After dinner we had a time of worship. My Irish friend Aaron and I led it together. I have to say that I have loved getting to know this guy over the past week and a half and just hearing his heart has been incredible. He’s 19 and if I had another younger brother who just happened to be Irish, it would probably be him. We connected really well initially over the whole music thing, seeing as we’re both musicians and leading worship together only added to that. We always joke around that we get along so well cause it’s the whole Irish/Canadian/UK connection. Its great. But I’ll come back to him in a bit.
I was really nervous about leading worship but God definitely showed up and it ended up being a really powerful time. I kept waiting for Brian or Stacy, two of our squad leaders, to come and take some leadership over the evening, but they didn’t! I realized that I had to be the one to step up. Several of the other teams have had powerful worship times where there have been physical healings and all sorts. I felt a bit of pressure to also usher that in. Even though it has nothing to do with me and nobody was putting pressure on me, I just felt like I had a lot to live up to. I was nervous to ask if anyone needed prayer for anything because what if God didn’t show up and do any of that? But I decided that I’d rather ask and have nobody respond, than not ask and miss out on an opportunity for God to show up. I don’t want to stand before God one day and tell him I was too afraid to allow him to move.
So I asked…and nobody responded. After a bit of an awkward silence, I quickly used my cell leader training from back home and got everyone to get into groups of 3-5 to share prayer requests and pray over each other. I knew there was stuff going on that people just weren’t sharing and maybe it’s a bit hard in a big group to talk about those things. Solution: Small groups.
I turned to Aaron (I’ve gotten his permission to share this story) and asked him how he was doing and he said he felt like he was
about to cry but he just couldn’t. I asked him why and he said it was because he just felt the presence of God and it was moving him. He’s had a hard life growing up and his mom was an alcoholic and he didn’t have much of a relationship with her. He’s lived with his aunt most of his life. His mother passed away last October and he hasn’t been able to cry since then. Its been almost a year and no matter how hard he tries, he just can’t cry. Something just gets in the way. He wants to, but he can’t. So I asked if I could pray for him and he said yes. As I prayed I opened my eyes and saw a droplet on the floor and him wiping his eyes. When I finished he was smiling at me and told me that he had finally cried. “Two tears!” he said. He was really excited about it and said that he knows there’s more to come, but this just necessarily isn’t the right time or setting for that. I totally get that so I was pumped about it. I felt really blessed and honored that he trusted me enough to be open and cry in front of me. I’m really big on firsts, so to be around for his first two tears in a year was huge for me.
Here’s a photo of our team with Aaron. He made us Banoffee! It’s our favorite Irish dessert. I had the privilege of going shopping with him to find all the ingredients. I’ve never gone shopping so fast in my life and it was really fun. Did I mention it was his first time ever making it? It must have been good cause we’re all smiles! =D Thanks Aaron!
