ATOR Paradise, Day 1

 

Hello everyone! Thanks for finding us over here on the Improbable People Ministries blog, From Here to Eternity. Speaking of which it seems like an eternity since we had a functional email system through which to alert each of you to a new ATOR Prayer Update. With email server issues hopefully resolved we can move on to the important stuff.

My name is Michael O’Connor . Many of you know me as Mr. Sally Klein O’Connor. It might have been the other way around at one time, but God gave Sally a better singing voice and a better press agent. 

I will be your tour guide and purveyor of the latest available information regarding the team that is currently in Paradise with The Lord. But not in the way that sounds. Everyone knows by now of the devastating blaze known as The Camp Fire that destroyed very close to the entire town of Paradise, CA in the Northern part of the state near Chico.

The ATOR Team is in Paradise now to share with them a vision of the extravagant love God has for each and every one through the token of one beautiful long-stemmed red rose. People react differently. Some assume they are being asked for a donation. Others weep at the thought that God might know they exist and loves each one as His child. That’s why we’re up there this week. That’s why we keep bringing teams of Ambassadors of Love to outposts around the globe.

 

 

Stuff To Know

Here are some things to know before share details on the ATOR Team:

1. You are receiving this email because (choose one):

• You received daily reports for previous ATOR missions.
• You are one of our current team member’s prayer intercessors.
• You accidentally signed up thinking this was the entry for the $5 Million Dollar Publisher’s Clearing House Sweepstakes.

If you do not, for any reason, wish to receive these daily reports, simply hit the reply key to the email that linked you to this page and type the word UNSUBSCRIBE into the header and send back to me. Or hit the UNSUBSCRIBE link at the very bottom of the email. No explanation needed. I will remove your email from our master list . No fuss. No muss.

2. If you want to assure daily delivery of the prayer update  please add our new address found on the email and add it to your contacts folder. Otherwise your ATOR email may end up in your spam folder and you’ll end up missing every wonderful  adventure our team has in Paradise.

3. If you do want to continue with these daily reports but have received more than one copy of any edition please hit the reply button on your email and type the word DUPLICATE into the header. I will endeavor to find the extra email and eliminate it so you receive only one copy of each report.

4. Some of you may have made arrangements to keep in touch with ATOR team members directly.  If they have given you access to their phone  or social media info that’s fine. But for those who have an important message for either any individual or the team as a whole—let’s say you feel the Lord has given you a word for them— you may send a message to us and I will try to get it to that person(s) ASAP. Important messages would include unexpected events here at home that might affect the team member—or maybe a word of knowledge from The Lord. I will try to contact them as quickly as possible.

5. If you have any questions about the team, mission, etc or just want to offer a general word of encouragement  I always appreciate a positive word here on the Home front. Also, at the end of each blog there is a moderated comments section where you can leave encouraging words the ATOR Team will be able to read for themselves.

6. Expect the daily reports to arrive sometime in the late AM Pacific time on most days. The team will have had a full day in Paradise on the streets the night before. Once the team comes back to the hotel my wife Sally will assemble the team for an evening debriefing where she will write down many of the highlights and testimonies of the day. She will send them to me and I will then go to work editing and formatting the Update to send out soon after I finish. It’s a long process so please understand why most of you will be receiving Day 1 Updates as Day 2 is in progress. 

7. Each day’s report will include specific prayer needs  of the team members and an itinerary of that day and all the remaining day’s events. And LOTS of pictures! This will give you a road map to formulate your prayer support from. To that end let’s take a moment to review some of our current prayer needs:

 

Prayer Requests

 

• Gary is feeling worse, please pray!
• Dave needs continued prayer to stand in good health. His legs are aching.
• Stephanie is doing better this morning but still needs prayer.
• Joan had a headache and didn’t sleep well–please keep her in prayer as she is sleeping on a mattress on the floor.

 

Daily News & Testimonies

Raul: When we were done handing out roses we were ready to take a break. We  went into the pizza place and a couple saw my ATOR hoodie and asked, “What are you guys doing?”

I said, “We are giving out roses and sharing the love of God—and that God sees the pain and suffering.”

The couple informed me that if they survived the Camp Fire, anything else that would be thrown at them, God would help them survive that also. I wanted to bless them with prayer, that God would indeed do that and fill them with love, and continue to cause their marriage to flourish.

I had the opportunity to give them a rose and soon we gave roses to the whole restaurant.

 

Joan: I met a young couple in their vehicle. They seemed to be struggling financially. They both received a rose with very large smiles of gratitude and much emotion. I asked them how they were doing and how things had been for them in the last year. Their response was that it had been very hard. But then she looked at me with a big smile and said, “We just had a baby. He’s 2 months old.” I asked what they had named him and they told me they gave him a name, which means, “little fire.” And they explained they had been told previously that they were unable to have children.

 

 

Gary: Stacey came up looking skinny and forlorn. I complimented his Duck Dynasty beard. He happily accepted the rose and said he really needed it today. Stephanie asked what was going on and he started talking about his girlfriend who he had been trying to get off of meth-amphetamines. He finally realized she didn’t want to get off of it and broke up with her. When he told us he had lost his wife to cancer, then his previous girlfriend had collapsed right in front of him and died, and his father who had Parkinson’s starved to death under the care of some relatives—he had tears in his eyes.

 

 

And then he said he really needed the rose. We prayed with him and asked the Lord to bless his life, and bring him into a closer relationship. He said he loved God and might want to go back to church. He must have thanked us 10 times and waved several more as he was driving out.

 

Jurgen: Joan and I had a beautiful time giving out roses. We met a lady in the car. She was covered with piercings. Joan handed her a rose, and she was really touched and started to weep. She shared that she has always been a throw-away and then Joan took her arm and prayed for her. It was a God-thing.

 

 

I met a lady named Joanne. She received the rose and was very thankful and touched. She was a believer and because she noticed I am German she wants me to visit her client who is a German lady in a retirement facility. This German lady has a little bit of Alzheimer’s which got a lot worse because of the fire. Joanne is hoping I can visit with her client.

 

Mallory: I approached this lady and her young daughter and said, “Would you like a free rose?”

And she said, “What is this for?”

I said, “To tell you that God  loves you and sees you. You are not invisible to Him.”

I asked what her name was and she told me it is Julie.

 

 

I introduced myself and said, “Would you like to come to this conference because God sees you as beautiful?” She started tearing up. And I asked her if there was anything she wanted prayer for. She told me she was struggling financially and I prayed with her. And I just told her Jehovah Jireh your Provider cares about you and He loves you and He will meet all your needs if you put your trust in Him. Julie teared up again. And her daughter kept really looking up at her mom and me.

Later I saw them coming back out from the grocery store, and her countenance had changed completely and there was a real peace on her face.

 

 

ATOR Itinerary

 

2/4 – Tuesday

7AM – Devotions – Randy-Worship/Yara-Devotions
8AM – Breakfast
9AM – Clean and prepare roses/Shopping for gift bags
11AM – Worship & Give out roses/flyers in town
1PM – Lunch @ First Baptist
2PM – Clean and prepare roses
4PM – Worship & Give out roses/flyers in town
6PM – Dinner
7PM – Clean and prepare roses

2/5 – Wednesday

7AM – Devotions – Dave-Worship/Raul-Devotions
8AM – Breakfast
9AM – Clean and prepare roses/Shopping for gift bags
11AM – Worship & Give out roses/flyers in town
1PM – Lunch @ First Baptist
2PM – Worship & Give out roses/flyers in town
4PM – Assemble gift bags for conference
6PM – Dinner
7PM – Something Beautiful Meeting
8PM – Prayer Time

2/6 – Thursday

7AM – Devotions – Sam-Worship/Jurgen-Devotions
8AM – Breakfast
9AM – Clean and prepare roses
11AM – Worship & Give out roses/flyers in town
1PM – Lunch
2PM – Free time
6PM – Dinner
7PM – Something Beautiful Meeting
8PM – Prayer time

2/7 – Friday

7AM – Devotions –Worship – Sally/Devotions – Stephanie
8AM – Breakfast
9AM – Drive to First Baptist & set up for conference in Fellowship Hall
Noon – Lunch
2PM – Finish preparations
6PM – Dinner
8PM – Prayer

2/8 – Saturday

6AM – Devotions – Worship – Dave/Devotions – Gary
7AM – Breakfast
8AM – Registration for Something Beautiful Conference @ First Baptist Church in Paradise
9AM – Welcome/Conference
5PM – Clean-up and set-up for Sunday
7PM – Dinner
8PM – Debrief

2/9 – Sunday

7AM – Devotions – Worship – Joan/Devotions – Mallory
8AM – Breakfast
9AM – Pack
10AM – First Baptist Church
11AM – Sally Klein O’Connor & Friends presentation @ First Baptist Church in Paradise
1PM – Lunch
3PM – Drive home to Southern CA

2/10 – Monday

Joan departs Sacramento Airport @ 12:45PM on Delta Airlines Flight# 3654 and arrives in LAX @ 2:20PM. Departs LAX @ 3:50 on Delta Flight #1005 and arrives @ St. Paul, MN @ 8:49PM. Departs St. Paul @10:41PM on Flight #2650 and arrives in Winnipeg @ 12:15AM, Tuesday 2/11. Mallory departs LAX on Delta @ 1:50PM and arrives back in Phoenix @ 4:22PM

2/11 – Tuesday

Jurgen flies out from Sacramento @ 12:20PM