International Fair

Yesterday we were informed by leadership that in the evening, there was a special event happening at Colby-Sawyer College (New London and surrounding areas' largest college). Every year Colby-Sawyer hosts an international fair where students of various ethnicities set up displays to share more about their countries and cultures. I jumped at the idea of going, as I love learning more about other cultures, and even more than that I love the chance to learn words, even if they're in other languages!

We got there at about quarter to 7 PM. Unfortunately, the displays were only set up for 5 PM - 7 PM, so I didn't have much time to learn about many of the countries. The first table I stopped by was the Iranian table. I spent about 5 minutes talking to the woman there about various Iranian anecdota, which included everything from Iranian caviar to learning about Iranian currency. She showed me several different rials, Iran's national currency, and even let me keep two! Before she left, she taught me how to say God Bless You in Farsi, Iran's national language. It is written like this in Farsi: خدا بركت دهد )م.ل.( It is pronounced Hoe-dah Haw-fez, and the H sound that we have in English for the first word is slightly changed - the easiest way to describe it is that you pronounce the H throatily.

My next stop was at the Turkish table. It was almost 7, so I didn't spend as much time at this booth. I did get a brief primer on Turkish culture from the woman there, and she was so honored that I expressed genuine interest that she allowed me to keep several Turkish Lira, Turkey's national currency. I then briefly went over to the French table, but the woman had already put almost everything away. I had a quick conversation with her in French (she was surprised at how well I did, as short as it was) and then moved over to the Peruvian table. The dude there was really cool; he let me look for a few minutes at his booth before taking it down, even though it was already past 7. I learned about surfing in Peru; he mentioned the difference in water temperature depending on the region in Peru. Their national currency (Nuevo Sol), translates in English to New Sun. I briefly conversed with him in Spanish, and then went on my way.

I briefly spoke with several women from different African countries, but their booths had already been taken down, so it was more small talk. The gal at the Rwandan table in particular was very kind, and shared a little even though she had nothing really to show anymore. The last table I went to that still had something on it was the Polish table; I made some more small talk and general questions, and then asked for clarification on their national currency. I know from Scrabble that it is zloty (pl. zlotych), but I had no idea how to pronounce it when I asked. I was embarrassed when she corrected me, but she was surprised I even knew what the currency was! Her table had postcards on it, and I happen to collect postcards, so I asked if I could choose one and she said yes. When I asked about zlotych, she told me that I could email her and she would actually give me some zlotych for my collection. Pretty cool!

Samputu and his friends performing

Although we all but missed seeing the displays, we got there just in time for the 2nd half of the fair; one person from each booth from each country said hello with a brief message in both their native language, and then in English. After that, we were in for a special treat. Several people from Rwanda were set to perform for us through singing and dancing their cultural songs. Samputu was the name of the guy who did most of the talking between songs and all of the singing; he clearly had an incredible musical gifting. His voice was so pure and resonating - it took me right into his culture, as he sang in both Kinyarwanda (Rwanda's national language) and English. He told the crowd that for all of their songs, they try to sing in multiple languages, but Kinyarwanda and English were the two he interchanged the most. During one song he called up the Rwandan woman who I had spoken to earlier; he asked her to dance while he sang. The way she moved was hypnotic; one couldn't help but follow her every step and swing. Halfway through the song, another Rwandan man joined her in her dance, and he was just as good!

One of Samputu's last songs was called "Children Are the Future"; he said that it is requested of him to sing it, more than any other song. As soon as he released the first note from his mouth, my heart melted; the power and passion from the song was immediately present. Interestingly, the Kinyarwandan portions of the song felt more powerful to me than the English parts. I'm believing more and more than when someone prays or sings in their native language, God's power is even more present.

For the song following "Children are the Future", Samputu excitedly proclaimed that it was now his turn to dance! He had another Rwandan man come up to sing while he danced. Samputu was also fairly good at dancing - that really didn't surprise me though, as he was so clearly gifted. He then told us that it was OUR turn to dance! Abby Webb (Michigan) was one of the first to get up after he said that - it was obvious she was really enjoying the whole experience. After taking a few pictures, I joined in with the dancers. Samputu sang the whole song in Kinyarwanda. When the song was done, Samputu told us that the Kinyarwandan song title means "Time to Dance" in English. How appropriate!

I was definitely disappointed at first that we missed the displays for the most part, but the Rwandans definitely made up for that disappointment with the show that they put on. My desire to eventually internationally travel has been renewed!

Various flags of countries at the fair

From Silence to Intercession

Thursday marked what for some was an incredibly difficult challenge. Starting at 6 PM, we had to be speechless for a whole 24 hours! The point was that we were to fast something corporately. Nearly all of us also agreed to fast eating for 24 hours, and I even added on fasting my computer for 24 hours. I wanted to go for it!

I knew that not speaking was going to be the hardest part for me, not the loss of food or computer. The primary way we were to communicate was using a pen and paper, or the whiteboards in various locations around the houses. Some of the more amusing moments for Thursday evening was playing Hangman as we walked outside, me being taught Rummy with no speech involved, and Dustin Zupancic (Abbotsford, BC) using an soundboard of Arnold Schwarzenegger audio clips from the Ebaum's World website to speak for him. I unfortunately slipped up on talking twice; the first time I messed up, I was trying a card trick but messed it up and muttered something out. Claire Tatton (UK) was sitting across from me and wrote "Start the Public Humiliation!" and showed it to me, much to my amusement. We were allowed to giggle and laugh a bit, but no talking. The second time I blew it, someone held the door open for me as I walked into the house and I instinctively said "Thank you" before realizing my mistake.

Interestingly, I dreamed before waking up at 10:30 AM. I looked around the room after I woke up, and my vision seemed a lot better than usual for the morning. After a moment I realized I was so tired from Thursday that I'd left my contact lenses in all night! I got very lucky in that my eyes weren't in pain despite my forgetfulness.

By this time I've noticed my thought process has changed; words are not queued at the back of my tongue so readily, rather they are flooding through my head and occasionally getting onto paper. I started to notice the little sounds, like a roommate exhaling, Crasher (the dog) scuttling his tiny paws across the floor, and a doorknob being turned elsewhere in the house. I listened to some teachings in bed for a while, then went back into half-sleeping mode as I listened to soft music for almost 2 hours. Between 10 & 1/2 hours sleeping and the half-sleepy time, I'd spent a total of 12 hours resting!

In the last few hours of the fast, I made my way over to the Yellow House (the girl's house, also the dinner house) with others from my "dorm" to await dinner. I went outside with David Carpentier (Boston, MA) to throw a frisbee around for a while, which is amusing with the inability to talk. Mandy Wise (Houston, TX) came out to join us briefly, and then went back inside. After tiring of frisbee, Dave and I went inside. All the interns were starting to gather in the family room, anxiously awaiting 6 PM and ultimately dinner time. When what seemed like forever finally passed and 6 PM arrived, the room let out a unanimous triumphant cry! We all eagerly took up our plates and went after the lasagna which had been made for us. Needless to say, it didn't last very long!

Saturday took us in a whole different direction altogether. The New London Bridge (our home church) has been planning an event to honor regional intercessors for several months. Basically the idea was that we as an internship and as a church would honor intercessory people. Some of this was to be accomplished with a free luncheon and a time of worship for the intercessors to fully express themselves where the church may have shut them down in the past. There were about 135 people that ended up coming! Part of what made worship special was that Aaron Evans (an international seer residing in Newbury, NH) called a friend of his, Virginia Sullivent, to come up and do the worship session for the event. She is of the acclaimed prophetic worship group Winds of Fire, and came all the way from Orlando FL! She was clearly very gifted and spiritually driven, creating an incredible atmosphere. It was one of the wildest worship sessions I've ever been in, but one should expect that with a room literally full of intercessory people, right? Near the end of the worship time before the luncheon, a small group of people (including a lot of interns) went up on stage at Virginia's invite to dance. Claire Tatton (UK) came up to me and said she felt the Lord tell her to go on stage but that she was hesitant, so I offered to go with her to make it easier. At that point we both went up there and danced up a storm!

To end the event, church leadership and all the interns created what is called a "Fire Wall". We line up on either side of the main aisle, leaving space for people to walk through the middle like one would a tunnel. We were instructed to impart whatever the Lord placed on our hearts to the intercessors, as we know they have given parts of their prayer lives and very lives themselves for our wellbeing. I felt the need to impart the renewing of the mind to all who passed through, and sometimes imparted that via singing to the person going through. It really is quite a unique experience, both being in the wall on the outside and going through it yourself!

The event honoring the intercessors was our last of this trimester; our last day of classes/activities for this trimester is this Thursday evening, which will be our commencement party! (YEEHAW) I will at that point be officially halfway through my time down here, and yet there is still so much to do and to learn...help please, Lord!

Snowstorms Mean Changes of Plans

That they do. The earlier part of the week was so nice; we had a few sunny days, then a few rainy days, and we were doing just dandy. Unfortunately, when Friday hit, we proceeded to get buried under about a foot of fresh new snow. Jamie (Calgary, AB) and Chad (Michigan) made a less than wise decision to drive into Concord despite the weather. They ended up getting stuck and were forced to spend the night at a motel! 6 of the girls went together in their car to drive to Lebanon but were in for a bit of a surprise as the car got a flat tire on the way. In the meantime, I just stayed put in the house, playing on the piano and doing other random stuff to pass the day's time. As part of dinner, Noah Zehr (Utica, NY) made all of us Vanilla ice cream shakes with lime flavoring, while I made French Toast for all who wanted some. While it seems like an unlikely combination, the both of them together actually was really delicious!

We were scheduled to go to Rhode Island for a conference from Saturday to Sunday, but due to the snowstorm and the roads icing over, leadership canceled our trip out there. I was somewhat disappointed because I wanted to add another state to my list of states I'd been to, but I definitely would rather be safe than sorry.

My living quarters

I decided that since there was more time to do random things now that we weren't going anywhere, it was time to clean my room and take a few pictures of it. I've put up one of the better shots of my room for you to have a look at. The closet (off to the right of the picture) in my room is quite small; I have to duck every time I go into that closet, and I can barely stand up when I'm in the part of the closet with the highest ceiling. The view from my windows overlooks the side yard and the mini-highway that passes by this house. I can't wait until it is springtime, so that I can leave my windows open and the fresh smell of the outdoors can come into my room. Right now all that comes in is a lot of cold...

As our alternate event for the day, there was a youth worship event happening at the New London Bridge (our home church) that evening. I have to say, it was absolutely sensational! The music was just so well done, and led us all into that place of praise and adoration of God. The house was really gettin' down, dancing away as we went through the more uppity songs. I was movin' 'n' groovin' the whole time, too - I'm starting to think that worship is the best form of cardio on the planet! There was also a surprisingly large number of adults present for the evening as well; I suppose since we're all young at heart in the Lord, it's all good. We experienced a pleasant surprise when Kevin (the youth leader from the Wakefield, MA Vineyard) brought his wife & kids and some of the youth from his church up for the evening. It was unfortunate that we didn't get to spend a lot of time talking with them, as we were in worship the whole time and they had to leave early to get home to Massachusetts at a decent hour.

The auditorium at church

Something else that made the worship night special was that Kelly Guerra (Texas) was involved on the worship team as vocalist and guitarist. I'm not sure if she is going to be playing on the worship team for church tomorrow, so it could very well have been the last time we got to hear her sing and play guitar. Kelly has an incredible voice; the very essence of it imparts healing to those who listen. We have a special going away party for her happening on Monday evening, and then she leaves us on Tuesday morning. A few weeks ago, Kelly was proposed to by intern alumni Josh Steeper (Victoria, BC). Kelly and Josh are set to be married this summer, so Kelly is leaving Streams to go to marriage counseling and then marry Josh this summer. We will miss her dearly, but we are so happy that God is taking her to that stage of her life. Adios, mi amiga!

Free Weekend

About 2 weeks ago there was an unusual change of events - our trip for this weekend had to be canceled because our destination site was unable to host us. For the first time in a month and a half, we weren't going to minister anywhere on the weekend!

Dustin Zupancic (Abbotsford, BC) and Jamie Bower (Airdrie, AB) well represented the creativity and humorous nature of us Canadians by setting up a weekend activity for us all to do. We would go to the major shopping mall in Concord, NH (about a 20 minute drive away) to do a photo and video scavenger hunt! The list of things we were to take pictures of or capture on video was of course impossibly long; they wanted to see what each of the groups would pick to do. I was assigned to a group with my younger brother Caleb, Jessie Smith (Michigan), Annalee O'Dell (Massachusetts) and Jessica Hamlet (Virginia). Even on a trip like this where things were meant to be light, I ended up learning and being reminded of something elementary yet valuable along the way. I quickly noticed a glaring issue of idle time spent figuring out which pictures and videos to take. Being the ever impatient one, I suggested that we at least take some pictures of the easier challenges listed on our sheet while we thought of something to do for the harder ones. What response did I get? "Chill out, relax..." I had to basically bite my tongue and just let things flow. Surprisingly, I actually didn't dwell on 'trying to win' for long, like I would have done in the past. Instead, we just ended up having a great time doing stupid stuff together, including getting two women working in a camera shop to dance with us to cellphone music (we captured that on video)!

When we were finally out of time for the hunt and gathering back at the Food Court, I knew that we definitely weren't going to win the competition, but it didn't matter anymore; I'd actually learned to *gasp* cooperate and let others have their way! Simple concept, yet amazingly difficult sometimes...

(I don't have the pictures/videos from Jessica's camera yet, I'll post some once I get them)

The other thing I figured out over the weekend was whether or not I'd be staying for the next trimester here at Streams. I've resolved that there are still some issues and strongholds I need to face and overcome with the help of covenant community, and this is the best place in the world to do that. I'm going to be here until the end of June for the next trimester, and then for the last week in June and the first week of July, some of us here will be going to Piedras Negras (Black Stones) in Mexico to do missions work. Part of the preparation for that will be in the next trimester upcoming - we will be taught Fundamental & Conversational Spanish at some point during our learning week, along with instruction on piecing together a sermon/message. Although the Mexico missions is not going to be the full 3 months like originally planned (which was disappointing), I am still quite excited to be able to do that. This is gonna be a rockin' spring...

My Birthday Weekend

This weekend was certainly gonna have a different feel to it. Usually at about this time every year I am in Vancouver, British Columbia at their yearly Scrabble tournament, as it falls on the same weekend as my birthday. This year, I am on the completely opposite coast doing something completely different!

For the weekend, we were going to be interpreting dreams at the Olive Branch bookstore in Northborough Massachusetts, and then interpret dreams or give prophetic ministry at the MetroWest Bridge church in Natick, Massachusetts. Before we left, I got lots of birthday hugs from people - there's always an excuse to hug now it seems, but hey, I'm not complaining!

Olive Branch bookstore

The Olive Branch bookstore is in a town called Northborough in Massachusetts - the building it is in was built originally as a luxurious house, sometime around 1830. As a house, it went through several wealthy owners, the last one being a woman of faith. Although she was selling the house to a business investor, she prayed that the house would become a place of healing. The house became a small business venue for the next 2 owners, but then the next owner (co-owners, actually) made the building into what is now the Olive Branch bookstore. The woman's prayer was answered, as the current co-owners have done so much with the house! They added a cafeteria called The Ugly Mug; I got a good laugh out of the name the first time I saw i. While the resources and publications were added to the building, the feel of it being a home and communal place was remade. Various spiritually-related classes are taught on the top floor of the house, adding further to the healing atmosphere upon the bookstore.

When we do prophetic ministry or dream interpreting, we work in 3s; we believe this method fulfills Biblical principle, as God himself works in a 'team' of 3: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. My dream interpreting team for the afternoon was myself, Kelly Guerra (Guatemalan girl from Texas) and Anton Luse (dude from New Jersey). Probably our coolest dream from the afternoon came near the end:

"I was walking through a house - I noticed everything was black and white. I walked out onto a porch and then back into the house. I went upstairs into a room, and started to paint a rooster on the wall. As soon as I did that, the rooster was the first thing I saw in color, and then everything else had color too! I went past a large room where there were bug paintings on the wall, and they started to come off and come alive! I went back out onto the porch I'd been on earlier, knowing the bugs were coming eventually."

We got to share with her that God was showing her a picture of her spiritual life. The black and white indicated her lack of spirituality. The first time she went on the porch, she got a glimpse of what she could have in Jesus. The rooster was symbolic of "the sun rise", which is a play on words alluding to "the Son's rise" in her life; basically it was an image of her acceptance of Jesus. The bugs coming off the wall were representative of issues in her life in need of being dealt with, and her second visit to the porch indicated more divine vision for her, in this case to deal with the bugs in her life. We assured her that it was a good dream and indicative of what God has done and will do for her.

Anthony and zee Parrot

After finishing our workshop, we packed up and drove to Annalee O'Dell's house for a lovely dinner. The interns surprised me by singing Happy Birthday and presenting me with a card that most of them had signed. I felt very much loved throughout the day, but this was very special. Dinner was chicken-fried steak (weird concept, but tastes really good), mashed potatoes and veggies: it was quite delicious!

Once we'd all pigged out on food, we expressed our thanks and then made our way over to the MetroWest Bridge Church in Natick Massachusetts, where pastor John Thomas was leading a youth event. Basically it was a time of inviting the Holy Spirit in to do works in people. Some received a seer anointing; if they didn't already have it, they received a greater measure of it. Others were hit with holy laughter (one girl laughed for over an hour!), and one girl was "slain in the Spirit" for more than 2 hours...it was quite something.

Most of our trip's purpose was now accomplished. The next morning, the remaining trip agenda consisted of the MetroWest church service and then prophetic ministry/dream interpretation following the service. I always like to say, John Thomas is one of the closest things you can get to Jesus. What I mean by that is not that John Thomas is a god, but that he is an amazing man of God and a representation of part of God's very nature. He is one of my favorite people to hug - I never want to let go each time I hug him. After an intense worship session, John Thomas preached on divine authority and protocol (i.e. why Satan had to ask God before doing stuff to Job's possessions, family and then ultimately Job). At the end of the service, he called forth anyone who was feeling condemned to come to the front for prayer, and anyone who was feeling convicted to go to the back for prayer. He released the interns and other prophetic voices to break those strongholds off the people of the church. Although I personally wanted prayer for feelings of conviction (I'm thankfully past the stage of feeling condemned), I was asked to prayer for others, so I complied and went with Kulbir Raju (intern from the UK) to pray for people.

As I was wrapping up and about to leave to join my dream team, I saw a girl from the Emerging Leaders conference we'd attended last month. During ministry time after a message, I got to pray for her in regard to her "spiritual hearing". She came over to me and gave me a great big hug, telling me that the conference and the time I'd spent with her had changed her life. She revealed herself to be a newer Christian and explained some of how me and the conference had affected her for better. I also got to meet her boyfriend before giving her a hug and heading off (I offered her boyfriend a hug, but he wasn't comfortable with it). She gave me contact information because she wants to keep in touch and ask questions she feels I can answer for her. It's flattering, but I'm remembering to leave all credit to God!

For the after-church dream/prophetic team, I experienced almost complete blockage on revelation for people and really had little to say. Before I might have gotten upset at that, but the Lord clearly wanted to work through specific people in my group, so I was ok with taking a mostly supporting role.

The evil Dunkin Donuts box

John Thomas kindly treated us all to pizza before we left for New Hampshire. On the way home, my van drove too far past a key exit on an interstate highway, so we stopped briefly at a Dunkin Donuts before regaining our direction. I went in and got a box of "Munchkins", which are their equivalent to Tim Horton's Timbits (Canadian pride!). I can happily say that Munchkins have absolutely nothing on Timbits, which are by far better tasting. It's all good though - I like sugar!

When we got back, Mike and Mandy Wise (leadership couple from Texas) had made dinner for all of us - Fish 'n' Chips. They cleverly disguised a final surprise for me, though; they called a 'meeting' after dinner in the dark, where they brought out a homemade cake they had made just for me! It was primarily chocolate, but they had done something particularly unique with my cake; what would usually be icing between the layers of cake was whip cream...it was so incredibly good! I had more than enough of a sugar fix for some time after that. Mandy Wise had something else to tell me, though. She pulled me aside and told me that she and Mike want to host me for a Mexican dinner on Wednesday as a 'gift' to me. I of course said yes - I'm really excited and can hardly wait!

My 21st Birthday Cake