Healing Conference: Natick, Massachusetts

It has been some time since we've been on an outreach, but finally we got to do our first one of the trimester. This one sent us back to MetroWest just outside of Boston to attend their healing conference.

On the way to MetroWest

Friday was fairly straight forward; the guest speaker was a guy named Doug Collins who has recently gained favor in the Christian world because of God's impartation of signs and miracles to him. He basically went straight into praying for people and involving us interns in the prayer process. While others were assigned to different people, I specifically saw one woman who stood out to me. Her name was Annie, and she had flown in all the way from Vancouver. She is in a wheelchair due to MS. It was rather funny; I thought I was going to be the one ministering to her but she ended up giving me some ministry of her own! Once she finished that, I felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to sing words of life over her and then pray. She was able to get up on her feet holding me and then go a few steps, but then had to sit back down. I was told later that's more than she has been able to do before, which is pretty cool! We are going to be keeping in touch over email.

On Saturday Doug gave a brief message before sending everyone out to the streets. We were to ask people if they would like prayer for anything in need of healing. This part of the trip was hard for me. The interns were all split up into individual groups, and I was randomly asked by 3 older women to join their group. It's not that they weren't nice, but I really wanted to have at least one other guy in the group, and I couldn't just say no because of that. We went to the local mall, and things just got more awkward as my group was steered towards the ladies' sections in department stores (including a brief trip through lingerie), and then a baby store. In the latter location, I split off from the others to try a different approach: connecting through children. A man in his early 30s was watching his 6 month old daughter in her carriage, and I went up and just made conversation involving his daughter. Finally after I was comfortable enough with our discussion I asked him if he would like prayer for anything in particular that needed healing. He said no, but pray for the people in Iraq and Virginia Tech. I wished him and his daughter well and went back to reunite with my group.

Once we got back to MetroWest there was a time of story sharing and then Doug prayed over different infirmities in need of healing, and then empowered people through prayer into different ministries. As we were cleaning up, I went into the portion of MetroWest where a Brazilian church takes place. I met a young guy named Andre who speaks Portuguese, some English, some Spanish and he is currently learning French! He was a lot of fun, and we'll be keeping in touch. He said he wants to have phone conversations with me in a different language each time. I'm going to have my hands full!

While we're on the topic of languages - there is a team of 7 of us going to Mexico: me, Jamie Bower (Airdrie AB), Jessica Hamlet (Virginia), Anton Luse (New Jersey), my bro Luke (Calgary AB), Sharayah Quinn (Lindenhurst NY) and Jesse Smith (Michigan). My duty is to teach the team some basic Spanish, but here's the kicker: I'm learning it before I teach it! Jamie has expressed great interest in becoming fluent and teaching as well, so the two of us are going to work together at instructing. I'm really looking forward to the challenge!

Goodbyes Galore

It has been all about goodbyes this week. Annalee O'Dell (Massachusetts) surprised us all on the 6th when she said that she was leaving the internship on Sunday the 9th. She is moving with her sister to Washington DC soon. Annalee has a great intercessory prayer gift, and carries such a servant's heart. I remember her telling me that all she wants to eventually do is cook dinner for her family and be a great wife. I have absolute confidence that you will be, Annalee, and you are certainly going to be missed here!

The first goodbye that we knew was coming was for Micah Jackson (Oregon) on Tuesday. He has moved out west from New Hampshire to Oregon to work for a while and do something different. His unique presence and persona will be missed.

My thumb nails with painted-on Scottish flags

The second goodbye that we've known was coming for a while was for Dan Collier (Scotland). In order to celebrate him in a unique way, we decided to host a Scottish theme party for him, which all went down yesterday. The house was decorated with various lights, photos of Dan and then several Scottish flags drawn on large paper. We were all asked to wear some form of plaid clothing to the party. I wore my plaid pajama pants, while others had made T-shirts with Scottish flags on them, and a few of the guys even dressed in homemade kilts! Mandy Wise (Houston, TX) took on the job of face painting whoever wanted it done. Noah Zehr (Utica, NY) had a Scottish flag painted on his entire face! I went more conservative; I had the flag painted on part of my left cheek, and then a flag painted on each of my thumbs. Nathan Fox-Helser (North Carolina) didn't have any plaid clothing, so he drew plaid on his arm with sharpies - crazy kid. Finally, for the finishing touch, we turned on the soundtrack from Braveheart. We were ready to have a party!

Dinner was chicken pot pie and an Americanized version of haggis, a traditional Scottish dinner dish. I tried some haggis and it actually was fairly good. I think I'll need to eventually try some of the authentic stuff in Scotland though...

The first thing planned for after dinner was a Dan impersonation contest. Dave Carpentier (Boston, MA) threw a chair in the middle of the room, and muttered stuff like "NUGGET!" and "GYPSY!" as he was pretending to fix the chair. The room applauded Dave's excellent impersonation, and Dan roared in approval. There were some other very amusing impressions, but difficult to describe in writing. Our second contest was a riverdancing contest. Dave was really good, Dustin Zupancic (Abbotsford, BC) did a hilarious rendition of something sorta resembling riverdancing, Chad Seymour (Michigan) & Sharon Felder (South Carolina) had fun trying, and then my brother Luke (Calgary, AB)/Jon Bohy/Jacob Garrett (San Diego, CA) used two of their fingers each on their own palms to 'riverdance'. Ali Johnson (Connecticut) had us scream in unison who we thought the winner was, and from there she would take the top 3 names she heard and have them do an encore. We all burst out laughing as "REE-BEE-COO!" (Rebecca Wallander of Stockholm, Sweden) was the loudest of all the names, despite the fact she hadn't even danced! The laughing was even louder as Rebecca actually did end up riverdancing (or at least trying to).

A cliche techno song (Vengaboys - Venga Bus) was put on for the purpose of amusement (click here for a short clip, click here for a short instrumental clip), but it became even more amusing when the Holy Spirit decided to use it to move in and take over. Chad in particular started manifesting and getting 'drunk in the Spirit', while Luke, Jamie Bower (Airdrie, AB), James Kyllonen (Michigan), Jesse Smith (Michigan), Kaylene Spresny (Michigan) and Anton Luse (New Jersey) began to follow suit. It didn't take long for me, Sharon, Jon, Anthony Acevedo (Virginia), Emily Boe (New London, NH), Sharayah Quinn (Lindenhurst, NY) and Caroline Hyden (Colorado) to get into the action and start dancing, praying for people and breaking loose. A few years ago I never would have thought that strong Christians could actually have so much fun and be unreligious! It is amazing to see what God chooses to use to bring glory to Himself...

Before he left us today, Dan prayed various anointings over us based on which tribe of Israel he felt different interns represented spiritually - that was a really cool mini-impartation to receive. It was hard to see him go, as he truly has made a great impact on us all.

Just when we thought the goodbyes were done, there was another surprise goodbye announcement - Danielle Pitre (South Carolina) is going home to South Carolina on Tuesday! Her plans are to pursue other schooling, so while we're really happy for her, it was totally unexpected. All these goodbyes so soon are really tough to handle!

Mandy Wise at work as Sharon Felder looks on

The Week Between Trimesters

The last day of the Winter trimester (March 29th) came like a flash - seemed like only a few days before that we had joined together. My brother Caleb (Calgary, AB) revealed to the interns that he was not returning for the next trimester, which came across as a total surprise to all. Interns had been asking me about Caleb for the last few weeks, but due to his request I avoided giving any direct answer.

The interns on the pitch

A whole slew of us interns went outside before dinner to play a US versus International soccer match - it was quite a contest! The competition heated up quickly when Rebecca Wallander (Stockholm, Sweden) scored the first goal for us, causing the US to pour more into the game. In the end, the International team was leading 4-0 when the US quit to get ready for the wrap-up party - WE WIN!

At the wrap-up party they played a long slideshow of different photos from the winter trimester and from the fall trimester (the trimester I missed). Dance music was played as some of us randomly jived to the beat, including the infamous Hokey Pokey song.

Because of Caleb's decision to return home to Calgary, I went home with him to visit Calgary for a week. This unique situation allowed me to majorly surprise one of my good friends (Melanie) back home in Calgary. She hosts board game nights on occasion, and she scheduled the first one of the year for March 30th. Before I knew I was coming home for the trimester break, Melanie jokingly asked me to fly home and attend her games night, so I said I couldn't because it was too much money. When Caleb told me he wasn't returning to New Hampshire for the next trimester, I found out Mom & Dad would pay for my flight home and back, and I never told Melanie of the change in the plans. I had Mom drive me and Caleb up to her house, and then had Mom go to Melanie's door, where Mom claimed that "Jesse knew you were having a games night and asked me to bring something for you, but you have to come and get it!" The expression on Melanie's face and her reaction when she saw me and Caleb at the end of the driveway was one I'll definitely not forget - the night was absolutely special! We played a variety of games, including ImaginIFF (great party game). It was a great way to launch my week back in Calgary.

Saturday I worked at landscaping with Mom to earn money to help pay for my next trimester in New Hampshire. I then met Rachelle Nicholson (who might as well be my lil sis) at Bonavista Baptist Church after their Saturday night service and joined the BBC crew for a late dinner and chat at Santa Fe Bar & Grill. It turned out to be the last day I would see any form of good weather in Calgary; by the time the sun went down, snow was starting to fall!

I thought it would be amusing to just randomly show up at my home church (SunWest Christian Fellowship) on Sunday after being away for 3 months. I was right - I enjoyed watching some of the reactions from different people when I ran into them. More than that though, I was shocked at how much pastor Willy Reimer's sermons have changed. He has obviously done a lot of digging and probing into different materials to gain new insight. The message he spoke on (regarding foot washing and applying lessons learned from it to today) had content one would never expect to hear in a Mennonite church. The Bridge church in New Hampshire still feels the most like church as I think it should be, but I am definitely liking the directions Willy is clearly starting to explore at SunWest.

Caleb's new occupation post-internship

Since there was snow on the ground, I wasn't able to landscape with Mom for any of the rest of the week. Instead, I earned money doing various odd jobs for her business logistics. Also, in our boredom me and Caleb did some random stuff, including Texas Hold Em with our stuffed animals (don't ask). To wrap up the week home, I went and surprised the Calgary Scrabble Club players by showing up for Scrabble Club yesterday. Boy did I enjoy getting some real competitive games in! I played 4 games and lost only 1 - not too bad for being away for some time...

The week in Calgary was great, but oddly it didn't feel much like home. I think that's a sign that I need to be in New Hampshire right now, as it feels the most like where I need to be. When I finally got back here, the joy returned - I was immediately entertained by the random crew of interns that came to the airport to pick me up.

Upon arriving at the Yellow House, I got to meet two of the new interns for this trimester: Kaylene Spresny (Michigan) and James Kyllonen (Michigan), both friends of Chad Seymour (Michigan) and Jesse Smith (Michigan). They're cool cats and will be a great fit. These next 3 months are gonna rock!

Dave Carpentier (Boston, MA) "calling" someone