Update from Jesse

After a weekend in the Carolinas, we're back in Springfield, Ohio with our tents pitched at Buck Creek State Park. Carolina was a bit of fresh air after the drudgery of staying in the same campground for two and a half weeks. The journey there was long and fraught with arguments, especially near the end when an uproar of opinions rose up over where we should stay that night. Most campgrounds were closed. The only one that wasn't had street names like Scream and Halloween and, well, wasn't really nice enough for it's price tag. In the end, we settled on a Motel 6 in Fort Mill, South Carolina, not really settling considering we hadn't slept in beds for a while. So that was a nice break for most of us. Mama, however, wasn't feeling very well and a bed was little relief. So prayer is appreciated on that point.







The next morning we packed up our begs and drove off to Ebenezer Park, where we quickly found a campsite and prepared it for living (set up is becoming a quick-fire routine after three weeks of this). Unlike the sites we'd been using in Springfield, this one had water and electric. So that was a bonus. Plus they had Wi-Fi, so we didn't have to drive off someplace to use the internet. That night (Friday night) Leah, Micah, Stephen, Chloe and I went to a free John Mark McMillan concert in Charlotte, North Carolina. If you haven't heard of John Mark, you should definitely check out his music. Most people know him as the author of "How He Loves," a song that's been covered by everyone from Kim Walker to David Crowder Band to The Glorious Unseen. But he's written plenty of other good songs. And he's been a huge inspiration to me and Micah. So we were excited, to say the least. The concert was awesome. A little band called Matrimony opened. They were cool. Then JMM and company took over. They rocked. I encountered God more there, singing those songs, than I have in all the church meetings I've been to (no offense meant to church people). So that was cool. After the show, Micah gave John Mark one of our CDs and we got some autographs and whatnot then left for the campsite.





The next day, Papa told me and Micah that he'd had a dream that we went to Morning Star (a ministry located in Fort Mill, SC if you aren't familiar with it) and that something was going to happen there at 1:00 PM. So the three of us and Chloe headed for Morning Star a little after 12:00. We wandered around the building for a while, checked out the sanctuary, stuff like that. We asked if something was planned for 1:00 and the answer was no. But obviously God had something planned for 1:00. At about five till we ran into a lady who was heading for the bookstore. We ended up talking to her. She needed healing in her right hip. We prayed for her and Papa spoke sonship over her. She cried. The Spirit was touching her. We didn't see a full manifestation of the healing but she said it felt better. She left. Then Papa prayed for a girl who worked in the lobby. On our way out, he noticed a girl who he recognized from his dream. So he went and prayed for her too. Then we left.











On Sunday the four of us went to the Morning Star church service. It was good. I didn't feel very connected, but whatever. They're doing what God's called them to do and I suppose God's called me to something else. Rick Joyner spoke on various things, including a dream he'd had and stuff like that. A lot of it had to do with the vision the Lord's given them for their ministry. A lot of big stuff. It's almost overwhelming to come into contact with something like that, that has such a wide-spanning focus. Humbling too. I'm struggling with vision for myself, let alone the world. So it's cool to see people who have vision for and connection with the wider body of Christ. Obviously our family has vision for the body of Christ but it's different. Not so governmental. Maybe that's not the word. Well, the means is different. Let's say that. So anyways, not a lot happened there. A lady there gave me a word, which was cool. And Papa prayed for a couple of people, one a man he recognized from his dream. So that was pretty much that. We spent the rest of the day at the campsite in 106 degree weather. And then the next day, Monday morning, we broke down camp and journeyed (fairly smoothly) back to Springfield, picked up our minivan from our friends the Bell's, and then set up camp at Buck Creek. So there you go: a rather long telling of the events of the weekend.





Now to the important stuff. One of the things we've been going through is struggling about whether or not we're supposed to stay in Springfield. Various ideas have sprung up: let's go mobile, let's go back to Washington, let's go find a cave in Africa. Stuff like that. But over the weekend God has made it clear that we are supposed to stay in Springfield. Who knows what will come of it? Maybe we'll live in tents for the next three years. Maybe God will provide a house. We'll see. But we believe this is where we're supposed to be right now. Already God has accomplished great things: in our relationship with the Bells, in our hearts, in the way we relate to people, even with our vainglorious ideas of what moving to Springfield would look like. So, yes, God is doing things, and I trust He will continue to do things. After all, His primary goal is to conform us to the image of Christ. And what does that mean really? It means hardship. Testings. Failures. Disappointments. Scourgings. (That last one was a half-joke.) It means foregoing comfort for the will of God. And learning to rejoice in all circumstances. As I write this I am sitting in a canopy at a picnic table in a campsite at Buck Creek State Park. It is raining. Birds are chirping. I can feel the water dripping on my back. And (you know what?) there's no place else I would rather be.

Jesse