A TREE OF LIFE FOR OUR YOUTH

Robin tells the story of the youth station, which consisted of a board covered with dozens of black and white snapshots of our youth group, and then the tree which had many though-provoking and in some cases very touching prayer requests:

My daughter Mia was involved with the youth station. Nicole Hunter and Mia gathered and printed out pictures and prayer requests from the youth group. Mia and Nicole cut and glued the collage together. They had in mind a tree theme. The afternoon of set-up they were seeking God for a tree. As they were driving about, they came across a family who was trimming their front yard. Nicole asked if they could have a tree (that was dead). They said it was fine. Praise God, He provided this really wonderfully shaped tree. They cut the prayer requests into leaf shapes and strung them up on the tree for people to take. An extra table and chair set got placed with the tree and collage making for a really wonderful place to linger and interceed for the young people. It was amazing to see God orchestrate the little details of this seemingly last minute thrown together station.

God works with weeks and months of planning and preparing and even in the last hours of the set-up afternoon to provide a perfect tree. He is the One to do it all for His glory and to shower us with His love.

PRAYER FOR OUR TROOPS

Robin tells us of the last station she helped create:

The final station I was involved with was the military station. Jan Potter is really the point person in our Pray for our Troops military ministry, but her father passed away in January and then her stepmother passed away on the weekend of setup. I know what it is like to lose a parent, so I jumped in to help make Jan’s ideas come to reality. We brought in a tree using yellow ribbons to tie on paper ornaments that had the names of soldiers on them. Jan made a wonderful picture collage. Natalie Clark and I made name tags with the soldiers’ names and tied the names to plastic toy soldiers. Those toy soldiers were flying off the table. Praise God! In total, the toy soldiers and ornaments that are in people’s homes being prayed for are in the 400-500 range. Donna Caudle and others really made the table come together with all the little details being displayed so nicely. -- Robin

We heard a number of stories of people who were very touched by this station. One was a husband and wife who visited the prayer room at different times. They each came home with a soldier, and when they compared them, they realized that they had ended up with a husband and wife who were both in the military -- she got the wife, and he got the husband.

Dona, mentioned above, was so blessed to recognize on the tree the name of a young soldier who was the son of someone who had blessed her greatly years ago when she was a young believer.

This station was, as one can imagine, a great and meaningful favorite with the kids. Many members of our military have been showered in prayer as a result of it.

GOD'S REDEMPTIVE LOVE IN OUR SUFFERING

Robin continues (see June 15th post) to tell us about the prayer stations she created for our weeks of prayer. She says:

Another station the Lord laid on my heart was a suffering station. I did not have any particular ideas in mind, but I knew the Lord had commissioned me to do this. So I set about to talk with people about it. One of the first people I talked with was Trish Wiesling. In our conversation she mentioned something about a weaving; immediately that reminded me of a weaving idea I had seen at a children’s historical museum. Next I talked with several people who had been through some very poignant suffering and took notes about their experience. It seemed fitting to use "speak bubbles" (like in cartoons) to communicate about the feelings and process of dealing with suffering. Angie Warren offered the book “Streams in the Desert” to be used at the station. Frederick Moor built the wooden frame for the station. Several people offered fabric scraps. Judi Clark helped me wire and bead the speak bubbles to the frame. Angie Platten offered a frame and paint. Bit by bit it came together. Collectively three beautiful weavings were completed over the two weeks. It is a testimony of God’s love and redemption to use this station for His glory in our lives. -- Robin

I thought it would be helpful to explain how the station "worked," in terms of the weavings. Below the frames, or looms, there were baskets of strips of cloth. Each basket had strips of the same color, and each basket was labeled with a different type of suffering, for instance, "abuse," "death," or "persecution." The idea was to come before the Lord and allow Him to speak to and reveal to and minister to you, and then weave a strip or strips into the corporate weavings that represented your own suffering experiences. Another one of my deeply moving "snapshot" moments was seeing a young person who had recently gone through incredible loss come in and spend time in front of the suffering station. I know this was just one of many who came through the doors and were ministered to by the profound "meeting-place" this station created between ourselves, our pain and loss, and our Comforter. -- Paula

(The photos above show the sign on the station, the empty looms and station on the first day, the baskets of cloth stips, and the full and finished corporate weavings as they currently hang in our sanctuary foyer)

THE GOD STATION

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.

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)

DISPOSABLE ART FOR NON-DISPOSABLE PEOPLE

I mentioned in that last post about Steve's website, www.outcastpress.org. Steve has had a ministry for many years to thousands of those who "dwell in the shadows" -- especially youth: the street punks, the cutters, the goths, the addicts. This website is just one expression of that ministry. It is not created for "church folk;" it is created for the very ones Jesus would have walked the highways and byways and back streets to find.

Steve is always looking for ways to reach out, minister, create an opportunity or a connection. He's been a great catalyst in our group in this way. One of the latest vehicles he is using to do this is through what he calls "disposable art." He is inviting/challenging our group to do what he has done -- take simple rectangles of cardboard, maybe 6 x 10 inches or so, and paint them with . . . well, with whatever the Lord gives you. Maybe something uplifting like rainbows or butterflies is your style. Maybe you would feel led to create something more somber that might reflect the pain of the hurting person who may find this. Artistic talent is NOT a requirement; but what is helpful is tuning in to the Lord, and asking for His guidance and compassion as you work.

On the other side of the cardboard, Steve encouraged us to put a verse or some words of encouragement or comfort. These will be taken to downtown spots where the homeless and hurting are known to frequent, and either handed out or left, in the hopes that the Lord by His Spirit will speak through them, and that the prayers that have been prayed as we create them will be answered. A finishing touch is a piece of wire attached to the top so the "art" can be hung somewhere.

Steve and Amber and Rusi and Ali have already handed some out. The photos above are of the front and back of one of Amber's. Making these and handing them out -- it's a simple thing. But it's something. The Lord encouraged us in scripture with a simple thing -- a cup of cool water. These pieces of disposable art in their own way may be just the refreshment and hope that a thirsty, hurting soul might need.

Steve is also a writer. Here's what he had to say about today, The Global Day of Prayer:
"I think it's cool that as the American church has lost it's focus on the real issues (prayer, outreach, seeking Christ with passion) that there is a remnant, a vibrant strand across the country and globally that is not contained by church walls. The prayer movement has many diverse expressions. It bridges the body, seems to be rising up from ground level, not top/down. Prayer is much deeper than postmodern, emerging church, seeker sensitive techiques designed to 'grow'churches. I love the fact that people are seeking the most fundamental element of the faith...to pray, to sit in God's presence."

I guess the best line to sum up this post, and maybe Steve himself, is the old bumper sticker:

Think globally; act locally.

A HEART FOR THE CITY

Over a year before our weeks of non-stop prayer, I visited the prayer room at Pure Heart several times during their week of 24/7. The Lord met me each time. One of the days I was in there alone, just worshipping, listening, allowing God to speak to me through the things they had around the room, as well as the prayers, words, and pictures others had brought during the week.

They had a large cross set up, and at one point I was just kneeling in front of it, thinking of the Lord. In that moment, He gave me something I hadn't expected: a heart for the city.

I have had a heart for those who don't know Him; for the hurting; for the least and the lowest, but I can't honestly say that I had ever before had "a heart for the city" - for this city, for Phoenix, where I was born, and where my church is located.

I can't really describe what He gave me or how He gave it, it just felt like all of a sudden something became much more tangible and clearer and specific.

You never know HOW God will touch you when you come into His Presence and consciously allow Him to speak to you and minister to you. The prayer room at Pure Heart didn't have a "city station," and yet that is what God most impacted me with, His heart for this city. He used the space they had set apart, and the things they had added, to draw my heart to Him, and then spoke to me beyond what was even in front of me.

He's good like that.

Fast forward to our preparations for the week of prayer at our church. I knew all along we "had" to have a station on God's heart for the city. I had several ideas, and as time got closer I kept expecting someone, or maybe several "someones'' to come alongside me and make this station happen, as I didn't feel I would have time to on my own. So many of the other pieces I had hoped and prayed to see as part of the prayer room were coming along; but time continued to go by and this one just wasn't coming together, no matter how much I felt that it was "supposed" to or prayed that it would. I think part of me, finally, that last week of preparation, began to resign myself to the fact that it just perhaps was not going to happen.

BUT . . . at the last minute, almost literally, it came together. I had asked KT, a young woman from our church, to take some photographs for this station, months ago. And she had. I still needed some type of a structure to put them on, and a unifying theme. The structure came together in my minds eye and my husband and 16 year old son constructed it the day before the week of prayer began. It was a tall, black, two-sided free-standing board that I had them paint with black magnetic paint, which could also be written on like a chalk board.

I realized the theme had been there inside me all along -- God's heart for the lost, the hurting, the marginalized, God's love and light reaching to dark places where it was needed most. I printed off verses, as well as poems and quotes from my friend Steve's website (www.outcastpress.org - more on this later). Nathaniel, my son who helped construct the station, felt that the words, "The city is sleeping - awaken it with prayer" should be on the board. I gathered all the papers and magnets to go on it, and arranged for KT to meet me the next day with her photos, and I would arrange them and assemble the station.

It turned out that I was busy overseeing and helping the other artists and contributors as they set up their stations in the sanctuary after Sunday service, so KT pitched right in, along with my niece and some others, and after hearing my vision, totally put it all together. KT's photos were amazing, and she added other touches, like hand-lettering the saying about the city in chalk, as well as the Phoenix skyline. We also had more chalk available, as well as slips of paper and magnets, so people could add their own thoughts and prayers alongside the verses, poems, and photos.

I loved how the Lord brought it all together at the last minute, and it ended up being, as all the stations were, something that deeply impacted people, and drew their hearts to pray for others.

By the end of the two weeks the station was covered in chalk writing, and other prayers and heart-cries written on slips of paper and stuck on with magnets. One man shared how touched he was to see the words of compassion that his own young son had written in chalk on the city scape. Another young girl added her own chalk drawings of Jesus in the midst of the poems and photos reflecting pain and isolation. A woman shared the story in Sunday service of how she had spent time in the prayer room, praying for our city in front of that station. Later, as she was driving, she saw the very part of our skyline that KT had depicted in chalk on the board. The woman was so moved, she turned her car around and drove back to the church sanctuary to pray some more.


The addicted. The abused. The abusers. The lonely. The children. The elderly. The mentally ill. The bitter. The poor. The isolated. The frantic. The hopeless. The lost.

The city is sleeping. Awaken it with prayer.

Wrapped in Prayer

Angie (see previous posts) writes about a unique way we prayed for someone dear to her at a recent prayer night:

"I recently read a book entitled FABRIC OF FAITH about a prayer ministry of quilting. The concept is fascinating to me. I love the idea of someone hurting receiving a special lap quilt made just for them that was made with prayers “stitched” in as well as prayers “tied” in with the ties of the quilt. I decided to take this concept and make a small quilt for my 6 year old cousin, Kayla, who has a rare form of brain cancer and does not have a good prognosis. She just went through her first week of radiation, which is a total experiment since the doctors have little faith it will do anything but it’s ‘something’ to try. So, I made this quilt and prayed for Kayla and her family as I sewed it together. I then took it to our Thursday night prayer meeting and had everyone ‘tie’ their own prayers in as they helped tie the quilt with me. I will send it to this coming week so she will know that she is literally being covered in prayer just as the quilt will cover her tiny, sick body while she goes through cancer treatment. It is something tangible that she can keep with her. I pray it brings her incredible comfort and peace as well as encouragement. My greatest prayer is that she and her family feel God’s love and presence wrapped around them every minute of every day as they walk a journey of suffering they never would have chosen. May they know that God’s peace and strength in their weakness.
Angie"

The photos above show the quilt, and then a close-up of one of the ties which was tied on with prayer by one of the members in our group. It was a special experience to touch this fabric work of art that Angie had lovingly pieced, as we prayed aloud and each tied several ties, knowing it was going to dear little Kayla. What a sweet hands-on expression of the compassionate heart of Jesus. May she feel wrapped in His love.