ROOFTOP PARTY

September 6
New York City

At church Wednesday I was invited to a penthouse rooftop party/fundraiser, of course I wasn't about to pass that up!

The next night we got dressed up and made our way to the rooftop of the Corinthian building. The party was hopping, an open bar and dancing, so naturally I made myself comfortable in a corner away from the people looking out to the city lights of Mahatten. Peroidically my friend Rene would introduce me to his friends and I ended up meeting some amazing people and in the midst of it all God showed up.

ARLENE
This woman had survived Cancer 4 times! If that in itself isn't a testimony, she went on to tell me how she brought revival to a hospital. Arlene was taking treatments and kept at a hospital but she told me she was too social to sit around, so she would go visit the other patients and in a short time was known around the floors as a friend to talk to. She would minister to all of the patients and before long she had the staff of the hospital joining together every morning to pray. She told the story but took not pride in it as anything she had done, understanding it was just the Lord using a willing vessel to do His ministry.

NATHAN
A former atheist who while studying philosophy but in his search for the truth he found even science pointed to a 'higher power.' After 5 years of studying and looking for truth Nathan found Jesus and has now been a believer for less than a year. My friend Carla and I listened to his testimony and talked more about God's power with him and when we told about the baptism of the Holy spirit and his ears perked up. Nathan wanted it and therefore we prayed, despite us being in the middle of a party God showed up and Nathan began speaking in tongues!

STEVE
An Italian man in his early 30's who was throwing the fundraiser/party finally took a break from dancing and entertaining to come hang out just as Nathan was being prayed for. Steve himself had just gotten radically saved in March from what I had heard and asked that He would share his testimony with me. He began by telling me he had been hooked on drugs since age 14, starting with weed and then quickly got hooked on Cocaine and Heroine. He told me how he would rob anyone he knew for drug money, sold everything as he was taking $500-$600 worth of drugs a day. He eventually got caught stealing $100,000 worth of jewelry and got put in jail, from there went to recovery programs where doctors kept Steve hooked on medication to keep him off of Cocaine. Steve told us he would ask the social workers,"How do I get free from this addiction? How do I stop thinking about getting high?" they would tell him, "You'll just have to learn to ignore it." Steve told us he started looking into becoming a Muslim, ghost hunting, anything besides Christianity [he had been hurt by the church as a little kid,] but every time he googled, 'Muslim man gets freed from addiction' Jesus would pop up so he would get mad and log out. A friend of a friend invited him to the Hillsong church and he was guilted into going. He sat front row and told us he wept through the entire sermon and that night he was radically saved, within a week he was off all his medications and has been clean ever since. Now he goes to all 7 services each Sunday and can't get enough of God's glory.

While he was sharing his testimony my friend came up to him and asked him to pray for her, she had been medication for ADD and wanted to be freed, and Steve gave her a blank look as she knelt by his chair waiting for him to pray. "I've never prayed for anyone before..." I looked at him in amazement, this man was one of the most socialable, outgoing men I've ever met! "Well then now's when you start, go ahead" He prayed and then I encouraged him. The enemy had put fear in Steve so that he wouldn't use the very thing God had gifted him in, and I wasn't about to leave that party until Steve knew that.

We were the last ones to leave but the night wasn't over, Read the next post 'CARLOS' to hear about the rest of the night.