Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Dallas Outreach - Day 3

Today was a day filled with "more of the same" because we shared the same schedule as yesterday - and will tomorrow, too; except the highlights were different:
  • Time in the sanctuary held a special moment. A leader from Gateway's Outreach team has been overseeing this trip alongside Amped's Pastors. Each morning we've had prayer time and a majority of the kids are still in that place where they are uncomfortable praying in front of their peers. This morning she shared that God had put something different on her heart for our time of prayer... today each child and adult was going to pray. To keep kids from getting too uncomfortable, she asked each one of us to stay seated where we were in the pews and simply stand when the prayer line came our way. This morning we had more than 60 individual prayers lifted up to the throne room of God within the time span of 15 minutes!
  • Mahoghany: She is a 5-year old girl that I met during Tent Praise & Worship. I remember her not only for the originality of her name but, unfortunately, for the anger and rebellion that she held in her eyes and displayed in her behavior. When we were asked to stand for praise, she would sit; when we were asked to sit for message time, she would stand. One of the male pastors from CCI went to her to "curb" her behavior and I could see the disdain in her eyes as he tried to get her to sit down and stop disrupting the kids around her. I felt compelled to help and asked the pastor if I could take over. I did get her to sit down, although reluctantly, by being as sweet as I possibly could be and not making it seem as if I were trying to "tell her what to do". [Not that she didn't need instruction, but I could see that my best parenting, in that moment, was not going to do any good] As the message started, Linda was getting the kids to repeat a Bible verse, "I will love the Lord my God will all my heart, soul, mind and strength", and made a game of chanting this over and over to get them to remember the words. As soon as the kids had it down, the room was split into 2 halves and it became a game of which side could repeat the verse louder. The kids became quite loud and I watched as Mahoghany covered her ears and rocked back and forth in anger as the verse was said over and over. I could see what was going on, so I reached out my hand, placed it on her back and began praying over her in a way that would not draw attention to her. I rebuked the spirits that sat over her; the ones that were making it a painful experience to hear the Word of God repeated over and over. I prayed for a good 5 minutes until I could feel her body relax. I could feel something release and when she pulled her head out of her lap she had a smile on her face. The enemy had ridden into this place on her back and did not want her hearing the Word of God or experiencing the love He wanted to show her that day. I didn't get to stay with her when the message was over because she was too young to be in my group, but I continued to pray freedom over her so that whatever God had in store for her for the rest of the day could be received. I didn't get to see her when she left but I know that God allowed me to have those 15 minutes in the tent with her so that I could continue to pray for her. I may never see her again, but a seed was planted today, a bit of freedom was gained, and her name will be a part of my prayers until God releases me.

2 comments:

  1. First, I'm just thankful. So completely thankful!!!!!!! For this week you had.

    That time of prayer sounds as reviving as a Harvest Crusade. I can imagine the amazing energy and excitement in that room.

    Wowwwww. Deliverance of a child. You were used to bring her the initial freedom she needed to become free. That makes me smile and brings me to tears all at the same time. SO significant!!!

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