House of Prayer, anyone?

So awhile back at the end of August (I beleive), I posted a blog about how God had really been moving through my heart and my mind to start a prayer room on the SC campus. I had talked with my friend, Jessica about it and she had some of the same feelings over the summer, too. Eventually our Greek language class got cancelled and we needed an extra class to bump our schedules back up to 16 credit hours. On a long shot, we confronted our campus minister, Ashlee Alley and told her what God was doing in our hearts. We then asked her if she wouldn't mind overseeing a 3-hour Independent Study class on prayer. To say the least, God has really been exploding lately! Jessica and I are reading a book for our class called "Deep Unto Deep" by Dana Candler. It's a book about personal prayer. Dana Candler is a prayer leader at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City. One of our assignments for our class is to interview prayer leaders. Because of that, Jessica and I decided it would be fun and beneficial to visit IHOP in Kansas City over Fall break in October and I also contacted Dana Candler to see if we could possibly meet with her. She ended up e-mailing me back saying that she would love to meet with us and if she couldn't she said she'd try to find someone else from the International House of Prayer to meet with us! Way cool or what?

Also, another organization called Campus America is headquartered in Kansas City. Campus America is simply an organization that promotes 24/7 prayer and seasons of 24/7 prayer on college campuses. I heard a man named Pete Greig speak at the June Desperation Conference over the summer in Colorado Springs about the 24/7 prayer movement. He is actually one of the founders of Campus America. I figured since they are headquartered in Kansas City, too it might be fun to try to meet with some people from the Campus America team. Just today I got an e-mail back from one of the girls on staff saying she would set up a meeting for us with some of their leaders! How exciting!

Also, today Jessica and I went to talk to Ashlee Alley about some things that had been going on in our "class time." About a week ago, Jessica and I went into the small chapel that is in the library and we found a book of prayers. The book is dated from 2000 up till now. We read the book and ended up taking to to read through the prayers. Many of the prayers ask God that He would show the chapel in the library to people and that people would use it. Also, many of the prayers ask God for a revival and revolution on the SC campus. When we found that book, we just knew that we should try to find out if we could make that small chapel into a prayer room. We asked Ashlee about it today and she was all for it. She told us to ask the library managers about it to see if we could possibly use it. Right after our meeting with Ashlee, we headed over to the SC library to meet with Veronica, the library manager. We told her about what we were wanting to do and she was all for it.

Throughout this whole process we've been asking God to make things smooth...we've been asking God to open up doors and told Him we'd accept challenges to make this prayer room a possibility on our campus. So today, when things went so smoothly...I don't know why we were surprised! We prayed.

I'd ask that all of you would continue to pray for this project and prayer room. Continue to pray for the students on the SC campus. God is doing amazing things through so many people. He is good! Very, very good.

We are shooting to open the prayer room on November 20 with a kick-off of worship, corporate prayer and then a season of continual 48 hour prayer on campus. We are REALLY excited for what God has in store. Keep praying!

Take Off Was Good

Yesterday, at 9:40 AM, Epic Church officially launched! Words cannot express how amazing it is to be sitting here right now writing this blog. I am honestly in awe of Epic's first "harvest." Over the summer, while working for Epic, I would pray continually for launch--launch was always "on the mind." There were times when, in prayer, I would feel so barren and honestly sometimes, I felt like things were never going to reach a harvest point. Launch was almost incomprehensible to me. I soon realized that, with churchplanting, you just never know. You do everything wandering if you're doing stuff right and then you realize that church planting is more a test of trust than anything else.

Yesterday morning while I was in my own little theatre waiting on my children, I was wondering how things were going, it was sooo hard for me not to leave my theatre and go into the big theatre at the Warren where the actual worship service was held. Even at 9:40 I had NO kids. I was really starting to freak-out a little bit. Then, at about 9:42 here come ten kids all at once into the elementary room. Nine boys and one girl. I was suuuuper excited to have ten kids--which was perfect for me. La Shawn, Da Shawn, La Shayla, Mason, Shay, Eli, Jacob, Ethan, Rylan, and Andrew--you're my first kids EVER. We worshipped and danced, then we watched our video curriculum "Kidmo" where we learned about how BIG God is. After that we talked about God and who He is...and then, my favorite part...we prayed together. I had one student volunteer to pray for us, listening to him almost made my cry just sitting there. He thanked God for Epic church and prayed for some other student's prayer requests and then he thanked God for freedom and our soldiers fighting overseas (where this came from, I don't know, I'm guessing home!). We ended our time with a game of Simon says, which actually turned into "Mason says, La Shawn says, Da Shawn says, La Shayla says..."

So, officially, Epic launched out with 180 people total. I'm guessing the rough break down of that is 30 volunteers, about 20 children in the children's ministry, and 130 people at service. What a GREAT day! Not to mention there were about 15 more kids in the actual service that didn't participate in the children's ministry...that's exciting for me!

We ended the day with a Brisket feed at the Smokes house...yummy!! I can't wait to see how God is going to provide in the coming months--even this morning I was looking at a bulletin from the main service that one of my friends brought home and I just couldn't believe it...we are actually a church! It's such a surreal feeling. God is good--I don't say that casually, He really is good. I'd ask that you'd continue to pray for the development of the Epic community God has formulated and still is formulating. For those who have been a part of Epic Church in prayer--thank you, seriously prayer has been the driving force. Now I'm just rambling...but I am SOOO very excited. These are exciting days indeed!

La-La-La-La LAUNCH!!! Prayer.

This Sunday, September 13, 2009 the church plant I work with, Epic, will be launching out for the first time in Andover. Now's the time to assemble, prayer warriors! I want to ask that you'd PRAY, PRAY, PRAY like crazy for launch this Sunday!! I am so excited to see how God is going to work in and through Epic Church and this Sunday is the official start of it all. Would you pray with me!!!!!??

I'll update after Sunday, until then...cheers to prayer!