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!