Indiana Revival Report: Day 37

A humorous incident happened Tuesday when a team took to the community to pray for people. The usual procedure is to ask the Holy Spirit to guide the team to a Divine Appointment, then poll the team members to see where the Spirit is leading. If all are in agreement, that becomes the battle plan.

Just to give an example that was shared publicly, G. was clearly led to pray with a specific woman at 3:30 on a specific day at a specific Dairy Queen. She would have shoulder-length red hair and glasses. So he put his team together and showed up at the restaurant half an hour early. The place was virtually deserted, with only one male customer present. As each customer walked in, the team looked up eagerly to see if it was The One. But as time passed, no one materialized, and at 4:30 the dejected team left the Dairy Queen. G. shared the results of the failed mission with Kyle.

The next night, the story came out, and this is how it unfolded: Kyle stepped down from preaching to tell G. in amazement that right there in the front of the auditorium was a woman with shoulder-length red hair and glasses, wearing a Dairy Queen uniform! G. approached her, and it turned out that she had in fact passed by his group on her way to work in the back, but with her red hair up and concealed under a net. She sensed what they were there for, and was in no mood to be prayed for, so she hurried to the back hoping they wouldn't corner her. G. had been so focused on customers that he'd never thought to examine all the workers! So she got prayed for anyway, just a day later, once the conviction typical of true revival compelled her to the meeting, still in her work clothes.

Okay, so back to Tuesday's adventure, involving a not-quite-so-disguised redhead:

O., the team leader (wearing both jeans and dangly earrings, which she admitted wouldn't get her past the door back at the church she grew up in), felt that God was leading them to pray for a red-headed woman at a clothing store. As they made a wrong turn on their way to the location assigned to their particular team, all agreed that this was God's way of redirecting them. R. (sporting a minimal beard and a wedding ring), like O., had flown in from out of state to join the outreach. He had the car turn around when they passed a fabric store. "That must be the place!" L., a local woman who sometimes purchases fabric at the store to make her own dresses, pointed out that there were two stores next to each other, so the team split up to cover them both. O. headed for the fabric store with L., whilst R. and the rest of the team took the variety store. When they tarried long, O. and L. headed over to see what was taking them so long.

Sure enough (or was it 'close enough?'), there had been a Mennonite woman behind the counter at the variety store, her red hair neatly pinned beneath a transparent cap. When R. (a former Mennonite himself) offered to pray for her, he was taken back by her response: She wasn't about to have any man pray for her who was wearing jewelry! Rather than remove the ring, R. called L. over, on the grounds that she was at least as plainly attired as the proprietress. L. proceeded to pray for her, thankful along with ex-conservatives R. and O. that the team had included at least one currently conservative member! For his part, R. realized that having a Mennonite background isn't always enough when it comes to being able to connect with a Mennonite!

Despite her initial reluctance, the red-haired proprietress ran out as the team was getting ready to drive off, and handed each of them a CD of a capella music she'd pulled from her discount rack--implying, perhaps, another sore point between her and Revive INDIANA.