Greetings!

I have been meditating on the theme verse for this year, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.... (Psalm 34:8)” I believe this means that if we take time to sense/taste the Lord in each situation, we will find He is there and has been blessing us.

As most of you know, I was scheduled to spend a week in Belarus doing prophetic training. I was there last year and had been invited back by a prominent church. I felt it was a very strategic connection. You can imagine my surprise when the embassy informed me that I would not be given a visa: no reason or explanation, just no visa.

At first I felt I had been negligent in prayer and that this door had been closed by the enemy. (Many of you wrote and said that God would open the door later; I believe that I will get there, perhaps later this year). Anyway, the trip was cancelled and I was given a forced vacation. It was really great having three straight weeks at home. While I did do some meetings in Sano, the rest of the time was spent at home in Sendai. I loved it. I can’t remember the last time I was home for that long. It felt like a vacation. Going back to the theme “Taste and see the Lord is good...” This February I have been very blessed.

I don’t want to try to sound spiritual here, but it was good to have more time to meditate and to pray. Also, it was fun to sit back and watch the Lord open doors. I feel the Lord has given me some insights that I will put into a book, or a seminar, or both. It’s about the marketplace. I feel God has given us prophetic anointing and that we will see great things happen in the business world and in the marketplace through it. The book (sort of based on Elisha’s double anointing ) will be kind of a manual on how to operate in that prophetic anointing.

Already we are planning a couple of seminars in two different countries. It all feels very timely.

Burma Update:

I am on my way to Burma (Feb 13-20). I had a dream a couple of months ago. (Please remember about dreams: they are one of the key ways God will guide you this year). In the dream I felt the Lord say to move Burma back up to the top of my priority list. This trip I am so glad that Mark Wheeler (whom I originally met at one of our network churches in Okinawa) is accompanying me.

Below is a timeline of our involvement in Burma (from 1992). I ask you to pray with me that this nation will be shifted. The Sano church and Arise leaders laid hands on me on Sunday, Feb 8 to send me out. Please pray for great things.

Burma Timeline:

• Autumn 1992 – Sano church committed to pray for missionary Peter Horne of CLC to be able to get a visa to visit Burma. Around that time, Burma changed its policy and visas became much more easily obtainable. He was able to go and gave us a report.
  
• November 1992 – While I was in Jerusalem at the World Intercessors Conference, the Lord spoke to me very strongly through a prophecy that Japan was to take responsibility for Burma.January 3, 1993 – At our New Year’s conference, Sharon Stone prophesied that we were to send a team to Burma. We accepted it, but did not understand the how, the why, or the timing.
• April, 1993 – Met C.P. Wagner in Japan. In his message he talked about sending prayer teams to nations of the 10-40 Window. He said, “for example…maybe Japan would send a team to Burma…”
• Early October 1993 – Six Japanese and I went to Burma for a week. We prayed at various key sites, and ministered in some churches. At one church, I prophesied to the head pastor’s wife, whose husband was ministering overseas.
• Mid-October 1993 – I attended a 10-40 Window prayer conference in Seoul, (led by C.P. Wagner). I stayed in the same room as the Burmese pastor whose wife I had prophesied to!
• January 1994 – Returned to Burma with a team of four to do prophetic training. We made subsequent trips in 1995, 1996, 1997, and 2000. The pastor (the same man) told me our teaching brought order and effectiveness to prophetic ministry in the whole of the nation.
• February 2008 – Returned to Burma with Prophet Dale. Both of us felt that some spiritual connection with the Himalaya mountains was broken.
• In March 2008 a devastating cyclone hit Burma. Many Japanese churches sent financial aid. Our friend was in a key position to help those who had lost everything (their homes, possessions, access to food and drinkable water).

As ever, thank you so much for your prayers and support.

In Christ,

Ronald W. Sawka
Christian International Asia