Amazing trip to Florida

Wow, what a week! It was an awesome trip. Awesome probably doesn't even describe it well enough! We got into Lakeland on Wednesday, and Evie had a blast flying in an airplane for the first time. Our flight to Tampa was good, and God helped me so much not to be afraid. Normally I am a white knuckle flyer, but God gave me immense strength.

It was a shock to step off the plane in Tampa and feel heat! When we left, it was pretty cold here. In Tampa and Lakeland it was in the 90's the whole week. We got to our motel by around 3:00 in the afternoon, so we were able to rest a bit before the meeting. God blessed us this whole trip. It was amazing to see. Our motel was so nice. Jeff has a lot of perks from being such a frequent traveler for business, and we were able to stay at a Hilton Garden Inn for a great price. We also had free breakfasts because of his Hilton Honors card, so we had this super fancy, nice breakfast each morning for free. We also got a free tank of gas with our rental car, which is like getting free gold :). Our motel was only 10 minutes from the Lakeland Center, where the Florida Outpouring meetings were held for 2 of the days we were there. It was also right across the street from the Lakeland Linder Airport where the meetings were held for the other 2 days we were there. The meetings were unlike any I have ever been in. We saw so many people saved, and we saw so many people healed. You could literally feel the presence of God as you walked in the building. Everywhere we went it seemed that we would talk to someone about the meetings, and they would share some amazing testimony. One lady talked to Mom when we went out to eat. She believed that the Lord touched her at the meeting, and that she was healed of liver cancer. She said she also believed that God was healing her marriage. She had been divorced, and her husband was text messaging her in the restaurant saying he wanted to go to the meetings with her. She showed Mom the test messages. Mom and the woman ended up praying together right in the middle of the restaurant. We met another couple that got lost on their way back to their motel. They ended up at a strip club parking lot, and revival ended up breaking out in the parking lot and a bunch of people got saved! It was amazing!

Our first night of the meeting, we witnessed a miracle right in front of us in the balcony where we were sitting. A guy was walking to his seat, and tripped and fell really hard and landed on his shoulder. He was screaming in pain, and it almost looked like his shoulder was dislocated. Immediately people surrounded him and started praying for him in our section. Mom and I stretched out our hands and started praying too. A group of paramedics came up to check him out after we had been praying. Within a few minutes of all of us praying, he got up, moved his arm around in a circle and just shouted out a huge "praise the Lord!" He was completely healed! It was so cool! The second night we were at the meeting, it was a very powerful night. The praise and worship was so amazing that I didn't want it to end. We literally praised and worshipped for almost 3 hours, and yet I didn't want it to end! It was like being a part of heaven for a night. In that meeting, I felt the power of God touch my body. I have never felt anything like it before. It was like electricity hit me. I truly believe that God healed my body. I was believing for Him to heal me of almost 6 years of dizziness, chronic fatigue, back pain and stomach problems. I went forward to share what was happening to me, and an Asian woman prayed for me. She prayed for things that there was no way she could have known! It was the Holy Spirit speaking to her. She put her hand on my stomach, and prayed for my stomach because I had told her that I was believing for healing there. As she prayed, she moved her hand to where my uterus was, and started praying for God to heal my womb. She did this, not knowing that I have had 6 miscarriages! She also prayed for things that I was strugging with, and I had never said a word to her. It was the power of God taking over, and telling her what to pray! Then she left me, and I just stood there with my eyes closed as the Lord ministered to me. It was absolutely incredible. I believe I received healing in my body!! I praise God for His healing power!

Friday afternoon, Jeff and Evie went to the Tampa airport and picked up Jeff's Dad. Mom had NO idea at all. She and I stayed in the room and rested. When Jeff and Evie came back, Evie bounded into the room and said, "Guess what Grandma, Grandpa is here!" Mom said, "Yeah right. I wish!" Then she saw dad and literally tripped and fell backwards onto the bed because she was so surprised! It was great :). He came to the meeting on Friday with us, along with Jeff and Evie. Friday was my 36th birthday. I spent my birthday with a rather large party...14,000 people to be exact! Each meeting we went to averaged about 9000-14,000 people. I couldn't get over how many people traveled from far distances to get there. Roy Fields, the worship leader, asked the crowd to raise their hand if they traveled from far distances to get to the meetings, and at least half raised their hands. We met people from all over the world. We were at the airport by our motel for the meeting on Friday, and the meeting was outside. I have never seen so many people before in my life. It was like a Jesus Woodstock :). I stood on my chair, and tried to take pictures of the sea of people. Here are a few pictures...

The pictures just don't do it justice. Literally in every direction you looked, there was people as far as the eye could see. During the worship time, Roy would cut out all the instruments and just have us all singing accapella. Oh my word, it was incredible to hear that many people singing songs to God. So many people got saved that night, and there were 100's in line waiting to give healing testimonies from the night as well. We were there from 6:00 pm until 1:00 am! It was such an amazing service. Being with that many people, praising God, seeing people saved, healed and set free was incredible. It was our last night to be able to go. We weren't able to go the last night we were in Lakeland because our flight was so early the next morning. On Saturday night, we went out onto the roof of our motel where they have an observation deck, and we could hear the worship going on from the meeting. I wanted so badly to be there! We had to get up on Sunday morning at 4:00 am to catch our plane in Tampa on time. We traveled pretty much the whole day, which wasn't exactly the most fun Mother's Day in the world, but it was worth it. We got home at around 4:00 pm and we were really wiped out. Our bodies were shocked to be back in the cold! When we left Tampa at 6 am, it was already in the 80's. When we flew home, and got out of the airport in our shorts and t-shirts, it was 45 degrees! Brrrrr! What a week though! I am so thankful that we were able to go. It was a life changing trip for us all. I felt a hunger for God like never before, and have been praying that the hunger for Him will only get stronger each day. He is such an amazing God. I can't thank Him enough for all that He has done for me!