Physical Prayer

Last night was my night to go sharing. As a community team we each committed to a certain day that we would go sharing in order to get more people going sharing after the meetings. Anyway I went with my friends Hyram Ho, and Katie. When we went, I felt "out of season," I had a back ache and was tired. I told the two that they lead in who to initiate with, because of how I was feeling.
As we went on, I was sort of praying and singing, mostly for the pain to leave my back. We kept going up to people, and each time we got shot down. We then went up to these girl and this guy, and did the surveys with them and started getting into a good conversation with them, when their parents walked up to us, and their mom looked at us like we were freaks. I said to her in a most cheerful way, "Hi! I'm Jessica!" and held out my hand. No response. I answered with a pretend hand shake and brought my hand back. The girl and guy then said that they needed to go, so I asked the two if they would like a booklet. "no that's alright."
Shot down again.
"Man! We keep running into walls!" I said as we were walking away. I then felt to pray against these walls. So as we were walking I started punching these imaginary walls. I wasn't embarrassed by what I was doing. I then proceeded to grab my sword, and started breaking the walls with that. I don't think I looked crazy to anyone watching. I mean it wasn't full on attack but as we were walking. This was the physical version of what I was praying.
Then Katie saw this guy sitting by himself. So Hyram and I went up to him. Hyram told him that we were Christians seeking to tell people about Christ and asked him if we could talk to him. "sure" he said, there was one wall torn down. As we were talking to him we found out that he was raised going to Church, but only goes for Christmas and Easter. He new that the only way to heaven is through believing in Jesus Christ. His problem though was that he questioned people who accept Christ as their savior, and yet deny Him by their life style. He said that he wasn't doing a lot of good in his life, so he was going to hell, because he didn't want to accept Christ if we was going to live a bad life style. We tried and tried to explain that there is grace, but we were somehow hitting this wall, He still didn't understand that these people could be saved. He then said that his wife (it was their 25th anniversary) was waiting for him so we asked him if we could walk with him. Then as we were walking, Hyram started to explain how accepting Christ, is like saying "I do" at the alter. Once you say "I do" you are married, with this you have the choice to either build the relationship or not. He explained that he could do only one thing for his wife and still be her husband (now he would be a bad husband but he would still be her husband). With that I saw something click in his head. (Yessssss! Another wall broken down! Thank you Father for answering my prayers!) I tried to help by explaining the story of Hosea, taking the whore, Gomer, as a wife. Basically showing him that this is how God is with us. Then with that we left.
I think that gave him a new perspective. It was just so interesting how that prayer was finally answered as we were leaving. God works in mysterious ways! I love God!
I love you all, God bless you!
Jessica

"Command C, Command V"

Hey Guys!
I will be arriving at John Wayne Airport at 8:53PM, on Saturday, August 13th via Northwest Airlines, Flight 393.
so if you all want to see me before I go to Yucaipa for the weekend meet me in the baggage claim in 3 weeks! :D
I miss you all SOOOOO much!!!
I love you!

Jessica

(look its the same message that is on the community blog ...train)

You guys can pray for me that I don't focus on coming home too much. I am really excited to see you all, but I am afraid that it has been getting my mind off of project, which makes me miss out on something that the Lord might be trying to teach me. He has me here for 10 weeks not 7, I just need to remember that!

Okay, I really got to get going! I love you all so dearly! May the Lord bless you in all your ways. May He use you all in mighty ways whether you are working, at church, at home, on a trip, grocery shopping, or wherever! The Lord guide you and give you wisdom!

Love always,
Jessica

Prayer and Intercession

So I think I need to up date a little!
okay so last time I talked about how I had the opportunity to speak about prayer. Well last Thursday I spoke about intercession and why it is so important. It was so cool. I probably only talked about 5 to 10 minutes, but i feel that the Lord really spoke through me (totally His grace!). I talked about how we are co-laborers with Christ and that intercession is speaking on behalf of someone else. I mean I can't really put it all into words but it was cool because I was able to challenge them to pray more. I talked about Elijah and how even thought god told him that the rain would come. God still wanted him to pray, and not only once but 7 times which is the number of completion. Meaning that he needed to pray until it happened.
I feel like so many times in our prayer lives we get so apathetic. We just sit down and say "God, please save 'so-and-so.' amen." how come we don't pray like Elijah? How come we don't pray until it is completed? Why don't we lie face down on the ground crying out for the lost begging for God to send his spirit?
Jesus said "The spirit is willing but the Flesh is weak." so may times I have wanted to cry out to God for my family and friends, for my Dad who isn't saved. But all I did was just sit on the couch and prayed a little. Yes, the Lord knows what we are going to pray before we pray it, and he knows our heart. But he wants to see our passion. So many times he talks about laboring in prayer, wrestling in prayer. Lets do that! Lets Cry out to God, lets pray to the lord of the harvest! Lets pray to the healer. God Cares! He wants to hear our requests and he wants to see our hearts! "The Spirit is willing but the Flesh is weak."

I love you all and miss you! God be with you and bless you!
love always,
Jessica

Intercession

Cool thing that happened was a few weeks ago during prayer time they told us to get into groups of 3 or 4 and pray for our co-workers. Which was typical of our non-fervent prayer time. during this all the staff came in dressed in black and started tying us up and duck taping us together. At first I, like many saw this as funny. We laughed. Then one student stood up, hands bound and shouted "stop laughing! You guys don't get this! Our brothers and sisters in Christ are really going through this, and all you can do is laugh!" one of the staff leaders shouted "Lets see you pray now!" this student started crying out to God! People started to pray. I got out of the group that I was in and fell on my face and started crying out for the missionaries in foreign countries, the lost, and the persecuted. It was such a good time of intercession. The lord kept showing my countries to pray for, and broke my heart. I praise God because, I have been desiring a greater passion for prayer, and the Lord is working on me.

When the staff is away the students will play!

Okay! So here is what is new:
Staff is officially gone!
now for the next five weeks the students rule!
I am co-in charge of the outreach team! The one job that I didn't want ha ha! The Lord is so funny that way! Cool thing though, I can see that this summer he is really going to work on my heart for outreach and the lost.
this Thursday me and my co-leader Luke will be talking during equipping time. He is going to talk about the heart behind outreach. Not just the normal things that we hear but about how evangelism comes out of love for God and not just your doing it because God commands us to. It will be good despite my poor summary. I then will bounce off of him with why prayer is important in evangelism. I am so excited about this because I know that the lord is going to teach me a lot about prayer. One thing that I have been asking the lord is for a bigger passion for prayer, I think God will work through this. ;)

love you all and miss you all so much!
Jessica