Who would've thought Ogden, Utah would be such a beautiful place. To me it conjured up images of an in-the-middle-of-nowhere little town. Boy was I wrong. Its a beautiful mountainous area a short drive from the aptly named Salt Lake city.
The team arrived at 6am at Bethel to begin our 13 hour drive in three seperate cars. Apparently 25 students applied for the trip and only 10 of us were accepted, much to my surprise. Four of the five girls piled into the car I was driving in and the bonding began :-) Shortly afterwards, the most incredible stories began to emerge. Two of the girls were involved in the Lakeland revival in Florida. They worked at the book tables for four months. The presence of God descended on us as they talked about their experiences of the tangible glory of God in Lakeland. At times they could see the cloud of glory with their eyes. This conversation set the tone of the trip for me. I started becoming intoxicated (aka drunk) with the presence of God as they spoke and I remained in that state in varying degrees for the entire trip. And if that wasn't enough, while we were driving, one of the girls received a text from Todd Bentley saying that he was praying for our trip. Todd was praying for my ministry trip.... Who are these people that I was driving with??
After 13 hours of driving we arrived an hour late for the evening meeting and had enough time to make ourselves look vaguely beautiful before joining the conference. How do itinerant speakers live this lifestyle on a regular basis? After the meeting, we were released to pray as the ministry team. It became obvious that the presence of God was on us as the people fell over unable to stand when we prayed for them. After the meeting we were invited downstairs to an evening meal at 11pm. That was our introduction to the hospitality that was to come. We were treated like royalty. They lavishly fed us every breakfast, lunch, dinner and after-the-meeting dinner. The five girls stayed in one house and on our arrival we were all given a beautiful gift basket containing all sorts of goodies. I felt spoiled rotten!
The next day we went on a tour of the mormon tabernacle in Salt Lake city. This is mormon country and boy is it! Visitors from all over the world come to see this place. The environment is a tad controlled, however. As Shannon (the pastor) was explaining some history to us, the security (ex CIA) came and escorted us off the premises. No large groups allowed it would seem. That night the team had the opportunity to not only see Kris Vallotton prophesy (which is a sight to behold) but also to call people out to prophesy over them ourselves. There is a phenomena that happens when you travel with someone who has a great revelatory and prophetic anointing, your revelatory ability increases dramatically. The whole time I was there it felt as if I could see so clearly into the spirit realm. On the way to church that morning I had a picture of heaven opening and the glory of God pouring down like liquid. By the time we arrived at the church, those of us in the car could barely walk straight! Before our tour of the tabernacle, Shannon told us of an open vision (one seen with open eyes) he'd had regarding the area. He saw heaven open, and golden glory pour down like liquid! Needless to say, I think God is speaking.
We had plenty of opportunity to spend time with Kris. Apparently this was unusual and we took full advantage of it. After the evening meetings, during our late night dinners, he would talk with us about everything from basketball to the abortion issue. We took every opportunity and sat around him hungrily listening.
Ahhhh...it was a trip to remember. I've added some photos so you can see the beautiful place and the beautiful people. And now....I think some laundry is in order...
