Hello Friends,

Two weeks in Africa and returning felt like waking up to a dream. The opportunity to go with Promised Land Ministries always felt tentative at best for me; not that I doubted Pastor Jozef Jasinski or his ministry for a moment, just the same old doubts I’d always had about me and whether I was actually useable for the Lord. I had felt the same way when I first went to Guatemala years ago, this diminished after the second and third mission down there. However this Africa thing with Tanzania, Rwanda and the upcoming three weeks in Nigeria seemed more important in as much as, if I “did not hold my end up” I could seriously affect the effort, especially since only two of us were traveling and I would be relied on, in what was obviously going to be a grueling time.

In retrospect I had been prepared for this for some time, working almost daily at The House of Refuge Mission for several years now had certainly helped me overcome my doubts about myself, to the point of really taking my eyes off myself and putting them on Jesus by choosing to believe that I must decrease and He must increase in me; that His grace was always sufficient for me, and that service is a decision and to loose oneself for Jesus sake so that the promise becomes the reality, that I can actually find my life by not actually seeking it but Him, His kingdom and His righteousness.

Here are my observations about the African mission, Pastor Jozef, and Promised Land ministries, in the light of the past two weeks.

Firstly for the sake of some background, I have been involved with PLM for over a year now, as work in The House of Refuge Mission made it clear that we needed some help in the area of deliverance; that is, the eviction, or at least control or suppression of unwanted spirits from the lives of the people who had professed faith in Christ but were still obviously bound up.

We had seen on numerous occasions these spirits manifest to some degree during ministry, by the word, by prayer, especially after, or during the preaching of the gospel, when the laying on of hands for healing, anointing with oil gets them riled up as much as anything.
So when I heard about the ministry of Promised Land, it seemed good to me to investigate and see if we could learn something that would help our people who were struggling so much.

It was clear even after my first visit, that Pastor Jozef and his team had a level of knowledge and anointing above that by which we were operating. They were open to us and freely gave us insight and teaching into how we could minister in this area; also I was able to see the level of genuine love shown to those who were hurting.

The call to take this ministry to “all the world” and the fact that most of this ministry (at home and abroad) was funded by the fruit of the work, meaning that a large proportion of the funding for t he work came from those who had been set free directly because of the ministry of PLM. Now I have been able to see how this ministry has been taken and shared with people in Africa who are not capable of returning any blessing.

In Tanzania we did two, three day ‘schools of deliverance 101’ what we consider to be the basics. However we know that much of which we teach is not well known, practiced or even believed in some of the traditional churches.
These schools consist of a series of approximately 15 teachings, explaining from a biblical as well as an experiential background, how the unclean spirits get involved in the lives of believers, how they are removed, maintenance and aftercare.

The object is to equip the churches (most of the people coming to the meetings were local pastors, church leaders and workers) with tools to cleanse the body of Christ from impure spirits which somehow have got into the fabric of believers lives and therefore the church at large. This is over and above the ‘kingdom living’ which we are used to in the north American churches such as, the crucified life, prayer and fasting, the word, fellowship and service.
The church on the whole that we encountered in Tanzania was largely similar to that of the north American model of conservative evangelical churches; by which I mean, they trusted in Jesus Christ as saviour and Lord, some (not all) were baptized in the Holy Ghost, with the evidence of speaking in tongues, they seemed happy and looked good on the outside. The main difference is that they were poorer, financially.

As we progressed with the teachings we discerned that there was a ‘wall’ which was hard to break through, so we asked the Lord for more anointing. Pastor Jozef had a 110 volt kettle which he used while traveling for making tea “No tea no preaching”, he discovered that the water boiled real fast when plugged into 220 volts! This is what we asked The Lord for, a double anointing, or more power.
When we came to a point were we asked the group if they had any problems they again reminded us of our North American Christians, they were all just fine. We at this point knew better.
These teachings end with what we call a mass deliverance; during which there are declarations, warfare prayers, and renunciations and so on. It was not long before the meeting began to erupt with evil spirits crying out, many were cast out, and almost all the people received a measure of freedom.

We invited the people to come up for prayer and dozens came up, the same ones who hours before had been ‘just fine’ were now confessing besetting sins, asking for healings from sicknesses that had been plaguing them for years, weeping before the alter in thanksgiving and repentance.
We (Pastor Jozef and I) were so glad that the Lord had moved on these people but were not surprised. We see this everywhere we go, although in some people there is more resistance due to pride and the like. We also notice that women are more apt to get freedom than the men, we believe that this is due in part to pride but also that the spiritual fabric of the women can be more fragile on the whole.

In less than two weeks (providing we get our visas) we will be heading back to Nigeria for 3 schools there. I hope this report has helped you understand what we are doing. Naturally I would be happy to talk to anyone about this ministry and to answer any questions you might have.

God Bless

Tim Gardner
House of Refuge Mission
780 983 4123
www.refugemission.com