Continuing my House of Prayer Spotlight series, this month I’m excited to feature The Reflection Center, a house of prayer in Galveston, TX! The directors, Andrew and Risa Adams, are close friends of The Prayer Room after the Lord sent them to us for a season of training in 2017. They were in the first internship I ran! In a sense, they are our first “plant” and we are so excited to see how God is moving and calling the church of Galveston to a lifestyle of night and day prayer.
Their name, The Reflection Center, describes the mandate of the house of prayer to be a reflection of heaven. Revelation describes the ceaseless worship around the throne of God:
“…day and night they never cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!'”
(Revelation 4:8)
Just as Jesus said to pray “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10) and Moses was commanded to build the tabernacle “after the pattern” of the heavenly realm shown to Him on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 25:40), our houses of prayer are meant to be earthly expressions of what is happening in the throne room of God right now.
I am so grateful that Andrew took the time to answer some questions for me.
When and how did your HOP start?
The Reflection Center House of Prayer began as the Lord spoke to our directors (Andrew and Risa Adams) as they arrived in the States after a 2 year missionary assignment in Germany. Over a few months at the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017, He made it abundantly clear that He wanted His House of Prayer built in Galveston, TX. Andrew and Risa went through the Immerse Internship at TPR, planned and waited for the Lord in summer 2017, and then started the House of Prayer in Galveston in August 2017.
What does your weekly schedule look like now?
We started with 5 hours a week in August 2017. After a hard-fought year of faithfulness and laying the groundwork, the Lord began to move. We slowly increased over that first year from 5 hours to 11 hours a week. Then we suddenly increased over the next 6 months from 11 hours to 22 hours a week!
The Reflection Center also runs a part-time young adult internship and a weekly service called The Gathering with worship, teaching, and discussion. Find their weekly prayer schedule here!
How many people do you have involved?
This “suddenly” is also expressed in our Sacred Trust [those committed to weekly prayer meetings] and community! We went from 2 to 4 to maybe 8 people involved over the first year. Now we have 20 people on the Sacred Trust and several more just hanging out in the community!
What do you believe is your unique mandate and vision as a HOP?
As the director, I believe our main and unique mandate is to exemplify being Mary of Bethany (Luke 10:38-42). Our heart’s desire is to sit at His feet and hear His voice. The overflow of this is that we get to call believers and the Church into this lifestyle. Secondary to this, our mandate is to become forerunners, train forerunners, and proclaim the forerunner message to the Church and to the lost. The forerunner message, in a nutshell, would be the often left out part of the gospel message: that Jesus is coming back to rule and reign and the Bible has a LOT to say about the subject. We are giving ourselves to this as a leadership team with the goal for it to be in the everyday language of our community. [Andrew also wanted me to add that they are called to be “friends of the Bridegroom” like John the Baptist called himself in John 3:29, those who would hear the Bridegroom’s voice and point others to Him, especially related to the message of His coming.]
What is something you love about the culture of your HOP?
I love that the culture of the House of Prayer has this unique dynamic of fulfilling Scripture! It seems obscure to many, but the prophecies (especially once connected) point clearly to the Lord rebuilding the prayer and worship movement of King David AND using it as part of His end time plan. The culture fosters a camaraderie in this biblical goal.
What is something God has taught you on this journey of HOP ministry?
As the director, the Lord has taught me SO MUCH in our short history. He has taught me: leadership and the necessity of connection with Him to keep and receive the vision, the critical need to be in His Word a LOT and how foolish it is to stand before Him and have lame excuses for not having spent time with Him, the undeniable value of a life of prayer and worship and how it keeps you aligned with Him and out of the snares of this world, and the beauty of just sitting at His feet day after day.
What do you believe God is doing in your midst right now, or in this next season?
God definitely has us in a season of ACCELERATION that can only be described as sovereign. He has increased our hours, community, and level of trust while speaking to us that He is getting ready to plant us in a dedicated building for His House of Prayer (we currently rent a beautiful old church that we really like and had no desire to move from!). We have no means to make the move, but He suddenly provided us with a $25,000 donation and 90+ gently used chairs given to us (with a free place to store them)! Only God could have orchestrated that and we are actively waiting for the next move!
For more information, check out thereflectioncenter.com. They have tons of helpful information on not only who they are but the what and the why of the house of prayer! You can also find them on Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube, and Andrew’s blog at heinspiredme.com.