Christmas in July

We woke up very early Sunday, 7/14 - the day of Extraordinary God since Susie, our gracious hostess on Kiawah Island, had an early morning flight to the Bahamas.  We were full of excitement and joyful anticipation about what our Abba Father had in store! As we lay awake in bed, one of us commented that it felt very much like Christmas morning! We didn't know what gifts lay beneath the tree, but we certainly knew that our Abba Father had already given us a beautifully wrapped present by allowing us to be a part of this extraordinary event! We had felt his presence in a mighty way all week long, but we knew that this day would be extra special and well - EXTRAORDINARY.

While laying there, the Lord impressed upon us that we should walk down the beach and pray in front of the Sanctuary Hotel where we would set up for the event.  We jumped out of bed, put on a comfortable outfit, and began to search for disposable coffee cups for the journey.  As the Lord would have it, the only disposable cups that Suzy had were Christmas cups! This only added fuel to our fire!

We were hopeful that the weather would be as beautiful as it had been during the day on Saturday, but it was not to be. Seeing the clouds,we were even more thankful that the Lord had answered our prayer the day before and allowed Moore Arts Movement a sunny day to play on the beach and in the pool.  The morning of the event, the clouds had reappeared overhead, rain was threatening and the winds were whipping.  

It appeared that God was going to require us to exercise our faith right up until the time of the event.  We were prepared to do just that and headed out for the Sanctuary Hotel, Christmas cups in hand.

What awaited us at the hotel was more glorious than any Christmas present we had ever received! Terrance, one of our partners, had been prompted weeks earlier to pray that a rainbow would appear on the day of the event.  A rainbow did not seem likely as the wind whipped around us and the skies were black and heavy with rain. When we arrived at The Sanctuary we thanked God that we FELT His mighty presence and would also welcome His VISIBLE presence. Kristi began writing EXTRAORDINARY GOD in big letters in the sand right in front of the hotel. When she finished we turned around to face the ocean and noticed the skies had parted and, in the clouds, was the most beautiful rainbow we had ever seen! God's visible presence was there!  

We had just received the best Christmas gift ever and we jumped up and down, much like we might have done when we were younger. We took pictures of the rainbow and sent them to Terrance and Matthew so that they also would be blessed! We were full of praise for our EXTRAORDINARY GOD!!!!!

We drank in the beauty of the rainbow, but quickly had to turn back towards home in order to prepare breakfast for our guests. As we walked home, the rain began to fall and soon the wind was blowing quite forcefully.  The wind and the rain continued as we all got ready for church and as we walked into the sanctuary of Church of Our Saviour, we had the opportunity to speak words of faith about the weather to just about everyone we saw.  We shared the story of 2 Chronicles 7:13 several times and walked by faith, surely not by sight, as the service began.

The Lord was sweet and the rain was replaced by sunny skies as we worshipped in His sanctuary enjoying a preview of what Moore Arts Movement had in store for the afternoon.  

We had moved from darkness into light as we praised our heavenly father through prayer, praise, dance and song! We basked in the feeling of sun on our faces as we made the final preparations for the event.

When we began to set up that evening on the beach we had to make a quick decision to completely reverse the direction of the service because of the wind. The Lord had given us knowledge that we needed to have everyone speak with the wind so the crowd could hear everything. Unbeknownst to us, we then set up the service so that Matthew gave his testimony right where he washed ashore in 2005.

The skies remained sunny as the event began and the first words of welcome included a praise to our God for doing just as He said He would in 2 Chronicles 7:13 and "closing up the skies"! Extraordinary!

Then, although it had not been in the script, as Kristi introduced Terrance, she told the crowd of the rainbow that she and Nena had witnessed that morning. 

The knowledge that we had been praying for a rainbow allowed the crowd to enter into our full measure of excitement as they saw our Lord and Saviour light up the skies with a fireworks display of rainbows, concluding in a double rainbow near the end of the event.  It truly was one of the most EXTRAORDINARY displays of God's presence that we had ever witnessed!

If you look closely you can see the double rainbow. One is to the left of the other.

Our evening of worship included David Childs providing beautiful praise music accompanied by Emily Richardson on percussion, with Moore Arts Movement dancing with their 'toes in the sand', Christal Brown-Gibson's amazing special music, 'What Are Little Girls Made Of?' singing two sweet numbers and Matthew Pridgen's testimony. The evening concluded with a wonderful time of prayer ministry that included salvation, healing and deliverance. We hope you enjoy reading every word of Matthew Pridgen's blog (see link below) for a beautiful reflection of the full evening that our sweet Lord gave us, which was more of an EXTRAORDINARY 'Christmas in July' gift than we could have ever imagined! (Enjoy the pictures of the event at the conclusion of this blog.)

http://reawake.org/miracles-at-extraordinary-god-2013/

P.S. The next morning Susie emailed us from the Bahamas to see how the service went. She had lifted us up in prayer the whole evening. We couldn't type an email fast enough to share an update including the beautiful display of rainbows that God had provided. Later that same morning she was spending quiet time reading the Bible and God directed her to Chapter 1 of Ezekiel. God spoke to her in a mighty way when she read verse 28 and she knew God was showing her something about the rainbows at Extraordinary God. God, You are so amazing and we love you so much!

Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. Ezekiel 1:28