Stepping off the plane in Hilo brought forth a shift within my spirit. Like skydiving, all the rushing wind and chaos of the freefall, all changes the moment the parachute opens; then silence, stillness, and peace. The smell of the air mixed with a more humid climate brought forth a refreshment from the stench of recycled air and internal warfare. The three travelling companions, Nick a.k.a. Fozzy the Bear, Jenny of the Saturday Night Fever, and this wandering writer made there way to collect their treasure from Baggage Claim. The scent of fresh ocean air filled our lungs, passing through the hallways of the airport that seemed to be made from the palm trees that grow abundantly on the island, we found Baggage Claim. Our timing seemed way to perfect as the sounds of the horse race echoed in our ears as the stallions and mares of travellers hurried to grab the luggage as quick as possible. On the first pass, the luggage that came with the three travellers made it into their hands on the first pass or so it seemed. We came up one bag short. A short time later with a piece of paper in hand, armed with the knowledge of a return trip to claim the last bag from a later flight, the travellers waited for their ride, relaxing on the cool cemet of Baggage Claim. Then all of a sudden a not so familiar face appeared.
Jen or Anthem, which was a name to come later, found us and informed us that she was our taxi to Pahoa. Pahoa is the village-town around which this story takes place. The post office is bigger than the police station, the one bar is close to the biggest restaurant in this village, it also has a public pool, and a small handful of shops. The Puna region of the Big Island, of which Pahoa is in, is known for it's hippie/New Age/trouble-making/ travelling/crazies culture. The majority of this region is farms, jungle, and pakalolo (marijuiana). Many bright-colored centipedies, dull colored rats, brown mongoose, and LOADS of couquie frogs dot the landscape. This area, from what has been shared, tends to be the most 'affordable' place to live in all of the islands.
The trip to Pahoa was a very intimate and stuffy affair. In between the three of us we each had two carry on bags and nine minus one check bags. This normally would not have been an issue, but our 'taxi' was to be a dark sky blue 1997, 98, 99ish Dodge Neon, Coupe edition. To help us learn to pack better our driver also was a musician, complete with traveling equipment. We all definately felt a bit closer to each other after the 25 or so mile drive. We thank Jen very much for her graciousness and hospitality.
Jen. This woman, orginally a Portlandier, has been in Hawaii around the three year mark. In some ways she reminded this writer of his Aunt Toni, while still being wholly and utterly unique in her own special way. As the 'worship' leader for Grassroots Church in Pahoa, Papa was using her gifting in a way that is giving her much practice time before the big show and curtain call soon to come. Quite open to the movings of the Spirit, she fits quite well with other 'radicals' of the Jesus loving bend. Her passion and zeal for a man sometimes called the Prince of Peace is quite apparent to anyone with a set of eyes and sometimes just one that functions. Unbeknownst to this writer at the time, Jen would play as a piece of the central character of this story; which happens to be a group of people rather than just one, all curiously enough hailing from Stumptown.
Our first destination would be the flower farm were Fozzy and the writer would be staying. As the car pulled up to the building itself, all of legs and bodies screamed in joy as we were released from our closeness and bumpy drive down one of the many unpaved roads in Pahoa. The man D.J., who was yet another piece of the central character, and this writer's main connection to the Big Island, broke out in some hysterical laughter as we all poured out of the car, like some Jell-O that had not quite settled yet. Unpacking our taxi, the two men were approaching the place were a brotherhood or warzone was to be established. It was, at least for this writer, a place in his mind that would become The Shack. This building was roughly the size of a small studio with no stove or bathroom and three single guys would be living there together. The group all chatted for a bit before parting ways and ending their first day in Hawaii.
Over the next couple of weeks much happened. It was a mix of preparing for Rebirth, the regional Burning Man, battling the spiritual attacks against us, and trying to not let that spill over to eachother. Getting used to the local culture could easily take years to learn, but despite that we moved on. Part of what Papa ended up bringing this group together for was to have his will done at this Rebirth event. The Grassroots Church had planned a theme camp called the City of Refuge. At this place, a building was planned that would come to be know as The Shack, were some healing was its focus. It all started with a holistic drink and some foot washing outside, before they were escorted inside our 20 by 20 shack were the art therapy would take place. After that the people were led outside for a massage, then shown the way to the back of the building were prayer and the gifting of rocks with words written on them; written in either greek, hebrew, or sanskrit. How this actually worked out was amazing!
The event itself turned out to be just mainly a weekend party for a bunch of the locals with some cool fire dancing and a highly religious cermony that ended with the burning of a wooden effigy of a phoenix. What a place for Sarayu to move! The city of refuge really became that, many people ended up just sleeping at the camp, eating with the ambassadors there, and leaving feelingthe peace and attention of a loving God that is personal and real. A few people were amazed at how these people seemed to know what was in their hearts, others just surrendered to the prayer of the faithful lovers. A couple of high schoolers came out to spend time with the group, out of their normal groups, and whether they were high or not. Many relationships were established. For this writer, three have become very influential and important.
One was with the guy that was the 'owner' of the property were the event was held. This man really has a father's heart and searches for the one The next was this brilliant man that lives in a very steep and beautiful valley on the Big Island. The scientific information and the way in which he searched for things in the spirit shows that the kingdom is very close to him. The third, was by far the one, that intrigues this writer the most. This man, who was know as Dirty Jesus, ended up being a priest of the Burning Man. A friendship was established and the Holy Spirit is still bringing to mind things about priests and how the ones that are chosen by Papa help to bring real freedom, not just and illusion of it. Many gifts were given and received, but this writer believes that Papa probably did more work inside of the ones He gifted with being to work with Him in this adventure, than we saw happen in others. There are many, many, many more stories to be shared from this event, but perhaps that will come at a later day over some coffee.
Bless you all with love and patience from the Almighty Papa and the Spirit of Healing.
(story above still under construction)
Peace in the Battle
And Here Be A View of What Happened at Rebirth from a Fellow family member in the Field.
"
Rebirth Debrief
Praise the Lord for what He did at Rebirth (Puna regional Burning Man event)! Thank you to the many of you who have been praying, God did an awesome work that has humbled us and drawn us closer together. Wow! The following is a debriefing of what we saw happen.
Some of you are familiar with the big Burning Man, the week-long festival in Nevada. Rebirth was only four days, and actually it was more of a weekend party...with drugs, sex, fire dancing, and a number of innovative and highly impractical costumes. Definitely a new experience for many of us. The event culminated in the burning of a giant wooden phoenix as a symbol of transformation.
I'm continually amazed at Jesus, how good he is, how faithful his word is. Jn 15:7: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” (ESV) He was the one empowering us, through our prayer and through his Spirit. We were praying for transformation and God's kingdom brought to earth, but I think we were all a little surprised when and how it actually happened.
Here's what it looked like day by day, before and during the event:
Monday-Wednesday, May 12-14: construction/prep days
-with the help of different people in Grassroots, we cleared land at the Shire (farm hosting the event) and constructed what would soon be known as “The Shack”, using recycled building materials and a little wood and bamboo. While we had our own tents, this was to be the ministry center of our theme camp.
Thursday, May 15: Day 1
-set up camp day: we decked out the Shack (formally, “City of Refuge”) with tapestries and fabric, and divided it into four separate rooms/stations:
1)footwashing/free noni drink
2)art therapy
3)massage
4)prayer/prophecy
-this was a time of setting up camp, gathering together, of prayer, worship, and getting focused. We were also able to go around and hang out with other people at the event.
Friday, May 16: Day 2
-the real life of Rebirth takes place after dark, so Friday was a time to rest, pray, hang out with people, or (for some of us) leave during the day for work and come back. After dinner we were maybe a little discouraged that not that many people had come by our camp, but we decided to start running through the stations in faith that God was going to bring people. A couple people from our camp went through as a practice run, and immediately people started coming—for the next five hours, until past 1 am!
-I (Jen) was in the prayer station of the City of Refuge, so from my vantage point I saw person after person come in that the Spirit had softened for that very purpose. The prayer room was where ministry primarily took place, the first three stations were for God to soften them and prepare them to come in and receive prayer. And He did that! Person after person came through and God would bring Scriptures to mind or tell us stuff like, “he has a river of pain in his life that I will change into a river of healing”, or “he has a daughter, and she's going to be an important resource as his wife is divorcing him,” ...and peoples' guards were totally down to receive! I have never personally experienced the Spirit flowing like that in such a compact amount of time, where unbelievers/backslidden believers are coming for ministry in a line, in a post-Christian culture, and God is meeting them where they are at, over and over.
“But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all,
he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling
on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.”
(1 Cor 14:24-25)
It wasn't that dramatic for everyone, some people were fairly closed off. Others left in a contemplative mood, and some mentioned that they had known Jesus in the past and felt him calling them back.
Snapshot:
Camella: a Brazilian lady who's opened herself up to bad spirits in a bad way—we prayed over her, spoke the word, and saw God shake her up at the name of Jesus. At the end of the time with her, her mind was more clear, and her words were, “It's good to get back to the Word.” She came back to hang out the next two days, and physically looked different. She also came to church with us on Sunday. Keep her in prayer, she's known the Lord in the past but has gotten pretty involved with New Age spiritism, and she (as far as we know) still has not fully come back to Him.
Saturday, May 17: Day 3
-Saturday we were expecting an even bigger turnout. We rested during the day, expecting an all-nighter to come. In the evening, after the burning of the phoenix, we got into stations again. We felt God filling us and the camp, but there was some opposition. Right as we were about to start, Gayle got a heavy migraine, and DJ felt like he was going to have a seizure. We prayed and continued anyway, though it was a bit more chaotic without them. There was actually a smaller turnout because there was a big rave at the other end of the camp. But God was moving and it seemed like the time we spent with people was longer and even more significant. People continued to come and hang out for an hour or two at a time, all night, including the owner of the Shire (for the third night in a row), especially people who had come the previous night and who God had touched. The art room expanded into a worship/rest sanctuary in the middle of an otherwise crazy event, and four people ended up crashing at our site because they felt safe.
Snapshot:
Rafe: a teenage kid from a messed-up family, who has heard the gospel growing up and now describes himself as “lost.” A few of us were able to talk with him for a couple hours, answering questions, and Michael was able to share from his testimony. Rafe left, and then came back until late Saturday night (or was it early Sunday?) for a few more hours, thinking, painting, asking questions.
Sunday, May 18: Day 4
-a bunch of us left to attend Grassroots for a few hours, and while we were gone, person after person kept coming up to Gayle and Nick (the two that stayed behind) thanking them for the presence of the City of Refuge. Some asked for prayer, while others slept in the tent recovering from the night before. Key people from the event (including Glen, the owner of the Shire) also thanked us for being a presence and asked us to come back next year.
Thanks for your prayers! Praise the Lord! Continue praying for Glen, and for those we were hanging out with. There were so many more, so many stories... One other specific way that you can pray is that God would continue the relationships that were formed with everyone at the event who actually lives in Puna (there were a lot of travelers!).
A final thought: one of the most significant things I saw the Holy Spirit do was unite us as a team quickly and powerfully, and build our unity through the whole time. This was really sweet, and is part of the momentum for two new ministry opportunities we are looking ahead to very soon:
1)DJ, Nick, and Michael will be moving to the Shire later this week.
2)In a little over a week (Jun 15) a few of us from Grassroots will have a prayer/prophecy/dream interpretation booth set up at the market. Pray God's covering over this—we really can't do it without his Spirit, and we believe it's something he's going to move through! If this goes well and God continues to bless it, we would love to see it turn into a weekly thing with four different teams.
Pray for all of us...
-unity
-a covering of protection
-God's gifting and anointing on us
-that people would see Jesus through this
-that we would be an encouragement to other believers who have been disconnected from God's people here in Puna—there's a lot of them...
For the kingdom,
Jen (for the team)"
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