Well, this has been quite a week to be sure. I still can’t quite wrap my mind around everything that has happened. To begin this week, we did a children’s ministry at the Causeway Coast Vineyard. The ministry was wonderful! The children’s pastor, Dave, is a great man of faith. He challenged us to look at this week’s ministry, not as a babysitting opportunity, but as a divine appointment for these children. He taught us that there is no Junior Holy Spirit and that God wants to touch each of these kids just like he is touching us. So we went into this week expecting great things. Every game that we played, every hug that we gave with filled with our prayers for the children. I am excited to tell ya’ll that bout 8 children stood up and asked Jesus into their heart this week! Praise the Lord!! Then about 10 more asked the Holy Spirit to filled them and be dynamic in their life. I guess I have always seen children’s ministry as a means to watch the kids while the parents spent time with the Lord, however, this week completely changed my perspective.

During the afternoons we have also been doing acts of service in the community in Coleraine. We go into businesses and wash their windows, scrub their toilets, and show them the love of Christ in a practical way. We are also doing surveys on the street, and through that another person came to know the Lord! It really is amazing to see what happens when we step out in faith. I must be honest, I was a big skeptic of just talking to people in businesses or on the street, I thought that they would reject us because we were interrupting their daily life. However, people can’t deny love in a practical way. When we first show them the love of Christ, they want to hear more. It’s about acting first then talking. On Saturday we showed God’s love in a way that I have never experienced before.

Every Saturday the Vineyard goes out to the town square and sets up chairs and a banner that says “Healing”, they pray, and then they wait. We watched as person after person in the community came and sat down in those chairs and were miraculously healed. I’m not kidding ya’ll, I watched people healed this week! It was absolutely crazy, people in the streets, non-Christians, experiencing the love and power of Christ for the first time in their life! What I love about the Vineyard is that their goal is never the miracle, it’s God and his love. So they always go back to how much God loves that person and wants to be in relationship with them. I also loved that it wasn’t a huge ordeal, literally the people of the church talked about Gods love to the community and shared how much they are loved and then just said “Be healed” and commanded the sicknesses to leave. There was no big show or anything, and I loved that! God is a God of peace, and every person who sat down felt God’s peace. I am seriously so excited to share everything I have learned about healing with ya’ll this week! One of the main leaders of the ministry, Mark Marcs offered his time to us and came to teach us what he has learned in 20 years of ministry. His talks were awesome, and I can’t wait to share with you what happened at the end! But I’ll save that for later this week Until then, I want each of you to be encouraged that God’s power is inside each of us. Don’t be afraid to ask for the miraculous and expect it in our lives. We don’t need “more” of God, or a special anointing, we are all filled with God’s Spirit, the same Spirit that filled Christ, and we are ready – Just respond in faith at the Lord’s leading.

I’ll leave you with some pictures of this week (It’s ok to doubt, I’ll be the first to admit that I was a Thomas for sure until I saw it with my own eyes). I took the pictures below myself on my iphone camera. The first is of my friend Mike’s legs begin shorter than the other, look at the heals and you can really see it. The second is a few seconds later after Mike experienced God’s love. My friend Daina video taped this amazing moment, and the video is real and unedited I promise, be sure to watch the arms be realigned too

I love you all and miss you tons. I can’t wait to hear the stories of what you are doing in America!

Healing on the Streets from Daina Norusis on Vimeo.

I think the reality of leaving has finally begun to sink in.  I am starting to realize that I am not going to see all the people I love for an entire year.  I am beginning to understand that even though this trip is going to be amazing, it is also going to be the hardest thing I am ever going to do.  I don’t think I fully thought through what it meant to leave for a year when I signed up for the World Race.  So much can happen in a year back home, and I don’t want to be away from it.  However, I believe that this is the call of God for my life, so I am thankful that I have that fact to get me through this year.  Even though I have only been gone a day, and even though we haven’t even left the airport yet, I can already see how much God is going to teach me to trust him.  This week has been filled with so many emotions, I am hoping it is the hardest part of the trip – saying goodbye to the ones I love, and knowing that I am leaving my life in America behind.

I can feel myself growing and dying already.  I see myself dying to my flesh and getting rid of all of the comforts that I had convinced myself were necessities.  I can feel something deep inside of me beginning to stir, and I am excited to see what it turns out to me.  I look forward to seeing what God has for me this year, and all of the lives he is going to change through this trip.  I want to thank everyone who has been a part of getting me here – I am so excited and thankful.

If you think about it, any prayers that you could offer for us would be greatly appreciated.  Please pray for me as I continue to come to grips with leaving home, and pray for my loved ones as we adjust to this new time in my life.  And also for my team, as there are 100 other people feeling the same range of emotions I am.  We are very excited, yet still terrified at the same time.

I have a feeling that these first steps, as trembling and timid as they may be, though they are the hardest, they will be the beginning of not only an amazing journey, but also the rest of my life.

Love and peace to you all.

~ Jennifer M.