Redding, California

Just two short days after moving to Norman, I packed a suitcase and headed out to Redding, California to attend the Children's Leaders Transformation School (doesn't the name say it all!) at Bethel Church. For a whole week, I was exposed to every different activity involving children that Bethel offers. For more information: http://www.ibethel.org/conferences/c32/Children%27s-Leaders-Transformation-School/conference.html.

One of the best parts of the week (besides staying with the gracious and hospitable Osborne family... thanks again!) was getting to witness some of the leadership training they do for the kids in the church. Within the church, they have adult healing, prayer and prophetic teams. Children at Bethel are trained in the same ministries!

One morning, they had the kids prophetic team come and pray/prophesy over us. A little girl of about nine years old prayed for me. She reminded me of how much God loves me and gave me an encouraging word. I must say it was different than any other prophetic encouragement I have ever received! While she could hear the voice of God as well as any adult I have known, the images she used to describe God's love (a big puffy cloud and a cute little puppy dog) were pictures unique to her station in life (I mean, have you ever had someone pray for you like that?! ). The best part was that the whole word was delivered peppered throughout with all the "um"s and "like"s you would expect from talking to a nine year old. It made me smile and laugh a little to myself as I thought about how disarming it was to be prayed for by a child. It seemed to me that this little girl could melt the heart of the hardest person you could meet just by her powerful innocence. I can't wait for the kids in Norman to be able to hear the voice of God too!