So tonight was the last night of official meetings in Crescent City. Here’s a play by play rundown on a really awesome night.

Started at 4 PM with prayer like usual. Friends Neil and Donna and John from Gold Beach joined in for some really deep prayer. It was one of those abiding times when whatever came out of our mouths seemed to be straight from the Heart of God. Good stuff.

Our Daily Bread ministries continued to feed between 50 and 125 homeless and low income people every night before the meetings. What a blessing this ministry is to the community! They are in the midst of a real battle having to do with the City not wanting any homeless in their town, thereby they continually and unconstitutionally threaten them with jail if they continue to feed. Hats off to Our Daily Bread, they are sticking with it and doing the right thing.

I asked Pastor Scott if he wanted to play keyboard with us tonight. He’s an ex rock n’ roller from the good ol’ eighties who has pretty much been playing hymns ever since getting saved in 1997. I saw that glint in his eye when I asked… He was like a little kid on that keyboard! We really let loose tonight (I mean really) and he stuck right in there. What a cool guy.

A guy came in off the street and said he played a Baroque recorder. I had him play during practice and he was so good we put him live. Fun! I think that’s the first time he ever experienced God like this before, his eyes were wide open the whole time.

We played “Did you Feel the Mountains Tremble” for 15 minutes, “Revolution” by Mark McCoy for 20, “Beautiful One” for 10 and “Open the Eyes of My Heart” for 30. We do Open the eyes a little differently, we have some loops and beats that we play in with it, so there’s some cool synths and rhythms involved. They’re all triggered from the keyboard (my mom) so it requires that she change some knobs and stuff.

Well, halfway through she just leaves the keyboard! The rhythm’s still playing, but she’s gone! I then see her grabbing a mic and proclaiming at the top of her lungs, “If anybody’s sick, get up to the front right now! God’s going to heal you!” Eeks, I was wondering when she’d strike. My mom is a pretty quiet lady until she gets into the things of God, then look out. And here we are on Baptist property! No worries though, she was about to bust the whole aura of togetherness wide open!

About 30 people came forward for healing, so off she goes praying loudly for each one. There’s some falling and others tipping dangerously, my mom’s running from person to person so fast no one can keep up! All the while Scott and I are following the keyboard loop that’s now on autopilot. You can only sing so much in the key of E before you have to change something, so I went over the keys and started tweaking the knobs and playing some riffs. Well, at least 4 people got healed that I know of, it was such a spontaneous thing that we didn’t really check that closely for more testimonies. Finally Mama finished with the last person and came back.

“Ahhh, back to some normalcy, finally” I thought. Not hardly! We somehow managed to wade through the heavy anointing during the rest of worship, but let me tell you it was strong stuff. We played “Warriors” again, much to everyone’s delight.

Later on we had a power outage and we’re plunged into darkness for about 5 minutes… interesting.

We have this friend that stopped by unexpectedly; his name’s Ken and he has the entire New Testament memorized. Yeah, every word! So he recited the book of 2 Peter for us tonight. It was so good!

Remember the children I mentioned earlier? Well, tonight was their night! They were all sitting in one section of the tent, being rowdy only like children of drug addicts and abusive parents can. Well, after the service we told them we wanted to pray for them and to meet us on one side of the tent. Three in particular are the worst off, being extremely crude and putting up a front; two sisters and a guy. There were about 20 of them there for prayer, all of them between 10 and 14. My Dad has a really strong prophetic gifting and proceeded to read each one’s mail to a ‘t. Jaws dropped and the tears started to flow. The two girls my mom and sister took aside while my Dad and I talked to the rest.

About halfway through I look back over at my Mom and sister and there’s Shiloh (Miss Mercy herself) with one of the girls sobbing on her neck. No, wait; they’re both sobbing and Shiloh’s crying the most. My sister has so much mercy it’s amazing. She cares so deeply. Both sisters had an encounter with God and gave their lives to Him right then. Who can resist Shiloh’s tears? Not me!

I saw our friend John talking to two green haired addicts in the back. They were ready to make Jesus Lord of their lives and it happened right then and there. Sweet. And they don’t have to change their hair color to become my brother and sister! I love the Kingdom of God, so free yet so well thought-out. You can’t find a better place to be.

I think this is a turning point for this community. The place is absolutely swimming in need for redemption. Massive revival is here. Reports of people hearing our music 5 blocks away insures the fact that not just the people who came into the tent heard the message!

It’s been good. We plan on being here for about another week drying out the tent in their gym and doing followup work. See you later around.

12 AM, Feb. 24

A recap on the last two nights of tent meetings in Crescent City, CA.

Last night:
We did a pretty standard worship set, not too much crazy stuff but edgy nonetheless. I really felt like we were trying too hard. A guy and his two daughters showed up for worship last night and they were really into movement and dance, which helped things a whole lot from my perspective. Turns out that the people were rocked out of their skin by the worship anyway! People were getting saved while the worship was going on too, fancy that...

Papa & Mama tag team preached on the Father’s Love and the cycles of pain and healing. It was good stuff.

I was standing around up front like I usually do when this guy comes hoofing it up to me. He’s homeless and looked really freaked out. “Man, how do I get saved?” Says he. “I’ve never heard all this stuff before, but I sure as heck need it!” So being Mr. Precise like I usually am I proceed to give him the Roman road and the entire idea of salvation. “Whoa, whoa dude! Man, I just want Jesus in my life, I’ll come back tomorrow and talk about that stuff.” Oops. After we prayed I laid my hands on him and began to pray in the Spirit. We had a little inner healing deliverance session right then and there. When he opened his eyes he even looked different!

This neighborhood we’re in is crazy. Everyone that I’ve talked to that’s done or is still doing drugs here says this is a main supply for the area. Almost every other house is affected in some form or other by narcotics. It’s bad. But not for long! People are already talking about what they’re going to do with the abandoned drug houses.

The church where the tent is (Baptist, of all things!) has a history of racism. If a first Nations or other racially diverse person tried to come in the church they were immediately told that they weren’t welcome. The new pastors have thrown wide the doors and cleaned house now, and good progress is being made. They are very open to whatever God wants to do in their community.

This afternoon we had a Practicing the Presence time where we just played whatever we wanted and concentrated on the Father. We slipped into some Middle Eastern grooves with the Mandolin and then into some Jazz / Bebop intercession after that. Talk about fun. Some of it accidentally got recorded!

Tonight I felt led to play the song “Warriors” by Russ Rosen. This song has a heavy native drum beat and is filled with phrases of hope and courage. The First Nations people in the audience were ecstatic! This one lady started singing spontaneously in her native scale and tongue during the song, so cool! We as a family also stood in the gap and repented on behalf of the Europeans who massacred a lot of Indians in times past around this area. It was a small start to something much larger and more powerful.

Tonight our friend Pastor Scott preached on Love and Repentance. It was excellent.

So much more to tell, I could be here all night! Until next time…

So, the story starts a couple of weeks ago when we were in Gold Beach, OR. We get a call from a pastor in a town in N. CA called Crescent City. He says his community is ready for a move of God, ready for a massive Kingdom invasion. Would we come? Sure! So two weeks later we find ourselves driving into town, parking at this pastor’s church and setting up the tent in the back yard. Now, setting up on church property is something we usually don’t do as it tends to alienate other churches for some reason… But not this time. We’re right in the middle of a poverty stricken, drug filled neighborhood- just the place for something good to happen!

We've been here for three nights so far. We're billing most of our outreaches now as concerts, mostly because when you call it tent meetings or "revival" no one shows up anymore; but for a concert we get all kinds of people who would never go to a religious deal! Our friend John from Gold Beach came down tonight to play congas. Man, did we have some fun! My little sister Shiloh (plays drums) created this groove that was incredibly complex and totally anointed. We played it for 15 minutes. She ended up singing prophetically over the people, I'm pretty sure there wasn't a dry eye in the place. Some friends who have a feeding ministry are feeding struggling families and individuals in the church gym next door before the meetings, so many of them are attending and getting a ginormous dose of Jesus.

HIGHLIGHTS:

A lady who lives across the street said that as soon as she saw our rigs pull onsite the atmosphere in the neighborhood changed.

A guy came up to the front tonight after the meeting with tears streaming down his face and said he was stuck to his seat and couldn't get outside to smoke his pot. He said he'd had it with this lifestyle and what did he need to do to get to know that Guy we sing about in our songs? He was both saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit in about 2 minutes!

I look out while doing worship to see many weeping.

About 10 - 20 children of the neighborhood show up every night. Many of their parents are addicts and have horrible family lives. We are just loving them and trying to make them feel special. My heart hurts so much for them...

Anyway, more on what's happening later... gotta go to bed.

Tent Meetings in Crescent City, CA
Feb. 19 - 26, 2007
Go to our website for directions and details!

Originally posted Jan. 2007

It seems like it has been quite a while since we connected with you. Life flows so quickly and easily slips away, whether we are busy or at rest. In order to spread the kingdom of God over all the earth we need both times of work and times of rest. We so delight in having the tent erected, meeting new people and renewing friendships, each one sharing about what the Lord is doing in our lives, how we have grown and how we haven't, (oops!) and worshipping our Father together. Praying with our old and new friends is a central point of our evenings in the tent.

When the tent goes up ,our meetings usually begin for us around 3pm by loading it with all our instruments. In some cities we have a morning prayer meeting. Often, when we are set up in the "not so beautiful" areas of a town, we must remove the entire sound system each night and reload it the next day. Then we practice music; this is our only chance to practice as we do not have space large enough to accommodate all our equipment together. Next, we spend some valuable time in prayer, we try to involve as many people as are interested to pray for the meetings and for the particular area where we are located. The 7pm meeting begins with worship, followed by teaching, and finally individual prayer. Quite often, folks will stay and visit for a while. The usual duration of a set up is from one week to 30 days. These longer setups allow for deeper trust, the feeling of unity among the people, and more intimate occasions with the Lord. It is difficult to take down and leave an area, as our hearts have been intertwined with the kinsmen (good word!) of the territory; we have spent each night pressing into the heart of God together.

Matthew 22:37-40 is our mandate.
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

We establish a temporary tabernacle for people to come and meet with their Creator: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Providing an extended time of worship is one avenue of encountering the Lord. Much of our ministry is "one on one" relationships. Our lives are so busy and complicated that there is little time for esteem.ing one another. We try to fill that void in the lives we touch. The Lord has blessed us with the ability to reach out to those who will accept our love. Actually, it is HIS love as expressed through our family. The world is lacking a safe place where one can feel valued and cherished. As we go in our day to day business, we naturally touch the lives of others. For example, we are staying at the fairgrounds in Mount Vernon, Washington, where the gracious management allows the local jail to send prisoners to work on the property. This group is the perfect example of workplace ministry, but have no need to label their mission as such. One of the prisoners was drawn to our family. After some prayer and counsel, he and his sister now know their savior and are involved in a local church. That is another avenue of encountering God. These people knew absolutely nothing about the Lord! It is difficult to imagine that in our country. But America is changing face, so we need to be ready to open the truth to the lost. No, we aren't perfect, and yes, we do make plenty of mistakes. After ten years ministering on the road, we have learned much, but we continue receiving from those more "seasoned" than we. The moment we think we know it all is the beginning of failure.

Something we have learned from those seasoned ones is that there is a very necessary piece of life called rest.
Hebrews 4:9-10 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For He who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.

If we are really serious about the kingdom of heaven on earth, we must be just as serious about being in that place with God where the Holy Spirit is the Light that shines through us and..... "We're ok with that!" That is resting in Him. Performance, striving to make things happen, trying to convince the Lord to follow us, worrying about why this person didn't show up at the meeting, and countless other struggles are situations where we are no longer at rest . Just as Abraham made the decision that maybe God needed his assistance to produce an heir for him, because he and Sarah were getting on in age, we jump out in our own strength and create worthless Ishmaels. We have nursed plenty of them.

There are spiritual places of rest and physical seasons of rest. Both are required. After we take down the tent we can't just go back home, so we must find a place to regroup, rest, and seek our Father for more. Recently, Theron, Calvin and Shiloh remarked "We never have any fun." So we decided to change that. We were on Vancouver Island for the Youth Fest in July and August. We took the opportunity to scout around the island and actually experience its beauty. After 10 years of two week trips, we spent the time to make some deeper relationships and found new ones, too. What a blessing! We had so much fun being with our Canadian friends. We had the opportunity to lead worship with our friends at the Foursquare church in Campbell River. They love to worship our King! The church was, and still is, going through transition as our pastor friends were leaving after 25 years. They will be missionaries in Costa Rica and are so excited. We were even blessed to attend one of our friend's wedding. Later, we set up the tent downtown, right on the Strait of Georgia. Many people were impacted by the presence of God. So this year was our favorite one in Campbell River, BC. Even though an incident occurred on the last night of tent meetings, we felt it was actually a confirmation that we were supposed to be there. Someone cut 2 long slits in the side curtains of the tent. It was shocking to us, as this is the first time for such an attack.

Our next meetings were scheduled for Orcas Island, WA. We took advantage of the half price ferry from Victoria to the Islands. We set up the tent on Orcas, and had some good worship times with some dear friends that will be in our hearts always. A very special woman who had been searching all of her life, met her Savior during the meetings. So how do we explain the Heartbeat of Jesus Ministries? It does not fit into any category; we simply take what the Lord has given us and use it to His glory. Being faithful to Him is our mission. Jesus came to set the captives free, to reestablish our relationship with our Father, to teach us how to care for one another, along with countless other reasons. His mission is our mission. Just a word of encouragement: Are you completing what He has called you to do? Time is short and growing briefer each day. We should be looking forward to those words, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord."

Currently, we are in Mount Vernon, WA. doing repairs. We have been to a few churches, as we do in each city, but found one that is very special. The group is mostly young people that totally love the Lord. We have done worship with them whenever needed. The Lord connects us with local believers wherever we go. If we can just leave a fresh breath from our Father, we have done what He wanted.

Did you ask, "What kind of repairs are we doing?"... The silver bullet trailer has served us well for 4 years. It is 7000 lbs overweight and was showing by bulging sides, tires, and axles. An executive decision was made that our old faithful companion needed to have a place to retire. It will be a sad parting. Theron was bunking in it along with the molded and mildewed carpets that were causing him lung problems. Allen diligently searched for a suitable replacement trailer, but they were too expensive for our budget. He finally decided to put a 22 ft box on the back of one of the trucks. Good idea, but lots of work! The axles have to be extended, which means drive lines lengthened, muffler moved from upright position to horizontal and various other restructuring.

A good friend who was in the tent ministry sold his tent and just happened to have a truck with the box we needed on it. Thanks to him, that same box will soon be sitting on top of the back of our extended bed truck and filled with our equipment. Thanks to another good friend, that same truck will be pulling our conference room where all executive decisions will be made... in other words, Theron's new living quarters, separate from the mildew and mold in the equipment trailer. Our Lord has come through once again for us. It is simply amazing; He never leaves us stranded or lets us down. He is forever faithful to His sons and daughters.

We were part of the floods in the Northwest last week. Your prayers are very much coveted. We feel many changes coming and desire to be ready and flexible when He directs.

Thank you so very much for sowing your love, support and prayers for our family. You, too, will reap. We will continue to say, "Somehow, somewhere, someday we'll see you on the road again!"
May God bless you according to His love for you. (Get ready, that is mountain moving stuff!")

The Walz Family
Cheryl

Originally posted Summer 2006

Dear Friends,

We just finished tent meetings in Campbell River, B.C. this week and are on our way to Orcas Is. for our next setup. Campbell River was great! Not only was it a great site, but so much happened that we couldn’t possibly mention it all here. We were set up right down town, on Hwy 19 just across the ferry dock to Quadra Is. There was a constant stream of people walking and driving by the tent and did we ever get plenty of chances to minister! Much of the outreach to unbelievers occurred outside the tent as they passed by. We were especially privileged to meet many local Natives and were honored to be able to speak into their lives. A man from Palestine showed up at a meeting one night, but because we had an Israeli flag hung inside the tent, wouldn’t come in. It took some convincing by a friend to get him to come in. Once he came in and met Allen, his whole demeanor changed and he opened up and received some healing of some sort from the Lord. The funny thing was, a man on holiday from Israel had just been in the tent the night before and was experiencing the exact same feelings against this other man’s culture! We are thrilled to have been used by the Lord to speak the Love of Jesus into two sons of Abraham!

There were more emotional and physical healings as the meetings progressed. The meetings were great as we experimented with some different approaches to what we do. We have been pondering the current state of “church” and the importance the North American church puts on the focus being on the front stage area in all our gatherings. Being disconcerted about this for some time, Theron finally decided we would set up the inside of the tent differently. We set up the stage area in the middle and had the seats and tables surrounding it. Wow! You wouldn’t think that just a purely physical change would make things feel so different, but it does! It’s now no longer about “Us and Them”, but “all of us”. We are free to experience God in a more relaxed, real atmosphere and are shoved out of our comfort zones into a more authentic gathering style.

Look for more exciting things in our next tent meetings!

The meetings in Campbell River certainly stirred up a lot of things and our enemy was pretty upset. The last day of the meetings someone came by in the early morning with a knife and slashed the side curtain. When we looked closer, it appears that whoever it was had cut themselves because in one spot there was a slip mark and some blood. Whatever the reason, it was the first time the tent has ever been harmed in retaliation. Yes! We are doing the right stuff!

Originally Published early 2006

Dear Friends,

So here’s a detailed update on the last while with the Walz Family.

We set up in Gold Beach about three weeks ago, but it seems like a couple months. When we pulled the tent out of the bags we were horrified to find mold had been at it’s nasty work on the tent while in the darkness. Out came the Greased Lightning and “30 second” mildew killer, towels and brushes and we went to work. Due to the timing of the setup coinciding with the last week of school, our friends weren’t able to help set up, so with part time help from Rory (pastor of Gold Beach Foursquare, one of our home churches) we spent the next 8 hrs scrubbing the tent. Thank God for the clear weather! After the tent was thoroughly cleaned, our family erected the tent on “Walz Power” and retired for a night of rest. The next morning we got an early start and finished the interior decorating by 2 PM and started the first meeting by 7PM. The next day we started practice at 4PM. The presence of the Lord was so heavy that we ended up worshipping in practice and played straight through to 9PM! We did that for the next 5 nights. Awesome, awesome, awesome… and exhilarating too.

In general the meetings were great. A lady who had been running from the Savior for a long time was gloriously saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit. She was there almost every night after that glowing with awesome presence of the King.

A girl got saved in the tent one night during worship, but was too shy to come out and say it. Thank you Lord!

Another lady came to the Lord for the first time along with her boyfriend who rededicated his whole life. The Holy Spirit was so heavy on him that he was shaking under His power. Awesome.

A family who is in full time mobile ministry (hey, there’s more of us out there!) came on the second night and attended every night after that. The father and son played on the band with us and were greatly affected by the ambiance of the whole thing and were refreshed.

We knew we were supposed to zero in on healing and we prayed for the sick every night. As we were praying for healing some of the people started to sweat profusely and “overheat” when hands were laid upon them. We saw four people receive their healing, only to see them lose it within a few days. We are still pressing in and a couple have been healed again. It’s a long lesson we’re learning, but we’re improving! We are going full bore ahead as far as divine healing in this season, so hypochondriacs look out!

It was really cold and the wind was blowing crazily in Gold Beach, so it would have been pointless to put the heater out. Consequently it was chilly inside in the natural, but hot in the spiritual!

Without sounding too “evengelastic” here, we feel that it is important for you to know how your seed is being used. The Heartbeat of Jesus Ministries is not your generic pre-packaged ministry. This organization is in its adolescence at the moment, but our vision is both vast and realistic. Our aims range from the tent ministry to workplace ministry; from organic mobile evangelistic incursions to a ministry base that is equipped to train all ages of people for real life. We have a special place in our hearts for families and individuals who have been in full time ministry and are burnt out by incessant working for religion. Bluntly put, this organization (organism, really) is unimpeded by religious jargon and customs and is free to meet the enemy head on in his stolen territory, on God’s terms.

The Tent Ministry is our main focus in this season, and will always be our main form of outreach. Hundreds, if not thousands are affected by this branch each year. Our strength is in one on one ministry, worship and/or “concerts”. Many times just the fact that our family is publicly a family (and a cool band to boot!) is enough to make even the hardest prodigal do a double take. Really, the bottom line is that our nucleus mission is to re-present the Love of the Father to all. So many people just need someone to show them that God is truly Love; and this forward amity does wonders for many.

At the same time, we as a family are ravenous for more of the Kingdom of Heaven to be revealed in our world. Consequently, we are always looking for better ways to use the resources in which we have been entrusted. If you have any God-inspired ideas or thoughts, contact us! We are working on posting our core vision on the website soon, so check back in a while to get the full lowdown.