Sometimes you just can’t get to sleep. I began musing on a word from a pastor, Mike Ferry. I had never heard of him, but his word was so right where we were at, that I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
Here is an excerpt: The Roaring 20s of 2020 are just moments ahead of us. God has released a new breed of Barnstormers in 2019! These bold, lionhearted world changers aren’t driven by the crowds, the rush of adrenaline from the show, but the pure joy of seeing the hearts of their communities transformed. I see groups of this new breed gathering with a vision for regional impact. I believe an invasion of America’s rural areas has already begun, which has yet to be heard about.* Read the full article here.
I had spent some of the previous week setting up a “text tree” for the group that was beginning to form in a most unlikely place, a barn in the middle of rural Kentucky one county away from ours. We had begun to call the place the Sheep Shed.
My musing took me back to the start of our work in Kentucky. God had told us to move here almost 12 years ago, but we had spent a good bit of that time everywhere else in the world but Kentucky. We had wondered several times, what are we doing here? But when you are sure that God has called you, you just keep doing what comes next and leave the why for Him.
Soon after we returned from Nepal I developed a very large blood clot (DVT) in my leg. Good medical care had me feeling fine in two weeks, but I was told no long trips for at least a year. About that same time, Ken had planned to go to Niger, but that was postponed. Through prayer, Ken felt that he was to stay here also. He kept saying, “God has something he wants us to do here.”
Very shortly we got a phone call from a friend of one of the people we had gone to Nepal with. He asked if we would come and pray with a group of pastors from a county to the northeast of us. The church he was pastoring was planning a 200-year anniversary and he felt it would be special. It had been started through the Cane Ridge Rival of 1804. We attended several preparatory prayer meetings.
The day of the anniversary, the Sunday morning service had only about 20 people. The revivalist that had been invited preached and the congregation thought his talk interesting. The evening service, however, was different. This small church in the middle of nowhere was packed out with 125+ people, pastors and congregants from the surrounding area, ready to celebrate. Worship was led by a woman on an upright piano. As she led worship, we all felt the Spirit of the Lord come down. At one time during the singing, it sounded like people were stomping their feet, but no one was. Some people said they felt wind like it was storming, but the night was clear. God’s presence had come! And it was Pentecost Sunday.
Ken and I were among the first to make our way to the altar. We fell against it together, looked at each other and promised the Lord once again, “Whatever, whenever, wherever.”
The revival had begun. It moved to a larger church in Paris, KY and met every night all summer long. We attended many nights and saw healings, deliverances from drugs, salvations and rededications. We met many pastors and leaders from all over the state. In the August, the meetings switched to weekends only in preference to school starting back up.
We prayed to see what we should be doing next. During prayer and worship one morning, the Lord showed me a large shaft of light from our house in Versailles toward the west and south. He told me that was to be our territory. It was the opposite way from Paris. We felt the Lord saying to take the revival in that direction.
Soon, the same friend from Nepal asked us to come and meet with three other couples at his house to pray for revival there. It was in the next county to the south and west—the territory that the Lord had shown us. We prayed with this group and asked the Lord to show us what He had in mind for us to do. We all had the same thoughts; we were to meet together and strengthen each other and then go out in groups or subgroups to minister.
We went to town to prayer walk and see what God would have us do in Harrodsburg. The Lord seemed to tell us that revival would not happen in town but out in the countryside. So we kept just meeting as a home group on the small farm.
We began meeting in December and by January other people joined us, sometimes just for ministry and other times to worship. A group of from 10 to 20 formed with the core couples always coming, but others coming and going. We had decided from the beginning that we were not having “church.” There was no pastor, worship team, offering. Just people that needed each other. Some had church hurt, others were disillusioned with church, some just wanted more of the Lord. We met on Sunday afternoon and sometimes we stayed for supper or longer. God was there and we wanted to be close.
One of the team had a friend who had been learning healing from Randy Clark and Bill Johnson. They would be glad to come and visit. So we decided on a date. As the day drew closer, the host felt the Lord say that there would be many people. He decided to get the barn on the property ready for the meeting. In faith, he had a gravel road to the barn and electricity put in. It was accomplished in three days. More than 40 people, not counting the children, came. Worship was wonderful. After the visiting couples gave testimonies on healing, we broke up into small groups and started ministering to each other. At least 10 were healed!
People started to ask when the next “meeting” would be. We told them the Lord would tell us. We started calling the barn, the Sheep Shed.
At the beginning of the year, Ken and I were invited to participate in a Solemn Assembly. This came out of a prayer meeting we held in our office right before we left for Nepal the year before. We prepared ourselves through prayer and repentance for several weeks. Ken spent much time in research on masonic roots. Prayer leaders from across the state met at Campbellsville University because it was the exact center of Kentucky. It was a holy time. We felt that what God desired had been accomplished. It is an interesting note that Campbellsville is in the territory that the Lord showed us. Had we stormed barns in the Spirit?
Our grandson began telling us of seeing visions of angels at his home on his farm near Munfordville, about 30 miles from Campbellsville and at the edge our territory. Is this all connected? What is God leading us to do? Is the Sheep Shed and the group learning to minister there part of God’s plan for the rest of Kentucky and the world?
“The Roaring 20s storm is on the horizon,” says Pastor Ferry. “Listen for the distant roaring of this new breed as they take to the airways with a call to salvation and restoration!”
* Elijah List Publications, 528 Ellsworth St. SW, Albany, OR 97321 www.elijahlist.com
Pastor Mike Ferry, Cornerstone Christian Fellowship, Email: ccf@ccfredmond.org, www.ccfredmond.org
