pat loughery

A bit smaller turnout today. We talked about a 5-step model for healing prayer model, tips and experiences using it, and had some practice time. Lots of questions today, both about prayer styles and about some of the format for prayer that was being suggested. I had questions also, and felt as though most of them were discussed well. Some were logistical or theological issues that didn’t have a place in that setting, and I look forward to asking them in email.

At our lunch break, I pointed people to the area restaurants and asked them to keep their eyes open for God’s presence and respond accordingly. And, to tip extremely generously (anybody else notice that Christians are horrible tippers on average?). The 5 folks from our church took our speakers out to Mexican food and had a hilarious time talking about international travel and extra-large psychotic cats.

At the end of the workshop, Derk & Priscilla went around and prayed that God would impart healing gifting into us. When that prayer happened over me, I felt an electrical surge come into me, and like there was magnetic power coursing around my body. Like a heavy-heat. I’ve never felt that sensation before, and I just rested in it for a while. I’m excited to see what this might mean.

John, a homeless guy who often hangs out outside our building, was in the area and surprised to see us on a Saturday. I spent quite a bit of time talking with him as did my friend Chris. John really appreciates the conversation, but it’s hard for him to trust. The city has taken out all the benches in the park that are under cover, so he has to sleep on concrete if he wants to be dry. He told me about the little turf war that happens between the homeless people and some of the teenagers who graffiti up the shelters, which attracts the cops, who kick out the homeless. We have no homeless shelters in our town. I suspect a lot of these folks live out in the woods, camping. I spent a lot of time during the workshop out talking to John, bringing him bagels and water, and letting him into the back end of the building (where the good bathrooms are) so he could clean up and use the facilities.

The coffeemaker didn’t work. We have electrical power problems in the building that we meet in (a senior citizen’s center). The power doesn’t run consistently at 110v and our nice 60-cup coffeemaker, and our nice 40-cup coffeemaker sometimes will perk, sometimes won’t. That sucks. We had to break out our little coffeemaker. I joked to folks that if they wanted to know what kind of church Mt. Si Vineyard is, just realize that we’re a young church with 4 different coffeemakers of 3 different sizes, and that would tell them all they needed to know. That drew a big laugh.

I had a PowerPoint worship piece I’d built from Rev. Lockridge’s speech that you can find here. I spent an hour or more fine tuning slide transitions and it was a good meditation. However, when we ran it, the slide timings were off – WAY off, and delaying more over time – when projected through the TV. Another case of something that works on my laptop but not live. I have no idea what happened.

The best thing that happened for me was at the end. We had a general ministry time, and Derk asked me to help put together some prayer teams. We set up two of them from folks I knew and trusted. One couple who pastor a fantastic little messianic house church, and then a team with me, my mom who came over for the conference and to help us around the house, and another guy from our church. Praying with my Mom was a blast. Absolutely fantastic – she’s a very gifted healing prayer warrior and prayer counselor, and showed amazing insight and wisdom that I certainly didn’t pick up on in praying for the person we got to serve. I’m mesmerized by what she was able to accomplish in such a short time.

The other thing that was awesome was that several of the valley churches who were represented have been talking about doing a multi-church healing prayer service, praying “Vineyard-style” (their words, not mine), and try to set up a regular healing prayer time or prayer rooms style thing in a non-church setting as an outreach into our community. I was asked to participate in discussing that idea, which I’d LOVE to do.

We had a very good day. I needed a long nap by the time we finished.