October 28th 2008


Dear Friends,


It is with mixed feelings that I write this letter. We are on the threshold of a new time in our life and we are very excited about all that God has in store for us, while at the same time we are leaving our family and very dear friends here in America.


Before leaving for America the Lord gave us a picture of a bow and arrow and told us that our time here would be a time of pulling back further into Him. He said that to many it would seem like we were going in the wrong direction and that we ourselves would feel a tension just as with the bow as the pulling back is happening there is tension because the bow string is being pulled from its position. The Lord showed us that although we were pulling back it was necessary in order to adjust and sharpen our aim and that even though we were pulling back we would always be pointed in the direction of the target. He said that as we learned to come deeper into him and receive the strength, power and focus that we would need to be able to hit the mark, we would find that when we went out we would not only hit the mark, but that we would penetrate deep into the heart of the enemy’s territory. It was very interesting that just after moving to America my dad began teaching our children archery and then for Christmas bought bows and arrows for the family. We felt it was a very prophetic picture and confirmation to us from our heavenly father that this was truly very significant for us.


Well…what can I say! If ever there has been a time that we have pulled deep into the presence of God it has been in these past two years where Peter has been overwhelmed by this terrible itching and then the cancer diagnosis. We have learned to run into His arms in ways we never thought possible. We have learned more about His tender mercy, amazing grace, passionate love, tender compassion, awesome holiness, unfathomable patience, never ending faithfulness, perfect will, glorious goodness…the list goes on and with every word is infinite depth…He is so awesome, so majestic!


These past two years we have truly been in a desert place geographically, but also in our physical being. Long nights of pain and unending torment where we have cried out to God for mercy and worshipped Him with desperate hearts as one lost in the desert, desperate for water. At times He met us then and there and his presence would fill the room and we would feel the refreshing of his Spirit being poured out like water on a parched tongue. Other times His mercy would come with the rising of the sun and in spite of no sleep and much groaning and crying we would feel hope rising up within us like the bright morning sun.


It is so easy to despise the desert times, but something we have learned from living here in the desert is that the desert is full of life if only it is watered. If you pour water onto the dry ground within no time at all you will have plants and flowers springing up and beauty all around you. We have found that as we have been in this desert time and turned our eyes to Jesus and allowed God to pour out his Spirit on us we have seen growth and beauty beginning to grow in areas of our lives that we never thought possible…or knew we needed! We have become more tender and compassionate, we have seen strongholds and mindsets fall away and in their place Kingdom truth established in us. We have begun to see people and situations through Jesus’ eyes and not our own worldly sunglasses that block the son from shining his light on the situation. We have become less driven and more moved. We have become more patient and less anxious…we are not there yet and we know that. We hope that we will always continue to grow and be molded and formed into the people God created us to be, but we are so grateful to God for the work that He has begun in us through this desert time. He is so good to allow us the opportunity to grow and change so that we can come into deeper and more intimate fellowship with him!


I have been meaning to write for some time after our day of prayer and fasting and time has just gotten away from me with all of the preparations and packing and moving, but there have been some significant things that the Lord has been showing us that I would like to share with you. If you remember, we felt very strongly that we were to focus on the story of Lazarus for some time and Peter had a revelation about the stone being rolled away by the friends and family of Lazarus. This brought us to the place where we felt we should call for the day of prayer. I can honestly say that on that particular day we felt a very distinct shift take place both in us personally and in the spirit. We couldn’t put our finger on it specifically, but we felt it. After the day of prayer I was asking the Lord “What now?” and He said very clearly to me, “Go back to the story of Lazarus.” As I was reading the story I came to the place where Jesus called Lazarus to come forth and I sensed the Lord said three things to me.


First, that the shift we had felt was Him calling Peter into life and that the words had been spoken.


Second, that Lazarus had to walk out of the tomb IN HIS GRAVE CLOTHES. I felt the Lord say that Peter was now to walk out his healing, but it also occurred to me that it must not have been easy for Lazarus to walk out of the tomb all wrapped up. I could imagine it was a little like two steps forward one step back…


Third, that Jesus told the friends and family to remove the grave clothes…isn’t it interesting that Jesus had them remove the grave clothes AFTER he had walked out of the tomb and not before…I found that interesting. I feel that Peter is in a process of walking out of the tomb. I do not have a revelation as to what it means that the friends and family removed the grave clothes, but I am not concerned as I believe that the revelation will come in due time.


We are very excited about what God has for us in Europe and we are very excited about coming back home. We love America and we love our friends and family, but we also realize that God is calling us into a new time and we are sensing that we are on the verge of the release of prophecies that we have been receiving for over 15 years that we have been waiting to see fulfilled! We are not discouraged, we are not returning because we are afraid Peter is going to die, we are not hopeless, and we do not feel helpless! We are tired, we are battle weary, we are still suffering and our nights, and many days, are still torturous. However, we see that there is a joy set before us and we know that we are not alone, but that the God of all creation, the one Who formed us and predestined us for his purposes, holds us in the palm of his hand and we are content in the knowledge that He is in control and we can rest in that knowledge.


Today (Tuesday) is our last day in Yuma and early Wednesday morning we will leave for Denmark. We will be there for a few days to rest before heading to Poland, Slovakia and Hungary by car. We will have the opportunity to see both of our girls there and we will meet up with Elizabeth and Matt and Matt’s parents to spend a few days together and plan the wedding among other things! We will have meetings and a conference and then we will return to Denmark and fly to Chi.na where we will be teaching for several days together with my mom and step dad. We will then all fly to Thailand where we will be teaching on a youth leadership training course (PCYM) for a week. We will return to Denmark on December 9th and head straight to the YWAM base where we will live for the next 6 months or more until we plan to move back to Hungary.


We would appreciate your prayers as we begin this time of travelling and new season in our lives. We would also appreciate your prayers for CammiAnn as she has very mixed feelings about this move. She is very excited about going back to Europe and has been longing to return for some time, but of course it is difficult to leave family and good friends and not to mention her cat that she is very attached to.


We have been so blessed by the scriptures, prayers and emails encouraging us recently. I have simply not had time to sit down and reply to everyone, but please know that it means so much to us. We read every one…sometimes several times and all the scriptures and even have a printout of all the scriptures that have been sent to us over the past year. We read them out loud regularly. We also have a list of all of the people that have sent prayer requests and we pray for every one of you regularly who have asked for prayer. So although you may not hear from us you are in our thoughts and prayers on a continual basis!


Thank you for all your love, prayers and support over the years, not least of all this past year! May the Lord bless you and may you know His peace and comfort in all circumstances!


Blessings,


Shanie


PS. I just want to mention that our very dear friend Nurlan, who is from Kyrgyzstan and currently living in the Faroe Islands, came all the way over here to spend 8 days helping us pack and move and prepare for a garage sale! I don’t know what I would have done without him and I just think everyone should know what a wonderful friend he is and how utterly thankful we are to him! Nurlan you are an angel and Jorun (his wife) bless you for giving us your husband for that time in spite of the fact that you have four small children to care for yourself! May the Lord bless you richly!



New mailing address:
C/O UMO, Randersvej 195, 8544 Morke, Denmark