I’m in awe at what I saw as about 50 people gathered around an open mic at The Salvation Army’s Camp Paradise Valley on Dale Hollow Lake in rural Southern Kentucky for the 7th Annual Kentucky/Tennessee Division Prayer & Fasting Retreat.

Our fast began at 4:00 pm. on Friday. Then we met from 7:00 until about 9:00. We gathered again on Saturday morning at 8:00 and met until 3:00. The meetings were centered on Jesus and people were free to come to the mic and share as they felt led by the Spirit.

It was such a tremendously powerful weekend. We spend time in intimate and anointed praise and worship. People enthusiastically shared prayers, Scriptures, testimonies, exhortations, burdens, tears, and joys. People listened to God and received words for themselves and for one another. People confessed sin and repented. We were so caught up with Christ that I hardly noticed I wasn’t eating.  It reminded me of the most powerful weekends in my life that I used to experience on Lay Witness Missions when I was in college.

I am so excited and so grateful to God for showing up; to the leadership who opened up the mic and allowed the Spirit to freely lead, to the participants who obeyed God and courageously opened up their hearts, and to The Salvation Army for being willing to allow God to work in fresh new ways!