Voice Ministries, Elkhart, IN

My daughter, Jackie, and I have the privilege of visiting Voice Ministries in Elkhart, IN, for two weeks.  Voice is a group of ministries that includes a 12+hr/day prayer & worship room, a food bank that feeds 500-700 households a week, a Tuesday night interchurch community worship gathering, healing & prophetic teams, a Theophostic inner healing ministry, and a Sunday morning fellowship.  I love sitting in the prayer room and soaking in the presence of the Lord as the singers and instrumentalists continually worship, interspersed with readings of Scripture and intercessory prayer.  If you want a taste of it, here's a link to a live feed from the Kansas City IHOP (International House of Prayer), a parent organization to this one.

Somebody referred to this place as a spiritual "hospital".  Here's what they say about themselves:

Voice began in the mid 90s as a “meeting place” for those who were burnt out, tired, messed up and needed something different and refreshing. What people found was a vibrant bunch of passionate worshippers and messages of hope and healing and encouragement. It was, as many would come to say, “a cool drink of water in a dry land.” 

We are not a typical ministry. We don’t care about a name or numbers, we just know that God has put us here, in the middle of Michiana, to be a VOICE. A Voice of hope. A Voice of healing. A Voice of worship. A Voice that shouts the message that all of this is about Jesus, and that Jesus is coming back!

We are staying at what they call "the camp", which is really a private estate that was turned into something like a retreat center.  This was the original location of the IHOP, International House of Prayer, so it's a special place. Much prayer and worship has gone up from this location.

I am enjoying the peaceful grounds and especially the daffodils beginning to sprout everywhere, a nice change from the still snow-covered ground in Cascade.

I went out and sat in this gazebo for a while today.  It overlooks a creek.

The stately oak trees have not yet sprouted foliage for spring.  I marveled at one clump of leaves (left of center above) that has held on all winter and was not budging even today in a pretty brisk wind.