Snow and Pomegranates

I’m a sucker for snowy days and this one seems extra special.  I’ve been running at an abnormal pace, for me at least, and I can feel it in my body, in my mind, and in my toes.  We returned from our winter conference, SALT, on Monday and everyday has been packed full since.

I feel speechless at times.  I can’t put into words what has occurred because it is too much, too miraculous, too overwhelming.  As I approach the anniversary date of my daddy’s death, life is exploding around me in the form of dry bones walking around.

Before SALT, I sent out some very specific prayer requests to some prayer warriors and as I read back over those requests, I realize that God answered almost everyone of them in visible ways and the last one in ways I probably don’t understand.

Here is one of those requests: Faith is one of our African students.  She lost her grandma last year which was completely devastating.  She is struggling a lot with grief and trying to still function.  Would you pray that she would give this burden to Jesus this weekend. 

In one of the worship services, I saw this very thing happen.  Faith crumbled.  She could not stop the tears and she is not one to cry in front of people.  Her friend Joyce started praying for her as she curled into herself and wept.  I went over to her and laid my hands on her.  She explained later, “Noreen came over and prayed for me, and I thought, ‘Oh Lord, here she comes!’”  At the end of the prayer, I said, “Faith, the Lord says ‘Whom the Son sets free is free indeed.’”

I wish you could see the before and after.  Faith has been a shell of herself for a year.  She is so full of joy and determined to share it with the world.

One of our other African students, Joyce, had a vision from the Lord that felt as if it was for all of us and for all of you that support us and pray for us.  She was standing in a vast desert.  She had a seed and she put it in the sand.  Impossibly, it grew, into a big pomegranate tree.  People started coming to look at this wonder of a healthy beautiful fruit tree in the middle of the desert.

She picked a fruit and opened it.  There was a little boy looking at her and she knew he wanted some, so she handed him some seeds.  He ate it and immediately his face transformed into radiant life.  Others started coming and eating the seeds and then taking some and walking away.  They started walking over the mountains and through the valleys to their villages and planting trees and giving people seeds of life.

It was not lost on us that this is the exact picture of what God is doing here in Utah.  It makes no sense, but we believe that the next great student awakening that reaches the nations starts in the dry, dead soil of Utah.

I feel as if I have just given you a tiny taste of what is happening so I will try to write more so you can have a fuller taste of what God is doing.