I'm sick of thinking up titles.

I'll try and update you one what's been new lately. I find as I settle into the routine of here. That I don't feel like I have as much to write, which probably isn't true, but well, what can I say?

Lately we've been working on the ISD class (Institute for Spiritual Development) 102, which is called Adnvanced Prophetic Ministry. The ISD classes are all made by Streams, it's just kind of it's own branch.

The course is basically laying a foundation for prophetic ministry, what did it look like in the bible, and how does it operate in the church, as well as it includes some prophetic excercises.

What I really enjoy about the ISD classes, is that we often have different people teaching it from Streams. It's cool because everybody who teaches it has a different style and it's just really cool.

The lady who taught us the last few sections, Dawn Dube, liked to make sure we got our prophetic excercises. I'll list a few of the different excercies we've done to give you an idea.

-*-4 people will go up to the front and as people get a word for them, they stand up and give it to them.

-*-8 people in a circle facing outward to 8 other people who are facing inward. The people in the circle on the outside have 30 seconds to give a word to the person they are facing, then the person on the inside has 10 seconds to tell if they are on, and why it's significant. Then they rotate. After you've gone around the whole circle, the inside circle switches with the outside. I really enjoyed this one, it was cool as you went around, sometime I'd give someone a word, and they'd vbe like, wow, three other people gave me a word really similar to that, or it'd be right on, so it was really good.

-*-Another one, we made two long lines of people. The people on one sidw would keep their eyes closed while the poeple on the other side would mix up and go, stand in front of someone, and tap them on the shoulder. With your eyes closed, and no idea who was in front of you, you had to give that person a word. This was cool because it took out the element of using any previous knowledge of the person, you had to just go for it.

-*-The last one we did, I was one of the volunteers, and 4 of us stood in front of the class and practiced giving words to a crowd, so instead of a particular person, we'd give a word over whoever the Lord pointed out to us, or a corporate word.

So you can see, we've been pretty busy. What's really faith building and encouraging is doing all these different types of prophetic ministry, not just one form, but in all these different ways.

Probably the best thing about these excercises for me is that they have really helped me differentiate between what is myself, and what is God. It's really helped me distinguish the voice of God. It's super encouraging because God's really been showing me how easy it is to hear from Him, that He is always speaking, it's just a matter of whether I want to listen of not.

Besides the ISD courses, we've also been hearing about the Tabernacle from various second year interns, we've been getting amazing teachings from Ken Nelson, they've been recording them, because he wants to make a series of his Spiritual Linguistics that he's been talking to us, but us Interns get it free, so I'm going to be able to keep them which is such a blessing, because there is no chance that I could get half of what he's saying at the time, it's soooo good. So now I'll be able to go over them whenever I want, I am way too excited about that...

Let's see, we've already read "Prophecy, Dreams and Evangelism" by Doug Addison, and now we are reading "Needless Casualties of War" by John Paul Jackson, it's really good, it's all about spiritual warfare, not being stupid about it, knowing your boundries and authority.

We still have our impartation nights wednsday night when different couples from Streams mostly, come and share/impart with us. Last wednsday Ron and Cherry, an older couple from New Zealand who now work with Streams came and talked on the Power of God, well, they talked for about 15 minutes, then Ron and Cherry got tired of talking and just prayed for the power of God to come. And, simply put. It did. Most of us got rocked.

We were supposed to be working on Pinnacle Mountain today, a work day, but there is a conference this weeked that Streams is helping put on, so instead most of the students went, and we helped set-up, most of them are there today, I however, am going fishing. I caught a pike yesterday and am hoping for a big 'ole bass today.

Last night, most of the canadians, Luke, Caleb, Jamie and myself went to Eric Coopers to watch the Canucks game with Josiah Cooper, unfortunately, their pay-per-view was having issues, so instead we watched a movie. But we'll probably be over ther in the future for other games, so that will be just dandy. I heard the canucks lost anyways...It was game I could miss.

Well I'm getting pretty geared-up for Salem, it's coming up next weekend... It's going to be amazing!

What else to say? I don't know, but you can all check out www.streamsacademy.com it's the new internship pages, I must say, way better then when I applied...I think I got short-changed webpage wise...

A Pike in the hand...

Well, here's this mornings fish count,
That'd be two pike and a perch for myself. And nothing for Dan.
Shucks.

Shout out out out out!

Hey, you all should check out a fellow students blog, Anthony Acevedo(Virginia), on the right hand side for some more good tidbits on what's going on.

Witch one was it?

Yesterday we all went to Salem MA, about a 2 hour drive, to do some training with a church called "The Gathering". It was really good, the guy who spoke, Pastor Phil, has such a heart for the New Age/Pagan people.

He did a really good job explaining what a pagan was, and common ways we offend them and misconceptions about them. For example, many people lump witchs and people like that as Satanists, however, that's really offensive to them, because most of them don't even believe Satan exists, and they'd say that we, as christians, are closer to Satanists because we at least believe there is a Satan! So to call them a satanist or something like that, it shows how ignorant we are to them.

We learned alot about that kinda thing, and about the differences and similarities between Paganism and Christianity.

Probably the biggest thing I received was freedom from wrong mindsets. There's a lot of stigmas associated with witchcraft and pagans and the new age, all that kinda stuff. If you tell people you are friends with a witch, that doesn't usually go over that well. People tell you not to go into certain stores because they sell occultic stuff. Etc...

Isn't this kind of backwards thinking? Who is immeasurably more powerful? Why should we be concerned? In fact, by limiting where we go, who we talk to and who we build relationship with, we are just giving more power to the enemy. I never previously would have called it fear, I would have said it was just being wise avoiding those places. However, alot of those ideas were based on the fear that if I went to those places, I would get a demon, or someone would place a curse on me or something like that.

As I start to understand more and more about who my God is, who I am in in him and who I'm supposed to be, the more I lose any fear or reservations about the new age or any kind of "weird stuff". Mostly because I know who is so much more powerful, and in fact, that very spirit resides in me. So those people who work in the witchcraft stores that line the streets of Salem, should be more afraid of God entering their stores through me.

Why is it considered noble for christians to befriend the homeless, or even prostitutes and tax collectors, but when it comes to someone steeped in the occult or paganism, it suddenly is a different story. Is it maybe we are confused about who or what is charge? Who has authority? Are these people in any less need of Jesus? Do they not deserve salvation? Are these people any different than any other person who sins? Are they any less of a human being?

Think about your own attitudes and mindsets to these people. Just because they may understand there is a spiritual realm, that shouldn't scare us, in fact, we should be even weirder and more spiritual than they! Yes? No? Leave a comment...

It was an awesome day I learned just as much about myself and my own fears/insecurities as I did about Neo-Paganism. Not only did I learn about those things, but most of all, I learned more about the character of Jesus and who I am in him.

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.

Well alright then...

This morning, as per usual on wednsday mornings, Ken Nelson gave us a class on spiritual linguistics, basically, learning the language of God, or learning how to find him in everything. It's a really amazing class, I'm really, really enjoying it.

After that Ken and the second year interns interpret any dreams or spiritual experiences(visions, visititations, etc...)

What's really nice about wednsdays is we don't go to our classroom, we just do it at the girls house, it's a nice change.

This afternoon instead of going to the office, I went home and worked on pictures for the pinnacle prayer website, that was a nice break as well as I was pretty much alone in the house. I threw up a picture that I did for the page here...

This evening Colleen Sherman (my boss), the director or prayer for Stream Ministries, came and talked to us about intercession, it was really good, maybe one day when I feel like writing more, I will.

What else... Oh, and Dan and I got up bright and early and went fishing as the sun came up, it was really quite nice.


Haunted Happenings is coming up pretty soon, at the end of October we'll be heading down to Salem for an outreach at that huge festival. I'm starting to get really excited about it, it's going to be a ton of fun down there, who knows what'll happen?

And this weekend, we'll all be going down to the Claremont Chili Cook-Off for an outreach as well, That should be good, and hopefully the chili is as well...

To finish this off I've included a video clip here, that is garaunteed to offend any religiousness in you. Keep in mind it is a satire, it was made bya church to show what Non-christians think Jesus is like, but it is good for a laugh...

Hip Hop Hippity Hop

I don't think I have too much to say today, but we'll see what happens...

I hope you all like my picture headers, I started making them from all the pictures I've been taking. Today I went up to Pinnacle Mountain to take pictures for the webpage. It turned out ok, except it was a terrible time of day to go and when I got I found out I had a scratch on my polarizer so it left a white spot on pretty much EVERY picture... Oh well... It turned out ok though, I found this sluggish grasshopper who cooperated rather well with me...

Here's a picture I took at the top of the prayer mountain, I did some stuff to it on the computer as well.

Monday night we went to see Patricia King somewhere. I can't keep track of the places we go, it was like Peppereli or something, that's probably way off, anyways, it was an hour and a half away, that's what matters.

She talked on things like how when we see the things psychics and people like that are doing we should be looking it as the counterfeit, which it is, and realize that we should be doing that but better. You know, for example how the psychics is a counterfeit of the prophetic, and all that.

And she talked about things like raising people from the dead, walking on water, transportations, etc. that are mentioned in the Bible that we should/will be doing. Maybe it sounds crazy to some of you, but Jesus himself said we'd do these things and greater... In fact in the great commission we were told to raise the dead, so how many people do you know who have? Well, soon maybe one, because I plan on it. Among other things anyways.

Today John Paul talked to us in the morning, it was really good, about the difference of the Spirit with us, and in us. He also talked about how we need higher expectations, of how many christians are content to merely be better than those around them who are sinners, that kind of thing. Instead, we need to not be content so quickly, we need to have higher, impossible expectations.

So, basically, now I have much higher expectations. Not that I was content, but I definately will not be content easily anymore... I think about all the things the prophets and other people did in the Old Testament and I think I'm going to do them. For us today, it should be even easier, after all, we have the Holy Spirit in us now. All the time!

I'm reminded of something one of the teachers here said, "If people can't tell you are a christian by looking at you, don't embarass God by telling them." Pretty strong statement, but I think it's pretty accurate...

Anyways, I'm off to bed, I'm getting up at 6 am tomorrow to go fishing again with Dan, maybe this time I'll eat what I catch...

We'll see...

I guess I did have a few words to say after all. Well what do ya know?

Turn up the Bass

Well alright then, this weekend so far has been pretty swell. Tiring, but good nonetheless. Friday, our day off, it rained. But I couldn't stay in, so Dan (Scotland), one of the second year interns, and myself walked to our lake/pond and did some fishing.

It's a great lake to fish, there are so many fish, it's pretty much guaranteed that you'll catch a fish. So we rowed out in the rain to a good spot, and within two seconds of my first cast, I caught a good sized bass. That was all my luck for the day, but we had plenty of bites. Dan, however, caught two medium pikes and a red perch. We didn't keep any of them, but next time, I'll keep a bass if it's as big as the one I caught the first time.

By the time we went in we were ridiculously cold and wet, just sitting in a boat for 2 hours in the rain, but it was worth it, better than sitting inside...

That afternoon, most of us, whoever wanted to, went to another of The Bridge churches in Metrowest (I think that's the city name...) for a worship/healing night.

The worship was really really good, although I hadn't heard any of the songs before, but it was still fun. I along with most of the interns was on the ministry team with people from the church, and at the end of the night we all prayed for people who wanted healing.

It was really really awesome, I teamed up with Anthony (Richmond, Virginia) and we prayed for a bunch of people. One lady in particular had some hearing loss in her ear, and we prayed for her and she was instantly healed, right there as we prayed! It was really faith building because, it was like we were praying with anyone who you could say was "super-spiritual", you know? It was just Anthony and I praying for this lady and she got healed.

There were a few other instant healings that night as well that the interns prayed for, so it was really really cool to see God working in that way!

Well we didn't get back till late because it was a two-hour drive each way, so we didn't get home till almost 1:30 am. Saturday morning, I got up at 6:30 am with Dan and Matt, to healp Cedric and Roxanne(They work with Streams) with their garage sale. We worked for a while and once it got going we came home, I napped for a few hours, then we went back to help clean up in the afternoon.

It was a very tiring weekend, I didn't get a whole lot of sleep, but saturday was very lucrative for myself. Micah Jackson, John Pauls son, hangs out with the interns quite a bit, and he sold me his old stereo for $30, which is an amazing deal considering, when it came out, probably retailed for well over $200. I figured it was a good investment because I can't listen to my laptop speakers for a whole year. It just wouldn't do.

Not only that, for free from the garage sale, because they wanted to get rid of everything, I got hooked up with a vibrating chair pad. So even now, as I sit here and type this, I am getting a 4 zone back massage with 3 customizable power levels and a cycle option. Oh, what's that you say? No that's not all, I got a fishing rod-reel for free and I think there is a spare rod here with no reel with my name on it...

Last week it was Matt's birthday, so me and Dan scored the ultimate in hand-excercise for Matt. That's right, we got him a "Power-Web" from the garage sale. It even comes with a book of 39 different hand, wrist and forearm excercises. Pretty impressive indeed. Can you believe someone was selling that?

Well this morning we have church, I'll be leaving in half an hour, and then tonight, we are going to see Patricia King speak somewhere. It sure is nice to have some more canadians come and speak to us from our side of the world.

I'm off to put some socks on, until later...