The Gathering 08

Hi everyone.

I have been back in "Babylon" for about a week and a half now. The gathering was a lot easier than last year as far as conditions go, and because I knew what to expect. It was in the Big Sandy forest area (or Pinedale area if that helps) of Wyoming. Beautiful white Poplar/Aspen trees all over with little nobs that looked like eyes. We were about 8800ft in elevation, and there was a 300ft difference and a mile and a half of walking between where we parked and our campsite. The hike in and out were the hardest parts for me.

Our camp was in the downtown rainbow area if you will, really close to main circle, trade circle, water spigots, and the other kitchens. Our camp had three fire pits, seats with backs and one bleacher seating bench, a solar shower, awesome kitchen, and the best shitter.

We served food all day and had a foot washing station, people to pray with, scripture reading station, prayer tent, people giving away clothes at trade circle, sandal/clothes repair, and a worship service at night.

One night we also did the suitcase sideshow (a marionette puppet show about the leper, the prostitute, and the tax collector from Matthew complete with creepy music and demon voices) at a neighboring camp, it was really intense and most who stayed and watched enjoyed it but we got asked not to do it again because it had canned music which is against the rainbow rules.

Unfortunately for the protection of people we came into contact with and for our camp I won't go any further into detail with stories. But here are some main points of the things God reminded me of again this year:

1. It can be really hard to love and respect people who...I'll put it this way... believe differently than you.

2. Who you worship makes all the difference. Satan is the King of everything counterfeit, deceiving many. Without God a drum circle and dancing around the fire is just empty and pointless but when you are doing it in worship to God it changes everything and is so much more full of life.

3. People who "persecute" our camp are usually angry from past hurtful experiences with "the church" and not us personally. So not to worry because by the end of the trip they usually see that we are not like those people and become friends with us. Because God is good.

4. God's timing is perfect, everyone we talked to or helped were divinely appointed to meet us.

Thats all that I can come up with right now but those are the main ones.

Also there are some people in our church who are getting buses and turning them into homes and traveling to all the regional gatherings this year. They will be the Jesus Kitchen caravan, so if you remember to pray for them that would be sweet!

Thanks to everyone who was praying for me and my team we had a great trip!

Love, Kate