It is hard to believe that i have already finished my first month of ministry on the race. I'm sitting in the terminal of Istanbul's airport in route to Ukraine for month 2. If this post seems a little disorganized, it's probably because I'm still processing, but it might also be that I am completely exhausted (which is not what I want to write about, but is too ridiculous not to record).*
Looking over this last month, in addition to the foundational truths I wrote about in my last blog, the theme of Ireland was boldness and expectancy. I stepped out. My team took to the streets and we saw people encounter God there. One ministry tool we used was coffee shop prophecy. Basically, you go with a partner to your favorite coffee shop and order a drink. After you settle in, you look for a person and challenge your partner to ask God what He wants to share with that person. Simple enough, right? Haha. Right. Well, responses were varied. Some were blessed, most were surprised, and a fair number were really offended. But we stepped out. Walking up to a stranger and saying "hi! I'm a Christian, and the Lord was just speaking to me about how you have such a joy about you. It really blesses Him how you share that with people." or "I feel like God just showed me that you've been in a really broken place emotionally, and He wants to affirm His love for you to you. You are loved and He is bringing redemption and restoration" — that's not normal…or at least it wasn't. It is becoming normal and I love it. We have been encouraged to just "say what you see" over the individual and leave the results to God. It is easy to be discouraged by some responses, but we are not swayed by feelings or experience. God loves His kids and if you give Him the chance, He will definitely use you to speak life into them. I've seen how blessed people begin to cry as the Father touches them, or how some are too dumbfounded to speak (as a personal, loving God doesn't really fit into their grid of understanding), and how others respond out of great hurt, the word clearly touching a wound from their past.
The first place where this culminated for me was one day at Healing on the Streets (HOTS). We have chairs set out in downtown Coleraine and are passing out leaflets explaining God's ability to heal and our heart to pray for and bless whoever would want to receive from Him. I had been at it for a few hours, without many opportunities to pray. At HOTS, men pray for men and women pray for women. A lot of women were receiving prayer, but men weren't coming. As I offer prayer to passersby, a man responds sarcastically, "what could your prayers do to change anything?" I told him that we believe that God loves his kids and that I would love the chance to demonstrate that love to him. I asked if he had any physical or emotional conditions that needed God's touch. "Yeah." he challenged me, "cancer." I was filled with faith and was unmoved. I smiled and invited him to sit in the chairs and make himself comfortable. He seemed really taken aback that the c-word hadn't changed anything. He warmed up and hurried over to the chair. Along with one of the men from the church, I knelt in front of him and heard his story. He had found out the year before that he had cancer in his blood and it had spread all over. He was in great pain and there wasn't much that could be done. However, after almost a year and a half, he had an appointment the following Monday (this is Saturday afternoon) to assess if he could handle any treatment regimens as a last resort. He wasn't from Coleraine, but wanted to see the north coast before he went in for this assessment. As we prayed, he described a feeling of peace and warmth filling his body. After, he looked so relaxed. I felt that God wanted to do something for him that was more tangible and immediate, to show His power and impart faith for the healing of cancer. I felt that he had hip pain, and he told us that he did, that the blood tended to clot there and it left him in constant pain. We commanded that pain to leave and he was shocked. He got up and touched his toes (he's in his late fifties) and started jumping up and down. He power walked across the diamond and came back saying that it hadn't felt that good in years. He assured us that he would be back to share what the doctors discover. I had to leave Coleraine before that came together, but if I hear more I will give an update!
A second time where Holy Spirit's boldness filled me was at a barbecue. After leaving Coleraine to partner with a vineyard church plant (that launched Easter of this year), we found ourselves with John Shades in Enniskillen. We spent a week doing a project called Love Enniskillen, which consisted of servant evangelism (like showing up at local businesses to do toilet cleaning, or offering to wallpaper, garden, etc.), random blessings like lunch and coke can giveaways, and HOTS and treasure hunts. This all culminated Saturday at our big barbecue (which included a bouncy castle, free face painting and food). While there, my squad leader Peter encouraged us to really bless the people with God's love, and I immediately had a word for a man there. He was with his family, and I struggled to know how to share it with him in as normal a way as possible. Finally, I just went for it. Grabbing Travis, I walked up to this man and said what I saw. He looked pretty unresponsive, and so I said "well, thanks for letting me share that with you!" and I ran away as cooly as possible. I felt like I really heard from God, but that I had missed it somehow. It was a little awkward after that, until about 3 minutes later when his wife walked up with two of her friends. "Can you give us words from God too? That was really specifically what my husband needed to hear. I think he was just too shocked to tell you that." Oh, okay Jesus…I see you blowing my mind right now. We prayed for them and God gave us a word for each woman. I strongly felt that one of them was a comforter and that she reflected the gentle lovingkindness of the Father, as people trusted her with their burdens and hurts. Her friends affirmed her in this and she seemed to be significantly touched. I don't know if she is a believer or not, but the next morning she showed up at church. I got the idea that church isn't really her thing, but when God's words (and not just our own) are shared we don't even have to invite them to come. They are hungry to come. A lot of the other teams on my squad spent the month passing out tracts. It was hard ministry, that didn't seem to be very fruitful. But we weren't sharing printed words, we were sharing the Living Word. He broke through her past experience with religion and showed her something real and authentic. This month has been such a stretching blessing to me, and I can't wait to see God continue to grow the boldness and expectancy I have seen Him establish in the squad this month.
One more thing: you should read this story. It is not from Ireland, but it is one that is very close to my heart and one that demonstrates the love and redemptive work of Jesus clearer than almost any other that I've never heard.
Love you all!
In Christ,
Caleb
* Let me set the stage for you: Monday morning we left the rugby club where we had been living in Enniskillen around 8:30. We caught a series of buses back from Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland and had the afternoon in Dublin. Dublin is an expensive city though, and so we couldn't afford a hostel for the night. Instead, my whole squad of 57 people got permission to sleep in the check in area of the airport and we went to bed. I think I actually fell asleep at 2 am after a good FaceTime chat with my family. Around 4 am, a rush of people began flooding the airport. I was sleeping right next to the door and decided to block it out and keep sleeping until 8. But then, around 4:20, airport security changed their minds and told us we were not allowed to sleep after all…not that we couldn't sleep there, but that we couldn't sleep. So they moved us out of the way, and we tried to be happy about that. Then around 8:30, they moved us again. It was a kind of mentally and physically exhausting exercise. Then we flew to Istanbul, where it is currently 12:55am. At 6:30 this morning we will fly to Kiev. Then, after a full day of touring the city, we will have an overnight train to L'viv, where I will be doing ministry for the next month. I can't wait to share details about that, but I don't really know enough yet to blog about, so look for that to be coming soon.
