--- This was published on Dec 1, 2013, then I accidentally deleted it. Thankful for cache to recover!---
Thanksgiving Day you would've found us first in a large church in a
suburb of Memphis, New Hope Christian Church. I loved this, because my
home church's name is New Hope. From Wednesday through Saturday morning
we were doing ministry in Memphis. Thursday we split into 3 teams, all
of which had been given a list of different places for us to physically
go to and pray for. First, the Big Blue van wasn't working so after a
lot of prayer we finally had to leave it behind and take a minivan. That
in itself was a God thing, because we wouldn't have had that mini-van
if 2 of the guys in our school hadn't needed to drive separately.
Anyway, so my team of 7 went first to a Psychic's place to pray outside,
then to the famous Sun Studio where Elvis Presley himself, AND Johnny
Cash, first recorded! We were all super excited to go. It was closed, of
course, being Thanksgiving Day, and the streets were empty so it worked
out fine for us to pray and take pictures.
We also went to an abortion clinic, a coffeehouse ministry, and
McD's... not to pray, but praying makes us hungry. Later that day we
went to a homeless shelter and several of the students from our base led
worship & a few of us gave testimonies. The shelter was Calvary
Mission and it was such a cool ministry! They are raising money to build
a shelter twice the size, to house 108 instead of 46. They have led so
many people to Jesus, and changed their lives, it's crazy!
Friday we first went to Orange Mound, a community in the roughest part
of Memphis, and worked with a mission there. We built raised beds for
one of the three community gardens they have there. We aren't
professionals by any means, but the beds turned out perfectly! The rest
of Friday we did door-to-door evangelism. Several people started a
relationship with God that day, and one boy was freed from a demonic
spirit. We all learned to be bold in Christ.
You may have heard of Beale Street. It's pretty much the most famous
place in Memphis. We went there several times this week. Friday night we
went, just waiting to see who God would lead us to. The neatest
experience of that night had nothing to do with evangelism and
everything to do with John Mayer.
See, John Mayer was playing RIGHT where we were. My friend Marissa
reallllly wanted to see him. But we have no money. We finished our work
at 8:30 then she and I and another friend, Trinity, decided to walk up
to the doors. We were up there, talking, looking longingly inside, when a
couple who had just been cleared to go in, poked their heads out. The
man said, "My daughter wasn't able to make it and we have a free ticket.
Would you like to go?" And Marissa was like "YES!!" So we told her to
go, and we'd text her when we needed to leave. She only got to see the
first song, but it was so amazing for her, just what she wanted! She got
to kind of witness to the couple she was with, too, which was also
pretty amazing. We've been learning here that God really wants a
relationship with us where we are his lovers and He is ours. He wants to
love on us. So sometimes he surprises us with little things like free
concerts, just cuz he can!
I learned so much this week. I am really glad to be back on base,
sleeping on my bunk bed instead of on the floor! I don't realize how
much I have to be thankful for until I don't have it ;)
We only have two weeks left on base though. And it's Christmas season
for everyone, not just me now! My favorite random part of this week was
when we were praying in Oasis, the coffeeshop. This ministry is targeted
towards African American students at the University of Tennessee, just
as a safe, welcoming place for them to come & hopefully be impacted
by God. My team was praying and I was the "scribe" keeping track of what
God showed us for each place. Christmas music was playing, and a song I
love came on. I pretty much started crying. I love Christmas music so
much, and I was missing being at home in Ohio, where from November to
Christmas we have it playing a ton. This weekend for some reason I'd
heard NO Christmas music, just stupid classical in the car ;) but anyway
I really needed Christmas music. That whole prayer, my friends got
amazing messages for the ministry. When it came my turn to share, all I
could say was I was touched by the music. God works in mysterious ways,
right?!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
