One of the artists who became deeply involved in the preparations for our week(s) of 24/7 prayer was Robin. She was also a member of our Thursday night prayer group "family", where much of the dreaming, brainstorming, planning and interceding took place during the 9 months leading up to our house of prayer. Robin was involved in several of our stations and I've asked her to share her story and how these stations came about:
Robin says, "What a joy it has been to serve the Lord through the 24/7 prayer focus!
When the prayer focus began in the summer of 2006, I knew that it was the one thing I could commit to at Open Door Fellowship because it was simply focused on seeking the Lord. This rag tag group met together with the pure hearted agenda of seeking God as to what we could do to make a place for prayer, a place for people to draw near to the heart of God.
Step by step, the Lord worked and moved providing the whole auditorium at just the right time of the year and for 6 weeks of messages focused on prayer during our Sunday morning worship services.
Each week at our Thursday night prayer time, we simply worshiped the Lord and asked Him for what He wanted. Each week the Lord would answer with guidance and direction for the next step.
For me personally, early on the Lord gave me an idea to do canvas panels that would be interactive about who God is. As I talked with people about it, people gave input. Susie Folz offered to involve the Fifth grade Sunday School class in sharing the names of God. Frederick Moor suggested I use PVC tubing and to wrap the canvas around the tubing, as the tubing would be somewhat unsightly. At first it was just three panels, then the Lord showed me a cube with each wall being 7’x7’. A prayer partner suggested I use the “I am’s” in John to express the panel about Jesus. An email that I received had a scripture on the Spirit (Isaiah 11:3). From December on I had tasks to do each week whether it was to buy fabric with a 50% off coupon or if it was painting on the primer. The Lord also brought together several bistro tables, a fountain, lighting, an interactive art piece by Angie Platten and several paper handouts with scripture.
When the prayer focus began in the summer of 2006, I knew that it was the one thing I could commit to at Open Door Fellowship because it was simply focused on seeking the Lord. This rag tag group met together with the pure hearted agenda of seeking God as to what we could do to make a place for prayer, a place for people to draw near to the heart of God.
Step by step, the Lord worked and moved providing the whole auditorium at just the right time of the year and for 6 weeks of messages focused on prayer during our Sunday morning worship services.
Each week at our Thursday night prayer time, we simply worshiped the Lord and asked Him for what He wanted. Each week the Lord would answer with guidance and direction for the next step.
For me personally, early on the Lord gave me an idea to do canvas panels that would be interactive about who God is. As I talked with people about it, people gave input. Susie Folz offered to involve the Fifth grade Sunday School class in sharing the names of God. Frederick Moor suggested I use PVC tubing and to wrap the canvas around the tubing, as the tubing would be somewhat unsightly. At first it was just three panels, then the Lord showed me a cube with each wall being 7’x7’. A prayer partner suggested I use the “I am’s” in John to express the panel about Jesus. An email that I received had a scripture on the Spirit (Isaiah 11:3). From December on I had tasks to do each week whether it was to buy fabric with a 50% off coupon or if it was painting on the primer. The Lord also brought together several bistro tables, a fountain, lighting, an interactive art piece by Angie Platten and several paper handouts with scripture.
People called this “the tent” or “the cube.” I called it “the God station” or “the Abide station.” This place that was created was an expression about God, for His glory, done in response to His instruction and guidance. The night before I did the final painting, the Lord led me to simply minister to Him in prayer for quite some time in the middle of the night. When I woke up to paint in the morning it was as if the Lord was full in me and I was simply doing what He wanted. For me this is the fullest and best expression of art and creativity, me just doing what He wants to be done to draw others into a fuller revelation of who He is." - Robin
One of the beautiful "snapshots" in my memory from those weeks was seeing a group of young adults, friends, sitting in a circle on the floor of the God station together, arms draped around each other, no one speaking, but you could just see them soaking together in the Lord's Presence, sharing that special time with each other. It was beautiful.
In the next post (above), Robin will share about one of the other stations she created.
(In the photos above, the young woman is writing her prayer or praise on the outside, and in the second photo, the man is sitting inside the cube. See the post from March 3rd for a poem written by a dear brother at our church, inspired by the God station)
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