Chapter 13

13.

Molly Bea gave a tired, heavy sigh, flopping down on her bed. It had been an extremely long day, with flying back from Brazil and then going to youth group. Yet, she wanted to write a few things down in her journal before succumbing to sleep. She grabbed her journal and a pen from her little box with drawers in it her grandpa had given her. She flipped to an empty page and began to write.

We are finally home! It was a wonderful trip! We saw thousands of healings and just as many deliverances and salvations. It is hard to put into words. It was so awesome!

One really neat thing that happened on the Brazil trip was getting drunk in the Holy Spirit. Once, about the third night, my roommate, Rose, and I got drunk on the Lord's annointing in our room. We had just gone to bed. I was laying there twitching and such. Rose said, "I want that." So I prayed for her. Then she started laughing and couldn't get back to her bed. I ended up on the floor too. It was so much crazy fun! We finally got back to bed about 3:15 a.m.

Another time, Rose and I got drunk on the Lord's annointing at a meeting. We were still drunk when we got on the bus to go for dinner. Erik, the bus captain told us that we couldn't go into the restaurant until we stopped manifesting. So everybody got off, and Rose and I were still on the bus. In a couple of minutes we had cooled off and went in to have supper. Myself, and Cat, got hoarse while we were in Brazil because of yelling so much when the Holy Spirit came on us. I could hardly talk at times.

The last night in Brazil, we had a fire tunnel. It was so awesome! You went through, got blasted with blessings from the Lord, then started praying for the others. By the time we finished up, I was looped. I swayed, staggered and laughed the whole way to my room. God is absolutely so much fun!

MollyBea looked over her entry smiling. It had been a great time. She would never forget it! She was extremely tired now. She had very little sleep the last night at Brazil and then hadn't gotten much on the way home. So now she was having difficulty keeping her eyes open. She yawned as she put her writing paraphernalia away and turning her light off.

"All right. Mind if I stay up awhile longer?" Lydia asked looking at her from her own bed.

"Don't care, but will you pray quick." MollyBea threw her blankets to the end of the bed and fell onto her pillow.

"Sure. Dear Jesus, we thank You for this day and all You have given us! We thank You for giving us the opportunity to serve You in Brazil. Thank You for moving so mightily through us. In Your name we pray. Amen."

"Thank-you," MollyBea mumbled already half asleep.

"Mmmhhhmmm," Lydia murmured and turned back to the letter she had started.

Dear Grandpa,

Hi, how are you doing? I'm doing pretty good. Exhausted! I haven't had much sleep the past few nights. I really need to get to bed, but I wanted to write you quick and tell you about Brazil.

It was awesome! We saw so many people healed and touched by God. The best part of it though was that I got to be a part of it all. I didn't just have to hear about it. I lived it!

I also learned a lot of things during the trip. I learned that God wants His people to be forceful, for that is how they lay hold of the kingdom. Also that God loves to heal everything, even the sore knees and the "pain-in-the-neck" colds. He will never say, "You whiner, stop tying up My time!" He would never even think it! Jesus loves to bless His people! It makes Him sad when we don't ask for His help. He loves it when we come to Him with everything. Whether it be finding a boyfriend, life, a headache, and much more!

I was also disappointed at first because I thought I wasn't changing during the trip and the Lord began to teach me that sometimes change comes a little at a time. I asked Him why. I got the impression that He does that so we keep pressing in to Him, never losing our dependency on Jesus.

Another thing I learned down there was that God will draw close to us, but He wants to know that we desperately want to be close to Him. In James 4:8 it says, "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you." Notice how it says we have to take the first step. If we desperately draw close to Him, no matter what it costs, He will draw near to us.

Well, Grandpa, it's getting late, and I'm bone-tired. I shall tell you more about Brazil later. I love you lots. May God pour His abundant blessings on you!!

Love,

your granddaughter,

Lydiamcfiddia

Lydia signed her letter by her nickname that her grandpa had given her. She looked over what she had written and then with a sigh folded it up. She set it on the trunk that sat between her and MollyBea's beds. She said her own personal prayer before falling into heavy slumber. There would be no tossing and turning for her tonight. Even though she usually was a night owl, sleep came to her quickly tonight. It had been a great trip. It was just as great to be home! It was always good to come home to her own bed!

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"Hi Cat." Shanice greeted Courtney as she entered the house, arms loaded with baggage.

"Hi, it's so good to be home." Cat sank down into the couch and leaned her head back. She soaked in the softness and familiarity of it.

"Your lunch is almost ready, Cat," her mom said from the kitchen.

"Thanks." Cat reluctantly got up from the couch and dragged her stuff into her room. She then went into the kitchen.

"So tell us all about your trip." Shanice barraged Cat with questions as she sat down.

"I saw and learned a lot. It was great! Summing up my whole Brazil experience in one word-Wow! Before I was in Brazil I believed in healing, but I believed in healing through other people. I was healed by laying on of hands. I had seen it happen and believed the testimonies, but I had never laid hands on somebody and watched them get healed!" Shanice and their mom nodded acknowledging they were giving their full attention.

"I didn’t even realize I hadn’t experienced that until the first night. God healed this young man's rib right in front of my eyes! I couldn’t believe it! When I asked if the pain was gone, he nodded his head, shook my hand, and walked away. I thought that maybe he didn't understand, but then it kept happening! Each person I prayed for walked away with God healing them! There were so many physical healings. There were also many people who walked away with a touch from God which brought spiritual and emotional healings also. I had intercession for many of the people that I prayed for. I felt their emotional pain, knew things they thought about themselves, lies they believed that got in the way of their physical healing. Sometimes God showed me situations in their lives I needed to pray for for breakthrough. The things God showed me were always things I could use to pray for them. Most of the time I didn’t even tell them what God had showed me; I just spoke life and interceded for them in those areas. It blessed me as much as it blessed them because it showed me different ways God can talk to me that I had never experienced before." Cat paused a second as she relived the passion, joy, and exhilaration of the ministry times. For the millionth time, she thanked the Lord for all of it.

Cat shook herself out of the reverie and continued, "Once I had prayed through those things the healing would come…that was so amazing! It confirmed that God actually talked to me, and I was doing the right thing. Oh, to see the look on their faces when they received their healing! Wow!" Cat's mom laid a plate of food in front of her.

"Thank-you, Mom." Cat said a quick prayer over her meal and took a bite. "Yum!" She hadn't realized how much she had missed her dad's barbecued beef.

She then went on with her story. "I don’t even know what else to say. It’s hard to formulate words to relate everything. I'll try to sum it up in one paragraph:

God demonstrated His loving power through us daily while we were there, in an undeniable way! There were so many testimonies of amazing things that He did that it couldn’t be ignored. It was a life changing experience four hundred youth from all over the world got to participate in! God showed me that He could use “even little ol’ me”, and taught me nothing was too big for Him!" Cat's mom and Shanice both shook their heads in amazement at what they heard. There was definitely a change in Cat. It was obvious even in the way she talked.

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The days passed by quickly and soon it was a week since they had come back from Brazil. Lydia went to youth group with MollyBea, Jordan, and Jesse, and looked around for someone to talk to. Cat was at the piano getting ready for worship. "How have you been doing during this week home?" she asked Cat.

"Doing all right."

"Your flip flop stopped flashing?" Lydia asked looking down at Cat's flip flops.

"Yeah, last week when we had that mini fire tunnel we had here it stopped."

"Are you bummed?" Lydia asked picking up a sheet of music that had slipped from the keyboard.

"Thanks," Cat took it from her. "I was at first, but then God told me that it was symbolic. It started to continually flash during the fire tunnel in Brazil and stopped at the fire tunnel here. When we were in Brazil, we received a new level of anointing that was for our whole church. We carried it all the way home with us and imparted it to the people here the same way in the same level that it was given to us!" She went through her music book, picking out different songs.

"How long did it flash for?" Lydia knelt on the couch by the keyboard.

"Well we had the banquet then...," Cat wagged her finger thinking about the days, "...then we had youth on Wednesday. So it was two or three days."

"Wow!! Three days of continuously flashing. Did it break?"

"Everybody in the circle. It's time to start," Pastor Rod called turning off the lights. Everybody went to their spots and the worship started. It wasn't quite as good as at Brazil but it was still good.

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The weeks and months went by, bringing everyday challenges to the Mt. Zion teens who had gone to Brazil. Even still these fourteen young adults, Pastor Rod, and Mrs. Olsen had each learned something very important. They all saw God move and that would never leave them! Part of Brazil would always be with them, no matter where God took them next.

Then as time continued to go by the Lord began to teach Lydia about why there had been the level of anointing, power and passion in Brazil and not in the Mt. Zion church. In Brazil everyone had come with a hunger to see God move and to be used by Him. They had eaten, breathed, slept, and moved to bring their Savior glory. On top of that they were all constantly using their spiritual weapon of prayer. One of the strongest assets that God gives His children. Why wasn't Lydia seeing the same level of passion and hunger manifesting in Mt. Zion as she had seen in Brazil? The Almighty began to reveal to her that it wasn't necessarily because there wasn't any hunger, but that the enemy was out to try to keep Mt. Zion from fulfilling it's potential. God had given them the anointing and power. Cat's flip flops attested to that. All that was needed was for the people of Mt. Zion who had the hunger, to press in and pray it through. Lydia believed it could be done, because she had seen the same predicament solved with the church that Allie, Natalia, Terrelle, Pastor Rod, Mrs. Olsen, and herself had gone to. As Allie had said then, it was going to take a lot of prayer on their part and God's faithfulness on His part to break through it. It had been done before, it could be done again! To God be the glory