Testimonies from Salem, MA Outreach, October 2007

We set up with teams of three in Salem this past fall to minister Jesus through Spiritual Readings and Dream Interpretation. (This was only the second outreach for many of the interns who began with us only four weeks earlier.) God greatly blessed us with experiencing His strength in our weakness during this outreach. We were all transformed as much if not more than those the Lord placed before us!

We each learned so much about His heart and ways through ministering. As sinners, His love met us the whole way (John 3:16; Romans 5:8). We understand that God will meet people where they are and in this continue them on a journey hopefully to meet Jesus. We understood that using Christianease language in Salem would often cause people to shut down because so many of them have been condemned and judged by the Christian community.

We learn that the Holy Spirit is in charge since He knows men’s hearts. We learn that we cannot make anything happen. We learn to watch what the Father is doing and then join Him. This experience provides a real stripping away of religion and the boasting of man! It is beautiful and glorious---it’s Jesus full of grace and truth! What this looked like during our outreach in Salem is that some people receive a little encouragement; others more directed words; and still others are able to receive prayer for healing or cleansing. And others may be ready to enter into relationship with Jesus. Our only basic instruction other than training in prophetic ministry and dream interpretation is to love the people, with no other agenda.



Please enjoy the testimonies below and celebrate the goodness of God with us. We have all been changed!



Blessings,

Streams Academy

---

Amber Cranfill, Intern from Illinois

Just before coming to Salem, God told me to go for a walk and to take some pictures of whatever was beautiful. As I walked, things would pop out in an unusual ways, so I would take pictures of what I saw. Then, during the outreach, a woman came in for a spiritual reading who had the ability to do this all the time! I wrestled with sharing from this new angle, but finally gave in and began to describe the walk I went on and how beautiful things popped out at me. God had not only given this lady the ability to see beauty in nature; but also the ability to see beauty inside people and use words to paint a picture so that they would know! As I shared this, another member of the team got exited because they were able to use what God had shown me to give a further word! Then the team leader asked the lady if she would like a “spiritual transference.” By that point, the team member had described that he was going to give here some of his “positive energy” and he started to take her hand. I grabbed hold of her other hand and the team prepared to give the “transfer”; but we were really waiting on the Holy Spirit. Then the Holy Spirit came and a great wind shot through the tent! His power made her laugh and me too. Then another team member explained to her that sometimes the Spirit can feel like an opening and I saw a cage open around her- she was accepting and being filled with the Holy Spirit! God is so awesome!


Abby Ringger, Intern from Indiana

A woman came in to our tents for a reading. I remember thinking to myself, this woman looks like she doesn’t want to be here- she was on the rigid side, but she had said that she knew what she was getting herself into. Through us, God told this woman that she needed to be like a reptile and sun herself in the Light in order to shed the bad things she was carrying around. That hit close to home because she said she is often cold and so the sun is very important to her. We told her that she had some bad spiritual experiences in the past and asked her if she wanted a spiritual cleansing. Her walls were down, but went up again because of those bad experiences. A psychic had put her energy on her and she had become very sick. Once we explained that we would be asking the highest most pure Spirit to visit her, she agreed. She opened her hands up as if to receive and we laid our hands on her and basically prayed for God to cleanse her. She began smiling for the first time because an intense pain she had been experiencing in her back immediately left. We told her that we are followers of Jesus and she didn’t receive Him there, but she was a completely different person when she left. I was blown away by the love of God for His people!

For me personally Salem was very much a growing experience. I began on shaky legs, caring more about myself and how I would look if God didn’t give me a word for someone. Then, once I was humbled enough by not having anything to say God showed me that all I needed to do was love people. Once the pressure came off to perform and I could just love, God began to give me words that really carried weight compared to previous times. Because I was loving people I had my own walls down, which allowed God to move. I know I still have a ton to learn, but I’m amazed at what God has already done in me. I actually feel like I have more of a relationship with God and it’s strange to me that it has come in the form of Him loving other people and using me to do it.


Sharon Felder, Staff from South Carolina

Two teenage guys come in. They are very open to receive a spiritual reading. The first guy receives a word about his heart for people in trouble and how he stands up for those in need and his hatred for injustice. We are given more words about how he perceives people and a little about his perspective on things. This connects into his God-given purpose and resonates with him very strongly. Then the Lord gives a team member a picture of a blue colored blob on his chest and then a picture of Gods hand his shoulder. Through this we convey that the Creator is saying that He wants to make a divine exchange…..this boys bout with depression (something he has not shared with anyone), for wisdom and communion with the Creator. This flows into an invitation to meet the Creator and we feel we have favor to share that this is Jesus extending an invitation to know the Father. This boy is totally blown away and is very excited to meet this Jesus! (We wonder how the intensity of this encounter is affecting his friend.) We share some more about Jesus and he prays to receive Him. We are all elated!

We then shift to his friend and begin to share prophetic words. God is clearly sharing with them both about their natural interests but impressing upon us to give the spiritual interpretation as well in order to speak destiny/purpose into their lives. This boy is tender-hearted towards people as well. The Lord gives us words about his interest in becoming a gourmet chief and running. This also ties into things about his personality and spiritual principles which the Lord leads us to share. This young man is also blown away and shortly after receives Jesus.


Matt Howard, Intern from England

A group of five ladies came to us who were in good spirits. Three of them wanted a spiritual reading; the other two were just observing. One by one we gave them prophetic words, finding a grace from God to be accurate in what we were saying and stir some things inside of them. There was one particular lady who, it turned out, was having a particularly tough time. We heard for her was that God wanted to bring justice for the things she had been through- things that have been done against her. That God loved her and didn't want to see His children suffer. The wonderful thing was this spoke directly into her life, and was relevant to her there and then. In that encounter we saw the truth of what we had been sent there to do; to allow God, through us, to speak into peoples lives and draw them to Himself.

Elisa Zupancic - Intern

This past weekend all the interns and leaders went on an outreach to the Haunted Happenings in Salem Massachusetts to give spiritual readings to the people attending the event. Haunted Happenings is an annual event that starts somewhere in mid October near the end and runs until the 31st. Our group is going back to Salem this weekend and then again for the day on the 31st.


Our group waiting to start in the morning in Salem, our white tents to the left.


On Saturday I did some hosting of the tent, which comprised of asking people if they wanted a spiritual reading or a dream interpretation and then writing there name down if there was a wait. Also to check on the teams to see how they were doing, if they needed more prayer, a team member needed a break or if they needed anything else. Later when I was done my shift of hosting I was on my first team with team leader Sharon Felder and another intern to give 'spiritual readings' ( a non-christianese title for prophetic words). After giving a some words to a few different people that had come into out tent and left happy, a lady and her friend came in for a dream interpretation, she told us her reoccurring dream and was hoping we could make it stop from coming back again. Our team tried to interpret the dream but the lady didn't seem to be very open to receive anything we said, after she left I was feeling very discouraged for I was having a hard time hearing God clearly. When on a team for a while it tends to drain you for you are always giving and not receiving, so we took a break and I was able to get refreshed by God through prayer. Also I was feeling a burden to pray for our group while we were there, so I felt a bit more emotionally vulnerable.


Jesse Matthews (Kelowna BC) Tom Schwabe (Los Angeles CA) and Diane Armenio (Boston MA) Resting after finishing a shift.


Later that night I was on another team with another intern, Matthew Howard (England), and John, another fellow from The Gathering, Matthew was leading and this time the words that God gave me seemed effortless. After people had come and gone and I was feeling much more encouraged for they were receiving what we had to give them, I ended up leading our team for the last few people. When the night was over I soooo encouraged and happy for God lifted my spirits by giving us people who received everything we had for them, and some how we also ended up with a few dreams to interpret even though non of us are really trained to interpret dreams, but from what we knew the people were totally blessed.

Everyone left Salem a different person than when they came, for God showed up in so many different ways and never ceased to amaze us in how He wanted to use us for His purposes. So many lives were touched and changed just because a group of people were obedient to what He asked, including us.

That is just one of my stories, every single intern and leader has so many more stories of their own of how God changed people's lives through them. It was one amazing weekend and we are going to be heading out for another this weekend.

Jesse Matthews - Intern

Excitement has been abuzz ever since the Salem trips were first announced back in September, and this weekend was the time to finally go! We arrived in Salem early on Friday afternoon, full of spiritual adrenaline. This year the Gathering Church has been given the drained water fountain and surrounding area in the center of Essex Street to set up a stage, a hot chocolate tent on one side, and dream tents on the other side of it. Various artists, both local and from the surrounding area, perform on the stage while we hand out free hot chocolate, give spiritual readings or interpret dreams in the surrounding tents. After we finished setting up, which in itself was a hefty endeavour, we got down to business for the afternoon. The streets were already starting to fill with people after lunch, so it wasn't hard to find people willing to come in. At one instance during the afternoon, two highschool-aged girls sat in front of my group for a spiritual reading. For one of them, I got a picture of a yellow bobcat digging around, which I ended up sharing as a metaphor for the reconstruction that was currently happening in her life. Tom Schwabe (Los Angeles, CA) got a picture of a silver a ring for the other girl, which we explained was symbolic for the upcoming redemption for promises to her that had been broken in her past. Both of them left in a daze of amazement that someone cared for them that much. It is such a thrill to be used by God to impact His children, even if it isn't always deep or profound.

At closing time, I had forgotten to take the signs down advertising our tents, so a group of 5 women came up to the tent and begged me to let them in to a team. I went in the tent where Broie-Christian Orr (Richmond, VA) and John Harding (North Shore, MA) were sitting talking with a teammate about the day's encounters, and despite tiredness they graciously accepted. Afterwards, all parties involved felt it was worth the wait! We are constantly in awe of the spiritual hunger that rests in Salem.

For the evening there was a special event happening at the Gathering Church called 'The Brimstone Chronicles'. It was an interactive role-play event where a funeral and a feast were used analogies for Heaven and Hell. For one part of the event, people were locked in the vault, as an illustration of Hell being life absent of both light and God, who is our Light. When people were eating at the feast, different members of the gathering were stationed around the room, waiting for people to eat apples. Every time a person ate an apple, all the stationed people said together, "Oh no, they ate the apple!" as a unique way of conveying the Bible story of Adam & Eve and the forbidden fruit.

Saturday was predictably a much busier day; it took forever to get anywhere on Essex Street due to the hordes of people. As a result, we decided to move one of our tents from the fountain to the front of the church, so that we could hopefully spread our traffic out.

During the afternoon, we met several indirect forms of resistance - the first came in the form of aggressive street preachers, who were doing their thing fairly close to our tent in front of the Gathering Church. Lucy Nelson (Belmont, MA) humorously commented that a woman walking by rolled her eyes, looked at her and said "Hi sinner," to which Lucy replied back even more eccentrically, "Hey sinner!" Not even 2 hours later, acrobatic street performers set up for their act right beside our tent and began their show, with their music blaring and lead performer broadcasting his voice via microphone down most of Essex Street. It was impossible to focus on the task at hand, so we just watched their 15 minute show (which was actually really good), and then we were able to get them to move further down the street for their later performances.

In the evening we had a group of 7 friends come up to the tent in front of the Gathering. We decided to take 3 first, and then 4 (we were the only team operating at that tent at the time). In a bit of random weirdness, one of the guys in the first group shared a dream which involved a jelly donut singing opera to him!

Conclusion to come...stay tuned!

- J-Unit

Jess Mott - Intern

Claremont Chili Cook-Off

Last weekend was our first outreach event; we went to a chili cook-off in Claremont, New Hampshire to do free dream interpretations and spiritual readings.

We got there at around 8am to set up our tents, have a quick coffee and a walk-around, just in time for the first people to come in. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I was surprised how open and interested the people of Claremont were to receive an “encouraging word” and to let us speak words of life into their lives.

We were all split into groups of three, with one staff member in each team for the spiritual readings/ dream interpretations. If we were not on a “dream team” we were either intercessing or being “gatherers”. Being a gatherer means that you walk around and pray for people that you see and tell them about what we are doing and to generally chat to them and show love toward them.

The fist group I was in was with Dustin Zupancic (Abbotsford, B.C) and Matt Howard (England). When the first person sat down with us for a spiritual reading, I found that by God’s grace, it was fairly easy to hear from Him about was He was saying and how we could show that person His love. It put into practice what we had been taught about how God is always talking to all of us, but it’s just a case of whether we choose to take the time to listen to what He is saying. It also helped me to realize how much God truly loves everyone and wants to pour His love upon them with any chance He can get. I already knew this in my head, but sometimes it takes something more for things to settle into our hearts.

As the afternoon progressed, a huge variety of people came though our doors, with many different needs. It was awesome to see God touch each person and give them exactly what they needed for that time in their lives and how faithful He was to keep giving us the words to speak to bless others.

Overall, I had an awesome time and although I was a little nervous to begin with, I feel so honored to have the experience of being on a Dream Team and I can’t wait to see what God does at Salem in a few weeks time!

Video Team - Blog Video

This is a light-hearted look at the "green house"...the residence for the female Interns and Staff of Streams Academy---Fall 07.

Jesse Matthews - Intern

The name's Matthews...Jesse Matthews. There are a total of 4 Jesses here: Jessica Ellis (Orlando, FL), Jessie Holden (Michigan), Jess Mott (United Kingdom) and myself, so to differentiate, I answer to J-Matt, J-Unit, J-Mizzle, Guy Jesse, Jesse-Poo...you get the picture!

This past weekend marked our first weekend trip together as a group, and to a very special place to us: Salem, Massachusetts. Some of the interns had never even been to Massachusetts, much less The City of Peace itself. A city of approximately 40000, Salem sits right on the East Coast overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. It was founded in 1627 and originally named Naumkeag (a Native American word meaning 'haven of peace'). Naumkeag was renamed in 1629 to Salem, taken from the Hebrew word for peace, Shalom. Salem would later become home to the infamous Salem Witch Trials of 1692 that resulted in the hanging of 19 people. We will be on Essex Street during Haunted Happenings, a local street festival that runs through all of October, interpreting dreams and giving spiritual readings (our way of saying 'prophetic words', in non-Christianese language).

Our first stop in Salem was on the famous Essex Street. The Gathering is a church located in a former bank on Essex Street. One of the defining characteristics of the building is the huge vault located at the back. Jessica Ellis and Lucy Nelson (Belmont, MA) were among the first to get a picture in front of the vault.
Phil Wyman, the pastor of the Gathering, took the time to share with us some insight into the Neo-Pagan culture, including similarities of their beliefs and ours, key differences and some of the different types of Neo-Pagans that we will encounter in our ministry times during Haunted Happenings. Throughout the whole time he was speaking, Phil's heart for the Neo-Pagan community was very evident. Learning about what the Gathering does has brought such joy and relief to me; I have sought to better understand the Neo-Pagan community, as I have several friends who are practicing various forms of witchcraft.

The next portion of our trip took us to Gloucester, Massachusetts, a fishing port founded back in 1623. We had some free time to wander, so I walked down to the harbor and explored that portion of the city. Academy Leader Sharon Felder (South Carolina), Calle van der Linde (Vancouver, BC) and Matt Stewart (Sutton, NH) spent some time observing large schools of fish just off a harbor pier while I walked further on to a beach to gaze at the vastness of the open ocean. I grew up on the Canadian West Coast, so the sight of the ocean makes me feel right at home. Contrast that to the arboreal density of Central New Hampshire, the area where we are during the week.

In the evening we made our way to Eagle & Dove Ministries of Gloucester. Wow, was this ever a different church experience! The service is completely open to creative expression. Worship was a combination of a woman on a keyboard/synth pads, an electric guitarist, a bass guitarist, two djembe drummers and a percussionist. It was spontaneous in nature, completely open to the direction of the Holy Spirit; songs only barely followed a structure of any sort. Several artists were painting as worship was playing, and others were dancing with flags. Something that stood out to me in particular was that people in the congregation were also part of the band! A woman near the front had a Middle-Eastern drum with her that she played, a man near the back was playing a djembe, and the pastor himself had a djembe that he played at different points. He offered it to several of us during worship so that we could play, too - Noah Macdonald (Hopkinton, MA) took him up on the offer. A Phillipino woman preached about humility and death to self, which climaxed with her action of washing the feet of all those attending. The healing presence of the Lord that was present during worship became even more heightened, affecting many in attendance.

On Sunday we attended the Northshore Bridge Church in Beverly, Massachusetts. It was a great surprise to see former Academy leaders Caroline Hyden (Colorado), Jon Bohy (Massachusetts) and John Harding (Massachusetts) in attendance! Josh Young, a Streams Itinerant Ministry Team member, leads worship at Northshore, and it is quite the treat to listen to. There is lots of space in the back, perfect for people like me to dance; it's a good thing you don't have to be a talented dancer to do so at church! Ernie Freeman, pastor of the Bridge, continued with the weekend's healing theme by speaking about some of the meaning behind James 5:13-16, an often debated set of scriptures.

To wrap up the trip, Noah's parents graciously treated us interns to lunch at Acupulco's, a Mexican restaurant. It was a perfect chance for me to practice my limited Spanish with the waiters...Calle speaks some as well, so the two of us practice during the week.

Next weekend we'll be in Claremont, New Hampshire for this trimester's first outreach - the Claremont Chili Cookoff. I'm gonna have my tastebuds ready!
- J-Unit

Amber Cranfill - Intern

Only hours after meeting one another, Lucy, Jessica, Calle, and I felt like we had known each other for months. We talked about how excited we were to finally arrive at Streams, how much we hoped we would grow during our time here, and our anxieties about letting go of our past hurts in order to take hold of new blessings. My room mate Jessica is a little younger and wild for God. We are both artists who love to create from our experiences with God. Within the first few nights, we had an impartation session in which our leaders spoke into our destinies, greatly impacted our souls, and gave each of us hope.

Our first class is “The Art of Hearing God.” Each class season is like a soaking session for each of my classmates and I who sit and soak in the wisdom and understanding imparted to us. Sometimes, I have felt physically exhausted toward the end of class because of the amount of change that has taken place in my body, soul, and spirit. Other times, I feel empowered by God’s exhilarating presence. God has begun a deep work in my life.

The internship aspect of the Streams Intern Program was interesting at first in that some of us were shifted around to different locations until schedules became more routine. Right away, I could tell that each leader/mentor was fully devoted to building character in us so that we can reach our destinies. I was one of the group that was shifted to logistics which meant that I would work in the gardens that day. However, everyone is not what they seem here at Streams. The “Master Gardner” that we happened to meet turned out to be someone who was empowered by God to speak into our lives! God is everywhere.

Finally, and most importantly, I have been able to connect with others who have similar giftings and endured similar struggles. Like a family or really close friends, we usually talk late into the night and share how God has impacted our lives, …as if it hasn’t dawned on us that He was running our lives the whole time! My personal relationship with God has skyrocketed far beyond what I thought was possible. God has increased His presence in my life and I have opened up more in worship. Before I came to Streams, I would read my Bible to gain strength to survive the day. Now, my spiritual devotions come out of a passion to be in His presence and to love on Him. This has already been a life-changing experience and I think it has only been like a week and a half?