Merry Christmas...

The internet is getting progressively slower, and I have less and less time to spend on it every time I waltz over to this here internet cafe, so photo's probably won't be loaded much anymore, especially on this blog, so just check out the myphotoalbum if you want to see stuff.

So, in case I didn't say it already, we are probably going to Israel, Lebanon, and Northern Cyprus for our outreach. We will leave on the second of January, which is a whole week earlier than planned, but that's cool too.

The bad thing is, as a whole, we are short about 4000 £, or like 10 000 Canadian dollars. or like 9000 American dollars, or like 4750 British pounds. Whatever way you would like to look at it, it is a lot of money. I'm not telling you this to send me money (unless God is calling you to), but I would love to see God really move supernaturally in our finances and provide all of this money out of thin air. We are all from Westernized cultures, and don't have much faith in these areas. As in, as Canadians, Americans, Australians, and Europeans, we are all priviledged enough to trust ourselves with money and not God, which means we need to grow in our faith in finances. I can't tell if I'm being clear or not, so just pray for us, please, that God would really show his power by miraculously providing for our outreach finances, visas, and passport stuff.

So, since my parents are in Alberta now, and obviously can't check their Camp Qwanoes email address unless they are in Alberta, I will probably not hear from you two again until I am in Lebanon. Cahrazy. I hope you both have a great Christmas with the family and everything, and I am very jealous in a non-sinful way.

As a group, lately, we have been really struggling with getting along and accepting each other for who we are, and I am part of that problem. Let's just say, a lot of people here chew with their mouths open, and thanks to a couple of strict parents, I have a huge phobia/peeve/I-absolutely-go-nuts-when-people-do-it of open mouth sucking or chewing or anything. Mouth noises in general drive me crazy. This sounds like it's just funny, but we have an Arab-Australian, and he lives with me, and I literally have to leave the room or turn up some 'Enter The Worship Circle' whenever he eats near me. And another girl opens up a jolly-rancher every class and moves it around her mouth, clanking it on her teeth for like an hour every day. It's actually kind of serious, and I'm very distracted during class, and during meals I can't have good fellowship because I'm horrified at peoples' manners, and both of those are huge problems for me. So if you could pray that I will accept these quirks and focus on what Jesus loves about each person, instead of the things that conflict with how I was raised, I would definately appreciate it, cause God's my only way out of it I think, unless it gets to the point where I throw my chair across the room at the next one who does it.

Something cool has happened that I have just noticed recently. It's not huge or anything, but it is kind of encouraging. During our Holy Spirit and Spiritual Gifts week with Andy Chambers (I also first spoke in tongues this week), before he spoke on the first day, I volunteered to pray for him and his teachings, which went fine. After I was done and sat back down, he made a comment that we should not call God 'God' in our prayers, but 'Father' instead, which I pretty much just plain agreed with. I mean it makes sense that He wants us to call Him Father instead of some general term for a supernatural being, only with a capital 'G'. Now the great part of it is, that within a few days of this comment, I was completely switched over. Now, automatically, I just say 'Father' every time I pray, both corporately and privately. I love it. As for the tongues thing, which I'm sure you are all more curious about than what term I use when referring (refering?) to Almighty God in prayer, it was an experiment, and it aparently worked, but I wasn't so sure, but the more I do it (which isn't often), the more it seems real and impossible for me to be making up. Of all the things I have been learning here too, the one thing that every speaker has been saying that opposes what I have always believed, is that the gift of tongues is something you do have to receive from God, but at the same time, you actually have to will it to happen. And the more you practice, the easier, and more meaningful it will be. I'm excited to keep going in it at least. Every speaker so far has spoke in tongues, and it's in the Bible, so why shouldn't I believe it? Sometimes I'm ridiculous. I don't really believe anything I read in the Bible until I see it happen.

Now, one more thing I have been learning, and that I have already tried to tell and convince some people, which didn't go over so well, is that during the end times, we (Christians), according to the Bible, as in, from scripture, will not be raptured before the Great Tribulation. I know! Oooooh! Barry's gone insane! The Left Behind series could never be wrong! Let's stone him for this blasphemy! Wrong.

Ok, to prove it to you, I'm afraid I can't use scripture directly (I forgot/didn't think I would need my bible at the cafe), but I know that Matthew, a couple of the prophets, and of course John's book of Revelation, all rebuke the mass belief that we all get 'poofed' out before anything bad happens to the world. Please find, online (for free!), the Omega Course by Mike Bickle, and watch it. It's an eight hour video series, which uses an unbelieveable amount of scripture, to make the metaphors and prophesies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and John, all understandable to mere mortal Christians like you and me. God wouldn't have put Revelation in the Bible if he thought it was too complicated for everyone except theologians to understand. Anyways, I will try really quickly to prove it to you, but please just read it yourself. I mean, the first time I read Revelation (after I knew about the Pre-Tribulation-Rapture theory), I read it straight through and then thought, "Wait, where did it say we would be raptured?" So, I went back and quickly skimmed through the whole thing again, and the only place it talks about the rapture, is where we are 'caught up in the air with Christ', and of course we all know that that is the rapture, right? (Now, I can't do the 8 hour course justice with my horrible memory and a keyboard, but give me a chance) Chronologically, the time when Christ returns, and according to what I just said, the time we are 'caught up in the air' with him, is AFTER the seven years of tribulation. The three-and-a-half years of false peace before the AntiChrist sets up the desolation that causes abomination in the Temple of Jerusalem, and the three-and-a-half years of wrath and judgement afterwards, where 50% of people are killed, a third of the water turns to blood, etcetera. Ok? Mother? Lois Gitzel? Please read Revelation (is it Revelations? I can never remember) again, and think really hard about what it says, and not what the author of a popular book series says. BECAUSE, now this is the key part of why I'm writing this, BECAUSE if the pre-tribulation rapture is right, then we will all go to heaven, and I will apologize for saying all these things. But at the same time, it would be pretty pointless for God to put something in the Bible that we wouldn't need. And the other thing is, how is anyone supposed to come to Christ when all the Christians disappear? They will have no examples or leaders. Like they will all understand what's going on and feel the need to read the Bible, with no one there to proclaim it. NOW, on the other hand, if I'm right, and we will be a part of the great tribulation, a time when the Church will thrive and we will see the power of the Holy Spirit move in more amazing ways than it did for the Apostolic Church with Paul and Peter, if I'm right, than the Church right now is ignoring very important prophesies and is completely unprepared for what is coming, because we all just brush it off as something 'we won't have to deal with' because we will be raptured ahead of time.

In conclusion, please read the prophetic books, and Revelation, and prove to yourself that you will either be raptured before or after all the exciting stuff happens, because no book series that sells 50 000 000 copies, is right if it goes against the Bible, which has sold, oh, what, a billion or more copies? I was convinced by the Omega Course, which was completely scriptural, and it has made me search it out for myself too, so please do the same and don't trust what other people say. When we are raptured up with Jesus, it will be to recieve our new spiritual bodies, and to come down with Him, to help reign with Him during the thousand year reign on earth, not to watch from some cloud.

I hope I have at least dented your 'left behind' barrier a little. Cause once we see the false peace, and the ten nation confederation, and you're all looking down at yourselves like, "why haven't I disappeared yet with my clothes neatly folded?" I'll be pointing and gloating quite proudly, for which I will probably need to ask for forgiveness.

Anyways, this is pretty long. Feel free to argue with me via email at bgitz@hotmail.com, and bring scripture along, cause I know there is nothing supporting a pre-tribulation rapture, unless it's twisted. Think about it! Satan has done a wonderful job at keeping us unprepared for the most trying time in the history of the earth, simply by telling us, "you won't be here for that." I don't want to be gone anyways, cause, as Christians, we will finally see judgement and justice prevail over this world from God, and we will be able to point at scripture on the streets saying, "See! It's right here! Repent!" Anyways, I'm getting excited.

By the way, I have decided that God has called me to North Korea to evangelize (evangelise?) someday in the future, so please pray that he will start to open the doors for me and prepare me for the time when I fulfill that calling.

See you all later,

Barry Gee