A lot has happened in the past week. We did listening prayer at the beginning of the week to ask God what He has for the rest of the time that we're in New Zealand. He blew us away with how clearly He spoke to each and every one of us. He gave us visions and words and complete direction of where to go. To make a long story short, we are on a two week journey to 4 different places in the north island. Our first stop is in a small town called Moerewa, a town that most people haven't heard of, and the people that have have told us that they would never choose to come here. Every time someone tells us that, I can't help but laugh because of how different God is than man. He wants us here and I think it's amazing that He brought us to a place where no one else would go. He told Megan we were supposed to go somewhere that started with the letters Mo. He told Christina we were supposed to be in the north island. He gave Kelly a vision of a wall with a rainbow on it (that exact wall is in this town). He told a few of us to go somewhere where there are Maori people (the indigenous people here in NZ) and it turns out that Moerewa is 95% Maori.
About a month before I left for training camp, God woke me up in the middle of the night to pray for this trip. As I was praying He gave me a vision and told me that He was going to use my team to heal others. The vision He gave me was a picture of a gravel road in the countryside with a small white church next to it. I've gotten this picture almost every time I've prayed for what God has for us since then.
I had no idea what this vision meant until today, when I found the church.
As we were driving to Vicki and Howard's house, the people who are housing us here, Megan pointed out that we were on a gravel road. She asked if it looked familiar but I honestly had no idea because all gravel roads pretty much look the same to me. Then Vicki pointed out the church right near their house. My spirit jumped and I looked out the window and I was in awe. It was literally the exact church that God had been giving me a vision of multiple times before I had even stepped foot in this country.
I have such faith and confidence that this place is exactly where we are supposed to be. I have complete faith that God has HUGE plans for us in this place. A man at the church even told us that God gave him a dream the other night that huge things were about to happen here, and he believes that God was talking about our team.
We had no idea how soon God would use us for this purpose of healing until we stepped out and were open to what He had for us.
Later in the day Vicki took us to the wharf where we split up and did ATL. I was in a group with her, Megan and Christina. God gave Vicki a picture of a hat and as we were walking we came up to a woman wearing one. We stopped and started talking to her and Vicki asked if she had any pain in her legs. The woman said no but we prayed for her anyways. She walked away pretty quickly because she said she had to be somewhere. About 5 minutes later she came up to us and said she had been looking for us because she actually did have problems with her legs and didn't tell us when we asked. So, we prayed for healing.
Later that night we went to dinner at Howard and Vicki's church, something that had arranged to welcome our team to their town and church. We introduced ourselves and I told the church the story of how God had led us to their town and all that He had told me about healing and the visions He had given all of us. After we worshipped, Vicki asked if anyone needed us to pray for healing.
We prayed for Howard because he had torn something in his shoulder and it was giving him a lot of pain. We prayed and the pain left him completely. We prayed for a lady in the congregation who's elbow had been hurting her a lot. We asked God to take away her pain and He did.
We then prayed for this woman named Polly. She told us her right arm had been really sore so we prayed and the soreness and pain left. The woman who's elbow we had just prayed for asked Polly if she wanted us to pray for her left arm. Polly said no, because it had been that way for forever. Apparently she has scar tissue on the right side of her brain which caused her to not be able to feel anything on the left side of her body. We prayed for feeling in the left side of her body. We prayed and asked if she felt anything. We did this for about 30 minutes before something changed. We asked her if she could feel anything and she said yes. We touched her arms and her hands and her legs and she could feel it all. She started crying and hugged and kissed every single one of us.
I am so blown away by God. I am blown away by the fact that He told me all of this before I even came to this country. I'm blown away by the fact that I knew that church before I even saw it in person and that Vicki and Howard built their house so that they would be able to see the church from their living room. I'm blown away by the fact that God planned every single detail of all of this so perfectly and has shared those details with us. I can't believe all that has happened in the past 12 hours of being here and I am so freaking stoked for all that He has planned for the rest of the time we're here. It is so amazing to me that God chooses and desires to use us in supernatural ways to be His hands and feet.
Before Jesus left earth He said: "Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father."
These words are true. All we have to do is believe them and step out in faith and He will use us.
