Lakeland Week 2

Week Monday 12 March to 18 March

The main focus for the week was the Catch the Fire Revival meetings on Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. Originally they were going to be the full conference, but because some unexpected things happened for some of the speakers, John and Carol Arnott took three evening meetings. These were held at the Ignited Church (where the revival with Todd Bentley first broke out) within walking distance from the motel that we were staying at.

Young Recruit!

The young recruit very much reminded us of Jesse Kelly many years ago!
John Arnott spoke at the first two night meetings, gave a brief history of the Toronto outpouring, on Thursday night, and preached on the Kingdom on Friday night. We had quite a few healings on both nights, including at least the beginnings of 2 especially outstanding miracles on Friday night. - a young woman in great pain in a wheelchair from a car accident 7 years ago, who, after continued prayer (that seems to be the key) had absolutely no pain. The second was a man who had flown over specifically for the meetings from Ireland –he had stage 4 cancer of the pancreas and liver and was originally in a lot of pain. He was first prayed for on Friday morning during a "soaking" time held in the chapel and run by Roger Webb, who himself has an absolutely amazing testimony (can see Roger Webb’s testimony on Youtube www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TrLt7uSdhA  ).
This meeting was an extra bonus for us that that had been added for those who could/wanted to attend. We, along with 20 or so other people attended this soaking time, and the Presence of God after Roger Webb had shared briefly his testimony, was incredible!! Out of the meetings this week, this would have to be the highlight for us, very encouraging, to pursue God and His Presence. (Can watch the other meetings at Ignited through either live streaming, or in their archives if you're interested - www.ustream.tv/user/ignitedmedia .Unfortunately the soaking time was not videoed),
Originally we had planned to leave on the Sunday morning at around 9 am for a 33 hour bus trip to San Antonio, but when doing the final packing early on Sunday morning decided to take a later trip (around 4 pm) and arrive later at San Antonio. This would allow us to go back to the Ignited Church for the morning service, and it was well worth it!
What was also amazing was the contact with people that opened up because of it. Two elderly ladies really blessed us.

Corra

The first, Corra, on taking us back to the motel, took us on a guided tour of the Carpenter’s Church  where revival broke out in the early 90’s with Rodney Howard-Browne. We were absolutely taken aback by the size of the complex. Not only was there a massive 10,500 seat main auditorium, a massive carpark area to cater for the numbers of people, there was a Christian School complex, a day care centre, a large prayer tower, and an accommodation centre, all sitting in  a lovely setting on the side of a lake. It was very well laid out, and looked wonderful. Corro, back at that time had cancer, but she had been sovereignly healed by the Lord at that church. The thing that grieved us was that the complex, apart from the accommodation centre (which has been converted into a retirement home) is standing there unused. Apparently, the complex was built during the revival, and when the revival subsided, the church could not maintain the commitments and had to move out. It reformed as the smaller Ignited Church. We prayed with Corro, agreeing to a renewal of vision for the complex.
We have posted some pictures of the complex.

Unused Carpenter's Church Auditorium

The Prayer Tower

Lakeside Setting

Accommodation Centre - currently used

The other elderly, but very sprightly lady, Violet, insisted on blessing us by giving us a ride in the afternoon to the Greyhound Bus Station. We had a precious time with her on the way.

So out we set for the first leg of our long journey west, not knowing the adventures in store..

Eight hours later, we were shunted off our bus at around midnight, to wait for an hour and a half at a place called Tallahassee, and still half asleep, looked for a place to sit amongst the crowd.  God had set up an appointment with a young man who was struggling in his Christian walk. It was a real joy to be a source of encouragement to him.