A Life of Prayer Is Full…
Yes, I sit still for hours on end.
But then the weekend comes, and we do all kinds of cool stuff to keep our prayer life vibrant before the Lord. Here are a few pictures of the last weeks’ activities…
1. Tour of Atlanta’s Spiritual History
Understanding the spiritual history of a city is very important to orient you in the place of prayer. Without knowing where the city has been, you can labor under the weight of wrong thinking that maybe got passed down through that area generationally. Also, if you are not a native of the city (like myself) it can be difficult to connect your emotions to your spiritual investment in intercession. Touring some historical sites and learning about where the city came from can definitely help you discern the Lord’s plans for restoration in the future.
Sweetwater Creek Mill: slavery
This cotton mill was constructed by slaves during the 1800s. The governor of GA himself invested in the project, and by the forced labor, this mill became the largest building in Atlanta at the time. Its five stories were filled with hired labor from the surrounding rural area, and its cotton products served the Atlanta area. Human slavery was responsible for digging out the millrace; lining it with heavy stones; making bricks; building a support wall for the millrace; and constructing the mill itself. The burden of Atlanta’s history of human subjugation and indignity is far heavier than any of the stones its victims unearthed and carried.
Cyclorama
Next, we stopped at the Cyclorama. It is the world’s largest oil painting on canvas, and one of only three cycloramas remaining in the United States. The Battle for Atlanta is depicted in a 360-degree perspective, complete with three-dimensional figures displayed before it so that you can’t tell where space stops and canvas begins. I marveled at the weight of defeat carried by the South. From the under-funded presentation of the painting to the story behind its acquisition to the events which it depicts, the whole experience made me feel how confused and consequently listless the South really is. Of course the Civil War is over, but think of how many brothers fought brothers! How many young men lost the chance to be a hero. How many women shed tears that were never comforted. How many men were deceived into giving their life on the battlefield to defend the right to take another’s life in slavery. I conclude that many of the ‘good ol’ Southern boys’ here in Georgia are so susceptible to religiosity because they carry tremendous guilt and frustrated longings that they don’t even understand. Georgia was founded as a colony in which debtors could attempt to work themselves free, and we still haven’t learned to trust to mercy…
I AM A MAN: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Museum
We closed the day with a tour of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s museum and memorial. Wow. Even after the Civil War…such hatred and unrest. I could hardly believe the newsreels I watched, the speeches I listened to, the letters and placards and signs and protests and arrests I read. I felt so proud of the Civil Rights movement and so disappointed that so much more was to be done. I was thrilled to learn about the thriving community of Sweet Auburn…and then sorrowful to discover that the highway system had sawed it in half. Spike Lee’s film Bamboozled came to mind as I considered the current state of affairs. The anger, the treachery, the twisted relationships…by the end of this long day I could only say one thing: Lord Jesus come back and be our King! Nothing will ever be right until He comes. No injustice will be satisfied. No freedom will be secured. No fellowship truly achieved until the Lamb that was slain for the world’s sake comes back to reign for the world’s sake. It is His absolute glory to rescue humanity from itself, to call us into the greatness for which He always intended us.
2. Wellspring for Girls Workday
Atlanta is the number one hub of human trafficking in the United States, and possibly the world.
When I heard that fact, and realized that it was true, my heart almost fell out through my toes. I could hardly believe that this center of commerce, this great cultural hub of the South, this gem of the Bible Belt housed the most heinous scourge of our world.
Wellspring for Girls: one of the beautiful cottages
IHOP-ATL was given a strong heartbeat of compassion for this issue and a great responsibility toward seeing its destruction accomplished through a release of the light of Christ Jesus. One of the remarkable women previously on staff here at the House of Prayer now orchestrates the development of the only faith-based program for rehabilitating victims of human trafficking in the United States. This program takes girls that our social system rejects and builds them into vibrant, free young women. Often when rescued, the victims have so many issues that they get put in the psyche ward–although they are not crazy; or, since they were caught in prostitution, they get put in the jail for lack of a better way to process drug-induced sexual slavery. Wellspring Living takes these girls to a home in a safe place far from the city; they get their own bedroom, in-home education and life skills classes, and professional counseling from people that know eternal life is only found in the knowledge of the Father’s heart and the Bridegroom’s love. And so far, they are the only rehabilitation program to have any success. Its not surprising but it’s still discouraging to think about how many girls have missed this opportunity…
We can do it!
We want to help make restoration a real option for these girls, so we volunteered some work hours to help prepare another house for them. We girls did gardening, and the guys did some interior work, like caulking and hauling and carpet-prep. I can hardly express how privileged I felt even to paint flower pots for these girls! I could really touch their lives and help pull them into beauty and light again. =)
3. Sukkot Shake
Did you know that God has a calendar? Like, for real. He has appointed times, certain moments that He has set aside to do stuff with people. Most of these times can be found on the Jewish calendar; His people have been keeping His feasts for…well, a really long time, haha.
The idea of knowing when God Himself is celebrating, remembering, or toasting is new to me. I just figured that He fit Himself into our schedules, I guess
I am really excited to discover what He put in place though. The past week or so was the Feast of Tabernacles, my first real experience with keeping a feast; and it was awesome!
the Sukkah: yes, there are fifteen people and a feast in there!
This Feast is amazing! I had no idea that it looks behind you, in front of you, and in your face at the same time:
- We remember that we were taken out of bondage. The Israelites lived in tents for forty years during their Exodus from 400 years of slavery in Egypt.
- We look forward to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb at the End of the Age. During a Jewish wedding, there are so many friends and family celebrating together, that they often have to build a huge tent addition to the side of the father’s (and bridegroom’s) house!
- We marvel at the fact that God tabernacles with men: the Holy Spirit dwells inside us! And Jesus left His heaven to take on human flesh. And we are just traveling through this earth, waiting for the establishment of a better country and city than this…
The Feast Inside
So, we build a sukkah, or a big tent in the back yard. The guys from IHOP did a fabulous job; this thing fit fifteen people, two tables, and a truck-load of food and drink in it
The top is made of branches so we can see the stars and moon and sky while we celebrate and look up to the heavens, awaiting the meeting of heaven and earth again…
We toasted to the Age to Come:
…what we most look forward in the Millennial Kingdom
…what we are grateful for deliverance from
…and we started dancing ^_^
It is so fitting to live our lives out of this place of joy. Even with all the heaviness of the exploration of the history of this city and the burden of wickedness and darkness in our generation, there is a light yoke: Jesus Christ. He saved us, purchased us for God the Father, and He fellowships with us. He invites us into intimacy. It is knowing the love of Christ that passes all understanding, all knowledge: this is the stuff of eternal life. This is what sustains us for the rest of time–knowing that the Father is delighting and the Son is rejoicing.
Rejoice! (jump up and spin around) And again, I say, Rejoice!
Ok, no—what we REALLY do ;-)
Kiki the Avacado and Kayla praying
Kristin, Martha, Gonzalo, and Jonathan after foozball fun
Kayla, Jonathan, Derrick, and Daniel chatting and snacking
Alex brings an American rock wall to its knees
Gonzalo, me, David, Kayla, and Alex think no one is ever too old to play on the swingset
But every day we love to sit and wait upon the Lord
What I Really Do
So, the way I live my life now is more different than I ever have before. Since I was four years old I have always been studying. Elementary school. Middle school. High school. College…read textbooks, listen to teachers, do homework, study, and take tests to prove that I did all those other things.
Now, I sit in a single room for eight hours a day talking to God. And some other stuff. So here’s a sample day out of the crazy life I’m living 
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6:15 a.m. I wake up. I live with three other girls in a big basement bedroom of a duplex. I am the ‘first’ shower, so I get up before anyone else. We have to rotate because we all share the same bathroom. Then I eat breakfast and pack a sack lunch for the day. Usually it’s a bagel with ham and cheese, haha. I always try to fill a water bottle and drink a lot because we fast (eat nothing) every Tuesday, and it’s really important to stay hydrated.
8:00 a.m. Practising piano is one of my new favorite things to do. My piano is by a window, so I look out into trees and birds in the new morning light. I love playing songs I already know and then taking their sounds and making them different or new to express how I feel. There’s something really lovely about making your own music
8:15 a.m. Martha, Kayla, Kristin, and I jump in the car to leave. Sometimes we have to rearrange the entire drive-way beacuse there are eight girls living in the house; six of us have cars to park in the driveway. I have gotten pretty good at moving cars that aren’t mine without getting a scratch on them, haha. We love rolling down the windows on our way to the International House of Prayer: we spend hours in the same room that has two little windows that don’t even open. I love air-conditioning, but one can only take so much ‘processed’ air.
8:45 a.m. We put our lunches in the community fridge and hurry to sign-in to the Prayer Room. It is a big room full of rows and rows of chairs and a few tables. I like sitting in the front row near the musicians because it is easier to focus. I bring my Bible, a journal, colored pencils, my laptop, lots of different flavors of chewing gum, a bottle of water, plenty of pens, and a few books to study (Knowledge of the Holy, Seven Longings of the Human Heart, etc.).
10 a.m. This is the first intercession set of the day. A full team of musicians come onstage and lead the whole room in several worship songs. Then people in the Prayer Room take turns praying on a mic next to the platform. After each prayer, the singers create a spontaneous chorus using phrases from the prayer, and the whole room joins in. This way everybody gets a chance to intercede on the same page for current events like the hurricanes and upcoming election or the Church around the world or the local community, etc.
12 p.m. We break for lunch. I get thirty minutes to eat, check emails, and make phone calls. Usually, lunch is a lot of fun because everyone is eating and talking together. We tell lots of stories and trade lots of strange foods. One day another intern was running late and only grabbed a raw red pepper for his lunch; he ate it bite-by-bite like an apple!
12:30 p.m. Most days we all go back into the prayer room. Usually in the afternoon, there is one musician on stage for two hours at a time. They play quietly on their instrument–guitar or piano usually. Everyone in the room reads or studies quietly. I like to pace in the open space at the back of the room while I think so that I can stay awake. The music and singing is so peaceful and relaxing, that if I have been up late the night before, I could fall asleep, haha! These afternoon sessions are some of my favorite times to sing quietly to myself. I love making up new songs using verses from Scripture. It helps me think about all the different meanings in each verse and allow the music to help the truth encounter my heart. Often I will get an idea and sit down and draw pictures representing the relationship between my feelings and my new revelation about the heart of God, etc. I have almost a fourth of my journal filled already
4 p.m. Everyday there is another intercession set at this time, but some days I help take care of the little kids while their parents are in the prayer room. Last week I got to take care of the 1 to 2 year olds–they are so precious! I am not really good at interacting with babies, and this is a chance for me to allow God to enjoy me in a setting that I feel really weak in. It is so humbling to be prayed for by a little child!
6 p.m. Two days out of the week, I take a class in the multi-purpose room at this time. We are taking Life of David and Sermon on the Mount as an internship. These classes are fascinating and challenging; I always have tons of notes in the margins of the outlines they hand out. My heart comes alive to see the Scriptures woven into a well-taught idea that I can take back to the prayer room and talk out with the Lord. We are really tired by this point in the day, but there are other people from the community (not in an internship or on-staff at the Prayer Room) in the class, and the presence of new people helps bring energy to the room again.
8:30 p.m. We ladies go home and cook dinner together usually. We talk about our day, experiences we had in the prayer room or class, and joke and laugh. I can’t cook, but Martha and Melissa are excellent cooks, and sometimes they will treat us to dinner. Usually we are really, really talkative because we have been quiet all day in the prayer room. We all firmly believe that females have a certain quota of words to speak everyday before they feel satisfied, lol
11 p.m. By now we have cleaned up and moved downstairs, talked and joked and shared about our lives before and after this internship, planned the next day, done some laundry, played on the exercise ball, rolled around in the desk chair, rearranged our notes, listened to some new music or teaching from IHOP, and repeatedly complained about how tired we are. At least we don’t stay up until 3 a.m. like the guys
11:15 p.m. I love reading a little bit of Les Miserables before I got to bed every night. I love the story and characters. Often I find in each section something related to what I was thinking about in the prayer room that day. I am reading it slowly, but I don’t think it will take me six years to finish like the first time I read it, lol!
Love Letter in Green
He really wants me. That’s all I can say.
Back when I first considered taking a season of consecration through an internship at the International House of Prayer, I decided that I would pay my own way. I wanted to mark this season as my own. It wasn’t something that my parents pushed me into. It was not something that I wanted to treat like a gift: keep it just until it gets boring or the giver has forgotten about it. I wanted it to be mine. I wanted to demonstrate to my own soul that knowing God was its purpose, its destiny, and thereby worth every penny I had, every working hour I spent, every “No I can’t go to the movies tonight”.
According to my last two summers working at Buckhead Uniforms, I would be able to earn the $1950 I needed to cover the cost of housing, tuition, and materials. I assumed I could drudge up a little more for gas, food, and spending as needed. I didn’t worry about my finances at all, and I let my heart be freely moved by the Lord throughout the summer to give away a lot of my money. I didn’t keep track; I loved giving! I got so excited about it that I started carrying my checkbook (which I use for little else) with me so that I could write my tithe check while I was in the car depositing my paycheck, haha.
Then, earlier this week I had a spurt of productivity–which pretty much boiled down to organizing everything the best way I knew how. And I totaled up everything I had in my savings accounts and checking accounts. All I was worth was $1719.81. And I had only two weeks of work ahead of me…then I got sick. So, now, I couldn’t work and I was short for the internship.
So this morning, for the first time, I casually mentioned before the Lord that I might need some money. I hadn’t given up figuring out how to get it myself, but I decided that I might as well let Him know what was going on.
*retrospective chuckle*
I wandered up the driveway to get the mail because I was expecting a NetFlix arrival. But what I got was $250 and a short note telling me that I was ‘marked and He delights in me and I make Him happy.’
He really wants me. Cool, isn’t it?
