Improbable People Ministries

The Music & Ministry Of Sally Klein O'Connor

ATOR Kenora, FINAL UPDATE

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Your 2019 A Tour Of Roses Team
(L-R, Front) Sunny Lehman, Stephanie Weaver,  Yara Panther, Ammi Carranza, Sally O’Connor, Lura Olander (L-R, Back) Dave Panther, Jurgen Schmutz, Joan Appleton McBride, Christine Matchum

SALLY: Over the weekend as we were hastily cleaning, preparing, and carding the last thousand or so roses a random woman in the hotel knocked at our door asking if she could come in. Priscilla asked if we were the people handing out rose, which it became obvious we were. She said she had a song to sing and asked if it would be ok. I cautiously said yes. She sang over us in the most beautiful Hebrew the Aaronic Benediction (from Number 6–The Lord bless you). It’s on the back of our hoodies and t-shirts for ATOR.

 

I had the privilege of praying for one of the managers for the hotel we were in on Thursday night, when we held our little “service” in one of the function rooms there. She is pregnant and living with her boyfriend and was touched by all we were doing. So I prayed over her and her baby. Over the weekend I saw her again and she said, “You know, it’s the weirdest thing. Ever since you prayed for me I haven’t had any more morning sickness.” She told me later on that lots of people in town were talking about the roses all over Facebook.

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ATOR Kenora, Saturday In The Park

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Day 11

Christine: I got 2 hours of sleep the night before. And I don’t even remember most of worship or morning devotions. Stephanie prayed for me and they prayed that I would have a renewal of energy for the rest of the day and that’s exactly what happened. Lura also prayed with words from the Lord. So then we went to the market and passed out roses there. Me and Jurgen went to all of the vendors and passed out roses to most of them.

After awhile me and Dave were sitting near the entrance to the farmer’s market and passed out roses. We had a lot of fun sitting around, joking with each other and passing out roses. I loved passing out roses to people and saying, “I would like to give you a gift today?” And a lot of people said, “A gift or a donation?” And I said, “No. A Gift.”

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ATOR Kenora, A Team Aboot Town

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Day 9

Christine – I finally got outside and passed out roses. I felt kind of like a sniper. Like, where are the people. There’s someone. Let’s go get them! So I passed out some roses. It was a lot of fun. I like seeing people shocked when I ask them if I can give them a gift. Because when they see you on the street, they try to run past you because they think you are selling roses.

We ran into a woman that I have been praying for the last few days. She told me that the testimony that I gave last night really inspired her to a new tenderness to her own daughter that she had never had before.

Yara: Today we went to two schools and were allowed to leave roses with the staff. The elementary school worked on the Hearts of Hope project, placing encouraging messages on paper hearts all around Kenora. So it was neat to hear when Sally and Jurgen came back from the District Office that they people in charge understood that the roses were about reconciliation. And that they gave us permission to give them to the administrative staff and to the teachers and support staff at both the elementary and high school campuses.

Then we drove down the road a little ways and saw a First Nations School. So we parked and Jurgen and Sally went inside to ask permission. Lura and I prayed in the truck for favor. And they came out saying, “Come in! Bring some roses.” And we were able to give roses to the staff and the students. They were very happy. They asked what it was for. We were able to tell them, “It is a gift for you—to say that God loves you.”  Praise God for that! Then we went into town by the Sunset Grille and had a lot of fun giving out roses to people in cars by the waterfront. It never gets old to see a person’s reaction when you say, “It’s a free gift!” They seem very surprised and they also seem surprised it’s not for a donation even. You can see their face change when they find out it is absolutely free, no strings attached.

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ATOR Kenora, Two Days For The Price Of One

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As promised, due to circumstances Tuesday beyond our control we are combining the reports of Days 6 & 7 into

ONE BIG MEGA SPECIAL
DOUBLE ISSUE
(With a cherry on top)

 

Day 6

Lura: Spent most of the day cleaning roses, but it was good. Got to visit with Christine and Amy. And went to Casey’s restaurant and handed out a few roses. There was one older couple I handed roses to and the lady thanked me and then the man said, “Oh, for men too?” I said, “Yes. God loves you.”

And then tonight we went to the First Presbyterian Church. There was a lot of spiritual warfare  in the beginning. A lot of contradictions between what you see, like with pictures on the wall, etc. And then the reality of where the people’s heart are. But Christine did a beautiful job with worship tonight. Really felt the presence of the Lord and I danced to a song I never danced to before. And I appreciated the young man, “Sir Lyle” and his passion for music. I felt the Lord draw him through his music and it was very touching to have him singing with Sally. And I feel that maybe he might have really connected with the Lord.  Had a great day. Had some great prayer, but please keep praying.

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ATOR Kenora, Starting To Settle In

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Don’t let the shades fool you. By morning these gals are ordinary florists.
By afternoon they’re ladies of the light.
 Coming to CBS this fall:
The God Squad.

Day 5

Sunny: We gave out a lot of roses. There seemed to be a lot more native people in town. In the area we were at I would say it was kind of an inner city area where you have a lot of street drinkers and users. So people appeared to be burnt out in the morning. But most of them had seen us the other day when we were passing out roses in the area. And some of them came up to us and said hello to us and asked for more roses.

I think they were positively impacted because we smiled at them and tried to do something positive. And they responded with friendliness. Because people on the street don’t get a lot of kindness. There was a native guy who had some kind of church background. I think it might have been Catholic because he talked about his grandma taking him to church and he talked about finding pictures of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus in thrift stores and taking them home to hang on his walls. And he told us he was a religious person because his grandma was a religious person and he liked God.

He took a rose from us. We went into a barbershop where the lady also refinished antiques and she showed some of her work to us and she said that she paints too, but she didn’t have any canvases at the shop. She let us love on her dog. She was pretty happy to see us.

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ATOR Kenora, Mother’s Day At Jubilee Church

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Nothing flashy about this place. But inside this stark edifice the
building transformed and small miracles became possible on Mother’s Day.

 

Day 4

Christine: Today we went to the Jubilee Church and we did our thing and we stood up and asked if people want prayer. So this girl came up  and she asked me to pray about how she had been abused in her life because an incident came up recently that brought her back to it and she was feeling all kinds of unsafe and uneasy feelings.

 

 

So I prayed for her and I particularly prayed God would make safe where she sleeps and where her family sleeps and she was touched by that. This is the whole reason I came to Kenora—to pray with women about abuse. It was a good moment.

 

Click on the photo of Lura above to view a video that brings her expressive  worship alive

Lura: So dancing at the Jubilee Church today was really awesome for me. There were quite a number of First Nations People and most were very open to greet and talk and connect. I feel like my dancing went well and they received it well. I was able to pray for two women at the end of the service.

The first lady, her name was Laura, and she asked for prayer for her family and her spiritual life. We had a good time of prayer. The second lady, K, is a tribal council woman, and she expressed that she wanted prayer for the council and the people on the reserve. She said there is much strife and fighting and backbiting among the people. She is a believer but she mentioned that bringing the gospel to her people was very difficult, due to colonialism and the residential school trauma. They associate Jesus with all the bad things they have been through since the church was involved in those things.

So we prayed that more indigenous ministers would come, and be able to reach the people with the message of Christ. I also prayed that she personally could connect with the other Christians and they could strategize on how to minister to their people. I spent some time encouraging her and letting her know people were praying for her, that she wasn’t alone and should keep going.

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To Tell The Truth

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I have been thinking about truth lately and how much it means to me and all the ways I fall short. Little ways where I am less than honest because I don’t want to face the possible repercussions if I actually speak the whole truth. But again, I know I am not alone.

When I call pastors and leaders of churches or congregations and get their voicemail so often the recorded message states they will call me back as soon as they can, or some variation of that. And often they add in the message that my phone call is important to them. Then, of course, very few call back.

I have been thinking about truth lately . . .

I always thank those who do respond via email or a phone call, even if it is to say they aren’t interested, because I want to encourage them to continue to respond. It matters. Our human interactions matter. Jesus said we should let our yes be yes and our no be no. In other words, mean what we say and say what we mean.

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ATOR, The Home Stretch

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Day 8

NOTE: Pray for revelation as we drive out to Kenora in the morning–that God will show us if this is the next place for ATOR.

 

 


                                                                                                              LURAToday Sally and I went to the hotel and I went through the bar and dining room and patio area giving out roses. There was a native man at the bar. I asked him if I could give him a gift and he was watching TV. So, without looking at me he said “Yes.” I handed him the rose and he said, “Oh, for me? I’ve never had a rose before.” And he looked at it and said it was beautiful. He smelled it and he loved it and he said, “Why?” I said, “Just because we wanted to tell you God loves you.” And he said, “I’m glad somebody loves me.” And I said, “He always does and He always will.” And he said, “I’m glad about that.” Tonight I got to share my testimony in dance before the Lord. It was really awesome. And He gave me some beautiful moves to do. Thank You, Lord, for allowing me to dance. I also got to pray for a lady who wanted to forgive her husband for the sin of pornography. And his uncle she needed to forgive for abuse of his nephew. So we prayed together and asked God to restore their marriage.

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A Full Day For ATOR In Fort Frances

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                                                                                                  SALLY H.

ATOR Team Sent To Hospital

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Day 6

It’s true. The team was sent to the hospital today. Fortunately, they were on a mission from God and the fruit was evident from the moment they stepped into the parking lot.

Here we come/ Walkin’ down the street / We get the lovingest looks from / Everyone we meet/
Hey, hey we got roses . . . 


                                                                            Wanna-Be Candy Stripers
                                                                                            KEN
I continue to marvel at the goodness of God in including me on this team. So grateful for the flow of praying with and for one another, supporting one another and worshipping together. The team meetings are such rich food for the heart.

                                                                                             YARA

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