The random and radical

To say the last 2 ish weeks of training was interesting is as bit of an understatement. But training is done and I am getting the last of my things together since we are lifting of on Tuesday 5 March, so exciting times.

"Short" ordered account

Training went into the focus on the Holy Spirit with Oom Gerrie coming to visit us. I was excited and scared before we started since I always saw "radical" Holy Spirit experiences as a bit weird, but wanted to know more. Dr Gerrie van den Haas is a medical doctor, but is walking in real authority in the Spirit. He taught that to live in true victory that leads to love, joy and peace you need to give all to God and allow healing to take place in all those areas of your life where there are hurts and blocks, those emotional scars that lead to spiritual roots that need to be broken. And boy did this free me from some hurts and bring joy and peace to me like I never experienced. Then he taught on the baptism of the Holy Spirit and just asking the spirit to fill you. He taught us the differences between having the Holy spirit living in you (the presence), being filled with the Holy Spirit and accessing the power of the Holy Spirit and then walking in the authority of the Holy Spirit. On the last day he visited I experienced what till now I will describe as my most random day ever (see random and radical part for more detail :-P ) Needless to say my fear was gone and joy and peace filled my life.
The we went into practical mode and did a 5 day “Luke 10” that part of the bible where Jesus sends out his disciples to go out and spread the word and heal the sick, but telling them to take no money bag or change of clothes. So we went out into the greater Kouga area with no money, changes of clothes or even plakkies for 5 days to spread the word and heal the sick. Not a big ask, but that is exactly what we did. The pink team felt the Lord told us to go to Skoenmakerskop (that none of us ever heard of) since He has some very specific appointments. So we set of hitch-hiking to Skoenmakerskop and did we have an interesting time. Since it is a longer story I will sum it up, we never went hungry or without a bed to sleep in, we had good time to input into people along the way (from Catholics nuns to extreme new-age believer), we saw some healing done through us, people giving their lives to Christ and some even experienced some heavy spiritual warfare. What good training for the year ahead.

Then uncle (or papa) Jo came to visit from Scotland to give us some teaching on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We started with the purpose of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, then went into in depth teaching on prophesy, tongues and the gift of faith. We also had a chance to put into practice by prophesying on each other (again completely new and a bit freaky for me) and then over the 250 children of the high school over a 2 day period. He also had a lot say about dreaming dream (the conventional kind) for the future and how we can change it. During the last 2 days he also had a chance to prophesy over all of the Global members and teams going on a journey this year.

The last evening we were officially commissioned and sent out we also got our Global jackets. Excitement overflow, my first international flight awaits.

The random and radical
So starting with the oom Gerrie part. The first time we could go just to experiencing the full infilling of the Holy Spirit I was very scared, but the feeling of the infilling is not something I am even going to try and explain. After that the healing of old wounds and roots in my life started and that made a massive difference, the deliverance processes was so simple and not scary, showy or anything like that. The absolute freedom and the JOY and PEACE that follows is mind blowing.
The most random day. It started with my D-group (small group) of gr 9 boys that morning, we were sitting at a table at the Caltex after getting coffee and I was speaking on the father heart of God and that we are his adopted sons and that wants the best for us. It was Josh's birthday and we sang for him, and then I said that as sons of God, he wants to give us the best, right then a dude stopped next to us in his car asking who the birthday boy is, we all were like "what??", he asked again and Josh went up and the guy (mid late 20's) gave him R20 and drove off. we all were like who is this guy, no one knew. Then it hit me what I just said before. "God wants to give us the best" and it was just like "see God has a father heart towards us" and closed the group right there. After that the pink team prayed for the Luke 10 starting the next day and I just had the most clear message that there we some very specific appointments for us and that God wants us to focus on that not how we are getting there or what we are going to eat or sleep, but that He will take care of it (and He did) this was confirmed by Jansie as she had the same message. This hearing what God has planned for you was still very new for me so it was cool. After that I was praying on my own when I saw the purple team leader walking past on the way to the beach with his bible and I had this great desire to give him my map of the Kouga area, he was a bit confused, but in the end took it. When he cam back he was laughing since he got word while on beach and needed the map. That afternoon we had a small group session with oom Gerrie and he pointed and delivered me from anger, and a few other things, in my life that I did not even know I had. That evening during the session we had the opportunity to try and speak in tongues if we never have before and it just flowed from me right from the start (quite a change from being scared of Holy Spirit a few days earlier). After the session I felt I needed to give Jansie the map of the Kouga area since she will know the next morning where we should go for the Luke 10 and she did! Also one of the girls hand was still shaking and she could not stop it, I just felt i needed to touch her hand and elbow in certain way and the shaking stopped, no idea what I did and that was the first of a few healing related things in the next few days that kept coming over my path. What a day of new random and radical things.
Luke 10 is still to long to give full account but highlights are: waiting at a robot in middle of PE for an hour since we heard that God told us to wait. When were heard we should get up I felt that I had to go speak to this delivery guy, got a lift from him even though he is not allowed since in his word "Jesus told him to pick us up" and healing his wrist that he injured the morning, just seeing his face after that is amazing. Where he dropped us I got word that we should just stand, not allowed to ask for lift or ask anyone where Skoenmakerskop is, one of the girls felt that someone from Skoenmakerskop will pick us up, after 5 min a car stopped at robot, the driver asked us what we are doing there, we said we are going to Skoenmakerskop and he was "I live there get in" so we ended up in Skoenmakerskop and were surprised to find it a one street retirement type village. The first words from our fist man of peace, Charles, were "no hippies allowed in Skoenies" and when he heard that we are Christians he had a lot to say, we found out that he was once a pastor, but has gone over into some extreme new age beliefs. He invited us for coffee in his mothers house he was visiting and made us dinner and asked us to stay the evening, we stayed there for 2 days. We had some very interesting conversations with Charles and the next day I went to work with him where he was renovating a house and had good time of input, it was amazing to see shat impact some "crazy people that goes without money, food and clothes" can have on someones viewpoints and to see again what damage hypocritical Christians do to peoples lives. The girls went round Skoenies and even ended up preaching grace to Catholic nuns. The next morning we could pray for Marlene and just bless the house and went to help Charles some more with his house. That afternoon after some random walking around in the village and some weird stray dog incidents we ended up speaking with 2 grade 9 boys, the only kids in Skoenies. They were very surprise at what we were doing and wanted to know more, they both attended church, but were not sure what they believed, after some time they completely gave their heart to Jesus and we baptized them in the Holy Spirit. By this time the sun set and we had no place to sleep, the 2 boys went home, but came back after a bit and told us that they spoke to the mom and we are invited to stay with them. This started 2 days of time with the family and friends that was really good. This is also 2 days in what I were first challenged by some spiritual warfare, the first night I was continuously woken up with different people of my team or some of the family and friends in the house pressing on my heart to pray/intercede for. The next night we had a chance to bless the family and the house, but due to some random happenings that afternoon the girls were open to some attack. I woke up at 1am and from then on it was a new and scary time for me, the girls also felt something and we thought it was the house that was under attack, but a saw a clear picture of the house covered in light, after a bit I realised it was one of us that was under attack. I could feel the oppression and while outside (was I scared going outside) praying in tongues my tongue changed to what I can only describe as an authoritative tongue, then the feeling of oppression went away. Then we settled down and could do deliverance in all 4 of our lives to close any open doors. Once again a moment where I had no idea what I was doing and it was my first experience in something like that, but I was led and taught by the Holy Spirit. The Sunday morning we ended up spending some time with Charles again and we are very excited about what is happening in his life and got a lift from his aunt that dropped us back at the campsite. All the other teams have amazing stories read the other blogs to see what they experienced.
Uncle Jo Then uncle Jo came all the way from Scotland, his teaching on the gifts of the spirit was good, but the focus was on the prophetic gift. Having to do a "blind" 30 second prophesy on someone for the first time was a new experience and then finding out that from the next day you will be prophesying over the 250 kids at the high school was a bit new and scary for me. But we did and even though I sometimes wondered if I am doing this rights I got the word to "keep shooting your arrows/darts/ketty, you are hitting the target" on 4 occasions during those 2 days, I think God was trying to tell me something. I also saw in practice at the school that different people have different prophetic gifting and all of us has a role to play and before I though prophesy looks all the same for everyone, the only truth in that is that prophesy should always be encouraging even if it points out some change that needs to happen. Uncle Jo also prophesied over all the team members and I spoke a prophesy over me that is amazing (but then again I think everyone feels that way), looks like there is some more spiritual battles ahead.

So this is the end of training and now it is time to go over and see what lies ahead. This is all excitement since with Christ in me and the by the power of the Holy Spirit everything is possible, the only thing we have to worry about is if you are fully open to the Holy Spirit and not trying to do things in your own power.