First Few Days

Just getting here was quite a challenge in itself. Me and my older brother Luke, along with 2 friends of ours (Jamie and Brandon Bower), got to the Calgary International Airport around 6:30 PM on the 4th. Our planned route was a flight to Edmonton, an overnight flight from Edmonton to Toronto at 1:05 AM, and then a flight from Toronto to Manchester, New Hampshire at 8:30 AM. Getting to Edmonton was no problem, sure. Our flight out of Edmonton was delayed by a half hour, which made time to get to our connection flight short already. We were certain we weren't going to make it. I couldn't sleep on the plane because I had an aisle seat, so I watched The Guardian on one of the plane TVs to pass the flight time.

Upon arrival in Toronto, we had to transfer over to the new terminal, pick up our bags and take them with us to Canada Customs. To our dismay there was about 200 people waiting to get through customs, with our flight set to stop boarding in 20 minutes! We thought for sure that we wouldn't make the flight, but an attendant called out for all of us flying to New Hampshire and brought us to the front of the line. Me, Jamie and Brandon all got through customs very easily, but Luke was unfortunately pulled aside for secondary questioning. There was a lineup in the questioning area, so I was told that Luke would not get out in time for our flight. Jamie and Brandon left for the flight, but I opted to stay behind with Luke and wait for the next flight. To our dismay, we found out that the next flight after the 8:30 one was at 5:30 PM! The two of us spent most of the day sleeping under chairs in the waiting area for our flight - probably the longest 9 hours of my life. Luke and I in the meantime both got a little sick (me with a tickly throat, him with a stomach flu), and the unusually hot cabin temperature in the plane to NH didn't help things much. We were both quite relieved when we finally hit the ground at 7:30.

One of the interns came to pick us up at the airport - a uniquely quirky fellow, David Carpentier. My younger brother Caleb had spent the Christmas holidays with him in Boston. They really compliment each other; each have their own degree of weirdness, but it's what makes them so lovable. There are two houses the Streams Academy interns stay in - the Grey House and the Yellow House. The guys all stay in the Grey House, and the girls all stay in the Yellow House. The interns go to the Yellow House each night for dinner, since most of the cooking is done there. David drove us up to the Yellow House, since dinner had just finished by the time we got there. As expected, we were mobbed with hugs by other interns before we could even get into the house. Oh how I've come to love those hugs already!

Saturday morning was orientation morning for all of us - our teacher/leader, Ken Nelson, wanted to get us all familiar with the curriculum, but then he added a special surprise: he was going to pray over each of the 4 new people (of which I was one), and prophesy over our lives. Ken's word for me was powerful; I openly wept because of the impact of what he had said.

In the evening, there was a salsa dance party to celebrate the forthcoming beginning of the winter trimester. Luke kept pushing me to try, but I didn't want to because of my fear of how bad I'd look. Finally though, a Indian female intern from England named Kulbir asked me to join her. She had quickly become one of my favorite people to be around, so I decided to try just for her. Unfortunately, God gifts us all in different ways, and dancing isn't one of mine...I gave up after 10 minutes because I couldn't get a hang of the footwork. I tried, though!

On Sunday we went to what is called a Bridge church in Newbury, New Hampshire. Upon setting foot in there, it was different from any church experience I'd ever had. Worship felt more authentic for me than it had at any time previous in my life - tears filled my eyes as I sang in complete reverence. The sermon was one of the best I've ever heard - a big black guy named Aaron Evans was preaching to us concerning the fear of man. The pastor introduced Aaron as "the guy who tells the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego as Shadrach, Meshach and A Bad Negro!" Aaron was just totally transparent with us; he relayed a very humorous rendition of his story about how God convinced him to move up to Newbury, New Hampshire from Orlando, Florida. He discussed his fear when sitting at a prophetic round table with John Paul Jackson, Bob Jones and Bobby Connor all around him. It made me realize just how human the prophetically gifted can be, too. I had this impression for some reason that they all had nerves of steel, so it was relieving and assuring to hear his story. He then called any of us who so desired, to come to the front to receive intercessory prayer to break the power of the fear of man. He had an intercessory team, along with himself, pray for each of us as we individually passed through. A few months ago I might never have even left my seat; this time I went, because I want to push myself outside of my comfort zone at Streams.

Today we had our first day of classes - Ken Nelson taught us about the major covenants of God that were established at different points in Biblical history, including the covenants of blood (Old Testament via an animal, New Testament through Jesus), the covenant of tears/sweat (an allusion to Jesus' sweat whilst praying in Gethsemane), and several others. In the afternoons we all work in various departments at the Streams Ministries offices - my job is in the Web Development area, and I will be assisting in the programming/coding of various Streams-related websites that will be launching this year.

Monday nights we do something called Monastic Mondays - before dinner, all the lights in the Yellow House are turned off, and the house is lit only by candlelight. The dinner usually contains no meats, and little to no noise can be made (we are to whisper or speak very softly). This is to honor the traditions of monks, and allow us to eat a 'holy meal'. After dinner, Ken usually speaks, but for this first week, we did something called soaking instead. Instrumental music is played in speakers around the living room, and all of us are to sit on the couch or lay on the ground and just let the music and the Holy Spirit 'soak' into us. It is quite a surreal experience; I felt great peace during the soaking time. Several others experienced holy laughter, but due to it being Monastic Monday, they stifled it into giggles.

It has been such a relief to see the lack of a religious spirit here - I feel ready to learn what it is I am to learn while I'm here. Tomorrow we start to learn about the saints in history!