Spring 1996 :: Seeds Germinating :: Omaha, Nebraska (USA)

• We had exposure to the teachings of Jim Goll concerning worship and prayer in the Tabernacle—prayer without ceasing as the Levites tended to the fire on the altar morning & evening
• Ministering in many of our churches, we ask the Lord to "minister" to us (i.e. healing, guidance, & salvation). We also pray & "minister" to each other. The question began to arise, when do we ever "minister" simply to Him?
• During an evening praying for revival, a picture came of the Lord flying in a plane from the revival in Toronto, Canada to the one in Pensacola, Florida. Thousands were being touched by the power & the love of God. The thought came, "Lord, would you come here to Omaha on your way through?"
• The passage from 2 Kings: 8–10 came to mind where the Shunammite woman persuaded her husband to set aside a small, simply furnished room on the roof, solely for the use of Elisha the prophet, when he passed through their town. Again, the thought came: "Lord, if we had a place in our city - a simple place just for You - where we would come & be there just for You, would you not come? How could you resist?"
  
  And that is what we did. Over the next few months a like-minded group came together. At first, we met in a private home. We said to each other, "We need to do this, we need to minister to Jesus, we must pray about this." We knew we did not need to pray, we needed to do it! At first, we played worship cassette tapes & ministered to the Lord in our hearts as we sat listening.

April 1997 :: Planting time

In April 1997, we moved to our first public place - a new church plant in downtown Omaha & established our first weekly "worship watch". People began to join us from different churches in the city. It was a time when the work was hidden, not secret; conceived, hidden and protected in the womb. We continued to ask the Lord, "how do we do this? How do we minister to you?" We started to use CDs & put the words of the songs and scriptures up on the screen to use as we worshipped them back to Him.

We started to grow. We added more worship watches, a children’s worship watch, a dance watch. One of our number was an accomplished musician. He came with others in the night to play to the Lord. Once a month we started to worship through the night, from early evening until daybreak.

During those years, we received a number of prophetic words. In two different situations, we were told that we were taking a beachhead. We were like Omaha Beach (the most strategic landing on the coast of France in World War II, 1944). Some of the worst casualties of the war were suffered at Omaha Beach, but the military personnel succeeded in taking the beachhead & making way for further troops to flood in, to take the land & bring the war to a close.

August 1999 :: Planting Out

Soon, we began to develop Ministering to Jesus in other church locations in both Omaha, NE, & over the river in Council Bluffs, IA.  We now have many regular worship watches, each led by a faithful team. Every week, we Minister to Jesus 60-70 hours as well as go through the night once a month.  Many of the hours are at the recently established Heartland House of Prayer in Council Bluffs, IA.