England Part III – LONDON…need I say more?

OK, I’ll tell a little about our adventures in London and the surrounding areas. Good thing we were able to rest up in the midlands, because we hit the ground running in London on Friday and didn’t stop until we got on the plane Tuesday – and I loved every second!

As we arrive in London, we meet up with the police chief from one of the surrounding boroughs. Ok, you’re probably wondering why we’re meeting with the chief of police on a mission trip. Well, he happens to know and love Bethel and is connected with some of our leadership there and also wants God to rock his city; so what better way to do that than to release the Kingdom into crime scenes and those that respond to them first – the police department! So when I first heard that would be riding around in police cars and ministering in the streets of London, the first thought in my mind was me riding in a police car, us picking up a gang member and me wondering how in the world to tell a gang member sitting behind me in a police car about Jesus…awkward. It was so much better than I imagined; thank God He’s good and makes things more fun than we imagine them!

First, we go foot patrolling with a couple of officers; we really weren’t sure our boundaries in ministry during this time, or if the officers were even Christians, so we basically just loved and honored the officers as they shared the details of their daily patrols – the areas they regularly patrolled, the main crimes committed, high crime areas/times, etc. It was amazing to release God’s love into the atmosphere as they showed us around their turf and shared their lives with us! Later that evening we had the opportunity to go on first responder calls in the police vehicles…SO MUCH FUN! We paired up and joined two officers. Again, really having no idea what our boundaries were here, we ended up just sharing life with these officers and honoring/thanking them for their service and showing them the love of Jesus. So within the first five minutes of getting in the car there’s a call on the radio that a shoplifter is being held at a store; the lights go on, the sirens start screaming and we tear through the crowded streets of London…in a van. Oh yes, we were in a police van. Let’s paint a little picture – officers in front, Jay and I in the back; now the back seats were facing the back of the van…where the cage was. So first of all, we’re facing the back without a back window, which isn’t really good for someone who gets car sick easily. Second, we’re facing the cage, which means if someone gets arrested we get to stare at them all the way back to the police dept. This just gets better and better. Ok, so we’re tearing through the streets of London; I shriek with excitement and start laughing. I’m sure the officers are wondering why I think this is so fun. Anyway, by the time we get to the store I’m really car sick (and it stuck with me for the next two hours of patrolling), so I’m thankful that we got to get out and go in the store with the officers. The officers get the shoplifter, put him in the cage, and thankfully one of the officers switched places with me just to make sure the guy didn’t cause any trouble – I was grateful for the front seat and a view of the road! Long story short, the rest of the night we get to honor the officers we’re with as they share concerns, crimes, and things that affect them (make their job harder) like riots and protests. We get to stop by an abortion protest and release life and love into the atmosphere; we get to book a drunken homeless guy, stare awkwardly at him on the way to the station and try to get him to talk, and although to no avail, we get to pray with him before he’s booked for the night. All around, I’d say it was a good night!

Next - on to Maidenhead. Saturday, I had to walk through the streets of London and make my way to the tube, AKA the subway. At first I was going to do this by myself, but luckily my host dad walked with me and carried my luggage. I was super grateful because that was a heavy duffel bag! Anyway, first experience on the tube was good, aside from almost falling over when it came to a stop. Then we split into a couple of student-led teams and parted ways again. My group had the super awesome opportunity to go to Windsor and see the Queen’s crib. She was at home too, but sadly we didn’t see her out walking the dog or anything. The castle was so extraordinary and the detail was astounding. Words can’t describe it; even the pictures don’t do it justice. We had an amazing tour inside the castle walls! Sadly we couldn’t take pictures inside due to preserving the antiques. Guess you’ll just have to visit some day. After viewing the castle we’re kind of standing around outside getting our plans together, and one of our hosts looks at me and says, “There’s a very famous person behind you.” Thinking it was probably a British actor that I didn’t know, I turn around, and it’s Simon Cowell! Too shocked and trying to get my camera out, I look back and think, “I should have shouted a prophetic word to him!” Now that would have been awesome! Anyway, that was just a little treat on our already amazing trip.

 

After our castle tour we get to minister at a couple of different churches. That night we ministered to a church in Maidenhead, with most of the people there being students of “Big Year” (I think that’s the name), which is a school of supernatural ministry similar to Bethel, but on a smaller scale. Needless to say that was an amazing night. And then Sunday morning, I went with a team to Slough and ministered there as well. I just want to summarize a couple of cool things during our ministry time. I’ve felt like one of my breakthroughs and best part of this trip was being able to step out and move in the prophetic. After a little practice in the first two part of our trip, I’m feeling pretty safe and bold by this point. So I just start challenging myself and trying something different. I usually get pictures in my mind or impressions of what God wants to say to people. Sometimes I feel like I’m making these words up because I say the first thing that pops into my head, but the best part about it is they were always right – God uses inspired thought more than we think, so quit second guessing yourself! Anyway, Saturday night, I get up to say something, and a wave of the Holy Spirit comes over me.  It was like nothing I’ve ever felt before; it was super strong and I felt like I was going to fall over and I just started laughing. After a couple of minutes I gained my composure. Side note: before I stood up to speak, I felt like a girl had been highlighted to me, so I asked the Lord to highlight something about her. I felt like her watch stood out to me. OK, so I've gained my composure enough to speak now. So I prophesied over the girl that was highlighted to me based on her watch and it totally lined up! How crazy is that!? And that’s not even the best part. I led worship that night and had several people tell me I needed to meet their worship leader, who was young, yet amazing.  I had heard tons of things about her before we even got to church that night. Well the girl I prophesied over was the worship leader! So that was amazing that I could release God’s word over her and also bless her with any anointing I carry concerning worship. Needless to say, that was a great night! The next day of ministry was similar. Small group in a school gym, worship, speaking, and then ministry time. Being bold again, I had a few items that my host mom gave me from her “prophetic box” - items that you’d get from a store like the Dollar Tree. Anyway, I had three items – a little clock, a James Bond figurine car (an Astin Martin), and a water bottle. As I held them, I felt like God highlighted three people to me, so I went up to the first person having no idea what I’m about to say. So I start to talk and at first I’m thinking, “This is so off, this doesn’t make any sense to this woman,” but after a minute I see a tear run down her cheek, and I’m like, “YES! God totally does speak to me and is speaking through this cheap little clock!” Isn’t He good!?! Anyway, I go to the other two people and just speak what I feel, and then my other two team members kind of feed of that and release God’s word over these people as well and it was amazing! Aside from stepping out in the prophetic, my favorite part about this trip was that our team really worked as a team! We honored God’s gift in each other, fed off of each other’s strengths and moved in each others weaknesses. SO GOOD!!!

This was pretty much the highlight of my trip. We had one more night of ministry Sunday night, and then “London Fun Day” on Monday before we left on Tuesday. Amazing times of ministry, seeing God move, seeing myself step out in His grace, seeing people healed and set free, with a little bit of shopping and sight-seeing. Now THAT’S  a good trip!

England Part II – The Midlands

Yummy gift from my  Leicester host family

 

When we got to the midlands, we split into two teams of about 17; I had the great and unique opportunity to go to Leicester (pronounced “Lester”).  This portion of the trip was a little different than the rest for us.  The first day we get there we’re all still a bit jet lagged, and personally, I was adjusting to being released into ministry to the capacity that we were – it takes a lot out of you. On top of that, a lot of our team starts getting sick at this point. So we get to Leicester, meet their leadership team, have lunch, and then…we end up spending about three hours with their leadership. Normally on a mission trip it’s the mission team that does the ministering, but God totally set Leicester up to be a time of refreshing for us. The All Nations Centre leadership totally poured into us, allowed us to ask them questions, prayed over us, and brought the presence of God for us to just rest and be refreshed in for about three hours. It was such an amazing time for our team and gave us a supernatural boost for the rest of the trip.

Later that evening we were suppose to meet up with the worship team…that’s all the information that we had; we had no idea what that looked like. Anyway, after dinner we get the opportunity to meet all the amazing worship leaders, musicians, dancers, and sound people; and to start off, their great worship overseer, Dave, wants us to play a game. Even though I'm not a huge fan of ice breakers, this ended up being the BEST idea ever! This isn’t your normal board game or even church game. To begin, Dave tells his team that one of us are from Georgia (of course, I’m the only one), and they have to ask God for a word of knowledge on which one of us it is. Oooo, this is going to be fun! And this was totally a safe environment to practice words of knowledge, because it didn’t matter if they failed and got it wrong; what mattered was that they took a risk. Anyway, several guesses later, Dave pulls me into the middle of the circle since no one got the word of knowledge right. I thought I was just standing up to show them who the team member from Georgia was, but Dave had something else in mind. Now it was my turn – I had to ask God for a word of knowledge about who on their team played guitar. There were several that did, and I had to ask God for three of them.  I had a feeling about a couple of them, but then you know how you start looking at people and judging them by their appearance (don't lie, you all do it), so you second guess your instinct? So I pointed to the first guy…WRONG. Ok, that wasn’t so bad; I failed and I’m ok, feeling safe and loved still. Good practice. Then I point to the next three people and get them all right! Yep, we hear God’s voice even when we’re unsure. Next, Dave pulls a couple from his team up, and they have to sing a prophetic song over me – OH YES! Can this get any better!? We continue this way until everyone from both teams has stepped out in some way and has ministered to each other. It was an amazing time of risk-taking and refreshing that was followed by some free-flow worship time.  

Just a little piece of Leicester

The next day we had the opportunity to pour into the boarding school across the street from the church. The children’s pastors at ANC (All Nations Centre) have been building a great relationship with the staff and leaders of the school and God has given them some crazy opportunities to show them His goodness. The school teaches children about all religions and because Easter was coming up, the children came over to the church while we put on an Easter play…kind of. The children’s pastor, Ian, actually just read the Easter story of Jesus riding through the town on the donkey, the betrayal, His death, and resurrection. And our team kind of acted it out on the spot; it was pretty terrible acting since we didn’t have much time to plan, but it was fun and the kids laughed. Afterwards we gave the kids the opportunity to wave flags around the church like the people waved palm branches over Jesus when they shouted “Hosanna!” The kids loved it! They were running all over the place waving flags. So after explaining a bit about that and worshiping Jesus, we headed upstairs to have yummy hot cross buns and hang out with the kids. I got to sit at a table with some 3^rd/4^th grade kids and answer any questions they had about the play. I had some of the most amazing, inquisitive and hilarious kids at my table – plus their accents just make it even more awesome! Later, the kids went back to school to do research on Easter and look up some of the questions they asked that our team didn’t answer. I was able to go into one of the classes and help them research – SO FUN! We got to share Jesus with these kids and their teachers – God is so good!

A piece of history

The last day in Leicester was pretty laid back for us, as was most of our time here. We were able to meet with a group of leaders from the region that get together every so often to share what God’s doing in their churches, cities, and regions. These leaders dwell in true community as they are accountable to each other and encourage one another in all God’s doing. It was a blessing for our team to take part in this; at the end of the meeting we were able to pour into these regional leaders as we sang over them, prophesied over them, and prayed for them. God’s presence was surrounding us and bringing refreshing to the leaders of the midlands! Of course, afterwards our team gathered in the middle and the Leicester team blessed us and sent us out again – on to LONDON!!!

England Part I – The North

I think the best way for me to break this down is to write about the different sections of our mission trip…to ENGLAND! Aaaahhhhh! Yes, it was amazing for all of you who are wondering.

We leave Redding at 10 a.m. with a three and a half hour drive to San Fran, and after a 10-hour flight we arrive in London! By this time I’m running on pretty much no sleep…I mean, who actually sleeps on a plane, especially when you’re in a middle seat? We get to London around 11 a.m. and probably all starving since plane food is…well plane food, yet all that fades away as we get a gigantic welcome (literally) into the Heathrow airport!

Next, we load up into some mini buses that are fully equipped with cell phones, English chocolate, and bottled water by some of our amazing hosts, Richard and Jean, and head to the north. Props to all of our amazing team drivers who sat on the right side of the vehicle, driving stick-shifts on the left side of the road! Once we get to the north, our team of 35 splits into four or five smaller teams to bless and minister to different towns in the area. I had the privilege of going to Dewsbury and staying with the amazing Nundy family, who are also the pastors of the church where my group ministered.

We get in late Saturday night, and of course, upon arrival to our host homes are offered tea. Who drinks tea right before bed? The Britts. Which is actually something I love about their culture, I just can’t take part in it or I’ll never sleep with all that caffeine.  After a little bit of quality time with the Nundy’s we’re off to bed – basically passing out – before service in the a.m. Of course, Sunday morning comes way earlier than it needed to, especially since the time changed that night and sprung forward an hour. Don’t you just love mission trips?! Anyway, service begins, and you can feel the warmth of family and community in the atmosphere. We have a great time of worship co-led by one of our leaders and one of theirs and then…ministry time begins. Oh crap. I’ve never actually done this; I have nothing to give right now – no word of knowledge, no prophetic word, etc – yet for some reason I’m not nervous or anxious at all. Weird. Anyway, Ian (the pastor) gets up and feels a grace for healing at that moment, so we come up to give words of knowledge for healing, and I’m not really sure if Holy Spirit is speaking to me, so I just say the first thing that comes to mind – neck or spine issues. And what do you know, a guy raises his hand. I was calm outside, but inside, I was thinking “That’s right, you go Holy Spirit!” After a few words we prayed for these people, and the rest of the service carried on. We were able to pray with anyone who wanted it at the end of the service, and even though I didn’t see any great healings/miracles, I know God was moving and I could totally see His presence refreshing people through our ministry. He’s so good!

After a great service, we had a wonderful time of fellowship with the rest of our team and their host families before getting ready for a regional meeting that night…I think it was that night. Anyway, several churches from the surrounding areas gathered together (all the churches that the rest of our team had split up to) and our whole team, all 35 of us, were able to minister together and release God’s presence into the room and lives of those there. To start off, we created a fire tunnel at the entrance. It was pretty funny, because those who knew what it was would take their time walking through, and those who didn’t know what it was…well you could tell they were a little freaked out and tried to run through without being touched, but by the end of the service we created two fire tunnels and a lot more people were willingly walking through and being refreshed. For anyone who doesn’t know what a fire tunnel is – basically we make a line, and then some others make another line facing us, creating a tunnel between the two lines. Then people walk through us and we pray for them, lay hands on them, and release all that God has given us to bless and refresh those that are walking through. Quite a sight if you’ve never seen one! That night we saw several healings and tons of people encounter the presence of God. We were exhausted, but it was totally worth it!

Monday rolls around, still didn’t get enough sleep, but this is a fun/site seeing day for us. We get to go to Smith Wigglesworth grave, who (I’ll sadly admit) I didn’t even know about before coming to Bethel. I really need to take it up a notch with my revival history. We also got to see the building where he used to minister, which oddly is surrounded by a Muslim (I think) community now. After a bit of driving around we stop by  Old White Beare, which is a pub that is partially built with the original timbers of the English Royal Navy ship, White Beare (from the 1500s). Anyway, we get some amazing, traditional English food while at the pub; my choice: a savory steak pie with potatoes. I mean, where can you go wrong with bread, meat and gravy, and potatoes? I don’t think you can. After filling myself to the max with my savory pie, I order a yummy cherry bakewell tart – mmmmmm!

 

To end our history tour day, we had a leadership meeting where we blessed the leadership team of the church, which was amazing, because when we first got there our initial insight was that we were there to bring refreshing, and God is so good that He orchestrated it all beforehand for us to do that. We had a great time of worship, prophecy, and teaching, and then were blessed by the leadership team as they sent us off to our next destination – the midlands.

It's Because He Loves Me

Obviously, it’s been a while, but let’s just say I’m an amazing and consistent blogger acting like an inconsistent one. So what can I say except, “God is good!!” Here’s just a little bit of what I know…

First, a tid bit from last week – I’m pretty sure it was Mario Murillo that spoke on this. He was saying that it would be easier – and I’m sure any parent would agree – for him to give up his own life for his son. Anyone would take the place of their children, especially if they only have one child. But God did the opposite, which had to be WAY harder; He GAVE UP His only Son for us. Now don’t you think a God who would GIVE His only Son for the purpose of providing a way for salvation/redemption also provide for our basic needs?! COME ON! Of course He will! Why do we worry so much about our basic needs? We have THE greatest Provider EVER – so knock it off with the worrying. 

I don’t remember who told this story a few Sundays ago, and I’m sure I’ll get some details wrong, but basically there was a woman who was a hoarder, and someone told her that “God is in a good mood.” From that point forward she stopped hoarding, because she thought, “If God is in a good mood, then He’ll always take care of me and provide for me.” HA, how awesome is that?! A woman instantaneously set free from hoarding (from fear of lack) because she found out that God is in a good mood!

Now on to why God loves me…well, of course just because He’s good. And He doesn’t love me because of who I am or what I do; He loves me because of WHO HE IS. It’s His nature; He can’t help it.  So I came back from Christmas break a little down and out – I missed home, didn’t want to come back to school, and was really ready to pack up and head back to GA. Of course, I wouldn't pack up and leave simply for the sake of finishing out the school year. But I know I’m here for a reason, and I want to enjoy the process, because what’s the point of doing something or staying somewhere simply because "it's the right thing to do?" Holy Spirit’s always speaking/teaching and I want in on that! I want more than "doing the right thing!" I want expectation rising up inside!

So I say, “OK God. I’m here. I need help with my attitude. What do I need to do?”

Well, first of all, I needed to stay connected with people. We were never created to be independent – even the Trinity is INTERdependent; why in the world would we think God created us any differently? We were made in HIS image. So I’m realizing we were created to be interdependent on God and others. No, not lazy and insufficient, but we have others in our lives to share with, to laugh and cry with, to kick us in the butt when we need it and to lift us up when we’re down. They often see things we don’t and God has placed them there to speak into our lives and be a covering over our lives so we can be the complete and whole "us" we were created to be. So I’m working on letting others in and receiving what they have to give. So the Lord's first step in breaking off the sadness - give me an attitude check and reveal my need for interdependence. Check. 

It's because He loves me.

NEXT ON THE LIST…well, aside from being homesick and wanting to run away from our crazy and intense school schedule, I’ve been a little disappointed that I haven’t seen Kim Walker-Smith yet. She was the first connection I had to Bethel and has totally been an inspiration to me in worship (generally and musically) and has radically helped me be the worshiper I am simply by her example. At this point, she was the ONLY person I haven’t heard lead worship yet; anyway, I get to church on a Sunday night where worship by Jeremy Riddle was great and the Lord totally provided some breakthrough from the giant wall I felt was in front of me; then Bill announces we have a surprise speaker – It’s KIM! It wasn’t worship, but I was just as excited to hear her speak, and it probably rocked me just as much as anything else would have. Her story was exactly where I’m at right now in life as she shared her experience as a first year student at Bethel. It was SUPER encouraging for me, and I left knowing that night was totally for me. It’s because He loves me!

THEN, fast forward a few weeks; I signed up to help out with the Jesus Culture conference here in Redding. They had two locations – Bethel and the Convention Center. I signed up to volunteer at Bethel just because I like the “homey” size and feel over the Convention Center. I figured the main Jesus Culture band would be at the CC, but knew I would enjoy whatever was planned for Bethel. So I heard that Banning was speaking at Bethel that night, which is always awesome, and that the Torwalts were doing worship, which is awesome as well.  As a volunteer you never know what you’re really getting into or if you’ll even be near any of the “action” so to speak. So let me just tell you how much God loves me…that night, I got to love on people that came from all over the U.S. (probably the world too) to the conference, and I was assigned to a position in the sanctuary at the back of the room with a full view; by this point, I’m in a good mood and happy as it is. Then, I’m getting ready for worship, and what do I see…the Torwalts? Oh no, it’s the actual Jesus Culture band!!! Holy…Spirit! You are awesome! Chris and Kim come out and my heart is so ridiculously full I can’t contain it! Worship with Kim and Chris, speaking by Banning...does it get any better? I’m glad you asked…because it totally does! The crowd cleared out pretty fast after the conference, and my friend and I are going to get our stuff before leaving, but we have to go back through the sanctuary to get out…and O.M.G. Kim and Chris are taking pics with a few people that are still there, so I jump in with both of them and get pictures! My trip to Bethel is complete…

It’s because He loves me! 

Well, in my mind the trip is complete, but I’m sure God still has a few things up His sleeve…I’m going to England in less than a month for crying out loud! You know that’s going to be good!

All that to say, “He loves me.” Why? Because He’s good. It’s who He is.