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