Home again

We arrived home late last night about 10 pm, February 23. We will probably feel some jet lag until Monday.

As you probably know already, our American Airlines plane from Auckland to Los Angeles was cancelled due to mechanical problems, so we were a day late in getting home. They finally put us on an Air New Zealand flight to Houston, and from there to Minneapolis on United.

By the way, when we first arrived in Auckland on February 1, we arrived just as a cyclone was coming into the country. We were supposed to fly from Auckland to Keri Keri in the far north, but that plane was cancelled due to the weather. In order to be at our destination for the first few meetings, Lynley had to drive down to Auckland and pick us up the next morning.

We had a great trip, meeting friends old and new, and we were also able to spend a few days (last Sunday to Wednesday) seeing the sights on the south island. Trevor took us to a glacial lake at Mount Cook and took a scenic 2-hour cruise on spectacular Milford Sound. Mike Fromm came with us, as he had flown to Christchurch from Brisbane (Australia) to attend the meetings. It was good to see him again. Recall that Mike had sponsored our trip to Brisbane a few years ago.

While we were there, another cyclone hit the center part of the country. We were too far south for it to affect us directly, but we had to go a different route back to Christchurch, because a bridge had been washed away.

Darla got her adventure once again.

I plan to give you a trip report with pictures soon. I am far behind on correspondence and may never catch up on letters and emails that arrived while we were gone. However, we will do what we can. I found two book orders from a few weeks ago which apparently were not sent out, but these will be shipped out today. Sorry for the delay.

The Death of Billy Graham

On February 21, 2018, the well-known evangelist, Billy Graham, died at the age of 99. Years ago, some had prophesied that the previous church age would pass when three representatives died. The first, representing the Catholics, was Pope John Paul II, who died in 2005, then Oral Roberts, representing the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement, in 2009, and finally, Bill Graham, representing the Evangelical/Fundamentalist movement, in 2018.

Neville Johnson said last September that Billy Graham’s death would end the final phase of the church that began in 1948 (with the Latter Rain Movement).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0EtnFeEZ-I

I have taught for many years that the Latter Rain Movement (1948-1952) was the equivalent of the 12 spies giving their report in Numbers 13. They carried the first fruits with them, giving people a foretaste of the Kingdom. See Numbers 13:20, 23, 24, 26. Once again, just as Israel was unable to enter the Kingdom at that time, so also was it too early for us. Like them, we had to wait another 38 years in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 2:14), which brought us to 1986, the start of the 120^th Jubilee from Adam.

We are now 32 years later, the number of Covenant. Note the pattern in ancient Israel, where God made a second Covenant with them in Deuteronomy 29:1 just before the people crossed the Jordan River under Joshua.

Some have prophesied more recently that the “rapture” would occur shortly after Billy Graham had passed. My view is that with the passing of all three major representatives of Christianity, we can now look for the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit in conjunction with the Open Door Ministry. So it is not surprising to see him die just as the Open Door Ministry is beginning.