Spritual reading anyone?

Today we went to on our outreach to the Claremont Chili Cook-off. Yes there was chili, and yes, there was the Lord.

Claremont is about 45 min away, so it didn't take too long to get there. We started by setting up our dream interpretation tents. And we were split up into teams. I took pictures from 10-12, then I was a "gatherer" from 12-2 and from 2-3 I was in the tent with a team.

As a gatherer, I basically just walked around and talked to people, letting them know what we were doing and inviting them to come down to our tent. It's fun just walking around and talking to people. And we use really non-religious words, so instead of saying we are going to interpret their dreams and prophesy what God has for them or sees in them. We say things like,

"Hey I'm Dustin, I'm a student from the Institute for Spiritual Development, and we've been taking classes on dream interpretations and giving spiritual readings. We're here to practice doing it for free, so if you have any dreams you've ever wanted to know about, or would like to have them give you a spiritual reading, which basically is them looking at you and telling you what they percieve about you or your destiny."

And then if they were interested we'd either take them over to the tent or point it out for them. They've found in the past that people really respond to non-religious language. If it sounds like a christian thing, it's a pretty big stigma, most people have heard too much from pushy christians. This generally keeps them in more of an open mind.

It's funny though, when you say something like that to a christian, sometimes they try to convert you, or they need ALOT of convincing that we are doing this biblically based, that we are in fact christians. Caleb and I spent a while with a few other christians explaining that we actually do believe the same thing they do, and we are doing prophetic evangelism, just like Jesus did. Christians just aren't used to seeing people using the gifts of the Spirit in public. Usually they write us off as psychics. I understand that, but from hearing stories of how christians have responded to them in the past is really sad, because it really shows the lack of love they have for the new-age community, or at least the people who are into spiritual things.

(Luke - Alberta and I)


I think christians have an easier time loving the stagnant and people filled with the world, but when it comes to someone who is operating in a higher level of supernatural experiences or authority, they almost write them off as "un-savable" because they don't know how to deal with it.

So, I had a really good time gathering, lots of fun just talking to people and praying as I walked. The presence of God was really strong with us that day, I could really feel his pleasure as we all went out of our way to love people, really awesome.

Oh, did I mention there was chili? For $5, you got a wicked bracelet and a little map, and you could walk around to all 18 different chili tables and get a small cup sample from each one. I'll be honest, I only made it through 12... I wasn't strong enough... Chad (roommate from Michigan) made it though, we did some of the chili-circuit together. He's a man with the ability to eat just about everything, so not only did he have all18 samples, he had some free cornbread then went for a hotdog... Unbelieveable.

Most of the chili was pretty good, I wasn't a big fan of the stuff that was like a sweet chili, I prefer a spicy chili, I was disapointed that there wasn't alot of hot chili's...Oh well, there were also a few that tasted like... well, terrible. Needless to say, I'm sure you are nowhere near here because the current aftermath in this room is something I could never wish on my worst enemy.

When it was finally my turn to be in a team in the tent, I was with Dan (Scotland) and Nicole (Sunny San Diego). Dan was the team leader, and we ended up spending almost our whole hour on the first people who came to us.

It was pretty much amazing. It is such an amazing thing to be a part of it, Dan was such a good leader, the whole process was like peeling layers, slowly going deeper, to reveal the fullness of the truth. As we start talking with them, we are using very non-religious language, and we just listen to what they have to say, in this case we were interpreting a dream for a girl who I guess you could say was very spiritual. She was in the process of studying how to read tea leaves, had friends and family who read tarot cards and had always had lots of premonitions.

(Kelly -Second year Intern, Texas | Matt -Roommate, New Jersey)

So as we interpreted her dream, we didn't use any christianese, and just loved on her, I got a few things for her, it was cool how God gives you things they can relate to. For example, once when I was looking at her I saw the colour pink alot, and that really relates to love, and it was really significant for her to hear, it was cool how it changed as we continued, because later I shared that I was seeing purple, which often represents royalty, and that was signifiicant for her as well.

(Amanda - Texas)

Nicole and I also got further interpretation on the dream as well, we just basically threw in stuff to go with Dan's interpretation. The whole thing ended with her giving her heart to the Lord, it was really cool, we were really able to encourage her in a whole bunch of different facets.

God is so good, it was really just like an orchestra, when you let him do what he wants, it really works out perfectly! God was showing me that the whole process of how we do this, the peeling back of layers to reveal God to the people, is like how the Jesus woos us. How Jesus draws us closer to him, always revealing a little more at a time, just enough to keep us chasing him to ultimatly reveal him. How can you not praise God when you step back and look how he sovereignly orchestrates everything?

(Rebecca - Sweden | Claire - England)

There was a whole lot more testamonies from different people as well, we didn't go over them a whole lot, so maybe I'll post some more sometime soon, when I hear more...

Tomorrow we are going to Salem for a training with a church about out ministry time at Haunted Happenings at the end of the month. I'm really excited for that, it should be amazing!

(Noah - New York | Anthony - Viginia | Danielle - South Carolina)

Thought you all might want to know, that yesterday, Me and Dan's fishing count was, two perch and pike for me, and bass for Dan.

If you all have any questions or want some clarity, leave a comment, I'll try to answer it... I know this whole thing can come off as a little weird sometimes, it certainly not something that most people do on a regular basis, or even is an option in their evangelism tool-kit. So feel free to ask away.