The Game Changer.

By the third week of travel we are in Phuket.

We arrive to an amazing hotel and a killer dinner on the beach with palm trees and lobster. I am in Heaven. Maybe it really is coming to Earth. Things are starting to look up.

And just like that, they start to look weird.

The next evening we head to the church where we will be doing the worship sessions.

When the pastor gets up to introduce us, he suddenly starts to laugh. And he can’t stop. He keeps trying to speak into the mic but he just can’t stop laughing. Soon more people start laughing too.

IT’S LIKE EVERYONE IN THE ROOM IS STONED AND IN ON A JOKE THAT I DON’T GET.

The following night it got even weirder because now the people I’ve been traveling with, who have seemed pretty normal despite all the strange activity happening around us are starting to do strange things themselves.

They are being really wild, swaying around, kind of being ridiculous and hilarious at the same time.. it’s almost like ... they’re drunk. But we haven’t been drinking. Or are people taking swigs when I’m not looking? What is going on here?

I watch this in fascination. WHAT is this? What is going on?

It keeps happening.

The second night, it’s gets even crazier, some of them end up passed out on the floor.

I now watch this with fascination AND skepticism.

The third night, it’s wild.

I now watch this in annoyance.

You know how when you go to a party and everyone is drunk except you, they are funny AT FIRST and then eventually, it gets old? That is exactly how I was feeling.

I couldn’t tell what was happening. Were they acting out? Were people just conjuring up laughs and being crazy and forcing this behavior? Has everyone gone psycho?

AM I IN SOME KIND OF DAVID LYNCH REALITY SHOW?

I wonder and I watch and I’m fascinated and then skeptical and then weirded out and then eventually, I JUST GET OVER IT.

I am SO over it.

I’m talking wearing the hood up on my hoodie over it. I’ve gone full Eminem.

I’M OUT AND I HATE EVERYBODY.

I decide to take a night off from the church thing and stay at the hotel.

During this time I Email my parents with the subject line of “Help” and I FaceTime one of my best friend’s.

I am thinking of leaving this group and heading out early to travel to Vietnam solo.

My dad, who is the biggest intellectual skeptic ever surprisingly Emails me and says “it’s ok to test everything” and encourages me to stick it out.

My friend over FaceTime tells me to do the same thing.FIIIIIINE.

The night after that I decide to show up to the church again.

We have recently gained a new member to the team, this tall kid from Spain.

Tall kid gets up on the mic and starts talking … I’m not paying attention to what he’s saying…I’m tuning out everything at this point. But as soon as he finishes speaking all these people from the congregation are getting up and walking towards the pulpit area.

Me to Hanna: “What’s going on? What’s happening?”

Hanna: “He called everyone with back pain to come up to the front”

I walk up there with her, people from the congregation (that have back pain) are sitting in chairs that are lined up. There are about eleven people seated and they are stretching out their feet out in front of them.

Someone informs me that people with bad back pain often have it because their legs aren’t even.

Everyone from the team is being assigned to a person in a chair to pray for them.

The woman that I’m standing in front of to pray for is an elderly woman, her legs are stretched out in front of her.

Now the thing you need to understand here is that a lot of these people that were up there, you needed to measure to see if their legs were uneven. You couldn’t tell that easily by the naked eye. Half an inch and stuff like that. BUT MY LADY … MY LADY had these UNEVEN legs. There was no need for a ruler here. Mostly I’m starting to wonder how this woman even walks around?

I’m looking at her legs and thinking “what a bummer” and then I’m also trying to understand what it is that we are doing.

Me to Hanna “What do we do?”

Hanna tells me to “Command the leg to grow”

The feelings inside of me when she says “command the leg to grow” are hard to pin down. But let me try. It is a mix of laughter (because I think that sounds ridiculous) sheer and utter disappointment (because I have given up on these people and I think I am about to lose all respect for them and God in general) and also a touch of excited curiosity. (What IF something actually does happen?)

I go for it. “Leg Grow!”

Nothing happens.

Hello deflated soul, you are so foolish...I'm about to give up on my life and this trip when.....

Hanna interrupts my swirling thoughts: “Try again” 
Might as well, I've come this far, let's see what this Kool-Aid is all about.

Me: “Jesus we need these legs to match"

AND THEN….

WHOOSH

I felt something come at me. It felt like a wind or an energy (not sure how to describe it) but something whooshed down this woman at me.

I look to Hanna on my left and she just starts laughing uncontrollably and she's like "THAT JUST HAPPENED!”

Did that leg just grow a little?

Am I crazy?

And she has me join in her in saying “We need 100% - More!”

I suddenly look up at the woman and there are tears streaming all down her face and I'm holding her feet and I look at her tears and then I look at her feet AND THEY MATCH.

HOLY S#*@!!!!!

HOLY S#*@!!!!!

HOLY S#*@!!!!!DID THAT JUST HAPPEN? DID YOU SEE THAT? DID THAT JUST HAPPEN?

Now there were 3 other people standing around me when this was happening. And they are all freaking out. The gravity of this moment is starting to hit me and we are about to lose ourselves in excitement and laughter when I realize I should probably see how this woman is feeling and I'm all "I NEED A TRANSLATOR OVER HERE!!!!!!"

And the woman (through the translator) tells me something along the lines of this ..

"I felt the fire come down ‘woosh’ through my leg" (you guys that's what I felt!) when it grew. And then she keeps taking my hand and putting it to her spine/tailbone area because she's telling me that she was in a car accident when she was young (maybe 7 I think) and it caused some bone somewhere to curve and she shows me with her fingers what it looked like and she said she felt it being straightened out! She has me touch it to feel the straightness of it. I didn't feel the bone part beforehand but whatever I feel now is straight and she is LIT about this straight bone and she is bending down and touching her toes and is ecstatic and crying.

I'm crying too and also I'm in shock and also I want to throw myself on the floor and also I want to dance and I want to do all of it at once but I don't know how to start and my mind is trying to catch up to my heart.

HER FLIPPIN LEG GREW. IT GREW.

IT JUST DID.

HER FEET WERE UNEVEN and THEN THEY WEREN'T. THEY JUST WEREN'T ANYMORE.

I look at Hanna and I freak out laughing, jumping up and down with her and I say "Heaven is real! Jesus is real! You guys aren't crazy! I honestly had my doubts there for a second!”

The leader of the group interrupts our ecstatic moment, grabs me and says “Hey! I heard you just grew out a leg, take this lady” and he brings this woman over to me that has bad knees and he tells me to put my hand on her knee.

I put my hand on her knee and I tell her knee to heal. She waits a moment and says matter of factly to me “Thank you, it’s healed” and then walks away like I just gave her a Kleenex for a sneeze or something.

Right then someone yells out “Look at the floor!" I look to the stage area where she is yelling from and there is gold sparkles everywhere. Later I learn that people refer to this phenomenon as “gold dust” (more on that later.) It’s kind of like glitter. Like someone just sprinkled gold glitter all over the floor. It’s also all over the piano and it’s on some people’s arms and hands. There is sparkly gold dust glimmering everywhere all of the sudden.

Sparkly. Gold. Dust.

CUE: THE TWILIGHT ZONE THEME SONG

This is the story of my first encounter with the miraculous.

Some of you might be offended with my “undercover” swearing (honestly why do we ever bother with these alphanumerics, we all know what we are saying right? If you can tell then what's the point right? And if you can't, then holy shit what's wrong with you?) 

Anyways my intention is not to be irreverent.

It's just that when God moves in a way that causes legs to grow and gold dust to appear out of nowhere. Believe me, I’m in awe. But the thing I want to remind you of is that Jesus ALWAYS meets us where we are at.

And for me that was in the middle of Holy S#*! in Phuket.

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*NEXT UP: I start to rationalize and doubt if any of that stuff actually happened. I tell God “Here’s the deal, in order for me to believe, you’re gonna have to do something to me.”