Archive for August, 2007

Andrew playing with the kids at one of the orphanages we visited.

In Tennessee, the best thing was seeing the incredible growth of anointing and presence of God at Pastor Mike Sexton’s church, Lakewind Fellowship. I love getting drunk in the Holy Spirit with them. Last year it was awesome too, but this summer it was like double the potency. Laughing, crawling all over the floor, just sharing and spreading the juice, watching guys crumble to the ground when you touch them…it was so strong. And the prophetic words that came forth that night were amazing, bringing conformation and encouragement. Both services there, Sunday and Monday night, were great. Worship, dance, prayer…it was a divine event for sure.

In Bulgaria, first of all, we met great people. Everyone we met in Sofia, the Americans, the Bulgarians, the Norwegians, we connected with them in such an awesome way. Bulgaria was a divine appointment in so many ways. The whole time we were in Bulgaria, it felt like we were always walking in God’s will. It was the most DIVINE of the three countries, which is no surprise.

To me, the best part of the whole tour occurred after arriving in Dobrich, a city on the east side of Bulgaria, where we visited two orphanages with Pastor Mitko Dimitrov. This was an amazing experience. One of the orphanages was for younger children…I think in the age group of 3-7…or something like that. The second orphanage was for children who were mentally disabled and, also physically deformed. At both orphanages, I would smile and play with the children to bring as much joy and happiness to them as I could, but in the van, on the way back…I just cried. It was a life changing experience for me, and I know it was for many, if not all of us.

Norway was sweet! I greatly enjoyed the beauty of the country, the difference of the weather and the sunlight, and also, the many people we were able to meet. After dancing in the various town squares, it felt like we definitely had an effect on the land. We didn’t receive a ton of responses from the people; however, I think we were sowing seeds and plowing. It was tough work, but nevertheless, it was not in vain. I believe that we accomplished something really good there. We danced every night of the conference in Norway, but what I loved most was the youth service that we did. All the youth were really impacted by our worship in music and in dance. Some of us were able to connect with the youth in an awesome way. I personally was able to encourage all the youth, the worship team, and the youth pastor, the night before we danced, during a youth service. The youth pastor invited all of us visitors (the four or five of us IDC’ers who had stayed up to attend the 11 p.m. youth service) to share if God laid something on our hearts. I felt compelled to share a word with them, so I gave them a word of encouragement. God is moving in Norway through some awesome youth that are anointed and willing to serve Him!

 Andrew

Miriam & Amelia in Bulgaria

Indiana - Rebekah and I were praying as a team one night after a full, dynamically anointed time of ministry in the band and dance in Indiana at Seymour Harvest Church. Towards the end, a lady came up to us to pray for her husband to know the Lord because he had once before when he was younger, but had since then, fallen away into Buddhism. Both her and her daugheter were passionate after the Lord. She also mentioned a sugar addiction, and other health issues associated with the addiction. It was a power-packed ministry time Bekah and I had this lovely woman. Full of prophetic words, words knowledge, and encouragement. It was one of those times where Jesus kept talking to us. She had been crying and witnessing to every word that the Lord gave Bekah and I but right as we were about to end, Jesus gave me one more thing: a vivid picture of this lady’s internal organs-reshaping, restoring, and strenghening into their normal functions. I told her my vision and knew exactly where I was to lay me hand on her stomach. She immediately began to tear up again and got excited as she explained to me that she didn’t mention her bad digestive problem and I laid my hands was EXACTLY where she was struggling with the problem! Praise Jesus…

Ohio - During the time we were in wonderful Ohio, IDC offered a workshop on the weekend at Church on the Summit. It was a smaller workshop than last year, but something was special about it…there were a lot of younger ones, like 8-12 years, and then some teenagers - about 20 total. After giving multiple classes of ballet, jazz, tae kwon do, and gymnastics, we closed up the workshop with Psalm interpretation. This is where we have someone read the Psalm and our different groups perform a dance/drama of the Psalm using the different things we learned earlier in the day. It was an awesome time working with all these young people, inspiring them to use all there gifts for the Lord. The neatest thing was this: at the very end, a beautiful little girl (who was in my group) came up to me, hugged me and said, “Do you know Miriam that one time, I had to perform in front of my family, and they were 9 people, and I was soooo scared! But today, I felt no fear at all when we did our dance!” And she just smiled and was so bright the next morning in church…she made a point her mother said, to come to see us dance that morning.

Bulgaria - In Bulgaria, we were able to visit a gyspy camp with Zhoro and Mariana on a Wednesday night to have an outside church service. After having a wonderful time of singing, dancing, healing, and loving on the gypsies, we got to try and communicate with the people. There was specifically a young couple, Amelia and Pepi, who were two newlyweds and didn’t yet have rings (which the gypsies consider a very sacred symbol of marriage) because they were too poor to afford even a simple band. Haven had previously considered giving her wedding ring, but felt it wasn’t right from the Lord. I then came up to join in on the conversation and realized the ring situation. It was immediately quickened in my spirit to give her my silver purity ring I was wearing at the time…but she tried it on and it was just too small to get over her knuckle. At this moment I remembered that I had one more ring with me in my bag in the van. It was the ring Mirna (my precious Mayan mother in the Lord) gave to me as a love offering in the jungles of Mexico. It was a beautiful gold beaten ring, with a crystal diamond in the middle. The coolest thing was that earlier while touring in the States, I had to take it off in order to dance, and one of those times, I just put it away permanently, and I didn’t really know why I felt a slight detachment from it. I mean, I LOVED this ring. But I did it anyway and felt a peace about it. Fast forward two weeks later: We’re in Bulgaria, and here I remember my ring, still in that box. I ran to the van to get the ring because I knew this was why I put it away! My eyes began to water as I was getting out the ring to bring to Amelia and Pepi. Running back, I put the ring on her wedding finger (right hand for the gypsies) and it fit PERFECTLY! It was so beautiful on her, and she just glowed with joy and appreciation. I couldn’t believe that the ring given to me in Mexico, traveled with me to the States, where I wore it proudly with love, and then traveled once more to Bulgaria just so that this couple could have the desires of their hearts! Amazing…what a destiny. We just hugged and hung out the whole entire night until the moment we all piled into the vans to leave. Jesus is so awesome.

-Miriam

Ty, in front of the ruins of a castle in Norway

Today it’s Ty’s turn!

“The first thing that I remember most and will always remember and carry with me is the orphanages in Bulgaria. Seeing the delight in the eyes of the youngsters at having people come and visit them filled me with much joy and sorrow. I felt excitable joy when I looked into their eyes and faces and saw just a sparkling happiness that warmed me to the core. Yet I felt sorrow too in the prospect of what lay in store for them and I realized just how privileged I really am, just to have parents. Another thing that nearly made me burst out in tears was when we visited an orphanage that helped children who had physical problems and even in them, I saw such joy at having visitors. I truly am glad that I have chosen to work as a missionary pediatric doctor. One day I’ll be able to help blessings such as these.

The second greatest thing I will treasure from our travels this past summer was when we went to visit the Gypsies in Bulgaria. Being able to see a group of people who, literally, had nothing, yet were filled with absolute joy when praising our God and King, I felt an overwhelming sense of shame. Here I am in America, blessed out of my socks with a good God-Fearing family, a roof over my head, food on the table, books and television and all the luxuries of the world, and I don’t always feel like praising God. These Gypsies had next to nothing and were still happy and joyful. I am humbled by such a sight. Also, arm wrestling with all the kids was pretty cool too.

The third thing that imprinted on my mind was seeing all the people that we touched. I mean, when we dance I feel God moving and I dance for Him. But when I see how our ministry affects the lives of so many others in the audience, my own feelings are nothing compared to theirs. I praise God that I, a sinner and nowhere near perfect, can be used as a truly unique and powerful tool to bring about the glory and honor of God. I hope and pray that my entire life will be used to serve and honor God, even if it claims all I have including my life here on earth, I am prepared.”

-Ty

  Ariel & “Mr. Bernard” at the End of the World

Hi everyone,

In an attempt to wrap up our trip, I asked everyone in the company to email me their three favorite experiences from the trip. Today, Ariel is sharing with us.

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“One of my favorite times on this trip was when we went to the Sextons church the first week, Monday night. Even though there was hardly any people there, God moved so awesomely! Infusion was getting words for the church, and the church was getting words for Infusion….God really touched me there, and I’m sure a lot of other people too!

My second favorite memory is when we were in Bulgaria. The whole conference there was so much fun, and all the people were amazing of course! I loved how we met Americans there reaching out like we were, and how the Bulgarians were just so open and were pouring out their hearts to us. I think they were some of the nicest people we’ve met on tour. The worship one night, (I forget which night) was soooooooo awesome! We were just really into it and God was right there in the moment with us! It was amazing.

In Norway, even though this isn’t a ministry thing, I got to see how awesome God was just in our surroundings. When we went to the End of the World, I just enjoyed so much, and quite frankly, I kept thinking of how this is one of those places where you would go in the morning or something and just be with God. It was almost like there are angels there or something cause I could feel something there, like God’s presence was there. I loved it!”

Ariel