It has been a long first day! It’s really been more like two days rolled into one. I am writing this around 5:30pm Central time, which is 12:30am the next morning in Geneva — and with the exception of two 30-minute naps I got on the plane, I have been awake for the last 34 hours straight! It’s bedtime for this man. But I will say I do feel great and don’t feel like I have been up that long. I don’t know if it’s the 5 shots of espresso I enjoyed throughout my day or the supernatural refreshing of Holy Spirit. Probably a mixture of both :)
I have to quickly recap my hilarious luggage fiasco and give you an update. First off, we were 30 minutes delayed taking off from NYC because a passenger didn’t board the flight and they had to find and remove his luggage for security reasons. I had been checking my Delta app and my luggage wasn’t showing up as scanned onto my second flight, so I started praying. While they were fishing out this missing passenger’s luggage, they discovered that they had failed to load an entire connecting flight’s luggage onto our plane. Guess who’s missing luggage that was? Mine! I watched as they scanned my luggage, rolled it to the container, and literally my luggage was the last piece to board the flight — a full two hours after we were supposed to take off. Even in leaving two hours late, we arrived with 45 minutes left for me to get my connecting flight to Geneva, cutting my layover in half. That would have been fine, except someone randomly parked a plane at our gate and it took them a full 45 minutes to find a pilot and have him back the plane out of the gate so we could disembark. Thus, my flight to Geneva was long gone. They rebooked me for a flight three hours later, but unfortunately my luggage didn’t make it to Geneva with me despite all of their assurances that it would. Fortunately they have found it and are supposed to be delivering it to us tomorrow! It’s a good thing I packed a change of clothes in my backpack…
I am beyond humbled that they have brought me here. Hardly anyone speaks English — mostly French, Spanish, and Portuguese. I had already joked with Toni that they surely thought more highly of me than I did because they were paying my expenses to come and I didn’t have to raise my own support. And now to realize they brought me here knowing there would be such a language barrier — that is really humbling.
Today was really awesome. It has been good to see my friend Sébastien! It has been 6 years since I spent the summer with him in Mozambique, but it feels like we haven’t missed a beat. Switzerland feels like home, and I have fallen in love with his all of his in-laws! His brother-in-law went to the Iris Ministries mission school the summer after my wife did, and he also spent a few years at Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry, so we are very like-minded. I spent the evening being introduced to many people. We also had a great time with about ten of us praying and prophesying over one another in the back of the tent. I also did a little soaking instrumental worship for the prayer time tonight. It has been a long, but great day.
Here are a few pictures from today.
My almost long-lost luggage, which still got lost anyways, but now is found.
Yes they have an espresso machine under the tent! As my pastor Philip said — Heaven is for real!
You can only see about 1/4 of the tent in this picture. Seb said this tent has been rented and used for years for revivals!
Small worship gathering tonight with a few of the volunteers. Seb is in the red hoodie in the center.
Thanks to everyone who has been praying for me! Please pray that God continues to pour out his love on the 250 youth and young adults that have gathered here. Many of them are Muslim or other denominations. The name of the event is the Kids’ Games, but everyone understands in coming that they will be taught about the Bible and singing music. Also pray for the team that has assembled here from all over to minister, and that God will begin to bring awakening and revival to Geneva like we have been seeing at home in Madisonville. They are hungry for it!.