John & Carol Arnott
By Heather Salon
CBN.com –19 YEARS OF REVIVAL
John and Carol Arnott are the founding pastors and presidents of Catch the Fire (formerly Toronto Airport Christian Fellowship) and oversee the Partners in Harvest network of churches. Their home church came to the world's attention as the site of a revival, often referred to as the "Toronto Blessing," in 1994. From the beginning, John and Carol never felt qualified to lead such an explosive move of God, but despite their reservations, God used them to usher in a new revival that's still vibrant today-19 years later! "Carol and I felt that we were the least qualified to lead a revival that would eventually have worldwide impact," John says. Today, Catch the Fire has a growing family of churches spread across the globe, a training college with international campuses, missions programs and partnerships and special events. "Our desire is to reach the world with Jesus through the sharing of our values, equipping people and releasing them to bring revival to their nations," the Arnotts say. "We are passionately committed to walking in God's love and giving it away until the whole earth is filled with knowledge of the Glory of the Lord."
As international speakers, John and Carol have become known for their ministry of revival in the context of the Father's saving and restoring love. As the Holy Spirit moves with signs and wonders, they have seen millions of lives touched and changed through God's power and Christ's love. John is known for his teachings on the Father's love, grace and forgiveness and the power of God that manifests in their church. Carol has embraced the message of intimacy, soaking, and healing and freedom of hearts. Her desire is to see those in the Kingdom become lovers of Jesus Christ, and come into that place of intimacy, health and dependence on Him. John and Carol travel extensively while continuing to oversee Catch the Fire and Partner in Harvest networks of churches. The Arnotts constantly redirect the attention of people away from looking at of the manifestation and onto the fruit in the person's life. "We are talking about a relationship with the King," John says.
Next year marks the 20th year of Catch the Fire Ministries with big celebrations planned. On January 21-25, 2014, there will be a 20th Anniversary Celebration Conference in Toronto. The featured guest speakers are Bill and Beni Johnson, Randy and DeAnne Clark, Heidi and Rolland Baker, Georgian and Winnie Banov, Che and Sue Ahn, Steve and Sandra Long, Duncan and Kate Smith, and Revival Alliance. John says there will be another 20th celebration in September 2014.
HARVEST GARDENS
Though John and Carol have spent the last 19 years with revival, John says God has been impressing on them more about reaching out to the poor and the needy. It just so happened that one of John's friends has an organization called Harvest Gardens that teaches poor people in Africa organic farming. More specifically, Harvest Gardens is a program based out of Haven Church in Birmingham, UK which is a platform from which churches, groups, schools, families, and business can sponsor a community garden in Africa, effectively giving that community a food source which isn't just life sustaining, it is sustainable long term. They are now working with Catch the Fire Ministries and Organics for Orphans. Together, they are helping the world's poor to grow enough highly nutritious food to become self-sufficient. They are literally acting on the old adage, "You may have heard it said 'if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, but teach a man to fish and you will feed him for a lifetime."
According to Harvest Garden's website, their trainers teach communities to grow 6-12 times as much food as they had been growing, by utilizing the research of German horticulturists. There are several key principles involved in this type of sustainable organic farming, such as; double digging, companionship planting, composting, water 'growing', crop rotation, and bio-intensive planting.
An example from the website says a man from Zambia decided that he needed to get trained in this organic method because he was responsible for feeding 2000 orphans every week at a cost to him of $5 per child/week. His expenses for food alone were in excess of $10,000 each and every week. In less than one year since he went on the training course he now grows 92% of the food his 'kids' eat. This is a savings of approximately $9,200 per week.
Harvest Gardens currently has ten trainers representing five nations which include: Uganda, Zimbabwe, Niger, Ghana & Mozambique. There are another ten poised to join the ranks as early as January of this year. Their trainers go into local communities and orphanages in their area and set up a community learning garden. They will then revisit about ten times that first year to make sure that everything is growing well, and the community is working together.
One community learning garden will feed approximately fifty people in its first year, but the truly exciting thing begins to happen in the second year. By year two, the community at large begins to notice the success of this method to grow large quantities of highly nutritious foods, and begins to imitate and implement the same type of mini-farming on their personal land and farms. By the end of the second year that one community garden will be the template that is responsible for over 200 people being fed in that community.
John says through Harvest Gardens there is true community transformation and they are meeting spiritual needs as well as those of soul and body. Along with the outreach in Africa, there are plans to expand the program to Indonesia.
WHAT THEY SEE FOR 2013
John Arnott senses that 2013 will be a year of optimism and is expecting a "real and serious outbreak of the Holy Spirit." Based on the nebulous, hunches, feelings and serious prophetic words given to him by people he trusts, there is a recognized immense need for the Holy Spirit and it is time for the release of Him. He said we have tried to fix in our own ways the financial, the moral, the unemployment problems, including people's frustrations with the way things are taking place all around us. John says our only true option is to hand everything over to God as it is up to Him anyway. Hope arises because, even though "the dark is becoming darker, the light is becoming lighter."
There is a Global impact taking place around the world; the church has become a problem to places like India, China Indonesia and parts of Africa. There are religious wars taking place around the world as Christianity is making inroads. Nations are being shaken. In Europe and North America there are pockets of something taking place, but no real revival or growth. It is time, according to John, for the Church in the Western hemisphere to "become the head and not the tail." The day of the trendy and gray areas must diminish as they have caused a mess and we return once again to the absolutes of the Bible. John calls for leaders to give the clear Biblical gospel to the nation and that there truly is a right way and a wrong way to decide between.
As John and Carol experienced 19 years ago, it will take the reality of God, His Truth brought in His power and love to transform lives. Not a gospel message that "beats people into submission" but one delivered by role models who walk in integrity, commitment, and love as Paul of the New Testament did. Our interview closed with John sharing that Jesus was strong with the strong, those who undermined His authority but, the ordinary people loved Him. They loved Him because He loved them. John's desire is to finish well and to see the world know and experience the "amazing love of the Father."