January, 2010
Dick and Joan Deweert
422 - 13 Street N.
Lethbridge, AB, T1H 2S2
Many of you are aware of our exit from our leadership position as Founders of The Miracle Channel several years ago. This letter is bring you up to date of our journey for the past three years.
THE JOURNEY TO DATE
It is safe to say that the past few years have been a very difficult time for us and for you as supporters of our ministry as well as all those with whom we are associated. I don’t believe anyone, including myself, ever anticipated a failure to happen, but it did. Upon revelation of my moral failure, a chain reaction began that impacted thousands of people leaving many shocked, hurt, disillusioned and angry. This is something I deeply regret and daily wish had never happened. I can adamantly say today, that no one is impervious to experiencing failure of some kind. We live each day by the gift of grace from God.
I recognize the difficulty these circumstances have caused so many, but am also grateful that there were those who did not completely write us off and that today we once again have opportunity to enter ministry with our marriage and family stronger than ever.
Nearly three years ago, everything in my life came crashing down affecting everything around me, beginning with my closest relationships. My failure was a massive blow to Joan personally, to our marriage, and to our children and grandchildren. Although I succumbed to temptation and fell into sin, my first love remained with my wife and it was for this reason I made a commitment to Joan that I would do whatever it took to seek repentance, forgiveness and restoration in our lives. Joan, my children, their spouses, as well as our greater family stood with me in an attitude of forgiveness and restoration. Only eternity will fully tell the difference their decisions and actions made in the journey to rebuild my broken life. Words will never adequately express my appreciation and love toward my family and today I am so glad to say that our family bonds are stronger and more secure than ever.
Our journey began with a 40 day fast February 27 through April 4, 2007, during which time my moral failure was made known to Joan. At the end of that fast, the Lord spoke to us both that He had received the fruits of the fast and thus we began our journey toward healing. In eternity, Joan will receive a crown as reward for the manner in which she demonstrated forgiveness and grace. Though she had the biblical right to dissolve our marriage, for the sake of our relationship, our children and grandchildren and for the nation, she chose to pursue the path of reconciliation and restoration.
Initially, with the help of a few of our close ministry friends, we were directed to some intensive counseling through a ministry in the USA known as “Restoring the Foundations”. For eight days, Joan and I spent 12+ hours a day individually and together, in crisis ministry with a couple who are certified counselors with this ministry. Although it was extremely difficult to be away from loved ones during this tumultuous time, it proved to lay a foundation of reconciliation and restoration for us.
Upon return to Lethbridge in June 2007, we asked Graham Bretherick, a certified psychologist who specializes in counseling ministers and leaders, to see us on a regular basis. Joan and I began seeing Graham and Sherry two to four hours a week individually, and then later together. Graham put us through the CPI (California Personality Inventory) test which proved immensely helpful in understanding our personal strengths and weaknesses and how we could more effectively serve each other as husband and wife. By August, 2008, Graham felt the counseling period had achieved its desired end with us and I began to see Graham once to twice a month for fellowship, spiritual guidance and accountability. We are very grateful for Graham and Sherry’s input and pastoral care during the past few years.
In June 2008, our advisors felt it was time to begin communicating to the nation, the progress that was being made in our personal restoration. Bill and Gwen Prankard kindly invited us as guests for a week on their nationally televised program, From The River. We received hundreds of positive and supportive letters and emails from this broadcast.
During this entire time, we communicated regularly with our spiritual advisory team comprised of Bill Prankard, Francis Armstrong, Len Zoeteman, George and Hazel Hill and Graham Bretherick. When possible, we also met with them in person for counsel, guidance and accountability. After meeting with these persons in February, 2009, it was agreed that a letter should be written affirming that we had successfully made the journey to personal healing and restoration and were now in a position to consider any ministry opportunity we felt the Lord opening the door to.
During the past nearly three years, the Lord has opened several doors for us in business. We were able to invest in property as well as open two businesses, Auxano Wealth Group Inc. and Basket Expressions Gift and Gourmet. We purchased a commercial building where we locate our businesses and our office. We both feel we have positioned ourselves to move forward in a marketplace type ministry that we so frequently spoke of in the past.
We now have an organization entitled Dick Deweert Ministries Association (DDMA). DDMA is a autonomous self-governed non profit corporation registered in Alberta and governed by an elected Board of Directors. We will operate this ministry association using the Unite For Dominion name.
MINISTRY VISION.
The past several years could be described as the most difficult and challenging experience of our lives. But at the same time, the trying times that we’ve been through have also produced in us a heart transformation that we consider invaluable. There is a brokenness and identification with those who are in the midst of crisis and we can empathize with their pain. Today, there is a greater compassion for those who have been marginalized or have experienced loss. There is a fresh perspective on what constitutes relevant ministry. We wouldn’t exchange any of these things in spite of the difficult process through which they have come.
Our future ministry will be focused in the following areas:
1. We have a renewed passion for our nation; to unite the body of Christ so Canada can fulfill her spiritual destiny.
2. We have a deep burden to connect a new generation to the things of God. Most people under the age of 35 tell us they do not feel the institutional church and Christian media in its present form, are relevant to their generation. Our desire is to be involved in opening new avenues of media that will connect to this generation.
3. We have great compassion for leaders in crisis. It is our passion to communicate a message of hope, restoration and reconciliation to leaders and to the Body of Christ in general. It is our goal to help leaders avoid the pitfalls we experienced.
4. We both, but Joan in particular, have a message of hope and healing for marriages in difficulty. This message needs to be demonstrated and proclaimed to our nation more than ever before.
5. We have a renewed understanding of what is termed “marketplace ministry” and we see this avenue of ministry becoming more and more prominent in the days to come.
6. Joan in particular continues to have a passionate desire to see the outpouring of God’s glory over our nation.
RESTORATION TO THE MIRACLE CHANNEL
In the spring of 2009, we requested a meeting with the directors of The Miracle Channel (for the first time since our departure) to seek forgiveness. In June 2009 we met again at our request to seek avenues of reconciliation and restoration. After these meetings, we were asked to submit a proposal of re-entry. We prayerfully drafted a proposal which we felt was realistic and made provision for the best interests of the Miracle Channel and ourselves. The board declined to act on this proposal, and therefore we have felt released to pursue ministry as God opens the doors.
UNITE FOR DOMINION
We host a weekly prayer meeting in our office building every Monday night and one evening in April, 2009, there was an unusual moving of the Spirit in worship. Many began sensing a significant shift in the spiritual realm and Joan in particular began to sense angelic activity in the heavens. Going home from that prayer meeting, all of us sensed that something significant had taken place. One person in particular felt that a special web cast should take place on July 1st, in Ottawa, called Unite for Dominion.
We submitted this to a number of our advisors and there was an immediate agreement that the webcast should take place. All those participating in the webcast came to the event at their own expense. God met us and we felt this webcast was the seed to launch a ministry that will bring together a company of prophetic ministers to release the word of the Lord over our nation.
On November 24/09, we met with Bill and Gwen Prankard, Len and Ingrid Zoeteman and others of our leadership team, to discuss the next steps of ministry. It was unanimously agreed to proceed with a Unite for Dominion conference in Calgary, January 28-30, 2010. We have gathered national prophetic leadership and market place leaders to minister a prophetic word to lead us into a new decade.
Joan and I are prayerfully walking out this journey, and we are grateful that God is leading us as well as a company of friends into a fresh new season of blessing. We are eternally grateful to those who continued to hold us in prayer for our restoration, God will richly bless them.
Together in Christ,
Dick and Joan
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Sunday, January 3, 2010
A Season of Fruitfulness
January 4, 2010
A Season of Fruitfulness
In the previous blog, I wrote about a prophetic word we had received during our weekly prayer meeting about the spiritual season of winter being over. In scripture, winter is a season of dormancy that can be associated with pruning and testing.
In 1 Peter 1: 6b we read, “though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials”. Peter acknowledges the challenge of enduring times of testing, but he follows this statement with a promise, “that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” In John 15:2, Jesus said that the Father will prune every branch so that it may bring forth more fruit.
The ultimate goal of a winter season in our lives is to increase our capacity to bear fruit. The season of testing, trials, and pruning will always be followed by a fresh season of fruitfulness.
We have completed 10 years into a new millennium and interestingly, in the bible the number 10 is associated with testing. In Exodus 8-10, God sent ten plagues on the Egyptians, to test them. God gave Moses 10 commandments to test the hearts of men and in Revelation 2 in the letter to the church at Smyrna, He said they would experience trials and tribulations for ten days. But every season of testing includes the promise of blessing that will follow.
The past decade has certainly contained it’s fair share of trials globally beginning with 9/11 and the advent of increased terrorism, more than one economic crisis’, and an unusually high number of environmental disasters like hurricane Katrina and the destruction of the tsunami in Asia in which 250,000 perished.
As we enter 2010 and a new decade, we are entering a new season of renewal and fruitfulness and fruitfulness for the believer begins with fresh revelation. In Matthew 20 we read about the parable of the workers in the vineyard. The workers who are part of the harvest in the first hour and those who join in the 11th hour, all receive the same pay. I see in this parable, a spiritual acceleration as the harvest approaches the end and this reflects an acceleration of spiritual resources that God will make available to the church to bring in the harvest.
We are living in the 11th hour in which we can expect an outpouring of fresh revelation that will empower the church to gather in the harvest as never before. I believe we will see an outpouring of divine revelation beginning in this season that can exceed the revelation the church has received in the past centuries.
I recently read in a daily devotional, Today God is First by Os Hillman, a quotation by C.S. Lewis which says, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts to us in our pains; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” (C.S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain) The season of winter opens the door for a great outpouring of revelation.
When we gather for the Unite for Dominion conference in Calgary on January 28-30, we are believing for fresh prophetic revelation to be released for the coming decade and beyond. I believe this conference comes at a very strategic time for the Kingdom of God and we would love to see you there.
A Season of Fruitfulness
In the previous blog, I wrote about a prophetic word we had received during our weekly prayer meeting about the spiritual season of winter being over. In scripture, winter is a season of dormancy that can be associated with pruning and testing.
In 1 Peter 1: 6b we read, “though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials”. Peter acknowledges the challenge of enduring times of testing, but he follows this statement with a promise, “that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” In John 15:2, Jesus said that the Father will prune every branch so that it may bring forth more fruit.
The ultimate goal of a winter season in our lives is to increase our capacity to bear fruit. The season of testing, trials, and pruning will always be followed by a fresh season of fruitfulness.
We have completed 10 years into a new millennium and interestingly, in the bible the number 10 is associated with testing. In Exodus 8-10, God sent ten plagues on the Egyptians, to test them. God gave Moses 10 commandments to test the hearts of men and in Revelation 2 in the letter to the church at Smyrna, He said they would experience trials and tribulations for ten days. But every season of testing includes the promise of blessing that will follow.
The past decade has certainly contained it’s fair share of trials globally beginning with 9/11 and the advent of increased terrorism, more than one economic crisis’, and an unusually high number of environmental disasters like hurricane Katrina and the destruction of the tsunami in Asia in which 250,000 perished.
As we enter 2010 and a new decade, we are entering a new season of renewal and fruitfulness and fruitfulness for the believer begins with fresh revelation. In Matthew 20 we read about the parable of the workers in the vineyard. The workers who are part of the harvest in the first hour and those who join in the 11th hour, all receive the same pay. I see in this parable, a spiritual acceleration as the harvest approaches the end and this reflects an acceleration of spiritual resources that God will make available to the church to bring in the harvest.
We are living in the 11th hour in which we can expect an outpouring of fresh revelation that will empower the church to gather in the harvest as never before. I believe we will see an outpouring of divine revelation beginning in this season that can exceed the revelation the church has received in the past centuries.
I recently read in a daily devotional, Today God is First by Os Hillman, a quotation by C.S. Lewis which says, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts to us in our pains; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” (C.S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain) The season of winter opens the door for a great outpouring of revelation.
When we gather for the Unite for Dominion conference in Calgary on January 28-30, we are believing for fresh prophetic revelation to be released for the coming decade and beyond. I believe this conference comes at a very strategic time for the Kingdom of God and we would love to see you there.
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