#oddly enough two of my partners I met at Bible camp

[gayfandomnerd225]

Sometimes I miss my old partners, my old friends, my old life

I know I wouldn’t be who I am now without them

But I don’t think I needed to burn those bridges to become who I am

[rose-sisson]

Two weeks ago, I experienced something I had never thought I could experience. I thought the atmosphere was virtually nonexistent. It was nothing but darkness with a constant taunting in my ear. People drank til they couldn't speak a single word. People threw their clothes off in the attempt to gain affection and dollar store beads. People consulted fortune tellers in search of knowledge of an unknown future. People allowed demons to work through them in hopes of sharing knowledge of the future. There were puddles of spilled alcohol and other bodily fluids everywhere. This was a place where the devil was allowed to work and lead others into darkness. For the first time in my entire life, I stepped outside my Christian atmosphere and entered a street where the devil was just torturing the souls of desperate people. 

This isn't going to be a normal FireTime post. This is primarily going to be a testimonial post and an encouragement. Recently, I went to New Orleans with SUM Theological Seminary to minister during Mardi Gras. About five months back when I heard about this trip, I kept hearing God telling me to go. When I debated with him, he just kept telling me to go. It was a three-hundred and fifty dollar trip. Luckily by God's power, I was able to get the money I needed, and more. Someone was called to pay one-hundred of that fund, and I was able to have spare money for on the trip. So God was really calling me to go on this trip. He even went out of his way to call someone to ensure my financial safety. When we got there, we had quite a few classes. One class, I went to before we hit the streets, was an evangelical class done by Dr. Scott Camp. He's spoken at our church before, so I was really excited to hear him speak. One point he made on having an evangelical spirit, was that you should brace yourself. To know the heart of Jesus Christ is to know grief. I didn't quite understand that to it's fullest extent until we hit the streets. 

The first night we hit the streets was interesting. We were all partnered guys to girls. Then each partner group was matched with a group of five to six partner groups that I'll call teams, and then each team was matched to two buses. It sounds extremely complicated, but so long as you know where you're at, you're good. I luckily was on the first bus, with the first team, and I had my partner's number. There were seven teams in total, and each scattered into different sections on Bourbon Street. The team I was on was stationed on the corner of our block, where the parades drove by. What we did, was we would constantly ask for prayers, and just grab people the Lord called us to talk to. If someone enters Bourbon from one side, they go through getting asked for prayer a solid fifty times before exiting. We were also fortunate enough to have elders surrounding the area, protecting the students from the ones who were violent. For example, if some drunk idiot was throwing up a gun at us, we had plans for quick evacuation, and the elders were armed in case of emergency. We also had signals for people who would throw their clothes off. For girls taking their clothes off, they would yell, 'Eyes down', and the males had to keep their heads down while the girls scoped out for safety. Vice Versa. For guys taking off their clothes and showing junk, they would yell, 'Eyes up', and the girls would raise their heads up while the guys scoped out for safety. And when we were out ministering every hour we would have a power up. What would happen, is they would set alarms off. We would have to drop what we are doing, and meet up with our teams for a big huddle on the side of a wall. We would get in as close as we could off the streets, and do these ridiculously loud chants. We had hundreds of camera phones on us as we screamed these chants and giving glory to God. 

On the way to Bourbon the first night, I saw something amazing that gave me a confidence in our cause. I had been in the presence of God, but I had never seen a presence without God. Perhaps I ignored it all this time, but I saw it there. Not only did I see a presence without God, I saw a presence with the devil in it. We would walk by psychics and fortune tellers. Some of them I could tell were fake. They were just people who would play cards with others. But there were a few who had actual demons working alongside them to spread lies. The worst part was, the fortune tellers actually believed in what they were doing despite it's utter deceit. But in the process, I saw something greater. I saw the souls filled with God's presence, march into this darkness to spread light in this deceit. Every SUM student, every elder, every worker on this mission was filled with the Holy Spirit. We all had the power we needed to break through and share God's light with the lost. So the first night my partner and I hit the streets, we were fortunate enough to pray over seventeen people.  One guy that really pegged on my heartstrings had two others and walked over to us. While my partner was busy speaking to the other two, this one guy with a drink in his hand mocks me, "So you guys are here to preach about religion?" 

I reply, "No not at all." It was so instinctive I couldn't believe myself.His eyes lit up. "Oh? Then what are you here to talk about?" I reply, "We're here to talk about an everlasting relationship." He looked at my lanyard, which had the SUM logo on it. He goes groggily for my... area to grab it. My partner slaps him off and luckily this drunk guy paid attention with a little attitude. He asks what it was. I reply telling him it's from SUM. He immediately turns off and walks away. I legitimately wanted to burn the lanyard right there, but God assured me with the peace that I had at least planted a seed. The majority of people my partner and I prayed for, oddly enough were Christian. I was so irritated with my lack to get someone who didn't know Christ I had to continually pray over it. God assured me that because we were on the very edge of the street, that we were preparing people for entering in and getting stopped by someone who would ask them to pray their salvation prayer. And it was enough for me. 

The next day, I took off the SUM gear and we marched into the streets again. I didn't really get emotional the first night, but this second night was brutal. When we go to do our first power up, we were bombarded by... I don't even know what they were. They held up signs saying 'Jesus was a Negro', with Jesus wearing devil horns. They wore Jewish symbols and read out of a King James Bible. When we were doing our powerups, these guys spat on us and yelled at us constantly. We legitimately had to drown them out with more yelling. We were informed not to go near them, and an elder stood by these guys to make sure they didn't do anything crazy to the students. They yelled with such confidence and rage in their beliefs and people would walk over and listen to their preaching and applaud it. They would look over to me and my partner and taunt us as we walked around. We kept trying to work. We would get cussed at, smoke puffed at us, despised looks. "Look around," I would hear. I would do as it asked, checking out my surroundings. The parade drove by us, and there were women who were dancing in cages with no clothes on. There were women with no clothes, and their torso painted on. There was a male stripper dancing around. There were drunk men just collapsing hard and giggling despite the pain. There were multiple women just walking around with no shirt on. "Know me." I would hear, "Fear me. Know my power." I would panic, and continuously have to cast out this voice taunting me. People would flood through, and the street would be full of people shoulder to shoulder going down. We could barely breathe with the pungent stench of alcohol and sweat in the air. Somehow, my partner and I managed to get to pray over sixteen people and heal some sore knees. 

On the way back to our busses, we almost got ran over by an irritated driver. As a stripper danced by us, a couple yelled, 'Jesus loves him more than you'. As I walked, I just began to cry. I didn't sob or sniffle much. But tears just rolled down my face as though they were waiting to do that forever. It was the first time I've cried in a long time (when I wasn't hormonal), and the feeling seemed overwhelming like new. As I cried I could hear Jesus telling me, "Know my grief. Know my sorrow. Look at these people who were wonderfully well and made intentionally, throwing their bodies away for a few beads. Look at my beloved children, drowning themselves in their alcohol and depression. Know me. Know my grief. Know my sorrow." I didn't sob, I didn't sniffle, but the tears were rolling out of me. 

That was my last night there, but the nights in-between were interesting stories too. I won't share too many details, but we did get to pray over our waitress one night while we were there, and then my pastor was able to pray over a child on the way back. So this event wasn't made for me to just learn skills to use at Mardi Gras next year. We were finding ways to use the skills we learned as we go along with life. On this trip, God was even gracious enough to reveal the next step in his plan for my life: Going to SUM Theological Seminary to master in Biblical Studies. 

But there's a big lesson I've learned from each little prayer and each little demonic sight. Once again I repeat that I had never been in such a secular area. My brother, who's been to Las Vegas, said that Mardi Gras was worse than that. I met an elderly couple who was informing us that Bourbon Street is that bad every day of the year, there are just more people there during Mardi Gras. I can go on and on, stating the sights I saw on the streets. But that would be even more explicit than this post already is. I grew up in a Christian household, got saved at a church conference. I was constantly in a Christian atmosphere, even if at times it was religious and not christ-like at all. I knew that in the end, God was the answer. But there are people out there who didn't grow up in a church building. Maybe you're reading this and you were one of those people. If I can be extremely honest, as someone who grew up in a religious atmosphere, I always demonized those people. I always demonized people who choose alcohol, sex, violence, gossip, and greed over God. How could they not choose God after all? How dare people claim that God is dead? How ignorant are they to believe in such nonsense! How dare they say that their false gods are real and mine is not? How dare they insult God by burning Bibles, posting unbiblical nonsense on the internet, and saying things without doing proper research? How dare they?!

The most important thing I've learned on this trip is that I was saved so that they could too be saved. There was somebody who accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior, who could really play an acoustic guitar, and did a worship service where I first met God. I don't know what their living situation was, but it was in God's will that they be saved so that they could lead us into worship that led me, and many others to meet God. That worship service wasn't unplanned. God knew what I needed in order for me to finally accept him. In the same way, God was able to use me, to impact the lives of many others on streets where the devil was dancing. I may not have gotten a 'salvation' out of someone, but I know that my prayers for safety over their lives were heard. There were many news articles on New Orleans Mardi Gras, where people were getting shot and ran over. What are the odds, that some of the people we prayed over avoided situations like that or were saved before such a tragedy happened? I don't know, but God does, and I have assurance in his plans over those people and the choices that they will make. 

In four days, SUM was able to pray for 10,128 people, 357 accepted Christ for the first time, 371 rededicated their lives to Christ, and 108 got healing. This is something people walked by, mocked, and joked about. This is something that won't go down in history as a great win for Christianity. This won't go down as a war that was won. In fact, the rest of the world may not know what we did there. But there is a celebration in heaven, and God is cherishing the souls he's won that day. We didn't unleash a big mainstream revival where there's a big worship team and everyone is joining in. But we sure as heck gave the devil a run for his money by claiming those who were ready. And the best part about it, that taunting devil who thought he had the upper hand, is angry. 

So the fruit of my experience that I want to share with you is simple: Get out of the church. I knew the great commission as stated in Matthew 28:18. To go out and make disciples of all nations. I knew that. I was given my mission, to start a blog, start a webcomic, and eventually start a gaming channel with my buddies at church. My mission is to impact Christian Media to sustain Christians in the long run. But my life was not made to ensure that only I and my fellow Christians go to heaven. I love God, and I love making things to help Christians, but God's called me to do even more. God's called me to reach out of the four walls of my church, and to share my light with those who are living with none. How can I not share this amazing gift of God knowing that it can save their lives? They may mock it, they may ignore it, and they may try to snuff it out. But my God is greater than that and can do amazing things even if they try. 

I'm sorry but Church of Valatie is not up this week. It will return on the 22nd of March and continue its regular schedule. When I say that the devil is angry with our win, he is angry and is not letting up on us. Thank you for your patience, and I hope you guys are liking Church of Valatie. Until next time, God bless, and keep your fire for God, blazing!