The Paradigm - A blog about our origins

Note to reader;  the following is the original blog Emily Havens wrote regarding the origins of our ministry we call Whitefield.  We felt that this blog is an important part of allowing you to know the ministry identity.  There have been a few changes since the blog was written in Pastor Jon & Emily Havens' life including a God ordained occupational move to Sulphur/Davis OK.  We know that the move was part of his plan for Whitefield Ministries. We are glad to call this our home and  expect God to complete his design for this ministry here.

Emily's Blog;

I promised I would explain, but things have been a bit crazy. That's nothing new though! So life has settled a little. No running off to the far corners of the continent or anything, but things are still exciting. We have agreed to help a friend out in Enid, OK by being his worship pastors for a while. This is only slightly crazy as it is an hour and a half away from our new home. The Havens just can't stay put!!! We are also meeting on Wednesday night as a home church. We are in the process of getting things official for our ministry/church which is going to be called White Field Ministries.



So now we get to part where you scratch your head and say....huh? Let me start from the beginning.



We got mixed up with these crazy church planters.....almost as crazy as we are....and they suggested that we name our ministry. I was totally opposed. I mean, why would we name something when we don't even know what it is, or what it's going to look like or what it's purpose is? Their thinking was, if you are going to have a baby you start thinking of names. Ok...whatever....was my thinking.



Anyway, on one of our last trips to Dallas before making the big decision to stay in OKC, our pastor called us up to pray for people. While he was closing the service I quieted myself before the Lord, so that I might hear from Him what he was doing this morning. Now, usually when the Lord "speaks" to me it's more of a jumble of pictures, printed words and, feelings....more like a memory than audible words. But on several occasions I have heard a voice, not my own, in my head. Now...of course here is where of some of you will jump ship and seek out the first psychiatrist that deals with MP disorder, but I swear to you it's only the one voice and it's very rare, and I know for certain it's the Lord!!! I digress. I heard very clearly the word "Paradigm". So I asked the Lord, "Which Paradigm?" and He answered, "White Field". No one came up for prayer on this particular morning so I had some quiet moments to ponder these words as we waited, but I could feel in my heart that this has something to do with our ministry. How ironic that God would choose the eternal sceptic to reveal his plans and purpose....oh wait....it's not ironic....that's how he always does it. Abraham.....Moses.....the Hebrews in general....



Jon and I had been working on some names for our ministry that tried to capture the heart of it like "GO Ministries". But I was concerned about having a big "GO" on the front door of our church...not very inviting. Or "End Time Prophecy Harvest Readiness Church", but that conjured up images of white sheeted bodies and Nike sneakers. Of course if we wanted to focus on the greatness of God we could be the "Big as all get out Church". Then if we grew really big and had a large building, with a lot of people, folks could say when asked where they attend church "Yeah, I go to that Big As church over there." People would know exactly which one you were talking about. We could even have a Big As children's ministry.



So I leaned over to Jon on this particular morning and said I think God just gave me the name of our church. He found this quite hilarious, and he liked the name. So when I got home I looked up some things on the all knowing Internet. Paradigm is defined as: one that serves as a pattern or model, or a set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them.



So a paradigm is how we look at the world and your particular paradigm will dictate your actions. In essence a set of colored glasses, actions and reactions to life. In this case our color is White field. In John 4:35, and a couple other places, Jesus is trying to explain to the oblivious disciples about true sustenance. This happens right after the woman at the well saga, and she has just run off to tell everyone about Jesus. He says he has food they don't know about keeps him alive, and they start trying to figure out where he has hidden it. Jesus then tells them that doing his Fathers will is his food. Then, continuing with the food analogy he says that the harvest is coming in three months right? WRONG he says. If you look, the harvest is NOW....right now, the Fields are WHITE (ripe) for harvest. This is when the entire town comes marching down the road to meet Jesus, because Jesus has just spoken into a wretched woman's life, and in turn an entire town is now ready to receive the Gospel!!!!



So this is our paradigm, the color of our glasses is to view the world as though it is a white field. Our actions and reactions? Our set of values and practices? Share the Gospel! Do that which Jesus did and greater! Go to the people at the figurative well and speak into their lives like Jesus did. Use the gifts he left us for this purpose through the Holy Spirit, and heal, cast out demons, and raise the dead! YES I said raise the dead!!! The fields are white! They are ready! At your work, at Wal-mart, your child's teacher, the paper boy, the fields are white!



This is our paradigm, this is our ministry. We will train and equip people, as they GO, to preach the gospel and heal the sick. I can't wait to see who comes marching down the road to meet Jesus after that!



White Field Ministries.



Blessings,



Emily

All Things New

I was thinking today of the early days in mine and Jon's relationship. We were so in love; we still are. We were walking one day in a nature preserve and discussing deep things.....life, love, God. The topic landed on angels and God's protection. Jon mentioned something that always reminded him that God was there and I said I didn't have anything like that. Jon, of course said that I should ask God to show me a sign that He was there, a sign that His angels were protecting me. I did. A butterfly landed on my shirt. The rest of the hike we were surrounded by butterflies and I adopted the thought that butterflies would be my symbol, a reminder that God is protecting me. A sign that angels are around. I can't tell you how many times since then that a butterfly has flown past, or even landed on me just at the time I needed to know that God was there, that he was protecting me and my family.

This last year has been tough for us, but a blessing and quite the adventure. But God is starting us on a new and amazing adventure; thus the new blog which I will be explaining in blogs to come. We have a new house, Jon has a new job, we all have new outlook on life, family, and our call. However it has been hard for us all to settle in. Nightmares have plagued us. Even Caedon has been crying out in the night. We are just too hesitant to embrace our new life I suppose. But God is faithful. Yesterday Jon called me out to the back door to look at a yellow, white, green, and black stripped caterpillar climbing the door.....the door we use most. We both recognized it as a monarch caterpillar. I thought it was neat but after looking on the Internet, I decided not to mess with it. Later that day Jon called me out again to look at our caterpillar friend. He had made it to the top of the door frame, and was hanging there. By dark, he had transformed into a jade cocoon. Yes, our caterpillar friend is going to change.......into a butterfly. Like a symbol of protection, and a metaphor for our new adventure right on our door post he hangs. We all slept sound last night

Blessings,

Emily