My greatest week ever!

The "Restoring the foundations" ministry week  June 5-9

The purpose of this week was not a course or serving at a conference, but receiving personal ministry. My experiences during the Catch the Fire school at Toronto led me to go deeper into a thorough ministry week that's working on four area's of our lives, based on the Word of God. A pretty intense journey of five days, great well founded and structured. I love structure. When signing up, I could choose my own ministry leader (RTF has ministers around the globe), based on country, city, and also testimony, since it's very important to feel at home with the two people who are going to become very close to you that week. It happened that I found someone in Phoenix, I contacted her, we had a Zoom call and we felt connected very soon. Then I just decided to take the step. As a preparation I had to fill out many forms which got intensively reviewed with me and completed on the first day. The next day focusses on the (spiritual) influences of our ancestors, the third day is meant to replace our "ungodly beliefs" into "godly beliefs", next on healing of "souls spirits hurts" and finally spiritual delivery. Wow, it was amazing to see God moving in such an accurate way and to be blown away by His immeasurable love and power! Given the personal character of this week, I can't go into the details in this blog, but whoever would like to know a bit more, I'm open and happy to have a coffee with you!

Sunday June 11   

Check-out day and a long drive. Plan was checking out at 9.15 am, being at 9.45 at church for a photoshoot, a last service and goodbye hugs. Afterwards, at 1.30 pm heading to California, a five/ six hour drive. Nice plan. Until I woke up and read the notification "Your T-Mobile service has been suspended" ... What?? I supposed to have my card working until June 24, obviously something was wrong. Bad timing though. No way that I would drive a 370 miles without a GPS. I tried to contact a support number outside the States that didn't work with my phone. I e-mailed from my laptop but got no answer back. I tried a refill payment that failed either. I contacted my host if it would be possible to stay one night more which was no problem. I called Lotte, always willing to rescue mommy;) Meanwhile I had no time to pack anymore and went to church, not knowing how my day would work out but trusting that somehow things would fall into place.

The church service was beautiful and a perfect closing of this special week. After warm hugs and promises to stay in contact, I headed back home. In the meantime Lotte managed to get my phone online again, thanks!! She did an extra payment, but when back in the Netherlands I definitely will go after a refund. I packed, wrote a positive review and received one as well;)  “This is the guest you want to host. Polite, respectful, communication was clear. The space was left nice and clean at checkout. I highly recommend to other hosts.”  

On the road

This was the first time I drove such a long distance on my own. As I was planning the trip, I was debating with myself if I would fly or drive. My thoughts went back and forth, how will I feel, what if I get car trouble, what if my GPS isn't working properly etc. Finally I took the risk and hey, I enjoyed it very much!! It was an easy road, all the way straight forward through the desert between mountains and dry fields. It gave me plenty time to process all what I 'd experienced in one week. After four hours I took a short break at a casino (haha, no gambling, only coffee). Gradually the weather changed. The temperature dropped from 98F (36 degrees Celcius) to 84F and a sandstorm was hindering my sight. An hour from Apple Valley it even started raining and the thermometer showed only 59F degrees (15 Celcius). My fuel level was low, I was hoping to reach aunt Willy without filling up yet since it was cold and dark. But seven miles before arrival suddenly the numbers that 'd assured me all the time that I 'd still enough miles left to be fine, disappeared. Now I got nervous. I was not familiar with the car and didn't trust the level for another seven miles. You can imagine my deep sigh when the Chevron fuel station showed up;)

In my next blog I'll be telling about Episode 2 in California, before flying to Toronto on Sunday!

Enjoy the weather, happy to hear that finally summer reached the Netherlands;) Thanks for your comments, I like it very much! Big hug, Marieke