Day 13

Last day of public outreach of Utah 2008. When Mike and I were sharing with the boys this morning during devotions, the Lord put a message on my heart to share with them. Mike had just told them that this was our last day of public ministry. But I added to that that today was the last day of public ministry IN UTAH. This mission’s trip has been like a mission training program to prepare all of us for the mission field of home. I was excited by the word that the LORD had for us.

The girls made breakfast for all of us. We had pancakes, eggs, sausage, OJ, another kind of J, and coffee. They are such a blessing.

I was feeling sick though. For the whole trip there has been this lingering cold/flu in my chest. I think yesterday gave it a boost because this morning, my whole body was achy, my throat was sore, and I had a little cough. As the morning progressed everything got worse. And of course this is happening the day that I'm sharing a short devotion with the studio audience of the Heart of the Matter TV show.

Anyway, after breakfast we loaded up and heading to our ministry spot, which was the Temple Square. When people say this is the Mecca of Mormonism, they aren't kidding. Every building is huge and grandiose. And it wasn't just the temple square. Next to the square were huge buildings. One was the LDS Office building. Another the LDS conference center. Another the LDS family history library..It seemed that every building was an LDS one.

At temple square my cough had gotten really bad. I felt like I was trying to cough up a bag of bricks. Since I was feeling bad, I was selected to stay behind and lead the prayer group. Gracie and Cord stayed with me while the rest of the team went out. So we made up a list of all the team members, each pair going out together and other miscellaneous issues to pray for. We prayed for an hour and God did some amazing things.

While we were in prayer I got three visions. One was of a man in a blue shirt walking away holding a tract. So we prayed for that guy. The other was a bird’s eye view of the whole temple square area. As soon as I got that vision the Lord laid on my heart that someone in the group was feeling oppressed by the bigness of the LDS faith and the intimidation that came with it. So we prayed against that. More specifically, I prayed that whoever was feeling that would sense the bigness of God against vs. the bigness of the LDS faith. The last vision I got was of Mike talking to a man who was surrounded by dark spirits. In the vision I prayed that the spirit would be peeled back so that the seed of truth would be planted in his heart. Gracie was prompted to pray that the authorities would give grace to the team out there.

So, this is what we heard from the team when they got back. Mind you that we had told none of them about our specific prayers.

Allison told me of a conversation her and Ashley had with a man that took up most of their time. I ask if they had given him a tract. She said yes. Then I asked if he was wearing a blue shirt and she said yes.

Ben told me that while he was out there that he started looking around at how big all the buildings were. As he did so, he said that an intimidation crept over him and that he felt so small against the LDS. Right after that he said that he was immediately reminded of how much bigger our Lord is vs. the LDS faith.

Mike told me of a conversation he had with a man in a suit. In that conversation the man, an LDS member, was confronted by the reality of his sin. Mike had asked him about the 3 covenants ever LDS makes in church every Sunday. One of them is that they will keep the commandments which Jesus had given. Mike asked him if he made the covenant last Sunday, and if he had broken it already this week. The man agreed but held fast to his righteous repentance. As the guy was walking away, Mike told him to think about the covenant he will be making this Sunday and whether he is lying to himself or to God. The man stopped in midstride, turned around, looked at Mike with a super serious look, and said "You've got a point; I’ll have to think about that."

Mike also told us how he and Garrison were approached by two really big security guys. Instead of kicking them out, they simply told them that they couldn't hand out material where they were and showed them the proper boundary for doing so.

God listens.

After we were done there, we picked up dinner from a local Mexican food place and took it to the TV station where Heart of the Matter airs. Up to this point, the Lord hadn't shown me what he wanted me to share with the audience yet. I was obviously nervous. No preacher is comfortable not knowing what he is going to preach on right before he is supposed to preach. As I was stressing over that, Shawn (the host of the show) walks in and tells me that he would have my questions ready in a couple of minutes. I was like "what?" Turns out that he forgot to tell Mike that I was to be interviewed on the show as well as preach to the audience before the show. So now I'm a tad more nervous. This show is watched in 75 to 100 TH0USANDS households.

Oh my gosh! Am I going to say something stupid? Am I going to misrepresent Christianity...ahhhhhhh. So I went over the questions he was going to ask me and prepared my answers. The Lord also gave me the message to share with the audience. All this 1 hour before I was supposed to be on. Sheesh, stressing me out Lord.

But as usual when God does what he does, the message was exactly what the audience needed. There was a lady in the audience that had been invited her LDS friend to the show for months. Well, he finally came tonight. And my message was on how our father fears us, and how is not our righteousness that allows us access, but a broken heart and a contrite spirit. What an appropriate message to an LDS.

Then I went on the show and got interviewed. Everybody said I did well and my answers were right on the money. Shawn even complimented me and said that if he ever needed a sit in, he would call me. lol...I’m not sure if he was serious or not, but I'm down!!

God was good today. The team over all was a little on the slow side. At one point, we arrived at a destination to hand out some tracts, but when Mike and I got out of the RV, nobody else did. It was like they were going to get out until they were told to. I don't know if its "were almost done" lethargy, or general fear, but Mike and I prayed for the team right before bed. Tomorrow is work day, and we wanted everybody to wake with energy and enthusiasm.

Overall, this trip so far has felt less like canned mission trip and more like a reality show trip. If you had condensed two years of a full time missionaries experience in the field to two weeks, you would get what our trip has been so far. High high's, low low's, excitement, discouragement, energy, tiredness. We've had great times of what one would consider 'missionary work', but we've also had many times of the mundane 'gotta exist' stuff that one has to do to live out in the mission field. All of it has been a great education experience.

I’m off to bed. Thanks again for all your prayers. I hope this blog has encouraged and inspired you. Keep praying for us. We still have 3 days left before we are home.

- nathan