 The Lord is moving among us. As student missionaries posture their heart in response to the presence of the Lord, we are seeing transformation happen on the streets and in their personal lives.
Going house to house, team members prayed in response to requests at each door. A common prayer was, “Lord send rain!” We awoke yesterday to a rushing pour of rain that didn’t just get everything wet but flooded areas we were planning to serve. Team members didn’t get discouraged, but embraced the opportunity to pick up their cross and pray Heaven down on the highway and byways. As the day progressed the clouds cleared and team members got their gear and headed to serve. Pushing mowers, picking up trash, & plowing through brush to clear pathways to people’s homes, awakened hearts to how God is plowing through our hearts as we serve and seek Gospel opportunities. One Team member said, “Clearing the brush is showing me how The Holy Spirit is clearing the brush in my life, so I can display Him without hinderance.” By evening, we hosted a bonfire that brought out the community and students played with kids while others engaged in gospel conversations with their parents. About 10pm we packed up and headed out to the casino! Packed full of cars we got permission to set up at the exit and offer burgers and prayer to everyone that was leaving. Team members began conversations with bouncers, gamblers, and night club hoppers! Imagine leaving a casino at midnight and being offered prayer as you stumbled home from defeat. Gospel conversations permeated the air as Jesus was lifted high in the night watches among the hopeless. Please pray for the Lord to capture hearts today and open doors for salvation!
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 Today the team was challenged to be RFA- “Ready for Anything” Taken from Acts 8 where Philip was placed on the road to Gaza and encountered an Ethiopian Eunuch who was reading the Scroll of Isaiah! I mean what are the chances??
So everyone prayed this morning for the Lord to use them to share the gospel like Philip and they committed to be RFA! The Lord responded! Every house that was painted and every yard that was mowed or yard that was cleared students prayed for the Lord to push back the darkness, bless the home, and give Divine Encounters! By the time we got to our community family outreach ( aka the Carnival) the Lord was setting up encounters! Taylor, one of our student missionaries felt a prompting from the Holy Spirit to share her personal testimony with the entire crowd at the Carnival. Taylor had never done this before and was nervous, but knew with confidence she was suppose to share. She stepped to the mic like a pro and shared confidently how the Lord had changed her life and gave an invitation for anyone who didn’t know Jesus to go to the prayer tent. What Taylor didn’t know, was as soon as she finished, a young boy that has been helping with #TheWalk was overwhelmed with conviction and ran over to the tent to rededicate his life to Christ. It was powerful how God had so evidently prompted Taylor to speak boldly, but at the same time was using it to speak to this young man. Taylor walked out being RFA and God had a Divine Encounter waiting! Can we challenge you, if your reading, to ask the Lord to make you RFA (Ready for Anything) for Him too and ask Him to lead you toward a Divine Encounter?  Today was amazing! It was like the presence of the Lord flooded every community our teams entered. Divine encounters seem to be everywhere.
We had the opportunity to pray at a home of two young women in a decaying neighborhood. Upon arriving at the door, the ladies greeted us, surprised we were willing to talk to them. We offered them some free burgers and began to ask how we could pray? One lady hung her head sharing how she had just been diagnosed with cervical cancer. The other lady also very defeated, shared how bills were more than they could manage and that life was hard right now. I asked, “is there anything else?” The first lady replied, “ Yes, please pray for my daughter who has a tormenting spirit.” What? A tormenting spirit? A bit surprised by her response, we instantly knew, we must pray and take authority over their home in the name of Jesus! We bowed our heads and prayed for healing, provision, and deliverance. When we were done, the ladies smiled and said “this is the best thing that has ever happened to us.” Can you imagine living in such uncertainty, pain and torment that the simple prayer of another would make the “best moment that has ever happened to you?” My friends, that is the power of the name of Jesus and the beauty of the gospel when it is preached to those without hope. As teams were going all over the communities in another area, a man drove several miles away to catch up to us and ask how he could buy a burger? We told him they were free and we would be happy to give him and many as he wanted. He asked for 6. As we stood their making them we began to ask him some questions about his life and if he had faith. He shared he was an agnostic and struggled with what he truly believed. We stood talking for about 15-20 minutes about faith and trust that come from Christ alone. He didn’t pray to receive Christ but he did say he felt led to go back and watch the Passion of the Christ. Would you join us in praying for Tristan to come to Faith in Christ? God truly is pulling back the veil and allowing us to see the unseen as we intentionally go door to door sharing burgers, a Bible, and lots of Jesus! Today was intense! It began with 3 service projects across the community. One was a yard that needed completely cleaned and cleared and the other two were homes that needed significant paint work done. One house had cedar siding that had been painted over so many times that it took several hours scraping before it looked like we had made any progress. We taped off the windows & doors, took a paint sprayer to it, gave it a few coats and just like that it was finished. We felt every scrape and every spray; but it really paid off. It didn’t even look like the same home! Without doubt it will stand out and our prayer is that when people see it, they will remember how God provided transformation to their community! It was a beautiful picture of how Jesus works on our hearts (some longer than others) then comes in and changes them completely. He is relentless in His pursuit, scraping away at anything that doesn’t look like Jesus once we belong to Him. After projects were completed, everyone hurried to set up for our community family outreach we call Carnival night. From the very old to young, our team had opportunities to share the gospel and experienced its power as several made decisions of salvation. The local pastor said that he saw children and parents from all sorts of backgrounds come to this event that had never/would never have stepped foot on church grounds otherwise. Will you join us in celebrating and praying for those that made decisions tonight and pray for the many more seeds that were planted! Tomorrow will be a “free day” for our team to rest and recoup from the last couple weeks of intense ministry. Pray with us as we transition more team members in tomorrow from Inola and prepare to go into two communities that have been the most difficult for us to establish connections with. We know though, that just means that they still need Jesus! Please pray as we prepare to do some serious Spiritual battling in these dark places; fighting for freedom for those who can’t fight for themselves. The team has been working so hard pouring themselves out to make sure that everyone they interact with feels seen. Please pray for a physical and spiritual recharge tomorrow, and for divine encounters all along the way!  One of the amazing things that we are getting to experience on this trip is the family of God working together as He designed it. This morning we were blessed to participate in a church service outside and invited everyone in town! It was incredible to see different denominations and ministries coming together for one common purpose: to glorify God and make Him known! It was like seeing a little glimpse of heaven.
As soon as church was over we grabbed our sack lunches and headed out for Loyal and Okeene (this time we are combining the two towns together). We rode most of the way and the team was blessed by the extra time to gather strength worshipping together and practiced sharing testimonies. After Inviting everyone in Loyal to the carnival tomorrow night we continued on to Okeene. We could tell that God has gone before us because we were able to have many Christ centered conversations. One of the team members talked to a lady named Kay whose husband (who is not a believer) had been on life support a while back. When the doctors said there was nothing more they could do, a man she didn’t know came to her and said “Don’t give up hope. Trust in the Lord.” Then the next night he woke up from his coma! The students were able to encourage her that God has a plan for her husband still and that he allowed him to wake up for a reason. We encouraged her to continue to share the Truth of the Gospel with him. Will you join us in praying for them? Pray that God will change Kay’s husbands life! As we prepare to help restore some homes and put on a carnival again tomorrow, please pray for the people in these towns. Pray that God would prepare them even this evening to have an encounter with Him tomorrow; and that the presence of God would undeniably fall upon this place!  God has shown himself mighty!
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