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Our Response · How to Be Involved · Highlights and Memories · Testimonials The Church
of Ottumwa At a pastor's retreat we agreed that the primary principality over this city was division. From the very first time we visited Ottumwa, we sensed in our spirit that we needed to, as one of the people put it, "punch a hole in the darkness over the city." Ottumwa is known as the city of bridges. On June 8, 2002, the city shut down one of the bridges. Liz led a group whose churches are on the North side of the river, Dale led a group of people whose churches were on the South side of the river, and they met in the middle of the closed bridge. Prayers of repentance were offered for division which existed among churches, races, families, political groups, sections of the city, and economic division. Tears often accompanied the prayers, for those offering the prayers, as well as for others who had joined the gathering. The prayers were powerful! Following this time of repentance, we read together a declaration which verbalized what we had done, and declared null and void the power of division over Ottumwa. As each group continued to the opposite side from which they started, they prayed blessing and prosperity over the city. We all gathered at a nearby park to worship and praise God for what had taken place.
The Church
of Hawaii (See the covenant*) The first segment was spent around the theme, "It's not great talent God blesses, so much as likeness to Jesus." Dale took the men and women through a study on holiness, and at the end, sent them away for a half hour to be alone and silent with God. The location of the retreat was a rain forest, which receives over 300 inches of rain a year. It rained the entire time we were there. Sometimes it was just a mist, but other times it was the hardest rain Dale had ever witnessed. At the end of the half hour the pastors returned and many of them were soaked. Not just wet but absolutely dripping puddles. Dale said to them, "I'm so sorry that you got all wet," to which one man replied, "Don't be sorry Dale, I did it on purpose. I stood in the rain and allowed Jesus to cleanse me once again. I have never been so clean!" Many of the men and women shared almost the exact same words in the testimony time which followed. They had stood in the rain as a symbol to God and themselves, that they wanted to be clean -- really clean. At another point the preaching was about a concept which we call the "Church of…" This is an expression for what God is doing in many cities in the United States right now. Across racial, theological and geographical barriers Christians are coming together to form the Church of a particular region; for example, the "Church of Modesto," the "Church of Colorado Springs," the "Church of Ottumwa," etc. Dale showed the pastors ten different covenants that ten different cities had written to affirm what God was doing in their areas. One pastor said,"Why can't we do this?" Dale responded that this was exactly what he hoped they would do. "No," the man replied, " I mean why can't we do it right now!" They did! They put together a rough draft of a covenant*, established an editorial committee to smooth out the rough draft, created a process for getting more input from pastors not present at the retreat, and set a signing date for the launch of the Church of Hawaii. The Church of Hawaii was birthed in theory that day. On April 2, 2002, a service was held and pastors from all the islands, from different church bodies, and different ethnic groups signed the covenant establishing "The Church of Hawaii." * The covenant is an Adobe Acrobat document, and you will need the free Acrobat Reader to view it. Copyright
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