The list:
one backpack of bare necessities.
no money, no cell phone, no computer.
Tuesday morning arrived and my outreach team gathered outside of the prayer room to venture off on our 4 day faith journey. We were given an envelope for each day containing a list of tasks to be completed, in faith. We were given a bus schedule and a map of our location (yes, an actual paper map). My team in particular would be venturing to the town of Captain Cook; a very small community located up the mountain towards the south end of the island.
It would be way too much to write everything that was on our task lists, but I’ll give you a few just to give you an idea of what we had on our plates.
Prophesy over 3 people accurately
Meet with a government employee
Get invited to a home for a meal
Get $100 worth of free groceries and give it to a family in need, asking the Lord for the address of the family
Get on the radio to prophesy or share the gospel
Pray for at least 1 physical healing
Speak at a small group in a local church
Street preach
There were many more things on our lists each day, but those were a few of the big ones from the journey. Imagine having those kinds of things on your “to-do” list every day! But the greatest part… every single one of them came to pass! Praise You Jesus for your faithfulness! I would love to give the story from each one.. they were all so detailed and incredible. But unfortunately, I simply do not have the time to write that much.
Here is one of the coolest stories that happened…
One afternoon as we were walking down the street, we noticed a bunch of teenage skaters up at this self-made skate park by this house that was under construction. So the two guys on our team decided to go up and just hang out with them for a bit. When Marty and Erik get up there, they see about 15 teenage boys skating and smoking weed. The perfect spot. Luckily Hawaiian culture is super welcoming, so they instantly started up conversation with some of the guys. They decided to build relationship first, so they didn’t say anything about God or what they believed. But then Marty felt like the Holy Spirit told him to show the boys his tattoo. So he asked one of the guys about their tattoo, and then followed by showing them his. The second he took off his zip-up, the boys were fixed are Marty’s tattoo. It’s a picture of a lion with a fox in it’s mouth. They boys asked what it meant, so he got to explain how the Lion represented God, Truth, and the fox was all things that are counterfeit of the truth, such as drugs, alcohol, hooking up with girls, etc. The boys all began to ask questions, which flung open the door for Marty and Erik to begin to talk to them about the love of God and how much better He is than all of this stuff in the world. As he spoke about God, he could watch as the boys were coming off of their high! (Amazing what the Holy Spirit can do!) He then felt like he was supposed to ask them if they wanted to experience the love of God right then. The main guy was like, “yeah man!” and of course made all his friends come over too. So Marty and Erik began to pray that the Holy Spirit would come so that these boys could feel the love of God. A few minutes later the boys looked up, huge smiles across their faces, and exclaiming, “woahh… I feel really good! That was crazy!” Marty and Erik got to pray for the guys, and were able to go back the next day to hang out with them and talk more about God and His amazing love!
How incredible is that!? These boys were able to experience first hand the joy of the Father over them, and how much He loves them. They were able to hang out with two guys, very close in age, who are radically committed to the Lord and His Kingdom. Jesus, you are so awesome!
In addition to this story, Lauren and I were able to sit down with the president of the high school for an hour (the Lord totally opened the doors) and talk about the value of each students destiny, the importance of family and community, and the necessity of mentorship in the students lives! We were also able to pray for the healing of a man who had pancreatic cancer. And I say “had” because I know in full faith that he was healed. The Holy Spirit was ALL over it. The $100 of groceries was given to 3 women who are living together with a baby under the age of 2 in a shack-type house. We were led their by God and able to pray with them and bless them with the food!
I’d say that through the entire week the primary things that I learned were that God is SO faithful and you can trust Him with anything. He is so committed to every single heart, and He will always provide for His children. (and yes, that means food! We also had free food for half of our meals! and I’m talking feasts!)
Why take a week to go on a faith journey? I legitimately want this to be the way I live the rest of my life: solely on the faithfulness of God.
