“And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.” (Deuteronomy 8:2)

What were the top 10 highlights and low points for you personally in 2008?

In keeping with the annual tradition begun last year, I’m going to share the top ten spiritual stories of 2008 from my perspective. These stories relate primarily to Culpeper, but also Virginia because both are my home.

On December 26, 2008, the Culpeper Star Exponent published a lengthy article titled “Culpeper’s top 10 stories of 2008.” According to that, these were the top ten stories in order of significance:
1) We felt the full effects of the 2008 recession
2) Culpeper opens new high school
3) Center of the political universe
4) It started with Cox’s dismissal
5) Town thrice left in the dark
6) Controversy for Branch, Compton
7) Teen’s death hits entire community
8) Town’s future a matter of politics
9) No shortage of candidates here
10) Terremark – new facility brings jobs

In Culpeper (and Virginia), the top 10 spiritual stories of 2008 were (in chronologic order)
1) Selection of Dr. Rev. Charlene Phillips as President of the Culpeper Ministerial Association (Feb 2008)
2) Virginia-Liberia Alliance established (Apr 2008)
3) Launch of City on a Hill Church by GW Dameron (June 2008)
4) Launch of Transformation Virginia initiative (Aug 2008) – Culpeper’s fire spread because of Jack Stagman
5) Death of Kelsey Orndorff (08-29-08)
6) Eastern View High School opened (school name is very significant biblically)
7) Launch of community-wide Experiencing God initiative (09-07-08) – spearheaded by Rev. Mark Jenkins
8) Churches launch homeless initiative in Culpeper (Nov 2008)
9) Culpeper Community Thanksgiving service (11-25-08) – UNITY
10) Marching Through Culpeper convergences

Of course, these 10 stories represent only a very small fraction of the many great things that God did in Culpeper in 2008. Thank you to all of you (locally, regionally, nationally, and even internationally) who are sowing your prayers, time, treasure, and talent to make Culpeper and Virginia a bright light for the world.

At the statewide level for Virginia, one of the most significant positive spiritual initiatives I am aware of for 2008 was the decision by Bowie Curry to launch a 24/7 house of prayer in the Greater Fredericksburg area starting January 2009.

On the national front, “The epic election that made Barack Obama the first African-American president was the top news story of 2008 – followed closely by the economic meltdown that will test his leadership, according to U.S. editors and news directors voting in The Associated Press’ annual poll.

Internationally, I feel the Beijing Olympics, which began 08-08-08, brought a significant and temporary peace and calm to the world overall for a few weeks during an otherwise very stormy year.

Prayer Power
Heavenly Father, thank You for the favor you showed to Culpeper and Virginia this past year. Thank You that the pastors and churches in our community are coming together more and more in UNITY to address common problems we face. May 2009 be the best year ever spiritually in the history of Culpeper and Virginia. Do an amazing work to make our communities a bright light for the world! In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen and hallelujah!

Link of the Day
Details for the top 10 spiritual stories of 2008 for Culpeper [see below]

Blessings to make the time to reflect back on 2008 and to set godly goals for 2009!

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Details for top 10 spiritual stories of 2008 for Culpeper (in chronologic order)

1) Selection of Dr. Rev. Charlene Phillips as President of the Culpeper Ministerial Association
On Feb 19, 2008, Rev. Randy Orndorff passed the baton to Rev. Charlene Phillips to serve as President of the Culpeper Ministerial Association for two years. This marked the very first time that a female and a black person were elected to the recognized top position of spiritual authority for the Culpeper community. Charlene did a wonderful job leading in the Spirit to bring more UNITY amongst the pastors and marketplace ministers. Thank you Charlene. And thank You Pastor Randy for the wonderful job you did leading our community spiritually for the two years before Charlene took over.

2) Virginia-Liberia Alliance established (Apr 2008)
In my devotional on May 28, 2008 titled “A Day I’ll Never Forget“, I mentioned that “December 18, 2007 was a turning point, not only in my life and Sam Reeves’ life, but also for Culpeper, Virginia, and the nation of Liberia.” As a result of my offering to help Sam Reeves and Rim of Grace Ministries, I had the privilege to
a) Visit meet Ron Davidson and visit the Gleaning For The World headquarters in January 2008
b) Participate in Operation Rescue Liberia Day on Feb 23, 2008
c) Participate in Virginia-Liberia Alliance Day on Saturday April 19 at the Reformation Lutheran Church.
d) Visit the Liberian Embassy in Wash D.C. with a large contingency from Culpeper, including Rev’s Jacob and Charlene Phillips
e) Build a strong friendship with David Bean, who I would nominate as Culpeper’s citizen of the year.

3) Launch of City on a Hill Church by GW Dameron (June 2008)
On April 17, 2008, Pastor GW Dameron contacted me out-of-the-blue to say he was moving with his family from San Diego CA to Culpeper VA in June 2008 to finish a work that had been started to make Culpeper a city set on a hill (for Jesus). In the short while GW has been in Culpeper, he has been responsible for a big upswing in the spiritual climate of our community To learn more, visit my blog titled “City on a Hill Church” (July 21, 2008) -

4) Launch of Transformation Virginia initiative (Aug 2008) – Culpeper’s fire spread because of Jack Stagman
Rick Heeren had told me on numerous occasions for more than a year that he wanted to come back to Culpeper to fan the flames he had started a few years earlier. I kept advising Rick to contact Jack Stagman and go to Northern Virginia first. Finally that happened.

On July 29, we held our first ever Transformation Virginia webinar. The blog (website) for Transformation Virginia was birthed. And Rick came to Northern Virginia, Fredericksburg, and Culpeper on August 17-19,2008. After spending 3 days shuttling Rick around, Jack caught the city transformation bug. In my opinion, Jack is currently playing the most significant role in the spiritual transformation of Virginia. He has already been responsible for lighting fires for prayer evangelism in more than 7 new communities in Virginia.

5) Death of Kelsey Orndorff (08-29-08)
Saturday August 30, 2008 was definitely the saddest day of the year for me when I learned that Pastor Randy Orndorff’s only daughter (Kelsey) died in a serious car accident the evening before on her way to a Chris Sligh concert in Fredericksburg. As President of the Culpeper Ministerial Association for 2 years, Pastor Randy had been offered tremendous support to our Pray Culpeper team. As I was driving to the first memorial service held for Kelsey on the night of Aug 30, the scripture that came to my mind was Psalm 116:15, “Precious in the sight of the LORD Is the death of His saints.”

During the memorial service, I learned from the testimonies of numerous people that Kelsey had manifested an UNCOMMON love for Jesus and for the destitute in this world, especially the homeless. Given that and Pastor Randy’s reputation as one of the most beloved pastors of our community, I knew that somehow, some way God was going to bring something great out of something so tragic. He always does. People at the Culpeper United Methodist Church, pastors in our community, and the community-at-large rallied behind Randy and LeAnne Orndorff. On November, Chris Sligh came to Culpeper High School to lead a concert in memory of Kelsey. About 800 people, mostly teens, showed up. I believe the new homeless ministry that the churches in Culpeper recently embraced is a direct result of Kelsey’s death.

6) Eastern View High School opened
Two years in the making, the much anticipated Eastern View High School finally opened. School spirit ran high from the get-go, as an estimated 5,000 people attended the Cyclones’ inaugural home football game, a friendly scrimmage against CCHS. Behind the electrifying legs of star tailback Stevie Strother, EVHS went on to finish 7-3, playing to large crowds most every Friday night. More importantly, the opening of EVHS provided a big boost in morale to our community. I believe the name of this school is very significant spiritually because Moses’ Tabernacle, Solomon’s temple, and Jewish synagogues all face to the East (i.e. have an eastern view). Mountain View Community Church, a large local church having a tremendous impact on the spiritual climate of Culpeper, is moving its Sunday worship services to EVHS starting January 2009.

7) Launch of community-wide Experiencing God initiative (09-07-08) – spearheaded by Rev. Mark Jenkins
This summer Mark Jenkins caught the Holy Spirit fire of revival and he wasted no time in spreading that to others in our community. Supported by more than 100 LIFE groups, numerous churches and businesses embraced the 7 week “Experiencing God” series prepared by Henry Blackaby. Thank You to Mark for lighting a fire that will not be quenched.

8) Churches launch homeless initiative in Culpeper (Nov 2008)
Jesus said that when we take care of the destitute (i.e. the poor, the hungry, widows, orphans, the sick, those in prison, etc), we are caring for Him. Thanks to the Culpeper Food Closet, the needs for many of the hungry were already being met. Thanks to the leading of Pastors Chad Whaley and Michael Gray, the Culpeper Ministerial Association embrace coming together to care for the urgent need of homeless people in Culpeper just in time as freezing temperatures came in late November. We are trusting God to engage many more churches and volunteers as needed to continue this vital ministry.

9) Culpeper Community Thanksgiving service (11-25-08) – UNITY
In the entire time I have lived in Culpeper, I have never witnessed such UNITY among such a diverse audience as at this year’s Culpeper Community Thanksgiving service. We thank Dr. John W. Kinney for his passionate message about rejoicing always. And we owe a special thanks to Rev. Charlene Phillips for the prayers and relationship building she did to make this possible.

10) Marching Through Culpeper convergences
Virginia Morton never ceases to amaze me with her persistence, ever-growing faith, and positive attitude. The weekly MTC prayer calls on Tuesday afternoons have been my favorite times of corporate prayer. In my June 4 devotional, I stated that “the Marching Through Culpeper movie project is by far the biggest God story I have ever been involved with from a marketing perspective on the web.”

On July 24, Virginia launched her very first email MTC marketing campaign and posted her first blog entry herself. As a result of that, Georgia Willis got reconnected to Virginia and then to me. Because of her love for Jesus and her involvement in key positions of leadership on a variety of higher education boards, I have dubbed Georgia “Virginia’s Princess of Education.” On December 18, Virginia emailed me an amazing list of 2008 convergences for MTC.

Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43:19)

Are you sick of religion but hungry for God?
Do you want to see your city reached for Jesus?

Yesterday, the day of The Call DC, Rick Heeren flew into Virginia to officially launch Transformation Virginia with several meetings and speaking engagements. He was already scheduled to speak in Ashburn VA from 10-3 on Monday Aug 18 and in Fredericksburg VA from 10-3 on Tuesday Aug 19. However, due to the hard work and perseverance of Dewey McDonnell, we are blessed to have Rick coming back to Culpeper tonight (Aug 17) at 7 pm.

Rick will be speaking in Room 202 at Culpeper United Methodist Church, located at 1233 Oak Lawn Drive, Culpeper, VA 22701. This is a tremendous blessing! I can’t say enough good things about Rick.

Rick is the most anointed person I know for city transformation. Ed Silvoso, the most anointed person I know to disciple entire nations, says Elk River Minnesota is the most transformed city in North America. Rick was responsible for that. Elk River is a “detonator city” for transformation for other cities, states, and nations. Rick’s website, www.citymiracles.com bears prophetic witness to his UNCOMMON anointing.

Rick is the apostolic state coordinator for the entire state of Minnesota, which was prophesied to be the “threshing floor for the nation” by Dutch Sheets and Chuck Pierce during their 16 month, 50 state tour in 2003-2004. On behalf of the state of Minnesota, Rick is coming to “thresh” Virginia.

Rick was the top new contact God blessed me with in all of 2005. He was the person responsible for the birth of Pray Culpeper in 2005. Because of him and his connections, these devotionals came to be.

Rick is the author of 4 books, including The Elk River Story and Marketplace Miracles. Marketplace Miracles has one entire chapter dedicated to the impact that Virginia Morton and her book Marching Through Culpeper are having.

I know this is late notice, but if you can come, please do. Please help spread the word.

As Dewey states in his flier, “Imagine a city where 60,000 Christians jam stadiums for all night prayer every 90 days, a multi-billion dollar drug cartel is brought to its knees, and where united churches take the lead in public education and health care. Don’t just imagine – Believe! This is real. This is happening NOW. The transforming power of Jesus Christ is working in our world – and in our own back yard.”

Prayer Power
Heavenly Father, thank You for the bringing Rick Heeren back to Virginia. Thank You for working things out for Rick to come back to Culpeper tonight. Thank You for the tremendous anointing on Rick’s life to transform cities. May You send a Holy Spirit invitation to people in our area to come tonight. May everyone who comes have their eyes, ears, and minds opened to the great work you have planned for Culpeper and Virginia. Thank You Jesus. Amen and hallelujah!

Link of the Day
Virginia meeting locations and times for Rick Heeren on Aug 17, 18, 19

Blessings to see Culpeper and Virginia become bright lights for Jesus!

The voice of the LORD is powerful, the voice of the LORD is full of majesty. (Psalm 29:4)

Is God talking to me?
Do I hear the Lord speaking to me?
How do I learn to tune into W-GOD?
When a strange but good thought passes through my mind, how do I know if it comes from God?

I apologize for my error in yesterday’s devotional concerning the start time for the community Thanksgiving service in Culpeper on Tuesday Nov 20. Pastor Randy Orndorff informed me the correct start time is 6:45 PM, not 7:00 PM.

Over the course of the next few days, I’ll be sharing part of a fantastic story that is unfolding.

Rick Heeren, author of The Elk River Story, has an uncommon apostolic anointing to transform cities. Many times after I talk and pray with him, big things start happening and God expands my vision. For example, when Rick came to Culpeper in June 2007, Virginia Morton asked to meet with the two of us to discuss advancing the Marching Through Culpeper (MTC) movie project. Out of that conversation, a national weekly prayer conference call for MTC was birthed.

During the very first MTC prayer conference call on July 3, Virginia prayed for actor Robert (Bobby) Duvall, who I didn’t even know. Within 2 days, Virginia was connected to someone who knew him personally. Within a month, I had the opportunity to briefly meet Bobby and Luciana Duvall in person at their large horse farm.

Shortly after this, I hired Tim Shields as a subcontractor to help me plan and setup my first webinar for Rick Heeren. In the process of doing that, I learned that Tim was building a relationship with Ted Baehr. Tim asked Ted if he would be willing to host one of my webinars and he said “yes.” I had never heard of Ted and wasn’t familiar with Movie Guide. We prayed for Ted during a subsequent MTC prayer call.

Then, as shared in my November 1 devotional, God opened the door for me to spend 4 hours with Ted Baehr on October 25. To open my schedule and make me available for this uncommon opportunity, God allowed my computer to crash, putting me on an email sabbatical.

On November 5, Michael Stay and I drove to the Wingate hotel near the Richmond Airport to meet with Jerry and Sharon Graham for a strategic planning session. During our drive, Michael and I discussed how we might best bless Ted Baehr, his team, and his huge network of supporters. Before departing, I told Michael I’d email him a link to Ted Baehr’s biography.

So the next morning I did a Google search using ‘ “Ted Baehr” biography ’. Amazingly enough, the first link I visited had a photo of Ted Baehr handing Robert Duvall a Movie Guide award. Then I learned later that evening that Ted Baehr’s wife is from Argentina like Luciana, the wife of Robert Duvall. And Argentina is a detonator country for marketplace transformation for the world. Rick Heeren has been there 25 times. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Something big is brewing. The glory of God will be revealed.

Prayer Power
Jesus, You came as the Lamb of God 2000 years ago, but will return soon as the Lion of Judah. And on that fateful day, everyone – both living and dead – will be judged by the Word of God. And all those who are not covered by Your blood – who have not voluntarily submitted to Your Lordship – will perish in a lake of fire and be condemned to an eternity in hell – separated forever from the love of God. O, Lord have mercy! Open the eyes of understanding of those who read this message. Open their ears that they may hear You. Amen.

Link of the Day
Dr. Ted Baehr’s biography – with photo of Ted giving an award to Robert Duvall
[http://mediawisefamily.com/biography.html]

Blessings to intentionally develop your ability to discern the voice of the Lord!

But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.” (Mark 10:27)

What will it take to heal hundreds of years of pain between the North and South and between Blacks and Whites?

A few years ago when Rick Heeren was in Argentina, someone laid hands on him and prophesied that he would be involved in the making of major motion picture. Prior to that, being involved with the making of movies wasn’t even on his radar screen.

When Rick first visited Culpeper in June 2005, I took him to visit our downtown area. As we walked into one of the renovated buildings, we bumped into Virginia Morton and her husband Roger. That was the first time Virginia had ever met or heard of Rick.

In October 2005, I went to Argentina for my very first time to attend the International Institute on Nation Transformation sponsored by Harvest Evangelism. There Rick introduced me to Ed Silvoso. Within a few weeks following that, Rick connected Virginia with his son Derek, who is a movie script writer. In February 2006, Rick came back to Culpeper with his entire family, including Rachel (wife), Derek, and Arleigh. Virginia took them on a private historic tour of Culpeper.

Our Pray Culpeper team began praying regularly for Virginia and her movie dream more than 18 months ago. We’ve been privileged to hear many amazing stories. We have seen big answers to big prayers. It’s clear to me that Virginia is on a huge assignment by God and nothing is going to stop them.

In April 2006, Virginia went to the Apostolic Transformation Network meeting in Brooklyn, New York. This was sponsored by Harvest Evangelism. While there, God connected Virginia to Bob Sims, who lives in Austin Texas. He became her chief intercessor for the movie. God frequently speaks to Bob in visions, and now that has rubbed off on Virginia. In early 2007, Derek Heeren and Mauriel Joslyn began collaborating to write a script for a TV mini-series.

On June 21, 2007 while Rick Heeren was visiting Culpeper from Minnesota, he and I met with Virginia at her home to learn how we could help her more to achieve her goal to have her Marching Through Culpeper book made into a mini-series and then a major motion picture. One suggestion made to her was to start a weekly prayer group.

On July 3, Virginia organized the first phone prayer meeting with several people scattered across America. Today we had our fourth consecutive weekly prayer meeting. Within a few days of our first prayer meeting, God opened the door for Virginia to pass along info about her book and the movie to a friend of Robert Duvall.

As a result of these phone prayer meetings, I had the privilege to join Roger and Virginia Morton and George and Bea Ramer at a large picnic with about 1,000 people at Robert Duvall’s farm on Sunday July 22. Don’t miss tomorrow’s devotional when I share more about that, including photos from that visit.

Prayer Power
Heavenly Father, we praise You as the LORD who will provide. You are the divine symphony Conductor, masterfully managing people and circumstances to accomplish Your purposes. Thank You for the privilege of having a front row seat to watch Your plans unfold to make Marching Through Culpeper into a TV mini-series and a movie to heal the heart of America. We pray the blood of Jesus over Virginia Morton and the entire Marching Through Culpeper project. We declare that the march is under way. Thank You Jesus. We bless Your holy name. Amen and Hallelujah!

Link of the Day
Marching Through Culpeper [http://http//www.edgehillbooks.com]

Blessings to pray for and experience the love and power of God in your life!