Well... I have something new to say this week.
Let me start from the beginning...
I have been looking forward to this past week since January 2012.
Remember my friend, C, who contributed to the decision of coming here in the first place? (You can reread that story here.) Well, in January 2012 he began his DTS here in Harrisburg at the exact same one I am doing. Only he had to live in the Howard Johnson hotel instead of the 333 House...and things were a little bit different....anyway, so he did his DTS here and he actually suggested Harrisburg (but I wanted to go to Kona --- I've made peace with the situation). So, while C was here and I knew another guy, S, who always talked about it, I was so curious as to what the heck this Fire and Fragrance / YWAM thing was. I had never heard about it before, but it sounded like it was super popular and exploding! (Upon coming here I found out the reality that the Harrisburg base is only like 2 & 1/2 years old and F&F Kona is like 5 years old or something like that...It is a growing baby!)
So interested in finding out exactly what it was they were doing, I started researching this YWAM thing and I found out it was SO much bigger than I thought. On top of that, Fire and Fragrance was only a sliver of the DTSes they do. I felt like there were a billion trillion. So I decided to type it into iTunes to see if anything would come up. I stumbled upon these podcasts from Fire and Fragrance: School of Revival and Reformation 2010 from Kona. I began to look through the titles and the speakers and the only person I recognized was Jake Hamilton. (Looking back at it this moment as I write it, I recognize the majority of the speakers because one is my base leader, many I have had, and a few more will be here in the coming weeks.) Anyway, so I look at so many interesting topics these people taught on and I am struggling to decide where to start in listening. So I ask God and He tells me to start with Andy Byrd's "Intimacy and Surrender" messages. So, I do. Let me tell you: it wrecked my life. At the time, I had no idea that Andy Byrd was one of the founders of Fire and Fragrance, nor did I ever think I would get to meet him and hear him speak live, let alone that I would one day get to talk to him and tell him how much he impacted my life. Never did I think any of this would happen.
So anyway... I listen to Andy's teachings (only able to hear 30 minutes at a time because there was so much within it I needed to process -- I definitely recommend anyone and everyone to listen to it). I tell God that one day I want to see this guy in person (at this time I didn't even know what he looked like or anything). So I listen to him and I think, "Well, if this YWAM thing lets people like him speak, I would like to do that one day! There is something this man has and I want it." It was then I decided that I would like to have a season of my life in YWAM (without knowing what I would be getting myself into).
So I learned a lot from Andy's messages and sort of spend like a month or two super obsessed with what he taught me. I probably annoyed a few of my friends because I wanted to tell them everything I had just learned (plus it would help me absorb it all).
Come June and sure enough I am eating with my friend, C, mention that I listened to Andy, and this kid busts out his phone and shows me that he has Andy Byrd in his contacts. I. Almost. Died. Momentarily. You know the rest of the story (visit my first post ever).
Getting the word to come to Harrisburg, I was so hopeful that I could possibly have Andy Byrd as a speaker (but I knew he lived in a Kona, so I was doubtful - still unaware that he was a founder). When I got my F&F handbook, I freaked out when I saw he was a speaker. And sure enough, once again, this man has changed my life.
Andy taught on the practical culture of revival. He took every thing the church has ever made complicated about the Bible and broke it down to absolute simplicity like I have never heard. He broke so many lies that we believed that the churches (even MY church) would teach us, or imply, or fail to expose. Each action is just as guilty.
1.) Agreement on Truth
.......example: Ephesians 4:29 says, "Let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."
So in order to create culture, we must agree on what is true. So, we must either agree that the Bible is what it is -- TRUTH -- and agree that speaking unwholesome words that tear down others and are not beneficial IS SIN (because the Bible says NOT to do it), or we can choose to attempt to justify why we say hurtful things to one another as a way of covering SIN (gossip and slander and unwholesome speech) so we can keep doing it. Either choice will create a different culture and only ONE is Kingdom Culture.
2.) Agree on Values that Produce Action
.......We need to call out sin for what it is. The reason the church is so dead, lifeless, apathetic, and stuck in addictions/brokenness is because we have chosen to stop calling sin "sin" and it never gets dealt with.
And this is when the best lesson was taught...
The Four R's.
Andy taught us a lot of Circuit Rider (or Brian Brennt) curriculum which included something they call the 4 R's.
......1.) Repent
..........Jesus, I repent for [insert sin]. I ask that you would forgive me for allowing [insert sin] to cultivate in my life and satisfy me as a temporary pleasure, but it has kept me from You, God, the greatest pleasure. I see it as sin and I call it sin and I commit to taking action to break [insert sin] off of my life.
......2.) Receive
..........Jesus, I receive your forgiveness. I no longer fear condemnation, because I am washed by your blood. Jesus, you loved me enough to sacrifice yourself for me.
......3.) Rebuke
..........In Jesus's name and authority, I rebuke every [insert spirit(s) associated with sin...ex. lust, fear, shame, etc] and command you to the feet of Jesus. In Jesus' name I rebuke every spirit that was given a foothold in my life due to [insert sin]. In the name of Jesus', every ____ and ____ spirit go to the feet of Jesus.
......4.) Replace
...........I replace the spirit of _____ with the truth of God is and who He created me to be.
ex. I replace fear with the courage of Jesus. I replace bitterness with grace, forgiveness, and compassion. I replace anger with a soft heart of love.
We then went to Life Center for lunch and Leadership class with John Leach. Our homework from his class last week had been to take a DISC personality test (I am C-S-I-D --- whoo for the Cs!!). There were only two of us in the class who's personality is C, me and one of the boys here, which was funny because most people were Is. John Leach said, "You have to keep an eye on the Cs...They are dangerous. They will sit quietly but really they have all the answers."
So to test our personalities and see how they work in action, we split up into 2 teams and were given a giant game of......
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Our school leaders observed us and took turns as we all attempted to strategize. The winning team would be the team whose Jenga thing was the highest (at least to level 25...beginning at a level of 18). Our team was so chaotic, people were getting way into it and it was giving me anxiety. Everyone wanted to lead and no one wanted to listen. Everyone was interrupting each other. Very annoying to me. At one point, my friend, M, said, "Guys...its JUST Jenga!"
Needless to say....it was something of a tie, but I think we won. Both teams got to level 27.
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So for instance, we had a girl who always needed to say, "I LOVE JESUS!" louder than anything else she said. We had a girl who had to be blind who could barely hear. I needed to lay on the floor anytime I thought too hard. We had a girl who quoted scripture with nearly every sentence she said. We had a boy who was supposed to continually have body pains. A boy who had to get up and stretch every 2 minutes or so. So on and so forth with different personality types. Anyway, so while we are all acting out our parts, we needed to answer about 20 questions and it was so hard to focus. Haha...I just laid on the floor the whole time. I guess it wasn't too hard for me...
After John's class we went to Starbucks for the Buy One Get One Free promo....Say hello to a venti iced white peppermint mocha (with soy) and whipped cream on the side....for only $2.63. Yes. I was a very happy girl. A very, very happy girl. A very, very hyper, happy girl. Perfect for the conference....
Saturday I got to have some long awaited glory for lunch....with a taste of Christmas on the side...
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Yes, ladies and gentlemen. A Deluxe Chicken Sandwich (no cheese), upsized fry well-done, sweet tea, and a seasonal chocolate chip-peppermint milkshake. Indeed it was glorious.
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This year, YWAM Harrisburg has thrown its first ever Convergence conference and it was absolutely amazing!! We gathered college students from throughout the North East for the entire weekend.
Thursday evening opened up the conference with worship by Lindy Conant and Chloe Brennt and some of our F&F/YWAM Kona family....as you can see, there were tons of people at the altar.
Then Andy sort of shared the back-story to this whole Circuit Riders message and the Ivy Colleges...
It was a wonderful way to open the conference and Brian Brennt shared a little towards the ending as well on the heart of Convergence and the vision/word of the Lord for America -- 80 million saved and 200,000 sent out into the nations.
Friday night opened with Jon and Tiffany Aitken (I highly recommend for the Bethel Music/Bethel Live listeners). They are from Life Center and I absolutely love them!
Brian Brennt spoke again and shared some of him and his wife's testimony about their chronic illness and faithfulness to the Lord. They shared how God took them to the dryest churches and eventually how they became connected with YWAM Kona, Andy Byrd, School of the Circuit Riders, and eventually to Orange County, California.
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The night ended with all of the university students on the stage as we all prayed for them and released them to carry revival into their campuses.
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Saturday was my favorite day. We opened Saturday with worship (again by Jon and Tiff) and Holly Mosemann gave a little class on sharing the Gospel/personal testimony in 30-60 seconds in order to prepare the college students for community outreach with us later that afternoon.
Here is a cute little blurb of an example of preaching the Gospel in less than 60 seconds:
And that is how we got to having about 150ish people in our lawn to split into groups and take on different parts of Allison Hill to minister to.
We mostly invited them to our Harvest Party (which I will share about in the next post) and then as conversation goes with lovers of Jesus, we offered prayer (and here's the kicker):
All because some fiery-eyed revivalists, filled with the love of God, decided to step out in faith!
Remember that woman I told you receive Jesus back into her life on Wednesday? Well, we revisted her Saturday afternoon and she opened the door with the BIGGEST smile on her face!! Her face was shining, she was so happy to see us!! She even told us that since we had prayed with her she wasn't having anymore nightmares, she was sleeping peacefully, she wasn't having any depressing or suicidal thoughts, she wanted to get back in church with boyfriend and start living for God.
Saturday night we had worship with the ever-wonderful Sean Feucht and its was so powerful! Saturday night was the most powerful night for me...Everyone here had a different night chosen as the most powerful for them.
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Sean, Kelsie, YooSung, Lindy, and a few others were all doing worship together and, ahhh, I love Sean so much!
He did my favorite song, "Finish What You Started (North Korea)", which is one I had previously written about. He wrote it for North Korea and the chorus says, "Oh, my God. You can do anything. Oh, my God. Nothing's too hard for You." Then is goes on in the bridge to say, "You're faithful to the end. You will finish what You started." And it repeats and all you hear are tons of voices singing how faithful the Lord is!
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Everyone here is worshipping...This is right before everyone started jumping and dancing. Holy Spirit was so strong in the room...Well, He was so strong every night of the conference...
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Shawn Bolz was speaking Saturday night. He does ministry in Hollywood and pastors a church in Glendale, CA. He shared with us stories of how people on his team were extras in some film being shot at the Playboy Mansion, and off camera there were actors being healed and encountered by Jesus.
After Shawn Bolz dropped some knowledge, shared some stories, and shouted about twenty billion times, "You have permission!!" We all went to the altar for stuff and then Sean was playing again. Holy Spirit was doing His thing and after awhile we all split up into groups of 2 and 3 and began to prophesy over each other.
It was fun because the two girls I grouped with were girls in my DTS and we all got really strong words for each other. That was fun because we did not how know how relevant the words we got for each other were until later.
Afterwards, everyone was dancing and shouting and spinning and laughing and there was so much freedom in the room! It was contagious! It was like this realization that I can literally do anything I want to after DTS. Anything. No boundaries. No limitations. Nothing to stop me.
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On Sunday morning, one of the most beautiful things I think I have ever seen in my entire life took place. Sean Feucht and Andy Byrd were ordained together by Charles Stock under the covering of Life Center. They did it together as covenant brothers and it was absolutely beautiful. I almost cried. So many of their closest friends or family were there praying over them as well as respected church staff and it was such a powerful, beautiful moment.
I was particularly honored to be able to see this (with front row viewing!) because both of these man have truly impacted my life each in a different way. Their hearts are so pure and filled with LOVE; all they want it to see Jesus have the reward of His suffering (US! The Nations!!). All they want is to see Heaven come to earth and Jesus come back. They have no ulterior motive, no secret agenda, they don't even care if you know their name or face...It doesn't matter. All that matters to them is knowing God and making Him know. Experiencing the love of God and giving it away. (And when I say they really don't care if you know their name or face, they REALLY don't.... Thursday afternoon I went up to Andy shared my story of how much he impacted my life, and I told him, "Honestly, I had no idea who you were or what Fire and Fragrance was." He said, "Oh, no! That doesn't matter! I don't want anyone to know my name or my face!" He was genuine. He meant it.)
Anyway, you can watch their whole ordination in my next post because at this time the wi-fi keeps acting up...
Oh, well...
I almost forgot!!
One of my friends sent me a few pictures she took from the Silent Siege at the Supreme Court! (In case you forgot....for more information.)
And now with my super awesome editing skills....courtesy of Apple products and a random app...
Ahh...Well, I do believe this post has been quite long enough.
I was hoping to have this finished a few days ago, clearly that did not work out, but I would like to write another one soon about Thanksgiving....
Alright, everyone, well, I love you! I hope your days have been as lovely as mine!!
Xoxo,
Cheryl
The course of my life has completely shifted into a new direction. I cannot tell you what it is yet and I have no idea how it will happen, but it the word of Lord....and that is all I need to know.
Let me start from the beginning...
I have been looking forward to this past week since January 2012.
Remember my friend, C, who contributed to the decision of coming here in the first place? (You can reread that story here.) Well, in January 2012 he began his DTS here in Harrisburg at the exact same one I am doing. Only he had to live in the Howard Johnson hotel instead of the 333 House...and things were a little bit different....anyway, so he did his DTS here and he actually suggested Harrisburg (but I wanted to go to Kona --- I've made peace with the situation). So, while C was here and I knew another guy, S, who always talked about it, I was so curious as to what the heck this Fire and Fragrance / YWAM thing was. I had never heard about it before, but it sounded like it was super popular and exploding! (Upon coming here I found out the reality that the Harrisburg base is only like 2 & 1/2 years old and F&F Kona is like 5 years old or something like that...It is a growing baby!)
So interested in finding out exactly what it was they were doing, I started researching this YWAM thing and I found out it was SO much bigger than I thought. On top of that, Fire and Fragrance was only a sliver of the DTSes they do. I felt like there were a billion trillion. So I decided to type it into iTunes to see if anything would come up. I stumbled upon these podcasts from Fire and Fragrance: School of Revival and Reformation 2010 from Kona. I began to look through the titles and the speakers and the only person I recognized was Jake Hamilton. (Looking back at it this moment as I write it, I recognize the majority of the speakers because one is my base leader, many I have had, and a few more will be here in the coming weeks.) Anyway, so I look at so many interesting topics these people taught on and I am struggling to decide where to start in listening. So I ask God and He tells me to start with Andy Byrd's "Intimacy and Surrender" messages. So, I do. Let me tell you: it wrecked my life. At the time, I had no idea that Andy Byrd was one of the founders of Fire and Fragrance, nor did I ever think I would get to meet him and hear him speak live, let alone that I would one day get to talk to him and tell him how much he impacted my life. Never did I think any of this would happen.
So anyway... I listen to Andy's teachings (only able to hear 30 minutes at a time because there was so much within it I needed to process -- I definitely recommend anyone and everyone to listen to it). I tell God that one day I want to see this guy in person (at this time I didn't even know what he looked like or anything). So I listen to him and I think, "Well, if this YWAM thing lets people like him speak, I would like to do that one day! There is something this man has and I want it." It was then I decided that I would like to have a season of my life in YWAM (without knowing what I would be getting myself into).
So I learned a lot from Andy's messages and sort of spend like a month or two super obsessed with what he taught me. I probably annoyed a few of my friends because I wanted to tell them everything I had just learned (plus it would help me absorb it all).
Come June and sure enough I am eating with my friend, C, mention that I listened to Andy, and this kid busts out his phone and shows me that he has Andy Byrd in his contacts. I. Almost. Died. Momentarily. You know the rest of the story (visit my first post ever).
Andy is really the only reason I ever considered coming here. Thank you, Lord for his life. Amen.
Getting the word to come to Harrisburg, I was so hopeful that I could possibly have Andy Byrd as a speaker (but I knew he lived in a Kona, so I was doubtful - still unaware that he was a founder). When I got my F&F handbook, I freaked out when I saw he was a speaker. And sure enough, once again, this man has changed my life.
It started Monday.
Andy taught on the practical culture of revival. He took every thing the church has ever made complicated about the Bible and broke it down to absolute simplicity like I have never heard. He broke so many lies that we believed that the churches (even MY church) would teach us, or imply, or fail to expose. Each action is just as guilty.
Tuesday we talked about what it means to create culture. Two things that create culture:
1.) Agreement on Truth
.......example: Ephesians 4:29 says, "Let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."
So in order to create culture, we must agree on what is true. So, we must either agree that the Bible is what it is -- TRUTH -- and agree that speaking unwholesome words that tear down others and are not beneficial IS SIN (because the Bible says NOT to do it), or we can choose to attempt to justify why we say hurtful things to one another as a way of covering SIN (gossip and slander and unwholesome speech) so we can keep doing it. Either choice will create a different culture and only ONE is Kingdom Culture.
2.) Agree on Values that Produce Action
.......We need to call out sin for what it is. The reason the church is so dead, lifeless, apathetic, and stuck in addictions/brokenness is because we have chosen to stop calling sin "sin" and it never gets dealt with.
Just because we choose to stop acknowledging sin for what it is, does not mean it suddenly becomes okay.
Just because more is being committed, does not make it any more acceptable to God.
Calling out sin MUST lead to repentance.
And this is when the best lesson was taught...
The Four R's.
Andy taught us a lot of Circuit Rider (or Brian Brennt) curriculum which included something they call the 4 R's.
****This is my Favorite!!****
......1.) Repent
..........Jesus, I repent for [insert sin]. I ask that you would forgive me for allowing [insert sin] to cultivate in my life and satisfy me as a temporary pleasure, but it has kept me from You, God, the greatest pleasure. I see it as sin and I call it sin and I commit to taking action to break [insert sin] off of my life.
......2.) Receive
..........Jesus, I receive your forgiveness. I no longer fear condemnation, because I am washed by your blood. Jesus, you loved me enough to sacrifice yourself for me.
......3.) Rebuke
..........In Jesus's name and authority, I rebuke every [insert spirit(s) associated with sin...ex. lust, fear, shame, etc] and command you to the feet of Jesus. In Jesus' name I rebuke every spirit that was given a foothold in my life due to [insert sin]. In the name of Jesus', every ____ and ____ spirit go to the feet of Jesus.
......4.) Replace
...........I replace the spirit of _____ with the truth of God is and who He created me to be.
ex. I replace fear with the courage of Jesus. I replace bitterness with grace, forgiveness, and compassion. I replace anger with a soft heart of love.
*****Prayers modified from Brian Brennt's Freedom Manual*****
Wednesday morning began with girls and guys splitting up. Andy and Jeremy Bardwell took the guys to some river to throw rocks and yell like men (breaking off passivity) and this girl from Circuit Riders O.C., CA named Lindy Conant stayed with us girls as we broke fear off our lives (following the Freedom Manual).
[Before anyone gets crazy, the Freedom Manual is the simple practicals of living the New Testament lifestyle from Biblical Truths. No religion. No fuzzy do's and don'ts. It is AMAZING!]
Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
James 4:17
When Andy and the guys returned, Andy passed out the Freedom Manual's section on Passivity and all of us broke passivity off of our lives (which was a BIG shift in all of us). After that lesson we all started looking for areas in our lives where we have been being passive (ex. not initiating; independence; isolation; resistance/rebellion; and many more!). We even look for passivity in the little things...Anytime you know you SHOULD do something that is good and you DON'T, IT IS SIN. I am going to call sin what it is.
Save the lost.
Revive the saved.
Train them all.
Andy also taught us more on the Culture of Revival -- because we cannot live public lives of revival when our personal lives are hypocritical messes. He also taught the Circuit Rider mantra and went in depth on how to do each one of those things. It was really cool because....well, its about Jesus transforming lives!!! What could be better??
In non-class-related highlights of this week, last Saturday (17 November) was my best-human-friend's 19th birthday!!!She said she didn't want anything from me except a piece of paper with a kiss on it, so i wrote her a little note with a kiss in a red lipstick. Then she decided she wanted Brian Brennt's "Freedom" Manual. So, I got it for her. (This isn't a surprise because I told her I would get it for her.)
My roommates, me, and one of the boys did something really fun on Tuesday...
We prophesied over paintings for little children. This one was specifically for a 6 year old girl in Wisconsin. We also prophed over 2 other paintings and we all got a collection of words for the children -- really fun, really encouraging. It was so crazy because we would not share what we were getting until we finished, and we all had the same verses or same themes or felt the Lord was saying the same things about each child. The trippy part was with the first painting when 4 of us got the exact same Bible verse.
On Wednesday we had community outreach and me, N, and K went out together and ended up stopping for this woman with her nephew down the street from us. Upon speaking with the woman we discovered that she walked away from the Lord and wanted to receive Him back in her life! Then her 9 year old nephew (who was with us this whole time) says, "I want Jesus! I want Jesus too!" So N prayed with him to accept Jesus into his heart too! We also kept talking with them and found out the woman suffered from depression and suicide, so I asked her if she wanted to be free from it, Jesus would set her free! AND SHE DID! So N kept speaking with her nephew and I prayed with her for suicide and depression to be broken off of her and her family and at the end of that half hour, she was like a complete new woman! Her entire countenance had changed!!!
On Wednesday we had community outreach and me, N, and K went out together and ended up stopping for this woman with her nephew down the street from us. Upon speaking with the woman we discovered that she walked away from the Lord and wanted to receive Him back in her life! Then her 9 year old nephew (who was with us this whole time) says, "I want Jesus! I want Jesus too!" So N prayed with him to accept Jesus into his heart too! We also kept talking with them and found out the woman suffered from depression and suicide, so I asked her if she wanted to be free from it, Jesus would set her free! AND SHE DID! So N kept speaking with her nephew and I prayed with her for suicide and depression to be broken off of her and her family and at the end of that half hour, she was like a complete new woman! Her entire countenance had changed!!!
The harvest is ready!!
People are hungry! They are thirsty!
Jesus wants to reap, feed, and satisfy the thirst of His people!
All we need to do is step out in faith because
Jesus is wanted in America.
Thank you, Jesus, for moving in her life!!
Friday morning we had small group again. Team South Africa got together and we created something called a Culture Constitution. This is something Andy Byrd and Brian Brennt both do in their community homes (Andy in Kona, HI and Brian in O.C., CA) and all of the teams decided it would be a good idea to create our own.
We wrote things, like, living in faith --- repenting for unbelief and always choosing to believe the word of God. We must choose to speak words of faith and believing in the promises, believing in the Bible, and not allow words of unbelief to leave our lips.
We also wrote on other things like courage, joyful repentance, intimacy/prayer/worship/word, Servant's Heart, to do all things without complaining, thankfulness, unoffendable heart, and probably a few more I have forgotten.
We then went to Life Center for lunch and Leadership class with John Leach. Our homework from his class last week had been to take a DISC personality test (I am C-S-I-D --- whoo for the Cs!!). There were only two of us in the class who's personality is C, me and one of the boys here, which was funny because most people were Is. John Leach said, "You have to keep an eye on the Cs...They are dangerous. They will sit quietly but really they have all the answers."
So to test our personalities and see how they work in action, we split up into 2 teams and were given a giant game of......
Jenga
Needless to say....it was something of a tie, but I think we won. Both teams got to level 27.
Ta da!!!
This was our final product. Afterwards, we all got two groups again (but some people changed teams to switch it up) and we were each given a card that we had to act out to the extreme in a span of 5 minutes with everyone else in the group (but no one knows what your card said).So for instance, we had a girl who always needed to say, "I LOVE JESUS!" louder than anything else she said. We had a girl who had to be blind who could barely hear. I needed to lay on the floor anytime I thought too hard. We had a girl who quoted scripture with nearly every sentence she said. We had a boy who was supposed to continually have body pains. A boy who had to get up and stretch every 2 minutes or so. So on and so forth with different personality types. Anyway, so while we are all acting out our parts, we needed to answer about 20 questions and it was so hard to focus. Haha...I just laid on the floor the whole time. I guess it wasn't too hard for me...
After John's class we went to Starbucks for the Buy One Get One Free promo....Say hello to a venti iced white peppermint mocha (with soy) and whipped cream on the side....for only $2.63. Yes. I was a very happy girl. A very, very happy girl. A very, very hyper, happy girl. Perfect for the conference....
Saturday I got to have some long awaited glory for lunch....with a taste of Christmas on the side...
Yes, ladies and gentlemen. A Deluxe Chicken Sandwich (no cheese), upsized fry well-done, sweet tea, and a seasonal chocolate chip-peppermint milkshake. Indeed it was glorious.
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Convergence 2012
This year, YWAM Harrisburg has thrown its first ever Convergence conference and it was absolutely amazing!! We gathered college students from throughout the North East for the entire weekend.
Thursday evening opened up the conference with worship by Lindy Conant and Chloe Brennt and some of our F&F/YWAM Kona family....as you can see, there were tons of people at the altar.
Then Andy sort of shared the back-story to this whole Circuit Riders message and the Ivy Colleges...
It was a wonderful way to open the conference and Brian Brennt shared a little towards the ending as well on the heart of Convergence and the vision/word of the Lord for America -- 80 million saved and 200,000 sent out into the nations.
Friday night opened with Jon and Tiffany Aitken (I highly recommend for the Bethel Music/Bethel Live listeners). They are from Life Center and I absolutely love them!
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| My friend, M, working the camera!...Literally. |
The night ended with all of the university students on the stage as we all prayed for them and released them to carry revival into their campuses.
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Here is a cute little blurb of an example of preaching the Gospel in less than 60 seconds:
We mostly invited them to our Harvest Party (which I will share about in the next post) and then as conversation goes with lovers of Jesus, we offered prayer (and here's the kicker):
37 people were saved.
20 people were healed.
All because some fiery-eyed revivalists, filled with the love of God, decided to step out in faith!
I have said it before. I will say it again:
The harvest is ready!!
People are hungry! They are thirsty!
Jesus wants to reap, feed, and satisfy the thirst of His people!
All we need to do is step out in faith because
Jesus is wanted in America.
Remember that woman I told you receive Jesus back into her life on Wednesday? Well, we revisted her Saturday afternoon and she opened the door with the BIGGEST smile on her face!! Her face was shining, she was so happy to see us!! She even told us that since we had prayed with her she wasn't having anymore nightmares, she was sleeping peacefully, she wasn't having any depressing or suicidal thoughts, she wanted to get back in church with boyfriend and start living for God.
Tell me that my God doesn't come to those who call on Him!!
HIS LOVE IS ENOUGH TO
BREAK EVERY CHAIN.
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| Listening to testimonies from my bedroom window |
Sean, Kelsie, YooSung, Lindy, and a few others were all doing worship together and, ahhh, I love Sean so much!
He did my favorite song, "Finish What You Started (North Korea)", which is one I had previously written about. He wrote it for North Korea and the chorus says, "Oh, my God. You can do anything. Oh, my God. Nothing's too hard for You." Then is goes on in the bridge to say, "You're faithful to the end. You will finish what You started." And it repeats and all you hear are tons of voices singing how faithful the Lord is!
Everyone here is worshipping...This is right before everyone started jumping and dancing. Holy Spirit was so strong in the room...Well, He was so strong every night of the conference...
You're faithful to the end.
You will finish what You started.
Shawn Bolz was speaking Saturday night. He does ministry in Hollywood and pastors a church in Glendale, CA. He shared with us stories of how people on his team were extras in some film being shot at the Playboy Mansion, and off camera there were actors being healed and encountered by Jesus.
You can check out more about his ministry, Expression58.
After Shawn Bolz dropped some knowledge, shared some stories, and shouted about twenty billion times, "You have permission!!" We all went to the altar for stuff and then Sean was playing again. Holy Spirit was doing His thing and after awhile we all split up into groups of 2 and 3 and began to prophesy over each other.
It was fun because the two girls I grouped with were girls in my DTS and we all got really strong words for each other. That was fun because we did not how know how relevant the words we got for each other were until later.
Afterwards, everyone was dancing and shouting and spinning and laughing and there was so much freedom in the room! It was contagious! It was like this realization that I can literally do anything I want to after DTS. Anything. No boundaries. No limitations. Nothing to stop me.
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| Here Sean and Andy each shared their hearts for Jesus and America and on being ordained. |
On Sunday morning, one of the most beautiful things I think I have ever seen in my entire life took place. Sean Feucht and Andy Byrd were ordained together by Charles Stock under the covering of Life Center. They did it together as covenant brothers and it was absolutely beautiful. I almost cried. So many of their closest friends or family were there praying over them as well as respected church staff and it was such a powerful, beautiful moment.
I was particularly honored to be able to see this (with front row viewing!) because both of these man have truly impacted my life each in a different way. Their hearts are so pure and filled with LOVE; all they want it to see Jesus have the reward of His suffering (US! The Nations!!). All they want is to see Heaven come to earth and Jesus come back. They have no ulterior motive, no secret agenda, they don't even care if you know their name or face...It doesn't matter. All that matters to them is knowing God and making Him know. Experiencing the love of God and giving it away. (And when I say they really don't care if you know their name or face, they REALLY don't.... Thursday afternoon I went up to Andy shared my story of how much he impacted my life, and I told him, "Honestly, I had no idea who you were or what Fire and Fragrance was." He said, "Oh, no! That doesn't matter! I don't want anyone to know my name or my face!" He was genuine. He meant it.)
Anyway, you can watch their whole ordination in my next post because at this time the wi-fi keeps acting up...
Oh, well...
I almost forgot!!
One of my friends sent me a few pictures she took from the Silent Siege at the Supreme Court! (In case you forgot....for more information.)
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| Building a wall and standing in the gap |
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| Supreme Court |
Ahh...Well, I do believe this post has been quite long enough.
I was hoping to have this finished a few days ago, clearly that did not work out, but I would like to write another one soon about Thanksgiving....
Alright, everyone, well, I love you! I hope your days have been as lovely as mine!!
Xoxo,
Cheryl
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