Even if I had to go in a wooden cart

Kayle Mumby

Hey Guys!! (and Gals... :-)

Well, in case some of you didn't know, there was a huge conference from June 29th to July 2nd up here in Canada called "The Gathering." The conference was aimed at the church in Canada repenting for what we had done to the Jewish people and also for how we have gone wrong as a church. The main man organizing this was David Demian, an Arab originally from Egypt. God had shown him and many other people that the reason Canada has not yet had a major move of God sweep the land was mainly due to the anti-Semitism that the church and the people of Canada has held.

So that is why we were in Winnipeg. We had to say sorry not only to God but the Jews. We had killed, abused, tortured and neglected God's chosen people and we had simply turned a blind eye to it all.

So the people in my group left home, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and drove to Winnipeg. A two day jaunt in the most uncomfortable van I had ever been in. But it was worth it and I would do it again even if I had to go in a wooden cart. That is how worth this trip was.

We arrived in Winnipeg and registered and went into the rather massive gym. It had big grand stands and about 2,500 people were there from all over the world. We had every province and territory in Canada represented! We also had a large group of people from Asia, South Africa, Europe, South America, the United States and one man from the South Pacific. We were quite honored to have them all.

The first night started out with everybody doing some awesome worship. It was really neat to hear everybody singing so loudly that it almost drowned out the sound system. I just love to hear thousands of people belting out their songs and not giving a rip about what anybody else thought. Everybody really had a good voice on them as we yelled and cheered and screamed and clapped and stomped to God. David then gave more background as to why were were all here and what we were to do. We then moved into the repentance and prayer. We went through times of corporate prayer where it sounded like the roof was going to fall in as we were so loud. But it was not the celebratory loud. Everybody knew the urgency as to why we were hear and how important it was for forgiveness and we literally were crying out for God for mercy and forgiveness. It was not a fun loud, but an "Oh God save us" loud.

Something that David Demian said was that we had to repent for our own sin. It may be hard to do this, but how can we expect God to move and help us purify the church if we ourselves are not pure to begin with. So we also had a time where we paired off with people and repented of our own personal sin. This was absolutely hard, but great at the same time. Luckily by best friend was with me, so that made it easier and I'm sure many people could say the same thing. But there was also such liberty as well. We all knew how important it was to be pure ourselves before we could do anything for the church so that helped.... and the Spirit of God had a lot to do with it as well!

So the first night was fun and hard, but very worthwhile. I left there feeling a thousand times lighter after the personal confessing and I'm very sure each person would say the same. You could even feel it in the air. But I believe that was God's mercy as the next day was really tough. It was the day where we got down and dirty and really cried out for mercy from God for what the church has done to His people and to the world.

The next day (July 1st), started bright and early at 8:00am. It lasted all the way to 5:30 in the evening with a 30 minute break for lunch. Yep, that's right 10 hours of repenting. And this was not easy, as I'm sure most of you know. Just imagine God revealing to us His heart and how much we have hurt it for 10 hours. It was not fun. But it was so right. For 10 hours 2,500 of us wept and wailed, cried and moaned and sat in shock and horror for what we have done. We felt God's heart move and that moved us and it was incredible. Hard, but incredible.

One of the most moving times was when we had all the ethnic Jews come to the front so we could ask their forgiveness and publicly repent before them. At one point a native lady went before them and was wrapped in the Jewish flag. She told them that she knew their pain. She, as a native woman, has felt the same wrath that the Jews have. Yes, it was not to the same extent, but the native people have felt such horrible things because of the church. But somehow, she went on to ask forgiveness for what the church had done. This coming from a person who had been there. She asked on behalf of me, a white person, for forgiveness. I'm not sure if you all understand that, but ask God to show you. It's really hard to articulate it. But this lady collapsed in front of the Jewish people at the front and wept and wept. Two of the Jewish people went to her and knelt down beside her and embraced and prayed for her. That was incredible. I could not help but to feel like a monster and then feel God's grace come in and wash it away. How can He do that? How can God wash that stuff away so quickly and so readily? How are we worthy of forgiveness?

Somehow God does it... and I am just beginning to see just how valuable it is.

This went on for a while and many, many people came forward representing different groups asking for forgiveness and publicly confessing and repenting towards the Jew's. Another moving time was when all the children came forward. Because the church in Canada chose to turn their backs over 1000 children who were murdered. This was a different case, and Canada was in a position to accept these children, but we didn't do it and these kids were all killed. In my opinion it was not only because of the Nazi's, but also we as a Church in Canada murdered them because we turned our back's on God's chosen people. So all the children at The Gathering came forward and asked forgiveness. Many really small children were openly weeping and you could tell that they understood. The place was not silent at all, it was loud with the wails and cries of everybody calling out for forgiveness and mercy.

At one point in the day we were asking God if we were done. A lady come forward with a vision she had received and it was one of the law scales. On one side was the sin of the church and on the other was the forgiveness. But the sin side outweighed the forgiveness side. So we all fell onto our knees again and asked God to show us what we needed forgiveness for. This just went on and on and we asked God not to lift until it as done. We didn't care who much it hurt or how uncomfortable it was, we knew we needed to repent and we knew we needed mercy or it was all going to be lost. So eventually it lifted and it was 5:30 in the afternoon.

Oh yes, we also collected an offering for the Christian TV people. There are three Christian TV things in Canada, and they were all at the conference! You could tell the authority that these people carried. It was awesome. But anyway, we collected an offering for them. David called for everybody to give something, even if it was just a penny, because that showed that you were really dedicated to the cause. He was not trying to milk the money, but it was straight from God. He also had the people who had no money stand up so someone would give them money. We all eventually went forward and laid the money down in front of the stage. Now this was truly and incredible miracle. The next day they told us how much money was collected and it blew us away. The people at The Gathering gave a total of $78,000 in one offering!!!! What a blessing that was for everybody there.

Anyway, this e-mail is getting really long, so bear with me. This conference was extremely significant to Canada, and I pray you feel it too. That is why I am sharing all this, so if you were not there you can participate as well. Ask God to come and do the same with you. It is needed.

So the last day, we were all feeling like something big was going to happen. And that it did. We sang a few songs, and yelled and cheered a lot, but this time the yelling was different. You could feel the joy and the liberty of the Lord in it. You could also feel the warfare in it. We had cleansed the land and now we were going to take it back. So after one song one man yelled out "FREEDOM!!!" and the place erupted. The crowd just started to spontaneously worship. We all began to clap at the same time and we were all stomping and jumping up and down. This was not initiated by anyone other then the Holy Spirit. The band did not plan this, it just happened. The band didn't even play during this time. It was just constant, deafening yelling and cheering, clapping and dancing, worship and warfare. People began to stream down to the floor and we all began to dance behind the flag of our province. One particularly powerful time was when David began to wave the Jewish flag. The place went absolutely bananas. So this lasted for a good hour and a half at the very least and then the Spirit lifted and we all sat back down. It was really incredible to experience such sustained spontaneous worship with no band playing along until the very, very end. It never got quite, it never let up at all. Just take a volume of a stadium after their team has won the Super Bowl and have that last for at least and hour and a half. The warfare was intense.

So when we eventually all made it back to our seats, we began to make covenants to stand for revival, and for repentance in Canada. At one point they asked all the children to come forward (all who were 18 or younger) so we all went forward. I am lucky because I am 18 and I didn't want to miss this!

So when we were in the front they adults repented before us. They all felt very bad because for the entire conference they were saying how important the kids were. But they younger kids didn't even get name tags. This made most of them feel very bad because everybody but the kids got name tags. So they asked forgiveness, and of course they were forgiven. But one thing that they said was that if any of the adults saw a child without a name tag, they were to give theirs to the child. That was awesome and it made about 200 kids feel really special.

They also asked us all to form a line around the room. We did and then they asked all the pastors to stand in front of us, as they and everybody else was going to ask forgiveness and make a covenant with us. They asked everyone to kneel down in front of us, and it was really, really special for us young 'uns to see this. I found it particularly humbling and moving. But they all prayed and made a covenant to pray for us and raise us up.

Then all the kids served communion to everybody present. These kids did it with such joy. It was really neat (but hard again) to see adults, with tears in their eyes, taking communion from these children who had been given such a great honor.

So that was The Gathering in a nutshell. If they made video tapes, GET THEM. This was absolutely incredible. We all need God to show us just how much we need His forgiveness. We need God to show us how important repentance is. Repentance is truly the key to revival and to taking back our country and our world. Without repenting, God can never show us mercy. It is that simple.

One of the greatest things I took away from this conference was just exactly how important the Jewish people are to God. I never knew it. I never had the concept of God's chosen people. Now it is being birthed in me. But as it is birthed I see how much I have neglected God's people. I have seen with how much disrespect I have treated them with. And it hurts. It hurts. But it is good.

It is necessary and I need it. So do you. I know I haven't been too clear on it, because I am only beginning to understand it myself. But please, pray and ask God to show you. I can feel it in my spirit, but I don't know it enough in my head to properly articulate it enough to you. Maybe someone out there knows more then I and can share. All I can say is that we have hurt God's chosen people, the Jews, more then we can possibly imagine. We need to cry out for forgiveness. We need to cry out for mercy.

And I say this from my heart before God and before any Jewish people reading this. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for what I have done, for the attitudes I have held and the actions I have taken. I'm sorry that we as a church turned our backs to you as you walked into the death camps. I'm sorry that we have blamed our problems on you. I'm sorry that we have tried to make you into the opposite of what you are, outcasts instead of chosen, worthless instead of the pearls that you are. I'm sorry for not respecting you and your culture and holding you with the high esteem and honor that you deserve. I'm sorry and I ask your forgiveness. My heart is breaking for what I have done and the blood of my forefathers is on my hands too. I ask for mercy and I ask for forgiveness in Jesus name. God, give me Your heart for Your people.

I love you all,
Kayle Mumby