The pleasure and pain of starting Equip

My Equip training started yesterday (Sat 01/13), and something odd happened to me too. I woke up Saturday morning with some pain in abdomen (stomach & back) area. It wasn't too strong, but painful. I ate breakfast at home in San Franicsco and went to my Equip training at 9:15a down in the peninsula. Once at the training, I didn't feel like eating anything else. Most of the people there were talking and eating fruit, bagels, muffins, and having coffee, tea or juice. The pain in my abdomen started to increase, but then went away completely. About 1:00p, I ate lunch and felt fine. Then at 3:00p I had some hot tea and a couple cookies. As soon as I ate the first bite of the cookie my abdomen area started to feel bad again, then it faded. This seemed odd to me, since I had a moderate size lunch without feeling any pain. We had a time of sharing from 4:00p to 6:30p. During this time I felt normal.

Then it was my turn to go up in front of the group for my seven minutes of testimony. I shared about my background and the history of my relationship with Christ. Once I started talking about Japan, I became very emotional. I was trying so hard not to cry. As I looked out into the 40 + people in the room, I could see some other people were starting to cry now. That really got me choked up. I could barely talk and was really getting embarrassed, but it felt good to share what is on my heart about Japan with my new Equip family. Lynn Johnson (co-founder of Equip) randomly asked a man named Paul to come up and pray for me with her. They both laid their hands on me and prayed for a while. After they prayed for me, a women from South Africa (family friend of the Johnson's) spoke out. She said that she had two words for me that she believes God gave her to her to tell me. She said, "Wild Warrior...Richard, you are a WILD WARRIOR for God in Japan." Another person came forward, her name is Kim (another co-founder of Equip) and said after hearing me talk, this scripture came to her mind.

2 Timothy 1:7
For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

Then she said, "He will sustain you. You are an overcomer." I felt very encouraged by the support I was receiving and more convicted to seek God's plan for Japan and how I can serve him there. When Lynn chose Paul to come up and pray for me, she said she didn't realize that Paul daughter has a heart for Japan too. It's amazing how God weaves the tapestry of our lives together. It was a pretty amazing experience, and I really needed some tissues after that.

Within the hour my abdomen pains came back with a vengeance. I skipped dinner and went into the media room and laid down on a couch. After an hour of trying to ignore the increasing pain, I decided to leave the Johnson's home and drive back to San Francisco. The pain grew more intense and climbed to a level that made me think about going to the hospital. While laying in bed that night, I tried to endure the pain by praying and thinking of other things. At some point close to 3 or 4 AM I fell asleep for a couple hours. Many times during the night I thought that I might be under some sort of spiritual attack. I am not a doctor, but the circumstances surrounding the pain and how it came and went several times, seemed so random to me. As I write this, it's 2:30p on the following Sunday and I can eat soup and toast now, my first food in about 24 hours. WOW! What a way to start the Equip training. I have a feeling this is going to be a wild ride. :)

Update: One of my friends in Japan became sick with stomach pains too at the same time I was beginning to feel the intense pain on Saturday PM. I told her earlier in the day that I was going to the Equip training and she had prayed for me, but she didn't know I was feeling so poorly at the time of the evening pains.