Salem Revisited

I woke up today to a good inch of snow on the ground. Kind of a nice welcome sight, a surprise for sure after the warm day we had yesterday. But it's pretty much all gone by now anyways. I cleaned up my room. Did some laundry, helped facilitate a roommate change. Matt (North Carolina) my now former roommate, switched with Brandon (Alberta) because Brandon has a tough time going up and down the stairs since he broke his foot in Salem this weekend. But that's a whole other story in itself.

So, I thought I should get writing while it's still all fresh, we'll see how much I do at this sitting, I tend to get carried away when I'm writing, I write too much too fast and pretty soon I just get sick of writing and cut it off. This time, I'm hoping I can pace myself a little better...

Salem was amazing, I am so changed. I never considered myself a christian who was caught up in religiousness, but after these last two trips to Salem, I discovered I am now far-less religious than ever!

I'll try to break it down for you, we were all scheduled to be at different places at different times, but the whole schedule thing was highly organic. As much as we tried to follow it, often we'd get called to help in other areas. It worked out really well as long as you were prepared to be flexible.




For those four days my schedule was:
2-4 pm - Working the Free Hot Cocoa booth
4-6 pm - On a team at the fountain location
6-8 pm - Watchman/Intercessor at the fountain
8-10 pm - Host at the fountain

Often when I was a watchman I'd be pulled onto a team and sometimes I ended up hosting at the bank instead, you know, everyone just pitches in when needed. Sometimes the lines would all of sudden die at the fountain and they would be really long at the bank. So we'd have to always be forming new teams and cutting down. You know, just being all organic like.


It was a very busy weekend with us starting our schedule at 2 pm, but before that we'd be setting up the tents and hot dog stand, etc...

My goodness, I'm having a brain fart, too much to write, I don't know where to go from here...

Hmmm...Well, lessee...

How about some of my highlights...

Highlight #1

I was on a team with Kelly and Jamie one night and we had young guy, Tony, come sit down, he had a dream of king made out of stone and fire with a sword of fire in his hand hovering above his bed. He woke up into another dream where he was in a church, and he had a cross burned on his chest. There were other people wtih crosses on their chests as well and they were all preparing for battle.

The metaphors in this dream were so obvious it was hard for us to contain ourselves. Tony already had the basic idea that this King wanted him to join him and fight with him. So we explained who that king was, that it was Jesus and we made an opportunity for him. After he invited the King to be a part of his life, we explained basically that the Holy Spirit was given to us to dwell with us. And did he want that? Then we told him how he doesn't have to live with the darkness that he said he had, that God wanted to deliver him from that. So basically that night Tony got saved, filled with the spirit and delivered from oppressions.

I've never seen someone just get it so fast, I was talking to him later and he was saying, "yup, I'm a son of God now!" He had such a grasp of sonship so immediately! We didn't have to barely tell him anything, he just wanted God, he said he was going to stop hanging around with bad influences, we introduced him to Pastor Phil from the Gathering and Tony was just all around excited about what just happened. He said he felt way better, and lighter... It was really amazing and encouraging.

Highlight #2

Right after we had Tony, we had two witch friends and their young daughter and grand daughter. We just loved on them and gave them the encouraging words God gave us for them. At the end they were totally blown away, they kept telling us how accurate we were and all the things that were going on in their lives that corresponded with what we said. They were really blessed and encouraged by our words. Jamie even got to give all the glory to God, saying it wasn't us who was giving these words.

These two witches did this kind of thing as well, but it was really encouraging for us to have them so blessed, feel so loved and for them to tell us how accurate we were.

Highlight #3

On our last day there, I got my first chance to lead a team with Caleb (Alberta) and Claire (England). The first couple we had were so open to what we had to say, we were right on with our words to the lady. The guy had some spiritual experiences he was wondering about, for example he would feel his hands vibrating sometimes, he didn't know what it meant, he didn't know if he should be worried or not. He said when he was sitting there that it was happening just then too. So we explained to him how that was God trying to get his attention, how sometimes the body has a physical reaction to the spiritual presence of God.

This guy was so ready. He even said to us "I just feel like I need to be where you guys are at." This guy and his girlfriend both got saved and filled with the spirit, and he said he felt better, like different and better.

It was so amazing, I've never had opportunities like this in my life to lead people to the Lord like the testimonies I just shared, so encouraging! The lady just kept telling us that she just felt so much peace around us, and we were explaining to her that one of God's names is the prince of Peace and that it was now a promise for her to take hold of.

It was awesome to have people comment on how much they felt at peace and felt love when they were around us. Such a testimony of the presence of God there.

Highlight #4

This doesn't start out as a highlight, but there were a bunch of other Christians who go out to these types of events and basically preach at people and tell them to repent and be saved or they are going to hell. They were there walking around with their signs and loudspeakers, handing out tracts, pretty much the whole time we were there.

Needless to say at this type of event, it tended to often cause conflict. We witnessed many a shouting match and arguments over whether or not people were sinning etc.

I'll be honest, it was really really hard for me to keep my heart right towards these fellow Christians who were trying to tell people about God without much love.

One of the nights there was quite a conflict they had with Shawn, a black witch who heads up the psychic fair with another witch called Christian. The Christians tried to forcibly exorcise Lila, who Shawn says is the best psychic at the fair.

What's cool is that Shawn's response was to call pastor Phil and get the monks to come. Pastor Phil has spent alot of time developing relationships with the witches, neo-pagans, wiccans, whoever down there. And they know his heart for them. The monks are some of the people who were working the confessional booth, and they got in there and helped calm everyone down and escorted them to the Gathering.

It was a healing time for Shawn especially, he was a former christian, but basically felt that in his times of trouble he was left out to dry by Jesus. He, Christian and Lila stayed for a while at the gathering, Christian eventually left with Lila, but Shawn ended up staying till 1:30 am with the guys at the church just talking to us. One of the most profound comments he made to us is "You guys here, you guys are Jesus." He said that we were true Christians. He just really enjoyed talking to us and being with us. He said never in his life did he ever expect to be in church with 30 christian guys on Halloween Eve at midnight.

It was an amazing time. Pastor Phil has spent so much time and sacrificed to so much to be with the people he's called to. And we got to witness some of the fruits of it. Like Shawn, for instance, a guy who travels all around the world training people in witchcraft and makes a ton of money, that night especially he had a visible perspective shift, that not all Christians were the same.

It was such an honour for all of us to be able to come and help Phil pull in the harvest. He's been so faithful working out there, I constantly felt like I wasn't worthy to be there. I kept telling people, "Who gets to do this stuff? Who gets to give prophetic words to people, lead them to the Lord, love them like they've never received before, get to chill with and have a witch king open up his heart to you?"

That just doesn't happen to Christians. I'm totally wrecked for having a normal christian life. I feel like I've finally started to find out what normal Christianity should be.

There are so many stories of salvations, of people who received emotional healing, and countless people who were just encouraged and loved.

I wish I could step back and see the big picture of what happened at Salem this year. So many lives were changed, so many people have a new hunger to find truth. So many people will never be the same. None of us interns will ever be the same. It was such an eye opener for all us. It's hard to know if the greater work was done by God through each of us, or in each of us.

I need a writing break. Please please please, As much as I have been practicing the prophetic lately, I can't read your minds. So please leave a comment below, let me know what you think, if you have any questions, or want to know more about something. I will try to write more later and maybe throw up some more pictures. But until then...

Some Videos

Some of the crowd near our tent by the fountain.



Jamie and Anthony performing a live song to attract people



A little tour of Salem before it got busy



A guy who stood in front of the store and scared people all weekend.