Barry Adams
Father Heart Communications |
Father Loves New York
Just after 9-11, a pastor who was working with the rescue workers at ground zero contacted us to see if we would donate 1,000 Father’s Love Letter CDs to the hurting people in New York City. One thing led to another and we were able to personally deliver thousands of CDs, videos and postcards to local churches in NYC just weeks after this tragedy. In order to manage the distribution of all these resources, we created a 'Father Loves New York' website. 
The main graphic on the site was a photo of the city's skyline with a big red heart over where the twin towers once stood. We produced a post card of this image with the full text of the Father's Love Letter on the reverse side that we were able to share with many New Yorkers.
I will never forget the sobering feeling I experienced as we did a prayer walk around the epicenter of this tragedy. It was as we walked on this sacred ground, smelling the toxic fumes of the still burning wreckage that I experienced at a deeper level our Father’s love for every devastated heart in New York and beyond. At one point, while we were handing out these Father Loves New York postcards across from Madison Square Garden, a wild eyed bearded Middle Eastern looking man came up to our small group and started to prophesy. One of the things he said was that it pleased God's heart that we were sharing His love for New York City. The next moment he disappeared in the crowd and we were all just left staring at one another wondering if we just had an angelic encounter. To this day, I’m not sure but either way, I still feel the Father’s pleasure whenever I think of that moment.
This was the beginning of a vision to declare the Father’s love over other cities as well. It wasn’t long until we began to hear many encouraging stories from like hearted Ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:18-20) who started to share the Father’s Love Letter using citywide strategies too.
One community in England, launched a 'Love Southend' initiative for Valentines Day that saw a Father's Love Letter Valentines Day card delivered to over 70,000 homes by 30+ participating churches. Another prayer walk initiative in Scotland distributed over 1/4 million love letters as they made their way from town to town across their nation. And since that time, they have distributed nearly one million love letters! One friend, even organized a mailing to 40,000 prisoners in Arizona and used a hand addressed, personalized Father's Love Letter for each one of them. Time and space would prevent me from telling the stories of the thousands of Ambassadors who have contacted us over the years to let us know how they have shared the Father’s Love Letter to so many. From the onset, our simple mission has been to see the Father’s Love Letter delivered to every person on the planet. Though our focus has always been on one heart at a time, we still carry a vision to see over 8 billion people reached! At times this dream has gotten a bit hard to manage. Even though millions of people have been reached, our ministry operation has always been kept organizationally small. It is just my wife and I declaring our Papa's love for the entire world from our home. I can remember there was a time when I felt the weight of this worldwide endeavor resting squarely on my small shoulders. I got to the point where I didn’t want to tell people anymore what I was believing for because I had absolutely no logical explanation of how this would come to pass. It was in this season of feeling completely overwhelmed that God spoke to me about my struggles. He said... 'Barry, I never gave this vision to you in order for it to become a burden'. He then reminded me of a passage of Scripture where Jesus spoke about how He co-laboured with His Dad in John 5:19-20... Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. (NIV) The Father said to me that the vision to see every person in the world reached with His love wasn’t my vision but it was His. And just like He revealed to Jesus everything that was in His heart, He was doing the same thing to me. In this loving moment between a Father and His son, He freed me from carrying the responsibility of how He was going to do it. But He then said words to me that now guide how I steward what I see with the eyes of my heart. Abba said... 'The vision you carry is not your vision. It is My vision but you are free to tell other people what you see Me doing'. Because I was His much loved little boy, He was simply showing me what He was up to! How simple could it be! He didn’t want me to stress out and try to carry the weight of the world on my shoulders. He just wanted me to declare His affection for every person on the planet and watch Him do the work!
Since that time, we have seen the Father’s Love Letter delivered door to door through partnering organizations in many countries. Every Home For Christ has been an amazing partner in this initiative, having organized delivery and a door to door presentation of the gospel to every home in many nations using the Father's Love Letter in various languages.
The Father's Love Letter has also been broadcast around the world on television and radio stations and networks. It has appeared as full page newspaper ads, posted on billboards and shared in many, many other creative ways. Our vision today is the same it was over 25 years ago when I first created the Father's Love Letter as a sermon illustration. ...And that is to see this simple compilation of paraphrased Bible verses shared around the world. FatherLovesTheWorld.com is just one practical way for us to put form to that vision so we can build a framework that can help God's kids pray for and connect with every nation in the world. Whenever I visit a country, the first thing I do when my feet hit the ground is to declare my Dad's heart for that nation. I did it the first time I visited Finland and I have done it in every nation I have visited ever since. With that in mind, this website makes a fresh declaration of our Heavenly Dad's love for every nation in the world every day. And I would like to extend that same invitation to you as well.
It was in this very surreal moment, standing on North Korea soil, that I declared my Father's love for both South and North Korea and for healing and reconciliation. After returning home, it warmed my heart to learn that North and South Korea resumed talks of reconciliation and even agreed to compete in the 2018 Winter Olympics together in PyeongChang!
While I would never in a million years think my simple declaration of love made that much of a difference, it made me smile to think that I was able to declare my Father's true intentions over both nations just a few weeks before all this happened. If the simplicity of declaring Father’s love for each nation resonates in your heart, you may want to join us in this extraordinary adventure. Who knows what might result if a bunch of God's kids got together and started declaring their Abba's love for every person in every nation, territory or island in the world! How you can get involved... You can start by simply visiting the countries on our World Index and begin researching each country's statistics. If you have a heart to share the Father's Love Letter, you are welcome to download the print masters in over 125 languages or create your own version. Who knows... God may even put a vision in your heart to reach your entire city with the life changing message of His love. No matter how small the step, we would encourage you to be brave and do what is in your heart to do! If there is anything we can do to help, let us know. My wife and I are still small organizationally but we are BIG encouragers! If you have a story of how you are sharing the Father's Love Letter, we would love to hear from you. If you have a testimony of how the Father's Love Letter has impacted you, please let us know. No matter how you get involved, we want you to know that we are walking alongside you, to encourage you and equip you in whatever way we can so we can declare together that our Father Loves The World! |
