Episode #1 (Transcription)

	Listen in Shulamite Podcast (Year ONE Collection) The complete first year of MP3 podcasts. 52 Episodes on 2 CDs

with Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow

(J) Well, we at Shulamite Ministries are wanting to start a new thing called the Shulamite podcast.  It’s going go in connection with the Manna and with the Ezine and with the website at Shulamite.com.  It’s going be all connected.  But this is going to be a podcast, which an internet radio broadcast that you would be able to access through Itunes.  Itunes is not the only way of accessing podcasts, but it’s the way I know to do it easiest.  So, basically if you have Itunes, and you could be either Mac or Windows, you could run the program.  You could subscribe to the podcasts, which would be the radio broadcast and it would automatically download it into your computer as we uploaded it into the worldwide web.  So, it’s rather exciting because we can keep connection with you and literally you’ll have, when we upload something, it will automatically go into your computer.  Then another good thing is that you can put it in mp3 player and just download it into that, and anytime you synced up your ipod or your mp3 player to your computer it would automatically bring those podcasts into it, and you could take it with you.  You could go to work with it.  You could go to the subway with it.  You could go anywhere you wanted with it.  We’re just really excited about it because we’ll have more of an organic kind of connection with you through this podcast and through this means.  And the radio broadcasts, though it’s going to be a little choppy today, I suspect, we’re hoping that it evolves into something that is really fun to listen to, informative, challanging and a joy to get each time it comes out.  I don’t know how often it will come out.  I’d love for it to come out once a week.  I don’t know how long it will be.  I suspect it would be probably fifteen minutes, maybe a little more, maybe a little less, just depending on what’s going on.  And how I foresee it taking place is that it’s going to be a type of  radio interview show.  I’ll interview Martha and/or she’ll interview someone else about different things that are going on.  And then you’ll be able to access that through both the website.  You could download the podcast into your computer through the website at Shulamite.com or you can do it through, like I said, at Itunes.  I hopefully will write out for our listeners and viewers a full list of how to do it.  As far as today’s broadcast, we really wanted to talk about Honduras and what has just transpired in our last trip to Honduras.  And with me I have Martha. 
Ok, Martha, we’ve let a lot of the visitors of Shulamite Ministries know what’s going on in Honduras and they’ve been able to access that through the Manna, which is through In Jesus, “Mann in the Morning” at InJesus.com.  So in the “Manna in the Morning,” which is a daily devotional that Martha does each morning through InJesus.com.  It’s called “Manna in the Morning.”  And you can actually subscribe to that and you’d get a daily devotional throughout the weekday for free.  This is, as well as this podcast, is a free subscription, but you would get the connection.  But in the “Manna in the Morning” you’ve been doing a lot to tell about what’s going on in Honduras.  So Martha, tell us what’s going on right now?  What’s the whole thing with the building process and where are we in Honduras?
(M) We’ve just returned from our tenth trip.  I can hardly believe we’ve been that many times in seven years.  And I wrote a lot about the people in Honduras.  We actually have a mission there that is under the auspices of Shulamite.  And it is a mission of relationships with the people in Honduras.  And I’ve written some of the stories to the Manna people.  I think those journals can be found on the website too.  And many of you have really responded to knowing about Honduras.  And we came to the conclusion that we were to build a prayer house, that prayer was the greatest need.  I’m still convinced of that.  But we’ve had to learn how things go in Honduras.  They move at snail pace, not like America.  America, we are an amazing people.  My husband always in the Navy would comment on how efficient and able Americans are to get projects done.  But in Honduras it moves so slowly.
(J) A snail’s pace.  Yeah.
(M) A snail’s pace.  But the wonderful thing is there was an architect in Honduras who knew the property, who knew the farm.  It took some time to make connection with him, but when we did he was most willing to take a scetch I drew and render some drawings.  Well, the first drawings have come in, but it’s taken weeks and weeks to get that.  The amazing thing is that he will charge $260, -5,000 limpuras,- and for that small fee, which is a great gift, he will oversee the project, give final drawings, have an engineer sign off on them.  So it will be a very good plan when it eventually gets done.  In the meantime we are, through the generosity of people at Shulamte and your generosity, we have a nice nest-egg to begin the building, but it has not started because we are still in the planning stages. 
(J) Well, tell us about Bob and Rosemary and how are they doing currently?
(M) The first priorities that we gave Bob and Rosemary was to get their own personal home before we began any other building to do some things around their house that meet the family needs.  They were very grateful for this because we care about their family.  They have three children, two girls and a baby boy, who’s three years old, whose name is John Robert.  So they’ve been slowly taking care of the house.  One of the things that I had written about was how termites were eating the kitchen cabinets.  One of their supporters in the States gave a very generous gift for the remodeling of the kitchen.  And so, that also has moved at Honuras’ timetable and been very slow.  We hope to be finished...we had a goal of August, but that was very unrealistic.  But it has happened slowly but surely.  Bob just wrote me that he had installed the doors.  But just to give you an idea of life there, when they pulled the old cabinets out, which were just...  The formica was eaten away on the inside.  All that was left of the wood cabinets was a thin, paperlike back.  So the cabinets were literally like having a piece of paper.  So the cabinets were built of concrete and tile.  Bob did a great deal of the work and it’s beautifully done.  Then they put wood doors on it and those are being installed now as we speak.  So, there are other things.  One of the crisis is that I see that the Lokers were willing to live with, but I’m not, is that they have an asbestos roof.  I don’t know how we’re going to do this, but we’ve got to get the roof replaced.  So there are priorities before we can do our prayer house that I feel should be done.
(J) Well, what transpired in this last trip that we just went on?
(M) This was a brief trip just to see how things were going, to connect with the Lokers and meet with some of the local people.  The Lord had an agenda for me.  And what He said to me was,  “I want you to hear the cry of the poor.”  I’ve written a lot about the poor, but the poor that we have been in contact with in years past have been the Christian poor.  They have opportunities, somewhat.  But this time it seemed to be about babies.  Elsa has just had a grandbaby.  Maritza just had a baby boy, so we had a lot of fun.  And Maritza had said, when are Martha and John going to come and bless our babies?  So we had a good time with the babies.  But there were two episodes that happened there, both having to do with babies.  On of them was a young mother with a three month old baby and they came to Rosemary and Bob’s house and they saw this baby was very sick with a fever.  And the mother wasn’t going to do anything about it.  And so Bob and Rosemary took them to the hospital and the baby was put immediately on antibiotics.  It was very very sick.  Rosemary said she knew that the mother didn’t take the baby to the hospital because she didn’t have the twenty dollars for medicine.  My, how we throw around twenty dollar bills.  The next episode was one that they told me about.  I did not see this situation, but they learned of a young couple who literally were starving.  They had no job.  Jobs are very scarce in Honduras.  Those who are willing to work sometimes it’s impossible to find work.  So Bob and Rosemary went to this house.  They said the squalor was unbelievable.  The baby was crying.  The mother’s milk had dried up because she was starving.  The baby was starving, so of course they went out and out of their own funds bought milk and were going to do other things for this young family.  And so the cry of the poor came to me through those two episodes.  And I thought, oh my, I don’t want anything for Christmas but money for the poor.  And I remembered a verse.  And I was able to find it in Proverbs 21 says,  “If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.  Many times when my children were growing up we always looked for a family to take care of at Christmas.  We would get a name of someone poor.  But what we did was give toys and clothes.  In this situation toys would be a ludicrous gift.  Food, clothing, basics, milk for babies, these are the needs in Honduras.  At one time they did have a feeding center for the poor, but there was so much corruption among the leadership of the Honduran leadership that the feeding center was closed.  I don’t know how we will do this but I want to set up a fund that is earmarked for the poor, so that Bob and Rosemary will have money available to do things for the people that they are in contact with.  This mission is really about relationship with the local people.  The Lokers are forming relationships with their neighbors.  They are becoming friends.  They are reaching out in Honduras to the pastors and we’ve developed really strong relationships and ongoing links to strategic pastors in the area of Santa Rosa.  So my heart is to appeal for the poor.  I’m going to be doing that in our world.  I want to give you the opportunity as well at this Christmas time.  If you want to send a donation to Shulamite, mark it for the poor in Honduras.  Every penny will go to the poor.  We don’t take anything out for administrative costs.  So it’s an amazing opportunity to link with the extreme poor.  There is no welfare program in Honduras.  There is no medical program in Honduras.  If you don’t have money as a poor person, you have no alternative.  Here, we have many programs for the poor.  No one needs to starve.  No one needs to go without medical care.  My son is a doctor and he tells me no one really goes without medical care.  They turn no one away in his hospital.  But in Honduras it is not that way.  They are such a poor country, the poorest country in Latin America, that there is no governmental program for the poor.  So this is my Christmas message, to hear the cry of the poor, for God to hear your cry too.  When I remembered the phrase, the cry of the poor, I didn’t remember that God hearing my prayers was dependent on my hearing the cry of the poor.  So that was the meaning of this visit to Honduras and we will probably go back in February and put together a building team.  There have been teams that have gone down that are working on a meeting house.  Another team put in a wonderful cement driveway.  These things make the biggest difference in the quality of life that the Lokers have.  And they are willing to settle for much less comfort and ease, but we want them to have a comfortable life style because it’s a very sacrificial life, although they love it.  So, thank you for listening.  Thank you for caring about our mission.
(J) So tell me about the...  We’re going to tag this on top of the tape of the month.  In the tape of the  month you’re speaking about glory, and you, actually this message was done in Honduras during this trip.  Can you tell us about your vision about the glory?
(M) The day I was to leave for the flight to Honduras, early in the morning the Lord really spoke to me that He wanted to bring the glory of God to Honduras.  And I thought the glory of God solves so many things, because one you have the presence of God, once you have His wonderful, amazing glory and light, it changes everything.  And these people need the reality of God desperately.
(J) So how do you see that relating to...because it’s obviously tied in and connected in some way.  So how is the glory and the poor, how are they connected?  How are they inner-connected?
(M) I thought about the word revival on this trip, and I don’t believe that is in the scriptures.  The word glory is over and over again.  And I think true revival is the presence of the glory of God.  It can come in visible form, which we have seen.  It can come in the form of a heavy presence of God.  It can come in the form of a visitation of the Holy Spirit.  The glory of God has many aspects.  But when the glory of God comes and it produces a revival, all of the social ills are taken care of as a result of it.  Revival always awakens programs for the needs, the practical needs.  We are very practical at Shulamite. 
(J) Right.
(M) That’s why we want the Lokers to have... not luxury.  They certainly don’t have luxury, but we want them to have a comfortable place to live where things are in good repair.
(J) Right.
(M) So the glory has an impact on a society and it sort of is like... When the glory comes years of effort are bypassed.  The glory of God touches people and impacts people and they know that God is real. 
(J) Ok.  So do you see the whole link between the prayer house, the glory and the poor...  Are they all inner-connected?
(M) Yes, John, they are.  To bring the glory in there’s going to have to be a lot of prayer.  It’s a promise God gave.  It’s a promise I took to one of our Honduran pastors, Juan.  I think he received it, he and his wife, Fatima, who are very dear to us, and have been there from the beginning of our visits there.  Yes indeed, they are connected.  We need much prayer.  We want to send prayer teams down.  We want to call in the Honduran pastors and their wives.  The wives are very powerful there.  They’re very wonderful.  And join together in prayer and have the same vision and watch God come in a mighty way that transforms a society. 
(J) Do you see the glory of God and the unity of the believers in this area are going to be real key?
(M) John, I noticed in Jesus’ prayer of John 17 that He links the glory with oneness.
(J) Umhmmm.
(M) And it seems to say there that oneness is the result of the glory.  And so you’re right.  Your question is right on.  I do feel that it’s the perfect blending as we walk step by step in God’s will for these poorest of the poor.  In this country that has so much legalism and religion and tyranny and corruption and so many social ills that almost unknown in America.  It seems perfect to me that God would choose to call us to pray for and ask for the glory to visit there.
(J) Martha, I’ve heard a lot of hype of the glory, and I’ve heard of a lot of promises of the glory.  You know, I’m not interested in an emotional swirl or a promise of God in jumping off of a parapet to see...  You know, I mean you don’t promise, ok, let’s put up a banner and here’s the glory meetings.  So how do you see this as different?
(M) I agree with you completely, John, because I’m very jealous for the glory and I’m very jealous for the glory to be real.  I don’t like situations where the glory is promised.  You cannot control the glory.  The glory of God came to Ezekiel in Babylon, in captivity.
(J) Wow.
(M) The glory of God comes sometimes where there’s terrible darkness.  The glory of God is...  You cannot orchestrate it and you cannot predict it.  The only thing you can do is ask for it.  And I believe in this promise of the glory what God is saying is, “Ask for it.”  The hype of the glory is man trying to produce soulishly what the glory alone can do.  I really believe that only when God comes as a surprise, He comes and visits in His glory.  The visitations of the glory that we have known have been surprises.  They have come.  He has come.  The Lord has come in glory with an outpouring of the Spirit, but it usually is predicated by a hunger for Him.  The glory is Christ.  It’s not a thing.  It’s not a manifestation.  It’s not a feeling, although all of that’s involved.  The glory is really the presence of Christ.  He is the glory of God, and He brings by His glory, glory to the Father.  I’m seeing in the scriptures that glory is the ultimate and end purpose of God for the Church.  He wants the glory in the Church.  He wants the Church to be stunning, to be a shocking presence to the world that is in such need.  There’s nothing we can do but ask for it.
(J) OK.  During this trip I heard you mention the glory as related to healing and that these people that really have no medical help, who have to rely on God, how do you see that relating to the glory of God?
(M) Well, when I learned of so much illness and sickness there in Honduras, and such limited medical care, I really felt like God wanted to bring a movement of healing to the nation.  And of course the glory brings that.  The glory  of Christ’s presence is always healing of souls, healing of bodies.  So the glory, to me, encompasses all that Christ is and all that He gave and all that He died for. 
(J) That’s awesome.  That’s phenominal.  I mean, we in the States, we have, you know,  all the pills that you could possibly need to heal whatever.  And I can go to any Walmart in any city and I can get what I need.  But you know, here in the rural area of Honduras, it’s below even the cities and it’s just awfully impoverished.
(M) Yes, it is.
(J) But the glory of God...good grief.
(M) The glory of God is the presence of God and it solves everything.  In those places where the glory of God has touched down such as the revival in the Hebrides, people were touched who were unchurched.  People were impacted simply in their homes.  There was such a great outpouring of the glory through an entire area, but it happened through intense prayer.  So, we’re going to begin to pray even before the prayer house is built.
(J) How wonderful.  Well, tell us if we hadn’t heard through the Manna and we’re not subscribed to the Manna, tell us how the property is laid out.  What’s there?  What is the property?
(M) The property is a farm, and we actually learned that it was planted and begun by a Catholic nun, who had a vision of a retreat center.  And she planted just enormous numbers of fruit trees and coffee plants.  Coffee harvest pays for some of the expenses of the farm every year.  It’s a paradise of fruits.  It’s about fourteen acres.  There’s a block house that the Lokers live in.  There’s a small old adobe house that has been re-done.  There’s spring water.  There are garden areas.  There’s a side of a mountain, the most magnificent views of the mountains of Honduras visible from the Loker’s porch and from other places on the property.  There are two small pieces of land available for sale now.  We’re considering God’s will about that.  Both pieces would make a retreat center more feasible, but we do know to have a retreat center is going to take a lot of money and some years unless God moves more quickly.
(J) Are you seeing this as a retreat center in like our typical American retreat centers that you’d have basically hotel style area that a lot of people will come to, or how do you see this retreat center?
(M) To the degree that we understand God’s will, which we know there’s more to be discovered, we are just beginning to...  There’s one church that has agreed to build a meeting house and they’ve been twice to do that.  They’ve supplied the funds and the labor.  Very wonderful, I think it’s a Methodist group, and we’re very grateful for what they’ve done.  At this point there have already been pastors who’ve come there and fasted and prayed.  They’ve stayed in the adobe house.  There are already small things going on that the pastors we’re in contact with are using it for.  I think some of the Catholic nuns have been there to pray.  So it’s already begun.  The outreach has already started, but at this point, so far as we see, it will be a meeting place.  As I’ve told in the Manna, the Honduran people don’t always have a church building, but they do love to get together and have good food and hot showers and things that some of them don’t have everyday...and bathroom facilities and beautiful landscape and lush fruits.  Right now the trees are laden with oranges.  The coffee beans are ripening for the next harvest in January.  So it’s full of tropical birds that sing and carry on while we’re meeting.  So it’s already begun.  It’s already had a ministry to pastors and they do say when they come there that....  some of the pastors tear up as soon as they hit the property because they say God is there.  Well, the glory of God is on the place now.  We just want to make Him more welcome and more welcome and invite the glory that He wants to bring there.
(J) Well, I’m anticipating on putting several pictures of the views...
(M) Oh, good.
(J) and the house and the Lokers on the website.  This has been a process that I’ve wanted to do for a while, but it’s just been amiss.  I’ve not been able to do it.  And I’m just believing in God’s timing on it.  But what I’d like to do is put, you know,  a picture of the view from that main window so that everybody can see what they can see.
(M) Oh, it’s exquisite.
(J) Each time we go down I anticipate bringing my camera and basically bringing pictures back.  And we could do the podcasts.  You know, they have art work that goes on the podcasts and basically that while they were watching their podcasts they could see the pictures flash across the different things.  You know, you said John Robert...Boom.  There it is, or you could say the Lokers or you know Manuel and Sylvia or any of the pastors that we’ve really fallen in love with in relationship with.  So on our first podcast, how would you like to end this podcast and what would you like to say at the end of the podcast?
(M) I have asked for donations and I want to thank the Manna people and those of the Loker’s supporters who have contributed special funds for the prayer house, which we are keeping for that purpose.  But I want to ask more for prayer.  The pastors there and their wives face herendous problems, herendous warfare.  They have such basic social problems.  Each person there has grown up in situations of abuse.  There’s not one we know of that didn’t grow up with situations of herendous abuse.
(J) Haneous.
(M) Haneous abuse, things that I could not even begin to tell you.  Stories that just will tear your heart out.  So they struggle.  The pastors and their wives who are the leaders of the people struggle with their own struggles.  So the thing I would solicit most and appreciate most is to support the whole project with prayer.  There are many people that are in the Loker’s supporters who have had visions and words of encouragement to the Lokers and so, we just want to be a window to the mission field for you.  That’s my heart’s...been my heart’s desire for many years, that if I can create a window into the mission field, you can look through it and you can join us in your heart and so many of you have.  You’ve written wonderful things to us that you’re praying and I just want to thank you all.  All of you who’ve been interested, and I want to ask you for your prayers.  Thank you, John, for all the work you’ve done for this podcast outreach that we’re beginning.
(J) Well, I’m really looking forward to what God’s going to do.  I’m really anticipating it evolving into something that’s real, like I said, organic.  I don’t want it to be staid.  I don’t want it to be something that you feel like you’re listening to an interview.  I want it to be a conversation that you feel like you can enjoy and join in.  You’ve just invited us all to join in on this, and so I want to close this podcast and just thank everybody for their support, their following of the ministry, their going to the website and reading all the things that are written there, following us through the ezine.  And just...we don’t even know who listens and reads and the things that are in Shulamite.  And we get messages from people on a regular basis saying, “Hey, this really touched me.  This really was wonderful and I appreciate it.”  Good grief.  How many people do you get to respond to you back to the Manna?  I mean, it’s just incredible.
(M) I get the most response when I write about Honduras.
(J) There you go.  There you go.  So anyway, I just bless you all for listening.  I thank you Martha for doing this interview.
(M) And we wish you a wonderful Christmas.
(J) Oh yeah.  Merry Christmas.  Absolutely.  God bless you.
(M) Oh, that was fun.