May 13, 2008
Those crazy charismatics!!

I am a bit reluctant to write this in a public venue…it is deep and meaningful and may cause a few crazy stares. However, b/c I am half a world away from most of you who read this… stare away hosers!!! I don’t care… Ha ha I win! You Lose!!

So, you know those crazy evangelicals? Well…hmm how do I start this??? Today (April 27, 2008) at church, we had a guest preacher. It was good and at the end we prayed for the ability to really pray and talk to God and Jesus, because sometimes we just go through the motions. We were praying and it was good and I was really asking the Holy Spirit to come and fill me. I prayed fervently. I got warmish (Sri Lanka at 1130 in a church…the threshold for heat is high) and began to get misty eyed, as I usually do when I feel God and the Holy Spirit (HS) present. I still prayed harder asking the HS to come. Prayed with all I had, and then…I began to twitch a little. I don’t know whether it was here or later that I eased up on the prayer, but I soon was shaking like a shivering child. By this time my prayer had changed from, “More More HS” to “well now HS, you can feel free to ease up a bit if you like” to “NO MORE NO MORE.” I don’t know how long this lasted (a minute or two maybe) but it felt like a century and an instant all at once. After it was over, I sat down and wept (very difficult for me to do, especially in public, as growing up I learned/saw it to be a sign of weakness) but I also prayed for the country and other pressing things and didn’t really need words. It was like my heart and soul had been completely opened up and I was praying to good with my whole being and not just my mouth and words. I can’t even describe it, the openness and…freedom??? ok it has no words. I am fairly sure that I only breathed once during the whole time. It was crazy. Afterwards, I went forward for prayer (a bit reluctantly, as I didn’t want anyone to see I had been crying) after the prayer with the guest preacher he told me that God had given me the anointing of healing. God has chosen me to be a pair of hands in God’s doing of great miracles.

I am processing this experience now. It’s not that I don’t believe in this sort of thing…its just well, it is for the people that are into that sort of thing. I was happy “those evangelical/charismatic” people existed, but I was quite happy keeping my hands at my side and singing beautiful harmonies to the Lord. But it appears as though this is not where God wants me to be at this time. I am still processing.

Ok a bit lighter… This week we are visiting farmers in our new village of Bibiladiniya. We go to each farmer’s house and ask questions and talk and eat lots of food and drink lots of tea. Yesterday after lunch I really believed that my stomach had in fact exploded within me. We ate lunch at the home of one of the farmers. It was great! However, I am rubbish at saying enough b/c they are so pleased when I eat stuff. Before lunch we had tea at one house and I was given this sweet called “sow aluu ah” I really don’t care for it. I however choked down the whole thing b/c I couldn’t say no and make the farmer feel bad. I thought I was going to yak. Anyway, today was a bit less extravagant. there were less “teas” and lunch was awesome but I was able to say no a bit more. I love eating in village homes…no on cooks better…man it is awesome. I think I am going to gain a stone (14lbs) this week. Oh well.

Oh ok funny story about today’s lunch. So, I like spicy food now, but it still makes my nose run. Well today after eating my nose was really running. I didn’t have my handkerchief and people were watching. Ahh. It is hard to wipe your nose with the hand you aren’t eating with and then wipe it on your skirt gracefully. It was a long time of me not looking up and slyly wiping my nose. It was awkward, but I did it.

Last Saturday, I hosted a “slob” party. A few friends and I ate junk food and watched movies until 3AM. I woke up the next morning and felt TERRIBLE!!! So much junk food makes you feel bad!!!

Ok, i am done now, will write more later.
Peace,
jodi