give them an ‘encouraging word’ or a ‘spiritual reading’. The people we talked to were very open to what we had to say and felt encouraged by what was said to them.

Recie also spoke to us about healing the land. This is very important because when the land is defiled it also defiles the people who come on it.
The Bible states four things that defile the land:
1. Idolatry-Jeremiah 16:18
2. Immorality-Leviticus 18:22-26
3. Broken Covenant-Isaiah 24
4. Innocent Bloodshed-Numbers 35:33

All over North America the land is scarred by broken treaties that our governments made with the First Nations people and with their innocent blood. The only thing that will make the land clean again is our repentance to the First Nations (2nd Chronicles 7:14).

Friday morning Recie talked about lucid dreaming. Lucid dreaming is when you know you are dreaming and can change the dream. This type of dreaming is very powerful because when you are sleeping you are in the spiritual realm and your spirit can do anything. Changing the direction of your dream can change the direction of your life.
It was really good to learn and experience what evangelism is really all about. All of us benefited from learning about lucid dreaming and healing the land. Recie challenged us to take risks and to love like Jesus did.

~Hannah Stinton

Girl Power!!!!!!!!!!

Last night all the Streams girls went to meet with a group of women called the Company of Deborah’s. This group meets in New Westminster, BC, about once a month. This is the second time we’ve been invited to minister to this group.
Kelly Steeper, one of our leaders, taught about prophetic evangelism and what that look likes in our daily lives. She talked about the woman at the well in John 4:11 and how Jesus told her about her life. The woman didn’t feel condemned about what He had said but talked to Him about the Messiah. Jesus gave her hope.
“Love never fails,” Kelly said, “When you can’t think of anything to say, love. When you can’t think of anything to do, hug. It’s easy to be a light in very dark places.”
She ended the teaching with 1 Corinthians 4:20 which says: “ For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.” After that the intern girls taught prophetic exercises to empower the ladies to hear God’s voice for themselves and to put it into practice in their lives. We prayed for those who needed it as well.
The whole night went really well and all the women had fun. Everyone got to practice their prophetic gift in a safe environment and also received words from each other. They were all very appreciative and we hope to do more with them in the future.


~Hannah Stinton

God, Green, and Good

This morning we had a session with Joni and discussed the importance of taking care of the planet. We watched a video from www.storyofstuff.com about consumption, production, and waste.
The video talked about how things are made, what they are made of, who makes them, and how are they disposed of. It was shocking to hear that so many of things we eat, wear, drink from, and even sit or sleep on contain toxic materials. Also that they are produced for us in factories overseas where the work is grueling and the working conditions are even worse.
Often these products are poorly made so that they need to be replaced quickly. Some of the defective products are dumped into a landfill. Some are burned before being put in a landfill, a process which releases a dangerous toxin called Dioxin into our air.
In the internship we try to repair things instead of buying new things, we recycle, and eat organically as often as possible.
The Bible says that the heavens, the earth, and everything in them belongs to God (Deuteronomy 10:14; 1Chronicles 29:11; Psalm24:1-2). As Christians we believe that we should be avid about taking care of our environment. God gave us authority on earth so we should be setting an example for others by taking care of what God has entrusted to us. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit so we know we need to take good care of them.
It has been really beneficial for us to learn about how to be good stewards of what God has given us.

~Hannah Stinton

Bruce and Lorraine Freisen

On the 7th and 8th of February Bruce and Lorraine Friesen came here to impart to us and teach us. The Friesens pastor the Lion of Judah Church in Victoria, BC. We had the opportunity to work with their church when we did an outreach there in November.

Both Bruce and Lorraine are avid studiers of the Word and have keen insight into scripture, science, and everyday life. As they taught us they stressed the point of relationship with God and the realization of how much we are loved by God. We can’t improve on who He made us and there is nothing we can do to make Him more pleased with us. All we have to do is live through the revelation that He loves us.
Bruce studies astronomy a lot and during the second teaching session he talked about signs in the heavens. In Psalm 19 the Bible says this: ‘The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech: night after night they display knowledge.’ The Hebrew word for ‘pour forth speech’ literally means ‘they prophesy’.
In Luke 2 Magi from the East saw a star and recognized that the king of the Jews had been born. God used a star to proclaim the birth of Jesus. The word ‘Magi’ means ‘scientist or astrologer.’ These men from the East could read the stars and knew the signs of the times.

The truth is that God created everything. Satan cannot create anything but counterfeits the things of God by taking Him out of the picture. If there is a counterfeit there has to be an original. The passage in Psalms says that the stars proclaim the glory of God. Things like astrology and horoscopes put man at the center. Thus, what God created to be pure and holy is tainted by the enemies abuse.

Bruce also emphasized the importance of worship in our daily lives. “ Whoever offers a sacrifice of praise and thanks prepares the way the Lord,” says Bruce, “Its not about how you feel. Its about getting to the place where you say ‘ I don’t know why this is happening but Lord, I know that you are good and that you love me.’ Once you lift your hands up to God and stop wringing them you make a way for Him to move on your behalf.”

We all enjoyed having Bruce and Lorraine here. They really challenged and encouraged us to think outside the box and their insights into life and scripture is incredible. After they left everyone felt spiritually filled.
.

~Hannah Stinton

Spiritual Creativity

Every Thursday morning Joni teaches Spiritual Creativity. This is a class that exercises the right side of our brains from a spiritual viewpoint. We believe that art is a form of worship as God himself is the ultimate artist.
Our activities in this class range from making comic strips to writing short stories. Its really fun to get our creative juices flowing and learning a lot in the process. Many of us are finding we have a creative side that we’ve never known about.
Something Joni teaches is that God’s great love for us inspired His great art. Also that the world’s greatest paintings, pictures, music, and writings will be born out of a great love for God. The more pure and powerful the worship the more pure and powerful art.

One night we painted pictures for other interns and saw how art can be used to speak prophetically into someone‘s life.
A few weeks ago we saw a light-hearted side to creativity. We got into groups of two and made comic strips. It was really funny to learn how everyone’s mind worked when it came to jokes. A lot of interns even found themselves as the subject in a comic.
Lately we’ve been focusing on illustrations and animation and just started working on four short animated films. We’ll be doing this and more during the semester.
God has been speaking a lot through our creativity and we’re seeing the fruit of it in our lives.

~Hannah Stinton

Taking the 201

This last weekend we took the 201: Understanding Dreams and Visions. Tom Zawacki and Dawn Coffin were teaching the class. Tom and Dawn are the pastor and assistant pastor of a Bridge Church in Kennewick, Washington. Tom is also on the Bridge Churches Board of Directors. They arrived in Richmond on Wednesday afternoon and imparted to all the interns that night.
The class started Thursday night at 7:00. We had a lot of people register. One man flew all the way from Hong Kong to take this class and many others came from various parts of Canada.
The 201 was an amazing course. It teaches about the differences between dreams and visions and how God speaks to us while we sleep. There were prophetic exercises and examples of dreams to interpret together as a class. The course also gave lots of tips on how to reach the lost through the dreams God gives them.
All this went on from Thursday until Saturday night. After the last session Tom and Dawn lined up all the students and prayed for each one individually. Eric and Joni joined them as did all the leaders from our internship. It was a great end to a wonderful course.

What God is Doing at The Way

Since the start of the internship last September, we have been attending a church here in Richmond called The Way. It’s the largest growing church in the area and as the Sunday morning services are held in a movie theatre, it smells like popcorn.
The people at The Way have adopted us and now feel like family. The church has a heart to reach out to the community with the love of God and bring His light. You feel loved when you walk through the door. It’s really nice for all of us, so far from home, to have a church body that is so inviting.
The hunger these people have for God is amazing and He‘s been showing up. Over the last few months the Lord has invaded every area in the church and everyone is hungry for more. There has been an increasing desire and interest for the Spiritual gifts and to see God moving in daily life.
All the Interns have had the opportunity to join the prayer teams on Sunday mornings. We’ve been doing prophetic ministry and prayer every Sunday. We’ve seen a lot of healings in the last few months and God is touching people’s hearts.
We had an opportunity this last weekend to teach the 101: The Art of Hearing God course to the church. The class was held at a Mennonite church in Richmond and was taught to about 50 people, not including the Streams Interns that were there. It ended Saturday night and we got to give prophetic ministry to everyone. It was incredible.
I love being a part of what God is doing at The Way. It’s neat to see the church grow and change just as we are. God has been doing so much in the last 5 months and I can’t wait to see what’s coming next!

~ Hannah Stinton

Winter Class of 2008