7-21-08

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El Salvador

It’s been far too long since I’ve written. First of all, Saturday was absolutely amazing. Amazing! We fasted and prayed all morning in preparation for the big event, which is called Armada.
The stage and theatre were huge! There were about four different AIM teams along with all the interns and Master’s Commission students. We all got together and prayed. It was powerful. Eventually the Master’s Commission students, interns and our team began praying over all the other teams. It was awesome. People started coming. More and more and then even more. I’m not sure how many people were there, I’m really no good with estimations, but there must have been thousands of people.
We started the event with all the Castle members doing some dances. It was so cool. We had a reggeatone artist perform there, which is probably what drew most people to the event. Then we had a worship session and someone preached and before I knew it, it was time for the altar call.
People began flooding the altar for prayer. The altar call was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen in my life. I was praying for a girl and she fell back so gently that I felt like I was dreaming. I went to pray for another girl and as soon as I lifted my hand she fell back. I hadn’t even touched her yet.
I turned around just in time to catch another girl and see a bunch of people fall before God like dominoes. I stood still and silent as I watched God move, in complete awe. I made eye contact with on of my closer friends on the team. We were both balling. We hugged each other and when we broke apart and saw people being freed and slain left and right. I felt like I was in some cheesy Christian movie or an insane dream of some sort. It was awesome. We continued to pray until the altars were cleared. We went out to eat afterward and broke our fast with a gift from heaven called pupusas.
I was so happy when we got back to the house. I wanted to use the phone so I stayed up but never got the chance, but it’s a good thing I was up. One of the girls went to turn off the lights downstairs. When she was coming back upstairs, she missed a step and fell. She smacked her chin on a step. She came running into the room crying as she held her head and jaw, unable to tell us what happened. It was just me and one other girl in the room when she came up.
I asked her a few simple questions to get the answers I needed to make sure she was ok. She bit the inside of her cheek and there was a little bit of blood coming from her mouth. I gave her water to rinse it out. At first I thought she had broken her jaw, but praise God she was fine. The night was hectic though.
Julia ran downstairs to get ice for her jaw while I prayed with her. When it was just the two of us in the room later she was still crying, so I asked her if they were tears of pain or sorrow. She went into the bathroom. I left her alone for a while and then I went and hugged her. She cried into my shoulder and told me the real reason behind her tears. She woke up with no damage.
Sunday was awesome. We actually went to a church service. It was at the dream center property. It was held under a tent at the time because they hadn’t built it yet.
I saw tons of different flags hanging everywhere. Then I saw some banners with pictures of faces. They were the same banners we hang at my home church for missions month. I started crying as I thought of home and pictured my beloved church. The service was filled with all the castle members, including the AIM teams.
At one point we went off and helped teach local adults and teens a little bit of English by simply talking to them. It was wonderful. We did some programs and got back on the bus to go back to the Casona for dinner. Our bus ran out of gas so we held a worship service on the bus as we waited for someone to return with gas.
I laid on my back and felt pinned down. I knew God was trying to tell me something, but what? I couldn’t focus; everybody was singing worship songs really loud. I started crying, begging for God to speak to me. Someone had finally come with the gas, but when they went to fill the tank, it already had gas in it. God had stopped the bus; I believe he stopped it for me. I kept trying to hear his voice as I waited in silence.
When we got to the Casona, I knew God wasn’t done with me, so I went off to the side and continued to pray and wait. I fell to my knees and balled, desperate. Kristal came and prayed over me. She prayed for me to hear his voice. She started saying, “fill her with your spirit, more and more.”
At that point, I blanked out completely and toppled over. When I “woke up” I found my head being squished between the wall and my left shoulder. I sat up, slightly confused. I had been slain in the spirit before, but never to the point of unconsciousness.
My face and hair were a wreck, so I made my way to the bathroom to fix myself up, but when I looked in the mirror, I had never felt more beautiful in my life. It was an amazing feeling. I looked and felt different, but not in any explainable way. I went outside and someone told me I was beaming and radiant. I slept so well that night and woke up with a strange calmness and joy that I had never felt before.
Today has been pretty amazing too. It’s our last day of ministry. It’s a bitter sweet day. This is my life, and this is the last day for quit a while that I’ll be working with Castillo del Rey. I still don’t feel ready to go home. I miss my family and church so much but I don’t want to leave yet. I’m not ready to go.
We’re working in the same school all day as different age groups change out. We just got done with our first group. It was amazing. I was praying for the whole program up until the altar call. I went and prayed over child after child. The altar was filled with crying youth, a rising generation. Kristen was praying for two girls. I laid my hand on one of them and she fell back like I had fallen last night.
I kneeled and prayed next to her as the girl Kristen was still praying for fell to my side. I felt the urge to pray healing over her, so I did. When I got up, I began praying for one of the teachers here. She eventually fell back too. God moved so much as we began to pray more and more. When most of the people were gone I saw Natalie crying. I went and placed my arm around her as she cried into my shoulder.
Dalton was kneeling at the altar in front of us and I saw the most beautiful thing. Three students, about nine years of age, kneeled and prayed for him. We’re here to minister to them and here they were praying over our team member.
I went and joined them, as did Lacey. I laid hands on them and wept as I prayed blessings over them. Then they began laying hands on me as I laid hands on them. It was amazing and touching. Then they continued praying over Natalie. I prayed for God to protect and glorify the precious boys and praised God for them.
I began writing in my journal and a crowd of kids came up to me asking what it was. I told them it was a personal journal I wrote about our team. As they passed it around and flipped through the pages covered in a language I wish they could comprehend, I pointed out the different sections for each country, showing them where we had been. It was awesome.