The past two days have changed my life…

Linda brought back a team of 5 Americans from the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry in Redding, California, who helped put on the conference Linda attended in Granada. They got there just i time for dinner - i’d cooked chicken Parmesan. We sat there at dinner introducing ourselves and kidding around a bit, and honestly I thought they were just what I would call “normal” Christians. They all seemed like people we would hang out with back home. After dinner, we started our weekly youth event, which they had planned to head up. That’s when things changed.

When I heard them say they were from a school of “Supernatural Ministry”, I have to admit, it did make me think a little bit, but I didn’t give it much thought because they all seemed so cool. As it turns out, they were a group that had been trained for 2 years on prophecy and healing. If you’re reading this from back home, maybe a member of my church, you know those are a few things we don’t discuss or practice too often. So they hit the ground running in our youth service, wasting no time. They started taking turns prophesying over individuals in the group, having each one stand up as they had “words” for them

I had gotten a taste of this sort of thing twice before.

First, back this summer, when I was here living in Nicaragua, and the World Race team was here. We did an activity where we drew names from a hat, and asked God to give us somethiing for that person (without looking at the name), which we were to draw on a peice of paper. It could be anything. I had my doubts. For some reason I felt like i needed to draw a rainbow, which I know sounds kinda queer, but nevertheless, I drew it. I remember giving it to Warren, one of the guys on the team, and finding out it was significant to him, because he had an obsession with skittles (which if you don’t know, use the slogan,”Skittles: taste the rainbow”).

The second time was with the Living Water group that just came from Boone, NC. They continually discussed having “prophetic words” for people, but not to the point where it made me feel wierd. They all just seemed really in tune with the Holy Spirit.

So this was only the third time i’d encountered this sort of thing. These guys were radicals. To be completely honest, at first, I had serious doubts. Things they were saying seemed to be really strange and ambiguous. Then, their “words” started getting more detailed and direct. Then, something happened. A member of their team, Jason, was giving a word to one of the youth. I was paying about 50% attention at this point. I remember the girl had a yellow shirt. I was holding Kelly’s hand, and I looked down at it. Jason started to talk about this form of horseback riding where the rider shows almost no motion to the crowd as he has the horse perform very specific and intricate movements. He said the way it worked was the rider was giving very minute instructions to the horse through light amounts of pressure in his legs. He was that close and familiar with this horse that he could control it so subtly. and this was how he saw her relationship with God being. Sounds pretty weird, huh? Well, in that same moment, Kelly gasps, and says,”Look!!!”

She shows me the ring she’s wearing on her hand, which I was sitting there holding and looking at. It was a horse ring.

This was a sign from God for both of us that he wanted us to pay attention.

We continued listening, much more intently, as the service progressed. Jason ending up giving us a word later on, telling us, as a couple, that he felt like God was saying we make a great team, and that each of our gifts combined made us wonderful for each other. Later, Kelly mentioned she felt led to give the ring to the girl, which after a little encouragement, she did, and it was amazing to see her and her friends reaction.

The service lasted long into the night, past 11 o’clock, which is normally unheard of because kids just don’t stay out that late in our village. I drove several people home and got home pretty late, going to bed not too long afterward.

The following day, the group started the morning off holding another service to minister to the pastors. I wasn’t able to participate for long because we were out of water and didn’t have enough food for lunch for the 18 people that were to eat lunch that day.

That afternoon, we had a chance to meet with the team, right before they left. They were supposed to leave at 4:00pm to head in to Leon, and wanted some question and answer time with us. They shared stories of prophecy and healing that God had done through each of them. I got the courage to share what was on my heart with the team. I explained my background, that in the past I’d always gone to church, believed in Jesus, done the right thing, but that last summer here in Nica I realized I had gotten really good at just going through the motions. I told them I was frustrated with my life and the kind of church we have in America - not our specific church, IHBC, but the “church” as a whole. I explained how recently I felt like God had laid on my heart that he wanted me out of my comfort zone, and wanted to show me that he isn’t the weak, powerless, useless God our American church teaches. We all go to church, and try to do the right thing, but why? I told them about my small experience with prophecy and that my first reaction to their group was a little bit of fear, doubt, and intrigue. Maggie, one of the team members, told me she was right where I was just two years ago. She had a desire to learn more about the real God, and decided to go to this school, where she’d been taught so much about prophecy and healing, and that now, more than ever she truly experiences God and love him more everyday. She did tell me she still experiences doubt, but far less than before. I god prophetic words from Maggie and Sid. I left the meeting feeling understood, unjudged, and relieved. I drove us to Leon and continued to discuss with Maggie the whole way. Her and Ruth commented on what a great attitude I have about everything because I am open to new ideas, but I don’t just accept them

During this same afternoon, Linda went out and healed Paula, a lady of the church, who had been very sick from a serious spider bite. She could hardly move before, and she was up standing on her own by the time she left.

God was doing awesome stuff.

Kelly and I set out for a date night in Leon after dropping the team off in Leon. We went to dinner, and had some time to kill before our movie started around 9:30pm. We decided to get ice cream. We came really close to trying another place, because it was packed, but we decided to go ahead. We sat outside facing the intersection near the park, and as we sat there, we saw Brad, a member of the team!

We walked over and said hello. Their team was doing what they call a “treasure hunt”, where they take 2-3 mins to hear from God who he wants them to go pray for, asking for clues like what they are wearing, names, conditons, and then they seek them out. Right there in front of us, Maggie had found her treasure. She showed us her paper. She had written “Red flowered shirt” and “Maria”, and sure enough, there sat the woman with her husband, named Maria, wearing a red shirt with flowers on it. Her and her husband both got saved just before we walked over. Another person heard God say there would be a couple that was sad because they couldn’t have children, and that the man would be wearing a blue shirt. They found them, literally, no further than 15 feet from where Maggie found Maria.

Kelly and I were astounded. I truly believe God works through what we think are simple coincidences, but this was just too much…the ring, their prophetic words for us, then THIS! It was so eye opening!