7-5-08

10:30 am
Panama

It’s amazing what can happen in thee days. God is amazing. On Wednesday we went to a school to minister to four hundred students. We broke them up into three programs, one after the other. It was awesome. It was like the healing room. Those students didn’t leave the same. When the next group would come in, they’d walk in laughing at how people were weeping and worshiping. They didn’t understand but they soon found themselves at the altar.
After the third program, the principle wanted us to do two more. We skipped lunch and kept going totally unprepared, but God supplied. At one program I was praying for a girl who was leaning over in her seat. She began weeping as she lifted her hands. When she sat up, I realized she was pregnant, and very young. She dedicated her life, and her child, to God. It was amazing. I began to cry as I realized something; if God had not saved me when he did, I might have been in her situation.
We went to that school the next day and did three more programs. God totally changed that school. We’re not having a whole free day here, but were splitting up our days so that there’s time for some free time. They took us to the Panamanian mall on Thursday, but we were all to exhausted to care. After that we took a two hour drive on the smallest, most crowded bus I’ve ever been on in my life. We went to a youth camp to start off their first night. It was a three night Christian summer camp with about four hundred youth, and we were asked to start it.
There were so many distractions; it was hard to get their attention. When we were doing the last two dramas, the people who weren’t in them went outside and prayed, including myself. It was the most intense prayer time I’ve ever had. We were fighting… fighting for them.
The sermon was focused on the power of the Holy Spirit, so the altar call was for anyone who wanted to receive the Holy Spirit. The altar was filled with hungry youth. We brought the intensity from outside with us and started laying hands on people as we watched them be baptized left and right.
After an hour there were about two hundred people still waiting to receive the gift of the spirit. We started the most amazing prayer line I’ve ever seen. Each team member paired up with another team member and we formed two lines facing each other. Each student walked between the two lines as we laid hands on them. Before they could go through the line, we had them say,”Lord, I want to be baptized in your Holy Spirit” in order to let us know that this is what they desired. Then they would slowly make their way through the line, stopping at every pair of people waiting to pray for them.
We did this intense prayer line for over three hours. People were being baptized, slain, and brought to their knees constantly. Every single teenager who went through that line had received the Holy Spirit and had spoken in tongues before we finished.
I surprised myself. I found myself praying a lot in Spanish, but what surprised me is that I understood it. And I don’t think I’ve spoken in tongues for that long of a time period in my life, or let alone prayed for that long of a time period in my life. I was getting so tired, and my body was aching. I wanted to sit down and get a drink of water, but God made it clear that you either have spiritual discipline or you don’t; so I stood, and I prayed like I had never prayed before. The more I prayed the more strength I received.
When we were done, I nearly collapsed. We finally went to eat at 1:30 in the morning. Then we began our two hour bus ride back. I really didn’t get to sleep on the bus though. I was crammed into the weirdest position and couldn’t move for two hours. It was also the same time that I realized my friend Timothy was leaving California to go to Nicaragua. I began praying for him and his team as I stayed awake.
We finally got to bed around four in the morning, but we had to get up at five. God is my strength… I was able to get up and do the insane dances that we do the next day, but only through him.
We were doing a program, and by the time we did the altar call, I felt like I could barely move. I layed down and prayed as my legs, back, and neck throbbed. I was trying to convince myself to move, but I could barely open my eyes. When I did, I saw a hand coming towards my face. As soon as the hand reached me, I felt revived and I sat up. I felt normal, strong. It was John who had prayed for me and I thanked him.
After we did another program at the same place, they played some worship music as our team had their own worship session. They put on Frontlines’ song I Call you Jesus. I worshiped like never before, and within that I received the other half of my revival. Then they played Believe which says;
“You know how to hold me close
Say exactly what I need to hear.
I believe every word
It’s getting closer
Believe it’s coming
Around the corner
You’re gonna make it
Take a look at all the places that He’s brought you from
It’s the impossible
Believe it’s possible
You won’t believe where I came from
Believe in grace”
It made me realize something once again. The impossible is possible. My life being changed the way it was seemed like the impossible, but by the grace of God, here I am. I fell face down on the floor and praised and wept.
Since it was the Fourth of July, they took us out to a nice dinner and afterwards and movie theatre. We saw The Hulk, but I slept through most of it. Then we pulled an all nighter creating a forty-five minute drama for tonight. It’s still not done. I got to bed around five in the morning and got up at eight and waited in line for a much needed shower. I’m so drained. I’m pushing myself to the limit, and I can feel it getting closer.