Starvin' Marvin'

   Hi folkies. Yesterday was fasting Tuesday. Boy was it powerful. The maintenance team was leading it this week and they brought quite a creative twist on it. As we walked into the Yamada, we were each asked to give up our watches and cell phones and take up a tool. Some got brooms, shovels, hammers. Some got stain remover or all purpose cleaner. I got a wrench. I think it was a monkey wrench. We were then forced by the two guys leading, Jared and Zach (also the director of operations here), to do some P90X to warm up. Then they explained the tools. They'd put up station signs all around the room and told us it's time for heart surgery. The signs read: critical thinking/negativity, judging, sexual immorality, selfishness, not caring, pride and some others. The plan was to get into groups of 2 or 3 and after taking a minute to examine our hearts, go to which ever stations we felt we were struggling or dealing with and pray for each other. Really lift things off our chests, perform surgery on our hearts. All this time we kind of pondered what the tools we got meant to us. My group consisted of Sayler and an SLS gal, Mija. I love both of them dearly. We went to the critical thinking/negativity station. I explained how I struggle, as plenty do, with negativity in self image. Feeling like crap if I'm not looking my best. Always wanting to be cute, wanting to be noticed, admired, whatever. It's so ridiculous, but real and SO tiring - and constantly an issue. The girls shared their reasons for being at that station, then we prayed. I cried. I always cry, I'm a big crybaby. I disclaimed that and Mija encouraged me to just do it. I would if I didn't hate it. Anything gets me to cry. Anytime I watch a movie where a large group of people comes together to defeat evil or fight for good, I'm a mess. It's so beautiful! Cindy was talking about the wall of Jericho in class the other day and how it was a miracle that they got a million people to be silent at once while walking around the wall. Picturing it, I instantly teared up. This time, it was facing the facts. Not a huge deal, dealing with self image issues - I know everyone does, no matter how hot you are or confident you come across - but it was hard nonetheless. I felt like God was telling me to wrench things out of my heart, or rather He'd be doing the wrenching. I'm scared, but I want it.
   After prayer time, we had a chance to grab the mic and share what we'd experience and the significance of the tool we'd been given. Then Pastor Mark came up and spoke. I'll be honest, my hunger and ADD were in full effect and I was barely there. I can tell you a couple things I did come away with though. He told us to make learning a lifelong pursuit. To always be seeking growth and maturity and the next step. There were two other things, but I forget. I wrote them down.
   Later, we interns got to experience our first "all night prayer" time. We are each assigned 3 or so prayer folks and an hour in the night to pray for whatever's on our hearts and over a list of requests from all the departments. It started with an hour of worship at 7, then prayer hours rolled from 8pm till 8am. I had 12-1. Not bad at all. It was really nice and went by way fast. An hour in prayer is totally refreshing. Can't wait for the next one. Tomorrow I'll tell you about today (Wednesday). Till then!