Colonel Bo Brekke Promoted to Glory


Colonel Bo Brekke, Territorial Commander of the Pakistan Territory and former Divisional Leader in the North Scotland Division, was shot and killed yesterday, Thursday 27 September. The incident occurred in the THQ compound shortly after the colonel had presided over the retirement and farewell meeting to the Chief Secretary
and Territorial Secretary for Women’s Ministries. Information to date points to an individual act of criminality. There is nothing to suggest that this is related in any way to terrorism. The incident occurred at about 6.30 p.m. local time while Colonel Brekke was working alone in his office. Our hearts reach out to Colonel Birgitte Brekke and her family at this tragic time.A Norwegian by birth, Bo Brekke was a cadet in the ‘Proclaimers of Salvation’ session, being commissioned as an officer in May 1980 and appointed as corps officer to Brevik, in Norway. The following year he transferred to corps leadership in the Denmark Territory, the home territory of Birgitte. After two years in Denmark Bo and Birgitte returned to Norway and continued in service in corps appointments until their transfer to the Sri Lanka Territory at the beginning of 1987.

In Sri Lanka, a short period as Manager of Hope House preceded an appointment as Acting Property Secretary in July 1987, and then as Property and Special Efforts Secretary from November 1988. As Community Services Secretary from 1991, the then Captain Brekke also undertook management of Hope House once again.

Bo and Birgitte returned to Norway from 1993 to 1995, giving leadership to the Fredrikstad Corps during that time.

Having developed a deep love for South Asia and its people, it was a personal joy for Bo and Birgitte Brekke when, in August 1995 they were appointed as regional leaders to Bangladesh. Under their leadership the work of the Army flourished and in 1997 the Bangladesh Region was granted command status, and Major Bo Brekke was appointed as Officer Commanding, with Birgitte serving alongside him as Command President of Women’s Ministries and Command Youth Officer.

The late summer of 2002 saw a further change of culture and working environment as Bo and Birgitte were appointed as divisional leaders of the North Scotland Division in the United Kingdom Territory, followed by service respectively as Chief Secretary and Secretary for Mission Development in the Eastern Europe Territory. It was from there that, almost exactly one year ago (15 September 2006) Colonel Bo Brekke was appointed as Territorial Commander of the Pakistan Territory, and Colonel Birgitte Brekke as Territorial President of Women’s Ministries.

At the time of her husband’s promotion to Glory Colonel Birgitte Brekke was attending meetings at International Headquarters in London. Arrangements were made immediately for her to fly to Norway to be with her two sons and other family members. She was accompanied by her sister who had come to London to see Birgitte while she was visiting IHQ.

We thank God for the commitment that Bo Brekke demonstrated through 27 years of faithful and effective service as a Salvation Army officer, and I know you will join me in prayer on behalf of Birgitte, her sons Benjamin and Bo Christoffer and other members of the family who, whilst encouraged by the hope that we have in the Risen Christ, nevertheless are understandably devastated by the tragic and untimely promotion to Glory of a loving husband, father and friend.

Just another blessed SonDay…can’t wait ’til Monday

Another great SonDay in Wick. Its a blessing to have people so especially responsive to the word, you can feel it round the hall and God is doing his work. Its a blessing to feel the atmosphere change as God moves around doing his business. I’ve no idea what he is doing the vast majority of the time, but then that is his business!

Today Jesus visited us in the form of a very drunk man who had been in the wars the last couple of days and wasn’t up to his best. He was treated with love and respect which was good, in spite of the fact that to many of our folks he would have been quite intimidating. We affirmed together afterwards that he was just as welcome in our place of worship as we were and we prayed for him as one of my retired Colonels spoke with him in the other room.

Meanwhile, the Lord continues to speak and this time he has given me a very direct practical ‘vision’ of another ministry to approach. Details to follow.

Also, God is still speaking about harvest to me. He corrected some of my thinking in pointing out that its not necessarily the fact that we need more workers, its just that the workers are in the wrong place. That is, they are in the barn expecting the lord to blow the wheat in when actually God wants them in the field. He who has EARS let him here (boom boom!!).

PS Robert Doull, if you’re reading send me your email address to andrew.clark@salvationarmy.org.uk Blessings to you brother.

Red Shield!

So its been a bit of a whirlwind of a week which has included a trip back to Bristol to deal with some unfinished business in the form of a Crown Court case! Glad to have it behind us and just await the verdict for the person were were supporting.

Its also our Red Shied Door-to-door appeal up here in Wick so its been busy. Collecting is very different here…people are genuinely happy to see you and are so kind and generous. After the first week we’re already ahead of schedule with our target. This evening sees the completion of our ‘Caithness’ collecting. Next week we travel the 30-40 miles and back each night to collect areas of Sutherland, also in our corps district.

The old soldier I was collecting with last night had the right idea…in reponse to his donors kindness he then responded with a nice shiny gospel tract in the form of a coin. People gladly received them. Well done David!

Words from the Lord

It is a blessing when the Lord speaks. I’ve had the privelege in recent years to be allowed by the Holy Spirit to develop spiritual ears…you see, I’m convinced the Lord speaks and I want to hear him, so I ask him to speak. His response to that prayer request is always ‘well listen then.’

Last night as I was nodding off to sleep the Lord woke me with an audible voice. Sometimes when he speaks its a long paragraph or something, but last night it was just a sentence.

He said “I’m sending a north wind out of season.”

That might seem strange to you, but to me I know exactly what it means. The north wind, in the days of the Bible, was a symbol of the fact that the harvest had to be harvested. As soon as the farmer felt the north wind, it was the time to reap his crops. The Lord is saying, even although you may not perceive it to be the season for reaping, I’m asking to reap out of season.

You see, the Lord “reaps where he has not sown and takes out where he has not put in” (Luke 19:21-22). He is a soverign Lord and does things at his own will. But then, look at John 4: 35- 37 :-

35Do you not say, ‘Four months more and then the harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36Even now the reaper draws his wages, even now he harvests the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true.

What is this but a poignant reminder that the reaper must reap in AND out of season because the harvest is ripe. Can you feel the north wind blowing though your spirit? Listen to what God is saying to you today. Be the answer to your prayer to the Lord of the Harvest and ask him to send you out reaping..then the sower and the reaper will rejoice together.

A request…..

Hello people out there in blogland…a little request.

I’m looking for a ‘group’ to come and do a weekend of missioning next summer. Ideally I’d be looking at maybe two or three groups throughout the whole summer.

By missioning I mean a day of open air work with evangelistic ‘festival’ in the evening, leading two Sunday worship meetings with some more open air work in outlying districts in the afternoon. We’re not necessarily looking for ‘fancy’ or ‘very musical.’

By group, I mean any group at all. It might be a brass band, it might be a group of willing evangelists from a corps, a worship group, singing company, it might be a songster brigade…anything at all.

Drop me a line if you fancy the Northern Challenge!

Blogs Update

Just a reminder to check out my other blogs to the right:

There is a new Wick Salvation Army blog, an update on the activities and ministry of the corps.

Salvationism Out Loud blog continues to have updates of ideas for wearing your faith on your sleeve.

Salvationist Men continues to be an offer of accountability for men who are struggling in the area of sexual temptation.

Ichabod?

From armybarmy.com/blog (see right):

General Gowans drops this bomb: “They started taking care of the corps instead of taking care of the lost and the Lord took their candlestick from its place. The glory has departed.”

Can it be true? How do we rectify?

PS ‘ichabod’ is Hebrew for ‘the glory has departed’

Revival Prophecy for Scotland

Friends, please forgive a lengthy blog, but I discovered this prophecy last night by a woman called Jean Darnall. This is simply a short extract. I’ve never heard of this women, but seems like most of the Christians “in the know” do. I am just struck by the things that she says in that the Lord has been saying the same to me. I’ve posted a few things I feel the Lord has been saying to me in the last month or so a few blogs down. Meanwhile, have a read, praise the Lord, and pray that God will honour his word and that his people will heed his call. More Lord! Oh I wish you could feel the power of the Holy Spirit flowing through my body right now! Read this and let the spirit within you be quickened by the Spirit.

—————————-
And what I saw was the British Isles, as in a bird’s eye view. A kind of haze was over the whole, like a green fog. And then little pinpricks of light began to appear from the top of Scotland to Land’s End. Then the Lord seemed to draw me closer to these lights, and I saw that they were fires that were burning. They were multiplying from the top of Scotland to Land’s End. Then I saw lightening come and strike those fires, the brightest spots particularly, and there was a kind of explosion, and rivers of fire flowed down. Again, the sense of direction was from the top of Scotland to Land’s End. But some of those rivers of fire didn’t stop there. They went right across the Channel and didn’t stop there. They went right across the Channel and spread out into the Continent.

Scotland. I knew what it meant. I knew that He wanted me to come up here, and I knew that he wanted me to come up with a special message. That message is to say to as many people as I can, in as many places as I can, that the second part of that vision is right at hand. It’s here, folks, that spiritual awakening: it’s starting; the very first signs of it are already upon us. Your generation are going to see a harvest of souls in this land such as you have never seen before. And it’s going to have a tremendous effect not only upon this nation and the British Isles, but upon many other nations.

The first sign: Men at Prayer

There are three things that the Lord has asked me to share about this vision everywhere I go: three signs of this awakening. The first is that the Lord is sending a strong call to prayer among men. Early Morning Prayer meetings will start all over the land as men desire to pray, and they will start asking their pastors and leaders, ‘Can we meet together before work and pray?’ In those prayer meetings there will come strong intercession and an increased faith and vision in these men’s souls for the nation. They will not only pray in their own churches, but soon they will start combining together in other churches, with other church groups. And in some places these prayer meetings will grow too big for the building, and they will come out in the open and pray in the parks or in front of town halls.

Wouldn’t that be nice, to have a prayer meeting right out here, of hundreds and hundreds of men lifting their voices in prayer for the nation? And it will be a sign in itself: these prayer meetings will be a witness to the nation, and many people will come to the Lord just by witnessing these prayer meetings, and hearing the prayers of these men.

The Second Sign: Christ Revealed to the Young.

The second thing is that the Lord is going to send a tremendous revelation of Himself to boys and girls in this country. Between the ages of nine and fifteen particularly, children will begin to have a revelation of Jesus. They will see Him, they will know Him, they will hear Him, He will speak to them. He will come to them in visions and dreams, He will reveal His word to them. They will be converted and filled with the Holy Spirit and gifted by Him. And they will start praying. They will be healed themselves, and they will start praying for each other; and there will be wonderful healings through these boys and girls.

They will not only be the children of Christian parents. The Lord is going to manifest Himself to those who are in non-Christian homes where there is no love nor real family unity, where there is no knowledge of the Lord at all: perhaps not only for one generation but for many generations no Christian person has been in that family. But Jesus is going to meet them and reveal His power and His presence to them and His love for them. When they start coming to our children and to our teachers and telling what they are seeing and hearing from the Lord, our duty will be to receive them and love them as they are- because they will be rough diamonds, and they will have rather unusual, un-churchy language. But their experiences will be real. Some of their experiences will be so unusual you may doubt them. At that point receive their testimonies at face value, give them the word of God, and teach them how to love: because these children will have ministries not only as children, but as leaders in their adult life, and they will bless your country and other countries. So receive these children, teach them. Those of you who teach Sunday school, those of you who have children in your home and neighbourhood whom you are concerned about, begin to ask the Lord to raise your level of expectation of what they can receive, because they are going to start hearing. And just like the adults, they will start hearing the word and receiving the Lord and being able to receive deep spiritual experiences in the Lord.

The Third Sign: Anointed Preachers

The third thing the Lord said He would do relates to the raising up of preachers. Although this awakening will not be characterised by great evangelists at the beginning, it will produce great preachers. You are going to hear evangelists with such fire, such powers of persuasion that they will touch thousands of people and win them to the Lord Jesus. God is giving these preachers not only to Scotland; He will send them to other parts of Britain, and many to other parts of the world, with an ever increasing ministry of winning many people to the Lord.

Where is the Scottish Salvation Army going?

Just happened to be looking at a list of corps in the West Scotland division, my home division.

There are 31 corps in the division today, albeit that there are two or three on their way out, sadly.

When I became a Salvationist in 1995 there were 51 corps. 20 corps closed in 12 years and a few more due for the chop.

Something is seriously wrong. This is not right.

I don’t know much about the division I am in, but the West is showing a severely unhealth sign of decline. What’s happening in the east?? Let us know.

Come on Salvationists of Scotland, we’ve got some praying to do! Not only that, we’ve got some evangelism to do.

How is the war on your front?

From the Northern Front….

So, apologies for the lack of blogging, but I’ve been about my Father’s business! Things are progressing well on the northern front! People are responsing well to our ministry in the corps and we’re getting more and more well known in the town. Can’t go out with out a wee kid shouting “Hello Captain Andrew!” Tis good.

Thankfully, there is no discernable negative spiritual strongholds in the life of the corps. Things are healthy spiritually, the soldiers are prayerful, well saved and doing well on the whole. There are many who are ready for some deeper level of things…hallelujah. Tonight I introduced the concept of power evangelism and the response was enthusiastic. Hallelujah again.

The town though, is in possession of a strong anti-Christian stonghold. There seems to be no logical reason for that other than its a device of the enemy. We do have freemasonry in the town…that may well have something to do with it. The average church attendance for Scotland is 12% but here in Wick and Caithness only 6% of the population go to church. When you consider a whole 1% of Pill went to the Army alone, you will understand the contrast.

The vast majority of people are very warm and weloming, but in the several witnessing situations I’ve had so far, the discussion has been very anti-God. We are praying God will lift up the veil of the enemy so that we can see some eyes opened. We’re in the middle of teaching the warriors here how to pray more specifically and biblically, so we’re hoping that will be of great benefit. This is warfare stuff though…this is where we become open to the attack of the enemy…cover us in prayer if you have the time to.

I think the Lord has laid out the strategy for the battle on the kids front…I’ll be working that through and letting you know the plans in that area in due course. I’m excited about what God is going to do.

We had our divisional welcome meeting last Saturday. I was interviewed and in the process was asked to explain primitive salvationism to the people gathered. Nice opportunity to share that message.

Was even more fascinating to discover that whilst the Lord was preparing me for an appointment in North Scotland, the appointments board had been intending to send me somewhere else until the Lord interupted proceedings and changed the plans…had it from the mouth of one of those involved (who shall remain nameless in case he gets into trouble…although, seeing as he testified to the fact during his sermon, I reckon the damage is already done!! lol) I was able to confirm that the Lord had already communicated this fact to me previously to bolster his arguement that we must listen to God!

So, over and out for now.

keep fighting like a warrior

Andrew C