And with it go many amazing things.
This year, in my opinion, was the best year yet!
Robbie Dawkins was the guest speaker.
His teachings were profound and inspiring.
You can learn more about him HERE.
We watched a documentary called "Furious Love",
And it really rocked my world.
Here's a preview....
This year we focused ALOT more on prayer during outreach,
And did some street ministry.
I had my first experience with being used to help heal people,
From physical illness & injury.
I can't even explain at what magnitude God moved.
The worship was incredible
& prayer ministry time was even better.
There were people delivered from demonic forces,
And kids accepting Jesus.
It was ridiculous.
Ironically enough, the theme this year was Ridiculous Love. :]
There was no sleep to be had, therefore as leaders, had to rely on God to even function.
It was awesome! I'll break down the days a bit. Just to let you know, when I talk about outreaches, I'm talking about the ones just the team I was leading went on (The Fat Penguins). There were a multitude of other outreaches.
Saturday:
For an outreach, we helped a woman who had fibromyalgia.
Don't know what that is? Click the word to find out more.
We cleaned up her yard, by weeding, cleaning windows & trimming brush.
As a team, I helped teach prayer ministry.
The kids did some exercises and really rocked it.
They got words for each other & really got to know a bit more of Jesus character.
& then got the opportunity to pray for the woman & her friend.
It was great. We also went to the mall in Waterloo & pray for people. :]
Sunday:
We went to church as a group, then got the opportunity to go out on another outreach.
This day, we went on a "prayer walk" with another church.
We walked around Waterloo, and prayed for people & just talked with them.
The kids got an opportunity to pray for each other, and we saw one of them healed of back pain.
It was awesome!
Monday:
We went to local businesses in Waterloo and cleaned toilets.
We were on a REALLY tight time constraint, so we only got to do one,
But we got to pray with the woman and hear a bit of her story.
This was adventure day. For my adventure, I chose a v0ideo scavenger hunt.
It turned out to be SO much more. God showed up,
Showing all of us just how powerful he was.
We thought we'd start doing a random thing, a freestyle.
We went to Little Cesars Pizza and asked if we could go outside and dance with their sign.
They let us, and it was a total blast.
We decided to get the hardest thing on the list out of the way.
Get on the radio and say the word "Christian" in a positive manner.
So we went to the KNWS studios (Life 101.9), and thought we'd give it a try.
At to most we figured they'd tell us to go & call in later.
BUT, they absolutely let us do it, and even let us all pray for them.
After that, we went downtown Cedar Falls, to ask some questions.
We were set out to ask about what people REALLY thought of Christians.
Expecting to find people who would at least bash Christians,
But, no one agreed to be filmed.
We were all a little discouraged to say the least.
We got to the 15 passenger van, and it would start.
We tried 3 times with 2 different people.
We then prayed over the van & tried again.
No dice. So, we decided to make it a "freestyle" for the game.
As soon as Sam, a girl from the team, turned on the camera it started.
There was serious celebration happening at that point.
So, we decided to go to Chuck E. Cheese to get another thing done,
Sing I'm a little tea pot with motions. Extra points if you could get an employee in on it.
We got there and they told us they were too busy cleaning.
So, by suggestion of my friend Laura, we went to a nail salon, to do another freestyle.
Which irritated me, for some reason, I just really doubted anything would work.
We got there, and decided to have the only guy in the group to paint his pinkie pink.
They agreed to it, then offered to do the rest of them for free.
So they did, and they let us pray over them. We ended up leaving some money with them,
Just to bless their business.
After that, we went to Dollar Tree & got party hats.
As we were walking out, we saw a woman who had been cooking for S.O.S.
Which means food for 250 people. So we prayed with her. :]
We went to a Amigos Mexican Restaurant & went to do the 'teapot' mission.
We accomplished it, along with getting some fried ice cream.
Laura and another couple kids went to start the van, while we paid.
We went out to find Laura's mom outside & an non-starting van.
Laura later explained that her mom just happened to be with her sister at the chiropractor.
Which was in the same building.
Just as Jesus would do crazy things with spit,
Kim (Laura's mom) poured soda on the battery,
And the van started.
It was crazy.
To end it, everyone jumped in a swimming pool fully clothed.
That night was an incredible ministry time, with kids getting healed form demons.
I got to be a part of a couple of people who helped heal a girls knee.
She had been in a brace for months & was missing on her summer.
It was incredible.
Tuesday:
Everyone was EXHAUSTED!
That morning, the entire conference was informed
That some dear friends of mind, who are having their first baby,
Hadn't felt the baby move in a couple days.
So we all prayed for them,
The pastor from that towns daughter got a text from her mom,
Saying they found the heartbeat. But, they were going to keep the dr. appt.
We went to the fire station in Cedar Falls, and dropped off a care basket for the fire fighters.
We got the opportunity to pray for them. One of the guys was extremely grateful,
For the support of other believers.
We got back & prepared to go to Lost Island Water Park in Waterloo.
At that point everyone was informed the baby was perfectly healthy!!!
We went to the water park & played.
There was a young lady there who had had back pain for a while,
So yet again we prayed & God showed up.
He healed her completely.
The worship was off the wall that night too.
Everyone ended up on stage.
God is SO good when we choose to listen to what He's saying.
I all too often forget that.
Jesus loves you
(& so do I!)
No matter where you are, have been, or will go.
♥
PS- As most of you know, I had a thing about people touching my collar bone.
One of the students at SOS suggested I get it prayed for. Which I did.
I don't have a thing with people touching my collar bone anymore. :D :D :D
Just sayin.
