Week Four: To Know God...

Hello Friends. I feel as though I would be amiss to not let you know the intensity this week has had. Everyday we have a morning of lecture followed by an evening of work, outreach or free time. This week the lectures we given by a an awesome lady named Anne Sloan. She is a counselor of sorts and taught about Personality. I'm an ISTP if anyone cares. It was great because she taught about how we work together in the body of Christ, all different but with the same goal, namely evangelism. But these lectures were only a bit of the week that conspired.



On Thursday night one of our students, named Msizi, passed out and was unconscious and not responding. His roommate was the only one there and they called up to the house where the rest of us live. We immidatily began to pray. We also called our friends who were out that night at a prayer meeting called Belfast House of Prayer (BHOP) They also began praying. There are many cool parts to this story but I'll try to keep it succinct. The folks at house of prayer prayed for three things:

1. That the student would gain consciousness and be sitting up.

2. That he would be energized and ready to go and

3. That the doctors would find no reason his collapse.



Withing a half hour they receive a text from one of our staff..."Msizi is doing well. He's gained consciousness and is SITTING UP in the waiting room. He feels FINE but the doctors insist on keeping him here for observation because they ran some tests and CAN'T FIND ANYTHING WRONG with him."



If ever you wondered, yes the Lord hears and answers our prayers .

But it does not end there. I titled this post to Know God because I feel like I'm reaching a deeper relationship with God by hearing his voice. The next part of this post will be peculiar but powerful.



As we were praying for Msizi the Spirit seemed to come over the handful of us at the house. There were about 7 of us including Anne who had been staying there the week. We started praying for several of the students there at the house. Then someone felt we should pray for the house. That is meaningful because I felt the same. Here is why. The neighbourhood where we work lies on either side of a strip of road about a mile long called the Shankill Road (search belfast history on wikipedia). By some strange plan of God, our house is as the top of the road (literally the last in the row before the road ends) and the flat (where Msizi and other students live) is at the bottom. So, I explained to the other students that how over the past few weeks I had a sort of vision of a giant golden staff stuck in the ground up at the house and a second one by the flat, sort of like how a contractor will stake out the land before he builds a house. I told them how I felt that Lord had marked this road as his and he was about to begin work. We prayed through the house which is three stories.


Now there are three rooms that happen to be on the very corner of the house overlooking the end of the Shankill. In each room I felt the Lord giving me a prayer and each prayer also lined up with the overall mission. In our lounge we prayed for COMMUNITY, that people would be able to seek the Lord together and have fun and good times filled with joy and peace. The third floor was a room where many of the girls lives and someone had commented about how child-like it was...perfect! We prayed that the peace found in that room might topple over into the street and that the CHILDREN of the neighbourhood might break free from the depression and oppression of their past and lead fun, joy-filled lives in their youth. The Second floor was the hardest.

None of us felt comfortable in that room, it was painted dark to begin with and was cold but there was still something really wrong with it. We prayed for many minutes and nobody was feeling anything in particular. I asked Anne (who was living in that room) what she felt and she had no answers so we all stood there in the dreariness of the room. Then I felt something come to mind, it was a little awkward so I said "Do you mind if I pray something weird?" everyone said "You might as well, the whole night has been weird." And so I prayed as I felt. I began to pray against the spirit of adultery and immediately as I prayed, everyone else felt it to and began to follow along and almost instantly the room began to feel cleaner and lighter. I can't know how to give an explanation. I have always lived quite conservatively in my faith, but as time passes here, and I press into the Lord, I'm finding that there may be depths of him I have yet to know.

I pray for peace and wisdom as I seek him more. There may be heaps more that I discover about the Lord as I read his word and pray and work out this salvation of mine.

Thanks! More to come next week... The lectures are about the Holy Spirit! So who knows...?!

Week Three: Relationships

During this time here in Belfast we spend a lot of our time focusing on our relationship with our community here in Belfast, but this we we spent time learing about relationship with our family. It was a spectacular time of internal investigation and turning our fears and hopes to the Lord. The most excellent part of the week was the opportunity we had to exercise the verse in Ephesians 6:2-3- "Honor you Father and your Mother, the only commandment with a promise, that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on earth" where we stood up and honored them out loud to the group.

So, right now, I would like to do so again by honoring my father, who has instilled in me a fun, life-and-people-loving personality waiting with excitement for whatever come around the corner (including angry dogs...a down side of this past week :( and then my mother, who has instilled in me a good work ethic and straightforwardness. Thanks for being awesome parents. I love ya!
Thanks also to Mrs. Vickie and Larry, my awesome step parents. They were more than patient with me when I was growing up and a bit of a jerk at times :) Thanks for supporting me.

Next week we'll host an evening for the elderly at a local cafe called the Feed Cafe'. We sold half of our tickets, so hopefully it will go well.

Ill have more next week! Thanks Guys,
Cheers
Mike

Week Two: Countryside and Vision of the Mission

Wow.

There really are no words to describe

the Irish countryside, especially from this photo I took early in morning at the Old YWAM base in Closkelt, NI. We went there last weekend and began out first phase of lecture on the "Father Heart of God" The speaker's name was Mike Oman and he spent hours, not simply lecturing, but telling stories of how the Lord had worked in his life. Everything from providing everything he needed to the time when things got rough and the Lord gave him direction. The most meaningful verse he gave that week was in Psalm 139, the thesis of God's love for us. In it is says how much he care for us, how he knows our ways, he hems us in behind and before and was even involved in out making.

After leaving Closkelt we drove about an hour to Rostrevor... The leadership here at YWAM had decided to GIVE the Closkelt base away to another group earlier this year not know what the Lord may be doing. Within only a week of getting here, the Lord gave them a new campus, the Estate at Rostrevor. It's name was the "Christian Renewal Center" and served as a place for many different Christians to come and pray and interceed for this island. It is a 20 Room, 9+ bathroom sort of mansion with a dining hall, conference room, many studies and sitting rooms. It is both a place to rest and to fight (spiritually, of course :) While we were there we interceeded for this nation with many other leaders, both Catholic and Protestant alike for the building of this nation. It was blessed.

We returned here for many other lectures about the Father Heart of God, but I was particularly intrigued by what the Lord would lead me into...

I was walking one night with some of the student home when we were stopped by a young
boy(15) smoking a cigarette. He asked if we would rather walk through the park, it being a shorter route. My friends declined but I was curious, so I went along. We only fiddled in Idle chatter, he asked me If I met any movie stars and what kinds of animals just run about. We reached the end of our walk and he had to go. I didn't know if I would ever see him again. A few days later , I saw him on the street and I stopped him. We ended up walking all the way back to my house and we had quite a conversation. This is part of his story and a glimpse into the purpose of my mission here.

His name is Dillion and is 15. His folks divorced when he was 3 or 4 and at one point his mother had kidnapped him back, but now he lives with his dad again. Both of his folks are unemployed and live off benefits (welfare). He spends his weekends drinking and has also taken a position at a bar cleaning tables. His listens to screamer rock music constantly and sometime, to pass time, will go to the "Peace line" to pick a fight. He wanders the street mostly because there is nothing else to do. I had the opportunity to meet his folks who just turned their head to see me and then turn back to watch TV. This is the entirety of his life. He is part of my mission here, and a glimpse into the numerous problems that lie here in Belfast, as he is not a mionority.

Please pray for me and the people I meet here.