Holy Given: Leyte International School of MissionsDulag, Leyte, PhilippinesWeek 6: 20 - 24 April, 2009
If Holy Given Leyte started with a bang, it ended with an explosion. Holy Spirit came powerfully each day and left us in awe and wonder…for the sixth week in a row. It has truly been a special season here in Dulag, Leyte, Philippines.Monday was a day of impartation. As Lesley-Anne prayed over each student, Holy Spirit came and ministered to each one. The floor was covered with students laid out face down before the Lord…It was a holy moment. Many students testified to having had heavenly visitations, encountering Jesus and the Father, experiencing even more breakthrough and hearing more from the Father about their destiny.Tuesday we experienced a major corporate breakthrough as sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, as Holy Spirit came and freed many from having an orphan spirit. The room was filled with students embracing students as the Father poured out his love onto his children. The Father lifted us up out of the darkness of rejection, loneliness and fear and brought us into the light of being a part of his glorious family. Josh Groban’s “You Raise Me Up” became our anthem: You raise me up so I can stand on mountains. You raise me up to walk on stormy seas. I am strong when I am on your shoulders. You raise me up to more than I can be.On Wednesday we made kites to fly as a prophetic act of what the Lord did among us the day before. We went out to the beach as a family and flew our homemade kites…watching them soar with the wind! We ran with joy and played like children…it was a blast! And the Lord spoke revelation to so many students through the simple act of flying a kite! We teased that we could write an entire book just from what Holy Spirit spoke to the students that morning! God is so good!Wednesday and Thursday we were blessed to have Mel Tari teach us. He is truly a general in the faith and a man of wisdom and depth in the Lord. He called us forth as the Lord called Jeremiah, sent ones to the nations. He encouraged the students to step into greater awareness of their destiny and to embrace their identity and calling as Filipinos. In the final days of the school, God called us into higher and greater things still!Friday was Graduation day…a day of great celebration! The students started off by performing their “Unity Dance”…a dance representing the unity of their uniquely diverse nation and declaring Jesus as the Lord of their nation. It served as a declaration of the breakthrough and freedom that the Lord had brought us through over the previous six weeks together. Many of us were left in tears, moved so deeply by what God has done. Then Holy Spirit came with wave after wave of his presence as we danced and worshiped him. Mel reminded the students of the declaration in John 17…that as Jesus was sent into the world, so are we sent to the nations. After receiving their graduation certificates, the students were each given a balloon. Lesley-Anne likewise commissioned the students into the world. The students responded by running out of the building and releasing their balloon into the atmosphere, as a prophetic act of their very lives. It was a powerful way to end the day.We have come and tasted and seen that God is so, so good…and we are going to testify of his goodness to the nations! We are not the same. We never will be. We have encountered the Living God…and the world will be changed!
