Memorial Weekend

In Canada we're used to celebrating the May long weekend in association with Victoria Day, which occurs a week before its US equivalent: Memorial Day.

The drive to Hampton Beach on Saturday morning was one of the shortest we've ever taken, as it is a coast town about an hour and a half east of New London. It was a relief to go a different way than the usual toward Massachusetts, as we're all just about sick of driving on I-93 every trip.

Hampton Beach is definitely a village geared towards youth. Most of the houses are small and older, and the street adjacent to the beach (Ocean Boulevard) is laden with local businesses. The atmosphere and culture was completely different to what we've been used to; obviously people walking around wearing very little has some to do with it, but there was more to it than that.

Taking a break on Hampton Beach

Outreach leader Anthony Acevedo (Richmond, VA) instructed us to go along the walking path just off the beach and survey people about dreams. Basically the questions were "Do you dream?", "How often do you dream?", "Do you feel they have any meaning?" and "Can we interpret one for you right now?". I was grouped with Jessica Hamlet (Richmond, VA), Emily Phelps (Virginia) and their visiting friend Brittany Gray (Virginia). We were kinda unsure about what to expect, but that left after we surveyed our first two people. They were uncertain at first as to whether or not we were psychics, and then they later revealed that they were from North Carolina and had been to Morning Star Ministries, a group in conjunction with Streams. They even knew who John Paul Jackson was when we asked them! We were really encouraged that God would show up so quickly to encourage us that way.

By the time we got back to the beach for our break, we were pooped from all the walking! We got to just lie on the beach and enjoy the scenery. Me personally, I just power napped for an hour.

Ocean Boulevard at night

At dinner we all took turns relating stories about the people who had been positively impacted by our ministry to them, but particularly those who had their dreams interpreted. Brandon Crummer (Cody, WY) and Anton Luse (New Jersey) told us they got to pray for a woman in a wheelchair who wanted to be able to walk for her granddaughter's wedding in the fall, and Emily shared about how we interpreted a dream a woman had about dancing with a man whose face she couldn't see (the Lord wanting to "dance" with her). The evening was wrapped up with some music on the beach, and then we went off to David Carpentier's house in Rowley, MA to spend the night.

We attended the North Shore Bridge (worship leader Josh Young's home church) Sunday morning, where David's dad gave me words of knowledge about part of my calling (to youth). That in combination with the worship totally overwhelmed me and brought me to tears. I have been scared of the idea of working with youth in my own insecurity, but that doesn't stop God from expressing what He wants of us. I'm looking forward to seeing how God plays that out in my life.

Jessica and Emily playing frisbee

After church we drove out to Gloucester Beach in Massachusetts to have an afternoon to ourselves and enjoy the weather. The beach was far less commercial than Hampton Beach had been; the sand was almost white and there was a significantly smaller number of people around. I quickly noticed that there was a small island just slightly offshore and my adventurer spirit kicked in. The tide was low enough that I'd only have to walk through water waist-deep at most to get to the island. I went with Jessica Hamlet and Sharayah Quinn (Lindenhurst, NY) over to the island, but only Jessica wanted to climb up. There was no defined path, just different rocks, clefts and ground previously trodden on to refer to. I got whisked back to this childlike place of being an adventurer, imagining finding a new world as I went up. At the top, we just took some time to admire the view and creation all around us. However, my curiosity quickly took back over and I wanted to go explore the rest of the island. Jessica went back down as I explored further through the bushes, trees atop the grassland and quarries on the island's top. In one particular quarry the seagulls were all flying a mere several feet above my head! They were flying back and forth, diving down and coasting up, making me think they were going to lunge at me, oh fearless explorer that I am!

We spent Memorial Day back in New London, mostly just enjoying the great weather and relaxing. In the evening Brandon Bower (Airdrie, AB) was in charge of cooking the burgers and hot dogs for our picnic while the rest of us played volleyball in the yard. Jody Demske (Michigan), one of the oldest people here (mid 40s) is actually our resident expert on volleyball and she can play a pretty mean game herself!

This week we have all the mornings off to just relax and rest, which is definitely something we all need. Oh how I love sleeping in...

Street Ministry: Worcester, Massachusetts

This past weekend the interns were divided up to go to two different outreaches. One was in Maine, the other in Worcester Massachusetts. To be honest, I was disappointed at first when I was told I was going to Worcester, because I've never been to the state of Maine and I really wanted to go. However, God quickly fixed my perspective when He reminded me that I'd been to Pennsylvania last month, where half of the interns couldn't join us. As the weekend progressed, I realized it was definitely where I was supposed to go (good thing God knows best!)

We left New Hampshire Friday afternoon (later than we usually do when we leave on Fridays) to head to Worcester. Before this weekend I'd only ever heard of the city, due to the fact that the way it is pronounced is not even close to the way it is spelled (WUS-STAH). I wasn't even sure what to expect for ministry, as all I had been told was that we would be ministering in coffee shops Saturday afternoon. I was surprised to find out that we would be in the poorest area of Worcester, ministering to homeless/low income individuals. Did I ever mention we've been in almost every setting on outreaches?

After arriving at the Starbucks in Worcester, we met up with JJ, one of the guys from the Woo Church (the church in Worcester we were working with). He bought everyone coffee compliments of Luke (pastor of the church), much to the delight of the Starbucksaholics. Due to my sugar fast for the month of May, I declined. To add insult to injury, once we got to the Woo Church, there was a box of free desserts from Starbucks for all to enjoy. This wasn't going to be easy!

The Pilgrim Congregational Church building

Despite the fact that it is in the poorest part of Worcester, the church building itself is majestic! Originally for the Pilgrim Congregational Church, it was built in 1885 to meet the need for a place of worship in that region of New England. Its slogan, as inscribed over the front door, is "In This Place Will I Give Peace." In its prime the church seated a full house of over 1000 people. However, the current owners of the church get about 10 people per service, the youngest being in his early 70s! As a result, the upstairs area where the 1000+ would congregate has been locked up; they instead meet in a small room in the basement, backed by a beautiful stained-glass window. Every second Saturday evening for church services, the Woo rents one particularly large room in the basement of the church, formerly used as the dining room & games room.

On Saturday morning, Pastor Luke's wife made us an amazing breakfast of pancakes, eggs and sausage. I decided to try eating pancakes without syrup, and they actually weren't all that bad. I can't wait til I can eat sugar June 1st...After breakfast, we found out Pastor Luke only just started the Woo church back in April over Easter. We quickly realized part of the reason we were there was to encourage the church and impart life to them. Before heading out, we prayed over Pastor Luke & his wife, Assistant Pastor Bob & his wife and JJ. Off to the streets of Worcester we went!

Almost as if scripted for a movie, it was grey and raining outside. Some of us went to the PIP homeless shelter to spread the news that we would be interpreting dreams in two coffee shops, and then serving free dinner before the service at the Woo. It was awesome to see how much some of the people's faces brightened and their demeanors change when we spoke into their lives. Particularly amusing was speaking to the people that were either high or drunk, as some of them were so far gone it was almost impossible to understand anything they were saying. I did get to have one conversation in Spanish, albeit brief, with one particularly drunk man outside of the PIP shelter. Even though we weren't really able to minister to him, I was pumped that I actually carried out a conversation in Spanish. Worcester has a fair amount of Spanish-speaking people, which I was delighted to discover. Lots of practice for Mexico!

On the way to the One Love coffee shop, my group ran into a woman named Lydia, who we learned was homeless and had been drinking for 3 days. Despite her heavy drunkenness, she was not completely unreceptive to our ministry to her. At one point while we were talking to her, she looked at Rebecca Wallander (Sweden) and Kaylene Spresny (Bay City, Michigan) and said "Such pretty young girls, and you believe God can help me? No way, I'm unsavable." We eventually convinced her to come with us to the coffee shop. Unfortunately, when we got there, she went off with a man to prostitute herself for another drink. She would end up coming and going from the coffee shop while we there.

We found that we didn't really get to interpret many dreams or do many spiritual readings (we actually only did 3 in the 4 hour period), but we were instead doing more personal ministry to the street people (Lydia being one example). At the church in the evening, there were only a few street people that ended up coming, despite the initial numerous positive responses earlier in the day. Perhaps they thought we were going to try to convert them...oh well.

Stained-glass window in the church

Pastor Luke may be young, but he certainly knows the Lord. He preached a casual, yet effective sermon on the Lord's Prayer and what it means to us. Lydia had come in just before he started preaching, and several of the interns were around her to make sure she didn't get into trouble. Pastor Luke told the congregation that he was going to tell them a story, and Lydia unexpectedly heckled by saying "Can ya keep it short?" Even he laughed, and then continued to tell the story. Lydia stumbled out near the end of his sermon, but we weren't upset; we'd planted some seeds in her life.

At the end of the service, we decided to set up a "Fire Wall" (see From Silence to Intercession for an explanation on what it is) for the members of the Woo. They remarked how much they all got from it, both spiritually and emotionally. At that, we were ready to head home to New Hampshire.

Just when I thought we've done ministry almost every way possible, I get surprised. This upcoming weekend we'll be at Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, doing live dream interpretation on the beach. I can't wait!

Christians United For Israel: Boston, Massachusetts

One particularly prevalent theme for the last several outreaches has been the diversity in expression of faith. An event with Christians and Jews together is no exception!

The prayer wall in the Olive Branch

However, for the day before the CUFI event, we were split in half. Half of us would go to Boston to interpret dreams and do prophetic ministry on the street, while the other half would go to the Olive Branch bookstore in Northborough to do the same. I was on the team that was sent to the Olive Branch.

In one of the groups that I ministered with, a guy had a dream where he was running after several majestic white horses while an avalanche was fast approaching from behind, yet he felt no fear. We had great delight in telling him that the Lord was showing him how much favor and authority he was about to walk in.

After finishing up at the Olive Branch, we drove to the MetroWest Bridge in Natick to spend the night. It just so happened that we got there as the Brazilian Church (which uses the same building as MetroWest) was just finishing. I got to see my buddy Andre! He greeted me in Spanish, and then spoke to me in a bit of French. Evidently my French is not up to par, but I have been improving on my Spanish. He taught me how to say thank-you in Portuguese (obrigado), and then his wife joined us, who speaks more Spanish. We actually had a short conversation that I understood, which is a step up for me in learning.

Early Sunday morning we drove out to Boston, which I would be seeing for the first time! On the way in we passed by the Green Monster in Fenway Park of baseball notoriety. Our final destination was the Massachusetts State House, located on Beacon Hill in downtown Boston. The Beacon Hill area is a site to behold; while everything is older, it isn't dirty and it actually looks really good! A particular point of interest is the Boston Common, a public park originally used as a military camp before the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). Today it is a hotspot for locals and tourists alike.

Our job before the event was to set up all the stuff people would be seeing. Large banners depicting various messages in Hebrew were hung, and the US flag & Israeli flag were both hung slightly in front of those banners. There was an unexpected job which me and some of the other interns took on. We were asked for 6 guy volunteers, and I was one of them. We were asked to 'flag-bear'. We were to walk around half of the auditorium holding large Hebrew emblems (there were 12 in total, and each was representative of a tribe of Israel). It was a whole lot harder than it looked! The emblems weren't heavy, but awkward to move around.

A gazebo in Boston Common

About two hours before start time, we were all set to get changed into our formal attire and then go through dress rehearsal. I realized at this point that I had left my black dress shoes (that I borrowed) in the van! Desperate, I got the keys to the van from Mike Wise (Houston, TX) and then asked Dave Carpentier (Boston, MA) for directions. He told me to go across the Boston Commons (at least a 10 minute walk), look for a particular hotel and then eventually spot the van. I went all the way and could not find the van, even after going an extra two blocks in every direction besides what he told me. With an hour and a half before start time, I was in a panic. Finally in desperation I decided I had to buy new shoes. I asked the doorman at a ritzy apartment complex where I could buy dress shoes. He gave me the directions to a Macy's, which happened to be all the way back to the State House plus another two blocks! As I was in the process of trying on shoes, I got a cellphone call telling me to hurry back, as dress rehearsal was starting. Oy vey! I got back and got changed just a few minutes before the flag-bearing rehearsal, sweat dripping as I changed into my outfit. I wasn't perfectly presentable, but I had made it.

The event proved to be eye-opening and well done, despite the preceding chaos and lack of thorough pre-planning. There was a speaker from Israel and a speaker from Japan (surprised us all I think) that laid out the truth about what's happening in the Middle East, and our role. One of the things that shocked us the most was a quote given from an Iranian leader (and hidden from the media): "Give us the Jews, and we'll give you (America) the oil!" If only people knew just how deep in we are, and how much our decisions truly will affect the Middle East. Genesis 12:3 makes it pretty clear: we must stand up for Israel.

One of the larger banners

God For People Who Hate Church: Salem, Massachusetts

As soon as I first heard what we were going to be visiting Salem for, I knew the weekend would have to be awesome. The conference was going to have several well known speakers coming in to talk about their views on how the modern church as a whole has played a large role in driving people away, ultimately confusing those people's feelings about God.

On Friday we set up tents outside of The Gathering (refer to my February entry for background on The Gathering and Salem as a whole) to do dream interpretation and spiritual readings for the public. Unlike last time, it was actually somewhat warm out so we didn't freeze. Part of the afternoon I was on a dream team with Brandon Bower (Airdrie, AB) and Emily Phelps (Virginia), and we had several cool experiences. The first was with a young guy named Bob who was looking for a spiritual reading. After we encouraged him with words for the Lord, he revealed that he was a recovering ex-narc with a daughter that he loved very much. He left profoundly impacted at the words he received. The other interesting experience was when two Mexican women came in for spiritual readings; one spoke fairly good English, the other almost none. Since I'm in the process of learning Spanish right now, I said several small Spanish sentences at various points throughout the process. I messed up the verb conjugation when I tried to say "Running in the Holy Spirit", but they still got the message and quickly corrected me. They got something from God, I get something from them!

The evening marked the beginning of the conference. Jim Henderson of Off the Map Ministries (based in Seattle WA) was the first speaker of the weekend, and he is still one of my favorites. He spoke of the different ways that the modern church has not lived up to what Jesus intended, and some of what we can do to change that. He asked several interesting questions, one being: "What if we stopped being the most pious people and became the greatest listeners?" He spoke about how being a true listener is the most basic form of spirituality, and how spirituality isn't just an "Oh Hallelujah!" moment. Jim had us laughing a lot of the night, simply through his bluntness in showing the weaknesses of the church. However, he also offered sensible solutions. Not a lot of it was new to me, but there was some more perspective added that I definitely was able to take from it. There was one point near the end where he talked about solid proof that Jesus doesn't expect us to live every second doing something of pious importance; he pointed out that Jesus "did nothing" for the first 30 years of His life, and then "time wasted" a lot throughout His 3 years of ministry. If you look at Jesus' life, he literally tithed himself! (10% of 33 is a little over 3) Jesus is all about using ordinary people who do "almost nothing". That was a huge thing for me, as I've always feared I don't do enough.

Watching the late night movie

Shortly after Jim finished speaking, me and some of the other interns helped prepare the room for our late night movie showing. The movie was called "Lonnie Frisbee: Life & Death of a Hippie Preacher". It featured the story of a young guy who found the Lord while he was on drugs and then proceeded to create a movement in California, part of it influencing the start of the Vineyard Church. Controversy was revealed surrounding Lonnie's sexuality, so people in church leadership were mad that God would use "someone like Lonnie" so powerfully. Lonnie eventually died of HIV, and at his funeral a prominent church leader gave a eulogy which basically said Lonnie could have done so much more with his life/ministry if he had "overcome his circumstances". For those of us watching, it provoked feelings of disbelief and even a bit of anger. It brought up a good post-movie discussion about how the church has failed to reach that group of people appropriately.

Saturday had even more controversy in store. As Jim Henderson was preparing to speak again, a Gathering staff member was trying to help get video up on the screen, and somehow accidentally put up a porno video. It was fairly quickly dealt with, as pastor Phil Wyman made a public apology/declaration regarding the incident, and the staff member made his own statement of apology, saying he lent his laptop to a friend last week. The congregation took time to pray and bless the rest of the day before continuing on with Jim's presentation.

The Neo-Pagans speaking at the Gathering

The panel after lunch featured a group of Neo-Pagans from Salem. The first was Teri Calgren, Director of Witches' Education and owner of several witch shops in Salem. She was born in the Bronx NY, raised Irish Catholic. While she was taught growing up to not be discriminatory but loving to all, she had the opposite demonstrated to her by her church family. She has maintained those values she was taught, but instead has focused it into a form of witchcraft. The woman in the middle was Susan Wade, a practicing Neo-Druid. She owns a memorabilia shop in Salem's historic Pickering Wharf area. She was raised Orthodox Hebrew, and one of the first things she remembered being told as a child was that she couldn't play with non-Jewish people. As she grew older she felt more and more that there was something wrong, and finally felt she got confirmation on that when a dream told her she had yet to step into her faith. Through a series of events she eventually found Neo-Druidism and is now quite content. The last was Christa Grillo, a solitary Wiccan. She was raised Christian, but started to question it after several events. One of those was someone in church telling her "Dogs don't go to heaven" when she asked for prayer for her dying dog, and the other was her mom dying of breast cancer. Christa at first turned to atheism, but found in it there was nothing to live for and no joy. She found a book about Wicca and fell in love with it. A consistent theme for all of them was some lack of love from the church, and their dismay at how people devalue what they believe, which in turn devalues them. This really struck home to all of us listening, as at some point we've all done that to some degree. We wonder why people automatically assume all Christians are the same, and yet we do that with witches. Thought provoking.

Following the Neo-Pagan panel, Phil Wyman started an interactive workshop for all the conference attendees. Basically we were all split up into 7 different teams, and each team was responsible for coming up with a 10 minute segment of a non-traditional way to do church. Ideas flew, and I couldn't wait for Sunday morning...

The Judson Window at Salem's First Baptist Church

Saturday evening featured Jay Bakker, pastor of a church in a bar in Brooklyn, NY. He spoke more about loving people where they're at, but at the same time being firm about our own beliefs. He gave a really interesting new twist on The Fruits of the Spirit: "There's a reason Jesus chose it to be fruits of the spirit - fruit trees don't eat their own fruit!" While it may seem glaringly obvious, it's something we've really missed as the church.

Finally, Sunday morning! It truly would be one of the oddest, but one of the most fun 'church services' I've ever been a part of! One segment was philosophically influenced; two guys sang 'Plastic Jesus' (much to our great laughter) and then asked us to talk about how the church has made Jesus 'plastic'. Another segment featured us putting whatever amount of money we felt we should into an offering plate, and then once it got up front there was a surprise. The lady leading the segment merely blessed all of the money, told us to take back what we had put in and use that money to advance God's kingdom, since all of our money is His anyway! I definitely wasn't expecting that, liked that part a lot. There were several musical segments that were really unusual, one of which was several people playing djembe drums as the congregation was called to dance and shout out praises to the Lord. Finally, Phil Wyman introduced us to one of his church's practices. He brought out an inflatable globe, and explained that whoever has the ball points to the country currently on their heart and then prays for it. I really liked it, and I now want to find a globe of my own to do that with at home!

I immensely enjoyed my time in Salem. It definitely had its difficult and stressful moments, but as of late it seems like every outreach has. Tis a good thing God's bigger than all of our troubles!

Susquehanna University: Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania

Shortly after getting home from last weekend's event, it was announced that one vanload of interns would have the privilege of going to Pennsylvania and other various locales on the way there and back. I immediately went to the signup sheet, and the next day was overjoyed to find out I was going!

For the first day (Thursday) we were going to drive to Tolland Connecticut, minister at Pastor Westin's homegroup and stay in host homes for the night. It just so happens that the interns who didn't go to MetroWest last weekend went to Tolland and met Westin, as they ministered at the University of Connecticut and then at Westin's church. We were graciously welcomed and treated to dinner before doing dream interpretation and prophetic ministry at Westin's house, where homegroup was being held. Kaylene Spresny (Bay City, MI) was in my group with Brandon Crummer (Cody, WY) ministering, and she did remarkably well for her first time!

Fred, the Bassetts' gecko

Me, Brandon, my bro Luke (Calgary, AB) and Dave Carpentier (Boston, MA) were all staying with the Bassett family for the night. Luke had met Amy Bassett (the mom) and her kids the week before for the UConn outreach, and her kids had quickly grown attached to Luke. They were really excited to hear he was back! Amy quite clearly understood Luke, as they got along really well and talked at a really comfortable level. The kids have a really cool gecko named Fred, and one said of him, "When we gave him his name it was weird, but over time it became good." I love kids.

Friday morning we blessed the Bassetts' home before leaving, and had an unusual surprise on the way over to Westin's house. A turkey randomly dropped down and flew in front of the windshield, nearly getting pegged! We all woke up pretty quick after that, and were ready to get to Pennsylvania upon reuniting with the rest of the crew.

Jamie Bower (Airdrie, AB) shows up Vanna White as Dave Carpentier (Boston, MA) satisfies his sweet tooth

The main part of our trip for Friday was getting to Hershey Pennsylvania, home of the Hershey Chocolate company. My first impression of Penn was "Wow, it's green everywhere!" Take Alberta, remove the mountains, add a few hills, scatter some deciduous trees, make everything lush green and you have Pennsylvania. Once we got to Hershey, we stopped in at Chocolateworld; boy was it ever a treat! (yes, the pun sucked) There were special trolleys outside the builing, just waiting to take people to different places. Inside is a sight to behold; on the left is a "movie theatre" where one can learn more about Hershey's history. Straight ahead is the Hershey's shoppes/store, and slightly to the right is the Hershey Guided Tour. Off to the far right is the "Make your own" station, where for Friday people had the option of making their own Hershey Kisses. I went into the tour, and it was better than I had expected: we got to sit on a monorail while it took us through. I'm likely going to have nightmares with the 3 singing cows in them for days ("It's the milk-milk chocolate!") The chocolate creation process was explained in detail, with various demonstrations of Hershey machinery and video displays. After the ride I went and bought a huge sundae with Hershey fudge, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups sprinkled on, two brownies wedged in, topped with whip cream and a cherry. So much for my diet...

Our host home for Friday night was in Hershey, with the Stein family, who Streams came to visit last year on a trip to Pennsylvania. They live up the hill from a community golf course, and the view was just breath-taking! Michael Wise (Houston, TX) cooked burgers and hot dogs for dinner, and then we went wandering about the golf course. I went into the living room after dinner to fiddle with one of the Stein's guitars. Their son Norman and his friend John overheard me attempting to play, and actually taught me a few chords. I tried learning guitar about 10 years ago and gave up right away, but I think I actually want to again!

Part of the golf course

When it got dark, we lit up the fire pit and talked around it; me and Dave talked some about angels and the role that they play in our free will. During that time, Luke, Kaylene and others were out late walking on the golf course. By the time we got to bed, we'd all been on the course at some point.

It was only on Saturday morning before leaving the Steins' house that I actually noticed that the air outside smells like chocolate! Thoughts of a fairy tale environment partially existing sprang forth in my mind. After snapping out of it, I went with the others to give goodbyes before we went on our way. The Steins were truly amazing people, incredibly hospitable. They are moving to Virginia to open up a Christian-influenced coffee shop to uniquely minister to people.

We were finally going toward the main reason of our trip: Susquehanna University! The main reason for the whole trip was that Streams Academy had been hired by an entertainment company to "work" at SU during a university fair. We were officially hired as dream interpreters and spiritual readers.

An airborne Sharayah Quinn (Lindenhurst, NY)

Selinsgrove consists of either brick houses, brick buildings or older houses, some of those clearly labeled as frat/sorority houses (using various Greek letters). Selinsgrove in essence is just a college town. SU itself is rich with heritage and noticeably older; all the buildings on campus are made of brick and are bungalows (some with basements though). It was evident that the 1500ish students on campus are more interpersonal than you'd typically expect for a university. That gave SU a definite small town feel. Ken Nelson (the director of Streams Academy), Mikey Wise and Jessica Hamlet (Virginia) were the 3 doing the dream interpretation for the afternoon. The rest of us explored Selinsgrove and then had fun with the various games at the Susquehanna fair. Some of those were boxing with giant gloves, a bouncy slide and a basketball 3-pointer shooting contest with some army guys.

After finishing at Susquehanna University, we were set to go to our last major stop on the trip: the Lighthouse Church in Lindenhurst NY, home to Sharayah. It was so refreshing to see the Lighthouse again; I knew we'd get a hearty welcome from Kari (Sharayah's mom) and the rest of the Lighthouse crew. Not only that, but we got some New York style cheesecake, too - so good!

We attended the church Sunday morning, and much to our delight there were fresh New York bagels waiting! In the service Ken spoke about honoring leadership (specifically the church's pastor), as there had been some drama going on at the Lighthouse. After the message, Ken had the congregation line up around the sanctuary in a circle, so that all of us interns could give prophetic ministry to them. It was an powerful time, especially for one girl named Roseanne. Her friend had brought her to church knowing we were coming. Roseanne received multiple prophetic words of encouragement relating to her health, which caused her to break down. She revealed to us after that she was recently diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. She did not know the Lord but had felt something special when receiving the words she got. Ken talked with her for a while, and eventually Roseanne decided to accept the Lord into her life. That alone, if nothing else, totally made the trip!

Upon leaving the Lighthouse, we decided to try to get to Central Park. Unfortunately traffic was too congested, so we had to abandon that idea and head home instead. At various points during the drive, Ken drilled me on different Spanish words and phrases, which really helped me improve both my comprehension and vocabulary.

This was definitely my favorite trip of any yet; I'm likely a little biased due to the fact that it was more fun than actual ministry. That being said, we return to Salem Massachusetts this weekend to help out at a conference called "God for People Who Hate Church". I can't wait!