{Day 18}

The day began with me thinking I slept in but actually being up a couple of minutes before my alarm - to go to the healing rooms.

These healing rooms were a bit different since the Kingdom Culture conference wasn't going on. They used two of the conference rooms instead of the sanctuary. One conference room - roughly half the size of the CCC living room - had been dubbed the Encounter Room. The other was used as a place for individual prayer. So, you go hang out in the decked out Encounter Room, and if you want individual prayer, you fill out the same sheet we did last week and they call your letter. I didn't want individual prayer today, I just wanted to chill in the Spirit, as it were.




The Encounter Room should really be called the Party Room, if you couldn't tell that already. It's a place of joy and celebration at God's goodness and what He's done and doing and will do. Constant, constant praise and enjoyment. Fun, fun, fun.

Then a quick lull {spent mostly in the bookstore} before I set out on a treasure hunt. We had a totally different teacher {again} this time. I actually got her name this time - Christina Wagner. She was in a ridiculously good mood. I had already seen her in the Encounter Room {which became the Healing Rooms after so many people arrived and they switched to 'Conference Mode' and they prayed for everyone in one room}, seen someone pray for her ears, then watched her balance one foot in front of the other. Turns out, she'd been navigating through severe vertigo for seven days. This morning she was 70-80% healed. So she was really happy. {If you've ever seen/listened to Heidi Baker...she's really similar in her presentation.}

Anyway, the three rules in this class were:

1. Get drunk
2. Stay drunk
3. Get everyone else drunk

Then we drilled in prophecy, words of knowledge, healing, and various etiquette for approaching people. During the healing drill - which isn't really a drill, we're just praying for each other instead of people we don't know - I prayed for a girl with pain in her hip and knee. {I'm pretty sure she was somehow interning with Christina, definitely helping out.} The pain went down a little bit, but not all. Then I heard someone behind me mention the growing out of legs that occurred last week and how a girl with hip pain (Anja) had been healed. "Let's try that!" "Okay!"

She sat down, I took her feet. Sure enough, the right leg was shorter than the left. So I told the right leg to come out...and out it came. And kept coming, until I started telling it to stop. And she's like, "No, don't stop, I want to be taller!" So I told it to keep coming out. And then she took control of her own legs and started directing them longer and longer, almost like a symphony. And I'm sitting there squealing because no matter that I've seen it before - omgosh! Seriously! And everyone crowding around to watch, and I just sit back.

She ended up taller. Her jeans no longer had to be rolled up.

Dude.

God's like, "See, it wasn't a fluke."

Anyway, once we got started on teams, Christina asked everyone who had been on a treasure hunt before to raise their hands. How about a Bethel treasure hunt? I kept my hand raised. "Good, you'll be a team leader."

Not that any of the other teams I have been on have actually had leaders, but that seems a big responsibility.

In the end, I didn't do much leading, which was okay. One of the girls on our team was 9 - almost 10 - and had a full treasure map. She'd just gotten back from the Kingdom Kids camp {whatever it's called} and was ready to go!

We prayed for one person.

Looking from an outward perspective, it was a pretty pathetic treasure hunt. It didn't feel like it, though, to me. I wasn't down. But most people would say it was a bust. {My goals are just to immerse myself in the experience and to learn it in and out, and I think I have succeeded as best as can be expected.} However, the testimonies we got from the other teams when we all came back were astounding! I'm not going to type them all here - I ended up being the scribe and writing them all down, so I know them well - but if you ask me, I'll tell you.

Home. Supper. Jenna had a friend over, and halfway through my cooking, they're laughing, and Jenna asks me, "Have you ever been drunk in the Spirit?"

"Not exactly..."

"You should come sit over here."

dancing feet

They were a bit wasted. Someday you should hear two school of ministry students talking theology while drunk...one of them with a Valley Girl accent. Seriously. It was great. I didn't get all that drunk from them, not laughing drunk. Peaceful. Not drunk. But then...then we were off to the drum circle.

yah, we got a shofar!
but it sounds like a trumpet

 The epically awesome drum circle that takes place in the Alabaster House every 1st Saturday and is hosted by Jerry Aaronson, the guy who taught on Native American culture restoration a couple of weeks ago. Anyway. It was awesome, especially since I've really been resonating with the Native American culture these past couple of weeks.





{I have a couple more videos, but yeah, ask me.}

After they finished, I didn't want to leave. So happy there. We finally did leave, though, and began the trek down the hill. Amber said I was drunk. I was, but I wasn't that drunk. I mean, I've seen people more drunk.

But it definitely felt good. It was a nice walk down the hill.

And now I'm home. Hoping to get to bed at a halfway decent hour to go to church at a ridiculously early hour to chill and then go to church again. Viola! And then, on Monday...I'm sleeping in. Thank You, Jesus.

{Day 14} Questions

So I had a question this morning about Saturday's post wanting me to elaborate on my statement:

"Josh gave us permission to dance at one point, so that was awesome. And the worship team - they were a bit drunk, not going to lie..."

• In the healing rooms, dancers are part of the healing ministry. Christina Chadney leads the healing room dance, and it's a very serious aspect of the healing rooms. {I took a healing room dance workshop from her my first week here.} It's just as important as the prayer team, the painters, or the musicians. You understand when you go in there that only the Bethel team is there to pray - to honor Bethel and other people, you don't individually pray for other people. Same way you wouldn't go up and join the band, or randomly start painting, you don't really dance. It's not a rule, but it is an honor thing. At the time Josh gave us permission, I was eager to dance, and so when he told us all we could dance, I was ecstatic.
• There is another aspect of this. Sometimes people who never dance need someone to tell them they can. When you declare permission for something in an environment, it breaks inhibitions and some of the enemy's fear stronghold. I'm not well-versed in all of this, but I know that what you say matters, and that giving permission to dance is so much more than just telling a bunch of people that they can join the healing room dancers. There's a definite spiritual aspect to it. And some people are just waiting for permission. I'm not sure which of these Josh was aiming for, but they both applied.
• The worship team was drunk on the Holy Spirit, not wine. {It was early in the morning, after all.} They were still playing well, but the girl leading kept messing up words and giggling. I mean, we shimmied in the river (instead of jumped) in "Deep Cries Out." 
• It's difficult to compare drunk with wine and drunk with the Spirit, but just consider a worship time where the worship leader is drunk with wine and ridiculously happy. It's like that. Without the hangover. I mean, a worship leader who effortlessly combines "Father Abraham" and "The Hokey Pokey" has got to be on something...on the Spirit.

Hopefully that answers the question. I love answering questions, so if you have any, feel free to send them my way! :)

{Day 11}

What a crazy day! Got up early and went to the Bethel healing rooms. The line snakes all the way around the outside of the sanctuary and then into what amounts to a three-ring circus.

Or a ten-ring circus.


They arrange the chairs into different oval-like rings, and you sit there with your piece of paper until someone from the Bethel healing team comes to pray for you. The worship band is playing long, prophetic songs, very acoustic, and every once in a while one of the leaders (Josh and Kris, not Vallotton) get up and announce a testimony. In the middle of the room is a small circle of prophetic artists. Dancers move about the room and sometimes on stage, sometimes with banners. Little girls - 4, 6, 7 - dance around and through the room, and they're serious about what they're doing. It's not a game to them. Or, rather, it's not a frivolous game.

I asked for healing for the TMJ in my jaw. The guy knew I had TMJ, but he didn't know which side. He had his hands on my jaw, and I had a weird feeling on the right side. I know people say heat, and I guess I could say heat, too, since there's not a lot of words available to explain what it was. The best I can come up with is 'weird.' And yeah, I know that helps you oh so much. But it was after that that he discovered which side I needed prayer for. So, yeah, he didn't know which side before the weird feeling, and that was cool.

Long story short, my jaw is still popping in and out of joint whenever I open my mouth all the way. But during our prayer, my lip - and the skin above the lip - started trembling. Who does that? I've seen a lot of things and heard of more...but this wasn't on the list. I'm sitting there thinking, "I know they've seen everything, but I've never even heard of someone's lip flubbering around like this."

Got a prophecy that my smile is going to heal people. That was cool.

Josh gave us permission to dance at one point, so that was awesome. And the worship team - they were a bit drunk, not going to lie - invented this lovely combination of "Father Abraham" and "The Hokey Pokey." As in,

"Father Abraham had many sons, many sons had Father Abraham. I am one of them, and so are you, so let's all praise the Lord. Put your sick body in, pull your healed body out. Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle in the river."

And people got healed wiggling in the proverbial river.

Amber and Dani went home, but Anja and I stayed to go to the treasure hunt. I was expecting a treasure hunt like last week, you know, white board and all. I was prepared to take notes to bring back home.

No whiteboard. No notes. Just this video:

Then this video:

And then he asked for anyone with a hip problem. Anja, sore from walking due to a missed bus, volunteered. One of her legs was longer than the other, causing a lot of soreness in her hips.

Let's just say that she felt the hips stretch and that her legs are now the same length and the pain is gone.

Then he had us pair up and play with each other's legs, basically. Brittany commanded my left leg out, and it went out farther than my right leg. Strangest feeling in the world. I didn't get up on walk on it, because a part of me was terrified of doing something that would make it stick that way. So we put it back - an even stranger feeling. I am still the same height.

This video is Brittany's feet. I had already gotten her legs about an inch longer. This is someone else praying for her legs to get even longer.

again, this isn't trick photography

Brittany went home 2-3 inches taller. Her mom was there, and if anyone knows, Mom knows.

And then we were just playing around and made Anja's arms longer. The following video starts after Brittany has lengthened Anja's left arm and we decide to make the right match it. {I know it looks like the angle isn't straight on, since the hands don't match up, but I swear it's straight down the middle. It's a bit of a mental paradigm shift when you watch. I wish I could have translated that experience into video, because these videos just don't do it justice, but I'm trying.}

Anja's arms are now longer. True story.

Then we did some prophecy drills. As in, you're given a category {animals}, has 5 seconds to think of something in that category that the other person reminds you of, one minute to tell them what it is and what makes that something different from all the other somethings in the category. And it turns into a prophecy. It's fun.

The treasure hunt was pretty sweet - we exited the building through a fire tunnel - but nothing compared to our crazy preparation. We had a bus stop, fire hydrant, maize, and bench with tree. We found the treasure, a Native American lady, in front of Coldstone/ice cream. Then we went to the cinema, which was within walking distance WinCo foods. Anja and I actually did some grocery shopping there, and we got to pray for a lady with a purple shirt and flip-flops (that she had almost not worn).

Black Bear Diner menu

the napkins

Anja and I came home and tried to lengthen Amber's legs (long story). And then Amber, Anja, Dani, Carol, Marie, and I went to Black Bear diner.

Amber & Dani

Marie, Anja, Dani, Amber, and me|

my dinner

Days 5/6

[as told to Melody]

Yesterday, Raymond went to the healing rooms at Bethel. He was assigned a group letter (A-Z) and sent to wait in the Encounter room, where a beatnik band (two djembes, a guitar, a female singer, and a keyboardist) did worship. There was no set direction there. People danced, people prayed, people waited on the Holy Spirit.

There were a couple of people (scheduled) walking around the room praying for people. One of these was a very animated lady that unnerved Raymond just a little. Finally, she came to him and asked, very politely, if she could put her hand on his shoulder. She was honoring him by asking, and he was very aware of it. He said yes, and she prayed for him calmly. I can't remember what she said or prayed, or what - if anything - happened after that. Ask Raymond.

After one and a half to two hours, Raymond was summoned to one of the healing rooms. A man there, about ten years older than Raymond, prayed for the physical ailments that Raymond had listed. There were no "physical manifestations of healing" yesterday, but the man and Raymond talked at length. In prayer, the man just waited and listened to the Holy Spirit. Finally, he said, "God wants you to know...that progress is being made."

Raymond and this man really hit it off, and Raymond is planning on going to the man's heart/life/home/church group Tuesday night. I'm not sure if only the healing rooms took 3-4 hours (making it 5-6 hours total) or if that was the total. Either way, it was a long time.

Today was church. Dad and some of the other roomates were going to walk, but Jeff woke up and let them take the car last minute. He took the truck to where he leads worship at another church. Brian Johnson led worship. Nothing incredible or out of the ordinary to report. Good day.