The story picks up Month 1 of the Race.
<To see 'what story' you are picking up from, see http://christinadombrowsky.theworldrace.org/?filename=holy-spirit-aint-playin-part-2 >
Exhibit A:
We’re in Honduras as a Squad (all 57 of us) and I’ve already noticed that some of us are ‘Crazy Spirit People’ and some of us aren’t…yet. These Crazy Spirit People share things with the group that they’ve heard and seen from the Lord (either ‘words’ or ‘visions’), they mumble in ‘tongues’ during worship sometimes, and then one night- they started giggling.
I was NOT sure what to make of it, but during worship (guitar playing and singing praising God), a few people just started CRACKING up giggling. And then I saw that it was contagious. But this wasn’t just ‘somebody farted’ giggles- these were uncontainable, ridiculous, blissful giggles that seemed to be passing from person to person.
The only thing I can compare it to are drug-induced giggle highs (or so I’ve heard, haha)
but these giggles weren’t from smokin’ a joint or huffing laughing gas
–these people were ‘drunk on the Spirit’!
So strange. Like nothing I’d ever seen before.
But how fun, right?
I’m never one to willingly pass up fun –I wanted it, too!
Kind of.
So tentatively, I went over and touched my teammate Mary who had been giggling for a few min (not a whole 20 or 30 minutes like some of these Crazies), and as I laid a hand on her shoulder,
I felt my heart rate increase and a shoot of blissful warm energy shoot down my arm.
Nervously.
I didn’t succumb to this strange feeling…but I felt it!
How weird!
Still, in Honduras (Month 1) …
Exhibit B:
I visit this local church service for youth with some of my new Honduran friends. Not many World Racers wanted to join me, because the sermon was in Spanish. The first week I visit I was surprised how the service ended. It carried on like a ‘regular’ church service, but then at the end it got super ‘intense’ with lots of dancing, loud singing, and yelling about letting the “fire of the Holy Spirit rain down”.
The second week I visited the same church, I brought a couple of non-Spanish speaking World Racers with me and I translated the sermon for them. Then at the end, I told my friend Lynsey sitting next to me to brace herself, because it was about to get ‘intense’. I figured it was a fair warning- I wished someone would’ve warned me the week before! I said to her, “You hear those words that the Pastor are saying that don’t sound like Spanish? Yea- they’re not. He’s speaking in tongues!”
And then, I’ll never forget what I said to her next:
I think God wants me to get used to this weird Spirit stuff.
It’s like it’s following me around everywhere I go!
But I think I’m finally getting used to it.”
And then I heard the Pastor yell,
And sure enough she started flailing and convulsing even more violently
-and then she threw up–
and then she was still.
Breathing hard, but completely still.
People proceeded to pray for her quietly,
I heard praises go up thanking Jesus,
the Pastor wiped the sweat from his brow and went back to singing and dancing around in the front.
As if nothing strange had just happened.
All I could think was:
Hah!
God, you have SOME sense of humor, don’t ya?!”
Strangely, I wasn’t scared.
I guess I was almost proud that God thought I was ready to witness such things.
I found myself almost braggin’ about it back at the camp to my other squadmates,
“Yea- you think the giggles are creepy?
You shoulda’ seen the girl down the street get a demon cast out of her!”
This is my life.
Lol.
I was still trying to tap into this ‘more’ that I kept hearing about.
One of our old squad leaders told me,
And then someone else said,
LOL
We were together as a squad, and I was praying asking God to ‘give me something’ to encourage someone with. My gaze fell on Eddie- the one guy I actually know from home, he goes to my church Christ Fellowship in West Palm Beach.
‘What do You want to tell him?’
And as I waited for a response, lots of things started to come to mind; so many things that I wanted to write them all down. But instead I went over to Eddie and told him what I thought God wanted him to hear. When I finished telling him, he gave me a hug and said ‘Thanks!’ and then we went back to the music.
I said,
“So I think there was one more thing I needed to tell you- well, that God wanted to tell you”
and then I told him.
He stopped pouring the coffee and his eyes welled up with tears,
he told me.
And THAT,
that ‘right on point’ look in his eye,
was exactly what
I really needed to see.
I needed that ‘confirmation’ that what’d heard in my head wasn’t my own-
that it was from God.
And it was.
To Be Continued…
