In two short months, I will be leaving again for the Rainbow Gathering.  This will be my sixth (!) year bringing the Gospel to the Gathering, and I am both eager and nervous—as usual.  I actually want to take this newsletter as an opportunity to ask for your help in that mission.  We of course need your prayers, since it is an incredibly intense experience spiritually; but I would also ask that you consider supporting this trip financially.  Our team’s finances are extremely tight this year, and while we spend very little money considering what we accomplish, we will be significantly over budget without God’s help.  We will go no matter what, since we believe that God is calling us there, and we trust him to provide somehow; but at this point, there is no practical way we can afford the trip.  The bulk of the money pays for transportation and food (both that we eat during our training school and that we use to feed people at the Gathering), though this year we also have great need for new equipment (saws, axes, tents, and all the things that are needed to set up a functional kitchen in the middle of the woods).

The Rainbow Gathering has been held for 35 years, and the Jesus Kitchen has been going for the last 12.  While we have yet to see God bring about the mass revival for which we pray every year, we do see him move in power—often in ways that we do not know about until later.  Last year, someone showed up at the Jesus Kitchen I lead on the street in Minneapolis and was shocked to find out that we were the same people she had met at the Rainbow Gathering the year before; people from our camp had prayed with her, and she turned her life over to Jesus soon thereafter.  Likewise, a guy who spent much of his time at the 2002 Gathering yelling at us gave his life to Jesus shortly afterward; a few months after that, he turned up in Minneapolis, discovered our Saturday night outreach, and was blown away that God had brought him to the same group of people who had told him about Jesus at the Gathering.  That man now leads one of our community houses.  Unfortunately, we do not always get to hear the stories of what God does through our Kitchen, but we see him touch people deeply, we see people give their lives over to Jesus, and we trust that not one of God’s words that goes out at our kitchen returns void.

The Gathering is a place of deep darkness, full of people who are seeking all the right things—love, joy, freedom, peace, community—and finding cheap substitutes instead, substitutes that are blinding, killing, and destroying them.  I ache for the people trapped in the darkness they have created, or the darkness that has been brought upon them through the enemy’s deceit (or, for the multitude of children at the Gathering, through the choices of their parents).  They desperately need God.  And we desperately need your help as we bring them the hope and light of God’s truth.  If you feel compelled to support this trip financially, you may send a check to Steiger International, P.O. Box 480, Huntington, MA 01050.  Simply write "Rainbow Gathering" in the memo, and your gift will be directed to the appropriate fund.  All donations are tax deductible.  We would greatly appreciate your support, and if by chance you attend a church where I could come and give a presentation about the Gathering, please let me know.

Thank you again for your support and prayers.  More specifics are below, as usual.

Do not be afraid, but let your hands be strong!

Molly S. Waggoner

• Please pray for the upcoming trip to the Rainbow Gathering, particularly the financial component.  The bus company we have rented from previously is no longer renting out buses, so we need to find a bus or a few large vans that we can afford.  Please pray that God would provide the transportation we need, as well as the money to pay for it.  Insurance and fuel expenses are also serious concerns.  If anyone knows of a church, school, or organization that has vehicles available from June 21-July 8, please let me know!  And, as I wrote in my letter, we would be extremely grateful if any churches would be willing to let someone from our group speak, and perhaps take up a special offering to support the trip.  Please pray that others writing support letters would also receive a helpful response.
• On another very practical level, I need a new roommate starting June 1 and have no sign of one lined up.  Please pray that God would bring the right person, and soon.