People were loving the messages that we were discovered together, but they were all outside the church.

Catholics would say we were sheep-stealers.

Pentecostas said that I was the beast, the 666, because I was talking about how God loved us.

Jesus was a friend of sinners. So the persecution came.

We were accused to being communists. They tried to burn our farm down several times.

This was a time when death squads were very active. We decided we needed to leave.

Welcome, everybody. This is Simon Gilbo with Inspired. Great to be back for another fantastic week

of encouragement. We are so relentlessly bombarded by negativity in the press, bad

news that just induces fear, anxiety, cynicism, whatever. And the purpose of this is to meet

mates of mine and relationships from across the globe of friends that are just doing stunning

stuff. They've all got very different stories. And the idea is that in an hour's time you'll leave feeling encouraged and stirred in your faith.

And I've got no doubt that'll be the case because we got with us this week, Bob Ekblad. Welcome Bob.

Hey, thanks. Great to be here.

So good to have you. So you're in Seattle right now, are you?

Yeah, we're north of Seattle, right between Seattle, Vancouver.

Right. So Bob is the co-founder and director of Tierra Nueva and the People's Seminary.

He's pastoring a faith community, concentrating particularly on those in prison, those

immigrants and people suffering from addiction. So really earthy stuff.

And we go back about seven years in terms of you tracking with us and I'll work in Burundi.

And I'm excited that actually by the time this podcast comes out,

it might even be the week that you're out there connecting with our harvest initiatives guys,

doing some teaching and impartation there.

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