LOVEDETROIT24/7It was a wonderful abundant time of Jesus's goodness, provision, faithfulness, and freedom. Here are some pictures in summary for the week. Jesus sowed much into me, and MUCH into the city of Detroit. He is moving, and powerfully. 24/7 Worship and Prayer... This is where the party and the crying, and pleading and declaring happened. In this room the music didn't stop, and neither did the intercession over the city of Detroit. To keep it going 24/7, people were given 2 hour sets and in rotation we moved in and out. At one point I spent 7 hours on the stage, straight through the night until the morning- Just to worship Papa. And what a wonderful thing it is, the way we dance and its all warfare on behalf of Detroit, but we're having too much fun to notice... Go God.
Why such intense commitment to prayer and worship? (Don't you sleep?!) Because JESUS IS WORTH IT! (WOOPWOOP) Number one. And number two...Because the continual outreaches combined with the prayer and worship is 100x more powerful, and on top of that, our outreach teams knew no boundaries when it came to loving the lost. Our prayers were their protection and their covering both from spiritual, and physical attacks while they were out on the streets. 24/7 Outreach!Outreaches went anywhere and everywhere, to meet anyone and everyone where they were at to give them the love! Teams went to the courthouse, Comerica Park, Downtown Detroit, to the strip clubs, to the sketchy neighborhoods, to the gangsters, the ones with the guns in their pockets, to the muslims, to the college students, to the drug addicts and alcoholics, and to the homeless. All hours of the day, all hours of the night. We worked with a couple different ministries and churches including Lighthouse Cathedral Church, YWAM Detroit, Peace Keepers International, and many many more. Primarily though, it was street ministry at its finest. We saw healings, and transformations, we saw lives given to Christ for the first time, and we saw re-dedications. It is amazing how once you start talking to people, you realize we're all the same really...and what we all want is fulfillment. All we all really want is Jesus...because He's the only one that fills like we need.
This is Steve. And this is by far my favorite testimony. We hosted a cookout in a rough neighborhood with Peace Keepers International. Free food, huge bonfire, Free music, and Jesus. We decided to take a PA system in the back of a pick up truck and play music/ announce the event to everyone, to get people to come. We shared the gospel too. We happened to drive by this homeless man (Steve) and he was drugged out to the max. He could barely talk or move and he was just sort of hobbling along with bag of empty bottles and cans. We called out to him and told him to hop in the truck! That we were having free food and come join us! He just looked at us and said "I can't get up". So a few of the guys hopped right out and helped him into the bed of the truck, and honestly, it was like an ambulance. He slid in on his back, and was just sort of staring up, pills by the container were literally spilling out of his pockets. Our team began to pray over him immediately. It was the image of a tidal wave. You can't stop it, you can't get around it, you can't defend yourself...nothing. All you can do is let it crash over you and sweep you up...and that is exactly what Papa's love did to Steve. Within 3 or 4 minutes of us praying he began to sober up, and he began to cry like a little boy. So I started singing what I felt in the spirit and it was a lullaby, and I sang right to him, eye to eye, the name of Jesus, Jesus, Jesus...And He began to sing it back to me. As he became more and more sober, he asked for the guitar...still barely able to talk. He used to play, and well, and as the drive went on back to the bonfire, and as he became more and more sober he began to be able to play a few things again. He wept, and it was just overwhelmed tears of being lonely for so so so long, and now so so so loved. That night he sang and danced to the music, he laughed, and many many people prayed over him, and he accepted Jesus into his heart. Crazy Love. For more videos of all the testimonies; The Finale!Sunday April 17th to Sunday April 24th...We did it folks. We ended our incredible week with a worship and baptism gathering at Hart Plaza, downtown Detroit. We flew in Rick Pino, and blasted it for all the city to hear. We prayed together, and stood in awe of Papa. The foundations of Detroit have been moved, healed. This is just the beginning. "Sing Detroit Sing, You'll see a brighter day!!" Caught Up in the Fellowship.You know, when you participate in these kind of things, its nearly impossible to feel alone by the end of the week. United in heart, in passion, in mission, and in love for and with Jesus...these new people you met a week ago are now your family. I met amazing amazing amazing people this week, and I love so much the way that the body of Christ works together, and the different flavors each individual brings to the table. Here are some of the wonderful faces from LoveDetroit 2016. And God said "Let there be light", AND IT WAS LIT. Amen. (Let it be so)
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Tonight at work I was serving a table at which a man was sitting with tubes on his face and an oxygen tank. He was kind, and very easy going (The best kind of table to have when it comes to waitressing). He was wheezing, and within the duration of his meal, his breathing got progressively more labored. His mother was with him, both of them elderly. He ordered chicken alfredo.
Something about him struck me and pulled at my heart. Hard. He was obviously still completely with it in his mind, and he wasn't that old. He still had lots of life in his eyes, and this sickness, this physical ailment was chaining him to a much lower quality of life. He liked to talk but could barely. He was coughing and still smiling. His mom told me he was going to have a lung transplant soon, but that he had some sort of special thing that narrowed his chances of getting a lung. They'd have 3 hours to get to the hospital to have the transplant as soon as a lung became available and they live 3 hours away. Human condition. Chained, yet still alive. Coughing and wheezing, but out to eat. My heart twisted inside my chest. It twisted because I identify so strongly within myself. And in those around me I see emptiness and in longing for a real filling, and it's the same. And my heart yearned because I know there is a remedy and there is a peace, a healing...and my greatest longing is to give it, always. To pull up the hopeless to see the sun, to steady weak knees, to offer freedom instead of striving. I have experienced these things, and how can I explain their magnitude? Do I need to? Do you get it? You can feel it right? "Go pray for him..." Papa whispered. WOAH. OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE. DANG IT. But Papa was so gentle when he urged me. It wasn't about getting outside comfort zones, its not about the physical healing, its not about the 'wonder of God'...It was all about love. It was me knowing from experience, what healing and fullness is to be had, and not fearing the normal in order to live genuinely and genuinely invite others into it. I was afraid at first. In fact he got all the way out of the restaurant and across the street. He walked slow and I watched him, and battled faith and fear. Good thing he walks slow too. I decided that I had nothing to prove, nothing to fear. I also decided that although all the times I turn away opportunities like these do not count against me at all, in doing it I am teaching my brain to push away thoughts of faith. Teaching my thoughts to run along rails of "I can't" and "God doesn't pressure me". Which He doesn't. He just loves me deeply. And it compels me. Beyond belief. So I went. Out the doors and across the street. And I prayed with him. Asked him if He had a relationship with Jesus? He said "I guess I'm about to find out real soon huh?" BAM. The reality of what was happening hit me. This wasn't about me at all. Okay great. Step of faith. Yay. This man's ETERNITY was on the LINE, and Jesus was making strong and possibly last attempts at having him in his arms forever. We are talking heart and soul here folks. I wanted to cry. I stumbled over my words and it was a short and not at all holy prayer. But its better that way. Then the pressure isn't on me, and I'm not the heroine. I find comfort in knowing that the Holy Spirit is doing allllllllll the work on that one. I love that. I don't know what any of it meant to the man, but he hugged me. His name is Greg, and you should pray for him. |