“I have a keen sense of direction”

Aug 7, 2010

This Treasure Hunt was a little different in that we had a couple of 9 and10 year old boys that wanted to go with us.  There were 7 of us so we split into 2 teams.  Myself, Terry, and her grandson Colby were on one team. Colby is 10 years old. After prayer, each team sought Holy Spirit for direction and He gave us "clues" for our Treasure Maps. I wrote down the date and time that we completed our maps as I always do. It was 6:00 pm.  Remember that time, it's important.  Then our team was off to a park and them to Walmart as they were location clues that our 10 year old had received.

We had just walked into the entrance of Walmart when Colby yelled out, “There’s our treasure!"  Ahead of us about 30 feet was a couple, and the wife was wearing a purple top and blue shorts which were a couple of Colby's clues.  Terry and I had the color purple on our maps as well.  We followed them past the pharmacy and they split up, going down different isles.  I followed the husband and he came up the pet food isle past the fish food.  We had fish as a clue.  We were only 15 feet from the barbeque grills which were also on our maps.  We had 4 clues so far for this couple so Colby and I approached the husband.  He was in his early forties and had a long pony tail down to the center of his back.  I explained what we were doing and showed him our other "words of knowledge".  The one that sealed it for him was the clue of Navy.  He had recently retired from 20 years in the Navy.  Terry approached his wife and in a few minutes the whole bunch of us were having a prayer meeting. We had a total of 7 “words of knowledge” for this couple. Colby's clues had led us to the exact couple God wanted to touch.  There is no junior Holy Spirit and He will use kids just as well as adults.  What Colby remembered most was that a strange woman had given him a big hug and told him "Thank you."  He had listened to Holy Spirit and this couple had a supernatural encounter with God, next to the fish food, in Walmart.

Next we found a woman and her three kids in the grocery department.  We found them with the odd clue of a single claw drawn on my prophetic art section of my map.  A 15 year old boy named Michael was wearing a Ninja tee shirt on and the weapon on the shirt was a club with single claw on the business end of the club.  My drawing matched his shirt almost exactly.  He was also wearing blue shorts.  What was odd about this encounter was the time. The mom saw the time of 6:00 pm written on our maps, and she started weeping and getting real emotional.  It was at 6:00pm that she had a very strong impression to go to Walmart and go shopping.  She didn't know why but that strong feeling of "go to Walmart" wouldn't go away.  She put if off but finally gave in and gathered up her kids and went.  We found her at 7:20pm.  Awesome!  God spoke to her at the same time he was speaking to us! We had a number of other clues for them as well.

Michael, if you're reading this, remember the prayer you prayed:  He will prove Himself to you - if you seek Him.  Email me.

Our other team when to Home Depot and in no time at all was praying for one of the employees of the store.  The odd thing about him was that we had found his daughter, Stacy, two days earlier during our downtown Thursday night treasure hunt.  What are the odds of that?  While two of the team was ministering to him, the 9 year old, Roger, started telling the other team member, Gail that they needed to go to the garden center of the store because that was where their treasure was. She told him that the garden center was not on their maps and that they needed to follow their treasure maps.  He wouldn't hear off it.  They had to go to the garden center; their treasure was there.  She finally relented and so off they went.

They looked in the garden center and there was not a person there.  Roger insisted they go up every isle and make sure.  Gail told him that he was going to get them lost but Roger informed her that "I have a keen sense of direction" so the search was on.  Not one person was in the garden center so they started to leave and look for their other team members.  At the entrance of the garden center a family was coming in just as they were leaving.  Guess what?  That family matched most of the clues on their maps.  They had found God's hidden treasure and He used a 9 year old boy to lead the way.

An Adventure Into The Unknown

August 5, 2010

It’s the 1st Thursday of the month again. That means Art Walk in downtown Kennewick. There is usually more people downtown for the art display, along with the bar and club patrons. On this Thursday night God lead us to pray with about 10 people. I'm amazed every time he leads us to just the right people at just the right time. Treasure Hunting is always an adventure into the unknown. I will share a couple of tonight’s encounters.

Sitting on a bench across the street from us were two ladies. One of them was wearing a dress with the colors, yellow/gold/orange which were clues on our treasure maps. We crossed the street and started sharing with them that we were Treasure Hunting and we believed they were the ones on our map. The other lady on the bench had tattoos on her back and shoulder. On one of our maps was a drawing of her tattoo. It was almost an exact copy. The stickman art on the map also pointed to the location of places in their bodies that were giving them problems. One was the lower neck/upper spine and the other was the right foot/ankle. One of the ladies was named Stacy and we had the name that start with an S as a name clue.

That’s when one of them said, "I've heard about Treasure Hunters." It turns out some of us had led one of her family members to the Lord about 18 months earlier during a previous Treasure Hunt. We had found him in Home Depot. It was the first time I had ever, start to finish, lead someone to the Lord in all my years as a believer. The words of knowledge led us to him; he had an encounter with the living God, and asked Jesus into his life. I can still remember the weird clues Holy Spirit gave us to find him. I get goose bumps just thinking about that encounter. The God of the Universe used me to bring one of His creations home!

We prayed for healing for them both and the one with the foot problem said that her foot was getting hot. God was touching her and she could feel Him. We had just had another encounter with the presence of Holy Spirit.

We continued down the sidewalk. As we were walking by, Terry asked a guy about to enter a pub if his name was Carl. He said "yes". We also had the clues of gray shirt and flag. The flag was on his gray shirt. Then he told us he was fooling with us and that his real name was Ed. Too late, God had already opened the door. We also had a couple of weird clues of sparkle/sparkly on two different maps. The lady with Ed had a blue top and had suffered with knee pain after a long work day. What really got her attention was that she was an electrician and had the nickname of "Sparky. They both let us pray for them before they entered the pub and we got to tell them about the love of God and the good news of Jesus.

What we had experienced another night of what’s "normal” in God's kingdom.

The Seed Has Been Planted

Vacation at the Oregon Coast, week of July 26^th

We spent a week’s vacation on the Oregon Coast just a few miles North of Depot Bay.  High temperature in the Tri-Cities was 95 deg; the coast, 65 deg.  We had a great time doing nothing but search for agates on the beach with a lot reading thrown in and staying cool.

On Thursday we decided to check out some the local antique shops so I entered a couple addresses into the GPS to help us find them.  Before we left for hunting antiques, Julie and I decided to fill out a Treasure map and hunt for God's treasure as we hunted for the antique treasures.  What could be more fun!  We had a short prayer time, asked Father God to direct us to His treasure, and off we went to Lincoln City.

A short time before we left, the maid came in to clean our room.  It wasn't long before Julie had her cornered in the bathroom speaking and praying with her with a Spanish/English mix.  Julie said she was highlighted to her by Holy Spirit so she took a risk and ended up having a God encounter in our bathroom.  There's something about women and bathrooms :-)

At the South end of Lincoln City we spotted a small area that had 3 or 4 antique shops.  We pulled in do what women really like; shopping.  In the last shop I found that the couple that owned the store was God’s treasure.  God gave us six clues to lead me to them and to confirm to them that God had highlighted them. 

The first was antique shop, and comic books.  This store had a very large antique comic book selection right next to the office area of the store.  I knew this was the place.  I told the couple that owned the store that I was on a treasure hunt and asked the husband if his name was Steve. He gave me a funny look and said “yes”.  "Are you a veteran?" He answered "yes".  He was also involved in a local veterans group.  "Do you have a bad back?"  "Yes".  His back was all messed up. He had gone through 3 or 4 back surgeries and three of his vertebrates were fused.  Do you walk with a limp?  His wife answered this for him.  "Yes, he has a bad knee which caused him to limp at times”. Then she asked, "How do you know this stuff?"

That opened the door to share Jesus with them and how Holy Spirit moves through God's people when they listen to His voice and take risks.  I told them that Jesus loved them so much he gave us clues to confirm to them that He was real, alive, and thinking of them personally.  I got to lay my hands and command healing to come into Steve's body.  I tried to talk him into getting out of his chair to "check it out" but he wouldn't do it.  A lot of miracles seem to happen as the person takes a step of faith and acts upon the word spoken over them.  This couple was blown away by what happened in their store, as was I. The seed has been planted!

Antique shopping is fun; especially if God helps you shop!

On Friday, as we were leaving to come home, we stopped at one last antique store.  The owners were a brother and sister. She had blond/gray hair and green/gray was his appearance. They were on our map from the previous day.   They fit almost all of our remaining clues.  Family, marriage issues, the initials of C, K, and T were her kids.  She also had a bulging disk in her back.  We had a total of 8 clues for them and their family.  Before we left their shop, the four of us were holding hands and having church right in their shop.  God is awesome!!!!