Beginning to take the land

We are very excited to announce that we finished painting the outside of our house. We were also able to apply what we whave been learning about how to take land for the kingdom of God by annointing our house this month. It was a wonderful time of declaring that this house would be used for the kingdom of God and His purposes. This is one of the first steps as we begin to take land in our city for the kingdom of God.

Thank you so much for your prayers as Paul finished reading his books on spiritual warfare. He is now in the process of compiling a condessed version, which is over 100 pages of notes, of what he has read to use for teaching material. Yes, this is the condensed version. He also has given us each a different book to read about spiritual warfare or transformation, and we may add these into the teaching material notes. It has been exciting to hear what everyone is learning about.

While sharing about our trip to Guatemala and our vision of transformation to some friends of the Blake family, one lady told us that she had been involved in doing spiritual research for Kansas City. We now have all of the research from her city-wide project, and we have also been in contact with the historian for our suburb of Merriam. Merriam is actually our area of focus for transformation.

The renovations with the Merriam House of Prayer (MHOP) are being discussed. Paul, Mark, and Tom went to check out the condition of the building with Pastor Gillis, who runs the building. After we realized that Ezra/Nehmehiah/etc. were significant for this journey of ours, Pastor Gillis mentioned the same thing a few weeks later ... that these days are like when Ezra rebuilt the temple in the city. We have been encouraged by many small events like this, as He continues to provide various pieces of the puzzle for us. He is so good.

On a persoanal note:
Harrsion has joined student council at his school and started his basketball season. As for the baby, we were able to hear the heartbeat at our last visit to the midwife - Lauren is almost done with her first trimester. This Thanksgiving we went to visit Lauren's family in Florida; it was great to see everyone. We enjoyed the nice Florida weather and even had a friendly game of soccer in the backyard with the whole family. Thanks again for your prayers and support. As always we love to hear from you as well.