Yep, I’m currently in a hostel in Nairobi after one of the longest days of my life. But praise Jesus I made it from Dublin to Nairobi via Istanbul. We had no time in the Istanbul airport thanks in part to the fact we got to try the landing twice. Pretty sure our pilot may have been a rookie, but the Lord got us here safe and, and I was able to enjoy a bed for the first time in the month even though by the time we finally got here and could climb into them it was nearly 4:30 am local time. A lot happened this last week and here’s my attempt to catch you up as best as I can. Due to exhaustion, I can’t promise my normal amount of humor so I’ll give you one quick joke in case I forget throughout the blog – What’s brown and sticky? A stick. Ok, moving on.
The Awakening most assuredly lived up to its name. My squad absolutely came alive. We blew people away at how much we’ve changed in 3 months. I was blown away. When I wrote my last blog I never could have expected how well it would turn out.
I can’t count how many times I turned around to see somebody stepping out of their comfort zone and into the person God wants them to be. People sang and danced making fools of themselves for Christ in the process. I had at least 5 different people air guitar with me throughout the week. And, yes I did make a point to air guitar nearly every night. People proclaimed life over others. People shed burdens and weights they had been carrying around that were not there’s to carry (myself included). People seized freedom. Ridiculous! (best said by Jacob Hoyer) is the only way to describe the week.
Personally, the Holy Spirit continues to show Himself to me in more and more ways. If I get the guts and strength up I may crank out another blog solely about that. I most assuredly can’t describe Him or process the things He’s done in me and the squad the last few days, but I do know it’s been ridiculous!
God’s confirmations were everywhere this week. At leader training 3 months ago, somebody told Aly they saw her leading us while carrying a white banner. One night Elle with no knowledge of that told her she saw her leading us carrying a white banner with the word freedom on it. She was confused as all the leaders just laughed until we explained the awesomeness of what she just said. Another girl on our squad, Anmari speaks up and says no way I drew a picture of someone carrying a white banner with freedom on it the other night at worship. Ridiculous!
Another night we were speaking encouragement over each other and I felt the Lord pushing me to speak over our two new team leaders Andrea and Nathan Boaldin. Well before I could get to that our squad leader Jacob said he felt like other people needed to speak and I couldn’t speak any more words. I was pissed. I just really wanted to speak over those two people and I never got to. Well, God I said if they’re supposed to get encouragement then it will have to come from someone else. Immediately Anmari speaks up and says Andrea I have a word for you. I chuckle to myself. Funny God, but it’d be even funnier if someone spoke over Nathan next. Don’t worry, as soon as Anmari was done Dan says Nathan Boaldin I have something for you. I laughed a lot. There’s 49 of us on our squad and people speak to those two right after I get stopped. That’s not a coincidence. That’s the Lord. And that’s Ridiculous!
Finally, here’s a song we discovered is our perfect squad theme song. It speaks perfectly to what all was spoken this week. Fire, strength, freedom and waving flags. Pretty ridiculously accurate.
