The Testimony of Jim and Nancy
Urban. Missionaries to the Phillippines.
I have been to the Phillippines and have seen how the
people live. It is a developing country with a lot of poverty. It is not an easy life when
you are called, like Jim and Nancy, to work in a mission field where there is much
poverty. I have known Jim and Nancy now for almost three years, since the Lord allowed us
to be a blessing to them. I have seen the joy with which they minister and the fruit they
bear since being touched by the hand of God in a special way. Their testimony will inspire
and bless you. If you would like to support their ministry financially or contact them,
please e-mail them at the address below. |
Hi,
I'm Jim Urban, missionary to the
Philippines. In 1983 my wife Nancy and I were called to the Philippines by a revelation of
the Holy Spirit. In our spirit we saw fires of revival springing up in many places
throughout the nation and we knew we'd be a part of it. We moved to a small island and
immediately began our ministry through a series of pastors seminars, later we established
a short term Bible School and operated it for 6 years. We also held several medical
clinics, and many evangelistic and healing crusades. We've been resident missionaries here
for over 13 years now and we've had a wonderful time serving God and flowing in a
supernatural ministry. We saw a lot of miracles and were having great time in Jesus but
the revival we were looking for just wasn't happening.
In the early 90s we were led to reposition
ourselves for a coming "move of God". We gracefully phased out our ministry on
the island and moved to the mainl and (Luzon) in 1992 to work with a pastor we knew.
Suddenly all hell broke loose against us, our ministry, our support and our marriage.
After about 2 years in the "war zone" we returned to the States for a time of
refreshing. I managed to overcome most of the attacks and keep going but Nancy was really
wounded. Nothing seemed to be working in the ministry and we weren't getting along well
with each other. The more we tried to talk the worse it got. Round and round we went. We
went to the people that ordained us and sought marriage counsel and received some
wonderful teaching from I Cor. 13 about walking in love. However that didn't solve the
problem either. We were in a supernatural war and needed
supernatural help.
A couple of days later a man called me out of a large ministers meeting to pray for me. He
said our ministry was going to higher ground. When he touched me it literally felt like I
was kicked in the stomach by a horse. I was violently struck to the floor and later
staggered to my seat like a drunk man. The next time I preached people were falling out on
the floor laughing, crying and getting healed but I wasn't quite sure what was happening.
The next week, at the urging of a supporting pastor in Wisconsin, I canceled a month of
preaching meetings in Georgia and went to the (1994) Rodney Howard-Browne Signs and
Wonders Campmeeting. There, I began to understand what was happening to me. I received
another wonderful measure of anointing but still no breakthrough into the joy.
I went back to my wife in Michigan with no place to preach but the Lord said go to
Wisconsin. We called the pastor there that sent us to Rodney's Campmeeting and he said
come preach next week. We had a good service there Sunday morning and at the evening
service someone came back telling us that Gil Howard-Browne had just started a two week
meeting 20 minutes up the road from us. We made a point to be at every meeting that week.
(It's so wonderful how God plans our lives Gil. I understand you were at the same
campmeeting and were strongly lead to make some changes and go to Wisconsin as well.)
As we walked through the doorway to Gil's meeting the worship had already started and
heaven just fell on my wife Nancy. She groaned for two days and then laughter came day and
night for the rest of the week. Immediately the Lord spoke to her and said "Your
husband is not the problem." Somebody in the Philippines had put a curse on us and
God was setting us free. Immediately she was changed. In fact she fell in love with me in
an amazing new way. Our marriage has been wonderful since that day in 1994.
I was really getting hungry for a touch of joy myself. One evening as Gil prayed for a man
in the row ahead of me I was literally thrown from my chair and found myself under a chair
six feet away, laughing uncontrollably.
It's been almost three years now and you would hardly believe the change in our mission.
Awesome would be an understatement. We now concentrate entirely on revival meetings and
are seeing churches absolutely transformed in just a few days. Miraculous healings are
happening, goiters and cancers are literally falling off of people and a tremendous change
is coming in their worship and in their finances. We've seen an average increase of 100%
to 300% in the churches income after we leave. We're talking about very poor rural
churches that were not able to support their own pastor, but God is really touching them
now. God is delivering them from poverty thinking.
Apparently they were not the only ones with poor thinking. My ministry used to be with
just a few little churches but now we have a vision for the nation. I've already done
meetings with 30 churches, I can see regional meetings coming and national conferences as
well. People from all over are asking us to do meetings, and some are following us around
from a great distance. It's really wonderful! As we follow the churches up where we've
ministered we find there are lasting changes, the revival continues and it is spreading.
The fires are beginning to blaze, the vision we had nearly 14 years ago is now coming to
pass before our eyes. We thank God for brother Gil and our time together with him in
Wisconsin, it all started there. That's where our marriage was healed and where we were
launched out as firebrands into the harvest field.
JIM URBAN
Jim & Nancy Urban
PO Box 9
Lucena City, Quezon
4301 Philippines
E-Mail : Jim Urban : Web Page Address : Jim Urban Ministries
USA Address : Jim Urban Ministries
PO Box 20
Nemo SD 57759
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