December 6, 2011
Sorry it’s taken me so long to write an update on The Call. This semester has been crazy but I finally had a free moment tonight. First of all thank you to everyone who supported me financially for this trip. The Lord is so good! He provided above and beyond what I actually needed for the trip and again I got to experience His faithfulness to me through ya’ll. But then, right before we left we found out that The Call was actually going to pay for our gas so the trip ended up being only $30. Isn’t God amazing? So we left Thursday after class and we drove like 13 hours to get to Detroit. The car ride was really fun because since we were in the car for so long we were all able to hear eachother’s stories and journeys with the Lord. I feel like that always brings people closer. So the drive up there was fun but we didn’t get into Detroit until about 10 A.M. Now mind you, we have all been awake at this point since 2 P.M. the day before so needless to say that was a little rough. So we tried to go to bed as soon as we got there but everyone had to do all the before bedtime stuff so we didn’t get to sleep until nearly noon. Then we had to be up at 3 P.M. for breakfast and to get ready for The Call to be there by 6. Let’s just say going off 3 hours of sleep is not the best.
We got to Ford Field about 6 P.M. and were given our service assignment. We were to count the offering but we didn’t need to be back in that room until 9 P.M. so we all got to go out and participate in the prayer and worship until then. That was nice. Then at 9 P.M. we were taken to this tiny room in the basement to count the money. They came in with trash bags full of the offering and dumped them on our tables. I had never counted an offering before but you quickly get into a flow and we were like a well-oiled machine. We were sad to be in there for so long missing so much of the meeting but there was a small T.V. in there so we were kinda able to participate in what was going on in the main room. One of my favorite parts of the night happened during this time though. We were almost done counting out all the money and one of our nightwatch worship leaders, who also happens to be a student, took the stage and started singing one of her amazing songs. Immediately we all just wanted to be in the main room worshipping but we knew we had to finish our service assignment. After all, that was one of the main reasons we went, to serve. So she started singing one of her amazing songs and all of a sudden on the chorus, the entire room just bursts out and starts singing along while we were counting the money. Maybe you had to be there to understand how sweet the moment was, but I know we all felt it. We were worshipping while serving and I think the Lord was really moved by it!
At midnight we finished the offering and were able to go back out to the main room and do what we were there to do- strengthen the nightwatch. This was the first one that was 24 hours and that was the main reason we as students were able to go. Because we pray in the middle of the night. It was starting to dwindle down so I decided to go down on the field. Worship was really good and since there was so much space on the floor I got down on my knees and worshiped the Lord like I always see myself doing when I close my eyes and worship. While I was doing this my mind started to roam and I got to thinking about the first Call that I went to. It was 7/7/07 in Nashville and I had probably only been walking with the Lord maybe a little over a year at that point. Anyway, I was remembering how I was so afraid to leave my group of people and I didn’t really know what was going on the whole time. I was just struck with how different this time was. Here I was on the floor of the field completely by myself and not worried about the other people around me. I was content to just be in the moment loving on the Lord. Then I told the Lord, look how far we’ve come God!
Well about 30 minutes later I get a text and it says come down to the front of the auditorium because we are going to go backstage. I thought that was a little weird but I gathered some of the other students that were around me and we all walked the gate. Once we got near the stage we were all just trying to figure out what was going on. Nobody knew what was happening. Then all of a sudden, we found out we were going on stage and we were literally herded up there like less than a minute later. It was probably the most surreal thing that I’ve ever experienced. We must have all looked like deer in the headlights. Looking back now it was really funny, but in the moment not so much. Our nightwatch leader Stuart was on stage leading the prayer meeting and I was desperately trying to read his lips when he was talking to people to figure out what was going on. All of a sudden I hear him go- rapid fire! I thought you have got to be kidding me? We’re actually on stage and gonna pray on the mic? I said Lord you are so funny! I was just telling you look how far we’ve come and now I’m on stage? And gonna pray in front of thousands, even millions of people since it’s webstreamed? I don’t even pray on the mic in the prayer room. So Stuart does the first 10 people and then I thought we were done but he did another round. There wasn’t really any rhyme or reason to how people were going to mic since we were all just kinda in a clump so I was negotiating with the Lord while I was watching everything. I told Him ok if you really want me to pray I will, but only if Stuart beckons me over. So a couple of people went and then lo and behold, Stuart beckoned me. So I went forward and I prayed on the mic! Me! I prayed on the mic on stage at The Call. Now you tell me God doesn’t have a sense of humor. Then we were on the stage for probably like 20 or 30 minutes then we got to go down and go back to our places in the room. As it turns out there had been some miscommunication between leadership on what it actually looked like to lead the nightwatch. One leader thought that we were there and doing what we normally do in the prayer room, just at Ford Field. Apparently Stuart’s idea of us leading the nightwatch meant we prayed on stage. Either way, it was definitely a memorable experience.
From then on we just prayed and worshipped through the night and went home at 6 A.M. and went to bed to get plenty of sleep for our drive back. It was a short trip but we did what we were asked to do. We served and we strengthened the nightwatch. It was really special too because it was just the nightwatch students that got to go. In the past, we have apparently missed out on trips specifically because of the nature of the nightwatch, but this time we actually got to go just us, because of the nature of the nightwatch.
Overall I really enjoyed the trip. It was much like the California Blitz I went on back in November where you really have an opportunity to hang out with fellow students and you just bond. We all had a good time and came home more in love with each other. Success =)
