5-30-10
So if you were interested in a slightly
more detailed view of training camp…
Right now I am sitting in the Atlanta
airport awaiting my flight home from training camp. I can not even
begin to describe how changed and challenged I feel since I was in
this airport just one week ago.
Last week was possibly the toughest and
best week of my entire life. I feel empowered. Transformed. Valued.
The beginning of the week was spent
focusing on ourselves- restoring our view of our own selves, and
allowing the Father to show us how much He loves us. We were asked to
let go of our pain, brokenness, scars. To give them over to the
Father so that we could begin to see outside of ourselves.
Part 2 of the week focused on
commmunity. We did several simulations and group activities where we
had to interact with one another to accomplish a goal (ex. Simulating
a plane crash and getting all of the wounded and blind from the site
to safety; 6 people balancing a tennis ball with six strings-and
taking a walk in the woods without dropping it; being cast to a
desserted island and asked to fend for ourselves for a night, various
other group formation activities). The point of it all was to
establish who our teams would be to live and travel with for the next
year: no pressure right? Whew. I rarely get stressed, but the whole
process kinda got to me. I had to completely trust God. And. Loudly
give my opinion a time or two 🙂
The unimaginable result–> I have
the best team I could possibly hope for. Garrett (our fearless,
hilarious leader), Matt (the relator), Jessica (my new heart), Anna
(Mama hen), and Rebekkah (the sparkplug). We all fit together like a
masterpiece puzzle. We laugh constantly. Pray hard. Compliment one
another’s strengths and weaknesses. Encourage. Stretch. Point towards
the Father. I’m already in love with each of them and praise Jesus
for bringing them into my life.
(Side note: I believe this is going to
be the year of the Surprising God. He is so good, and so creative,
that there is no way my little pea sized brain could even dare dream
up the solutions he is going to answer my every need and hope with).
Part 3 of the week focused on
mobilizing us to go into the world. We were empowered to prophecy
truth and life into the people we will encounter. We pretty much had
to learn to pray in a completely different way. If I’m being honest-
I’ve used prayer quite selfishly for most of my life. Yes maybe for
my family, my small group, my friends. But they’ve all been weak-
asking/ pleading prayers. Although good, there is so much more. We
can pray in proclamation. We can declare victory and life. We can
speak it into existence. With our words, we will deliver hope. We can
go into the world and release the kingdom of God with our prayers.
God is speaking. We can hear him if we just tune in. And boy does He
have a lot to say. About you. About me. About the girl checking your
groceries. About the man on the bench you non-chalantly walk by.
About the woman dying of AIDS in an African hut. This week I have
realized that maybe I could be the voice to tell such precious lives
all of the good that God is thinking of them, that He is already
speaking over them. And of all the good that is to come.
We put this into practice quite
quickly. On Saturday we were told that we (as a group) would have 6
hours to go do ministry. The catch: no one was telling us what to go
do. We simply had to sit, be quiet, and ask the Lord what to do. Talk
about an intimidating task. ASK God to actually speak?? Like right
now?? And wait?? He’ll give an answer right now?? Like in, oohh, the
next 6 hours? “Yes� they said. Ummm. Okay.
So that’s what we did. We sat,
prayed-asking the Lord to speak, to direct. And then we were quiet.
VERRRRY quiet. And guess what. He did speak. He gave us each very
specific visions. He showed me a picture of a woman and her children.
And He also showed me this scene that I see every day as I walk out
of work at my hospital. Where all the smokers congregrate in their
backless gowns, and IV pole in one hand and a cigarrette in the
other, and people just discharged from hospital hang around and wait.
He showed members of my team very specific things as well…but I’ll
keep it short and just tell my end. Anyways, we went downtown Atlanta
to Centennial Park (something God had showed Matt), broke up into
teams, and just went. I immediately saw a lady, that I knew, dangit,
would not speak a lick of English. But I had to walk up to her
anyways. SOOO weird. Spanish, like really good spanish that I do not
actually speak, just started coming out. I talked with her about her
children, and her husband, and her life. At the end I was able to
pray with her about needs in her life. So cool! Although I was
starting to feel like a crazy missionary person in a park, God just
kept bringing people along who needed hope that specific day. I was
starting to see that massive need for people to hear the hope that
God has for them TODAY. Anyways, I prayed with two more homeless
people, one of which had just lost his wife, before meeting Phillip.
Phillip had just been discharged from the hospital. Phillip had lots
of heart problems, and opened his bag to show me the 7 medications he
was on to fix them. I felt righ then that I was supposed to pray for
Phillip to get off of his medications. One by one, I prayed, he would
no longer need them. Interjection- this all was very strange for me.
I am not the kind of person who just goes into parks and starts
praying for people to get healed. I would actually say its kind of
crazy to do so. But I couldn’t help it. I just saw such hope and
healing for these people. I had to act. I was compelled.
All this to say, that was day one of
ministry. And I was already doing things I never EVER would have
believed I was capable of. Which leads me to believe: Something
incredible is about to happen, and I have no control over it.
