Day 5 Pastor's Conference

Today we woke up, ate breakfast, and hurried off to the Pastor's Conference. We walked into the church building during worship, and  I remember wondering if we were going to have any kind of impact at this conference.

We set our things down and jumped straight into worship, dancing, clapping and jumping as we often do. After worship Ken, one of the trip leaders, got up and spoke. What I loved about Ken's talk was that he didn't have a plan. It was obvious he was following the Holy Spirit. I began to get a little more hopeful. He had our team walk around and lay hands on people and pray for them. At one point he got a word about someone with hearing problems in their right ear. For a moment no one said anything. Then, a woman sitting at the back stood up and raised her hand. She said she was partially deaf in her right ear. A few of our team went back to pray for her, and minutes later, she was totally healed! She came up to testify, and she grabbed the microphone and began to preach her heart out. Her name was Eugenia, and we all immediately loved her spark.

People who needed healing stood up and we began to pray for them. One woman came forward that had back pain. We checked to see if her legs were different lengths, which is often the culprit of back pain, and one was about a half inch shorter. I was standing in front of her holding her ankles and Aaron said, "left leg, come out." Her leg began to grow and it actually passed up the other leg by about 2 inches! Aaron said, "left leg stop. Right leg, match the left leg." Sure enough, the right leg came out until they were both the same length. She stood up, and all of her back pain had left! Two other women had legs grow out, many had pain healed, and to be honest, I don't even know all of the healings that took place because I was praying while people were giving their testimonies.

                                                        Woman testifying of healing

Cynthia was the person on this trip that I was to pray for and encourage, and I knew that she was likely going to speak at the conference. Before we had arrived I prophesied over her that her joy and child-likeness would release something in the room. After Ken, she got up to speak. Cynthia's topic was simple: the goodness of God. She talked about how God is good all the time, regardless of our circumstances. She said if t.v. reporters were living in Jesus' day, when he healed the crippled man, the t.v. reporters wouldn't be interviewing him, but interviewing everyone who didn't get healed. "How does it feel that Jesus didn't heal you? Are you still in pain? Jesus must not be very good is he?" Meanwhile, a formerly crippled man is jumping wildly up and down shouting, "I'm healed! Jesus healed me! I can walk!" Her point was simple: stop looking at what God hasn't done...yet, and look at what he is doing and what he has done! Her message was very powerful, and you could feel something happen in the room as she spoke. I began to feel even more hopeful about what God was doing in that place.
We took a break at noon and went out the the bus to eat lunch. Ryan had gone to Crown Bakery and gotten us sandwiches and wraps that we had pre-ordered. I ate a steak fajita burrito, and let me tell you, it was delicious!  After lunch we went back inside where everyone was waiting for us. Ken got up again and had our team come to the front to prophesy. One by one we would call people out from the audience and give them words over the microphone. I looked out at the crowd of about 80 people and many had the same sour/annoyed expression on their faces. Definitely not encouraging. I'm not sure if they were skeptical about prophecy, or if they expected negative things, or if they were simply annoyed that they hadn't been picked. At any rate, I decided to find the people with the most annoyed expression and get a word for them. I wish I could remember everyone's prophecy, but there were simply too many to recall, so I'll describe some of the highlights.
The first woman who caught my attention was sitting by the window with an indignant expression on her face. I asked God to give me a word for her. The impression I got was that she had an anointing to minister to children and to bring them into their destinies. So I grabbed the mic and had her stand up. I told her what God had put on my heart for her, and she began to smile. After I gave her the word I turned to get back in line when she waved her hands in the air and shouted, "I have a testimony!" She ran down to the front and grabbed the microphone. "Everything she said about me is true!" She said. "I am a children's pastor at my church, and God has given me a heart to encourage them in their dreams and to help them find their purpose!" Everyone began to clap and shout. I smiled, feeling much more encouraged.
The next person who grabbed my attention was a large man in a suit and tie who had his arms crossed and the biggest scowl on his face. I thought, "Lord, if you give me a word for him, it's gotta be good, cause he makes me nervous." I waited and waited, but the only thing that came to mind was the phrase "medical community". I dismissed it over and over again. I argued with God that everyone at that conference was a pastor, not a doctor. If I prophesied medical community over him, they'd think I was an idiot. Finally, I bargained with God. I told him I needed another word, so that when I got that one wrong, I'd at least have something else that was better. I felt the Lord show me that he had a calling to bridge the gap between generations, and that he would also bridge the gap between medical healing and supernatural healing.
I stood up and grabbed the mic. I decided I'd try out the second word first, and see how I felt after that. He stood up and I told him the word I got about generations. I explained that I saw him holding a torch and lighting the torch of the next generation. The scowl never left his face. I thought, "Here goes nothing..." "I'm going to take a risk. I really feel like God has given you tremendous favor with the medical community, and that he's going to use you to bridge the gap between medical healing and supernatural healing." His scowl transformed into a wide grin. To my surprise his hands shot into the air and he shouted, "I have a testimony!" They ran the mic over to him and he explained that his wife is a nurse, and that because of her, he has spent a lot of time at the hospital. Over time he gained favor there and he even became an overseer for multiple programs at the hospital! Everyone began shouting and clapping.
Mollie got up and prophesied over this man that he was anointed for business, and that the Lord had given him strategy to prosper in business. "I'm also going to take a risk," she said. "I don't know if you know that man next to you, but I feel like you have a David and Jonathan alliance. I feel like the Lord brought you two together for a purpose." They both stood up and shouted, "We're business partners! We own a business together!" By this time, people began to celebrate everyone else's prophecies, which was a big change from when we first started.
One woman was sitting in the first row dressed in military clothes. Someone prophesied over her that she was a freedom fighter, bringing other people into freedom. Sharon saw another woman who needed freedom and brought the first woman up and asked if she would pray for freedom. This was too much...everyone exploded in cheers. It was extremely meaningful, because now a Sierra Leonian was doing what we were doing.

                                                                Freedom Fighter

                                              Joe Prophesying over woman named Amy

Cynthia prophesied over a woman whose eyes were downcast the entire time. Lindsay grabbed the mic when Cynthia finished as began singing a spontaneous song over her. I don't know how to describe what happened, but immediately when she began to sing, goosebumps broke out all over my body, 4 girls on our team along with that woman burst into tears. It was an absolutely tangible shift that everyone could feel. The woman fell to her knees weeping and praising God.
At one point, Lindsay felt the Lord highlighting the two oldest men in the room. She felt we were to honor them in front of everyone. She called them to the front and everyone gave them a full minute standing ovation. After we finished, she asked them to give us a father's blessing. They both prayed over the congregation, and again, you could physically feel something powerful happen as they prayed. We wrapped it up after that, and I realized we'd been prophesying for two and half hours straight, and we still hadn't gotten to everyone! It's hard to describe what that experience was like, but it was by far my favorite experience in Sierra Leone. This was not the same building that we had entered that morning. Everyone was so visibly different. In fact, when we finished prophesying, they played some worship music and everyone was dancing, jumping, clapping and shouting with a freedom I have rarely seen or experienced.

                                                     Erik dancing with one of the pastors

                                                                 Molli and Eugenia

We ended with a fire tunnel, which is where our team lined up in two lines and had everyone walk through as we laid hands on them and asked the Holy Spirit to fill them up.

                                              Aaron and Adam at the end of the fire tunnel

We got back to the hotel at about 4pm. John showed up about 20 minutes later and asked Ryan if I could spend the night at John and Kaysie's house. He said that would be okay.
It was about an hour drive out to the compound where they live. It's more located on the outside of the city in a kind of suburb. I made John pull over so that I could capture the sun going down...it was bright red because of a layer of dust in the air. Unfortunately, all I could do was enjoy it, as I couldn't capture it well on camera.

As I was getting back in the car, someone who was selling something on the side of the road shouted something to me. I thought he was trying to sell me something, so I smiled and shouted, "No thank you!" I climbed in to see John cracking up laughing. "He asked you for money, Amy." I laughed too. "Sometimes it's nice to be able to play the foreigner card," he remarked.
I arrived at the house just in time for dinner. Because my visit was deemed a special occasion, Kaysie and Robin (they live with another missionary couple with 3 kids) made Mexican food. It was great to finally meet Chad and Robin and their kids...I'd heard so much about them. Emily, another missionary friend was there, and another girl from Canada named Amy ate with us as well. Amy had been part of a team that visited, and she had decided to stay for a little while longer. Dinner was delicious and the conversation was even better. I forgot how funny John and Kaysie are, and how much fun they are to joke around with.
We called my mom from Skype since I didn't have reliable internet at the hotel, and we all went to bed incredibly exhausted.

Day 4- Government Officials

I've been talking a lot about prophecy, and I feel like it would be a good idea to clarify what I mean when I say that we prophesy over people. No, we don't prophesy in King James English bellowing, "Thus saith the Lord...!" We don't shout at people and we don't prophesy earthquakes or years of famine over the land. It's not divination and it's not fortune telling. Prophecy is in the Bible, and in
1 Corinthians 14, the Apostle Paul tells us to "Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially the gift of prophecy...[for] the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort...[and] the one who prophesies edifies the church". It's as simple as asking God for the gift of prophecy, asking Holy Spirit what He sees in someone, and sharing it with them so that they may be strengthened, encouraged, and comforted.
We don't make it up, and we don't always get it completely right. But that's why we are encouraged to test the words we receive. 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21 says, "Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good." Sometimes words come in the form of a picture, sometimes a word or phrase, sometimes it's an intuition. Hopefully that will clear some things up for some of you. Okay, back to Day 4:
Day 4 began with all of us waking up bright and early and dressing up in our nicest dresses and suits. We had an important meeting with a very important government official (I'm sure by now you can guess who I'm referring to). Honey had wrapped the gifts we had prepared for him in beautiful wrapping paper and we piled onto the bus and drove to the Statehouse. We each turned in all of our electronic devices, and were ushered into the conference room where, I'm sure, many important meetings take place. This was not to be where we'd hold the meeting, but since we were asked to wait, we decided to spend our time worshiping, blessing the room and praying over the building. It was overwhelming to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit as the African sang with us in singing We exalt Thee, we exalt Thee, we exalt thee, Oh Lord.
We were then ushered into his office and because of the position of the official I will use discretion and summarize by saying he received many prophetic words and it was easy to see that he is a man of God, characterized by integrity and unwilling to compromise his values. Elections are coming up this year, and I am confident that he will be re-elected. It was a humbling moment to realize that God trusted us with the honor of meeting and encouraging such an amazing and influential man. I will never forget it.
From there, we had the privilege of an invitation to meet with another government official. I liked him immediately. I've never witnessed a government official who was so down-to-earth. "Just call me Frank," he said. We took turns prophesying over him and it was encouraging to me that after I prophesied over him, he looked at me and said, "That is so true." It never ceases to amaze me when God speaks to me about someone else. It was such a joy to bless him and his office staff. I have a great deal of respect for them.
After we finished, we headed to Andre's office a few blocks away, where he graciously let us use his building to change into more comfortable clothes. We went to lunch at a place called Crown Bakery. Ken and Ryan told us that the pizza was really good, so I shared a pizza that had chicken, sausage, ham, onions, mushrooms, sweet corn and pineapple. Let me just say that pizza is my favorite food, so I fancy myself a bit of a connoiseur when it comes to pizza. This was definitely top notch.
After lunch we headed to Dominic's work. Dominic lived in England until recently when his job asked him to relocate to Sierra Leone. He works for a company that manufactures rutile. Rutile is a mineral composed primarily of titanium dioxide. The main uses for rutile are the manufacture of refractory ceramic, as a pigment, and for the production of titanium metal. If you didn't know any of that, don't worry...I had to go to Wikipedia to copy and paste it.
We prophesied over his boss, John, and his coworkers, and finally over Dominic. I really felt like the Lord was giving me a word for Dominic, but I didn't want to share it in front of everyone, so I pulled Ann-Lis aside and shared the word with her since they are family. The word had to do with future business prospects for him. Ann-Lis told me that my word was confirmation about what the Lord had been speaking to her as well.
We went back to the hotel and ate dinner and a small group of us stayed up to prophesy and bless one another. I don't remember all of the words I got, but two people both saw me playing with clouds. One saw me forming them into shapes, and she thought it meant that I was creating with God. It was like He was giving me freedom to try things out and move things around, which meant a lot to me, because I feel like God has been empowering me to step out in creativity and to dream with Him.

Sierra Leone Day 3

I woke up this morning pretty early, still working out my sermon in my head. We left at about 9am to go to Pastor Andrew's church. Most of the team went to his church (about 12 of us), and 5 or 6 divided up among 2 other churches. The building was like a large brick warehouse with a corrugated metal roof. Stepping into the building was like stepping into a sauna! I've never sweat so much in all my life! All of the guys were dressed in long sleeved shirts and ties, and the girls all wore dresses with sleeves that went below the knees.
I guess we must have been gluttons for punishment, because when worship started we all began to jump and dance around in the back with all of the children. About half of the people in the building were young children. Ryan held Heidi, pastor Andrew's daughter, and when he set her down there was a perfect imprint of her body in sweat on his shirt, if that gives you any idea of the temperature.

Ryan got up and introduced our team and gave a short intro leading up to my sermon topic, which was vulnerability. I basically shared the journey of vulnerability that God has taken me on this last year. I told them that we have no intimacy without vulnerability and vulnerability is all about risk. Shame is the fear of not being worthy of connection, and it's what most often keeps us from intimacy.
Vulnerability, I learned, is not just about sharing your faults and struggles, it's doing something with no guarantee of success, investing in relationships that might not work, sharing dreams, passions, ideas and fears, and even just admitting when you aren't doing okay. I also shared how God had been teaching me what it means to be vulnerable with Him. It seems like a strange concept, since He knows everything about me, but again, it all comes down to risk. Am I willing to risk possibly being disappointed by God? Am I willing to risk praying for healing? Am I willing to risk stepping out when the Holy Spirit prompts me? Am I willing to risk looking foolish for his glory? God has shown me that I have as much intimacy with Him as I'm willing to risk. I urged them to make a covenant with God to stay soft in His hands and to commit to remaining vulnerable even when it feels like our risks sometimes leave us disappointed.
Unfortunately, they didn't plan on having an interpreter, and asked for a volunteer that had any kind of high school education to help translate. Because Krio is composed of a lot of English, I could tell that he wasn't always translating well. For example, every time I said "risk", he said "rest". I also felt like he may have censored a few things. In the end, though, I trust in the Holy Spirit's ability to translate, and 1 Cor 1:21 says, "...for God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe", which makes me feel a lot better about the whole thing.
Afterwards, we lined up and asked the Holy Spirit to give us words of knowledge about things He wanted to heal among the congregation. I felt like God wanted to heal stomach problems, so when it was my turn, I called out the word and several people lined up in front of me to get prayer for stomach issues. Without a translator it was difficult to understand the exact problems, but two women I prayed for said the pain left when I prayed. The third person I prayed for was a man who had heart problems. I was fortunate enough to have a translator at that point, and so when I prayed for him, he started taking deep breaths and his face lit up. He told me through the translator that his breathing had improved quite a bit. I'm guessing that he must have had congestive heart failure or something of that nature. Other people saw back pain healed, and one lady's leg even grew out!
After church we went to a place called the Country Lodge, which was a former President's home that was converted into a resort. We were served a 7 or 8 course Lebanese meal of humus, lamb skewers, meat pies and other interesting and delicious foods. We were all allowed to order dessert as well, even though dessert was about 8 American dollars each! We really suffered for the Gospel on this trip...

We got to see a few monkeys from the restaurant balcony, but I didn't get any pictures as they were fairly shy. Andre, Ann-Lis and Anthea's brother, was at lunch with us and he generously paid for the entire meal, which must have been quite a lot of money, with about 24 people. We relaxed at the restaurant for the rest of the afternoon until evening. At one point Honey, who has a natural gift for engaging people in conversation and sharing the love of Jesus, struck up a conversation with a woman. After a while she learned that the woman's husband is a middle eastern ambassador to Sierra Leone! What's more, this woman graciously invited our team to have breakfast with her and her family during our stay! Unfortunately, it never ended up working out because of scheduling issues, but we still got to bless her and her family.

From left to right: Pastor Lake and his wife Hannah, Andre, his son Dominic, and Cynthia

We got back to the hotel to discover they had dinner ready for us even though we were all stuffed. The guys and some of the girls ate a second time, and I had a fruit cocktail and went to bed thoroughly satisfied. Food and pleasant weather are two of my love languages , and we enjoyed both in excess today (yes I made those love languages up, but they should add them to the list, don't you think?).

Sierra Leone Day 2

I woke up this morning wide awake at 5am starving (thank you, jet lag). So I sat in the dark like a creeper eating beef jerky until I didn't feel the hunger pains anymore, and I fell back asleep. I woke up again at about 6:30 to the sound of roosters crowing...I must be in Africa. I was the first person up at 7am, which is obviously the work of jet lag, as I am emphatically not a morning person. I was expecting John and Kaysie to come to the hotel at 9am, but since they assumed I would sleep in like everyone else, I waited around on the balcony. I ate breakfast, which was fried plantains and some kind of beef in a brown sauce (both were delicious).

                                                      Pictures I took from the hotel balcony

A few of the girls and I decided to go for a walk through the neighborhood and venture down to the water.

Finally, at about 11am John found us on our walk, so the girls kept walking and I went back to the hotel. We hung out on the balcony with some of the team and Aden kept everyone entertained with games of peek-a-boo.

I kept blowing bubbles with my gum, and Aden's eyes would get really wide and then he would frown. He smiled at everyone except me at first. We concluded that I look too much like his Dad, and maybe he didn't know what to think. After awhile, John and Kaysie asked Ryan if they could steal me away and he said yes. They drove me along the coast and showed me parts of the city while I snacked on fresh cashews and played with Aden. We ate at one of their favorite restaurants...Basha's (no connection to the grocery store, haha). It's a Lebanese place that they love because they serve wraps that are sort of like machaca burritos. The wrap was good, but they put some kind of tangy coleslaw-like stuff on there that wasn't my favorite. The rotisserie chicken and fries, on the other hand, were fantastic.
We talked and visited for a long time about African culture and things going on with people back home. All the Africans smiled and were interested in Aden. We decided to go for an ice-cream, but we ran into many closed roads, closed businesses and political parades for the upcoming elections in November. John and Kaysie informed me that everyone is on edge because they aren't sure if they will be peaceful. They may go across the border just in case. They dropped me off at about 4pm at the hotel because John had a meeting.
At the hotel, they passed out paper to make prophetic art for someone on Andrew's team, as well as the name of someone on our team that we were in charge of praying for and blessing during the trip. I decided to make a picture with no one specific in mind, because I was sure someone would show up that we hadn't made a picture for. I figured I could ask God who it was for when they arrived. I saw a picture of a fist punching through the darkness with a war horse going before it like a patronus. God gave me a long interpretation about spiritual warfare and obedience, but the phrase that kept running through my head was "son of my right hand". I wrote that phrase across the top of the picture with a verse from Psalms about the Lord's right hand. I know that "son of my right hand" is the meaning of the Benjamin, and so I added that Benjamin is the 12th son of Jacob, and the number 12 is the number for government. I felt that to mean that he had extraordinary favor in government.
When the team of 7 people arrived there was one man named Pastor Benji, who we hadn't met until that night. Needless to say, I knew it was for him. We prophesied over each person for about 20 minutes each. When Benji was up I sat in front of him and explained my picture and prophecy. It was hard to tell if it affected him, but later Anthea and Ann-lis (two Sierra Leonian sisters that arranged our trip...more on them later) told us that on the ride home he was like a little kid. He was so excited about what God was doing and opened up to them in a way they'd never seen before. Oh, and it turns out that Benji means "Son of my right hand" as well. Also, Pastor Benji is one of the government-appointed intercessors for Sierra Leone, and interacts with the first lady and President. Is God amazing or what?

                                            Ann-lis receiving a prophetic picture

                                         Anthea and Ann-lis being prayed and prophesied over.

                                                            Pastor Andrew and his family

We were up really late because dinner went long and we had to wait up for Ryan to tell us which churches we'd be going the following morning. Ryan came by our room and informed Caroline and I that we'd be going to Pastor Andrew's church and asked me if I'd be ready to preach. I woke up that night at 3am and couldn't go back to sleep because I was planning out my sermon.

Sierra Leone Day 1

Thanks to the inspiration of my sister-in law's Kaysie's blog ( http://light2lionmountain.blogspot.com/ ), I've decided to post a day-by-day of my trip to Sierra Leone. Pray for me and have patience, because posting is an easy thing for me to neglect. However, recently God has shown me how important it is to write things down and share them with others, so here I go:

I left for Redding Airport and picked up Michael on the way at 11:45, even though we needed to be there at 12:15 and I live very close  (I was too excited to sit still!). However, our flight was delayed from 2:15 to about 4:30. We were worried we wouldn't make our connection in San Francisco, where the other half of our team was waiting. So we ate at the Chinese restaurant upstairs, relaxed and waited. When it came time to check in, the women were so amazing and gracious. They didn't even charge us for our extra bags! I know John and Kaysie appreciated that, as one of my bags was full of stuff just for them.
The plane we rode in looked like the double propeller plane from an Indiana Jones movie and my chair vibrated and I wore earplugs the whole time to salvage my hearing. We arrived to find that our other flight was delayed 20 minutes, leaving us just enough time to make the flight. The leg from San Francisco to London was long (10 hours) and I didn't get much sleep. I've never been one to sleep well on planes, especially when I don't have a window seat. During the flight, Ryan, the team leader gave us all prophetic words on little note cards, and I felt like the word he gave me was right on. The feeling I'd been getting prior to leaving is that God was going speak through me on this trip. I really felt like my words were going to be important, which is exactly what he prophesied.
The next leg from London to Sierra Leone was better. I slept for about 2 hours (it was about 7 I think) and was awoken to boisterous Scottish conversation and laughter. Ordinarily, I'd be annoyed, but with their jaunty accents and hilarious animation, I couldn't be angry. They were definitely the in-flight entertainment, with their stories, jokes and singing. One of the Scottish men went back while Aaron (one of our team members) was sleeping and he shook him awake, grabbed his face and said "Have courage and follow your heart!" Needless to say, Aaron looked confused and panicked as the rest of us laughed hysterically.
We finally landed at about 9pm and as we walked down the steps of the plane, we were met with a wall of hot moisture. We boarded a shuttle bus at the bottom that literally took us all of 100 feet to the airport door, where we encountered the chaotic, shouting frenzy that is an African airport. With so many people crowded around the baggage claim, it's a wonder that we managed to get our luggage. 2 of our bags, however, did not make it through. They were the bags that had some gifts, team supplies and a keyboard. Luckily though, everyone's clothes made it through.
It was so much fun to see John, Kaysie and Aden at the airport, although I didn't get much chance to talk to them, as we were herded out the door and onto an American-made school bus that waited to take us to the ferry. We drove for about 20 minutes and then drove the bus onto the ferry. Pastor Andrew (our in-country contact) filled us in on some of the happenings in his ministry, and we layed hands on him and prayed and prophesied over him. I was itching to get off the bus to talk with John and Kaysie, and as soon as they gave us the ok, I got off and found them by the railing. Aden was asleep by then, but I introduced them to a few team members and we talked for awhile. We got quite a surprise as the ferry blew its whistle and turned sharply. I watched as we narrowly missed a small local fishing boat with a man frantically waving a single flashlight inside. It was a miracle we didn't hit them...we missed them by only a foot or so. After that, they made everyone go down below where the vehicles were. After an hour ride, we drove to our hotel, which was very nice. We finally collapsed into bed at about 12:30pm