Jamaica Missions date 20090617

My Babies aren't babies anymore
I love watching people grow. I would rather take the back seat and see others' develop and grow in there walk with the Lord. What a blessing it was to see Marlee, Iesha, Lydia, Maddie and Sami just pray out loud and in public.

I saw Marlee take authority in her prayer and lead others in boldness. Natural Leader among leaders. Iesha came out of her shell for the first time and prayed as if she had been doing this for years. The rest of the girls that were there with me were just as amazing.

David jr. delivered such a powerful Gospel message at the end of the skit. There is a fire anointing on him.

Brings a tear to my eye. Most of my babies aren't babies anymore they are might warriors. I didn't even see it happen. I am so proud of each of them.

Speak or Hold your Peace
There was an interesting encounter that I had with a Rasta. Just when I was thought I was done and on my way to the construction site. P. Courtney calls me back to deal with what appears to be a "situation". There was a gentleman (Rasta) that wanted to share somethings over the microphone. He said that after he was done that I then could say anything I pleased about what he said. Talk about my fear of the unknown.

I mentioned to him that I didn't know if it was a good idea since I had young kids around and I didn't want anything inappropriate to be said. At that moment it appeared that I might have offended him. But I looked into his eyes as he pointed to his 5yr old and said "I have kids here to and I would not say anything inappropriate" He seemed sincere.
As quickly as I could muster up an inside prayer... I said OK... With such Peace.

Strange thing was that there was a "combat" type of feeling in the air. It would be hard to explain it. As if he was in my face challenging everything that I believed to be true. Is God really that big? Would everyone then look at as us as a bunch of 'posers'? Could God really show up in this situation?
--But something rose up inside of me that made every fiber of my being cry out inside... God I need you right now cause I don't know what to do.

So I handed the Rasta the mic. He began to speak. He called it a chant but to me it sounded more like a Rap or Poetry. But it wasn't what he said ... that actually was very good. He was talking about the virtue of a woman and how beautiful they are. How we need to honor and respect them and how it is Jah (God) who created them. But through out all that he said he was staring me down and I him. We were only a foot apart. As if we were about ready to just brawl. He was ranting and I was agreeing for the most part.

As all this was happening I heard in the corner of my ear through all the yelling some of our girls praying in the spirit. This I guess is the part were maybe I should have felt peace. But the feeling I had was of RAW POWER and Boldness. I think it was more of the feeling "there are more with us then against us". ... As the RASTA gave me the Mic. I began to Bless the Almighty and the kids around me joined in. I didn't want to leave any doubt that Jesus is the one we worship.

What a divine time of prayer... Total dependence on Jesus!

Faith Building Up
I also prayed for another man and his healing.. how amazing that would be for God to heal him and be a testimony in this village. I'm realizing now that this was simply my faith building up for what was to come

Dreams do come True
While I was working I had mentioned to the team that I want to be able to have a service where people get saved and immediately get baptized. This happened near the baptism that was built.
It was kind of cool to see this built from concrete right into the foundation of the building.. That almost sounds like a title of a sermon... But I regress .....
So we were talking and I said how cool it would be if God would just allow us to baptize some people in this tank Sunday morning.

2 Hours later Sister Maureen introduces me to the father of the girl who died..
{There was a young girl who died in the village 3weeks ago for no apparent reason}
He mentions that he wants to be baptized... 'Is this a Resurrection from the dead opportunity' is what I thought as well?

God Moment with an Orange
So there we are. This guy who just lost his 19yr old daughter and me just hanging out talking about his situation, his hurt, his life and why he want to be baptized as I just shared my orange with him... Felt like we were taking communion at a deeper level.
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I am so thankful to everyone that made this possible for me to go. I can not repay what you have sown into my life. To everyone that was on this trip... I love you so much... You have each impacted me and allowed me grow closer to Jesus... But To God be the Glory... Every little bit of it, for everything... !!! pastor cj