So today was one of the most joyful days ever. I woke up a little tired and cranky, but as soon as I got into the swing of things all was great. The message as always was spot on, and the lunch was actually pretty good. But what really got me pumped on life is the prayer room. The prayer room is where we all go to worship. It's not like most worship where there's the rows of chair and the slides and stuff. There's just a few people up front that play music but they just go with the flow. If it feels right they'll play a song for a minute or ten, they don't really have it all planned out and I really like it. People sit, stand, read their bible, journal, dance, sing, basically whatever they want to express their love to God. Today I just felt like singing super loud and jumping up and down and I just got so filled with God's joy. It's like He was just right there and I could feel him all around me like sunshine. After singing and dancing for a couple hours we all got into our groups to pray for our countries. So we got even more pumped up over that praying together over all the people there around the world. I left that place just filled with so much joy and energy it was just crazy.
So every wednesday night here we have ministry night. What it is is that we walk to the streets of downtown Kona and basically love on people. The goal isn't to convert people or tell them they're wrong or anything, the goal is to just be a light and let people know that Jesus really loves them. We do stuff like listen to their stories, buy the homeless some food, or just pray with them if they wish. Of course if they want to know more about Jesus or follow them that's super cool, but we most def want to break that stereo-type of that christian who goes down to the street and yells "REPENT YOU SINNERS!" Because people hate that, it pushes them away, and that's such an unloving way to present such a loving God. Over the years lots of people have become good friends with the people here, have been healed from injuries or sicknesses, and even decided to follow Jesus themselves. There's all sorts of incredible stories of all this crazy awesome stuff that;s been going on down there at past ministry nights, but I never really fully believed they would happen to me.
So I got in a group of four other people (we have to always be with someone else for safety) and we prayed for the joy God gave us to just overflow into other people's lives. We walked down and started searching for people to love on. I was especially keeping my eyes out for any homeless people, because personally I find them easiest to talk to. They're usually more open to what you have to say, and they're always happy to let you buy them a sandwich or something.
Anyway we weren't really finding anybody who wasn't talking to someone else, so we all decided to lay on the grass. Three of my group decided that they should just chill on the grass, but the fourth guy Ron and I wanted to start walking around to see more people. We walked around for awhile, and I was starting to maybe think it wasn't such a good idea to leave the rest of the group. No offense to Ron, he's a cool guy, but see the three people that stayed, Jonas, Josh, and Taren, were more extroverted people, while Ron and I are more shy and we both felt super awkward just going up to strangers. We tried it a few times, just saying hi to a few people and even offering a guy to buy one guy a cup of coffee, but none of them seemed very interested. It was getting close to the time when we were supposed to return back and I was feeling pretty discouraged.
Finally Ron and I decided to stop and pray before we walked back towards where we were supposed to meet. Well, we were about a block-length away when we passed this boy who looked like he was about eleven or twelve. He was sitting alone on a bench looking really upset and he was rubbing his ankle. Ron and I walked a little passed him and then stood awkwardly peeking at him, wondering whether we should approach him or not to pray for him. Don't get me wrong, of course I feel bad for twelve year old boys with hurt ankles, but I'm also totally new to this whole praying for healing thing. I didn't even know God still really ever did that nowadays. But since I've been here it happens all the time, even in my class. Somebody will have an injury or ailment and we'll all lay hands on it and pray for God to heal it and it immediately gets better. Now that I've seen it a few times with my own eyes I no longer believe it's bologna that people fake on TV shows. But I never though God would do that through me. I mean what happens if I pray for the boy's ankle and it still hurts and then I make a fool out of my self and make God look stupid.
Anyway Ron and I finally took a deep breath and went over and asked him if he was okay and what happened to his ankle. We asked his name (JT was his name) and if we could pray for his ankle. He lit up and said "Yes, Please do!" We layed hands on his ankle, gently as to not hurt it, and each prayed, asking God to not only heal JT's ankle but just to show him how much God loves him. We said Amen and asked JT to move it around to see if it still hurts. I was totally doubting everything personally and was ready to apologize for not being a "good enough prayer" or something like that. But I looked at JT and he had a look of complete shock on his face. Like a deer in headlights. He wiggled it around a little more and then said, "How did you do that!?"
I was in shock! I felt like jumping up and down! I didn't know God would do such a thing through me! Ron and I were all smiley and told him it wasn't us, it was God, and God had chosen to heal his ankle just because He loves him and cares about him that much. JT kept saying it was "totally freaky, in a good way." We hugged him and talked for a few minutes more and started heading back when JT started limping after us trying to catch up. (His ankle wasn't totally healed, it felt a lot better though.) He wanted to know if we were Christians and we started talking more. By then another group of YWAMers joined us and started talking to JT too. The other group along with us decided to pray for JT's ankle again to see if God would heal it even further, after we were done nothing hurt but little tingle in his toe.
Matt Beasley, one of the guys in the other groups who is just a crazy-hard Jesus-lover, got a strong feeling from God that JT was really into music. He asked JT if that was true and JT then immediately lit up like a deer in headlights again and started excitingly tell us about all the different instruments he plays, and how the heck did we know that about him!?
We once again told him that it was God, not any power from us. JT is a Christian who loves God, but like me just a month ago, he had no idea that God is so crazy awesome and so madly into him that He would do stuff like heal a sprained ankle or let us know cool stuff about him, Matt Beasley then went on telling JT that God has a really special plan for JT's life and wants to use his musical abilities in amazing ways to give people hope. How exiting!
JT once again thanked us and just looked super exited and filled with happiness and disbelief that God would seek him out so fervently through complete strangers! I have no doubt that he was super encouraged in his faith and that this night shook up his whole life and outlook on God.
Because I know that's exactly what happened to me tonight!
God is soooooo good! :-)
Awesome Amanda!
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