Recently we've gone to Derry and Enniskillen, both in Northern Ireland, and Sligo, in the south. They've been interesting trips.
Derry
I really love meeting people while I'm traveling. Because of my personal interest in travel, I'm always curious why people are on the move so it provides opportunity to talk and pray with people. We had earlier in the year gone to another town on a train, and it was one of my favorite days. We'd missed our return train but I ended up talking to a woman called Ruby for 45 minutes. She and her husband were caretakers of a church, and she was traveling to get fitted for a leg brace. In that time we prayed for her leg, but she wanted to pray for revival in her church. Heck yes! Of course I wanted to pray with her about that. It was so good. Any how that day had made me love Encounter travel days, and my leaders knew this, so they asked me to lead the group to go to Derry.Hm... I love travel days, but I don't love Derry. It's a hard place for me to go. But I agreed to do it. It's about risk right? The night before I went I spent time praying about the trip asking God what we should do as a group. Derry is called the 'Walled City' because it still has the fortress walls around it from centuries ago. I was told a group needed to be on the walls to talk to people. I heard we needed to go to the bridges to pray about suicide jumpers and I had a clear picture which of the three bridges we needed to go to. And then that people needed to go to a church there called Cornerstone and pray for their leadership. They're equal in size to CCV and are very similar in teaching, initiatives, outreach etc., and we wanted to encourage them. I also heard that touch was important, that we needed to focus on hand shakes, hugs, laying on hands while we prayed. So we met on a Thursday morning. I gave everyone a train ticket and £3 to spend on someone they met, and instructions to find ways to spend it. On the train ride we were to be bold and find people there to pray for. I personally wanted to claim back the city for Christ for all the reasons I don't like being there. Determination was in my mind.
I got on the train and pretty quickly I saw a man in a wheel chair. I passed by him, sat down in my own seat trying to muster up the courage to talk to him. All the thoughts of will he be offended, will he even talk, is he an easy target because of the wheel chair, what if he says no to prayer? These debates are always in my head ahead of time. Ten minutes later I left my friends behind and went. He'd suffered from diabetes and had lost nearly all his toes to gangrene. He was emotionally scarred from the memory of the day he knew he lost his toes, and he knew it was only a matter of time before he'd loss more of his legs. His son and grandchild were with him, and said how hard it was for them all. I prayed for the man. Now I've heard stories of limbs growing back, and the night before I heard touch was important. So I told the man of the stories and I asked if I could lay my hands on his feet and pray for the toes to grow. He laughed but said sure. I did. I prayed with faith. No toes grew back then, but he did say he felt tingling in his legs. The train journey ended and he left with such a big smile on his face encouraged that I would even approach him, because normally in the chair he's ignored. Onto the city... Some people went to the walls. They found people there who were eager for prayer. Two others and myself went to the bridge, and I wasn't the only one with a word about a jumper, so we were a bit nervous for what we would find. We didn't find someone wanting to jump, but we found panels along the entire bridge of the city seal, that had skeletons. We place our hands on all of them on the side of the bridge were on to pray against the deaths this bridge had seen (it was known for certain spots being immediate death for jumpers), and for protection for anyone new considering jumping. It was an eerie but powerful prayer walk. At the end of the bridge was the office of Cornerstone church. We went in and were able to pray for at least 4 of their leaders. More incredible interactions happened on the train ride home. Such a good day!
Sligo
Eight of us meet early in the morning drove three hours and met another three people in Sligo. The plan was do just as we normally would in Coleraine—pass out muffins to businesses, do a treasure hunt, pray for people, it was just a new location. I set off with my friend Shirley and we headed into a opticians. The receptionist was busy so we waited, but a gentleman was there waiting on his wife. We started chatting. First problem I had was the accent, it was so different here that I struggled to understand. The receptionist came back and Shirley went off that way but I was able to continue with the man. He was in a job that he didn't like but it paid better than his last. All he wanted was to provide for his wife and his daughter who was also called Katie and was also red haired like me. He allowed me to pray for him. Sligo offered us great reception! Coleraine is sort of used to our Encounter group coming through but Sligo isn't used to it, but people were so friendly and so willing to have prayer. One of my favorite stories is that my friend Shirley is fluent in Spanish, and has wanted to use that skill for prayer, and my friend Phil is fluent in German. Well at a coffee shop, Phil saw a young man with a passport in front if him. He went, and they seemed to be having a good conversation, but I turn my head and he called Shirley over. It turned out the man was Italian and could speak little English, a bit more German, but was fluent in Spanish. He'd come to find a job since it was difficult in Italy. He was encouraged by the friendship offered and he was very eager to hear about Christ. Phil and Shirley were able to pray with him, using four languages. How brilliant.Enniskillen
This trip was for a Saturday and Sunday to visit a church plant that had come out of Causeway Coast Vineyard. Our entire Encounter group (approx. 30) was going to run a full teaching/practical day with their group on Saturday and then run their Sunday service to give their leaders a break. It's always great to get away for a weekend with the Encounter group so for just that I was excited but the whole thing ended up being great. The teaching day started with some worship, then an explanation of what we were doing. We were splitting into three groups: Street Outreach, Treasure Hunting and Coffee Shop Prophesy. The encounter students would take 20 minutes to explain what it was, how to do it, and to take questions, then we were going out into the town to do it. I was in the group for Coffee shop prophesy, with 5 others from my group and four from Enniskillen. What we do in coffee shop prophesy is go to a coffee shop, buy coffee like any normal patron, then we sit and ask God if He has anything to say people in the coffee shop, then we say it and offer to pray. We might also look to see if there is anyone, that for one reason or another, that we're drawn to. We'll have a conversation and build rapport, if they're willing for us to pray with them there we will, if there not, we thank them for their time and we leave. We never push them unwillingly. It's scary still. It always gives me a nervous stomach. It's a courage thing. But it crazy to me now that I was sitting teaching a man and his seven year old daughter how to do it when it was new to me only nine months ago. We got to chat to several people that day. I almost got us all kicked out of a coffee shop, because someone was uncomfortable with me approaching them, so we politely left.
We broke into smaller groups and went to different coffee shops, or tried to. It was lunchtime so it didn't work, so we cut the coffee shop part and just did the same thing on the street. The man I was with knew everyone in town, but he saw a friend of his wife who was out collecting money for a charity. He didn't tell us anything about her, but just asked us what we thought God might have for her. My friend Sarah and I felt a little put on the spot, but we took a minute to pray silently and we started talking. I had a picture of snail moving slowly and it was leaving behind on shell it had out grown to go into a new bigger one. the shell had felt stifling and suffocating but it was protection, but it was time for a new home that was allowing more freedom. Sarah laughed because she'd only had a picture of a silvery, shiny path way that the woman was leaving behind her, as if her presence had marked the way in a unique manner (funny that snails do that). So we prayed for the woman. She still hadn't told us anything of her life. There on the street corner she broke down crying. She was a single mom who was about to finish a course in nursing. It was time for finals and she was stressed. She knew the education was going to help her and her boys but it was overwhelming to her but she was nearly done. She told us that morning she didn't even want to get out of bed to help with this charity but by her coming out and then us coming to her, she felt her sacrifice was rewarded. She gave us hugs and said thank you. So encouraging.
The Saturday ended with 60 people in the room coming back in from the streets telling stories of how God's kingdom had just broken out all over the city. Story after story kept coming. Come on, more of that please, Lord! We continued on with a bit more worship prayer ministry for everyone in the room. It was so good. It really teaches me, no matter where you go, God is faithful and He is moving all around. Just take the risk and go!
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