We had a fantastic time partnering with the Mason City Vineyard for our first outreach at RAGBRAI. Yesterday about a dozen of us prayed for the riders who stopped by our tent. It was awesome to see 5 teens laying hands on one huge guy, praying and prophesying; 2 women praying for a woman weeping over something unexpected happening back home; 3 guys praying for a man with a bad knee, to name just a few. Later as we walked through the city park looking for people to pray for, we talked at length with a man who couldn’t shake his drug habit. God pinpointed the incident that had broken his heart 37 years ago, the pain of which he was still trying desperately to numb. He got set free! And we got to witness the miraculous transformation as God healed and delivered him. We can’t wait until next year’s ride where we plan to extend our time to several days, moving along the ride route.

We will have a Free Prayer booth at REALFest (Really Embracing Another Life) in Carroll, Iowa July 25-27. This music festival benefits adoption and foster care. See www.realfest.org for all the details. We are excited about this opportunity.

The Mason City Vineyard has invited us to join with them and make Free Prayer a part of their outreach July 22-23 at RAGBRAI (the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Race Across Iowa) as it goes through Mason City. This events brings 15,000 to 20,000 extra people into the communities on their route. Should be fun and we are praying for many divine appointments and life-changing encounters with God!

Our last post was on the way to the roadside and that morning included a celebration of our new spot with several friends stopping to check out the set-up and a great encounter with a lady who stopped to ask for prayer for her 5-week-old grandson but got much more than she bargained for when Emil began to get words of knowledge and prophetic words for her. How great and loving is our God who raised her joy level from way below zero to sky-high! Thank You, Lord!

On our way to the road! Yippee!

Emil felt the Lord told him to share his testimony with a teenage boy who has really been struggling.  When Emil finished, the boy just shook his head and said, “Wow, everything you said reminded me exactly of myself. You’ve been through everything that’s been going on in my life.” He understood then that the enemy was coming against him so hard to stop him from experiencing the adventure God has for him, and he let us pray with him to break the lies of the enemy that made him think he had nothing to offer. He said, “I’ve been feeling like the Lord’s telling me to share my testimony with other kids but I didn’t think it would matter.” But because Emil’s testimony impacted him so powerfully, he realized the importance of what God was calling him to do.

Actually our weekly trips to the laundromat have proven uneventful as much as we’ve been open to people there.  Today Emil took the laundry and again wasn’t getting any response when he said hello to people there. But when he got out the book he’s reading about hell, it got the attention of one woman. They began to talk about heaven, hell and Jesus…and everyone stopped what they were doing and listened. They talked about forgiveness and grace. Then Emil asked her if she died today, would she go to heaven? She answered, “Absolutely,” and he asked why? She said, “Because I’ve asked Jesus into my heart!” With that declaration, both their dryers turned off and everyone got back to their laundry.  Praying that the words spoken today have gone home in the hearts of each listening person there and will draw them to the one and only Jesus!

An exciting afternoon at the food distribution today. An elderly man going through cancer treatments prayed and received the Lord! Then I asked a lady if she needed prayer and she said sarcastically, “Only if you can stop my back from hurting!” She’s had non-stop back pain for a year. I promised her that if she let me pray for her, she’d get healed right now. She looked at me funny but shrugged and said, “Go for it.” God told me she had one leg shorter than the other. I prayed for it to come out and it did and she was pain-free. She excitedly told everyone, “He prayed for me, God grew my leg out, and now my back’s healed!” She ran around the room several times and came back with the biggest grin and gave me a huge hug and said, “I thought you were joking!” I told her, “I knew God wanted to heal you as soon as I saw you.” The short leg turned out to be the one she had broken last year! Awesome God!

Prayed for a lady who had such fear that she couldn’t sleep at night. It had been going on for a long time. As we invited in the Holy Spirit and asked the Lord what He wanted to say to her, Emil heard the words “well-intentioned prayers” so he asked her if that meant anything to her. Had anyone been praying for her in a manner that was well meaning but not in agreement with God’s will? She said no. We prayed to break the power of those prayers and as we did she realized it had been a certain prayer of her own that God was pointing out. She wept as she repented for praying against God’s will for years and then we cast out the spirit of fear that was so prevalent in her life. She immediately felt relief and began praising God!

We met friends at McDonalds for lunch and after we’d been there for about an hour, a teenage girl walked up with her mother and asked for prayer. She’d been watching us for a long time, trying to get her nerve up to come over. Her mom was to go for surgery on her injured forearm so we prayed for healing.  People all over were watching so we pray it opens the door for anytime we are there!