We are in California! It is official.
We arrived on the night of August 14th and it is now August 25. In these ten days lots of great things have happened.
First of all, we are currently staying in Meire and Kent's house in Anaheim (Meire is my mom's best friend). It has been really fun being with them. They are family to me and now to Brooke also. Their son Rafael is coming from Philadelphia to visit for one week, so that will be awesome.
The first day we were here I called Tim Fish, my former youth pastor, to see if they were going to join in prayer with The Call DC via God TV and it so happened that they were. Also, Tim just so happened to be doing business near Orange County, so he came by and picked us up. We spent the whole weekend with them.
Saturday was The Call, so Brooke, Tim, Bev Fish, and I joined in for the full 12 hours of prayer and fasting. IT was GLORIOUS!!! From 7 am to 7 pm we were completely united in fervent prayer together with The Call. God truly moved.
Furthermore, upon arriving we began hearing about several different prophecies that have been declared over California in the past couple months, by several major prophets. All of the prophecies have been of judgement on the whole state of CA, but especially San Francisco and the Bay Area. IN fact, just before we had arrived in CA 7 CALL solemn assemblies were held all throughout the state crying out for mercy and revival in CA. The moment we crossed the border of CA and drove in we felt that the Heavens were open over this place and this is exaclty where God wants us to be at this time. And now after hearing these prophecies we are even more certain.
We went to Jubilee Church that Sunday and it was totally awesome. The message given by Pastor Steve was so powerful and mature. I was truly blown away. As a youth I hadn't appreciated his sermons so much, but now as an adult I can see why. His sermons are so mature that it takes several years of following Jesus in order to be able to relate to them.
We hung out with several of my old friends from my youth group in CA and had some good time catching up with each other.
I felt like Jubilee could be the church God wanted us to be with even though I wasn't 100% sure, but Brooke didn't feel like this was the church. We felt like many people in Jubilee were our family, but that it wasn't necessarily the church God wanted us to work with for IPO
Which brings me to another point. Brooke and I have been praying and we have decided to change the name of the organization to Global Gospel Movement. We feel like Itinerant Preacher Organization is too boring and sounds to much like an organization. We don't want this to be an organization. We want this to be a Movement and thus the name change. Please give us feed back about what you think.
Moreover, I have been writing like crazy trying to complete this book, but the more I write the more I realize that this is gonna take a lot longer than I thought. I'm pretty much rewriting everything again.
Brooke has been learning a bunch of graphic design stuff, making beats on reason, and helping me with the organization's website. She's loving California.
Also, on Tuesday we went to a church called Expression 58 who's pastor is Shawn Bolz. The name comes from Isaiah 58 (read it) . The church was absolutely AMAZING!!! Brooke said that AMy would love it. The worship was amazing, the preaching was absolutely glorious, the people were super cool, and they had a woman painting during the worship who painted the most beautiful painting I've ever seen in my life right before my very eyes. I am not exaggerating. She even has a website where she sells prints of her paintings. They're amazing. Check them out at: http://www.janethyun.com/
The church is only one year old and it already has more than 200 people. It's supernatural. We were able to talk with Shawn Bolz and another church leader named Jesse. It was great.
Again, we loved the church, but this time both of didn't feel like this was the church for us. However, we are certain that we will be working together with them.
On Thursday night Meire was having a graduation for a 10 month counseling class she took at Saddleback Church and she invited us. We went and it was amazing. The graduation was more awesome and powerful than any college or high school graduation that I've ever been too. Even though this was not a regular service we again felt that this was not the church God wanted us to be at.
Saturday was our Six Month Anniversary, so we celebrated all day long. I took Brooke to Laguna Beach, which is the prettiest beach in Orange County and then we went to an spectacular Art Festival in Laguna Beach. What's really cool is that all the artists are local artists from the Laguna Beach area, but what's not so cool is that everything is so, so expensive.
In the evening, we went to the movies at The Block, the coolest mall in Orange County. But before we watched a movie Brooke had to have her shopping spree at Old Navy and then checked out Forever 21 too.
Then came Sunday (i.e. yesterday). We went to Pasadena to visit Harvest Rock Church. The moment we stepped into the Lobby of the church we immediately felt the presence of the Holy Spirit and we felt an immediate connection. Immediately, we knew that this was our church, our family. Within one minute we were already plugged into a cell group of newlywed couples and met several on fire young people. The church is definitely the most diverse church I've ever seen in my life. The Senior Pastor is Korean, the next pastor is American, the Worship leader is black, the second worship leader is Latina, the back up vocalist is Asian, and the musicians were all white. The church is a fairly even mix of whites, Asians, blacks, and hispanics. The worship was off the chain. We danced like crazy. The guest speaker was Bulgarian and he was totally awesome. If you were new they gave you a free CD of a preaching and they would pray over you and prophesy over you. It was awesome.
Harvest Rock Church is the church that Lou Engle was a pastor at and the church that helped him birth The Call. They were founded in 1994 and now have established 5,000 churches in 35 nations. They are totally on fire. The Pastor Che Ahn just recently began having a tv show on GODTV. The church has at least 1,000 members and has 400 cell groups. It's bumpin' man.
So after the service we prayed and sought God by a brook next to the church and then we went to the night service at 5:30. There we danced even crazier. Brooke and I are really sore today as a result.
So we are overjoyed that God has shown us which church to be a part of and now we are praying for God open the doors to give us a great place to live near the church. And Pasadena is a gorgeous area, so we really need a miracle to move there. Please pray for us concerning this. We know that this is the next big miracle God is going to do in our lives. So we are excited.
Please pray for God to bring around us a team of wise men and women of God to help us establish the Global Gospel Movement.
We love all of you guys very much
Your Friends,
Joshua and Brooke Carvalho
Monday, August 25, 2008
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
The Rest of Our Road Trip
God is continuing to move powerfully in our lives and continues to faithfully open amazing doors during this road trip.
In Atlanta, God opened more doors than we expected. During a pastor's prayer meeting we went to we were given the opportunity to share the IPO vision with them and they all prayed for us. Two pastors prophesied over us. It was powerful. After the meeting one of the pastor's began talking with us. He told us that he did the same thing in Brazil that we are doing right now. He gave up everything and by faith went to a region of Brazil that had very little churches and began establishing churches over thirty years ago. Now they have missionaries and churches all over the world. He has a PhD and has a online Christian University that he made in order to train their missionaries abroad. He also told us that he has tons of space left in his huge server that he uses for his online university and that he would let us use his server if we ever needed it for our website. That's pretty awesome!
On Friday night we went to a prophetic meeting that Edward led. Edward is the man who prophesied over us in the pastor's meeting. ON this meeting they prophesied over us for about 30 minutes. It was so, so intense. We truly felt that God was commissioning us to establish His kingdom on this earth. We have the whole thing on tape. One thing he said was: "You have the anointing of Joshua...no John the Baptist." Then another woman confirmed it saying: "As soon as you began singing earlier God told me that you had the anointing of John the Baptist. You thought you were hiding, but I saw you as soon as you came in (we sat right behind her, but she never looked behind her once because she was leading worship looking away from the audience). When you stood behind me I saw two huge shadows appear over me and I heard the Lord tell me, 'There are two giants standing behind you.' Because you guys are giants in the Spirit." It was so crazy man.
Then we went to IHOP to eat and when we left there was a group of about twenty-five extremely raggedy teenagers smoking and cussing on the step of IHOP. Brooke felt a huge burden to speak to them, but I was so exhausted because it was already 12:30 a.m. But I told, "If you start it I'll go with you and talk too." So she did. Her and I went up to these twenty or so crazy kids and Brooke began preaching the Gospel to them. Surprisingly, they were extremely attentive and respectful.. We ended up talking to them for two hours. It was amazing. What a woman God has given me! Praise God!
On Sunday Edward took us to a church called North Gate Church. It was absolutely amazing! The worship was off the chain, the preaching was one of the most powerful sermons I have ever heard preached in a church building in my entire life, and they had amazing art everywhere. But what was the craziest part of it all is that the whole left side of the wall was full wheelchairs, crutches, neck braces, medical pills, etc. nailed to the wall. They had belonged to people who had been healed in their church services!!! Isn't that crazy! I was so blown away. I felt like I was in one of those old tent revivals from the healing movement! We connected with the pastor's son at the end (he's the one who preached that day) and we got his card and he got ours. We told him about GGM and he got really excited about it too.
The day before on Saturday we preached in Videira's youth group (the largest Brazilian church in Atlanta: about 800 people.) It was awesome. We preached about our courtship that led up to our marriage. We hung out with everyone afterwards and it made me feel like I was back in Brazil again. It felt like they were all our family.
Then on Sunday night we went to the service and it was one of the most powerful church services I've ever been to. The worship was at least an hour and a half long, people were worshipping like crazy, and during the worship goldust appeared all over our bodies! You heard me. GOLDUST!!! Don't ask me why or how all I know is that God did it. We were worshipping with all our hearts and then a young guy walked up to me and said "look" pointing to my hand. It was sparkling with tons of little gold glitter. I thought to myself, "Maybe I rubbed my hand on some glitter or maybe it's just because my hands are sweaty," but then I looked more and it was all over my body and it was all over Brooke too. Both Brooke and I had it all over our faces, necks, arms, backs, etc. It was crazy! And a bunch of other people had it too. Personally, I believe it was simply a physical sign to us that God is here.
Pastor Napoleon preached as a man absolutely desperate and broken for God. It was amazing. He is truly one of the most humble and genuine pastors I've ever seen. Five people were baptized in water during the service and at the end of the service they prayed for the sick and many people were healed right on the spot. It was extraordinary!
Pastor Napoleon asked us to pray about staying in Atlanta and starting GGM there. He said they would support us financially and he desired to be a spiritual father for us. His love towards us was so amazing. We still feel like California is the place God wants us, but I know that if God tells us to go to Atlanta that Videira is where we will be.
Next, we went off to Hammond, LA and stayed with my friend Dustin who goes to the G12 church there. We had a great time with him and his friends. We were only there for one day, but in that one day God set up a divine appointment. A friend of Dustin called him and invited him to eat lunch with him at a Mexican restaurant. Well, as we talked we found out that this guy is an amazing piano player who plays full time for Rocketown Records (label owned by Michael W. Smith), Tooth and Nail Records (Underoath, Supertones, As Cities Burn, Anberlin, etc.), and BEC Records (Jeremy Camp, Bebo Norman, etc.). We eventually told him that we recorded our first CD in Brazil and he got really excited about it and said, "Well hey man. Whenever the CD comes just mail it to me and I'll personally give it to the president of BEC and Tooth and Nail Records for you." We were blown away. God was just opening huge doors and we weren't even trying.
From there we went to Texas and had a great time visiting all of Brooke's family and friends. We stayed with Brooke's grandma in Livingstone, her best friend Cody in Montgomery, her sister (and now my sister-in-law) Chelsea in Austin, and Aunt B in Waco. We toured the whole state of Texas. We even stayed the night in a friend's house in El Paso.
From there we went to Phoenix, AZ to visit Kelvin. It was awesome. We went on an amazing hike through these gorgeous red rocks, but Brooke vomitted because she had just eaten Jack in th Box before and it was 114 degrees outside. So we went back. We had a great time with Kelvin and keeping up with the Olympics.
Finally we were off to California!!! We arrived at Meire's house around 11 p.m. and they were still watching the women's gymnastics, so we watched it with them.
As we approached the border of California we began interceeding, when we entered CA we gave a big, long shout of conquest and victory, and as we drove through CA we prayed for nearly an hour. It was glorious. This is truly where God wants us to be. We could feel it every day while we're here.
Keep praying for us please for God to guide us and provide for us.
In Atlanta, God opened more doors than we expected. During a pastor's prayer meeting we went to we were given the opportunity to share the IPO vision with them and they all prayed for us. Two pastors prophesied over us. It was powerful. After the meeting one of the pastor's began talking with us. He told us that he did the same thing in Brazil that we are doing right now. He gave up everything and by faith went to a region of Brazil that had very little churches and began establishing churches over thirty years ago. Now they have missionaries and churches all over the world. He has a PhD and has a online Christian University that he made in order to train their missionaries abroad. He also told us that he has tons of space left in his huge server that he uses for his online university and that he would let us use his server if we ever needed it for our website. That's pretty awesome!
On Friday night we went to a prophetic meeting that Edward led. Edward is the man who prophesied over us in the pastor's meeting. ON this meeting they prophesied over us for about 30 minutes. It was so, so intense. We truly felt that God was commissioning us to establish His kingdom on this earth. We have the whole thing on tape. One thing he said was: "You have the anointing of Joshua...no John the Baptist." Then another woman confirmed it saying: "As soon as you began singing earlier God told me that you had the anointing of John the Baptist. You thought you were hiding, but I saw you as soon as you came in (we sat right behind her, but she never looked behind her once because she was leading worship looking away from the audience). When you stood behind me I saw two huge shadows appear over me and I heard the Lord tell me, 'There are two giants standing behind you.' Because you guys are giants in the Spirit." It was so crazy man.
Then we went to IHOP to eat and when we left there was a group of about twenty-five extremely raggedy teenagers smoking and cussing on the step of IHOP. Brooke felt a huge burden to speak to them, but I was so exhausted because it was already 12:30 a.m. But I told, "If you start it I'll go with you and talk too." So she did. Her and I went up to these twenty or so crazy kids and Brooke began preaching the Gospel to them. Surprisingly, they were extremely attentive and respectful.. We ended up talking to them for two hours. It was amazing. What a woman God has given me! Praise God!
On Sunday Edward took us to a church called North Gate Church. It was absolutely amazing! The worship was off the chain, the preaching was one of the most powerful sermons I have ever heard preached in a church building in my entire life, and they had amazing art everywhere. But what was the craziest part of it all is that the whole left side of the wall was full wheelchairs, crutches, neck braces, medical pills, etc. nailed to the wall. They had belonged to people who had been healed in their church services!!! Isn't that crazy! I was so blown away. I felt like I was in one of those old tent revivals from the healing movement! We connected with the pastor's son at the end (he's the one who preached that day) and we got his card and he got ours. We told him about GGM and he got really excited about it too.
The day before on Saturday we preached in Videira's youth group (the largest Brazilian church in Atlanta: about 800 people.) It was awesome. We preached about our courtship that led up to our marriage. We hung out with everyone afterwards and it made me feel like I was back in Brazil again. It felt like they were all our family.
Then on Sunday night we went to the service and it was one of the most powerful church services I've ever been to. The worship was at least an hour and a half long, people were worshipping like crazy, and during the worship goldust appeared all over our bodies! You heard me. GOLDUST!!! Don't ask me why or how all I know is that God did it. We were worshipping with all our hearts and then a young guy walked up to me and said "look" pointing to my hand. It was sparkling with tons of little gold glitter. I thought to myself, "Maybe I rubbed my hand on some glitter or maybe it's just because my hands are sweaty," but then I looked more and it was all over my body and it was all over Brooke too. Both Brooke and I had it all over our faces, necks, arms, backs, etc. It was crazy! And a bunch of other people had it too. Personally, I believe it was simply a physical sign to us that God is here.
Pastor Napoleon preached as a man absolutely desperate and broken for God. It was amazing. He is truly one of the most humble and genuine pastors I've ever seen. Five people were baptized in water during the service and at the end of the service they prayed for the sick and many people were healed right on the spot. It was extraordinary!
Pastor Napoleon asked us to pray about staying in Atlanta and starting GGM there. He said they would support us financially and he desired to be a spiritual father for us. His love towards us was so amazing. We still feel like California is the place God wants us, but I know that if God tells us to go to Atlanta that Videira is where we will be.
Next, we went off to Hammond, LA and stayed with my friend Dustin who goes to the G12 church there. We had a great time with him and his friends. We were only there for one day, but in that one day God set up a divine appointment. A friend of Dustin called him and invited him to eat lunch with him at a Mexican restaurant. Well, as we talked we found out that this guy is an amazing piano player who plays full time for Rocketown Records (label owned by Michael W. Smith), Tooth and Nail Records (Underoath, Supertones, As Cities Burn, Anberlin, etc.), and BEC Records (Jeremy Camp, Bebo Norman, etc.). We eventually told him that we recorded our first CD in Brazil and he got really excited about it and said, "Well hey man. Whenever the CD comes just mail it to me and I'll personally give it to the president of BEC and Tooth and Nail Records for you." We were blown away. God was just opening huge doors and we weren't even trying.
From there we went to Texas and had a great time visiting all of Brooke's family and friends. We stayed with Brooke's grandma in Livingstone, her best friend Cody in Montgomery, her sister (and now my sister-in-law) Chelsea in Austin, and Aunt B in Waco. We toured the whole state of Texas. We even stayed the night in a friend's house in El Paso.
From there we went to Phoenix, AZ to visit Kelvin. It was awesome. We went on an amazing hike through these gorgeous red rocks, but Brooke vomitted because she had just eaten Jack in th Box before and it was 114 degrees outside. So we went back. We had a great time with Kelvin and keeping up with the Olympics.
Finally we were off to California!!! We arrived at Meire's house around 11 p.m. and they were still watching the women's gymnastics, so we watched it with them.
As we approached the border of California we began interceeding, when we entered CA we gave a big, long shout of conquest and victory, and as we drove through CA we prayed for nearly an hour. It was glorious. This is truly where God wants us to be. We could feel it every day while we're here.
Keep praying for us please for God to guide us and provide for us.
Monday, August 4, 2008
We are no longer going to Biola University
We have a huge announcement to make. We are no longer going to Biola University. You guys might be surprised, but we were more surprised than any of you were. We were set on going to Biola and very exited about it. We were attending Biola because it was the most wise and next logical step to take in our lives. We asked God to speak to us about it whether it was His will for us to go or not, but He never really spoke. In Brazil, we sought him long and hard to give us an answer and in the midst of desperation and confusion I thought that I heard God say 'Yes' to going to Biola, but earlier Brooke had felt God saying no. So we were slightly confused, but we acted out in faith believing that God had said 'Yes'. But since the answer to our question was not so clear, before I went on the road trip we said to God that if it was not His will for us to go to Biola and if we had heard wrong that He would speak so many times so clearly to us throughout this road trip that He didn't want us to go then we would not go. But otherwise we were going.
Then when we got to The Cause I felt God asking me if I was willing to surrender Biola into His hands. I said,"God, You're freaking me out. We're going to Biola, but Lord, I surrender it to You." The next day I talked to Chuck Mervin and it was amazing. We talked about many things, but one of the things we talked about was Biola. He asked me why I was going and I told him my reasons. He said may things to us, but one thing he said that stuck out was, "Joshua, you're a racehorse. Going to Biola is like going to a school for plow horses. Why would a racehorse go to a school of plow horses? You'll learn great things, but it won't have much to do with racing."
So that made me think, but I was still completely determined to go to Biola. Then we went to Atlanta and I preached in a Brazilian Assemblies of God church. It was awesome. Pastor Saulo told me how he left Brazil and his career as a professor in one of the best universities of Brazil to come to Atlanta and start a church. Then he began speaking into my life looking me straight in the eyes. He had no idea about our plans to go to Biola, but after hearing him speak to me for over an hour I was absolutely convinced that God did not want me to go to Biola. It felt like God himself was speaking through him into my life. God wanted me to focus all of my efforts to start IPO.
Brooke had been pretty convinced that she was supposed to study graphic design at an art school instead of going to Biola after our talk with Chuck and my talk with Pastor Saulo convinced her even more that that's what we were supposed to do.
So we asked God for a definite confirmation. Pastor Saulo talked to us on Saturday night and on Tuesday morning we went to a pastor's prayer meeting. They gave us the opportunity to talk about our vision for IPO adn afterwards they all gathered around us and prayed for us. It was a humbling and powerful experience to have several veteran pastors praying over us. One man who we had never met began prophesying over us. He said many things, but some of the things were really crazy. He looked at me and said, "God has given you a Joshua anointing and He will use you as a Joshua to lead this generation." What's crazy is he didn't even know my name. Then he began praying over Brooke and saying, "You think that you are only going to work in ministry, but I tell you that God has called you to the arts. And the arts that you do will not just influence the church, it will influence the world." Then a woman pastor began prophesying over us and said, "You don't need any credentials. God is your credentials. Your only credentials will be God."
So that's why we are not going to Biola. Brooke is going to study graphic design, but she is still deciding where she will study. I will focus on establishing IPO and writing my book. Also, we will be focusing on music.
Then when we got to The Cause I felt God asking me if I was willing to surrender Biola into His hands. I said,"God, You're freaking me out. We're going to Biola, but Lord, I surrender it to You." The next day I talked to Chuck Mervin and it was amazing. We talked about many things, but one of the things we talked about was Biola. He asked me why I was going and I told him my reasons. He said may things to us, but one thing he said that stuck out was, "Joshua, you're a racehorse. Going to Biola is like going to a school for plow horses. Why would a racehorse go to a school of plow horses? You'll learn great things, but it won't have much to do with racing."
So that made me think, but I was still completely determined to go to Biola. Then we went to Atlanta and I preached in a Brazilian Assemblies of God church. It was awesome. Pastor Saulo told me how he left Brazil and his career as a professor in one of the best universities of Brazil to come to Atlanta and start a church. Then he began speaking into my life looking me straight in the eyes. He had no idea about our plans to go to Biola, but after hearing him speak to me for over an hour I was absolutely convinced that God did not want me to go to Biola. It felt like God himself was speaking through him into my life. God wanted me to focus all of my efforts to start IPO.
Brooke had been pretty convinced that she was supposed to study graphic design at an art school instead of going to Biola after our talk with Chuck and my talk with Pastor Saulo convinced her even more that that's what we were supposed to do.
So we asked God for a definite confirmation. Pastor Saulo talked to us on Saturday night and on Tuesday morning we went to a pastor's prayer meeting. They gave us the opportunity to talk about our vision for IPO adn afterwards they all gathered around us and prayed for us. It was a humbling and powerful experience to have several veteran pastors praying over us. One man who we had never met began prophesying over us. He said many things, but some of the things were really crazy. He looked at me and said, "God has given you a Joshua anointing and He will use you as a Joshua to lead this generation." What's crazy is he didn't even know my name. Then he began praying over Brooke and saying, "You think that you are only going to work in ministry, but I tell you that God has called you to the arts. And the arts that you do will not just influence the church, it will influence the world." Then a woman pastor began prophesying over us and said, "You don't need any credentials. God is your credentials. Your only credentials will be God."
So that's why we are not going to Biola. Brooke is going to study graphic design, but she is still deciding where she will study. I will focus on establishing IPO and writing my book. Also, we will be focusing on music.
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