So, normally everything's jolly - I think I've barely written a bad word about this place and the stuff that's been going on since I arrived and that's mainly because it honestly has been great but there are times when it's not so fantas and I want to be honest about that too. Being a Christian is real hard sometimes - you have to lay down everything for the sake of Him. Take up your cross and follow him - what a statement. It's tough but we have to perservere which is what I intend to do - it really is the only way to live. Something I'm learning is that what we often refer to as 'sacrafice' for the sake of Jesus is really no sacrafice at all - if God's asking you to lay something down it's because he's got better plans for you. Wonderfully tough.
We practised a dance for outreach this evening. Not gone well at all - on a scale of one to my cup of tea, it was someone else's glass of orange juice. Spoon. Dancing never will be my thing but we all gotta do it so I'm just trying to enter into the spirit of it!
We were told off for singing a non-Christian song (Halo - Beyonce - actually a personal favourite of mine) this evening. Apparently it doesn't glorify God. Flip - people here have strong views on certain things, not always easy to deal with but I'm trying to be open-minded.
Alright. Bed time again. Love y'all.
X
Monday, 24 May 2010
Sunday, 23 May 2010
It's all about the chase
So. Haven't written for a while so I guess I should write a cheeky update quickly. Where was I then? An Audience with God almost a couple of weeks ago now was an evening where everyone was supposed to bring a talent to offer before God - you could dance, sing, write a poem or something. Everyone was watching but it was done for God. I wasn't exactly delighted when the news reached me that this is what we were doing - my talents are unfortunately rather limited; I can't sing, dance or draw so overall, it's not gone well. I did decide however, that I could write a poem so this is what I did - it rhymed and all was all rather lovely, but then I prayed and felt God saying he actually would rather I sang for him. No, please no, Lord?! That can't be right - have you even heard me sing God?! I just felt that the poem was alright but at the end of the day I cared more about whether it rhymed or not rather than what I was saying. I felt God wanted to strip me bare and just be honest with him. So that's what I did. I sat in front of everyone, guitar in my hand, and just sung "Jesus, Son of God, I believe in you..." strumming at seemingly random intervals. It was awful, really shockingly bad - I had my eyes shut so I couldn't see what my hand was doing on the fret-board (you have to feel sorry for all those present) but at the same time it was awesome. Ensured I really was just doing it for God and no one in the room. I don't think God minds too much that I can't sing or play guitar, so that's cool.
Baptism of fire - yes please. So on Friday I went into morning lectures in the fowlest mood - was just not feeling great to be hons - and we were having a 'Holy Spirit Party' - wasn't entirely sure what it was but sounded like the last thing I was up for! Two hours later though my story couldn't have been different - we were all invited up to front to be prayed for impartation of the Spirit and like a month ago I was just nwaysayed by the Holy Thing. It was crazy - my legs went weak so I ended up on the floor again and my hands were shaking and my breathing went all deep again. Really cool stuff - I just lay on the floor soaking it all up and feeling much more at peace with everything! Sweet. Then we were prayed for for various Spiritual gifts so I was prayed over for prophecy and healing. People started speaking in tongues for the first time - awesome. Then when it all came to an end our speaker for the week said he was going to take us all to the beach so that anyone who wanted to could be baptised. Hmmm, baptism is something I've thought about a little bit since I've been here - Jesus did say, "Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved..." so who am I to argue with that?! I know I was baptised as a baby but I wanted to make that decision for myself and so I went forward for it - to display my beliefs and make a public declaration that I'm dying to myself and being raised to new life in Christ. So that was awesome - five of us waded knee-deep into the Indian Ocean, dodging the waves that were crashing around us, and made our commitments in front of the rest of the team. Sweet times.
Hmmmm, what else has happened since I last wrote? Last Sunday at church Jess suggested that we go bungee jumping and at first it was a complete joke but just an hour of so later Sandrine, Jess and I bundled in the car, headed for the tallest bungee-bridge in the world! Was insane - I thought it would be cool but nothing can really prepare you for the feeling you get when you just leap off that platform 216m up and plunge head-first into a rocky ravene. Crazy times. You free-fall for five seconds (seems more like five minutes) before hanging upside for ten minutes longer than is ideally preferable, still 60m above the ground below. Am not going to lie - I wasn't exactly keeping my cool. Just for the record - never ask a woman their weight but if you really want to know then just bungee with them - their weight will be scrawled on the back of their hand in big black marker pen and most likely shouted around by various members of staff, just in case you didn't manage to steal a glimpse at their hand. Poor girls - you could tell none of them were best pleased!
Hmmm, so this Tuesday we had a night of giving - everyone prayed and chose one thing that they wanted to give away to someone else. I wasn't really excited about it but it actually turned out to be an awesome night. People were blessing others with money, clothes, Ipods, phones, cameras - it was crazy! Money was given to people who then felt led to pass it onto someone else who in turn continued passing it! Unforts no money made it's way my way (clearly I'm the rich white boy) - shame, would have kept it fo' sho'. Powerful evening in the end - there was a far greater blessing in giving than receiving - felt like New-Testament times!
During work-duties the other day, instead of just cleaning up around the base, I went with a couple of others to help construct a lady's new house - she lives in the most awful community - tin houses just a couple of metres square. That was quite a shock but at least we were doing something to help - we were constructing a new, slightly larger but still single-roomed, wooden house. We soon gathered a small crowd who appreciated my building expertise - we were lacking a cement-mixer so we just chucked a load of water, stones, sand and cement mix on the floor and churned it up that way. Was actually remarkably successful - why do these westerners always have to complicate matters with unneccessary equipment?! There was a few kids running around the place which was all well and good until it led to Gershom (lad from Netherlands) having to swerve with an unsettlingly little amount of warning after one of the little boys whacked his lad out and started urinating right in his desired path. Ha, was hilairs - poor Gershom's feet very almost received a little sprinking (or as the Scot's would say, 'a wee sprinkling'. Ba-dum) Barely anyone even twitched at it either - apparently it's perfectly normal to take a slash in the front yard during a family gathering. Sweet. Anyhows, that was interesting.
Okay. Enough for now. It's getting late (bed-times at 10 remember) and I've still got things to do. Y'all better be keeping it real. Peace.
X
Baptism of fire - yes please. So on Friday I went into morning lectures in the fowlest mood - was just not feeling great to be hons - and we were having a 'Holy Spirit Party' - wasn't entirely sure what it was but sounded like the last thing I was up for! Two hours later though my story couldn't have been different - we were all invited up to front to be prayed for impartation of the Spirit and like a month ago I was just nwaysayed by the Holy Thing. It was crazy - my legs went weak so I ended up on the floor again and my hands were shaking and my breathing went all deep again. Really cool stuff - I just lay on the floor soaking it all up and feeling much more at peace with everything! Sweet. Then we were prayed for for various Spiritual gifts so I was prayed over for prophecy and healing. People started speaking in tongues for the first time - awesome. Then when it all came to an end our speaker for the week said he was going to take us all to the beach so that anyone who wanted to could be baptised. Hmmm, baptism is something I've thought about a little bit since I've been here - Jesus did say, "Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved..." so who am I to argue with that?! I know I was baptised as a baby but I wanted to make that decision for myself and so I went forward for it - to display my beliefs and make a public declaration that I'm dying to myself and being raised to new life in Christ. So that was awesome - five of us waded knee-deep into the Indian Ocean, dodging the waves that were crashing around us, and made our commitments in front of the rest of the team. Sweet times.
Hmmmm, what else has happened since I last wrote? Last Sunday at church Jess suggested that we go bungee jumping and at first it was a complete joke but just an hour of so later Sandrine, Jess and I bundled in the car, headed for the tallest bungee-bridge in the world! Was insane - I thought it would be cool but nothing can really prepare you for the feeling you get when you just leap off that platform 216m up and plunge head-first into a rocky ravene. Crazy times. You free-fall for five seconds (seems more like five minutes) before hanging upside for ten minutes longer than is ideally preferable, still 60m above the ground below. Am not going to lie - I wasn't exactly keeping my cool. Just for the record - never ask a woman their weight but if you really want to know then just bungee with them - their weight will be scrawled on the back of their hand in big black marker pen and most likely shouted around by various members of staff, just in case you didn't manage to steal a glimpse at their hand. Poor girls - you could tell none of them were best pleased!
Hmmm, so this Tuesday we had a night of giving - everyone prayed and chose one thing that they wanted to give away to someone else. I wasn't really excited about it but it actually turned out to be an awesome night. People were blessing others with money, clothes, Ipods, phones, cameras - it was crazy! Money was given to people who then felt led to pass it onto someone else who in turn continued passing it! Unforts no money made it's way my way (clearly I'm the rich white boy) - shame, would have kept it fo' sho'. Powerful evening in the end - there was a far greater blessing in giving than receiving - felt like New-Testament times!
During work-duties the other day, instead of just cleaning up around the base, I went with a couple of others to help construct a lady's new house - she lives in the most awful community - tin houses just a couple of metres square. That was quite a shock but at least we were doing something to help - we were constructing a new, slightly larger but still single-roomed, wooden house. We soon gathered a small crowd who appreciated my building expertise - we were lacking a cement-mixer so we just chucked a load of water, stones, sand and cement mix on the floor and churned it up that way. Was actually remarkably successful - why do these westerners always have to complicate matters with unneccessary equipment?! There was a few kids running around the place which was all well and good until it led to Gershom (lad from Netherlands) having to swerve with an unsettlingly little amount of warning after one of the little boys whacked his lad out and started urinating right in his desired path. Ha, was hilairs - poor Gershom's feet very almost received a little sprinking (or as the Scot's would say, 'a wee sprinkling'. Ba-dum) Barely anyone even twitched at it either - apparently it's perfectly normal to take a slash in the front yard during a family gathering. Sweet. Anyhows, that was interesting.
Okay. Enough for now. It's getting late (bed-times at 10 remember) and I've still got things to do. Y'all better be keeping it real. Peace.
X
Wednesday, 12 May 2010
Love is a choice not a feeling
Boom ting. As promised I've left it slightly longer before writing again - mainly because things have settled down slightly after the intense week with Rich.
Last week we had another American with us - Kerry Slattery - who came to talk to us on Inner Healing. Was an interesting week - he spoke quite a lot about demons and about how he had spent much of his early life wondering, "What on earth happened to the demons we see Jesus driving out in bible times? Where have they all gone?" This question kept nagging him until he was 32. The secretary in his church was doing her work in the church office while her baby son was crawling around on the floor. The baby crawled off though, out of sight and without anyone realising started choking on a coin he'd found. The first the mum knew about it was when she found her baby dead on the floor. You can't imagine the trauma that must cause - the poor woman was hugely greived and was unconsolable for a year. After about a year of being in this depressed state she walked into church one day and a visiting speaker was just standing at the front talking. As he saw this woman - who he didn't know - enter the church he just stopped, and said to her, "Spirit of grief, come out of her in Jesus' name!" and as soon as he had said that the woman fell to the ground and cried out. Kerry witnessed this all and can testify to how the woman was healed of her depression from this day onwards! Ever since then Kerry has been learning how to identify demons and to rob them of their power in the name of Jesus. Really interesting stuff - something I definitely have zero knowledge on. I was certainly very sceptical about the whole demon-scene beforehand but this week has just really opened my eyes to the reality of the power that the devil can hold over someone's life. Good stuff. Well, obviously not good stuff but you know what I mean.
What else has been going down? On Thursday we went evangelising in the community - a staff-member called Khaya, Jess and myself went out together - and it certainly proved a novel experience! At first we headed to a household that Khaya was already familiar with, but even so, we just rocked into the house uninvited and made ourselves comfortable! It's the African way apparently. After saying a few things to a woman and a young man that were at home, Khaya kindly opened up the floor by saying to Jess and I, "Do you guys want to share?" Do we want to share?! Of course we don't want to flibbing share! What are you wanting us to share anyhows - these two were already Christian! Poor Jess took it upon herself to try and say something but the woman couldn't understand her American accent! Embarrassing times. After that we went to another house where Khaya had a rather long chat in Xhosa with a teenage boy who just sat there, nodding along and saying the odd word. After a fair while Khaya turned to Jess and I and said that boy wanted to accept Jesus into his life. Really?! Now I couldn't understand any of the conversation but from the look on the poor boy's face it looked as if he'd rather be doing anything else than accepting Jesus right now! Now I cant judge his heart - I have no idea what he was thinking - but it did just seem a little pressurised and I wasn't entirely comfortable with that. Khaya then turned to me and asked if I had ever led anyone to Jesus in prayer before. Shabbas - I panicked slightly at this point and although I had led that one street-kid to Jesus supposedly, I wasn't really up for doing it again with the whole household specatating so I just hurriedly shook my head! Whoops - I was really rather glad that Khaya did it instead but I guess that wasn't exactly the whole truth right there. We visited one more house where we had mixed results - I think people really appreciated us coming into the house and offering to pray for them but I'm not sure the actual evangelism went down too well. It was definitely interesting but I think I would take a slightly softer approach if I did it again.
Spurs secured fourth spot! It's pretty dang difficult to follow anything over here but when the news of victory over Man City finally filtered through to me I was so happy! It's just frustrating that the one time I have some football armoury to brag about I'm surrounded by people who aren't all that interested in English football! The cricket on the other hand; I had a very satisfying chat with my pastor (in the quiet, reasonably conservative Church) about Saturday's match!
My hair is in desperate need of a chop but I'm not sure I trust the African salons - surely all they've ever had experience with is braiding hair or completely shaving it - neither of which I'm really up for! Maybe I just need to man up and go for it. Probs.
If anyone feels inspired to send me either Michael McIntyre DVDS or Notting Hill, please feel free - I will be more than happy to give you the address. These guys here have barely heard of either of them and are desperately in need of some English genius!
This weeks lectures are entitled Worship as a Lifestyle and its Pieter McCarthy - our base director - who is speaking to us. The first three days have been really good - it's nice to have something not quite as intense as the last two weeks! Pieter's an amazing guy though - he must be in his forty's now but by the way he dresses you'd think he was still in his twentys! Cool guy, big afro hair, LAD. We did something called "An Audience with God" last night which was awesome.
Oooh, sorry, I gotta go, but thought I might as well post this now. Will explain all about last night another time!
Love ya.
Last week we had another American with us - Kerry Slattery - who came to talk to us on Inner Healing. Was an interesting week - he spoke quite a lot about demons and about how he had spent much of his early life wondering, "What on earth happened to the demons we see Jesus driving out in bible times? Where have they all gone?" This question kept nagging him until he was 32. The secretary in his church was doing her work in the church office while her baby son was crawling around on the floor. The baby crawled off though, out of sight and without anyone realising started choking on a coin he'd found. The first the mum knew about it was when she found her baby dead on the floor. You can't imagine the trauma that must cause - the poor woman was hugely greived and was unconsolable for a year. After about a year of being in this depressed state she walked into church one day and a visiting speaker was just standing at the front talking. As he saw this woman - who he didn't know - enter the church he just stopped, and said to her, "Spirit of grief, come out of her in Jesus' name!" and as soon as he had said that the woman fell to the ground and cried out. Kerry witnessed this all and can testify to how the woman was healed of her depression from this day onwards! Ever since then Kerry has been learning how to identify demons and to rob them of their power in the name of Jesus. Really interesting stuff - something I definitely have zero knowledge on. I was certainly very sceptical about the whole demon-scene beforehand but this week has just really opened my eyes to the reality of the power that the devil can hold over someone's life. Good stuff. Well, obviously not good stuff but you know what I mean.
What else has been going down? On Thursday we went evangelising in the community - a staff-member called Khaya, Jess and myself went out together - and it certainly proved a novel experience! At first we headed to a household that Khaya was already familiar with, but even so, we just rocked into the house uninvited and made ourselves comfortable! It's the African way apparently. After saying a few things to a woman and a young man that were at home, Khaya kindly opened up the floor by saying to Jess and I, "Do you guys want to share?" Do we want to share?! Of course we don't want to flibbing share! What are you wanting us to share anyhows - these two were already Christian! Poor Jess took it upon herself to try and say something but the woman couldn't understand her American accent! Embarrassing times. After that we went to another house where Khaya had a rather long chat in Xhosa with a teenage boy who just sat there, nodding along and saying the odd word. After a fair while Khaya turned to Jess and I and said that boy wanted to accept Jesus into his life. Really?! Now I couldn't understand any of the conversation but from the look on the poor boy's face it looked as if he'd rather be doing anything else than accepting Jesus right now! Now I cant judge his heart - I have no idea what he was thinking - but it did just seem a little pressurised and I wasn't entirely comfortable with that. Khaya then turned to me and asked if I had ever led anyone to Jesus in prayer before. Shabbas - I panicked slightly at this point and although I had led that one street-kid to Jesus supposedly, I wasn't really up for doing it again with the whole household specatating so I just hurriedly shook my head! Whoops - I was really rather glad that Khaya did it instead but I guess that wasn't exactly the whole truth right there. We visited one more house where we had mixed results - I think people really appreciated us coming into the house and offering to pray for them but I'm not sure the actual evangelism went down too well. It was definitely interesting but I think I would take a slightly softer approach if I did it again.
Spurs secured fourth spot! It's pretty dang difficult to follow anything over here but when the news of victory over Man City finally filtered through to me I was so happy! It's just frustrating that the one time I have some football armoury to brag about I'm surrounded by people who aren't all that interested in English football! The cricket on the other hand; I had a very satisfying chat with my pastor (in the quiet, reasonably conservative Church) about Saturday's match!
My hair is in desperate need of a chop but I'm not sure I trust the African salons - surely all they've ever had experience with is braiding hair or completely shaving it - neither of which I'm really up for! Maybe I just need to man up and go for it. Probs.
If anyone feels inspired to send me either Michael McIntyre DVDS or Notting Hill, please feel free - I will be more than happy to give you the address. These guys here have barely heard of either of them and are desperately in need of some English genius!
This weeks lectures are entitled Worship as a Lifestyle and its Pieter McCarthy - our base director - who is speaking to us. The first three days have been really good - it's nice to have something not quite as intense as the last two weeks! Pieter's an amazing guy though - he must be in his forty's now but by the way he dresses you'd think he was still in his twentys! Cool guy, big afro hair, LAD. We did something called "An Audience with God" last night which was awesome.
Oooh, sorry, I gotta go, but thought I might as well post this now. Will explain all about last night another time!
Love ya.
Sunday, 2 May 2010
I’m long but trust me, you to want to read me. If nothing else read my story at the end.
Wow. Where do I even begin? What a week it’s been. The speaker this week was just incredible. Really funny chap, must be in his fifties – he started off the week by introducing himself and saying, “I’ve come here to talk to you all about the Father-heart of God. I could tell you about how my Dad left me when I was nine. I could tell you about how I was first arrested for armed robbery when I was thirteen, I could tell you about how I was arrested again when I was fifteen for drug dealing in my school. I could tell you all about how, when I was seventeen, I had too much to drink and drove a van straight into a brick wall, killing seven of my school friends and only just escaping with my life. (At this point we all had our hands over our mouths). I could tell you all of this but none of it would be true!” Ha, that got us all! And then he said the funny thing was that we were all thinking “Wow, this guys going to be good – he’s killed!” Ha, so true!
So that was a good introduction to the week but that was only the beginning – it just kept getting better. The amazing thing about this guy was that he got involved. All the speakers so far have taught us but no more. This guy joined the community. He announced we were all going out for pizza on him Tuesday night, he spent time just chill-caking with us, really took an interest in us. I was amazed – he had so much passion to see us draw closer to each other and God and yet he travels the world speaking at DTS’ – I don’t know how he keeps it up!
I haven’t really talked about the teaching all that much but this week I can’t not talk about it! It was amazingly intense – I came out of almost every meeting feeling emotionally drained but in a good way – so much of what he was saying made so much sense. He talked for the first three days and then on Thursday and Friday he got us to each pray about a new name we felt God was giving us and then to come and up to the front and tell everyone what it was and what you wanted God to do for you. And then everyone else gathered round and prayed for you. And wow – did God get to work! Thursday was intense – people were crying and being set free from stuff all over the shop! I was really reluctant to go forward though, and in fact I never did make that decision – just before lunch on Friday Rich (our speaker) made it for me when said he felt I had something weighing on my heart and that he wanted me to come forward – spot on the money! I told everyone about my two names (I couldn’t decide on one!) – Trusting and Passionate. Trusting because of all the issues I’ve had over the years trusting fully in Jesus. I told them how I’ve struggled believing in everything, and even before coming here I was still struggling – I find it really difficult trusting something I can’t see, hear, touch or smell! And then passionate because I get more passionate about worldly things (mainly girls if I’m honest), than I do about God and I wanted that to change. Everyone gathered round me and started praying for me and it happened slowly but I felt my hands and legs start tingling, and as they carried on praying it got more and more intense until my hands were just kinda burning with the tingling sensation. And then my hands went sorta numb and I couldn’t stretch them out properly – they were just kinda stuck! It’s so difficult to explain but it was amazing – felt so good! My breathing went crazy too – I was just breathing really deeply really quickly – apparently I was in danger of hyper-ventilating! It was unreal though – felt so good – I think that’s what’s called being filled with the Holy Spirit! I remember saying, “Oh my hell” at one point – I think that’s looked upon as swearing round here so probably wasn’t the best move but I had to say something – it was incredible! I’ve really struggled with the evidence for God in the past, I think the evidence for God is pretty strong to be honest but I’ve had difficulties just accepting that. There’s no way yesterday could have happened without God though, I don’t want to hear any arguments about how it was psychological – I know what I felt and it wasn’t natural! Just wish I had it on video. Oh well.
What else has been going on? We had a crazy water fight on Tuesday, Samuel (our crazy leader) got Rich to come out of his accommodation and then three of us just jumped on him with buckets! Poor chap. Rich got his own back yesterday though – after he had finished praying for all of us he said, “I have a word for you Samuel – I think God would like to lead you into fresh pastures, give you new land...” and Samuel was nodding along, all excited as Rich got him to stand outside and put his hands out as he started to pray over him. The rest of us ran round the side of the building, got seven buckets of water and absolutely soaked him mid-prayer! Classic.
Another thing about the speaker that amazed me – we were all praying over Jess on Thursday and then Rich was like, “Jess, I just feel like I need to give you this...” and he took off his wedding ring and put it on her finger! His actual wedding ring! He said he felt as he woke up that morning that he needed to give it away today and then that feeling was confirmed by one of the other leaders so he gave it to her and then announced that he would be the one to marry off Jess and that she could give it back then! Wow – I wonder what his wife said to that! The awful thing was that it didn’t quite fit (obviously was on the large size) and later on that evening Jess suddenly realised that it was no longer on her finger! Ah, I can’t even begin to imagine how awful she must have felt! We sent out the search team to try and recover it and thankfully, after much scouring of the ground, we found it! Phew for that.
Enough? Is that what you’re thinking? Let me just finish with a story that Rich shared during the week. One of the things I love about this place is that all the speakers who come are normal guys and yet they all have amazing stories to tell of how God’s been working in their lives. Not their friends, not some famous Pastor, but in their lives. Rich told of how he went to a conference to speak on hearing God’s voice. One guy came up to him at the end – Andy – and challenged him, saying he doesn’t actually believe that God can speak these days. They discussed it briefly but then soon after they found themselves going to a shopping mall together. Andy turned to Rich as they were entering and said, “So, if God really does speak, ask him to show you someone in here that needs him”. So Rich just prays for God to show him someone and they enter. Before they’ve gone any distance at all Rich sees a young lady working at a card stall, just by the side of the mall, and as soon as he sees her he feels that she’s the one – they need to go speak to her. Rich is horrified – “No Lord, please not now. Too soon, too soon. Later, later” But as they get further through the Mall Rich realises... God’s already shown him the person they need to talk to so he really shouldn’t be expecting anyone else! He explains that they need to turn around and a slightly bemused Andy trails behind Rich as they traipse back through the Mall toward the card lady. They see her standing where she was before and Rich walks straight up and taps her on the shoulder. It’s only as she turns round to him that he has no idea what he’s going to say – he didn’t even give it a thought! He said a quick prayer and then said the first thing that came into his mind – something he’d never said before and has never said since; “I’m a servant of God!” and then he said, “The Lord has seen the tears on your pillow as you sleep and as you wake up. The prayers of your Grandmother have gone before you.” And just like that the young lady before him burst into tears! Andy was standing there gobsmacked as the lady sat there and sobbed for an hour in the Mall! It materialised eventually that she leaves work each evening, picks up her two kids from her mum’s house, takes them home, feeds them and then returns them to her mum before getting changed and walking the streets as a prostitute, just to make ends-meet. When she finally gets home she cries herself to sleep each night and she can still feel the dampness from the tears on her pillow as she wakes up each morning. She also receives a letter from her Grandmother each day, which she always signs off “I remember you in my prayers...” but this particular day she said instead, “I pray the Lord sends you a servant of God...” WOW. Check that out for a testimony on hearing the voice of God. And it’s not been passed from person to person either, this was just a story from Rich’s own life. Needless to say this lady became a Christian and is now happily married to a widowed elder at her local church. Pretty cool huh? Yeah, I thought so too. Put that in your pipe and smoke it Andy.
Alright, that’s all. Sorry it was so long this week – maybe I won’t write next week to make up for it; give you all a chance to catch up. Cheers folks.
X
So that was a good introduction to the week but that was only the beginning – it just kept getting better. The amazing thing about this guy was that he got involved. All the speakers so far have taught us but no more. This guy joined the community. He announced we were all going out for pizza on him Tuesday night, he spent time just chill-caking with us, really took an interest in us. I was amazed – he had so much passion to see us draw closer to each other and God and yet he travels the world speaking at DTS’ – I don’t know how he keeps it up!
I haven’t really talked about the teaching all that much but this week I can’t not talk about it! It was amazingly intense – I came out of almost every meeting feeling emotionally drained but in a good way – so much of what he was saying made so much sense. He talked for the first three days and then on Thursday and Friday he got us to each pray about a new name we felt God was giving us and then to come and up to the front and tell everyone what it was and what you wanted God to do for you. And then everyone else gathered round and prayed for you. And wow – did God get to work! Thursday was intense – people were crying and being set free from stuff all over the shop! I was really reluctant to go forward though, and in fact I never did make that decision – just before lunch on Friday Rich (our speaker) made it for me when said he felt I had something weighing on my heart and that he wanted me to come forward – spot on the money! I told everyone about my two names (I couldn’t decide on one!) – Trusting and Passionate. Trusting because of all the issues I’ve had over the years trusting fully in Jesus. I told them how I’ve struggled believing in everything, and even before coming here I was still struggling – I find it really difficult trusting something I can’t see, hear, touch or smell! And then passionate because I get more passionate about worldly things (mainly girls if I’m honest), than I do about God and I wanted that to change. Everyone gathered round me and started praying for me and it happened slowly but I felt my hands and legs start tingling, and as they carried on praying it got more and more intense until my hands were just kinda burning with the tingling sensation. And then my hands went sorta numb and I couldn’t stretch them out properly – they were just kinda stuck! It’s so difficult to explain but it was amazing – felt so good! My breathing went crazy too – I was just breathing really deeply really quickly – apparently I was in danger of hyper-ventilating! It was unreal though – felt so good – I think that’s what’s called being filled with the Holy Spirit! I remember saying, “Oh my hell” at one point – I think that’s looked upon as swearing round here so probably wasn’t the best move but I had to say something – it was incredible! I’ve really struggled with the evidence for God in the past, I think the evidence for God is pretty strong to be honest but I’ve had difficulties just accepting that. There’s no way yesterday could have happened without God though, I don’t want to hear any arguments about how it was psychological – I know what I felt and it wasn’t natural! Just wish I had it on video. Oh well.
What else has been going on? We had a crazy water fight on Tuesday, Samuel (our crazy leader) got Rich to come out of his accommodation and then three of us just jumped on him with buckets! Poor chap. Rich got his own back yesterday though – after he had finished praying for all of us he said, “I have a word for you Samuel – I think God would like to lead you into fresh pastures, give you new land...” and Samuel was nodding along, all excited as Rich got him to stand outside and put his hands out as he started to pray over him. The rest of us ran round the side of the building, got seven buckets of water and absolutely soaked him mid-prayer! Classic.
Another thing about the speaker that amazed me – we were all praying over Jess on Thursday and then Rich was like, “Jess, I just feel like I need to give you this...” and he took off his wedding ring and put it on her finger! His actual wedding ring! He said he felt as he woke up that morning that he needed to give it away today and then that feeling was confirmed by one of the other leaders so he gave it to her and then announced that he would be the one to marry off Jess and that she could give it back then! Wow – I wonder what his wife said to that! The awful thing was that it didn’t quite fit (obviously was on the large size) and later on that evening Jess suddenly realised that it was no longer on her finger! Ah, I can’t even begin to imagine how awful she must have felt! We sent out the search team to try and recover it and thankfully, after much scouring of the ground, we found it! Phew for that.
Enough? Is that what you’re thinking? Let me just finish with a story that Rich shared during the week. One of the things I love about this place is that all the speakers who come are normal guys and yet they all have amazing stories to tell of how God’s been working in their lives. Not their friends, not some famous Pastor, but in their lives. Rich told of how he went to a conference to speak on hearing God’s voice. One guy came up to him at the end – Andy – and challenged him, saying he doesn’t actually believe that God can speak these days. They discussed it briefly but then soon after they found themselves going to a shopping mall together. Andy turned to Rich as they were entering and said, “So, if God really does speak, ask him to show you someone in here that needs him”. So Rich just prays for God to show him someone and they enter. Before they’ve gone any distance at all Rich sees a young lady working at a card stall, just by the side of the mall, and as soon as he sees her he feels that she’s the one – they need to go speak to her. Rich is horrified – “No Lord, please not now. Too soon, too soon. Later, later” But as they get further through the Mall Rich realises... God’s already shown him the person they need to talk to so he really shouldn’t be expecting anyone else! He explains that they need to turn around and a slightly bemused Andy trails behind Rich as they traipse back through the Mall toward the card lady. They see her standing where she was before and Rich walks straight up and taps her on the shoulder. It’s only as she turns round to him that he has no idea what he’s going to say – he didn’t even give it a thought! He said a quick prayer and then said the first thing that came into his mind – something he’d never said before and has never said since; “I’m a servant of God!” and then he said, “The Lord has seen the tears on your pillow as you sleep and as you wake up. The prayers of your Grandmother have gone before you.” And just like that the young lady before him burst into tears! Andy was standing there gobsmacked as the lady sat there and sobbed for an hour in the Mall! It materialised eventually that she leaves work each evening, picks up her two kids from her mum’s house, takes them home, feeds them and then returns them to her mum before getting changed and walking the streets as a prostitute, just to make ends-meet. When she finally gets home she cries herself to sleep each night and she can still feel the dampness from the tears on her pillow as she wakes up each morning. She also receives a letter from her Grandmother each day, which she always signs off “I remember you in my prayers...” but this particular day she said instead, “I pray the Lord sends you a servant of God...” WOW. Check that out for a testimony on hearing the voice of God. And it’s not been passed from person to person either, this was just a story from Rich’s own life. Needless to say this lady became a Christian and is now happily married to a widowed elder at her local church. Pretty cool huh? Yeah, I thought so too. Put that in your pipe and smoke it Andy.
Alright, that’s all. Sorry it was so long this week – maybe I won’t write next week to make up for it; give you all a chance to catch up. Cheers folks.
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