Early last week, in my times of prayer, I really felt the Lord place in my heart the need for a revival in the lives of the orphans here at Canaan orphanage in Haiti. More specifically, He placed a huge burden on my heart for the teenage girls who seem to be so far away from an intimate relationship with God. It's crazy from an outsider's perspective because this is a Christian orphanage and they know all the hymns, have memorized TONS of scripture through their Christian schooling, and attend daily devotionals, however, the fruits of the Spirit really were just no where to be found. Instead we saw hurt, resentment, bitterness, anger, etc. How could there be such a disconnect? Well, in prayer the Lord really showed me that this disconnect needs to be fixed in their hearts and that it was our job to be vessels for the Holy Spirit to shine light on that. He purposed in my heart to put together a worship service for the girls and to preach to them what the Spirit was saying. I'll be honest, at first I was nervous about the whole thing and whether or not these girls would care at all about something like this. They play church every Sunday but each service I saw them in they looked so….DRY. I thought “Lord, if we're going to do this, then something has to be different, You literally need to rock their world”. Well praise be to God!!!! Last night was our service for the girls and God not only rocked their world, but He rocked mine too.
For the word He led me to Matthew 23 and Matthew 15 where Jesus corrects the Pharisees who draw near to Him with their lips but their hearts are far from Him (also found in Isaiah). In Matthew 23 Jesus calls the Pharisees hypocrites because they are like beautiful white caskets on the outside, but full of dead man's bones on the inside. WOW. I must admit, when the Lord directed me to preach on this I didn't want to. I was like, “ Lord, these are orphans, they don't need anymore discipline…do you really want me to call them hypocrites? Pharisees?!” and He said it won't be you talking, but my Spirit. How do you argue that? Hahaha You can't! When God has a word to go forth it will not return unto Him void and last night was a perfect example/confirmation of that scripture in Isaiah 55:11.
So I spent all my time here praying for these girls and for this night to be a night of breaking, salvation, and freedom for their souls. I wanted it to be perfect! So I put together a powerpoint with lyrics to worship songs and made playlists. I scavengered the orphanage all week looking for projectors, extension cords, computer cords, ipod speakers, candles, etc. etc. etc. All day yesterday I worked on putting all these things together and once we set up in the church I felt like everything was going just as planned. The service was set to begin at 8:30pm. At around 7:30 as we were praying in the chapel in preparation for the girls when all of a sudden all of the power went completely out. PERFECT. Inside I'm freaking out and really sad because I felt the night was ruined. For a moment doubt flooded me and I felt like this might not happen. Then someone came to tell us that it's super rare but that tonight all the power is out due to a problem with the generator. So here I am, a week's worth of stuff set up and ready to go, tons of plans and expectations on how the night was going to go just completely out the window. At that moment I needed to pray and as I prayed the Lord reminded me softly, “I am not limited by things in this world”. WOW. Wait God, you're saying you don't need lights, computers, flashy powerpoints, big screens, etc. to touch people? (What does that say about America's churches? Have we lost sight of what's important?) So yea, God fried me on that one and with His confirmation I felt a surge of faith and strength rise up within me. I knew that my God had a plan and I was not about to let the devil deter the move of God. Many of us for a moment felt like we should cancel but the Lord reminded me of His power, and that He specifically chose last night to be the night to work on these girls. That was it then, I said we would move forward with the service even if we were in complete darkness. With one candle lit in the front, the young girls started showing up at 8:30. You could tell that they had no clue what to expect and as worship began I knew that the night would be unforgettable.
I praise God for two of my sisters on my team where were able to conduct worship for us with a guitar (much better than any ipod). Another sister gave her amazing testimony of being abandoned by her father which really related to the girls' lives. Then it came time to the word and my prayer was that the Holy Spirit would speak to us and pierce us, cut us to the heart as in the book of Acts, and that these girls would have an encounter with God.
Here are the results:
1. During the sermon it was complete silence (which is RARE here at Canaan lol. They are a rowdy, joyous bunch that LOVE to talk haha.)
2. As I preached I could feel the Spirit speaking. It was not me…absolutely not! It was completely the Holy Spirit ministering to all our lives and needs as only He can.
3. At the end I made the altar call and 12 or more girls flocked the altar to surrender their hearts and lives to Jesus Christ!!! Glory to God!
4. As we began to minister to them and pray for them I saw some of the toughest and meanest girls at canaan sob like little girls in the arms of their father. They cried out uncontrollably for God to change them and to take their hearts and heal them. I was in absolute awe. It was as if the Holy Spirit himself was hovering over them and praying for them. We really didn't have to do anything. It was them and their heavenly father and the walls in their hearts were breaking, completely crumbling down. I had not seen this at all before and they cried to God for hours.
5. As they sobbed they began singing songs of deliverance to the Lord. They sing a lot here at Canaan and they know a lot of hymns, but last night when they sang it was the very first time that I felt and knew that they were singing out of their hearts. They shouted and lifted their voices so high to the Lord and the presence of God filled the room in the most beautiful way I've ever seen.
6. These girls had an encounter with the living God last night and all the glory and all the honor goes to my Lord and precious savior Jesus Christ. He rocked my world yet again.
Continue to pray for the girls at Canaan and for our last week here in Haiti. The Lord has placed on my heart to do a short discipleship course with the girls on how to get closer to God before I leave so that they have the tools necessary to get on FIRE for the Lord. I believe they will be an army for Christ that will turn the nation of Haiti upside down. Amen Amen Amen!!!
Hallelujah!!! p.s. Mom...everytime I see a sunset I think of how amazing the Lord is and about you :)
So Here I am in Haiti. Despite all of the spiritual darkness and extreme poverty...this country is soooo beautiful! The mountains overlook the crystal clear beaches, it's almost hard to believe that this nation is so poor when it has so much natural beauty.
