Global Day of Prayer - Sunday, May 31st

Hey Friends. If you're still thinking skyward after Operation Rolling Thunder, and still aching and hoping for the community - both near and far - we want to make sure you know about the Global Day of Prayer (GDOP) which is this Sunday, May 31st. The Pasadena event will be held at the Rose Bowl Court of Champions. It starts at 6pm and ends at 9pm, so you can go to Warehouse and hear our guest speaker, Brian Loritts (Albert's mentor), then head on over to the Rose Bowl afterward if so inclined.

Here are the links for more info:

• http://www.lovepasadena.org/AboutGDOP.htm
• http://www.globaldayofprayer.com/

Oh. And how was your prayer yesterday, anyway? Any victories to report? Blessings? Struggles? We'd love to hear how the day went. If there's something you feel comfortable sharing or praising publicly, please share it with the gang in the comments space below.

Shalom!
~Aida

"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. My eyes will be open and my ears attentive to every prayer made in this place." (2 Chronicles 7:14-15)

"Think as Jesus Taught"

Hey, friends,

Just wanted to post yesterday's reading from Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest, as the verse was the same as our prayer room, and as we're heading into Operation Rolling Thunder.

"Pray without ceasing." 1 Thessalonians 5:17

We think rightly or wrongly about prayer according to the conception we have in our minds of prayer. If we think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts, we think rightly. The blood flows ceaselessly, and breathing continues ceaselessly; we are not conscious of it, but it is always going on. We are not always conscious of Jesus keeping us in perfect joint with God, but if we are obeying Him, He always is. Prayer is not an exercise, it is the life. Beware of anything that stops ejaculatory prayer. "Pray without ceasing," keep the childlike habit of ejaculatory prayer in your heart to God all the time.

Jesus never mentioned unanswered prayer, He had the boundless certainty that prayer is always answered. Have we by the Spirit the unspeakable certainty that Jesus had about prayer, or do we think of the times when God does not seem to have answered prayer? "Every one that asketh receiveth." We say - "But . . . , but . . ." God answers prayer in the best way, not sometimes, but every time, although the immediate manifestation of the answer in the domain in which we want it may not always follow. Do we expect God to answer prayer?

The danger with us is that we want to water down the things that Jesus says and make them mean something in accordance with common sense; if it were only common sense, it was not worth while for Him to say it. The things Jesus says about prayer are supernatural revelations.

Operation Rolling Thunder: Warehousers Called to Pray on May 28, 2009

As we type this, there is someone praying for Pasadena. In fact there will be someone praying each hour 24/7 for the rest of the month, lifting up our city to the Lord.

Operation Rolling Thunder is a prayer movement that's all about Pasadena.

For 24 days - from the National Day of Prayer on May 7th through the Global Day of Prayer on May 31st - twenty three Pasadena churches have taken on the challenge to pray for one full day for 24 hours. On the 24th day, which happens to be the Global Day of Prayer, all of the churches are invited to pray together as one at the Rose Bowl.

WAREHOUSE HAS FAITHFULLY COMMITTED TO

THURSDAY, MAY 28TH AS OUR DAY TO PRAY.

What are we asking from you?

We are trusting that God will bring forth 24 different people from Warehouse who will each commit to pray for one hour on May 28th from 12:01am to 11:59pm. You don't have to come to any specific location to pray, you can pray right where you are, wherever you are.

What are we praying for?

• For God’s Kingdom to come to business, government, military, education, family, church, media/entertainment/arts, and healthcare;
• For the safe and smooth release of many thousands of ex-inmates back into Pasadena society in the near future;
• For this entire Kingdom-led transformation process to go well – and it is a long-term process;
• For all the pastors and congregations who are involved in seeking Kingdom-led transformation in Pasadena through adopt-a-school, gang intervention, low-cost housing, and more.

But don't feel limited by this list. As in all things, we pray with intention, but we also pray as the Spirit leads. A more detailed list is available here.

How do you sign up?

Check us out at the back table @ Warehouse this Sunday, May 24th, choose an hour, pick up a reminder card, and you'll be on your way!

We know Warehouse will come through. In so many ways we have proven ourselves to live up to our mission to be a community of concern, on a discovery of faith. Can't wait to pray with you (with you in Spirit, that is) on May 28th!

See ya Sunday!

~The GLO Team

Operation Rolling Thunder (ORT) Phase I Update:

• We’ve now had seven days of continual 24hr prayer over Pasadena!
• We are very exited that 22 (now 23) congregations and ministries are each taking 24hr of prayer May 8 to May 30!!
• The May 31 Pasadena Global Day of Prayer at the Rose Bowl, Sunday 6-9pm will be a historic occasion – 219 nations praying on the same day!! The largest prayer gathering in the history of humanity!!

A part of the reason the Lord has orchestrated Operation Rolling Thunder is because of the biblical principle of mass. Mass defines the power that can be projected through agreement in prayer. Corporate Prayer events like the Pasadena Global Day of Prayer on May 31st also help enormously to develop a culture of prayer and the prayer momentum already gained in the city. From my experience prayer is more caught than taught.

Recent Testimony – Kansas began Operating Rolling Thunder on April 6th and reported that ever since they established that canopy of prayer over their city no homicides were reported. Prior to that they had averaged 3 per month.

Looking Ahead – Phase II of Operation Rolling Thunder is moving toward 365 days of continual prayer over the city – It is possible to see continual 24hrs of prayer all year round in Pasadena!!

________________________________________________

The update above was abstracted from a letter from Michael Spence of "Love Pasadena," the coordinating body for ORT 2009 in Pasadena. http://www.lovepasadena.org/

More at http://www.watchmanministries.com/pages.asp?pageid=66974

Homeless Karaoke

Hey Friends,

This past weekend I had an opportunity to partner with my church, Christian Assembly, on our annual Young Adult's Urban Plunge and work with Central City Community Outreach. CCCO is located in Skid Row in Downtown Los Angeles right in the heart of the largest homeless population in the nation. I want to confess that in the past, I've been kind of scared of homeless people and I have largely ignored them, thought ill of them, and haven't honestly taken the time to get to know any homeless people by name. I mostly felt confused and unsure of how to deal with people I see on the street and this gaping problem.

But this weekend, I was humbled.I was challenged to take a risk and actually looked several homeless people in the eye and tried seeing the world with a different lens. I had some deep conversations with Fred and Jim, two homeless people I met with my team on the street. I took the time to listen. I also learned some crazy statistics about the homeless. Did you know that the average age of the homeless is 7 years old?! Can you believe that? 7...and that there has been a 360% increase of women and children on Skid Row in the last 6 months, primarily because after being victims of domestic abuse they have nowhere to turn?

Now I know we all have different ideas of the homeless and what the causes are, what our role is, etc. I'm not here to start some argument about it, but I would just like to challenge you to watch this short documentary about a program called Homeless Karaoke. I'm a believer that film can change lives and this film and program has actually changed the lives of people within the Skid Row community. It's easy to have your hope challenged when you go to Skid Row. And yet I found myself being inspired by the stories of people in LA who are giving their lives to help people like Fred, who without us even mentioning it, told us about how at Homeless Karaoke, he has the opportunity to rise above his status in society and be respected under his alias, Dr.Cool.

In the documentary you will see Grady, Tony, and Jan, some of these people who daily give their lives to the Skid Row community. I dare you to watch this and at least not be challenged a little bit. I know it challenged me... And if you want to join some of my team members to see what Homeless Karaoke is like, let me know. We're checking it out this month!

http://www.homelesskaraoke.com/

Go to VIEW.

Thanks!
Melissa

Ajith Fernando Speaking at LAC May 16th and 17th

Yes! I saw Ajith speak at Urbana 2006. He’s funny, real, and has a profound story to tell about how God has used tremendous tragedy, war, and unrest, not to mention natural disasters, to bring Sri Lankans to the foot of the cross person by person, family by family. He has a whirlwind personal testimony of humility, love, a passion for Jesus and for the study of His Word, and most of all an undying Kingdom vision for a people and a culture he calls home.

I totally recommend you guys attend either the Saturday night or one of the two Sunday morning services May 16th/17th (next week!) to hear this strong and lovely man of God share some of his story, and His Story. I don’t know what his topic will be but he’s quite the scholar and expositor. At Urbana he led us through an exposition of Ephesians on each of the five days of the conference. It was the highlight of each morning this time of study and reflection.

So check him out next weekend @ Lake.

This is a perfect time to also let you know about GLO’s upcoming Summer Series:

Sri Lanka: Words, Film, Music, Food and Service
July 9th through August 20th

Hang out with us as we engage with Sri Lankan life and culture right here in Greater Los Angeles. Join us for a film screening, live music, food, and a volunteer project in our local community. Plus – we’ll have another guest speaker share and pray with us in a smaller, more casual setting.

The best part about this whole thing is we planned the GLO Summer Series without even knowing about Ajith’s visit to Lake.

Jesus is so Cool Like That. :)

Watch the blog in June for details!

National Day of Prayer

Wikipedia tells me that "the National Day of Prayer is a day designated by the United States Congress as a day when people are asked to come together and pray, especially for their country. It was created as a floating holiday in 1952 and fixed on the first Thursday in May by Ronald Reagan."

The article went on to talk about the controversy surrounding this event (separation of church and state, growing exclusivity to Christian evangelicals, etc). I write that here to recognize that exists, but as a person of faith and as a contributor to this, uh, prayer group, I'm all for the NDoP.

I was recently reminded that, like the plaster slabs upon which the law was written by the Israelites upon entering the promised land, the monuments surrounding our nation's Capitol tell us that our founding fathers were people of faith. Moreover, many of the principles for today's law and society are built on God's law, which he commanded "that [we] may live, and that it may go well with [us], and that [we] may live long" (Deut 5:33). There are many Bible verses engraved into those monuments and even a depiction of Moses and the Ten Commandments on the frieze of the Supreme Court buidling. Sadly--and ironically--such is simply not allowed anymore.

There's a lot about our country that we can't fix ourselves--just look at the headlines.

But let's pray thanks, too, for all the ways in which we are blessed by our nation, most of all for the many freedoms we enjoy.

Happy NDoP, and happy praying!

Welcome

Come one, come all and post on our Blog, our afterGLO blog, the baddest, boldest, sweetest blog to hit the cber world!

A Little Daring

What a wonderful journey this book has been over the past few months. I don't know what your expectations were, but I think I was most surprised that the direction this book is going is upward and not inward.

I guess one way to say it is that I have found that, because of the book, I am drawing nearer to God in prayer, as opposed to trying to pull God down closer to me.

Sometimes I think of prayer as such an inward thing, but as I seek to glorify God and to lift up who He is, I have less angst about whether God is bending down to take care of every one of my needs. I know, because of how Big He is, that there is no question about His ability to speak into anything in my life at any time, and in my smallness, I can rest in that like a child rests in her dad. And in that rest, I can take a deep breath and then re-direct my eyes to Kingdom Purposes.

Anyway. That's just a little of how the book has played out in my walk.