Holy Hangover

Hey everyone! The internet cut off last night before I finished writing my blog so I just saved what I wrote and I'm going to copy-paste it here and then fill you in on the stuff that happened later...

This is from Yesterday:
Hello! I am freshly showered and ready to tell you all about my insane day!!

Well....it started off terribly. I woke up in a bad/sad mood which was exasperated by other things and basically turned into my heart hurting again. :( So, I made my way up to devotions at 7:30 prepared to just suffer through the 10 minutes of talking and then retreat to my quiet time. I wanted to find some verses that are promises of God so that when I started having sad thoughts I could speak out Gods truth.

But, surprise!!! The devotions person announced that since her devotional was about unity we weren't going to go have individual "quiet times"....are you serious??!?! Did God not know that today of ALL days was the day that I really needed alone time with him? I was pretty much livid. And, to add to that I didn't have a problem with unity!! I like everyone here, and if I don't like them I've already gone up to them and talked through our issues - I was doin' great in the area of unity, didn't God know that? hello?!

Anyways, after "sticking it to God" by being silent during prayer we had a time of reconciliation. Basically just going up to people and apologizing for anything or bringing anything into the light that needed to be brought out, etc. So, I decided that I wanted to at least apologize to two girls for not making an effort to get to know them because we have some pretty severe language barriers - but that's no excuse. So, then I went up and apologized to another girl and another one for various reasons and I guess I realized that it's the little things, the little "annoyances" the little frustrations and the little limitations that I put on people that really can have an effect on unity and relationships!

And, guess what? A ton of people came up to me and apologized! Which was weird because I thought I was really liked....? haha But, what was really weird was that every person that came up to me was a CLOSE friend (not LaChelle, don't worry). And they ALL apologized for being jealous or threatened by me for various reasons!

I would have thought that being told that someone was jealous of you would make me feel more confident or something, but it didn't? It was really really awkward. You know what was weird was I felt the compulsion to put myself down to build them up...weird. But, I resisted the urge for the most part and just accepted their apology. Now, do I hide my giftings and stuff? A lot of the issues were rooted in my confidence...do I act less confident? I don't think so...

AND a few people came up to LaChelle and myself and told us that they were jealous of our friendship, (we're the only ones on the base that actually call ourselves "best friends"...well, we dont call ourselves that yet - we're both too nervous - but we've acknowledged the fact that it's true)! WEIRD! But awesome!!!

- - Okay, this is where I stopped last night but I'm going to pick it up now, but it's still about yesterday...confusing? :) - -

Anyways, that took about an hour and a half. I then grabbed some coffee (my mom sent me about 30 packets of Via Starbucks instant coffee...thank you!!) and headed back up immediately.

Then the really amazing stuff started happening!! We all got anointed and prophesied over! Oh my goodness it was amazing! We started with some worship and we were all asked to go up to the mike if we had a general prophecy or prayer over the base, and guess what?! I got one!! (oh, quick tangent - earlier that day a girl came up to me and told me that God told her that He was going to give me the gift of prophesy...cool) It was about a cyclone coming into the base and picking up all of the baggage that we were going to unload during the day and sweeping it out forever. I thought it was weird...but I went with it and one of the leaders came up to me later and said that God had given her a very similar vision a few weeks ago and she didn't know what it meant so I helped her interpret it!! :)

THEN the speaker and his friend who has major giftings of prophecy came around us and anointed us each individually, prayed for the holy spirit to fill us up again (I've realized that I think you're baptized w/ the holy spirit once you become a Christian but you can be filled up and re-baptized which literally means to be immersed, over and over again) and then they prophesied over us. And all of our prophecies were different!!

I didn't get prayed over until about 2 hours into our prayer time so by the time they got to me I was already completly open to the Holy Spirit! I actually told God, "I'm not going to accept anything less than a tangible encounter with you today!" I'm not positive if it was okay for me to tell God that so blatantly but, he definitely honored my request! I guess you could say I demanded my inheritance! :)

IT WAS AWESOME!!! Immediately once I was annointed I started laughing, or sobbing I couldn't really tell... LaChelle was my scribe and wrote down everything they said, which was a LOT so I can't type it all up but I'll give you the most prominent and powerful words.

The main prophecy was that I would get exactly what my heart desired - they said that God knows that my heart desires a LOT and that because of my great faith (maybe my great demand-ment...) He is going to honor me and give me EVERYTHING! Every spiritual gift I want is mine...HOW FREAKING COOL!!!!

The other guy told me that while he was watching me pray and worship thorughout the day he kept seeing a visible light coming out of me - not just a vision but a real light coming out of my body. He said that everyone in the room couldn't keep their eyes off of me. He told me that I would smile for the rest of my life and that light would bring people to the Lord!! :)

And the most important prophesy was this one: I was told that I had a specific anointing and gift of entertaining God's presence. The guy basically said that he had never seen someone so gifted in entertaining God before - he literally likes watching me?!! :) He said that I have the annointing to bring it anywhere I go, down the street, to work, while I sleep - God always wants to be with me because I entertain his presence and can invite it in to every place! He said that it's a powerful gift because it not only entertains God but it in turn entertains others and opens them up to His presence!! HOW COOL!!!!!!!

Well...all of this sounds really "braggy" BUT hey, I'm alright with being blessed by the Holy Spirit! I mean, you can too!!! LaChelle had a really cool prophecy too! But, it would take too long to type! But, I'll just let you know that it was TOTALLY different than mine but equally amazing and encouraging! She's so strong! I love it! :)

Okay, well guess what....we prayed for 5 1/2 hours!!! From 7:30 - 1:00!!!! INSANE! If you would have told me that I'd ENJOY praying for 5 1/2 hours I would have immediately dismissed you...but I did! WEIRD! :)

Well, after that I was thoroughly hungry so I devoured my lunch. Then we headed out to our evangelism for the day. My team went to a VERY Muslim area, almost everything was in Arabic and stuff. We were given a CD from an Arabic Christian artist to give away and then a brochure for a "house of healing" in the area. Then we were split up into groups of two and sent out....WHAT?! I was terrified!! :)

But, the girl I was with was just as terrified as me so we just prayed and started walking. We walked by a clothing store that only sold traditional Islamic women's clothing and I, being really interested in sociology and the basic lives of different people, really wanted to learn more about their fashion. So, we walked in and were greeted by two girls in their early twenties wearing traditional Muslim clothing. We handed them a CD and then just started talking....and wow did we hit it off!!

We talked about accents, boys, travel, culture EVERYTHING! We mentioned that we were here for a Christian school and they were very open to that and didn't get offended! Then I asked them about their different religious rules in regards to their clothing. They explained a lot and asked if we had any questions about their religion, etc. So, we asked them a LOT about their beliefs, etc. but never once argued or even mentioned what we believe in, we just listened. I was getting worried that I was doing this whole evangelism thing wrong considering I hadn't mentioned Jesus yet but I just kept praying for the Holy Spirit to guide me and the conversation and trusted that He was in control.

Then about 45 minutes into the conversation it shifted! They started asking US about our religion, about the trinity and how it worked, about forgiveness of sins, even about Jesus and the Holy Spirit! It was awesome! They were obviously still very convinced of the truth of Islam but they were very interested in learning about Christianity. I accidentally mentioned that their view of hell was a lot like Dante's inferno...and they said they had never heard of that book and they wrote down the title so they could buy it...oops, not exactly great Christian doctrine - but, the Holy Spirit can overcome it! :)

Then our leader came and found us (they got worried after we didn't show back up at our meeting point on time...oops) and told us it was time to go. But, guess what? The girls didn't want us to leave! they said they were having a great time talking and wanted to do it again. So, I got their number and gave them mine and now we are going out for Lebanese food on Monday so they can finish asking us questions!!!

WHAT?!?!?! Did that for real happen?!? I've NEVER told ANYONE about Jesus before and my first experience is a pair of Muslim girls?! The Holy Spirit definitely has a finesse for the insane! :)

Well, that pretty much gave me and Emily the best high ever and we were very excited to tell everyone else on the bus ride home!!! After that we had dinner, cleaned up, and then had another 2 1/2 hour lecture!

I went to bed fully exhausted and with a migraine and woke up this morning with the migraine intensified.

I had a bad dream last night about Kev showing me a picture of a girl and convincing me that I wasn't beautiful and would never be as good looking as her...that sucked. And it put me in a very bad mood for the day - which was only intensified as the day went on.

I guess I'd refer to today as a "Holy Hangover". I had such a great day yesterday that today was the hangover from yesterday - and it hit hard!!! Both physically and emotionally! I've cried ALL day today... I've had a migrane all day, a sore throat, and sinus problems - not to mention my lack of sleep. So, I skipped out on some things so I could sleep more but I woke up just as sick as I went to bed.

AND to counter my sickness I accidently took too many meds on an empty stomach so now I feel like I'm floating everywhere...

BUT, my family at home has REALLY helped! I don't understand how it's possible to be as wonderful as my mom and dad and sister! I really really hope that I'm exactly like them when I grow up! I LOVE THEM!!! They somehow make me feel like I'm literally being held by all of them! And it makes me feel really really special!

It's now 2:30PM and I've started to be a little bit more anchored to the ground and I've started to feel a liiiiittle bit better, however the hangover remains. BUT I wouldn't change a thing! Yesterday was worth it!!!

I've got to go make dinner now...maybe if I cough a few times I'll get off the hook ;)

I'll update again later. I love you all!

G'Later!

Hey, quick update:

I'm still feeling awful BUT God is sweet. I had to go up to work duties but I walked upstairs and the girl who has the office for her work duty said she wanted to switch with me. So, I thought it'd be a good idea especially b/c I didn't want to contaminate any food. Soooo I went upstairs to the office and the girl who leads it had the day off, which meant that I did too!

So, I had extra time to finish some homework assingments and even go on a donut date with LaChelle and Josh! But, the walk there and back wore me out.

I walked into the rec room and Jo immediately said, "wow. you look like you have had an absolutely rough day." And, he is right...please keep on praying - everything is hard. AND I'm getting up at 4:30 again tomorrow to go surfing AND the forecast is rain... yikes.

I appreciate all of your prayers, I'm POSITIVE that they're working and being answered. I would love it if you would all just pray for God's will in my life to take place! I know that's exactly what I want...even if it's not "exactly" what I want, you know? :) Thank you!

G'Night!