The Charltons

What follows below is the condensed version of our story from the past 9 months that is now leading us to help plant a church and house of prayer the region of Memphis, TN!

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INTRODUCTION

In May of 2017 (shortly after I returned from ministering in Northern Iraq), my good friends Micah Maisel and Josh Tombley talked to me about considering joining them in a move to Memphis to plant a church and house of prayer. Both Micah and Josh were missionaries with me at the Fredericksburg Prayer Furnace, ministering and laboring together in the house of prayer and in the nations, and our families were and are all close and increasingly so. At this point in the story Micah is pretty much all-in, while Josh is still considering it. I tell them that while I would love to again be in community with them and their families, and I couldn’t think of anyone else I would love more to do church and ministry with, I didn’t think it was something we would be a part of, at least not in this season.

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DREAM #1

On Wednesday, June 14th, I have a dream where I am driving out of a large city, following the setting sun (so heading West). As I am exiting the city, I approach a large bridge crossing a very wide river. After a few moments I say to myself in the dream, “I think this is the Mississippi river; I must be driving through Memphis” - and rationalize it must be because I had been talking with Josh (Tombley) and Micah (Maisel) about Memphis in recent weeks. As I begin driving on the bridge I notice that it is a large truss bridge with a large blue and white “Welcome to Arkansas” sign. I again rationalize in my dream that this totally makes sense because I know driving west out of Memphis takes you into Arkansas.

Important note: at this point in my life I have never been to Memphis; however, I am fairly well acquainted with maps of the United States, so in my dream I am making all of these rationalizations to myself from a logical understanding of the local geography.

While I am crossing the bridge I turn to look out of the passenger side of the car and I see on the banks of the river a HUMONGOUS silver pyramid. I say to myself, “What in the world is that??” and I wake up.

 

INTERPRETATION FOR DREAM #1

The next day I get on Google Maps and decide to take a look at all of this on the map to see what’s up. I see on the map that I-40 is the interstate that cuts through the city in across the river in Arkansas, so I think I’ll go ahead and drop my little Google street view person on I-40 and scroll along to see what I see. As I scroll through the map heading west on I-40, I approach a big bridge crossing over the Mississippi River. Just like in my dream, it is a large truss bridge with a large blue and white “Welcome to Arkansas” sign on it. As I am experiencing the “WOW” moment of seeing that what I dreamed was 100% true to reality, I think “Hold on - wait a minute” and turn the Street View camera to the right to look out the passenger side of the car, and sure enough there is a HUMONGOUS silver pyramid sitting on the banks of the river next to the truss bridge!

At this point I am getting goosebumps as I begin to realize that the Lord has revealed to me in a dream something that is actually real that I’ve never seen before. I then decide to call up Micah and Josh and tell them about my dream. At this point they’re saying “It’s a sign! It’s a sign! It’s a sign that you have to move!”, and I say no, but at this point I think this is a sign that God inviting us into the conversation with them about Memphis.

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INTERIM

Following that dream, Micah and Josh and I begin to have regular communication several times a week to begin to pray and dream about what a church plant and house of prayer in Memphis might look, sound, and feel like. We all meet up in Memphis during the first week of July to see the city together (my first time ever being there) and prayer walk on Beale Street.

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DREAM #2

In the early hours of Saturday, August 19th, I have another dream. In the dream I’m staying at a hotel in what looks like a suite with two rooms, and in the suite I see my wife and kids and also Josh & Katie Tombley with their kids. While we’re in the hotel a representative from the hotel comes to us and without a word he hands me the bill for the stay. I see that the total for our stay is $1,920. Flabbergasted I asked the representative from the hotel for a full breakdown of the bill, which he already has in his hand and passes to me without a word. I see that the bill is for four days of stay at the hotel for both families, and it’s pretty much all inclusive so all of our meals were in and at the hotel. As I crunch the numbers myself I figure out that the number on the bill is too much, and I turn to the representative of the hotel and say “Wait: you’ve double-charged me.” Then I wake up. The first thing that I noticed about this dream when I woke up is that it was very different from the dream I had in June, in that the whole of this dream was marked by the weighty, intense presence of God, and I still felt it pressing on me in my bed when I woke up.

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INTERPRETATION FOR DREAM #2

That day I went to the Prayer Furnace to get some work done, and since it was Saturday I didn’t expect anyone to be there, but there were actually quite a few staff members there. One was my friend Katie, and I decided to tell her about my dream. After I finish telling her about the dream, she asked me “What was the number on the bill again?” I told her $1,920. She then said “Hey, let’s look up some scripture and see if there’s anything in there that God is trying to say to you!” Tongue-in-cheek I said “What are you gonna look at, Isaiah 19?” For those who don’t know, Isaiah 19 is extremely significant for our community - it is the central passage of Scripture that God has highlighted in the prophetic storyline that has established and is establishing a growing indigenous worship movement that has come out of the Middle East these past four years. I have been on two missions to Northern Iraq where I and the teams I was with have been able to witness this Isaiah 19:23 “Highway of Worship” being established in the earth. *READ MY BLOG POST ABOUT ALL OF THIS HERE*

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To digress, Katie responds to my jest by saying, “Actually, I already have my Bible open to Isaiah 19 right now - let’s read it!”, and in Isaiah 19:20 it says “It will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt. When they cry to the Lord because of oppressors, He will send them a Savior and Defender, and deliver them.” After we read that I remembered that Memphis was the capital of Egypt for nearly a millennium (approx. 3150-2160 BC), so I’m starting to think that this is a pretty cool possible connection. But then Katie and I both wonder: the beginning of verse 20 says that “It” will be a sign. “It?” What is “It?” So we jump to the previous verse to try and get a better idea, and Isaiah 19:19 says “In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border.” As I begin to think on that verse I go “Wait a minute - me and Micah and Josh, we have been talking about moving to Memphis to build a house of prayer - “an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt” [see Leviticus 6:13] - that is also part of a church - “a pillar to the Lord at its border.” [see 1 Timothy 3:15] At this point my friend Katie and I realize that we are getting hit by the Spirit of revelation and start going nuts! I am beginning to hear the call of God to establish a “pillar” and an “altar” in Memphis, as “a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt… [that when] they cry to the Lord because of oppressors, He will send them a Savior and Defender, and deliver them.”

*As a side note, I now realize that I dreamt Isaiah 19:20 and consequently Isaiah 19:19 on August 19th*

As the days go on Melody and I continued to meditate on the whole dream and the partial understanding I believe my friend Katie and I had received, and I really sensed the Lord emphasizing the fact that the bill was for four days worth of living at the hotel. At some point it crosses my mind that the Awaken The Dawn [ATD] event would be coming up in just a few short months, and it just so happens to be four days long, and I start to wonder if maybe ATD will have some sort of catalytic moment confirming the Lord calling us to Memphis. It was also at this time that Melody and I wondered what the “double-charge” in the dream meant. After receiving counsel and insight from my friends JT, Randy, and Travis regarding the dream, I believe that the “double-charge” could mean one, two, or all three of the following:

1) it could mean that this is going to be a costly move/transition, that God is calling us to count the cost, and that it might cost us more than we think it will (“double-charge”, high cost, double the cost);

2) it could mean that God is calling the two families present in the dream (Charltons and Tombleys) to take up this commission, or “charge”, to go to Memphis (“double-charge”, double commission); and

3) it could mean that God was giving me a “charge” (or commission) for two things: Memphis and Northern Iraq. As I mentioned earlier, Isaiah 19 is significant for our community as it concerns the growing indigenous worship movement coming from that region, where I have traveled twice on Missionary journeys as part of the establishing and continued building of that Isaiah 19:23 “Highway of Worship” - since those trips I have felt a connection to that region, its people, and its destiny, that I know will be significant and long-term, so perhaps the double charge could mean that I’m being commissioned to plant a local church and house of prayer that is also deeply connected to the Isaiah 19 mission in Northern Iraq.

There are a few other portions of the dream that I believe are also prophetically significant (some not mentioned), but I have felt the Lord asking me to wait on Him to lead me into that next level of understanding.

 

AWAKEN THE DAWN

When we finally get to Awaken The Dawn [ATD] in October, on that Sunday of the event (October 8) the organization had invited a group from Catch the Fire USA and Christian International Ministries to provide prophetic ministry for the staff and volunteers of ATD. My family and I had one of the first time slots, and another couple didn’t show up for their time slot so that ministry group joined the group ministering to us, so we had double the size of the rest of the groups prophesy over us. And that time of prophetic ministry was some of the most significant ministry and spot-on words of knowledge I have ever received. Now: while those prophesying over us didn’t specifically mention Memphis or Tennessee, they said everything else that you could possibly say about us “transitioning”, “having an upcoming move”, “doing new ministry”, “planting something new”, “moving from a place of hidden service to a place of significant leadership”, “deciding who as a church we should and should not network with”, and other extremely specific words and phrases that Micah and Josh and I had used and said in our conversations. And then as the icing on top they asked us if they could prophesy over our kids, to which we adamantly said “Yes, please!” And the word of the Lord came again! If you had asked me to write five sentences to describe each of my kids, these men and women prophesied/spoke prophetically about each one of our children with many of the exact words I would myself have used to describe them. The Spirit of Prophecy was active and accurate and we are in awe and grateful for the opportunity we had to receive from these wonderful men and women.

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NEXT STEPS

So that more or less brings us up to speed. The three of us (me, Micah, and Josh) and our wives video chat once a week, along with many other texts and unplanned phone calls, to pray, plan, and dream for what God is calling us to in the Memphis region. Our current plan and timeline are as follows:

1) We will - until our transition - continue in our roles, responsibilities, ministry, and life in the community at the Fredericksburg Prayer Furnace in Virginia. During this time I am looking for ways to earn extra income so that we can save more money for the move to Memphis.

2) We plan to make our transition to the Memphis area at the end of May.

3) We plan for me to enter into a season of “tent-making”, and this Fall return to teaching classroom music in the public schools. I have already begun this process and will keep those that receive our emails or follow us on social media up-to-date on this process.

4) I am currently in the process of enrolling in Master’s level online-courses to fulfill requirements to renew a Virginia Teaching License, which I will then apply to reciprocate to the state of Tennessee. I do not yet have the funds for tuition but I have faith that the Lord will provide.

5) We have a fairly significant amount of debt that we are more than ready to cast off! It divides up to about 50% school debt, 25% debt we incurred making updates to our home in Hampton to sell it, and 25% of various other debts. One of our plans to do that is to Lord willing buy and live in a camper for the first 12-18 months that we are in Memphis.

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Please be praying with us as we prepare to enter this transition into a new season! We are both sober and excited about everything that means, and we are so thankful for the nearly 4 years we have had at the Prayer Furnace and the many more years before and to come we have had with all of you. If you would like to stay connected with our email updates, send me a message at mchammurr@gmail.com.

Thank you and many-many blessings on you all!!!

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    Mike