Monday, December 6, 2010

The King's Banquet

To start let me explain what the "King's Banquet" is. The title is based off of Luke 14:16 - 24. The whole premise of the outreach was to serve the less fortune that are all over the metro. It became a much bigger thing than most would have imagined though.  I will be giving a run through of the day as it happened for me.
The day started early, we left school at about 8 am and headed downtown to Club3degrees. We unloaded our stuff and started to get into what the day would be. There was a intercession time right away, praise and prayer over what would be happening. It was a really good way to start off, I had a couple people pray over me and yeah, I got pretty overwhelmed by Him. So around 10 we started breaking up into groups to go do some last minute inviting.
I drove a group of 4 others a little bit Northwest, we ended up in Robinsdale. The majority of the time was spent handing out invitations to people that we came across. The very first guy that we talked to was pretty resistant to religion, well so are we, but still in a very different way. He was an elderly man and described some of his life experience to us. Before he walked away I took the opportunity to lay hands on him and pray for him and his family.
At noon we headed back downtown. It took a little while to find the highway again, but no big deal there. We got back downtown and I was immediately turned around about where we were. Ya, we were super lost and I hadn't the slightest clue where to go. So after wandering around for a while we saw another group and followed them most of the way back to Club3.
Once we finally made it back we promptly starting eating lunch - Little Caesars. They was a lot of food and everybody got their fill. At about 1 another intercession time was started, well while that was happening I was trying to remember where I had parked and I couldn't figure it out. So as much as I wanted to stay and pray for the evening I knew that I wouldn't have time later in the afternoon and didn't want to try to figure it out at midnight when the clean up was finished, so I slipped out.
Fast forward an hour and a half, I had been wandering around downtown just trying to figure out where I had parked. I finally found it, and it turned out to only have been like two blocks right down the street from the club, God is funny like that!
So I headed back just as the informational meeting was going on for us. Basically a lot of details that didn't really apply to me too much. I was told that I was going to be a server so I listened to what was being said, and waited to hear my section assignment but it never came. So I spent the next couple hours just chilling until things got straightened out and I was given a job assignment.
Sometime between 5 and 6 I was told to help buss the dishes from the tables. It wasn't really what I was hoping for, but it was way better than I anticipated. Except for the table hosts I got to have the most interaction with the guests and yeah, it was super sweet! So 6 o'clock came around and there was a huge line at the door, from that I hear it went all the way down the block and around the corner. So our invitations had been effective! But I heard that there might not be enough tables for everybody, which would have been a major downer! Well every table but one was filled and the evening was a blast!!!!
To sum it up, ministry - thats what everything was geared toward. There were three different testimonies from transformed lives, a skit, one of the best praise bands I've ever heard, and just love.
The people were drawn in by the meal - four courses, but many of them stayed because of the message and the opportunity. The night wrapped up with each table host offering to wash the feet of the people at their table. I really wanted to get in on this but I wasn't able to, maybe my only regret from the day, but I became one of the runners from the supplies to the table hosts. The washing included a foot washing (obvious), an anointing with oil and a new pair of socks for each person.
It was amazing, the response of so many of these people to what we were doing for them. Most of the people in attendance were African - American, and what I kept hearing from them was why a bunch of white people would do all this for them. Well, our motivation was Jesus and it was so good!!!!
So the whole evening lasted about 4 hours. So at 10 the buses came back to return them to their many locations. Then clean up began in earnest! I had been cleaning for most of the evening so I toned it down from this point on. The first thing I did was grab some of the extra food from the downstairs and I have to say that it was pretty dang good stuff! Soup, Salad, Roast Beef w/ Mashed Potatoes and gravy, and finally pie - either Pumpkin or Apple and yeah everything was super good!
The clean up wrapped up at about Midnight but at that point I was just waiting for the people that I drove to finish up their stuff. So while I was waiting I listened to one of the main guys from Trinity works (the ministry that did a lot of the work on this) talk to Bryce and Eric. He mentioned that one of his friends had come in and was swept with a vision of this happening at the Target Center. That is no small leap, but the funny thing about that vision is that a couple of us had been talking about that before the banquet started. So if you believe in coincidence that go ahead and chalk it up to that, but I don't. God has so many plans for this thing in the future and it was such a blessing to be apart of the first one!
So around 12:30 I finally got to leave the club and head over to where we were staying. Thus began the worst night of sleep I have probably ever had. There was no heat in the building, no hot water through the night, and all I had was a single blanket on the ground. So yeah, I didn't get too much sleep and what I got was far from restful!
But we got up around 8 am and started getting our stuff together. We had a testimony time for a couple of hours before we left. Yeah, it was incredibly emotional to hear all of the stories from my brothers and sisters here at the school.  Unfortunately, the reality of not all good coming from the evening was clearly pronounced by one of my close friends, which lead to an intense time of just weeping and interceding again for the lives of the people from that evening.
So in no short order we wrapped up and headed back to Bethany. I got back at a little after 12 and started loading my car for the drive home. So yeah, that was my Monday and Tuesday morning before Thanksgiving 2010. God is moving, let Him move!