I-5 Tour — Encountering Jesus

Of the things that we built this year, one of the most unique trips we designed this year was the I-5 Worship Tour, which, essentially was five ministry trips in one. We left Redding on April 10th and headed to 5 different cities, with a team of 28 students and leaders. Each morning we loaded up a caravan of SUVS, spent bonding time together as we traveled three to four hours to our next city. When we arrived in our next city we hit the streets sharing the love of Jesus with people for as long as we could, and then, we would load up again, travel to our evening venue and set up for the third year students to teach prophetic workshops and for the second year students to share in smaller individual prophetic sessions. And then, each night we would come together with other believers in the city we were in to worship and seek God's presence. The I-5 Corridor was seriously saturated with God's goodness and his presence that week!

On the way to Medford we stopped in Ashland and students were sent out an evangelistic scavenger hunt. Our team was in a coffee shop in Ashland when a man asked on of our team members what our group was up to, and after a brief conversation, told them that we were sharing the love of Jesus. Our team was praying for him, and although he never mentioned that he had pain in his hand, as the team prayed, the man said the pain in his hands was starting to leave! He was so surprised because he hadn't asked for prayer for his hand, but God just started healing him as we prayed and the man said that it was especially meaningful to him because he was an artist, and it would be easier to paint again.

When we were at the service in Medford, the Holy Spirit came in power. We saw several healings: a 10 year old with back pain was healed, an adult with back and hip pain for 2.5 years was healed, and many others were healed. It was an amazing night, Jesus totally showed up.

After Medford, we headed to Eugene, where we went to the University of Oregon's campus to pray and minister. That day in rained and even hailed, which slowed us down a bit. However, a small part of the team stayed there at the campus that day, believing that no matter how long it took, someone would encounter Jesus that day. Eventually a small team of students that were with Chad met a woman and spent time talking to her. While they were talking to her about Jesus, she shared that just the night before she had had a dream, and in the dream she was screaming out "Allah! Allah! Allah!" She was screaming for God, and woke up, not knowing what to make of the dream. Then, she met our team the very next day, who were able to talk to her about her dream, and talk to her about her heart's desire for God.

In Bend the team was able to spend some great time outdoors and were able to simply talk to people that were outside walking around the river trail, near parks, and near a shopping area. Many of us broke into smaller groups while we were in Bend to just talk to people, and during this time, my small group of friends was walking in front of the movie theater there when we saw two woman walk up to the theater that appeared to be dating, and we all felt something stir inside us that we needed to go talk to them. We chit chatted for a while, and then I just shared that Jesus loved them a lot. And then we asked them if it would be OK if I bought them both there movie tickets, and their faces dropped. I told them that I knew I could tell them Jesus loved them, but they probably wouldn't believe it unless I showed them. They just stood there in such shock and told us, "oh my gosh! you don't have to do that!" And we explained that we wanted to, and that we just simply wanted them to know that they were loved, and simply said we wanted to apologize on behalf of anyone who had ever made them felt judged. We asked them if they needed prayer for anything, and the one woman shared, "I think that all the prayers that I have been praying have finally been answered!" We blessed them and headed back to the vehicles, to set up the church for another night of prophetic sessions and worship.

Before our team left the next day, we decided that we would all get up super early for a special field trip to Smith Rock. We had an epic hike to the top of the rock, which rock climbers from all of the world come to climb. We finished the hike with a devotional from Sean and Chad, and then hit the road again. Next stop: Portland!

That evening, our team headed just across the river to Vancouver, where we ministered at Bethesda Church, where some dear friends of Chad and Julia are pastoring. This night was really my favorite night of the entire tour. The people that came were so hungry and the Holy Spirit was so tangibly present there that night. There truly was a glory that came upon that place that night. One of our team members who had been walking in a walking boot all week, and couldn't go on the hike that morning, came to serve that night and was in so much pain, but during worship she was sitting down talking to the Lord, when the Lord told her to take off her walking boot and test her foot to see if she was healed. She was so scared of taking off, because if she wasn't healed, she didn't want to be disappointed, and she was already in so much pain. But, in choosing to be obedient, she took off her boot. No one was around, and on one was praying for her. It was just her and the Lord worshipping when this all happened. So, she took off her boot, stood on it and discovered the pain was leaving. Her foot was healed. It wasn't long until she was jumping, and she came running over to me, and she was laughing and bawling. It took me a minute to realize what had happened, and then I saw her boot in hand. Seriously our whole team was going crazy in the back of the service, and so we had the student go to the front to share the testimony, and the room just went wild! So many more healings happened that night, and especially a large number of people started to be set free from depression. It was such a fun and crazy night.

And then, the last normal day of the tour, we headed to Seattle. We spent time in Pike Place, and hung out downtown for a bit before heading to Arlington for the service that night.

Our team struck up a really fun conversation with a guy they met at Pikes Place. After conversing for a short bit, one of our team members Hannah felt led to ask that guy, "have you ever smoked weed?" And they guy answered that yes, he had. She then said, "Would you like to receive the best high you have ever had?" and she asked him to put out his hands. She then prayed and told him that Jesus was the best high he could ever have, and he started to just encounter Jesus right there in the street. He then gave his life to the Lord that day! Then, our team who was down there for maybe twenty minutes, asked him if he wanted to come to the service that night in Arlington and he came. That night was also wild, and I am so glad that this man got to see that being friends with Jesus really is a party.

That night after the service, our team decided to go to Buffalo Wild Wings to hang out on our last night before headed home, and that night our waitress gave her life to the Lord.

We could go on and on with stories from this trip because of all the amazing things that God has done. This trip for many was really about realizing that sharing the love of Jesus is natural, and easy, and fun, and can happen anywhere you go. It may require that you take risk. It may require that you have to overcome your fears. It may require you being intentional, but it is not inconvenient. Sharing the love of Jesus is NOT INCONVENIENT. It is a privilege and a joy. And, over and over we saw that life with God is so fun!!!