December 7, 2008, Bellis Fair Mall
Attendance: 19 people
Here is my testimony from today's Treasure Hunt. We had such a good time...everyone was really excited. Testimonies from other teams may follow!
SHAARON COLEMAN:
The Treasure Hunt at Bellis Fair Mall today (December 7) was really energizing! First we all met together in a "quiet" corner of the food court for prayer and some instruction from Michael Peters. We took a few minutes to practice on each other what we would say as we approached someone whom God had highlighted. And then we prayerfully wrote our Treasure Maps, listening to God for clues in 5 categories..Location, Person's Name, Appearance, Prayer Needs and The Unusual.
My team consisted of two middle aged adults (Shaaron and Glenn) a high-school girl (Briana) and two 5th Graders (Maddie and Megan).ALL Treasure Hunt Newbies! Both Briana and Glenn had "Kiosk" on their list, and Briana had in "Cell Phone Kiosk." I had Black/Red Clothing, so we stopped to talk to Robert, who works at a cell phone kiosk and was dressed in black & red with bright red tennis shoes. Three of us had "Family Issues" on our Prayer Needs list, and I'll bet you can guess what Robert wanted prayer for. He is a Christian and he had his Bible right in the Kiosk with him, but God apparently wanted to encourage him because near the end of the Treasure Hunt time we saw ANOTHER TEAM praying with him too...out of all the people at the mall during the Christmas season!
Since the "Body Shop" is a small store, just Briana and I went in to pray for Rachel, the girl who matched the description God had given us. Rachel was very receptive, in fact she herself pointed out "Ankle" and "Wrist" on my list, noting that she has tattoos in both locations. Now the really cool thing about this visit was.the only other customer in the store at this time was a guy (with his girlfriend) who had been sitting at a table right next to our food court gathering place, trying intently to listen in and see what the heck we were up to! God saw fit to give him a first-hand demonstration!
Briana had "Payless Shoes" on her list along with "Black Shiny High Heels." I had "Black Leather Jacket," "Red Hair," and the name "Morgan." Maddie pointed out a red-haired lady with black shiny heels and a black leather jacket, so we went to talk to her. Turns out she has a niece named Morgan and she is JEHOVA'S WITNESS! She didn't really want us to pray with her, but she was very nice and seemed kind of blown away. Her family (I assume), including a couple of teenage girls, witnessed the whole thing. Sweet!
Megan (age 10) had "Bookstore" on her list, and Maddie (also 10) had the name "Sarah." I had "Little Girl with Blonde Hair" and something "Pink." Briana had "Baby." So who was right inside Waldenbooks but Mary and her curly blonde-haired little girl Isabella, who was carrying a pink ballon. And what did they want prayer for? Mary's sister Sarah who lives in California and is having a Baby soon!
There were so many more cool things, including an additional person that God had highlighted to us also being chosen by another team.but I'll end with this one.As we were re-gathering in the food court at the appointed end time, Maddie pointed out to Michael Peters that we had not yet found a person on Megan's list.someone in a "Blue Shirt" with a "Boot-type Cast" on their foot. Michael immediately said, "Well there she is right there!" So Michael asked Maddie and Megan to pray for the teenage girl wearing a blue shirt and a boot-cast on her foot!
This is super-easy and very effective, folks. Everyone should try it!
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12/6/08 - Olympia, WA
Denise and I went on our first “treasure hunt” today. On the way to Costco Denise said, “let’s pray that God will show us people He wants us to minister to.” I said, "OK". As we drove, God showed me images of 4 people we would meet. I saw a girl about 2 years old with black curly hair, a tall man about 55 years old with a red and gray beard, an elderly woman with white hair leaning all of her weight on a shopping cart and a younger man with black and silver hair combed straight up. We found 3 of my people at Costco. I encouraged the elderly woman by telling her God loves her. I felt God wanted me to say the same thing to the man with the red and gray beard so I spoke some encouraging words to him about how God loved him and wanted to bless him. His wife asked if we could lay hands on him to be healed of his back injury, so we prayed for him to be healed.
While Denise prayed she received a word about a young man wearing orange, who was a musician, and that God wanted to encourage him to continue in his pursuit of music. It took a while for us to find him but we had to stop at Safeway on the way home and as we entered the store we immediately saw him. We waited for him to leave, and Denise approached him in the parking lot. She asked him if he was a musician and he said, "yeah, I'm a drummer." She encouraged him to continue with his music and that God would bless his efforts. He received the message very well. His mother seemed amazed and very glad that a complete stranger would walk up to him and do something like this. We found the man with the black and gray hair a few moments later in the Safeway and I encouraged him by telling him God wanted to bless his life. He told us God was already blessing him. He had just come from an AA meeting and had been clean and sober for a long time and that God was doing great things for him. We saw the little girl as we were driving away form the store. Her mother was carrying her on her hip. We prayed for God’s protection over her as we drove away. We had an awesome time doing a routine thing that normally wouldn’t be very exciting. We want to do this on a regular basis from now on. We are going to write down the descriptions and details we receive in the future and give them to the people we find. We may draw pictures of the people and let them keep it to remind them they are God’s treasure.
From Jim & Shaaron Coleman and Dave & Denise Hayes.
