Past Trips

Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma

The most amazing and world changing reconciliation to ever occur in the history of mankind took place some two thousand years ago.  On a windswept, bald hill in a obscure city, a man was crucified. There had been thousands of crucifixions at the hand of the Roman government and would be thousands more to follow.  But this man was different.  Within him ran the bloodline of kings and the seed of God himself. He walked willingly to Golgotha, without remorse, to sacrifice himself to reconcile us all to the Father. Yet, if you examine closely the handful of writings which document his life, you find a amazing fact. The cross was not the focus of his life, it was a beginning. 

The cross opens the door for us to walk with God in the fullness of this age. If we only experience the cross from a historical perspective, we certainly can been saved. However, there is so much more to the cross than our eternal home place. We have a unique opportunity during our life span to represent the kingdom of God in fullness on earth as it is in heaven. To some degree we offer our lives in restitution for all he has done for us.  We certainly cannot earn our salvation, as it is a free gift. We can offer to His kingdom the recompense of a life lived for him. Discipleship is what God desires from us. Exercising dominion takes the life and sacrifice of Christ to the next level. One of the most tantalizing scriptures is:

John 14:12 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father.”

It is the “greater works than these shall he do” portion of this verse that suggests that our life of Dominion will carry fruit greater than what Christ demonstrated during his public ministry. So, what “greater” thing has God left for us to do.

Could one such “greater” task at hand be the reconciliation of the nations to the kingdom of God? Some of us believe that the United States of America is a nation founded on trust in God. If that is the case, what is the fruit of this trust in God?

Matthew 7:16 “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they. Even so, every good tree bears good fruit; but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits.”

It becomes difficult to reconcile the history of this nation and its dealings with the Native America's with this scripture. More Native people died in the American holocaust of intentionally introduced European diseases and and massacres than were killed in the Nazi concentration camps of World War II. Some historians believe that Germany’s final solution was patterned after American policy with Native America. How can this tragedy of injustice stand in a nation founded upon Godly principles? The answer to this question is that it can’t.

For over two decades many in the Body of Christ have been laboring to reconcile the fractures between the American “Republic on which we stand” and Native America. We have wept and prayed and repented before God for the tragedy of our past. Some have walked for thousands of miles in acts of repentance for the infamous Trail of Tears. The warning about the Gibeonite curse (II Samuel 21:1) that caused drought to plague Israel for three years has resonated within our hearts. We did not break one covenant, as Saul had, but we have broken over three hundred covenants. There have been reconciliation services in many cities and states across America.  We believe that there is need for more such activities, but there becomes a place where we move beyond reconciliation to restitution.

Just as we move past the reconciliation of the cross into a life of walking with God, we believe we have moved past reconciliation with the Native American community into a season of restitution.  We are living , walking and understanding that part of the “final solution” of the Kingdom of God which involves doing more than inviting an “Indian” over for a conference. Restitution involves compensation of restoring what the locusts of the past have eaten. With a heart of seeing our Native American community restored before God, Compassion Acts delivered over $20,000.00 in food to the Marble City Food Pantry as a act of restitution for the tragedy of the past. As part of the restitution process, the team paid for a community cookout that was part of the cultural fabric of the local Cherokee Nation. These activities occurred, with the Cherokee National Day of Prayer held in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.  Michal Ann Goll also gave copies of her book, Compassion, in which is a chapter honoring Nancy Ward, the last Beloved Woman of the Cherokee Nation. A book was given to all who were present at the National Day of Prayer. We believe honor is a strategic weapon in the arsenal of the Kingdom of God. 

The next compassion act of restitution will involve the distribution of a thousand solar-powered bibles. Solar-powered, audio Bibles will soon be on their way from MegaVoice in Tiberias, Israel to Iris Ministries in Maputo, Mozambique. The proposed shipment date is May 15. These units sell for $80 at a Christian bookstore. They have been donated to Iris Ministries in Mozambique. Compassion Acts needs $8,000.00 to cover the costs for bringing these units into the Mozambique. Will you invest in the Iris pastors? When you partner with Compassion Acts, you are in fact changing the history of nations. You are participating in one of the “greater than” ministries in your lifetime.  We need your prayers and a little bit more cash. Send your money, or make an online donation, to Compassion Acts and note that it is for the Audio Bibles. Pray for a smooth shipment and processing through customs, no losses, and for complete funding to come together for customs fees and for a small team led by Leon Hoover to help with the distribution.

Mark Rogers

I find myself with the daunting challenge of trying to paint a picture of amazing depth and layers of purpose, challenges, and breakthroughs. During our days in Africa, several of us kept asking each other, "Where are we?" We would quietly laugh among ourselves, and answer, "We are on the other side of the world!" After awhile, that answer was not sufficient. We amended our answer to, "We are on another side of the world!" This was the truth - as I hope to be able to convey in this writing.

We began our journey, being 26 individuals, from different places of origin. Most did not know anyone else when we first started out, but our hearts were melded together by the end of the trip.

Mozambique is not an easy place to get to. It takes about three days to get there. One of our goals is always to take extra suitcases filled with needed supplies for the missionaries there and for the children. This time we carried over a new desktop computer (interesting challenge!), 1000 solar powered Portugese audio bibles (another interesting challenge!)- in suitcases, and several other suitcases filled with food items, supplies, hats, plastic pants for the babies, etc. Through much prayer and wise handling of the situation - we were able to get all the items through the Mozambique security and into the hands of those for whom it was intended.

Pemba - beloved Pemba! For me, Pemba is Mozambique! I feel such a call there to pray! Pemba, this time of year, is especially hot, although we were told when we arrived, the temperature dropped! (It was still HOT!) The breezes off the ocean are such a blessing! Mosquitoes were flying around at night, and we discovered many holes and gaps in the doors, the closets, the walls, where they had easy entrance in many of our hotel rooms. Thank the Lord for air conditioning at night, and mosquito netting to sleep beneath!

Highlights of our time in Pemba:
How amazing to see the pastor's faces once they held their audio Bibles in their hands, out in the sun, and hearing the scripture in their language! How beautiful was all the dancing and celebrating that followed. A few women came up along side the pastors asking for a Bible too; their request was fulfilled - and great joy was upon their faces!

The evening outreach we joined Heidi on, saw two youth who were deaf - be healed and many came to Jesus! We were able to join in on the negotiations of buying land for a new church to be built, and actually, our team took up an offering, and purchased the land. Plans were that we would help build the building, but heavy rains prevented us from being able to get into the area; so much mud to drive through, up and down steep hills, etc. We had great depth of teachers and preachers, and so several invested in teaching at the Pastor's school, and did such a great job explaining the scripture. We had the tremendous privilege to have Rick Lopez volunteer his time to work as a videographer for the entire trip. We have over 30 hours of amazing footage, from the beginning to the end of the trip. This will help us in multiple ways to get our message out, for our web page, to authenticate the work we are involved in, and help release help for Iris Ministries, and for Africa.

We also had a great group of Blood N Fire brothers, who were always looking for ways in the future to serve, bring help and relief in various forms. Prayer was much contended for. We spent much time praying for the missionaries. They remembered us from previous years, and they all looked forward to our arrival - they were so thirsty! We had wonderful times of prayer over our team itself, breaking off fear and intimidation, and releasing a breaker anointing. Everyone was so impacted, truly, we came back empowered, released, freedom fighters for the gospel's sake!

But even with all this prayer - we had to contend for the deeper place - I was so stirred and troubled of the need to travail, to "lay hold of God"! It seemed at times we could easily have done other things that would have been good, but those things would be the enemy of the best! We all ended up in a pile on the floor, with many tears, groans, and agonizing travail! Men, women, it didn't make any difference as we all labored for God's heart for this land, for this people. We prayed into Isaiah 11:10 - the root of Jesse, to be planted into the heart and soul of Mozambique! There was such a release to cry for unity of the brethren - for the mothers and the fathers to come together, and guard the new life Jesus was birthing here! We saw the enemy as hyena's - trying to wile their way in to devour the birth. I don't know if I've ever entered into such a severe time of warring, growling as a lioness who would be guarding her young, teeth barred, and feeling as though we were ripping into the flesh of the enemy.

We had beautiful times with the children, during church gatherings, they would pile on our laps and many times would fall asleep in our arms! I felt such a burden to pray for the release of the young girls - for apostolic anointing to fall on them; the young "Pauline's", who would preach the gospel to their countrymen, even as Paul had in the days of the early church!

Then there was the bush outreach that Leon and several of our team trekked out into the unknown, and saw miracles, and many wonderful things. I haven't even really gotten to hear a full report on this part of the journey yet!

Another major thrust of our trip was that we were delivering a container of vitamin fortified rice into Malawi, valued at $65,000, providing 432,000 servings, with the help of Blood N Fire, Minneapolis, Minnesota's Mike Lynch. Compassion Acts raised the $9000 plus - shipping costs for the container, the rice being donated free of charge. (I want to give special thanks to Patricia King at this point, as her ministry donated $5000 toward the shipping costs. Patricia, thank you for joining with us in this project, and helping make this possible!) The delivery date originally was within the timeframe of the trip, and then it was delayed so that four of us had to stay a week later than the rest of the team, to document the rice being delivered to the Iris base in Blanytre, Malawi. However, our best laid plans had to be flexible, and actually, we saw the protection of the Lord, as heavy flooding and some complications prevented the rice from being delivered while we were there. We are assured of documentation of the delivery. Had the rice been "on schedule", it is very possible it could have been compromised due to the flooding, so we thank the Lord for His saving, keeping hand. We will pass on to you news of the delivery of the rice into Malawi as soon as we can!

So, while the four of us were waiting for word on whether the rice would arrive in time or not; the Lord had more assignments for us. We spent a week in Cape Town, South Africa, visiting compassion based ministries in the area. We visited Beautiful Gates, a ministry that cares for HIV infected children. They are doing amazing work, and have not lost one child since 2003. Eagles Rising is a ministry that rescues youth out of a very rough area, that is filled with shacks made out of bits and tin and pieces of wood; extreme poverty and deplorable conditions, established during the days of arpartheied. These youth are being transformed by the love of God! They are receiving inner healing and being taught about character and integrity and are surely being raised up as leaders for their land.

Then there was a ministry called, The Ark, which will take in anyone needy. They feed about 1000 daily, and never know what food they're even going to have to work with until that morning (imagine having that job!).

During these days, we prayed, talked, and strategized concerning building for the future. There were times of angelic release and impartation. It was amazing, and we never knew what the next day was going to bring. It was definitely a time for building for the future!

We are making plans to go into Mozambique in January every year, from now on, and have it cleared with Iris Ministries. We want to help people to be able to make plans into the year ahead, get their money and provisions together, with the least amount of stress and worry. So, now you know - make your plans - watch for info on our web site! We'll be putting updates on upcoming trips as quickly as we can.

Now, I want to mention something to you at this point. This trip has cost us more money than other trips previously, as we've had unexpected expenses and changes of plans. We had some financial provision fall through, and so at this point, are short the finances to pay everything out, never mind being able to pay either Leon or myself for our time investment. I am also in need of being able to pay Lareasa Bowman, my assistant, for one day of work a week. I've got to have help to move forward, and Lareasa has volunteered a day a week for months now - to serve. It's time to move forward and honor her heart of passion for Jesus! I would ask you to prayerfully consider helping us out, as at this point in time, Compassion Acts has no regular contributions coming in. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Checks can be made out to Encounters Network, and write Moz trip, Compassion Acts, in the memo. That would be wonderful! We have all returned home full of God, full of hunger for more, full of quiet desperation that we must lay hold of Him, in everyway! He is our all, our passion, our life.

Blessings to each of you!

Michal Ann Goll