Sierra Leone- Day 8

I am updating this post almost a year after it happened....can you tell that diligence in writing is not a major strength of mine? I basing this off of notes and memory...mostly because I want to finish this so that I can write about some more recent things.
Day 8 we woke up and went to the First Lady's house. There home is absolutely beautiful. We were told that she would not be able to make it, as she was out of town, but we were there for a weekly meeting with some of the top intercessors of the nation. We began with prayer, and then we began to pray and prophesy over the intercessors and the First Lady's pastor. I got the deep sense that each of those intercessors had sown many tears, hopes and prayers into their nation. It was such an honor to be in the presence of people so devoted in prayer for others. You could sense the depth of their relationship with the Lord.
Unexpectedly, someone entered the room and informed us that the First Lady would be joining us in a moment. We were, of course, elated. She came into the room and sat down. As she did, I almost began to weep. She walks in such intimacy with God that it was physically tangible as she entered the room. There are those moments in life when you meet someone and no one has to say a word...your spirit recognizes that they hold a deep affection in the heart of God. She was unquestionably one such individual.
She spoke with us for a while, thanking us for coming, sharing some things on her heart, and recounting stories of past visits form our team. We asked if we might bless her with prayer and some prophetic words. I wasn't the first person to give a word, but when I stood up to give her a word I was so overcome that it was difficult to finish. It was a moment I won't forget. It's hard to describe how humbling it is to minister to someone who carries so much weight with the Lord. As I sat down, I realized there were a couple of things I had forgotten to share. One was a picture the Lord gave me of her heart taking up the entire space in her chest and He showed me it represented her capacity to love. The other was a word that had to do with her being an amazing picture of the Bride of Christ. Jake stood up and began to describe seeing the exact same picture I had of her heart. Then Grace gave her a word about her being a picture of the Bride of Christ...I never cease to be amazed at how the Lord never misses a beat.
A relative of the first family came to join us, and in keeping with what we do best, we prayed and prophesied over him as well. I took a risk when I prophesied over him, but he laughed and told me that my word described him well. (I don't feel it would be right to share it publicly).
When we finished, they decided that we had some time and so we decided to go to the military hospital to pray for the sick. That was an incredible experience. As soon as we walked in, the atmosphere felt very heavy. You could sense the loneliness and hopelessness in the rooms. We literally had only about 20 minutes, which was frustrating. We so wanted to love on each individual, but time wouldn't allow it. So we began to speak and release joy there. We prayed for a few individuals, and almost instantly you could see their countenance shift. One woman we prayed for was pale and shaking with malaria. As we prayed for her, her fever broke, the color returned to her face, and she was able to sit up in bed. Even her shaking stopped.
We left the hospital (grudgingly) and drove to Sister Emma's school, which was on one of the highest mountains in the city and in a rural secluded farming area. She brought us into her home and as we were walking in a girl who must have been around 15 years old squealed and threw her arms around my neck. For a moment I thought she must know me....she seemed so excited to see me. I realized that she was doing the same thing to each of us. I've never experienced so warm a welcome from a stranger. Her name is Grace, and she turned out to be Sister Emma's daughter.
Sister Emma and her husband sat us down and began to explain the testimony of how they came to build that children's retreat center. I can't recall the exact details, which is such a shame....it really touched me. They put their life savings into that project in faith because they both felt it was a mandate from the Lord to pour into the children of Sierra Leone. Shortly after someone gave them 8,000 dollars, which was the amount they put in. A year or so later, someone donated something 500,000 pounds to their ministry. That money was used to build the retreat center, which was just as beautiful and almost as big as the President's home. They led us into the classrooms, and I can't describe how amazing it was to see what they were doing. To give you an idea, one of the teachers came into the room and said loudly, "Where's my princess? Where is she?" A small girl on the left who couldn't be more than 3 years old began to squeal with glee and kick her feet which hung well above the ground as she sat in her plastic chair. He picked her up and swung her around as he nuzzled her. Her face reflected pure delight. It's so rare to see men interact that way with children, let alone in a school setting in an African nation. They showed us amazing play rooms they had built and explained to us that the purpose of their facility was to rotate children from all the schools in the area into the school on a weekly basis to love on them, tell them how valuable they are,  teach them their identities in Christ and to teach them peaceable ways of reconciliation with their peers. I've never seen or heard of any place like this in an African nation, and the best part is that it's come not from foreigners, but from the people of Sierra Leone.
We spent the remainder of our time making gold crowns for the children to wear, painting their faces, and making them balloon animals. There was no lesson, no agenda....we simply spent time with them and loved on them. My favorite part was seeing their faces when we held up a mirror so that they could see themselves. They would turn into a bundle of giggles, fascination and delight.

Before we left, they gave us each hand-made wooden maps of Sierra Leone that were covered in the natural resources of their nation according to counties. We gave them the remainder of our children's supplies along with the book of lesson plans we brought with us. They were so overcome with gratitude....they each got up and shook our hands and said, "Congratulations!", which is the way they show appreciation.

Day 7- Children's Ministry

This morning was nice and slow. We had some time to sleep in, although my internal clock is still askew, making me a morning person. I got up at about 7am, ate some breakfast, and spent the morning journaling. About mid-morning we loaded up the bus to head to Bethel Temple School, which is a Christian School in the heart of the city with about 300 students ages 4-14 maybe? I was in charge of Children's Ministry, and we had planned to sing some songs, do a skit of the man healed by the pool of Bethesda, activate them to pray for healing, and end with some fun activities like face painting, balloon animals and play. It's fair to say that nothing went according to plan.
We walked into the chapel, where they ushered in all of the students, with the boys on one side and the girls on the other. I began my getting the kids revved up by seeing who could shout the loudest...the boys or the girls. Then we began teaching them a simple worship song (My Soul Sings by Cory Asbury). Everything was going well, and then half the team ushered the teachers out to minister to them during our teaching. And that's where things began to go nuts. We taught them the song "My God is so big, so strong and so mighty.." and we taught them all of the actions to go with it. They loved the song, and a few rushed into the aisle so that they could show off their actions. In this school they had prefects, which were basically responsible students who were left in charge in the teacher's absence. As is the custom, the prefects hit the children who ran into the aisle, since they weren't supposed to be there. The problem with that, is that kids have no problem hitting prefects back. In a matter of seconds there was a swarm of kids slapping, hitting and yelling in the center aisle. Ken and a few others ran into the middle to break it up while the principal grabbed the microphone and began yelling at them to sit down.
I urged the guys doing the skit to start in the hopes that the kids might settle down. Instead, because it was difficult to see, kids began to stand up and move forward, the prefects began slapping and it started the whole rumble all over again. I looked at Ken in desperation and asked what we should do. He looked as panicked as I felt and had no idea. It was one of those moments when you realize you are not in control and one wrong move could lead to utter anarchy. I really believe that we came close to exactly that. My brain was reeling trying to come up with something that would settle them down.
We had the people in the skit leave, and I asked Aaron to play something soothing on the guitar. The talking and shouting subsided relatively quickly and I told the kids to repeat what I was saying and I led them in a prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to fill them up, to touch them and to let them feel His presence. Then I told them we would come around and pray for each of them, but only if their eyes were closed. After the hour of chaos, I was stunned to see all of the kids close their eyes. They sat silent for probably 20 minutes as we walked around praying for them. I've never seen a group of kids sit that silently without a movie in front of them. I have no doubt that it was the Spirit that calmed the group and kept us from total disaster. After 20 minutes, we began to hand out candy to those who were sitting silently. The teachers eventually came back in, saw the kids sitting silently and smiled as I'm sure they imagined this is how the kids had behaved the entire time.

The principal then had a group of kids come up and sing "Lord I Lift Your Name on High" for us. They thanked us for coming and offered us some refreshments in the teacher's lounge. I did not have to be told more than once. I made a beeline for the lounge and collapsed in a chair, reminding myself that I made the right decision by leaving the teaching profession. Some people are made for that kind of thing. I, on the other hand, am not. Some of our team stayed behind to interact with the kids. David thought it would be fun to pull out some balloons to make some balloon animals for the some of the students. When I saw him later he looked almost shell-shocked and his once clean white shirt was caked in dirt. I couldn't suppress a smile as he explained that once he pulled out one balloon, every kid pounced on him. You could hear the edge in his voice that revealed the same hint of exasperation and panic I'd felt moments earlier.

                                                         Kids singing for us

                                                Me after teaching

We loaded up and ate lunch on the bus, which was another to go order from Crown Bakery, to our delight. We ate as we drove to a meeting with the intercessors of Sierra Leone. They led us into a building to an upstairs room surrounded by open windows on 2 of the 4 walls. The Upper Room, so to speak. We recognized most of the people at the meeting from the Pastor's Conference, although there were still more than a handful of new faces. We had a short time of worship, and Ryan stood up and spoke to them about the value of child-likeness. As he spoke, I spent most of that time photographing the people in the room, and getting a better feel for Erik's camera. Erik and I were in charge of taking photographs for the team, and although I love to take pictures, I have virtually no knowledge of how to photograph beyond aim and shoot.

Caroline then got up after Ryan and shared some of the most powerful ways to intercede. For example, joy and laughter are some of our greatest weapons, and declarations of what we want to see happen can shift circumstances. Then she shared a vision that God had given her about Sierra Leone. "God told me about a woman named 'Sierra Leone' who had been raped and maimed for the treasures she carried in her womb, " she said. "Yet through the power of the Holy Spirit God is going to restore her Purity and Dignity because she is the 'Bride of Christ'. In God's light she is going to sparkle like a diamond pouring out His great treasures to Africa."
That night for dinner we ate come amazing curry. Ryan gave us the option of staying at the hotel or going to Pastor Andrew's house to minister to his family. Throughout the trip Ryan was really good at scheduling rest so that we wouldn't become exhausted or sick.That was the only night where I really felt I needed a break, and I'm sure it had everything to do with the stress of children's ministry. So I opted out and practically fell into bed at 8pm.

Day 6: Pastor's Conference Continued

I woke up bright and early this morning and felt very much like the typical American when John and Kaysie had to fire up the generator so I could blow dry my hair. Kaysie made eggs with onions and green chiles for breakfast, which was nice...especially since the eggs at the hotel had been soupy. I finally won Aden over by reading a farm book to him and singing "Old McDonald", at Kaysie's suggestion. John had recently built a dehydrator outside and they have been drying fruit pieces, so they let me taste some dried pineapple, which was amazing...it tasted like candy!
We loaded up the car and headed off into the city. John stopped for a pee break at some point, and while we were waiting in the car Kaysie filled me in on something amazing God had done for them. Let me back up and say that their car had broken down awhile back, and had been taken apart and was in pieces with little hope for recovery. The car we'd been driving around in was on loan from a friend of theirs. A few nights ago, she told me, they prayed together and asked God for financial provision. They just learned a couple days ago that someone had given them a $30,000 grant for 2 new drills and a brand new car! It was so encouraging to hear them talk about the countless times that the Lord has provided for them financially.

During worship, I held onto Aden most of the time and danced around with him. He loved the music and was smiling and clapping along the whole time. I was enjoying Aden's presence, but also wrestling with conflicting emotions. It's hard to describe what I was feeling. I was so thrilled that John and Kaysie were there, and I wanted them to get a taste for what I've been a part of for the last 8 months. But, I was also worried that they might find it too weird, or chock it up to emotionalism like some people do. Most people have either a strong positive or negative response to Bethel. I realize it's not for everyone, but I really respect both John and Kaysie, so it matters what they think about something so close to my heart. Throughout worship I was praying and asking and pleading with God to touch them. I really felt from the start that a huge reason I was on this trip was to refresh and bless them both.
Jake got up to speak, and I honestly can't recall exactly what he preached on, but I know that I felt the presence of God come into the room in a powerful way. That was one of the clearest times I've ever heard God speak to me. He said, "Amy, I LOVE THEM MORE."
I sat there stunned and then began to cry as I let the truth of that sink in. In that moment all the worry and concern melted away and trust washed over me. I had a deep realization that I can trust God with the people I love because He loves them more than I do. I don't have to plead or beg God to bless them as if He were a reluctant and stingy Father who needs persuading. Before I ask, His heart's cry is already 'yes and amen', because He is good and it's His very nature bless His children. This was undoubtedly the most powerful moment of my trip. I don't know how to describe it, but I will never be the same. Isn't it so the nature of God that we can minister, be used by God, change lives and witness miracles, but the moments that mark us most profoundly are always God showing us more of who He is?
We took a break at lunch and ate with the team and John and Kaysie on the bus, then returned to prophesy over those who hadn't received prophecy yesterday. They made an announcement that those who hadn't received prophecy yet should move forward to the first 3 rows. I looked around for John and Kaysie, but they were no longer in their seats. My heart sank as I realized they'd probably left. We began taking turns prophesying and passing the mic back and forth, just as we had yesterday. Today the congregation had a lot more people and you could tell that this was what they had come for. You could feel the hunger in the room. I prophesied over one woman that she thought she was the caboose, but she's really the engine, carrying many cars behind her.
Ryan grabbed the microphone and I heard him say, "I have a word for John and Kaysie." My head jumped up in confusion, and I realized that they hadn't left the building but moved forward to the 2nd row. I couldn't see them because of where I was standing. They came forward and Ryan gave them an incredible word about having fun with God and their relationship with God and each other being like first love. There was more, but what I was paying more attention to was the way I could see the word blessing them. God is so, so good.
Someone on our team got a word that someone there was unable to conceive and wanting a baby. To our surprise 6 or 7 people came forward for prayer. We laid hands on all of them and prayed for them. One woman began to cry, and even when she was back in her seat she couldn't stop crying. Molly nudged me and suggested we go minister to her. We went over and sat down in front of her and began to pray for her again. As I was praying I got the sense that she had been very abused and mistreated by her father. I felt hesitant about asking her about that, because it could be taken offensively, especially if I was wrong. "I feel like you've been mistreated," I said. "Is that right?" She nodded her head. "Have you been abused?" I asked. She nodded her head again. "Was it your father?" I asked. This time she erupted in tears. I felt like I was supposed to tell her that God never intended for her to be mistreated. That He was so sorry that happened to her. I also felt like her father was sorry. "I know he is, " she sobbed. We led her through forgiveness and I really feel like God is going to bring powerful restoration not only to that relationship, but to her children and to generations after her because of the undoing of the pattern of abuse.
Another woman approached me afterwards asking for prayer for some kind of health condition, but I can't remember exactly what it was. I prayed for her, but I had the sense that she needed to forgive someone. I asked her if there was anyone she needed to forgive, and she listed off a few people that she had grievances with, one of whom was her sister, who she hadn't spoken to in something like 2 years. I asked her if she was ready to forgive them and release them to God, and she said she was. I led her through a prayer of forgiveness, but she spent the next few minutes trying to convince me just how horrible they are and how badly they wronged her. After about 15 minutes, my heart sank as I realized some people hold onto unforgiveness and fail to see how it keeps them from the very thing they are crying out to God for. We heard a testimony at school once of a man who was healed of blindness, only to become blind again in a matter of days. When they asked him about it, he said he wanted to remain blind so he could continue to receive government aide. Whenever Jesus healed, he always asked people if they wanted to be healed. I believe He did that because He knew that many people are unwilling to let go of what they have in order to get what they want.
We ended our time at the Pastor's Conference with wild, jubilant worship and then another fire tunnel. That evening, since we had some time to spare, some of us went to Lumley Beach to run, walk, or stroll, depending on which way each preferred to enjoy the beach (can you guess which one I was a part of?).  The group who was running came upon a guy with one leg ( As I was not in there, I may have slight details wrong, but the overall of the story is correct), He had lost his lower leg when RUF cut it off in the war. He didn't seem bitter at all though, on the contrary, he put together a whole one-legged soccer team who is so good, they actually compete internationally! Talk about an over-comer!
They asked if they could pray for his leg to grow out. As they were praying, a man walked past them and was so intrigued he came back to ask them what they were doing. The guy's leg didn't grow out, but the man who had passed by became very excited when he learned they were Christians. It turns out he'd either had or had been having a dream with a cross and a man he didn't recognize. He said that the dream made him feel so good, that he'd decided he needed to find a Christian to ask them about who the man was. They excitedly explained that the man was Jesus, and then they proceeded to lead him to the Lord! I later learned that the students who stayed home during mission trips had been praying that Jesus would speak to Muslims in their dreams while we were on missions!
While they were ministering to him, the group that was strolling (yes, that was my group) began looking at some jewelry that a woman was selling. We asked her if she needed prayer for anything, and she told us she was pregnant and asked if we would pray for a safe delivery and a healthy child. (The infant and mother mortality rate in Sierra Leone is the 2nd highest in the world. Many women don't name their babies until they are 2 months old because it is so common to lose a child before then). Most of us didn't have money on us, but Ken did, and he bought a few things for his wife. After he'd finished paying for everything, she pulled a bracelet off and handed it to Ken as a gift, because she was grateful that we blessed her. We were all touched by her generosity, and so we encouraged her to come by our hotel in the next few days so our whole team could buy jewelry from her.

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.