A Beautiful Picture

This week has gone quite well---and also quite "not-as-planned".  Monday went as planned, but late Monday night Chrissy and I were unexpectedly asked to help with some school retreats at a secondary school the rest of this week.  We agreed to help because, well, I think that's just what GAPpers do.  :)  The following morning we got up early and headed off to a school in Bray, Ireland called Loreto Secondary School.  It's an all-girls private school and the girls are all around 12-17 years of age (I think).  At different times in the year, a retreat team comes to the school and holds all-day retreats (one day per age group) for the girls.  The retreat team this week was made up of a man named Pat, his younger sister Oonagh, Chrissy, and me.  Pat and Oonagh both have really great Scottish accents (especially Oonagh---hers is extra thick!), so listening to them was a lot of fun.  :)  Pat had a whole load of great talks lined up for the day.  It seemed as though the main theme for the retreat was self-image and being loved by God.  The girls heard Pat's testimony about how he grew up with the constant need to fit in and be accepted by his peers.  He went through a bit of a rebel phase where he went to various extremes in an attempt to fit in.  By God's grace, he eventually came to know Christ and found great peace in his relationship with Him.  Oonagh's story was a bit different and especially touching for the girls, I think.  She talked about how she lived a life so differently from the other girls who were dating different guys all the time and getting into trouble.  She set high standards for herself and hardly dated anyone.  She eventually felt that there was something wrong with her because she wasn't receiving positive attention from her peers or from guys.  She went through some extreme hardships as a result, including suffering from a couple of eating disorders.  She met Jesus, though, and realized that He accepted her for exactly who she was and she didn't need to harm herself to find acceptance in Him.  I got to hear her story three times this week (once at each retreat), and each time I saw more and more that Oonagh is a beautiful woman of God.  Aside from hearing Pat and Oonagh's testimonies, there were some fun team-building games at the retreats, some great talks about the media and how it negatively affects girls' self-esteem, some talks about "sex, love, and relationships", and also time for confession.  A couple of priests came in each day to hear confessions, and overall the girls seemed to be really strongly convicted to confess their sins...especially the groups that came yesterday and today.  After the retreat when all the girls had gone out of the room, Fr. John (one of the priests that had been hearing confessions) came up to us and said, "Wow.  Were those girls the same age as the girls we had yesterday?"  We told him that they were, but they were just a different group.  He seemed surprised, and he asked, "How come it was so much more anointed today?"  I immediately blurted out, "The Holy Spirit was here!"  I also added that we had prayed as a team in the staff room just after lunch, right before we came in to start that session.  We had prayed that the Lord would really speak to this group of girls and convict them of their sins.  We prayed that we would plant some seeds in their hearts and that they would take something away from the retreat today.  God sure does answer prayer quickly when it's His will!  Not only did a lot of girls get up and go to confession today, several of them were crying during the retreat.  Oonagh said something about this--she said, "I don't mean this in a bad way, but I love when I see people crying during a retreat like this.  It shows that something's happening inside them."  I totally agree with her.  God often speaks to us so strongly and moves in our hearts in such a way that sometimes triggers tears.  It's beautiful.

So instead of tidying up right away, I suggested that we have a bit of praise and worship as a team.  We did it yesterday out of the blue and it was wonderful---Pat started playing something on his guitar and we all just sang along and started a time of praise---right there in that big, empty, echo-y room in the school.  We did the same thing today except it was a bit more planned.  Pat, Oonagh, Fr. John, Chrissy, and I all just sang praise to our God so nice and loudly.  I really felt the Holy Spirit with us.  It was amazing the joy that I was feeling while we were all singing.  I closed my eyes and just pictured all the angels and saints dancing and singing along with us in heaven...it was a beautiful picture.

On the way home from the retreat, while we were talking about how blessed the day had been and how it seemed as though we made some breakthroughs with some of the girls, Pat said something kind of interesting.  He said, "Girls, you better pray a bit extra this week...like, more than you usually do.  I think we're going to experience a little bit of backlash."  Unfortunately I knew exactly what he meant.  I have quite a bit of experience with spiritual warfare.  Whenever something really great happens---any time I receive an amazing word from the Lord or come back from some kind of retreat or other Christian event...or enter into a really solid time of worship---the devil hates it.  He knows how happy I am and how full of the Holy Spirit I am, and that makes him so angry.  The devil then does everything he can to bring me down.  He uses every lie he can think of to convince me that what I was feeling wasn't real.  I often let him bring me down.  Not on purpose---it just happens sometimes.  I think the devil's voice is often easier to hear and a bit more prevalent than God's voice.  That's not true in every circumstance, but I've just noticed over time that that is especially true after an intense encounter with God.  So, knowing what I know about what happened today at the retreat and about spiritual warfare, I pray that God would send St. Michael the archangel to protect us this week.  So I say---

"St. Michael, the archangel, defend us in battle.  Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil.  May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do Thou O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits, who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.  Amen."

Please keep me in your prayers that I will stay strong this week and fight any kind of lies that Satan may be trying to tell me.  Pray that I will remember God's word and use it like a sword and shield to fight off the fiery darts of the enemy.

To end on a happy note, here is a picture I took of a sign on the way home from the retreat today.  I found it hilarious...I hope you at least get a giggle out of it.  :)  As Chrissy cleverly stated, "If you eat this Chinese take away you will soon be fatt!"  Hahaha