People Shouldn't Be Bought & Sold

Make a step towards becoming an Abolitionist. Today is the last day to vote for Justice for Children International on the Myspace Impact awards. JFCI is a close friend of 24-7 Prayer and Stop the Traffik, and they are doing marvelous things to stop the buying and selling of children in the global sex-trade. (And yes, the sex-trade is alive and well, even in the USA.)

Justice for Children would really benefit from the $10k that Myspace will award to the winner.

If you are a Myspace user:
1. Sign in.
2. To vote, click here. JFCI is the first box on the left, once you scroll down.

Voting closes at midnight tonight. Tell all your homeys.

135 second video on JFCI's work:


Read more. Awaken awareness:
Stop the Traffik
Justice for Children International

24-7 Prayer Musings

We're about 50 hours into our week of prayer. Here are my current musings:

1. Sometimes it's easier for me to be honest by banging out wordless prayers on a djembe or on guitar strings than it is for me to mutter things aloud to God.

2. Maybe some folks who aren't as sensory-oriented sometimes perceive prayer rooms as claustrophobic and weird? I'm trying to gauge the varied responses I've gotten from church people as to why (or why not) they've given the prayer-room a try.

3. I think that the (tiny percentage of) people who already have disciplined prayer lives find prayer rooms insulting. ("Why do I need to come pray in your silly room when I can pray at home like I always do?") But I'm sure that the root of this response is the sneaky streak of individualism that we've allowed into Western Christianity as if it's gospel truth. We really need each other, even in learning to pray.

3.5. A 24-7 Prayer room is a nice welcome mat to people who feel as if they are just terrible at prayer. The freedom experienced inevitably cheers them on that they, too, are capable of authentic and enjoyable prayer.

4. I think prayer rooms give people who are starved for community a tiny whiff of what it feels like to be transparent before others.

5. I wonder if the way we often do anonymous confessions in prayer rooms takes away from being able to truly confess our sins face-to-face, and so be healed. Or maybe it's one step in that direction, for most people.

6. It is a rare joy to have an undistracted space to commune with the Living God.

7. Reading the prayers of others on a wall reminds us that we're not alone.

8. Prayer is a discipline, but it doesn't have to feel like punishment. 24-7 Prayer rooms have renewed a desire for me to pray because they've connected prayer with creativity and childlikeness, even. I'm allowed to finger-paint my prayers, Ma!

9. It feels good to shout to God sometimes. Not necessarily in praise, but in bare frustration and honesty. I've really needed this prayer room to give me permission to do so this week.

24-7 Prayer Week

Yesterday we kicked off a 24-7 Prayer week at my church. Sunday morning about 10 middle and high school kiddos transformed my office into the prayer room while sweating, laughing, and eating Doritos.

We're about 30 hours into it and we've had a pretty much unbroken chain of prayer, much to my surprise. This afternoon I left the room because I needed to sleep, not freaking out that I was "breaking the chain." I returned to find out that one of our awesome maintenance guys had taken the room once I left. So great.

If you are anywhere in the MD/VA area and want to come be a part of it, let me know. (I'd love to see you and serve you hot coffee, too.) Here's our online sign-ups if you wanna jump in. Our last hour will be 3:00pm on Sunday, June 24th: Click here, champ.

It is very fun to see people sign-up out of curiosity (or to "make Jenelle happy") and then to watch them leave the room jazzed by God's Presence, and then immediately signing up for more hours. Today a guy left the prayer room and then asked me if there is need for more people to go out of the country to do missions work!

I love 24-7 prayer. It is so fun. God does stuff when you give him the space and invite others inside.

It is midnight and two teenage girls are staying up with me to unlock the big church doors and let older people in for their late night hours.

(Photo of Lisbon's lovely Monument to the Portuguese Explorers)

Reflections on the 24-7 Prayer Movement

Our church just finished up doing a 40-hour prayer room in my office. Paint, prayers, and holy words are splattered all over the paper covering my walls. They are the earnest prayers of twelve year olds, twenty year olds, and retirees. They are the prayers of families, mamas, and tweens. I never want to take it down.

But that's what I always say at the end of a prayer week. The scraps of paper and the art supplies strewn around the room are like ancient relics. They are altar-like signposts that declare, in simple ways, that God's presence met us.

Ever since this sacred virus of 24-7 prayer got in me, I've found a new freedom to meet with God. Yesterday a wise mama-type in my hometown was helping me debrief on my life in Portugal, asking where it seems God is taking me next. As I talked about the 24-7 prayer movement, she asked, "So, what have you learned about prayer?"

I said, "I've learned that it's much more fun that I ever imagined."

24-7 prayer has taught me how free I can be before God, and how much He longs to meet with us.

I was twenty-three and spiritually exhausted when I found myself signing up for my first one-hour "prayer watch" in Portugal. The Borden's and Uhlers' converted Marty's office into a sacred space, and we dared to devote ourselves to a week of non-stop prayer. That first hour went by like 5 minutes, so I signed up for another. And then, another, this time for one of those insane (but wonderfully still) 3am spots. Before we knew it, the whole week was filled, and people were arm-wrestling for spots on the last day.

God gave me some tender words from Isaiah during my time in that prayer room. I'll never forget what it felt like to scribble them on the walls in blue pastel, and then to write poems in between the lines in black ink. I wept over those words. God had met me in a simple room with paper-covered walls. And here was my altar, built by messy pastels and smeared ink.

I couldn't bear to see those words thrown in the Portuguese rubbish at the end of the week, so I ripped it down, and the paper sits framed in my room today.

Since that first prayer room in Portugal, I've had the pleasure of being a small part of 24-7 prayer rooms in Milan, Naples, the Netherlands, Kansas City, Santa Barbara, and now even in little La Plata. My dream is to see this movement of prayer stirred in Italy in a mighty way.

This week, in 11 countries all around the world, at least 42 groups of people are praying, non-stop, with the dream of knowing more of Jesus, and Him sending them out to love others in His stead. In 8 years, with hardly any budget to speak of, there are 24-7 prayer rooms in 65 countries. Truly, this is a move of the Spirit of God! Especially when you consider that this movement of prayer is largely composed of young people.

A few nights ago, during our 40-hour room, I opened up the prayer-room door to 2 sweet twelve-year old girls, Annie and Alleigh, coming to pray at the midnight hour.

Now, think back to your middle school years. Can you imagine signing up for an hour of prayer with your best friend, at midnight?

Annie and Alleigh came out at 1am giggling (and in desperate need of hot-cocoa), as they had landed a fair amount of paint on their clothes during their wild expressions to the Father.

"Battle scars, that's what the paint really is," I told Annie's grinning mama.

If you're moved at all, go to the 24-7 Prayer Global site to read more and consider giving to this growing movement. And check out what Lisa is saying about 24-7 Prayer, too!

One Englishman's View of America

Brian Heasley is the infamous 24-7 Prayer man in Ibiza. I appreciate how honestly and hilariously he blogs about following Jesus in Europe. He's originally from the UK, but now he walks out a life of prayer, community, and creative mission in Europe's wildest party isle. You can read about 24-7 Prayer Ibiza here.

Brian just returned from speaking at a conference in D.C. called Awaken the Dawn. The line-up included other outstanding folks like Heidi Baker (Iris Ministries), Lou Engle (JHOP + The Cause), and Allen Hood (IHOP). (I would've really liked to go, if I hadn't been on the left coast.) Now that he's back, Brian's just posted a quick list of his reflections on America. His list is great stuff.
Here are 8 of my favorites:

+ It's big
+ You could get fat living there
+ Not many people walk anywhere
+ JFK airport is crap
+ There is a hunger for God
+ We have lots of generalisations about America, many of which are wrong
+ Venison in lasagne works
+ Don't mention the war

Read the rest of Brian's reflections on America.

Grazie, Tino; 107

The sun is setting on another American Thanksgiving. The infamous "Black Friday" is approaching. (For all of our dear non-American friends, tomorrow is the day in the States when hoards of shopper-bugs descend on shopping malls and stores to get the most tasty Christmas sales. Some even camp out on the streets in the bitter cold to be the first in the door at 6am. Insane consumerism, at our best.) Tonight, my mind is in Italy. I'm remembering Tino from Milan. And I can't stop reading Psalm one oh seven. The one with this four-pronged refrain:

Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men! (NKJV)

This summer I did a three-week mission in Italy with a team from 24-7 Prayer. We prayed through the cities, met with different churches, and helped set up some 24-7 prayer rooms. We met Tino on our first stop in Milan. He worked at the church and lived a beautifully simple life.

What I remember about Tino is that he called me "Gina." (A rough Italian equivalent of "Jenelle"?). And I remember that he rode his bike 20 km both to and from work everyday, because he didn't have a car. I remember how his mobile phone would ring non-stop during dinner, and how he'd refuse to answer it. In Tino's Italy, meals are sacred.

Most of all I remember how Tino always bowed his head to humbly say a "thank you" prayer both before and after our meal. I wish I caught every word of his Italian, but for the most part I got it. He was pausing to tell God thanks for being God. (And at the end of his meal, no less! Who does that?)

When I read Psalm 107, I hear Tino waving his work-worn hands at me, urging me as a Psalmist: "Oh, that you would give thanks to the Lord for his goodness, and his wonderful works towards you..."

View from the clouds

I am on a plane headed to Kansas City. There’s a nice view. I salute Southwest Airlines. They are cheap. (Ahem…the flight from Denver to KC cost the same as filling up my car’s gas tank in Portugal.) And they serve plane-shaped crackers! They are such a crack-up when they give the safety-instructions. Today our stewardess said, “Please put your seats in their upright, most uncomfortable positions…Yada yada yada.” She really said the “yadas.” Excellent.

I am jumping out of my skin in excitement that I’m heading to KC for ten days. The first three days I’ll be at the mission base for 24-7 Prayer USA. The last week I’ll be at the International House o’ Prayer mission base. 24-7 Prayer and IHOP are two different expressions of the same basic vision: non-stop, around-the-clock prayer to impact the nations. Both of these prayer movements began in September 1999: 24-7 in Europe, and IHOP in Kansas City. I think God is up to something. I wanna be a part of it.

Links-n-logs:
24-7 Prayer Movement
International House of Prayer (IHOP)