Thee abnormal Adventures of Jeff Kelly

Lately I’ve been feeling disconnected from God, his love, his encouragement even his peace. It’s amazing that even amongst so many faithful Christians and a vibrant ministry that such separation could take place. I have nobody to blame except myself for all this, I haven’t been faithful in my quiet time and devotional, after losing my Bible I keep forgetting to purchase another one, and even my prayer life has been significantly absent during the past 3 weeks. I have felt lonely even being surrounded by so many friends, not able to comprehend the books I’ve been reading from the library on prophecy and encouragement. The last two days I have made an effort to attend devotions and participate in prayer with friends and cabin mates while this hasn’t made a huge impact in itself, it has been a building block for the things God wants to show me. I do consider this a trial that I am going through and after reading James I am to consider it pure Joy whenever I face trials, instead of running from God or becoming discouraged with my walk with God, I am to learn on him more and put more effort and focus on Him instead of my situation or the things going on around me.

Today started off just like any other day, I woke up tired and not looking forward to working in the gloomy, rainy weather outside. After breakfast I attended the devotional put on by Dan and Suzie Potter about building relationships. I feel that this especially spoke to me because I’ve noticed that I can be very friendly and outgoing with people on the ship and in general, but for the most part I am shallow with them and only say hello or how are you while passing in the hallway. This has challenged me to open up more about my personal struggles as well as make time to listen to others with what they may be going through. I am currently reading a book about encouragement and the great power that it can bring to fellow Christians and anyone for that matter. It focuses on Barnabas and the huge impact that he was able to have on Paul and the early church. In the same way that encouragement can be a blessing to people’s lives, gossip can have a devastating effect on relationships especially between Christians. One of the main focuses of Christianity is Christ’s love and sharing that love with those we come in contact with. If we are gossiping and talking down to others, we mentally separate from those we talk about and put ourselves above them distancing us from them and creating a barrier that stops the spread of Love. If the number one thing that attracts others to Jesus and subsequently Christianity is Love, We are automatically defusing the greatest testimony by reverse encouragement (Gossip).

Mo led a great Deck department devotional today on prayer and how we can focus our prayers through 4 different stages. First, to acknowledge God and worship Him for saving us and everything he has instilled in us. Secondly, confess our sins and our hearts desires to God, asking for forgiveness in all that we do apart from him. Third we should pray for others around us, this can be friends, family or even countries and things the spirit lays on our hearts at that specific time. Lastly, we can come and ask him for things in our life, specific things that we would like to see happen. By following this order we can set up our priorities to be that of self sacrifice, creating a prayer time that is not self focused or just throwing up words to an empty sky, hoping they get answered. It makes it much more personal and sacrificial to the God of the World. Allowing Him to work and answer our prayers and ultimately his will to be done. As a department we all prayed through these steps and wow what an impact it had on me immediately. As I stated in the opening of this entry, my prayer life has been weak and almost non existence. This time enabled me to confess sins that have been distancing me from God, Pray for brothers in India that are facing persecution during a Jesus Film presentation just yesterday, and awesomely Ask God to put one person in my life today that needs encouragement or comfort. As we all know, God answers prayer, and here is another example of him delivering. This morning after dedicating this day to Him in prayer and asking him to put someone in my day that needed The Lord. We were given the day off to go throughout the city and promote the Doulos. I headed out with 200 flyers and a belief that God was going to use me somehow. As I walked along the streets to the main section of the city I prayed that God would deliver me from timidity, and give me boldness for Him. I stated that I was not out here to just pass out propaganda about the Doulos but instead listen, encourage, and be a vessel for Christ to use. I didn’t know how he would use me this day, or even if anyone would come to the ship as a result of talking with me. I did believe that God heard my prayer and was waiting for me to ask him honestly to be used in order for him to wake me up from my spiritual mini slumber.

The first man I saw after my prayer was sitting on a bench outside a closed church, I approached and handed him a Doulos flyer and ask him nicely “ if he had seen the world’s oldest ship that was in town?”, He responded, yeah I saw it on the news, can’t wait to get down there”. After a few minutes of friendly chatter, the man( who appeared to be in his mid 60’s) introduced himself to me as David and told me he had been a believer for 20 something years now but still struggled with many things. As he continued to open up to me about his Life and the 3 marriages he had previously been in, I felt that he had lost hope. He was severely discouraged and confused about our power as Christians over the devil and his temptation and lies. Every time he would speak negatively or admit the evils grip over a certain area of his life, I would counterattack with a Bible verse that instantly popped into my head. Reassuring Him that the devil is so scared that I am even talking with him right now made him smile and I could feel his burden beginning to lift. I encouraged him that the power of Christ’s blood rules over the earth and everything in it, that because he was saved as a Christian, He has the power to destroy the lies that Satan has been feeding him. Running out of verses I simply asked him if I could pray for him right there and what requests he had if any. He became very excited as he told me nobody had voluntarily prayed for him in the last 2 years, and that he desperately needed strength. What happened next was unbelievable, As I began to pray over him, I felt a power come over me and boldness began to come out through my lips at a rapid speed. I felt I had no control over the things I was saying, but at the same time David was being Blanketed by God’s Love, and being released of things he had been holding onto for years. His weathered hand gripped tight onto my shoulder as I began to press deeper and deeper into the spirit. He began to weep at the requests the spirit was putting on my Heart as strangers passed by us on the public sidewalk no doubt intrigued. I demanded strength for Davids life, rebuked any lies that he may be living or believing and thanked God for putting him in my path this day. I ended the prayer by thanking God that one day me and David will be sitting at a grand ole feast in heaven remembering this day that God brought us together. After we finished in prayer, David told me he physically felt a burden being lifted off is back, he smiled as he told me his life was changed and that he was rededicating his life to Jesus. He wrote down my name on a piece of paper and promised to come visit the ship and share a meal with me on board. I look forward to meeting with Him again and telling him how much of an answer to prayer he is.

Today I learned that making yourself available to God is the biggest and hardest part of ministry. This has been special day for me and my relationship with Jesus. No distractions can get in the way of his Loving Plan.

Prayer requests

1. God will continue to do radical things like my experience with David, especially in East Timor (next port)

2. That i can bring encouragement to those that desperately need it.

3. Strength and rest on board, and a good voyage to East Timor.

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