The story of Friday, part 1

So, with all the background out of the way, it's time to move on to the events of Friday.

Actually, for me, the events of Friday started on Thursday night. If you were following along with the team on the blog, you know that Thursday night was "Date night in Ubon", as our team provided childcare for the two sets of parents and let them have a night out for a change. I was stationed at Lynn and Amy's house, and things were relatively calm, so I had a chance to catch up on some e-mails. One of the e-mails I read, oddly enough, was an e-mail that Lynn had sent out to his intercessors asking for prayer regarding the meeting with the spirit doctor that would happen the following day. The e-mail included a word he had received from one of his intercessors, saying to that the curse could be reversed by going in the opposite spirit, which would be a spirit of blessing. Lynn's e-mail indicated that this had really resonated with him, and so that was to be the purpose of this meeting.

Well, it resonated with me as well, and as I processed the words that night and the following morning, suddenly things clicked for me. I had been trusting God for Lynn's healing for several months at this point, and also believing that God would use this whole situation for His glory among the Issan people, but I really couldn't make sense of what God's actual plan was. That's not to say that I have to understand what God is up to in order to trust Him, but I was really desiring to see His hand in the situation more clearly. And as this all came together, I saw it. I believe at this point that God told me that we were at the "end of the beginning" of His work among the Issan, and that all of this was going to be His catalyst for something so much greater in the village of Dongaul. As Lynn and team approached this man with such a spirit of love and blessing, and then Lynn was eventually healed, demonstrating that God was more powerful than the spirits he worshipped, that the barriers the team has been encountering in taking their ministry in Dongaul further would come down.

Our team devotions for the trip were in Ephesians, and on Thursday morning we had been in a section where Paul refers to himself as "less than the least among God's people". Paul doesn't explain that statement there, but if you read elsewhere, it's clear that the reason he refers to himself as such is because of the fact that he had persecuted the church prior to coming to Christ. I believe that one of the reasons Paul was such an amazing vessel for the gospel is because he had such acute awareness of what he was before coming to Christ. I don't know that this was a direct word from God, but I could just see this spirit doctor finding Christ and becoming such an incredible testimony to his own people. I shared that with our team in our devotion time on Friday morning.

Friday morning was the first time that the whole long term team was together on our trip, as Jon and Becky, and Silk arrived on the morning train from Bangkok. So, we all met at Lynn's house. Lynn talked to myself and John about the plans for the afternoon, that himself, Amy, Randy, and Silk were going to be going out to the village to meet and bless this man. The rest of us would stay behind and be in prayer. He also told us to be praying about if any of our team needed to go along. I'll be flatly honest, I wanted to go along from the get go, but I was pretty sure that was just me talking, so I let it go.

We had a time of sharing and connecting with the team, and then moved into a time of sharing and prayer regarding the afternoon's plans. I shared with the entire team the word that I believed I had from God on all of this, and others shared similar words. Then we began to pray for Lynn. As we were praying, I got the sense that I was supposed to go along to the village, but because I knew it was something I really wanted, I asked God to tell someone else if I was supposed to go, just as a confirmation. We moved into a time where Lynn was praying for and blessing the others who were supposed to go to the village, and after a short time, he put his hand on my head and began praying for me, saying that he believed I needed to go too, and so it was decided. We had some more extended prayer time, and each of us that were going were anointed with oil, and then without much further delay, we hopped into the truck and headed out to the village.

Okay, I know Amanda's going to hate me for this, but I'm gonna break here again. I've got to leave to go to church very shortly, this makes for a nice breaking point, and on the odd chance that someone wanders by in the time I'm gone at church, I figure it's better to have part of the story up than make you wait for the whole story at once later tonight. I will finish the story tonight before I turn in.