{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 16} Questions

More questions! I love answering them, for serious! It gives me a chance to articulate what I've been thinking. This was about the leg lengthening we did at the treasure hunt on Saturday.

"I can understand lengthening a leg for health reasons, but how do you feel with playing around with lengthening arms and legs for no particular reason? Did you feel that exercise had a good intention?"

I did wonder, "What is the point of this? Like, we're not actually 'accomplishing' anything or showing anyone the tangible love of God through healing. Isn't it a bit wasteful? A lot wasteful? I mean, there are amputees out there who need this, and here I am just playing around!" And I came to a few conclusions in that short amount of time.

1) God is an abundant God. Just because we used up some 'healing anointing,' or whatever you want to call it, that Saturday, doesn't mean there's any less. He doesn't give us a finite amount of His power. In fact, He's infinite. So it was not a waste in that sense.

2) God likes to have fun. He's a *Father*, and He likes to have fun with His kids. That was just a crazy way of playing with us and making us smile, squeal, and laugh.

3) God likes to show off. I mean, just look at Gideon. "Hey, Gideon, get rid of some men, because I want people to look at what you do and see Me." That day gave Him a platform to do the equivalent of this:


4) It was no-pressure practice. No one's emotions or well-being or job or kids or travel plans or anything else was being challenged that day. The worst thing that could happen was us looking stupid, which I think most of us got over our first day here. But it wasn't a place where people were hoping to walk again for the first time in 10 years, or to see, or anything like that. The most at stake was a desire to be taller. And that's "frivolous" (nothing is frivolous with God) enough to be low-pressure.

5) It inspired faith. Even if we couldn't do it once we got home (why? I don't know. that's another topic), my faith jumped up by many units. I know that of others did, as well. To see, in real life, with no pressure, that we could really, really do something like that because of whose Name we abide under, was just insane. To feel that faith was a gift I hope to reproduce someday.

{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

{Day 4} Treasure Hunt

Well, I didn't make it to the Encounter/Healing room(s). :/ {Due to sleep deprivation. I was finally able to sleep in today! Very exciting, because I've been getting up before my alarm.} I'm pretty bummed about that, especially since I'm not sure if I can go next Saturday due to the Kingdom Culture conference (which, of course, is going to be awesome).

But I did get to experience a real Bethel treasure hunt. For those of you who don't know, a treasure hunt is where you ask God for "clues," such as a pink shirt, Starbucks, rainbow bracelets, whatever. You write down what He gives you, even if it's off the wall, go out with some friends, and try to find the people He highlighted. Then you pray for them and just show the love of God to them.

There were over 30 people in our whole treasure hunt; most of us were from the school of worship. I really, really like how Bethel church does their treasure hunts. They're organized and not haphazard, with guidelines and good teaching. I already had the idea to implement these this summer, and now it's got to happen. I really want to bring this back. {Are you listening, Ali??} :)

{Not, like, I don't want to bring everything back.}

The time allotted for the treasure hunt is from 1-4 on Saturdays. You spend the first hour, hour and a half, getting teaching on treasure hunts. It starts with LOVE & HONOR, which is the key to all the goals you have, and then guidelines about what kind of prophecy, and practical stuff. He did an example with a BSM1 grad, so we got kind of an idea of how it looked. Great, great teaching and explanation, which is something that's been lacking in my past treasure hunts.

Then we had our papers and were given blanks of locations, appearance, names, prayer needs, and unusual. Five blanks under each heading, and each blank must be filled out. I filled mine up, but the ones worth mentioning for my story are that I had orange dress with blond hair in appearances, weariness/fatigue in prayer needs, and a swim floatie (pool toys) in unusual. {I love that we have this guide. It eliminates the haphazard, and it sets a goal for what needs to be filled out. We had direct orders to fill out every blank with the first things that came into our heads. So instead of a blank page with a mish-mosh of stuff, it's organized and you have a goal. I love this.}

I was in a group with a girl from North Dakota, a girl from Minnesota, a guy from New Brunswick, and a guy from Hawaii. All of us BSW students. We went to McDonald's first, since three of us had it, and prayed for a grandparents/grandkids family. Then to Starbucks, where ND girl saw a girl with gold shoes and was able to pray for her. We sat down to strategize, and the lady beside us said, "Are you doing a treasure hunt?" We nodded, and she asked, "Can I be the treasure?" She goes to Bethel. So we all prayed over her and were able to prophecy over her, and the verse that ND girl had for was the same one she'd been told that very morning, so that was cool.

Onto Safeway, which is like a grocery store. We walked around for quite a while, prayed for some people. And then I saw a blond woman in an orange dress at the other end of the aisle. We hemmed and hawed for a minute, and then decided to follow her. When we decided to follow her, we realized that we were in the pool toy section, which was kind of a confirmation to us, so that was cool.

We finally caught up to her. She was familiar with treasure hunts. When we asked if there was anything we could pray for, she said that her daughter had a dance recital that night and that everything was crazy, and also that Dad would have a good Father's Day tomorrow. So I prayed for her for that, and after we prayed she told us that her daughter had been really tired. So, all of that matched! She had tears in her eyes when we finished, and she said that we were "meant to pray for her today." Which was kinda like, "Yeah. You were on the list." :) But we didn't say that. :)

We met back at the church at 3:30 and shared testimonies from each group. It's funny how many people in Redding are familiar with treasure hunts. He (Josh) even told us before we went out not to all hold our papers in front of us, because everyone knows. :)

I'm hoping to go again on July 2. This time I'm going to take notes on what he says. I can't wait to bring this back.

Haha, I can't wait to bring all of this back! It's so awesome being here.

Nothing else is on the schedule for today. I just get to chill and catch up on everything I've put off for the week. There's some people to call, some clothes to wash, maybe some Bible to read. I don't have any pictures from today, so I'll leave you with this screenshot from the BSW11 Facebook group: