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.

Christingle

Christingle? How do you pronounce that? 

“Chris Tingle” is what it would look like with correct pronunciation, and it means “Christ Light.” I was able to participate in my first Christingle tonight at an amazing outreach opportunity. Feeling like I needed to “cross the chicken line” as my activation overseer, Teresa Deadmon, says, I decided to sign up to help with a local church plant outreach in Red Bluff.

I’ve mentioned before that my activation (weekly outreach) is prophetic arts, where we draw, paint, write, sing, dance, etc to call out the “gold or treasure” in others and release God’s destiny over them. WELL…I was able to really reach out today and cross the chicken line in that area!   

So I’m feeling pretty good on the 30-minute drive to Red Bluff; we park, get the art stuff out, and walk to the town square-ish area where the outreach is taking place, and as we figure out what everyone will be doing – balloon animals, face paint, drawing, writing – the freak-out begins.   I’m thinking, “I can’t make balloon animals…aside from a dog or fish; I’m not an artist; I like to sing, but not without music; I like to write, but I can’t write poetry over someone; oh Lord, what was I thinking!? Even more so, what were YOU thinking, Lord, giving me the idea to sign up for this thing?!” Yes, all this in a matter of like one second ran through my mind. Since my specific group area is normally “healing art” I grabbed a board, paper, color pencils and set out to figure out what in the world I was thinking when I signed up for this thing. Luckily, some of my amazing friends from my revival group were already there and let me practice on them first! After seeing my drawings for them line up with other words they’ve received from others, I had enough encouragement to move on to people I didn’t know. There were leaders from the church plant there, members from Bethel,  and people from the community, many who are homeless and in need of a little light, life, love and an encouraging word, which came from me in the form of a kid-looking piece of art.

So my friend Lori started talking to one of the ladies that was sitting close to us; she introduced me and asked the lady if I could draw a picture for her. A little awkward at first, but I explained that our team draws pictures for people to encourage them and that I was definitely no artist, but would love to draw a picture for her. She okayed it and I began – not sure if I was really “hearing from God.” You know how you always question yourself, wondering why God would actually speak through you or to you. After I finished drawing, I wrote on the back what I felt God wanted to speak to her, and as I shared with her what it meant I could tell it ministered to her; both she, and the next girl I drew pictures for began to get a little emotional – by the way, my pictures are so child-like and simple as well as the message behind them; very brief and to the point - so, I know Holy Spirit was using the pictures/words to reveal to these women that they’re more than what they believe themselves to be. Why else would they be impacted by a simple drawing from a 25-yr old that looks like a 7-yr old drew it? That can only be God!

There were a few people in between that I was able to minister to, but I want to skip to the last one. So my friend Tracey, who works with the church plant in Red Bluff for her weekly activation wanted me to draw a picture for “her friend” in the coffee shop around the corner; I assumed this was someone she had built a relationship with over the last few weeks of her activation and that she would give them the drawing later…um, that’s not what Tracey had in mind. So after I draw the picture, Tracey invites me to walk around the corner and give the drawing to the girl working in the coffee shop, and since she told the leader of my group at the outreach, I had double "encouragement" to go now. So we walk to the shop and I explain to the girl what the picture is and its meaning; you could tell it meant something to her and she said that it’s just what she needed that day! Overall, I was able to draw pictures and speak God’s life into eight people – yay God!

SO, not only did I cross the chicken line, which is breakthrough enough in itself, but I was also able to release God’s destiny and encouragement into people who needed it! Soooo good! Ok, now you’re probably wondering what Christingle is, right? Well the pastor of the church plant did a brief message at the end of the outreach, and Christingle is the way he presented it.  Everyone in the square was given an orange, which represents the world. Stuck in the orange were four toothpicks with varied candies on them, which represent the four corners of the world and the sweetness/goodness of Jesus. Next, is the candle in the middle, which represents the light of Jesus in the world. As everyone received an orange, the pastor shared the story of Jesus and everyone’s candle was lit. And as people were prayed for and ministered to, we were able to share the goodness and light of Jesus to those in the community! Oh yeah, that’s a good day!

I'm here because...

I’m here because, in January, the Lord revealed to me that I’m to look at people, and instead of automatically seeing how they appear on the outside, I’m to see the destiny, gifts, and abilities God has released into them since Creation. I felt like Bethel was the place for me to learn that, and the application/interview process for coming here was so supernaturally fast, I knew without a doubt this is where God wanted me to be. I’ve come to find out that what God revealed to me in January is REALLY prevalent here and a huge focus for Bethel; they call it “calling out the gold” in others. Have you ever thought of that? That everyone has “gold” or “treasure” in them?

I think it’s almost funny that “calling out the gold” in others is what God is calling me to do, because I use to be so critical and judgmental of others – friends, family, strangers – which is why prophetic week (um, this was actually several weeks ago…I’ve just been slack on my writing) totally rocked me! So, I just want to share some things that really stood out to me and brought insight concerning prophecy for us that are living under the New Covenant through Jesus Christ. By the way, this doesn’t cover half of what was taught during prophetic week – there was SO much to learn, but these are a few tidbits of info for now.

(Most of this comes straight from my notes, so its mainly Kris Vallaton’s awesome revelation received over the years…not mine)

I think many people get confused over God’s character,  because we see so much battle and killing in the Old Testament, and then Jesus totally throws everyone for a loop with His new message of love and forgiveness in the New Testament. Here’s how it was explained to us, which makes sense: under the Old Covenant, love for God was measured by your hatred toward those who hated God (hating all unrighteousness), because God is a God of justice, but under the New Covenant Jesus tells us to love and pray for those who persecute us; Jesus became the justice through His perfect life, death, and resurrection, so that we could receive mercy. Now our mandate is to love everybody, which in turn changes New Testament prophecy. It’s not about condemning, but about seeing through the “dirt” in people’s lives to the treasure God has put in them; anyone can see dirt, but it takes more to dig through it to find the treasure.

We don’t get into Heaven through our own works, we get in through Jesus’ works – by His grace. I feel like Kris explained the difference between grace and mercy perfectly:

• Mercy – you get pulled over and don’t get a ticket
• Grace – you get pulled over and get $1000 (you get something you didn’t deserve)

It’s by GRACE through faith; it’s funny – we get into Heaven through Jesus works and then we want others to get in on their own; well, this was my thinking in the past anyway, even though sometimes I didn’t realize it. We were created to love and reveal the treasure in others so that they can know the love and grace of Jesus – not the condemnation from the Old Testament or the “law.” Being such a “rule-oriented” person this has been a hard concept for me to break away from, but I’m realizing there’s more peace in loving people than judging them; so I say ONWARD! Onward with loving people and speaking over them the things God speaks over them!

Ok, last thing. Kris tells a story and I don’t remember the details, but basically he told a man to assume that he [the man] was the artist of a painting that was on the wall. The man said, “OK.” Then Kris says, “That’s the ugliest painting I’ve ever seen!” And then Kris asks the man, “Did demeaning the painting glorify the artist?” Of course the man said, “No.” Point being, when we demean each other and speak negatively or critically of others, we’re demeaning the artist who created them – God. This story definitely put things into perspective for me! How much time have I wasted all these years judging others?! It’s time to see what God sees in them and release their God-given destinies over them! Which is basically what prophecy is (of course the Lord may reveal specific things for some to prophecy over others, but for the most part, it’s seeing what God sees and then sharing it with that person and giving them a choice to walk into who God’s called them to be).

PS. God’s always speaking, we just may not know how. Ask Him how He’s speaking to you in this season (whether it’s pictures, impressions, a word or thought popping into your mind, etc.) so that you can begin calling out the gold in others.