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!
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!
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
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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.
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.
