2007 Overview

Posted: May 05, 2017

Robert and Greig returned back from a groundbreaking trip to Spain in March. Greig received several confirmations over the last year that he would be going there. But, as always, it was a surprise how it unfolded. The Lord put in Keijo’s mind, their main friend in Finland who had connections in Spain, that they would be coming there. After they called him, it was mostly all arranged within a week.

Robert Johnson, Jim Hoiland and Greig arrived in the fast growing Mediterranean port city of Barcelona, Spain on Feb. 6 after having a flight from Eugene, Oregon cancelled due to fog, then miraculously reinstated after prayer. It even left on time! Keijo and Hannu, their Finnish partners, met them with Pedro Castro (yes he is related to Fidel), an apostolic evangelist who has been instrumental in starting fellowships around the Barcelona area and other parts of Spain. He is now based out of Granada in the southern part of the country. It was the first time in 10 years that Pedro felt directed by the Holy Spirit to be the liaison to a US ministry. It was a match made in heaven.

The team was based out of a head pastor’s apartment in Vic, Spain, about an hour north of the Barcelona. This pastor was overseeing multiple fellowships in northern Spain. The team ministered in several congregations over the next 2 weeks within a 200 mile radius of the city of Vic, including 3 different Gypsy churches and even a church full of Brazilians. Vic is near a place in which the apostle Paul was known to have stayed. The Romans had settled and developed many of these northern Mediterranean areas of Spain as evidenced by this old Roman bridge. Greig’s messages were strongly geared at activating everyone in the Church as ministers and getting rid of counterproductive structures and tradition that only serve to divide the church and repel the seeking world away from God. The team was used to encourage 2 well established pastors in Vic, one from Brazil via Argentina and one from Sweden, to work together. God gave Greig a vision of them weaving a giant net together. At Tona, the sight of a former pagan Roman temple, the team interceded to break strongholds over the city.

Here are a few snippets of what they saw the Lord do. The first night in Vic, Greig motioned to a guy in the back to come forward and gave him the plans God was showing Greig that He had for him. The head pastors told Greig he must have heard wrong because that guy wasn’t even a Christian. The next day, he became a believer. In fact, he wanted to follow the team to other meetings afterward. He just needed to hear of the greatness that God has planned for him if only he would give Him his life. A Brazilian university professor, who had recently given his life to the Lord then moved to Spain, was greatly touched by the Lord after He gave Greig some words to give him concerning the next steps in his life. At a large house church, several young people, one after another, received Jesus as their savior. The Lord healed and freed several people in northeastern Spain confirming that He had sent this team.

Pedro, the primary liaison in Spain, has been led to minister primarily to the Muslims who immigrate into Spain from northern Africa. One of the teammates back at home was awakened in the night and heard the word "Our Lady of Fatima", and said it was for the Spain team and this trip. They asked Pedro what that might mean and he said that many of the Muslims wear Fatima Amulets. Fatima was the daughter of the Muslim prophet Mohamed. The Catholic Church in Spain also adopted Fatima as a saint after she supposedly appeared to some children in Portugal and a statue of her was located in the main Catholic Church building in Vic. Pedro told the team it is a strong principality in all of Spain.

As prophesied before the Spain trip, many doors were opened into other parts of Europe while they were there. They also received requests to minister in other parts of Spain. It was clear before the trip that this would be only the first mission into this country. Pray for the field team to hear clearly when they are to return or go into the other opened countries.

The next few months were a period of foundation building. Ed Araiza, who is from Phoenix and formerly on our board, made 2 trips to Buenos Aires, Argentina with Greig over 3 months. One trip was to pick out an apartment for Greig’s sister, Diane, and husband, Chris, and the next trip was to purchase it for them. The idea to purchase it was driven by the fact that they wanted to help provide a better base of operations in South America. Working together with others back in the US, it was amazing how the Holy Spirit guided Greig and Ed right to the 19-story building that houses this 3rd floor apartment. AMI now has a strategic location in Buenos Aires from which we will travel while ministering all over Argentina and the surrounding South American countries. In a city of 10 million, it was quite amazing that this building happened to be across the street from Greig’s closest friends in Buenos Aires who recently moved there from southern Argentina. They are leasing out the apartment on a weekly basis for us to help cover expenses when we’re not using it.

Greig thought the apartment he had been renting was a great blessing, but this one bedroom apartment can sleep more, it’s more comfortable, it’s in a nice secure neighborhood and located within a 5-minute walk of the subway; it’s 15 minutes from the local airport, train, and bus station, and is a block away from the longest series of parks in the city. As some of Greig’s friends, Tyler and Nancy in Dallas, recently told him, "God never wants to drop us down but wants to continually lift us higher and higher." Greig resisted the idea to move to another place in the beginning thinking to himself, "My old place is sufficient," but he was reminded that it’s not about him. The more we are blessed, the more we can bless others and expand the Kingdom for the King of Kings. It was quite a confirmation to Greig that it was God-ordained for us to change habitations when, for the first time ever, the water in his old apartment building quit flowing the day he moved out. They were still trying to fix it when Greig and Ed left Argentina.

You can imagine how purchasing an apartment in someone else’s name would even be difficult in the US. A foreigner doing it for another foreigner in the 3rd most bureaucratic democratic nation in the world, behind Germany and Italy, was not easy. But, working with Him as a team, what looked impossible at a couple points became reality. Greig felt more hammered by the enemy at times on these foundation building trips than when he is out ministering to the people. It’s interesting that right after he got home he turned on Christian television and someone was teaching about the 5 biblical based things that the enemy hates most. One of them was God’s people purchasing or taking control of property, because it represents a domain of influence that he has definitely lost.

The whole apartment mission was very God directed, so it’s obvious that the Lord has plans to grow this ministry as part of the worldwide net He is weaving. The foundation of everything we do has to be Spirit directed with intercessory prayer and proclamation at its core. The front line of this ministry is the intercessors who bust open the gates of hell, allowing those of us He has put in the field to walk right into the enemy’s territory. Without your participation, we cannot be very effective. We are putting a lot of thought and prayer into constantly improving how we communicate our situations between our field teams and intercessors.