Doors are opening!

The Door is opening many doors throughout the world! We just received this email from a friend working with pastors who are planting churches in Muslim countries.

Hi from the Philippines!
I'm here for a training seminar for two weeks geared to language coaches who train missionaries. I played one of your songs during a devotional (Redeeming Light of God) and a number of the Filipino missionaries who serve among Muslims asked if they could copy it. I wanted to ask your permission before I allowed them to do this.

And from Niger, Africa
We are in charge of Sunday night's church service here. I'm in charge of leading worship. Thought you might like to know that actually YOU are leading us in two songs. :) We are the People of God and How Great is Our God - off your Waiting for the Son cd. So, how about that?!?"

Hey all of you in the Manchester/Liverpool area come out to see us at Sutton Village Church in St. Helens on November 14 & 15.

"Tools for Worship"

Greetings from snowy Colorado!

We just returned from a tour of Thailand and Singapore. To be honest to try to tell the story would take several days of talking, lots of coffee and a room full of pictures!

I must tell you of a story however, of one of the guys Carrie met while we were in Thailand. This person asked that their name and location not be identified for security reasons. All I can say is that they are part of a 'pre-church planting' team in the middle east.

"Jim" asked the question in one of our worship workshops about how (as a worshiper) we can use what little we have to lead others in worship. Carrie began to explain how often in China where we served for two years, it was normal for worship services to be lead by human voice only! This prompted other questions - "but how can you lead them without instruments?" Jim asked; Carrie told them how many of the Christians in China often will create rhythm by taking a water bottle, filling it with rice and using it as a percussion (shaker) instrument.

The workshop ended. Later the next week, the Worshiplanet Band went into leading other events and the church planters returned to their host countries..... a few days ago Carrie received an email from "Jim" in the middle east. Following is the transcript from his email;

"Carrie - I hope this finds you well and the rest of your time in Chiang Mai was
blessed. I am sure that you all were a blessing to the churches there.
I want to thank you again for taking time out of your schedule to meet
with me and encourage and help me brainstorm ideas of how to bring a
more lively worship to my field and team. My teammates and I actually
got creative and used some empty water bottles and rice and made some
shakers that we incorporated into our worship the other day. It was
actually fun. At first we felt like little kids again, but I think
that really helped us just put everything aside and really get to the
heart of worship. Our neighbor's kids came over yesterday and wanted to know what they were so I got to sing worship songs over them while they danced and shook the shakers all over the room. I also contacted
my worship pastor back home and he sent me some stuff to help me get
going on the guitar again. I think this month, as it is Ramadan, will
be a good time to try and carve out some hours on the guitar as not
much else is happening here as everyone is fasting. Well I hope that
you guys found some time to enjoy Thailand and that you were in
someway blessed by being there as much as we were by having you there.
Thank you once again for all that you do.

In Him,
"Jim"

"After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."

Thailand & Singapore

Hey everybody!

We just returned from a three week tour of Thailand and Singapore. The first week we led 15 worship sets, 2 workshops and found time somewhere in the middle of the week to head into the jungle for a half day of "zip-line" adventure - see (www.jungle-flight.com) Our mission the first week in Thailand was to equip about 800 pastors and their wives who faithfully serve Christ in the most sensitive nations in the world. A gathering of church planters and missionaries who are strategically sharing the viral message of Jesus in countries like Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Tajikistan, U.A.E., Indonesia, Turkmenistan, etc...you get the picture. I guess to sum it all up, (according to one of the pastors who attended the conference) he told me; "Mark, we all came hungry and thirsty...to meet with God; we are leaving refreshed and full of His Spirit, excited to continue the work He's called us to..."

What an incredible privilege it has been to lead those modern-day apostles into worship every morning and evening.

We ended that first week with a Saturday 'night of worship' with all of the local international churches in Chiang Mai. There was a real sense of God's presence with us as we saw pastors refreshed, the body of Christ unified in worship and the name of Jesus be lifted up! We spent 3 more days with the local churches in Chiang Mai, leading workshops and spending time with a couple of the pastors and their families.

We then left for Singapore, via Bangkok, where Integrity Media and Scripture Union set up a series of workshops, training, leading worship, meeting some of the worship 'gatekeepers' in Singapore and basically hearing about what God is doing in that nation. We can truly attest of God's faithfulness and blessing on Singapore. One of the things we felt very strongly to speak into was to encourage the songwriters of Singapore to be refreshed, renewed and released to write new songs of praise for and over their nation.

We had an additional opportunity of leading worship (some in Mandarin!) at an event where several Singaporean Chinese churches came together for an evening of worship and encouragement. Again, we were blessed to see how God is strategically using the Chinese church in Singapore to "sing" back into China and over their own land the songs of redemption and blessing.

We are grateful that we are allowed this opportunity to travel the planet, meet with people just like us who are serving local churches week in and week out. We bless the nations of Thailand and Singapore - we sing life, health, peace and God's Spirit over the pastors, worship leaders and teams who, each week, create space for God's people to gather together to lift up the name of Christ!

Please pray for Thailand and Singapore!
Till next time....
mark

PS - if you want more information about what we do around the world - go to www.worshiplanet.com

God TV

To all our Asia friends!

The Door is being broadcast this weekend all over China!

You can access The Door "live" worship concert on the Asia platform Dream Network package out of the Philippines this weekend! Broadcast times are as follows (Beijing local Time)

Saturday July 18th at 18:00 (Beijing local time)
Sunday July 19th at 14:00 (Beijing local time)

Please tell everyone in that region of the world to catch The Door live in China!

Blessings
mark

from the inside...

from the inside....

We just got a story from inside china and had to share it with you. Most of you know that we are still waiting for The Door to open 'legally' in the Peoples Republic of China. Whilst we're working diligently on that, there have been a few "Door" stories coming back at us. This one happened a few weeks ago in an orphanage in a remote village in the Shaanxi Province. I'll just let you in on the story as it was told to me....

"we had a Chinese house church pastor with us who helped with explaining the song "Be Still" to the kids. And there were a few parts of the song that we had difficulty deciphering...so we replayed Be Still to him over and over on my iPod shuffle. Haha...then finally when we had the lyrics complete, Tiffany and I played it on guitar and taught the kids the song. They loved it!!!!!!

We're constantly amazed and grateful at how God is using The Door to open the hearts of people in China - even the little children.

Psalm 8:2 - "From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise"

The Door Is Opening in Europe!

Hey everybody!

Check out this e-card blast that the guys at Integrity Europe have put together.

http://www.musicwithintegrity.com/ecards/thedoor/index.html

It's been a pleasure to partner with Integrity in getting The Door out there throughout Europe. You will start to see The Door project available in your local bookshops (particularly in the UK) and for sure on the e-card link.

We have had great response thus far and are hearing stories about how the project is being used to draw attention to Creator God and how he is shaping and restoring the peoples of China using the medium of worship.

Thanks for hitting the blog and if you haven't picked up a copy of The Door yet, get out there and get a couple - one for yourself and one to give away! :)

take care
Mark