Autumn 2005
Dearly Beloved of Our Lord:
Greetings in the mighty and wonderful name of our Lord, Savior, and King – Jesus! May His mercy, grace, and peace be multiplied into your lives throughout this summer season. And may you bear much, much fruit and bring glory and honor to our Father as the Kingdom of God is extended in and through you in love.
Notes from the Living Room – from Ron
You probably remember that Pioneer Courthouse Square is called Portland’s Living Room. This is written on a plaque on a pillar at the corner of SW Sixth and Morrison Streets where we minister throughout the week. It is here that we share the gospel of the Kingdom of God with thousands of people every week. About 80,000 people come into downtown Portland every day to work or shop. And they come in a car, on the bus, on the MAX, or walk. We get the privilege of ministering with all kinds of people, which include the mentally ill and homeless who are usually on the streets all day long wandering around. We meet many tourists, including those from outside the USA. Every day we encounter some interesting people to meet and talk with. When the weather is good I enjoy walking from our house down across the Hawthorne Bridge and into downtown Portland. As I walk I am able to pray and worship and make the time a prayerwalk through various neighborhoods or along Hawthorne Blvd. I am also free to stop and talk with people along the way and to pray with them when needed. Walking also gives me some much-needed exercise.
What has been most interesting to me has been to experience the way the Lord is using my wife Karen on the Square, in the Living Room. She is one of the very few women we know who regularly is available to minister to women on the streets in downtown Portland. We know of some women who minister to women at the missions or shelters or through drug rehab programs, and we know of only a couple women who are on the streets from time-to-time. But Karen is in the Living Room all afternoon long, four days a week in the good weather – Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. And she is always at the NE corner, usually by the westbound MAX stop on the Square.
Karen is so regular in her hours that she sometimes jokes about it as she puts down her backpack, gets out her tracts, and clips on the small signs, one which says, “Jesus Forgives and Heals – Ask Us About Healing Prayer.” She has people who come downtown to our “outdoor office in the living room” just to find her and counsel with her and receive prayer. Street youth come up to her to talk with her and ask for a couple of Chick tracts to read during the day. Latino brethren come to her for Spanish language tracts or Spanish New Testaments, which we purchase to give away. During June a man who has befriended us recommended Karen to a woman who lives in his apartment building. So one day this woman comes up to Karen and pours out her heart and received counsel and prayer. Some days I have seen women lined up to talk with her.
Karen’s Testimony – from The Living Room
A woman came and sat on the wall next to me and asked for a tract. I gave her a card inviting her to the Portland Healing Rooms. She asked if she could stand in for her daughter and get prayer for her. She told me her daughter was a prostitute on 82nd avenue. She had spent all of her inheritance trying to get her free but to no avail. I asked the woman I was talking to if she was saved. She said she had an angelic visitation when she was seventeen where the whole room became light; she experienced the love of Jesus and wept. She had gone through a lot of difficult times that had caused her to doubt her salvation and caused her to be angry with God. She said she was a good person and that she did not sin. I told her that the Bible says that if it is not of faith it is sin and doubt was sin. She said that she would love God if He would rescue her daughter.
While I was talking to her a man that I had met the previous day came by. His parents were Pentecostal and he was raised in church. When he was fourteen he left home, got involved in drugs, sold drugs, and ended up in prison. While he was in prison he met the Lord who totally transformed his life. He was fifty years old and had never met his four children. But the Lord made it possible through family members to meet his two daughters and one of his sons. He was rejoicing because all three knew the Lord and they were doing well. He had the opportunity to be reconciled with them. He is a Vietnam vet for whom the Lord provided housing and a job. He was so thankful for what God had done for him that he would weep as he testified of God’s goodness.
The man shared his testimony to the woman who was talking to me. It gave her hope concerning her daughter. I talked to the woman and encouraged her to come into the Portland Healing rooms for prayer herself. She was definitely in captivity. I spoke to some of the chains that bound her. She kept putting up walls of unbelief. She said she did not believe like we did. I told her that the man had spent fifty years serving the devil so he is willing to lay down his sin life for God and believe His word until the Lord took him home. He had nothing to lose and all to gain. I could see she was being deeply affected by his testimony and hope was returning to her concerning her daughter. She said she would come in for prayer.
While I was talking to the two of them, a woman who I had prayed for and talked to two years ago, came by and was telling them how wonderful I was. Two years ago she had arrived from Florida. She had left her lifestyle with a very controlling father. She had been offered a job but when she arrived in Portland, somebody else had already taken the job. She was jobless and homeless in a strange city. I prayed for her concerning her father and referred her to a woman’s shelter. She was living at Salvation Army Shelter. The people helped her to get an apartment and a part-time job. As she was going through the transition she would often come by for fellowship, counsel, and prayer. Now she has an apartment, full-time job, and she is full of joy. And she joyfully shared her testimony with this brother and the women concerned for her daughter.
We are continually surrounded by testimonies of the mercy and goodness of God. It is a great blessing to be used as a bridge between two people so that one can hear of God’s goodness in a brother or sister’s life.
I recently had the blessing to pray for a Japanese girl whose father had been born in the Tule Lake relocation camp. I had been born in the Minidoka relocation camp. Minidoka and Tule Lake were relocation camps where Japanese Americans were imprisoned during WW II. It was like ministering to my own daughter. The Lord took us through deep waters of prayer, deliverance, and healing. Because of my experiences and healing, the Lord gave me the identity of cultural chains and generational chains of captivity so that I could minister effectively. We both wept together. We went to a place together that is “beyond words.” Jesus met us both very deeply. He also deeply touched the others on the prayer team, including my husband Ron.
“Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls;
All Your waves and billows have gone over me.” – Psalm 42:7
Thank You For Your Prayers And Support
We thank you for your prayers, your encouragement, and your support as we carry the good news of the Kingdom of God to many people from a great variety of backgrounds. It is indeed a great privilege to be sent by our Lord and King into His harvest field. He has called us to be missionaries – Urban Missionaries! And we live as missionaries to our city and meet in His house in the Living Room. So, in a sense, we are in the living room of a house church that has no roof. And His Holy Spirit builds us together with whomever He should draw to Himself so that we can be joined with them through the Spirit. What a privilege and a joy!
From time-to-time people ask us about finances, retirement, church support, etc. Here is how we answer. We live as missionaries on what our Lord supplies. We have no debts and have put all of our time, energy, and material goods in His hands as we intercede for revival and awakening. Our lives are very simple and we see no retirement as missionaries. Our desire is to hear Him say, “Well done” at the end of our journey and believe He will take us to be with Him when our work is done. (See Ephesians 2:10) So we greatly appreciate your prayers and your support and receive them all as from Him supplied through your love. May you be richly blessed and very fruitful. Grace, peace, and love.
~ Ron & Karen
E-mail: awakening1s@comcast.net
Home Page: awakening1s.net
church @ 24/7
Ron & Karen Rohman
PO Box 14292
PORTLAND OR 97293