We’re in a really exciting moment as a ministry where it seems that God is bringing The Prayer Room a TON of IHOPKC transplants! Currently, we have 12 people on our staff who were IHOPU students, and God brought them here one by one, or two by two, over the past few years. Prior to this season, it was a MUCH slower trickle!
Within the past year:
- Nick and Brittany moved spring 2019. Nick is volunteer staff and Brittany just finished raising partnership to be a part-time missionary.
- Daniel and Tyler moved fall 2019, after both externing in the spring. Both are full-time missionaries. (Sorry for listing you with the married couples, boys…)
- Eric and Wendy and baby Michael moved in December 2019. Eric is currently raising partnership to be full-time, and Wendy is my volunteer admin assistant!
- Robbie and McKenna and unborn baby Toby moved in January 2020. Robbie is currently raising partnership to be full-time, and McKenna is killing it as Brad’s assistant.
This semester, we are running Forerunner Worship Academy, which is a part-time school affiliated with IHOPU’s FMA program in Kansas City. The school is being run by three IHOPU externs, who are spending a semester of their ministry school education serving with us. Each extern has a crazy story:
- Naomi was supposed to come extern and teach music in spring 2019, but she needed to take a semester off from school to take care of some personal things. (That year, we got post-grad Daniel as an emergency ringer instead, and he ended up staying and even joining our senior staff!) This year, Naomi was ready to complete her graduation requirements and is here externing at last!
- Katie beat cancer just a few months ago, and was ready to hit the ground running, but she fractured a vertebrae within the first week while moving. (She LIFTED A CAR that had slipped off a ramp!!) While she was in the hospital, we asked IHOPU if they had another emergency post-grad to send, and we got…
- Taylor! Taylor graduated 2019 and had just arrived in Brazil to teach a similar school at a house of prayer, and was just realizing that it wasn’t working out when she got a call asking her to come to Dallas. A few hours later, she booked a ticket home to pack and arrived on our doorstep within the week.
And then because Katie is a fierce beast who bows to no diagnosis, she was back within a couple weeks as well, wearing a back brace and teaching music! So lo and behold, glory to God, we have THREE stellar externs teaching, coaching, and loving our students so excellently in their musical journeys.
Kansas City Recruiting Trip
All of this was really fun to be able to talk about when we did our twice-annual recruiting trip to IHOPU in February. In their senior year, most of these students will do an externship at another house of prayer or ministry somewhere, and many of them will also be looking for a house of prayer community to become part of after they graduate. Over the years, we’ve come to know for a fact that The Prayer Room is a vibrant, healthy, opportunity-ful place for them to land—we have 12 former IHOPU students currently on our staff, not including our three current externs!
This February, Brad, Brittany, and I drove up for IHOPU’s annual externship expo. About a dozen different ministries who are eligible as externship locations (most of them either local in KC or international; there are only four domestic externship locations this year) gave short presentations and then talked to students at booths.
In addition to this, we did our usual routine of reaching out to a few dozen students individually to set up 30 minute coffee appointments, and then we literally talked to students back to back all day long. We have seen these short meetings bear so much fruit— some students will visit us for a preview weekend, some will extern at The Prayer Room, and some will eventually move to join us on staff long-term. Between coffee, the booth, and moments in between, we had quality connections with 60+ people!
Allen Hood at TPR
A couple weeks ago, we had the incredible privilege to host Allen Hood for the weekend! He came with his son Joshua and visited our teaching staff meeting on Friday night, spent most of the day at Six Flags with the TPR senior staff, spoke at The Prayer Room Saturday night, and spoke at Forerunner Fellowship Sunday morning.
I’ve never known Allen personally (only talked to him once or twice before this) but he has been on leadership of IHOPKC and IHOPU for years and years, until he moved to Colorado just a year ago. He knows and loves Jesus with a passion, depth, and tenderness that provokes me like few people on the face of the earth, and has a well-deserved reputation for being such a DAD, in all the best ways. He’s one I would absolutely feel comfortable going to for fatherly wisdom or a big hug anytime I could.
I feel so, so spoiled that I got the opportunity to get to know Allen for real, after all these years, and to actually get used to him being around for a few days. It felt so right to have him all up in the mix of our community. God was definitely knitting our hearts together, and I’m so grateful for this blessing and excited to see how our connection will develop in the future!
Teacher Equipping group with all of TPR’s teaching staff- most of whom are IHOPU alums! Allen loved to see “his kids” out there doing what IHOPU trained us for.
Bonus Testimony:
At the end of February, my car situation took a dramatic nosedive. My transmission gave out on me, immediately sparking anxiety but setting off a sequence of events that would ultimately be a HUGE blessing:
- Transmission dies 2/22. Quoted $2300 for repair. Have proper meltdown. Robbie, McKenna, and other assorted people make me feel much loved.
- Several people refer me to mechanics with other options, even making phone calls and doing research for me.
- Joseph and Caslin loan me their cars.
- Make Facebook post asking for financial help. About $1400 comes in from 16 people, mostly from the FB post. After taxes, tithe, other giving, it’s about $1000.
- Call original mechanic to say I’m going with a different option for a used transmission, he drops price to $1800 for a rebuild because I’m in ministry. Yes, do it, I can pay $800 out of savings.
- Get my car back 3/4 with a rebuilt transmission.
- Partner gives $1000. Car is now MORE than paid for. Almost cry in the Taco Bell drive-through.
- Pass on the update to someone who wants to give but hasn’t yet. They decide to partner monthly instead of contribute to car. (Earlier someone else did both!)
In the end, I kind of MADE money by breaking my transmission, got a rebuilt transmission with warranty, experienced the love and support of dozens of people… and got two new monthly partners. I felt so loved by my community and so grateful for the Father showing His steadfast care for me in so many ways!