Waikiki Beach Treasures Found!
Dear Unified … family,
Here is a recap from Carol K.’s time on their Treasure Hunt in Waikiki. Carol is right, it seems people are beginning to enjoy becoming a blessing more and more.
Pastor Dean
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Pastor Dean,
Last night’s treasure hunt was so much fun!!!
Now I hadn’t been a real fan of treasure hunts before this because on my two prior treasure hunts, I was struggling to get clues and I didn’t get words or pictures for anyone we found. But last night, Betty U. said to write down clues without thinking about it– to just record the first thing that comes to mind– and she only gave a few seconds to do so. I didn’t have time to analyze whether the words were from God or not and although I stopped a moment to think, (old habits die hard!), Betty called out “Ten seconds remaining!”, so I hurriedly wrote down whatever came to mind. Paul U also said that we’re not bound by the clues to pray for someone, and that we can still say that God highlighted the person for a blessing. That was freeing.
Our group (Wayne’s group) went to Waikiki Beach by the Duke’s statue, which was great, because there were LOTS of people there. On our way there, we prayed that there would be no rain until 10:00 pm (it had been raining off and on that day), and Hee Sun prayed in advance for one of the “treasures” on her Treasure Map– a pregnant woman and her unborn baby.
When we arrived at our designated meeting place, our group was surprised at the number of clues that the location fulfilled– beach, palm tree, phone booth, bench, restaurant, fountain, water fountain. As Isaiah Jr. and someone else started praying for someone (they didn’t waste any time) Hee Sun and I crossed the street to a restaurant to look for our treasures.
1. Brown Haired Lady–
Outside of the restaurant– lo and behold, I saw a woman who looked like my first “treasure”. At first, I only saw her back: she had the right color and length hair– brown, medium length–and sort of frumpy– so I watched her until she turned around, and yep, she was the lady! She wasn’t wearing the blue sweater I saw in my mind earlier, but that was OK, she was the one. (Maybe she changed clothes.) So I approached her and asked if I could pray a blessing for her because God had highlighted her. She gave me a quiet OK, so I did! She was from Canada with a group, including her husband who was observing our conversation, so I included him in the blessing.
2. Young Family and Pregnant Wife–
After a couple of people declined prayer, God highlighted a young family sitting on one of the planter walls. I told the father that God had highlighted him and asked if I could pray for him and his family. He asked, “Is the prayer for free, or do I need to pay?” I chuckled and assured him it was for free. He then agreed, and I introduced myself and Hee Sun.
He said his name was Joe. I got excited because the name, “Joey”, was on my list, and I asked if anyone called him “Joey”. He said yes, sometimes!
As I prayed, words just kept coming out and coming out– stuff about how compassion just flowed out of him to others and how God loved that about him, and how God wanted him to also spend time just for himself and God. His wife nodded now and then, so I guess it was OK.
Hee Sun asked the wife if she were pregnant, and she was! (I hadn’t even noticed.) So Hee Sun had found her treasure and prayed for her and the baby to come. Then Hee Sun asked if the woman if her foot hurt because Hee Sun felt a pain in her own foot! The woman– Cheryl– got prayer for her foot, and we blessed his daughter, Ella. Then the father thanked us, saying this was the best part of his vacation! Hee Sun and I were so happy, we forgot to ask how the lady’s foot was.
3. Another Young Couple–
Another young couple was sitting on a different planter wall. The woman looked as if she were on break from a job because she had a clipboard and pen hear her. We asked the woman if we could pray for her, and she said OK, but her boyfriend needed the prayer more. We said we’d pray for the both of them, and started with the young woman. “Manager” came to mind, so I asked her if she were a manager, but she said, no, she was a dispatcher for a tour activities group. Yet the word, “manager”, kept coming, so I said I felt promotion was coming because she had management potential. Hee Sun also said she’ll be promoted to manager because she felt that too.
When we asked her boyfriend for prayer request, he said, “Everything. Life”. I said, yes, we can do that and asked if there were anything specific. He said he was in recovery and had just made 90 days of sobriety. We prayed for him, blessed him, and assured him of God’s love for him. Words just coming out again! Lots of encouragement and blessings. His girlfriend hit him playfully, saying, “I told you so!”. He then said he was a new believer and believed in God! At the end, they both looked lighter (she looked less serious and had a bit of a smile), and they thanked us for the prayer.
4. Elderly woman with cane and her family–
An elderly woman holding a cane was sitting on a bench with her family around her. Because the word, “cane”, was on my Treasure Map, I asked her if we could bless her with prayer to heal whatever was causing her to need the cane. Turned out she didn’t speak English much, so her family translated. Her family said she had broken her middle toe two days ago in her hotel room, so she had to stay in her room all day on Thursday. She then went for a walk on Friday, but stepped into a hole, which caused her a great deal of pain. And that was why she was sitting down.
She said OK to the prayer, and Hee Sun and I prayed a short prayer for the pain to leave and the toe to be healed. We then asked how she felt. She responded in what sounded like German, and her family said, “She’s better, much better.” We asked how much of the pain was left, the family asked her, and she said the pain was gone! She looked happy, the family looked happy, and Hee Sun and I were overjoyed! We prayed a sealing of the good work that the Lord had done and left, very happy.
5. Others–
We also prayed a very short blessing for a tour hawker who mistook us for tourists and said he couldn’t distinguish locals from tourists yet because he had been in Hawaii for just 2 weeks.
Homeless sleeping man on bench under umbrella– Because “under umbrella” was on my treasure map, I prayed for him without walking him up.
6. Summary–
We wouldn’t have been able to approach as many people as we did if we hadn’t gone through the Friday night outings with Wayne’s firestarter group and even prior Treasure Hunts. Although those “excursions” were not totally comfortable, each time got easier, and last night was the easiest of all! It was also super fun!!! I think I was blessed more than the people we prayed for!
Wayne issued a challenge to the Monday night healing ministers a couple of Mondays ago that we should be praying for a person a day. That helped me overcome complacency that I could pray for someone another time and fear of looking stupid because otherwise, I’d miss my one/day goal! I’ve missed a couple of days but whenever I did, it felt as if I missed out on something good. So far, to meet my daily goal, I’ve prayed for people who were sick at my workplace, cashiers (they’re like a captive audience), and Costco vendors. It’s still a challenge to find someone every day and to cross that chicken line, but that line is getting narrower and narrower the more we do so.
Hee Sun said that the Holy Spirit just takes over whenever she approaches someone now to pray for them– the words just tumble out, and she has no fear about English being her second language.
Thank you for encouraging us!
Carol