Do You Believe in the Hizzle Shizzle???

...or the Holy Spirit, that is? Well, check this out...

Today we are having 24-hours of prayer at our church for the Light A Fire movement, our campaign to raise $12 million in the next two years to fund various expansion and improvement projects at all of our campus'. ONE of which is a new youth building for us! Woop! Woop! I digress... All that to say, we started at 9:00am today, and people will come in 1-hour shifts for the next 24 hours, to pray over this movement and our church. It's really cool. And here's how...

About 30 minutes ago, something so cool happened to me. So cool that I jumped up from my desk, and RAN over to our main auditorium (where the prayer is going on) to tell my hubby. When I was in 9th and 10th grade, I had a dear friend named Breck Clanahan that I met at our church, Council Road Baptist. She went to Putnam City West HS and I went to Putnam City North HS, so we only saw each other through church. Sometime in the 11th grade, we lost touch then I moved back to Arkansas shortly after that. That was 16 years ago. Since Facebook forces you to think about people from your past, I have tried to find her on there a couple of times with no luck. Since Dan and I moved back to OKC, I have thought about her a couple of times when I drive by places that remind me of that time in my life.

Just a bit ago, I was sitting at my desk working, and for some unprompted reason, Breck Clanahan popped into my mind. I decided immediately that I was going to "google" her and see what came up. So I typed "Breck Clanahan" and hit enter. The only thing that came up was an obituary link. I clicked on it, and it was an obituary for her mom who had apparently died of cancer. It said she died on November 2nd, and the funeral was to be Friday, November 6th at Council Road Baptist Church (the church we grew up in). I started trying to think of how many years ago Nov.6 would have fallen on a Friday, then clicked on the link to the funeral home only to find her funeral was TODAY, Friday, November 6th, 2009. Only then did I know this was not a coincidence. THAT is why she popped into my mind, after all these years. I signed the guest book on the funeral web site, telling this story, and leaving my email address. I don't know if I will ever hear from them, but I was able to lift them up on what is probably the most difficult day of their lives. So stinkin' cool.

So when I ran into the main auditorium to tell Dan, I was met by a Dan who smelled like outside, or as I like to say, "a bit like recess." I told him that the coolest thing just happened to me, and he said, "ME TOO! I'll tell you after you tell me." After I told him my story, he started in with his. He had returned something (that something be the casket he used in his sermon Wednesday night) in our churches box truck that is about the size of a large UHaul. When he got inside, he realized he'd left his phone in the truck, and walked all the way out to the edge of our parking lot to get it. When he turned around to come back to the building, there was a kid standing directly behind him wearing an Insane Clown Posse t-shirt, a pentogram necklace, with died black hair in his face...you know the drill. Dan, being the youth pastor he is, just started talking to him. The kid said he was just out walking, he didn't know what to do because his girl, his wife and mother of their daughter, was with another man right then. Dan told him he was so sorry, and they continued to talk. Dan asked him what music he was listening to, and he told him what he had on his iPod. Then Dan asked him hypothetically, what he would do if he went to buy that iPod and it was broken. The kid said he would return it, naturally. Dan then asked him what he would do if the one they gave him in return was broken as well. He said he would return that one too. Then Dan asked, "How many times would you return the broken ones until you quit buying them and tried something new?" The kid answered, "I don't know...I guess when I am so frustrated and don't know what to do any more." Dan then said, "Man, do you want to try something new today?" and led the kid to the Lord right there in the parking lot of our church...at the very same time the Holy Spirit was prompting me to think about my friend Breck who buried her mom today. Dan told him about our church...about our Outreach pastor, Jed Chappell, who was shot four times robbing a house and served eight years of a 47 year prison sentence and is now one of the most Godly men we know. He invited him to come on Sunday night to our Connexion service, and was able to pray with him. Again...so cool.

I don't experience stuff like that much. In fact, I almost get jealous listening to other people's stories because it just doesn't happen to me much. Needless to say, big stuff is happening around here while those peeps are prayin' it up in the main auditorium. We are just in hour eight of our 24 hours, and I can't wait to see what happens next!