Huge News: We are moving to Colorado Springs

This is a long story but it is so worth hearing and by cutting it I would be removing the testimony of Jesus in our lives and the lives of so many others! So here is to whole thing!

As I sit here in Colorado Springs in awe of the wonder of the mysteries of God I am blown away by his winds of change that have swept over Lindsey and I. A week ago we were getting ready to head back to kansas city and start our new roles in the Intro to IHOP program as Core Leaders. Yet His destiny and ageless plan had already unknowingly caught us by the coat tails. 3 months ago as we were determining our plan of action for the birth of Croy God laid it on our heart to take time to establish our family, go deep in the knowledge of Him, how to equip people for our generation, and the book of Revelation. Also during that time we inadvertently started noticing that close to every time we drove anywhere in kansas city a colorado license plate would be in front of us (on a car of coarse not a floating license plate :) )

This continued to happen whilw other peculiar signs started to appear. "random" billboards advertising-"Come to Colorado" were everywhere and not only that we started running into people that were from Colorado. God finally got our attention I would say. We had decided in March to take a trip to Colorado in June to show off baby Croy and it was obvious that God had bigger plans for this trip.

So we started asking God where, what, or who we were suppose to meet. One afternoon in late April as we were walking trying to get baby Croy out of the womb God told us to talk to Murry and Deborah Heibert at Every Home for Christ. Lindsey knows of them because they are related to David Perkins and used to work at IHOP. They had just started a prayer room at this missions organization and that was about all we knew. The winds started to blow on us as Croy was born, we started going deep in what he had asked us to do, and our Colorado trip neared.

So last week we headed to Colorado and our house floods in KC while we are gone forcing our beloved roommates to frantically move all of our stuff upstairs and eventually box up into a storage unit. As the week progresses we try to get ahold of the Hieberts but to no avail. Finally last Thursday we got ahold of a friend that works with them but we found out that they had just left for kansas city for a wedding..oh no...well we went to Every Home for Christ (EHC) just to check it out anyway and to have coffee with our friend. She gave us the Hieberts number and told us they would love to connect with us when we went back home to KC.

So we meet with them on Sunday morning over coffee and we hurriedly tell them all of this and who we are (they only had 30 minutes to meet with us inbetween meetings) and then we awkwardly opened it up and said we didnt know why we were meeting with them so we were wondering what God was doing at EHC, at the prayer room, and in their lives.

They quickly shared about the convergence of Prayer/Missions/ and church planting with IHOP-KC, YWAM, EHC, and others, pioneering this prayer room in Colorado Springs and starting an internship that would equip people to go and plant houses of prayer all over the nations. As they are speaking the presence of God falls on us and we could feel Him so heavily. He whispered to both lindsey and I- to pay attention to what they were saying. We had shared with them our hope to one day return to the glorious mountains and they mentioned that we could come and join there staff.

So we left there totally not sure what God was doing but we knew He was up to something. So we go to the closing celebration for our Internship and I get a text asking to meet again- Murry had a few questions to ask me. Sitting down with him again at the coffee shop he stares at me and says something to the effect of," you dont really know me and I dont really know you but God has highlighted you and we want you to run our Internship" God laid it on both he and his wife as we were talking the first time.... WHAT? WHAT IS GOING ON HERE? He continues to tell me that they have been looking for a family to run the internship and could not find anyone with the IHOP DNA of 247 prayer, trained in missions, people that know the Colorado culture, and we knew much of his staff already. As I sit shell shocked he tells me the catch- the only time for new staff orientation this year will be next week and the internship starts next month. As the weight of it all hits I ask questions about the internship and it is the beginnings of something similar I have been journaling about for weeks! Our God is so beyond comparison! We ask to pray about it til Wednesday but knew we would need to know sooner to get this massive ball rolling.

Lindsey and I are in the prayer room sorting all of this out with God and we feel it is time to head to the house we were staying at (cause or other house was flooded) and we got in the car and started to talk about everything that had just happened. We look up and there is a colorado license plate in front of us so we laugh a little til we realize it is the Hieberts and then we are struck. WE FOLLOW THEM for 3 miles and then pull up next to them at a stop light. We awkwardly roll down our window and say hey we were just talking about you funny that we are following you all..and they laugh and say we were too sounds good why not keep following us :) So as all of this concludes we call and talk to a few people and get on our faces and pray to God. He confirms over and over that we are suppose to go so by thursday morning we are re-packed up and headed to our first staff meeting at EHC. We will be back in kc the first week of July to officially move and have a huge party before we leave!

Crazy what happens when you follow God :)

As we establish here what it looks like to be missionaries and start up this internship next month (JULY 22) please be praying for us for clarity 1Peter 4:7, peace and joy in our hearts-Romans 15:13 (we are freaking out a little as you could imagine) provision and help to find a house here to rent and so much more -Ephesians 1:17-19 is a good blanket prayer to cover us :)

We love you all and we will keep all of you up to date on this crazy God drama and will post new pics of Croy soon! Keep letting us know below how all of you are doing cause we really do love to hear from you

check out EHC on our link to the left and look at our internship under prayer!

til later - shalom

CROY IS HERE! Lindsey was such a trooper and after having labor all night little baby Croy Joshua Lujan was born at 7:06 am weighing 7 pounds 6 ounces; 19 inches long! He has beautiful strawberry blonde hair and has a wonderful little cry that makes your heart melt.

Make sure to post how you are doing and how we can pray for ya!

Baby update: NO BABY YET:( We have had some pre-labor stuff but the big event has not started.... Pray over Lindsey's delivery that she would encounter the love of God through it!

As we wait for baby Croy to come God has been sharing his heart on his birthing process for his kingdom coming to earth! So many days go by without us pondering the thought that God is coming back to earth to reclaim his rightful place as king :O My heart lights on fire as I type!

Matthew 24: 4-14

⁴Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. ⁵For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ, and will deceive many. ⁶You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.⁷Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. ⁸All these are the beginning of birth pains.

⁹"Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. ¹⁰At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, ¹¹and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. ¹²Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, ¹³but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. ¹⁴And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

As Lindsey gets prepared for the birthing process we are brought to the idea of truthfully what it will look like for the earth to give birth to Jesus' Millennial Kingdom. As the western church we shy away from anything that brings pain but pain is required in birth for the body to be ready and for the new creation to be birthed! I love how in everything on this earth God points back to himself. How can people deny that He exists?

One thing that struck our attention was that researchers have found that the baby actually initiates the birthing process and tells the body when it is time to give birth. I will let you draw the conclusions.

Intro is going well and our new interns are amazing! Keep praying that God would restore them body, soul, and spirit.

Please email us or leave a post with updates of how you all are doing!

www.treegateministries@gmail.com

Quick Update!

IT IS ALMOST BABY TIME! So at our appointment this past week they were measuring lindsey and think that the first due date of April 23rd is more realistic than May 3rd! That is next week......I cant believe it is time to meet baby Croy :)

Lindsey is doing well with a little swelling so keep praying for her and for the delivery!

The intro program is doing well as we are starting our next group! Pray that God will come in and encounter them with his healing hand spiritually, physically, and emotionally.

Mat is doing great but allergy season is in full bloom and he has been struggling so pray for healing!

We love you all keep us posted on how you are and email us if you can at treegateministries@gmail.org

James 1

2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. ⁴Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

This has been the verse for the week as God has continuously tested Lindsey and I as we settle into Kansas City! So often it is not the big things that shape our faith but the daily choices and reactions to life; say you come back home after driving 10 hours to sell your car and you find your sink is clogged and leaking everywhere at 1 am....it makes for a beautiful breading ground for mature reactions....or lack there of...but having to struggle in your inner man to find joy during such times has us grateful that we are learning it now so when the big things do come, say an earthquake, we are found able to reach out of a heart of peace and joy rather than the numerous other unhelpful ways that get us nowhere in that day!

Anyway beyond that Lindsey is doing great! Continue to pray for her delivery and that swelling stays down as she is entering into the last few months. Mat has been sick all last week and is trying to kick the sinus head cold that is going around. Our team is doing well and God is breaking into their lives pray that each of our interns will be able to walk out the healing, joy, calling, and heartbeat that God has been giving them over the past two months!

We love you all so much and are honored to have you all by our side! Dont forget to let us know how you are doing below. Oh and we are trying to collect addresses and emails from people so if you want us to have your address please send it to www.treegateministries@gmail.com

Hello after so long!

Hello all of our beloved friends and family! It is us the Lujans...I am sure you can still remember us if you think hard after our long absence from this blog! So much has been happening and in rapid succession coupled with no internet access provides for the perfect storm of NO INFORMATION! Gladly we are back in Kansas City and in our new house with internet that we borrow from the neighbor:)

But first let us get to business: baby news! Lindsey is doing well and baby Croy is growing rapidly inside her. He is due to come into this world on May 3rd so pray for Lindsey as she rounds the bend of the last trimester and also that her delivery will go smoothly ( never to early to cover her with prayer)! We have amazing 4D image of him below for you all to check out!

This new year has found us settling down in Kansas City as missionaries at the International House of Prayer! The Lord has called us both to join the Intro to IHOP program staff where we are teaching, training, and equipping all those that come to ihop with intentions of joining staff or desire to gain the heartbeat of the prayer movement. As missionaries God has called us to gather people around our ministry as partners which took us to Iowa in the beginning of January and Atlanta at the end of last month. God moved mightily and we cant wait to see everything God is going to do in us and through us during this next season!

We will update again soon with more encouragement and thoughts as God molds and shapes all of our hearts!

It's beginning to feel alot like Christmas....

For those who do not know we found out last week that ITS A BOY!!!!! Baby Lujan's new due date is May 3rd, 2010! We have been having some problems with scanning the ultrasound pics but they will hopefully be up soon!

We are currently in Colorado and the snow is beautiful as it reflects off the sun coming down from the clear blue sky! Praise God for this mountain air! We will be heading back to Kansas City on Saturday to attend the ONETHING Conference (see more at ihop.org) As the awakening meeting ( the move of the spirit that broke out here at ihop with physical and spiritual healings) have grown stronger leading up to the conference I cant wait to see what God is about to do as 20000 + people all join together to worship, learn, and cry out for Christ's return!

More huge news: We just ended our INTRO program and God has led us to join staff here at IHOP as Intercessory Missionaries! We were greatly honored to be asked to join staff of the Intro program (which we just went through) here at IHOP. More specifics to come after the conference and an anouncement we are going to be visiting a city that sounds like matlanta :)

LOVE YOU ALL

the lujans!

Thankfulness Abounds

So it has been awhile since our last post and so much has happened! It escapes our comprehension that we have been here for 3 months looking back at all God has done and is doing.

Baby news: We are now on the cusp of 20 weeks (4 1/2 months) and we just felt the baby for the first time this morning! We will find out the gender in a few weeks at our first ultra-sound appointment! As the baby is being knit in Lindsey pray that the fire of God that has been felt on the baby will continue to grow as the baby does and His mighty hand of protection is covering baby.

Lindsey is doing well. Sadly her grandma Caroline died 2 weeks ago suddenly of a massive heart attack as she was working. We spent 5 days with the shocked family as mourning and grief was displayed. Thankfully she was a mighty woman of God that has left an everlasting impact in her family and the community around her. It was truly inspiring to see all the people she touched. Her old pastor came in to officiate the funeral and went back home last Sunday and gave her testimony to his church. The Spirit broke and restoration followed as marriages were saved and hearts were healed. These past few weeks have left one question in my heart: What will your testimony leave?

There is also a great move of the spirit here at IHOP that has broken out and thousands have come from all over the US as God is healing broken hearts, and bodies and bringing us all to a deeper level of interaction with Him. Our lives will never be the same as we have touched a bit of Jesus and His beauty. You can watch it on webstream at www.IHOP.org

We love you all and are looking to get everyone's emails so if you can give them to us below we would greatly appreciate it as well as updating us with how you are doing!

Baby News and Burning Hearts

Hey all I will first download the baby news! We went to the doctor today for our first baby visit!!! And we found out that we are actually on our 14th week or for us none baby types 3 1/2 months ( we thought the baby was only 8-9 weeks old) and our due date will be around the 23rd of April! We heart the babies heart beat and the doctor joyously proclaimed our baby has a strong heart beat (if they only knew what the heart of this baby will beat with!) We also got to see our baby for the first time and our hearts moved in a profound way and has recently led us to pray 30 minutes a day for those who would even think about aborting such a precious life!

God is burning within Lindsey and my heart and birthing not only an unrelenting passion but a burden for our nation and this coming generation. We have had a vision and Pete Greig's words in this poem cut to the heart of a battle cry echoing across the world. Will you hear the cry?

The Vision

Pete Greig

So this guy comes up to me and says "what's the vision? What's the big idea?" I open my mouth and words come out like this… The vision?

The vision is JESUS – obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.

The vision is an army of young people.

You see bones? I see an army. And they are FREE from materialism.

They laugh at 9-5 little prisons. They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday. They wouldn't even notice. They know the meaning of the Matrix, the way the west was won. They are mobile like the wind, they belong to the nations. They need no passport.. People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence. They are free yet they are slaves of the hurting and dirty and dying. What is the vision ? The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes. It makes children laugh and adults angry. It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars. It scorns the good and strains for the best. It is dangerously pure.

Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation. It loves people away from their suicide leaps, their Satan games. This is an army that will lay down its life for the cause. A million times a day its soldiers

choose to lose that they might one day win the great 'Well done' of faithful sons and daughters.

Such heroes are as radical on Monday morning as Sunday night. They don't need fame from names. Instead they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds chanting again and again: "COME ON!"

And this is the sound of the underground The whisper of history in the making Foundations shaking Revolutionaries dreaming once again Mystery is scheming in whispers Conspiracy is breathing… This is the sound of the underground

And the army is discipl(in)ed.

Young people who beat their bodies into submission.

Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms. The tattoo on their back boasts "for me to live is Christ and to die is gain".

Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes. Winners. Martyrs. Who can stop them ? Can hormones hold them back? Can failure succeed? Can fear scare them or death kill them ?

And the generation prays

like a dying man with groans beyond talking, with warrior cries, sulphuric tears and with great barrow loads of laughter! Waiting. Watching: 24 – 7 – 365.

Whatever it takes they will give: Breaking the rules. Shaking mediocrity from its cosy little hide. Laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs, laughing at labels, fasting essentials. The advertisers cannot mould them. Hollywood cannot hold them. Peer-pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries.

They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive

inside.

On the outside? They hardly care. They wear clothes like costumes to communicate and celebrate but never to hide. Would they surrender their image or their popularity? They would lay down their very lives - swap seats with the man on death row - guilty as hell. A throne for an electric chair.

With blood and sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days,

they pray as if it all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them.

Their DNA chooses JESUS. (He breathes out, they breathe in.) Their subconscious sings. They had a blood transfusion with Jesus. Their words make demons scream in shopping centres. Don't you hear them coming? Herald the weirdo's! Summon the losers and the freaks. Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes. They walk tall and trees applaud, skyscrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension. Their prayers summon the hounds of heaven and invoke the ancient dream of Eden.

And this vision will be. It will come to pass; it will come easily; it will come soon. How do I know? Because this is the longing of creation itself, the groaning of the Spirit, the very dream of God. My tomorrow is his today. My distant hope is his 3D. And my feeble, whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great 'Amen!' from countless angels, from hero's of the faith, from Christ himself. And he is the original dreamer, the ultimate winner.

Guaranteed.

Refreshed

Going into our third week Lindsey and I are overwhelmed by how much we are learning hear at IHOP. The past few weeks have been a blur in the midst of a chapel like setting in the morning filled with worship and prayer for each other followed by 3 hours of teaching on anything from Intimacy with God, Cultivating a fasted lifestyle, Revelation(one of Mat's Favorite classes), Inner healing, Book studies, and so much more! Then we jump into the prayer room for 5 hours! You think you are disciplined in prayer until you have to dig in for 5 hours then you realize you have a ton to learn! :) WE end the day exhausted physically yet filled spiritually! It is an interesting paradox :)

Lindsey is doing great(managing that "day sickness" is tough work) and we are trying to find a doctor here in Kansas City that works with our demanding 6 day a week schedule! We will hopefully be in by next Monday! It is so exciting to feel where the "bump" as Mat likes to call it is starting to form. God has been revolutionizing the way we see Him as He is preparing our hearts to be parents, we get to see a new dimension of His love for us through this baby!

Personally we are doing amazing as God is taking us back to square one and allowing us to experience Him as our father and Jesus as our loving "groom" who is preparing a place for us and is coming back to live in union with us forever! You think you understand love until you see what Jesus has done, is doing for us, and will do as a groom that is love sick to get US his church as His spotless bride. We dont know about you but we are far from spotless!

We love you all and will update again next Monday! Thank you for keeping us up to date with what is going on in your lives as well through commenting below and texting. Keep it up we miss all of you so much!

Hey all we are doing amazing! Lindsey is in good health and we will be posting soon :) sorry for the long wait we were hoping for details on a few things but they have not come. We will post by tuesday! WE LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH

Mat and Lindsey

KAIROS

As I sit here in the prayer room I see 8 year olds crying out to God for His healing power for one another, couples with hands clasped praying scripture over their city, teens pleading night and day for their generation; a mighty voice rises up from Luke 18, "And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"...... Will the Son of Man find faith on the earth when he comes?

If he came today would he find faith in you? Would he find you today, right now loving Him with all your heart soul mind, and strength and loving others as yourself? The question has been posed.... Will the Son of Man find faith on the earth when he comes? Our answer to that question will shape our lives and the landscape of this next generation!

Hope rises up in me as I type: We were created for such a time as this!

Our hearts go out to all those around the world who love Lindsey and I, support us, and fervently pray for us daily! We are doing well and as most of you have already heard Lindsey and I are going to have a baby!!!!!!!! God always graces us with gifts that we do not expect and this baby is undoubtedly one of those gifts! Lindsey has been terribly sick ( morning sickness is for the weak :) Lindsey gets day sickness....) she was in the prayer room the other day and had to rush over to the bathroom to throw up and I watched outside as a mass exodus of woman came rushing out of the bathroom-funny but sad. So if your prayers could rise up with ours for the protection of the baby as God knits him....or her in Lindsey's womb and since we are only 6 weeks into it that any and all complications will be cast down. Also pray for Lindsey as she is getting orientated to the new revelation and as her body starts to transition into pregnancy.

The month of restoration that Lindsey and I took to soak in His presence before we start here at the International House of Prayer is almost over and we start the intensive on the 28th of September. Pray that God has already gone before us and is preparing our way and assigning divine moments for us as we dig into his presence and learn the inner workings of the facility!

We love you all and please post how you are doing below! From now on we will try to post every Monday so we have some consistency!

With all of our hearts

Mat, Lindsey (and Baby) Lujan

Oh and check out this amazing ministry out of IHOP-KC called Crisis Response International-CRI

Love you all!

We are sitting here in the Kansas City airport waiting to fly to Colorado and my mind blurs with all that has happened in the past week. It still seems unreal that we are in Kansas City! We arrived to our apartment late Saturday night exhausted and weary of our 12 hour drive. We woke the next day unpacked and then went to church at IHOP! The minute we entered the door we felt at home and as our spirits were uplifted by Misty Edwards our hearts turned to Fusion and Georgia as the speaker ( a fiery Chinese pastor) talked about the next generation and encouraging us that there are only 4% who believe in our generation but we have the keys in our hands and a victorious God! Though we are miles away from each other we still all serve the same faithful God! As the week progressed we have spent hours in the prayer room, God reminding us over and over how much he loves us! We finally unpacked the last box on Wednesday (Mat was a little slow in unpacking :) ) and started to prepare ourselves for the season head! We would appreciate if you all could keep our health in your prayers ( Mat is still sick), as well as praying the rest and restoration of God over our time here at IHOP! WELOVE YOU ALL and will write again soon. We will be in Colorado for a week and a half visiting Mat's family so we will be posting after that! (We posted a pic of our apartment above and the prayer room below.)

Hey all just wanted to give you info on What we are doing!

Intro to IHOP–KC Internship

 
Intro to IHOP–KC is a three-month internship targeting those who intend to join staff at IHOP–KC or who seek to be equipped for leadership at their local house of prayer. Intro is one of four staff-entry programs: Intro, Onething, Fire in The Night and Simeon Company. Intro to IHOP–KC is also open to those considering the possibility of joining staff but who are still in the decision-making process.
 
Our goal is to equip the intercessor for long-term success in a lifestyle of prayer and fasting. The program includes training in IHOP–KC’s worship and prayer model, personal support-raising, the core values of intimacy, eschatology and intercession, the forerunner ministry, healing and prophecy.

We will be starting the last week in September!  Check out the link to the side for all the details of the program!

Keep a look out as we post what we are up to and more details that will be coming next week!

We love you all dearly!