This week I’m taking a break from our Intro to the End Times series to give you a quick update on what life at The Prayer Room looks like right now. (If you haven’t read it yet, a few weeks ago I shared a post on what I believe God is calling the church to in this season. Pop over there, then come back here!)
Practical Steps We’re Taking
The coronavirus really came on our radar in the second week of March. Like everyone else, we cautiously tried to feel out what was the best way to respond without overreacting. We focused our prayers and joined Lou Engle’s three-day Esther fast for God to supernaturally end the outbreak.
Over the next week we watched the group meeting restrictions shrink tighter and tighter, and I believe we had nine separate 3-4 hour emergency leadership meetings within two weeks. (Honestly, those two weeks felt like two months and they’re all a blur.) We instituted our own protocols based on medical recommendations and governmental mandates, constantly adjusting them as needed:
- Current schools cancelled
- Maximum of 10 people in a room
- Washing hands upon entering the building every time
- Cleaning every surface every 2 hours
- Disinfecting the worship leading stations every set
- Not touching the prayer mic
- Encounter service and staff meeting went online
- No hugs or touching— “foot fives” only!
As we’re doing our best to follow the mandates and protect our community, our chief priority is the “fire on the altar” (Lev. 6:13), the live prayer and worship 20 hours a day in our prayer room. That won’t stop no matter what!
On May 1, Texas lifted our stay-at-home order, and things are taking baby steps back to normal. This Saturday we hosted Encounter service with all of our staff invited into the room, and next week we’re inviting the community at large to join us in person. We’re still maintaining strict social distancing and cleaning, and honoring those who don’t feel safe to join us.
Ridiculous Blessing
In the middle of the storm, it’s almost embarrassing how greatly God is blessing us. God prophetically highlighted Psalm 91 to us during our Revelation study several weeks before corona hit. (Our director Brad saw a bumper sticker that said “Psalm 91” and heard God say clearly that he needed to preach on it!) Therefore, we were ALREADY talking about protection, mercy, and favor in His house, specifically in a time of plague, and we have seen Him be faithful to His word!
“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the LORD, ‘My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’ For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday… Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place— the Most High, who is my refuge— no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent.”
(Psalm 91:1-10)
We’ve actually been adding staff in this season! Someone gave a generous donation to cover stipends for three months for five individuals to serve as paid part-time missionaries. We called upon five people who already love The Prayer Room and are currently out of work and invited them to increase their involvement for a season. These five “provisional staff members” have been loving the extra time! Every one one them has been so blessed by the opportunity and plan to stay involved at some sort of increased level even after the stipend ends.
Eric and Robbie, who moved here early this year to join full-time missionary staff, finally were able to start their full-time schedules! Beverly, my small groupie who did an internship last year, also started her full-time missionary schedule. All three of them are still in the partnership development process, but we wanted to get them up and running ASAP. We also have a girl in Wisconsin, Christi, who did an externship with us two years ago and has been raising partnership to move here to join full-time missionary staff in June. She will revolutionize our finance department, strengthen our prayer room, and be such a joy to our community!
In the fall, several staff roles will be shifting, and I will take over Events and Community Life and release our ministry schools into the very capable hands of Luke Fredenberg! Luke is a fellow IHOPU grad who has been a full-time missionary at The Prayer Room for almost five years.
Giving up my schools was not my favorite idea at first, but practically speaking it seems to be a good fit for me, and I know Luke will be incredible at running the schools and caring for students. Also, the Lord gave me a dream several months ago that I was “moving into Caslin’s house,” our previous event coordinator, which I now believe was about taking over her ministry at TPR. I have a lot of peace about this transition and am excited to run our conferences and community events!
We’ve also been blessed abundantly in finances! We’ve had several large gifts come in for TPR’s general budget, as well as a number of gifts for our missionaries. On top of that, I’ve been sewing and selling face masks and have sold over 200 at $10 each. That’s insane!! I’m feeling ridiculously blessed and grateful and saving up for whatever the Lord is preparing me for!
Our prophetic history is sprinkled with words from the Lord about Him being faithful to us and blessing us in the midst of national crisis. We see this season as a partial fulfillment of those words. He has been so, so gracious to strengthen and bless us in these crazy times.
Live Stream The Prayer Room on Youtube!
One of the unforeseen bonuses of Covid-19 was the push to start live streaming our prayer room! There was a season of several weeks wherein places of worship were only allowed to stay open to “live stream services”, so we were like, welp, guess we’re live streaming our 10 “services” a day! The Youtube channel has been a blessing to our community and to those watching at a distance.
At the moment, archives aren’t properly available because Youtube only saves live streams that run for less than 12 hours, but you can watch live right now! And please subscribe!