Padova, Where God Does What He Wants.

April 10, 2008

Padova, Italy proved to be challenging in a different way. The spiritual heaviness wasn’t so bad, rather God wanted to teach us humility and perseverance. After 13 hours of sleepless travel overnight, we arrive in Padova and found the church where we would be staying, called International Christian Fellowship. We sat down to discuss our plans for the next 11 days with the pastor, but unfortunately no matter what we told him what we could as a group, from workshops, or dancing in schools, or prisons to dancing outside in the city squares he would tell us that it was all impossible. We would never be able to get into any of the schools and we can’t dance in the squares unless we had a permit which he said was impossible to get. He said the best we could do was hand out tracks for his church like all the other short term missions teams who come and that we could clean the church’s huge windows. We thought we had come to the wrong place and the next day, they led us out to the park handed us hundreds of tracks, told me to lead everyone in worship on a bridge and told us to start dancing as well and hand out tracks. I for one do not like to lead worship to attract attention to hand out tracks and my entire team is not one who works well with tracks. That’s why we have dances and testimonies prepared! We realized however that we needed to submit to the authority we were under and to understand that maybe they’d never had a team of our kind come and help. Handing our tracks did not last very long with our group anyway. After humbling us and making us realize that tracks do work in some places, we also learned that God will reach His people regardless. The tools He gives us are for our ease, not His, whether they be dance or tracks.

Even though it was Easter weekend, possibilities opened up everyday. We did what we were told was impossible. We began to dance in multiple squares of the city without a permit. The police did not stop us but rather watched with the rest of the crowds. We were also able to get into a school and dance and teach as well as tell some testimonies. We found that being a dance team helped us get into places that our contacts could not. We met many people and we also danced at the church and taught the children there. Many people even came to the church because of the tracks we had given them while dancing in the squares!

One time, I was handing out tracks very self-consciously still wary that this kind of evangelism would be looked down upon by society, when I spotted a young teenager that I felt God told me to give a track to, even though he had arrived after we finished dancing. So I went over to him and gave him a track and told him that we would be dancing in the same place the next day. He went on to tell me that he too was a dancer! He was very excited to come back and see us and he gave me his email. From then on, he came to all the rest of our performances and many of us randomly met up with him on the streets in between ministry times. One night, Jackie and I, got lost in the city trying to find the rest of the group, but instead we met up with this same guy, Daniel, and he walked us back to the church where he met up with some Christian guys his own age. He hung out with us all evening and we were able to talk with him about many things. The next day he came to bible study and church. He paid close attention to everything and one of our girls prayed for him during the service. He said that Jesus was already “in his heart” but with tears in his eyes he also said, “No one has ever prayed for just me before.” It was hard leaving him, but he says that he would love to come to Montana and learn how to use dance better. He said to me, “I love being around all of you, you are always so happy. Your dances make me feel very peaceful.” It was so encouraging to see one boy’s life effected so much. I often think how glad I am that I obeyed God, for if I hadn’t, Daniel might never have met us. Fears amount to nothing compared to the result of obeying God voice.

An incredible miracle happened as well. Jackie, from Rwanda, was wanting to pray for her father one day while we were in Padova. Her father had been involved in the genocide in Africa 14 years ago and solders had broken his back so that he would suffer, but not die, He has not been able to walk since then. Annie from Seattle was with Jackie praying for her father when she felt to dance for him too, as a prayer. So she danced and she said that she was thinking of Jackie’s dad the entire time. Now, I always thought God would just answer simple prayers by word of mouth, but it hadn’t really dawned on me just how much God uses dance in the spiritual world, as warfare and intercession. That night, Jackie’s dad was healed and was able to walk for the first time in 14 years. In Padova, Annie danced a prayer. In Africa, Jackie’s dad was healed by God. Annie of course is still blown away by it! Dance is more than just an art. It’s a prayer language.

Upon coming home, I got an email from a girl I saw at the park one day. I had spotted her lying in the grass, and instead of dancing as we usually do, or hand out tracks like we had been told to do, I felt as if I should write a poem for her. So I did, and in doing so prayed for her. I walked over to her, gave her the poem and she was encouraged by what it spoke to her. “Why did you pick me?” She had asked. “Because God told me too,” I said. The email she’d sent me when I got back to Montana said that to her, that day not only was she wishing to practice her English more, she was having some very hard questions about religion and that I had been like an angel to her. I look forward to corresponding with her more about having a relationship with Jesus. This made me realize that God works in more ways than we could ever imagine. I didn’t know that what I wrote in that poem was God speaking, but I suppose now that it was. I feel so blessed to be used by God, in ways that He has gifted me. I can’t imagine my life being any other way. He certainly doesn’t have to use us but He does anyway.

All the other girls on my team have incredible stories just like my own but I cannot speak for them.
The past six weeks have been so intense and I’ll never forget what people have told us and how God has blessed us by letting us see the fruit of what we have done in each city. I feel so blessed to have been with such an amazingly anointed group of girls and I know that had it not been for every single girl, our time together would have not been the same. Each girl was used by God so much and each of them have their own stories like I have mine. After all, He chose each of us and He provided every contact, divine appointments and all the finances (even the night before leaving He gave us 17,000 dollars, the rest of the money needed to go!) We realized that we are daughters of the king and He provided for our every need. When we counted up the budget and found that we should be more than broke, we’d open up the money envelopes and there would be more money. Where it came from we don’t know. We just know that God took care of us every step of the way. In the end we had over 4,000 dollars extra that came from nowhere! Overall, I counted 80 God stories both big and little miracles combined. We came up against so many possibilities but now I can really believe that with God, nothing is impossible. And it’s not about the numbers and it’s not about the formulas. God doesn’t operate with formulas. That’s why we spent so much time in prayer and that’s why our weeks in Croatia and Italy was such an adventure!