Lanza

Wow! Just returned back to San Francisco yesterday from a two – week tour of Europe that was powerful and amazing. On the plane trip back I thought of how great it is that God allows us through Him to touch other people’s lives. A prayer, a word from God or a call to salvation can literally change someone’s life forever. This is just one of the many incredible things about our God and this is always what I remember most from our trips. Not the events or the locations but the people. It is a big blessing to be able to travel 6,000 miles away and to touch people’s lives with the love and power of God.

On this trip we were in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. God also allowed us to spend a day in Paris. My wife Anne has always wanted to go to Paris and so as a 25th wedding anniversary surprise we took the bullet train from Brussels to Paris and spent the day there. So not only did God allow us to minister in Europe but He also fulfilled the desires of our hearts. One of my favorite promises of God is in the 37th chapter of the book of Psalms where it says, “Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.”

So many incredible things happened on this trip and I know the other members of the group have lots of testimonies which we will share in future Blogs. Let me just share one of the events that blessed me. In Rintetln, Germany we met a young man named Hannas. This young man was on fire for God and was working as an intern for the church. One of the ministers at the church told us that the first time Hannas had ever come to church was the last time we were in Rinteln in 2007. Hannas came to one of our Saturday night worship concerts where he experienced the presence of God in such a powerful way that it changed his life. When they told me this I remembered that the next day we came to church early for the Easter Sunday service.

When we arrived the church was locked but there was a young boy waiting outside the church to get in for the service. He was so anxious to go to church that he had been waiting for over an hour at the church door. That young man was Hannas. Seeing Hannas again was such a great blessing for us. God allowed us to see the fruits of our labors. This goes back to what I was saying at the beginning of this Blog. God uses us to touch others lives. Sometimes we see the fruits of our labors and other times we plant seeds and touch people’s lives and don’t realize the many, many people we effect for eternity. In all of the concerts and services we had while on this trip our prayer was ” God use us”. We also prayed this over many of the people. At a Friday night youth event in Rinteln, Germany we had all the young people come up and pray that God would give them boldness and use them in their schools, at their jobs and in their homes and neighborhoods to bring those that they meet to Christ.

This is my prayer today and this our prayer for you.
“God put people in my path that you want me to minister to. Give me boldness. Speak to me and give me an obedient heart. Use me to do Your will and work through me to bring more souls into Your kingdom. In Jesus Name. Amen.”

We’ll write more in future Blogs. In the meantime it’s great to be back with our VOP family. To all our friends in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands we love and miss you and pray we will see you all again very soon.

God bless you all
Doug Lanza