How God Brought us Together

On December 11 and 12 of this year Andrew Strom from RevivalSchool.com will be joining Shouts of Joy Ministries at the Corner Stone Chapel in downtown Appleton for two nights of sharing about what the Lord has been speaking about the U.S. and the State of the Church. Andrew is a Revival preacher and author of eight books from New Zealand. He is the founder of RevivalSchool.com and the international REVIVAL List.

The way that we were introduced is quite interesting. The history is a bit lengthy but I think that it speaks to the fact that God has brought us together and also addresses a number of important prophecies that I have linked in this article.

I need to go back to 2004 when I was asked to attend the Kansas City ‘Whitedove’ Conference, in October. At this conference I had been struggling with what I was hearing from the pulpit and also what I was seeing in the dancing and the worship. I found myself watching the congregation of thousands and became quite troubled at what I was unable to ignore. After one of the speakers finished I went up to the Minister’s section hoping to find Jeff, the minister that had invited me to attend. While I stood at the entrance waiting I watched a man that I did not know walk into the room and engage whoever was on the other side. Shortly after, Jeff came out and began to explain that the man who just walked in was not happy with what he was experiencing at the conference.

A few days after, Jeff forwarded me an email sent to the organizers from the disgruntled man whose name was Andrew Strom from New Zealand. Here is the link to that letter as well as a follow-up letter. As I read it I was deeply relieved because I also was not comfortable with what I was seeing there. I was not aware of the sin issues that Mr. Strom felt needed to be repented of, however, I could tell that something was quite amiss.

I found Andrew Strom’s web site, www.revivalschool.com, and joined his newsletter list and then sent in an email explaining what I had been through at the conference and that I agreed with what he wrote. I did not hear back from him.

A few years later I had been in the throes of dealing with what the Lord had told me about Todd Bentley, a minister from Canada, who had been currently preaching in Lakeland, Florida. I attempted to speak to a nationally known Minister from the East Coast about the upcoming fall of Todd Bentley but the conversation was a disaster and I came home feeling, again, quite alone in my dissent. God had been speaking to me about how Todd Bentley was engaged in sexual sin, false testimonies, and things regarding money, but what the Lord really wanted me to focus on were the ministers that would publicly endorse Todd and how wrong this would be. I had spoken to my pastor about this and also an Apostle from Rwanda; both had encouraged me to proceed carefully and to make sure that I obeyed the Lord and did nothing until He specifically told me to do so. After Todd was exposed by Nightline and his affair with his family nanny became public knowledge, I did post to my newsletter and blog, expressing my concerns and prophesying what the Lord had been telling me. The post is a lengthy article but very worth the read being that Todd and his now new wife have been re-released into ministry this past week. A short time after I sent out the newsletter, he forwarded me the article “Open Letter to Wagner, Joyner” written by Andrew Strom addressing the leaders that inappropriately endorsed Todd.

Because Mr. Strom once again was speaking out about the same issues and was prophesying almost verbatim what the Lord had been telling me, my pastor sent him an email telling him about me and how the Lord was working in very similar ways here in the Fox Valley. There was no response.

Three months passed; I scheduled a speaking engagement here in Little Chute to share about the time when I was healed and the message that came with it. I received an email from a man in Fond du Lac, WI, asking if there would be child care at the event. For some reason this request stood out to me so I watched for the couple coming with the small children. When they arrived I spoke to them briefly and was hoping to speak to them after the event but was unable to as they had left too quickly. Shortly after, Martin, the husband, emailed me again thanking me and so on. He had some questions about previous prophecies and we began to exchange emails about what the Lord had told me He was about to do here in Wisconsin. In the meantime a man who knew me had been researching Andrew Strom and making efforts to be in contact with him because he had recently read an email from Andrew in which he addressed prophecies given about the U.S. that were quite similar to the Prophecies for America that I had given in April of 2009. He found a reference on Andrew’s web site that said Andrew had been speaking at a church in Oshkosh, WI, which is just a few miles away from my home town. So he emailed Andrew in hopes of telling him that there was someone in the area prophesying similar things.

One afternoon during that time, I was emailing Martin, the man from Fond du Lac, and thought that maybe, because he was interested in prophecy and because he lived near Oshkosh, he would have heard of Andrew Strom and would know where he had spoken in Oshkosh. Martin’s reply surprised and baffled me.

Martin said that Andrew Strom was his brother. Immediately I thought that he meant “his brother in Christ” but as I read through the email it became obvious that this man from Fond du Lac named Martin Strom was in fact Andrew Strom’s brother. To be sure, I sent him an e-mail back asking “This guy that we are looking for is your brother? He lives in New Zealand!” Martin’s reply was that that was correct and in fact he too was from New Zealand and had moved to Wisconsin when he married his wife.

As I read to Douglas the emails from Martin, Douglas mentioned that “the connection between these events could have been put in place to bring Martin and you together as much as Andrew and you. Go forward carefully and be open to what God wants to accomplish through all of this.” So I did just that. I continued to engage Martin and to seek out what the Lord was doing in this connection, waiting to see how things would play out.

Martin began to speak to his brother about what had been prophesied here in the Valley and how things were transpiring. Andrew was interested because we were not picking up the ways of the Bob Jones camp as so many were around the world. Andrew began to email me then, himself, asking questions and researching the work that is being done here.

A few months later Andrew’s Visa came through for him to come to the U.S. around Thanksgiving of this year. We began to discuss a set of meetings to be held here in Appleton. When all was said and done he was open the eleventh and the twelfth of December.

I am giving you this long history of how these meetings came to be because I feel that God has gone to great lengths to make them happen. I also wanted you to be aware of other people prophesying similar things to the difficult words God has given through me. It is confirmation and reassurance that we are on the right track. I am very excited about these upcoming meetings, not so much because I think some great act of God will occur under the vaulted ceiling of Corner Stone Chapel this Dec 11 and 12, but because I know that God is at work and He is up to something in bringing us together.