Category Archives: Capturing Courage Events @ Home

CCI home base is in the Greater Vancouver area of British Columbia, Canada. We regularly host different kinds of events from focus nights to fundraisers to story and picture evenings to share about our recent trips. Here is where you find out about these.

Blessings on You Friend

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It was the summer of 2008. I had for some years already been waiting on the go-ahead from the Lord to invite a team of prayer warriors to come around me.

The preparations for the work of CCI as it is today (and will be tomorrow) had been happening for some time in my own heart and mind and gathering what would amount to a personal board of directors was my first outwardly public act.

The list of who I would invite had been made some time earlier and so as the summer of 2008 progressed I pulled out my list of candidates and went over it again with the Lord.

On that list was Lorna Rande, someone I had known since I was seventeen years old. As Lorna and I look back on the years it is amazing the way God weaves lives together. We realize, not only for our enjoyment here on earth but because there is spirit realm work to be done and He knows our spiritual DNA and the partnerships that need to form.

Lorna Rande

And so He weaves us together in heart and spirit and then in life. This has been my experience with Lorna. My heart has always had a welcome space in Lorna’s heart. She has advocated and stood alongside me personally for many many years and as that turned into Capturing Courage International her heart alongside us has strengthened who we are.

What has sadly become apparent, and yet we are at peace, is that the time of her service and heart specifically to myself and Capturing Courage is at an end.

Every single person who has been tucked into CCI for a time has come with a specific assignment, an impartation of blessing, over our work. And then, at some point in time it becomes apparent that that specific job is completed and the person is released.

And so it is time to say goodbye to Lorna, not as friends but in this specific work. And so we say Thank-you Lorna for your incredible investment of heart and concern and advocacy before the Father on our behalf, on my behalf. Bless you.

We declare the Lord’s keeping and deep peace over you in the name and the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, with all glory and honour to God and all delight over your future.

God-speed my friend as you go forward in life.

Christmas Shopping

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Help support the work of Capturing Courage International by purchasing your 2014 Calendar, Wheat-free Fruit-Cake, or both.

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Our 2014 Calendars feature Children of Uganda and are accompanied by a various Psalm. With quality paper and stunning photos these full-size calendars will bless your entire year and make great Christmas Gifts.

Cost for One is $19.95, and you can buy Two for $33.20. Connect with me in Surrey and you can pay by Visa, Mastercard & American Express.

Contact us at cyndy@cyndylavoie.com to arrange your purchase.

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We also have a limited supply of Wheat-free Christmas Fruit Cake for sale. $10 a loaf – You do not want this to pass you by.

Again, Connect with us in Surrey and you can pay by Visa, Mastercard, or American Express.

Contact us at cyndy@capturingcourage.org to arrange your purchase.

Art Auction | Updates | Fundraiser

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If you live in the Greater Vancouver area we would love to have you join us at our annual Capturing Courage Art Auction & Fundraiser. 

This next weekend, on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon, we are gathering to celebrate local artists who have generously donated their work to the work of Capturing Courage.

Come buy yourself a gift of original artwork, or get a head-start on your Christmas shopping this year. All proceeds go directly to the work of CCI as we equip and encourage indigenous pastors around the world.

At 8pm on Saturday and 2pm on Sunday we will be sharing the most recent projects we are focussing on at CCI. With pictures and story you will be inspired. God is at work in many places and we want to celebrate that together.

Saturday, September 28th, 7-9 pm, presentation at 8pm

Sunday, September 29th, 1-4pm, presentation at 2pm

“Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:11

Ministry in Mozambique

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The summer is flying by, and with it we are thick into preparations for our fall ministry trip to Mozambique.

Pastor Daniel and nine churches have been waiting for over a year and a half for us to be there, and we are deeply glad that the time has come for fellowship in company of each other.

The plan is that I (Cyndy) will head there on October 16th for 15 days on the ground. We have received donations enough to cover about two-thirds of the ticket price, and half of the total cost of the trip.

Thank-you to all those who have donated so far – The work of Capturing Courage is dependent on the donations and prayers of ordinary folks like yourselves.

A few specific things to keep in prayer about:

– Clarity in our final communications as we near our travel time.

– Full funding so that we stay on budget for this trip.

– Heart preparation for a work of the Lord, for both Cyndy and the people in Mozambique.

– All details coming together.

art auctionThere are also five evangelists and pastors from Kenya and Uganda who would like to travel and join us in Mozambique – please pray for clarity, direction, and funding to work for them as the Lord leads.

The work of Capturing Courage continues to solidify and expand. As we are faithful with the depth the Lord continues to increase the breadth.

Please be in prayer for us beyond this trip to Mozambique. The question of ‘which country next?’ is playing in the back of our minds and we wait on the Lord’s specific direction.

The choices forefront in our minds at this time are India, Kenya, Myanmar, & Uganda.

Your prayers for clarity and wisdom and guidance on our behalf are very appreciated.

If you live in the Vancouver area mark your calendars for our Open House & Art Auction Fundraiser coming in late September.

If you are new to the work of Capturing Courage Click HERE.

“Make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous portion of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.”  2 Peter 1:5-7 NLT

To support this work around the world Donate HERE

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ART Auction

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P1180261 croppedThe last weekend of September we are hosting an Open House & Art Auction Fundraiser for CCI’s ministry trip to Mozambique in October.

We are asking for all artists and creative folk out there to donate ONE work of Art towards the further encouragement and equipping of our Mozambique pastors and congregations.

Besides raising money for Mozambique we are simply excited about viewing and celebrating artists in our local area.

We are expecting a great range of work and with a few donations already counted for, it’ll be a great showcase of a great mix of really talented people.

There will be more info about the event itself, but we wanted to get the call out for artists to donate and to showcase what they are about.

The picture at the top of this post is by one of my daughters and I think it catches the spirit of hope and joy and continued journey’s with our Lord that CCI is all about.

Be blessed today!

Come and See

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Jesus Christ SavesThis is a reminder to those living in the greater Vancouver area that tomorrow we are having our Capturing Courage Tea, Story & Prayer gathering.

At 2pm – 4pm, Sunday April 21st, we are gathering to share and pray for God’s heart around the world.

It’s been about six months since our last event, and there have been a lot of things going on in that time – Come and get caught up.

Our last few weeks at Capturing Courage have carried some sorrow and loss – Come and honor with us.

The investments are increasing, relationships are expanding, growth is slowly yet steadily taking hold – Come and celebrate with us.

A trip is in the wings, we are praying and planning – come and look ahead with us.

  • Sunday, April 21
  • 2-4 pm
  • 10082 160St
  • Surrey

“Then they were on the road. They preached with joyful urgency that life could be radically different; right and left they sent the demons packing; they brought wellness to the sick, anointing their bodies, healing their spirits.” Mark 6:12-13 The Message – And the task we are about

Capturing Courage Stories & Prayer from around the World

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You are Invited - April 21st

Workers Needed

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Pastor KakubaWhen Jesus said, “The harvest if plentiful, but the laborers are few” he wasn’t kidding.

I’ve come face to face with this again and again. The hunger just for what Capturing Courage is bringing to the table is more than we can keep up with.

I can only imagine other more larger organizations.

We need a few (actually a lot) more laborers:

  • Are you interested in standing alongside indigenous leaders around the world?
  • Can you speak from your heart?
  • Have you experienced loss and failure and disappointment?
  • Have you experienced the power of God through it all?
  • Do you know the Holy Spirit?
  • Are you interested and willing to learn and grow in Spiritual Authority?
  • Are you able to invest some of your life overseas?
  • Can you work hard?
  • Do you want to impact redemptive change all over the world?
  • Can you leave niceties behind and find yourself at home no matter where you go?
  • Are you interested in standing alongside leaders in support and strength?
  • Would you be willing to make lifelong friends from all over the globe?
  • Are you interested in being mentored and equipped to minister around the world?
  • Can you wait on the Lord’s explicit leading and direction?
  • Are you equally comfortable with children and leaders and men and women and the elderly?
  • Have you known your own poverty of soul?
  • Are you sensitive to the Holy Spirit?
  • Do you love leaders?
  • Do you love?
  • Do you know Jesus?

Are you willing to grow in love, to be challenged and equipped and empowered, broken down, refined, and then built back up in the power of God?

Then do we have an opportunity for you.

Seriously.

The invitations from Pastors and Evangelists and Bishops from various parts of the world just keep coming in.

But they are not just invitations. There is a hunger and a heartfelt eagerness for training and equipping that is both beautiful and humbling.

These Pastors are doing amazing work. Hard work. Constant work. Consistent work. They are continually stretching out beyond themselves, and leading and reaching and enveloping their countrysides for Jesus Christ.

And quite simply,  they themselves need to be strengthened.

As a leader, when I am feeling overwhelmed and out of my element, when I need a dose of encouragement and tools of strength and strategy and additional wisdom added to my leader-tool-belt I go to the nearest Chapter and buy another half dozen books to build me up.

Rural indigenous Pastors do not have this same luxury.

Their faithfulness astounds me. As I receive letter after letter, email after email coming into my inbox explaining and telling of the work they are undertaking I am simply honored to be meeting them and so blessed by their lives.

Simply put, we at Capturing Courage simply want to be faithful to them.

It is our privilege to serve them. Will you join us?

While there is always a need for funds for the work, what is really so absolutely necessary are simply more people willing to give their lives away, willing to invest themselves in something that is bigger than all of us.

While Capturing Courage’ headquarters are located in Vancouver BC Canada, if this invitation strikes a cord with you, if the Holy Spirit resonates this in your life, then we are interested in speaking with you no matter where you are located.

Take a look at our Spiritual Authority syllabus for this is the core training we are taking and what you would be required to immerse yourself in for a time.

Beyond this you would be expected to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and keen enough to bring your own expertise and experience of our Lord to the table. Are you gifted to heal emotionally? Can you touch and bring physical healing? In your presence are others encouraged and uplifted? Are you okay with team and are you able to mutually bless and come under another’s blessing? Do you understand the challenges that leaders face?

What are your particular passion and gifts of the Spirit and how do you see them fitting in with the mandate of Capturing Courage?

Contact Me and lets begin a conversation.

Not in Vain

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008 compressedAs we walk our journey’s with God we may at some time come to realize that we think of God the Father, or we feel a real relationship with Jesus yet hardly know the Holy Spirit.

Or we think much of the Holy Spirit and ignore Jesus and cannot stomach the Father. Others still find companionship with Jesus while others know God but outside the context of Christ.

Spiritual Authority is all about harnessing the fullness of God, the full spectrum of glory and directing it. Because this comes out of the context of relationship with God, how are we to do this if there is a part of God we are not familiar with or comfortable?

Unless with are in relationship with all of God, it begins to be a taking advantage of the power found in the Lord. This is the exact sin that the first of the Ten Commandments addresses, “Do not take the name of your Lord in vain.”

We surface skim this verse thinking it has to do with the words of our mouths. We apply it to swearing and yet the commandment is about something much deeper.

The context to which this commandment is speaking is the state where we see the power of God, recognize the amazing things in and through God and want that for ourselves yet without the relationship.

In the Old Testament when the Israelites settled in the promised land there were all sorts of other nations watching. If you remember, the Lord went before the Israelites. God was their might as they conquered and settled in the land.

They were a powerful force to be reckoned with, and the nations round about them recognized that it was due to the God of Heaven and Earth that they had that great power.

These other nations wanted that power for themselves. So they would ‘use the Lord’s name in vain’. They drew on the name of God yet without any relationship base by which to do so. Thus the ‘in vain’ reality of their words and the heart-sin of using God.

As believers we can come under this same judgment. We pray to Father God yet ignore Jesus Christ. We come under the influence of the Holy Spirit yet reject the admonitions of the Father. We stand solidly in Jesus Christ yet judge anything smacks of crazy Holy Spirit stuff.

Simply put, being divided does not work and in the end we may come to see that while we’ve been operating in the name of our Lord we actually never knew him or welcomed him.

“On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast our demons in your name, and do many might works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you ; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.” Matthew 7:22-23

The realization that we have been denying one part of God is a grand revelation, and maybe you are realizing today that there is a part of God that you are uncomfortable with and haven’t been too keen to fully accept.

As with all revelations this comes from the grace of God revealing to us the secrets of our hearts. In this we can know that God desires to open our hearts and minds to more of who he is and as we welcome all of who God is, we are truly equipped.

Engaging and welcoming all of who God is, entering into a relationship rather than scripts and formats is the only way to ensure that the authority by which we operate truly is of God.

God does not want to be taken advantage of any more than the rest of us.

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NOTE: This post is an excerpt of our Walking in Spiritual Authority course that we are beginning this Friday. The class is full (although we’ve tucked in a few more just today).

Please keep us in your prayers as we study Module One – The King’s Heart & Understanding Authority.

Don’t Let the Bed-Bugs Bite

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time to say 'no'

Spiritual Authority rather is the influence that we carry within us to make a difference in this world and in the lives of others. It is the assignment or calling that would have us entering into something bigger than ourselves.

Spiritual Authority rests on the knowing of our position in Jesus, it is about confidence of who God is and who we are made to be. But let me tell you a story.

I was in Uganda for almost another week. Visiting another area found me in yet another beautiful woman’s home. Nice space, good bed, hospitality and gracious warmth, all wrapped around me in comfort.

Until I woke in the middle of the second night to find numerous bedbugs. On the bed and on my mosquito netting both inside and out.

So with my flashlight and my kleenex (I’m really glad I had experience with lice years earlier, it somehow prepared me) I scringed them all in my tissues. And then tried to go back to sleep.

This continued for the nights I remained there. I tried all sorts of things. I laid a mat I had been given on top of my mattress. I then tucked my mosquito netting under the mat (as opposed to around the edges of the bed), then laid myself on top of the mat. This set-up made a figure 8 of sorts that they would have to navigate in order to get to me.

Well, navigate it they did. Bed-bugs are smart. We settled into a routine of sorts. Sleep fitfully, wake up to dispose of bed bugs, sleep fitfully, then wake to dispose of more, each night until morning came.

Long story short, I made it out alive (and lived to tell about it), and managed to not bring one bed-bug home with me. Phew!

Three months later and I am heading to Uganda again. To the same home. For three weeks this time.

Back to the bed-bugs.

But the Lord had been speaking more and more to me about my spiritual authority. My confidence was increasing all the time, and the anointing and level of authority had been increased as well.

And we were praying. My prayer team and I silenced those bed-bugs all the way from Canada, weeks before I was to be there again.

We really didn’t know what we were doing per se. We just prayed a bit.

Upon my arrival in Uganda and settling straight away into this same home and same bed found me that first night setting the stage.

I got into bed and spoke out loud, “I declare myself covered in the name and the blood of my Lord Jesus Christ, and say to all bed-bugs ‘be still’ – insert praying in tongues here- Amen.”

No bedbugs. Days went by, a few weeks went by. Not one bedbug.

I was thinking, wow that is amazing. What did they do? How did they get rid of them?

We all know how impossible it is to get rid of bedbugs.

Until one night that I was woken in a nightmare and demonic attack. Three times I was woken, and the third time there were three bedbugs. One I had flicked off myself, killing it as I severed its head from its body, and two others clinging on the inside of my mosquito netting.

(sorry for the graphic detail)

There lay the one dead one, and there were the two on the netting, and I simply spoke to them in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that they were to ‘be still’ (meaning not to get to me) and simply went back to sleep.

I never saw them again.

In all of this, the only element that changed from trip one to trip two was the power of prayer and the increased confidence that I carried, knowing that I could command these critters and they had to listen.

Not because of me, but because of who my God is.

And it made all the difference.

This is spiritual authority. Knowing who God is, understanding that ‘he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world’ and with the confidence to stand in that truth, to declare from that truth, and to rest in that truth.

Now imagine this same knowing, this same confidence, this same declaration made on behalf of the broken hearted. Imagine this same advocated for those who have no voice. Imagine angels released to heal, hope infused in the hopeless, freedom where before there was bondage. Imagine.

This is spiritual authority. It is first the place where we meet the living God ourselves. We find sufficiency and grace and healing and love and hope. We find confidence and our voice.

And then we bring this knowing to bear upon this world. We learn to advocate the love of God on behalf of others in powerful and effective ways. This is Spiritual Authority at its best. And this is what I am teaching.

To the bed-bugs, and to everything else that has ever gone wrong in this world, we say, “You will NOT bite. Your authority is cancelled here.”

God reigns.

Join Us for Tribal Thinking

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333 compressedA number of us gathered last week for Success to Significance. It was a good time.

Not only did we find fellowship and warm food and drink out of the stormy rainy evening, but we took a look at what are the keys to success and what are the distinctions of significance.

We learned that significance comes from inside us and our experience of how we live in the world, the choices we make and the manner in which we show up.

And I’m already looking ahead at next month’s Cyndy’s Speaking Series.

Our topic for February 12th is Tribal Thinking.

The book Tribal Leadership is the impetus for this evenings discussion. Having read Tribal Leadership a couple of years ago, it was a life-changing read. My own understanding of much of what I was encountering and experiencing made perfect sense after reading this book.

I am excited to pass on the basic premise of this book and to then explore the ramifications of Tribal Thinking and how all of us are affected by this every single day.

Part of my excitement is that the findings that led to this book directly line up with all of the training that I have received as a coach, specifically in regards to the power of language in and over our lives.

Did you know that your language reveals your ‘tribe’, the basic premise and world-view and paradigms by which you are doing life?

Did you also know that through language you can transform the basic premise and world-view and paradigms by which you are doing life?

Simply put, change our thinking, change our language, and we change our lives.

This in a nutshell is what I’m presenting February 12th. We would love to have you join us!

Mark it on your calendar. It may seem a ways off, but it is closer than we think!

time and place

Come with a friend, we will be having a door-prize of my newest book, Thoughts – Taking One Day at a Time.

Good food and great people plus powerful thoughts equals an evening you don’t want to miss!

Any questions don’t hesitate to Contact Me

See you there!