I had a completely different blog planned out, but GOD had
other plans. Sunday night we had village outreach. I don’t really like village
outreach, I had already said I would speak that night (Yeah, women giving
sermons is a little different for me, but this was my 5th or 6th
one so I’m getting used to it) and it was a 1 ½ hour drive to a village that
had never seen white people before so I was expecting to be worn out and in no
way excited to be there.
But GOD had other plans. I felt relaxed when we got there. I
didn’t sense anything bad and I wasn’t discouraged, even about speaking that
night. We sat outside and were given grapes and bananas (And yes, family, I now
eat and actually enjoy bananas). When we walked into the church, all the people
were smiling at us – enthralled, or possibly blinded, by our white skin.
We sat in front of the congregation, as always, while they
sang worship songs. We sang and clapped along with them, trying to look like we
were stoked that the speakers were currently blowing our eardrums to bits.
Then during a prayer I just started praying “GOD, I just
want YOU to show up here tonight. I want this place to be filled with the
SPIRIT and I want to see it. I just want YOU to surround this place with YOUR
glory and let our praises bring YOU joy.” I didn’t pray anything elaborate; I
just kept saying how I wanted GOD’s presence to reveal itself.
We started worshipping again and a woman started falling out
in the SPIRIT: Jumping around, clapping quickly and yelling praises to GOD.
Then she fell to the ground, still praising.
Don’t you love when GOD answers prayers so fast?
Not only that, but another women fell out in the SPIRIT too.
She had been singing with a microphone, dropped it and started jumping around,
yelling and clapping too.
Yeah, it was awesome.
Then I got up, gave my sermon on Identity in CHRIST and had
the congregation repeat some things after me that GOD says about them. It was
fun to have them interact back to me and I still hadn’t felt uneasy, even while
talking. Then Jesse gave his sermon on healing and faith, Pastor K recapped our
lessons then it was back to worshipping.
And older pastor grabbed some maracas and started dancing on
the stage while worshipping. He handed me the maracas and started clapping,
motioning for Nick to stand and join him. Soon enough the whole team and the
congregation were all standing, dancing and clapping.
overwhelming need to show these people how much JESUS loves them, so I was
hugging all the women. Indian women are the best people in the world to hug.
They’re not used to physical displays of affection so every time I hugged them
they would giggle and hug me back hard. I loved just feeling how JESUS felt
about these people and getting to be the tangible presence that showed them
that.
After praying over people, we were waiting for them to set
up dinner for us and were talking as a team (By the way, curd is the most
disgusting thing in the world). Saralyn had stayed back since she’s been sick
and she called Katie during service crying. Apparently some conversations had
happened that were stressing Saralyn out which was not helping her health.
So, we talked about praying for her when we got home and I
suggested that we needed to pray for her now.So Nick said “GOD, I just…you know
what, Lisa, I feel like you’ve got something so go for it.” I just started
speaking against demonic things that were attacking her and praying for her. I
have no idea what I even said, I just kept hearing Nick saying “Be bold” and
“Prophecy it.” At the end he said “Those were some prophetic words. That was
awesome.”
Katie told Saralyn about it on Monday and said “Lisa
prophecied over you last night and you weren’t even there. It was so cool.” I
told her I didn’t remember what I said, Katie answered “That’s because the HOLY
SPIRIT was speaking through you.” Nick has told me quite a few times that he
believes I have the gift of prophecy, and I claimed that. I’m glad that GOD is
using me in such awesome ways, even when I wasn’t really trying to be used.
So, GOD showed up big time on Sunday night, and I’m so
excited for what else HE will be doing through us while we’re here for the next
6 weeks.
I hope you’re all enjoying beef, pork and dairy products
since I can’t here. We leave for our debrief tomorrow (hopefully, assuming that
Saralyn is feeling up to it) and there’s rumors of American places to eat.
Stoked? You bet. T.G.I. Fridays – Here we come!
