Bethel was amazing. I learn a lot just being in that atmosphere. Good things happen there.
We got there Friday evening and went to the Finale service for their Kid's School of Supernatural Worship. It was packed. Lots of kids. Lots of parents. Lots of guests (like me). We ended up sitting on the bleachers in the back, which would not have bothered me at all except that one of the worship songs involved jumping and sort of shimmying to the right and left. Which everyone did, of course. Crowded bleachers + bouncy, joyful, worshipers = a potentially hazardous situation. Other than making me a little nervous that part was great. The sermon was about the sensitivity of children to the Holy Spirit. Very cool.
Saturday we spent about 3 hours in the Encounter Room (the waiting area for healing Rooms). There were tons of people so they ended up turning the whole space into the Healing Room. Their staff came in and people started getting healed, set free. There were angels all over the place. I even saw some feathers. A bunch of white, fluffy down floated in front of my face. I tried to focus my eyes on one of the bigger feathers, which fell to my left. I glanced back up to see where the other feathers were going, but they were gone. And on the chair next to me was, not a white feather, but a blue one, which I picked, examined, and set back down. I turned to tell my mom about it and when I looked around again, there were no feathers to be seen anywhere.
A girl prophesied over me that I was a dancer and God was going to give me a group friends to dance with. She said my movements released the Spirit and power. Prophecy is pretty cool. I'm not very experienced with it yet, but I want to do more. I like getting prophecies too. Right now I'm getting the same word from multiple people: That God will give me the desire of my heart.
My mom and I spent the afternoon in the Alabaster House, Bethel's prayer room. Sunday we went to all 3 services. During that weekend we went through a fire tunnel 4 times (not always the same fire tunnel). Now that was fun. If you've never been through a fire tunnel...well...you're missing out.
Word was great. Worship was great. At Bethel the people really love each other and honor each other. Not a negative word was spoken. It's a culture of honor. It makes a HUGE difference.
If it wasn't so hot (it was between 95-109 degrees while we were there) and there were more jobs available I would pack up and move down to Redding TODAY (after getting the okay from the big guy upstairs, of course).
After Sunday we were kind of bored because there was nothing else to do at Bethel, so we went shopping. Then we swam, then shopped, then watched people get attacked by anacondas and train unruly dogs on Animal Planet, then we found this amazing mineral makeup shop at Mt. Shasta Mall - I think it's called Spa Dolce - and a place that does threading, and visited Turtle Bay Exploration-something-or-other (which wasn't a bay and had no turtles). Turtle Bay Exploration-whatever-it-was was kind of an everything-museum. It had birds, fish, an arboretum, geological type stuff. A tiny bit of everything. We both concluded that the great Northwest and it's museums are far better (and bigger). Oh, and we did bumper boats too, in Oasis. Over the weekend we went to Sundial bridge (it really is a sundial) and tried to swim in the Sacramento river, but it was freezing cold. We drove home with two friends on Tuesday night and got back at 4 a.m. the next morning.
One of the biggest things I brought back with me from Bethel was the joy of the Lord. It was already starting to thrive. Going to Bethel was like adding Miracle Grow to our garden vegetables.
I don't think I fully understood the joy of the Lord being my strength until now. I've always been prone to slipping into depression when things get tough. My mood goes south. I can't knit. I can't crochet. I can't open a book and devour it. Even eating, drinking, and sleeping lose their appeal. But everything changes when the joy of the Lord is there. It never made sense that I could be joyful and sad/anxious/terrified/lonely/hurt/etc. at the same time. Apparently it's possible because I've been doing it for a month now. If I'm too distressed to move, suddenly I get the urge to dance. The trouble is still there; it just doesn't matter so much anymore. It's a good feeling; a better one than the dark, bitter stillness of depression.
Now it's back to work. I've been away from the shop for 2 whole weeks! It will be nice to see everybody again. Now that my house guest are gone I feel like I can finally get some things done. I'm planning to get some new designs up on Ravelry within the next month. And hopefully my handbag pattern get published in Knitty. Fingers and toes crossed!
That's it for now.
...and James:
