God still heals!

One of my favorite verses of the New Testament is Acts 14:3: “So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.” (ESV)

And of one of my favorite things in life is when God shows up in miraculous ways to confirm his word! While I could try to explain what happened, I'll let Brooke tell you! She is on an outreach team that spent their three month lecture phase in Kona, HI and spent about 4 weeks in DC with us and will soon be leaving for the Middle East.

"As our time in Washington DC comes to an end, I can’t help but to smile as I think about all that the Lord has done in this city as well as what He has done in my life. Ever since watching Darren Wilson’s “Finger of God” a few months ago, I’ve had an itch to see God show off before my own eyes. This brings me to my favorite moment out of the four weeks we have been here. Every night our team travels out to DuPont Circle, a popular hang out spot for both locals and tourists. To paint a picture for you, just imagine a park with a pretty fountain in the center surrounded by restaurants galore, embassies, shops, and lots of traffic. A large portion of the homeless community call this place their home. The first night our team decided to evangelize in groups of two. With that being said, Grant, his ukulele (aka companion for life), and myself were off. At this point I’m thinking to myself okay lets take a lap around the park and scope out our bait, but Grant just goes for it.

We walk up to a group of four homeless people hanging out on a bench and begin talking about life. Grant takes Mitch who is a universalist and I take Bree, Kevin, and Brett who gives me every reason not to believe in God. Bree has a past of rejection, abuse, and confusion so it was a challenge getting her to open up. Kevin deals with self worth, oppression, and fear that causes him to remain silent. Brett grew up with no stability, love, or acceptation. After nearly two hours of conversation, my hunger to see God move is out of control. It’s like waiting for your favorite meal at your favorite restaurant. All the sudden Brett moans and complains about the pain in his leg. My ears perk up and I realize my favorite meal at my favorite restaurant is about to be served. Brett can barely walk, even with his cane because he was hit by a car which caused a serious meniscus injury. I asked if I could pray over his leg and he said yes! After praying I asked him to stand up without his cane. His reaction is one I will remember for the rest of my life.

Standing in awe, his jaws hit the ground and he says, “There is no pain in my knee.” Still limping, I insist we keep praying that God will completely restore his entire leg back to its original design. Grant walks over and we both pray for full healing. Brett stands up once more and exclaims, “I feel like I have a new leg! Lets walk to California! What the....” Completely dumbfounded at what just happened, Brett tells us that he’s going to share with his mom (who is an atheist), this miracle of how God healed his leg! Bree insists that we pray for her dad who has cancer and Kevin was willing to receive prophetic words, affirmation and prayer too. The atmosphere shifted in that moment, a moment I will never forget. Time and time again I will hear various people from the homeless community speak about how Brett doesn’t walk with his cane anymore. They say he uses that cane as a testimony of how God healed his leg. And that my friends, is the beginning of an awakening in DuPont Circle."

New location and 24/7 prayer!!!

Our new house on Massachusetts Ave. (aka Embassy Row)

I am so delighted to announce that we have moved to an amazing location on Embassy Row, on the same street with embassies from all nations in the Earth except for 5. There are about 30 people staying here, and it has been such a joy living here. When we're not in the classroom or prayer room, we're probably playing chess, ping pong or out on the streets telling people about Jesus.

Brandon & Kari playing chess

I am also so delighted to announce that ever since about 7:00 pm Wednesday, July 3rd, we have committed to establish a specific prayer room that is filled with some sort of prayer 24/7, day and night, night and day, without ceasing. It has been so much fun as we constantly seek to fill the time, and keep that reach in our hearts, that above all else we just want to know God as He can be known and love him as he can be loved. Many of the students have been stepping out and singing on the mic, and many new songs have been written on the spot as we simply lift up a love song to our beautiful God. We believe that it is pleasing to God, and that He will bring about a great awakening in America because of the prayers of His people.

Jason Hershey casting vision for 24/7 prayer on July 3rd

There are many reasons to keep 24/7 prayer going, but two reasons have been at the forefront of my mind. One is that Jesus is simply worthy night and day of worship and praise. In Revelation 4-5 we see this constant reality in heaven. They just can't stop worshiping God in Heaven, so why not establish heavenly worship on Earth? God is simply worthy of unending praise!

Our glorious prayer room!

The other reason is that we are constantly in need in prayer. Without God's intervention, every human is on a path towards hell. We need God to intervene! All of the greatest awakenings in history have been birthed in prayer!! Read on for a short summary of the 100 year, 24/7 prayer watch that went on in Herrnhut, Germany and ended up impacting the world. This is an excerpt from http://www.ihopkc.org/prayerroom/history/:

"August of 1727 is seen as the Moravian Pentecost. Zinzendorf said August 13 was “a day of the outpourings of the Holy Spirit upon the congregation; it was its Pentecost.” Within two weeks of the outpouring, twenty-four men and twenty-four women covenanted to pray “hourly intercessions,” thus praying every hour around the clock. They were committed to see that, “The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out” (Lev. 6:13). The numbers committed to this endeavor soon increased to around seventy from the community. This prayer meeting would go non-stop for more than one hundred years and is seen by many as the spiritual power behind the impact the Moravians had on the world.

From the prayer room at Herrnhut came a missionary zeal which has hardly been surpassed in church history. The spark initially came from Zinzendorf’s encounter in Denmark with Eskimos who had been converted by Lutherans. The count returned to Herrnhut and conveyed his passion to see the gospel go to the nations. As a result, many of the community went out into the world to preach the gospel, some even selling themselves into slavery in order to fulfill the great commission. This commitment is shown by a simple statistic. Typically, when it comes to world missions, the Protestant laity to missionary ratio has been 5000:1. The Moravians, however, saw a much increased ratio of 60:1. By 1776, some 226 missionaries had been sent out from the community at Herrnhut. It is clear through the teaching of the so-called father of modern missions, William Carey, that the Moravians had a profound impact on him in regard to their zeal for missionary activity. It is also through the missions-minded Moravians that John Wesley came to faith. The impact of this little community in Saxony, which committed to seek the face of the Lord day and night, has truly been immeasurable.”

God is truly raising up a movement of night and day prayer all across the Earth. Please pray for us that the fire on the altar here would never go out, and may God bless you with a greater expression of prayer in your area as well. Thank you!