Gypsy Repentance

I (Mike) made it back out tonight to Toppers with some guys from the Journey. It was encouraging to spend time together in prayer before going out on the streets to read the Word and share the Gospel with people. God is beginning to visibly move. The dam is cracking and water is starting to spout through tiny holes. Soon it will all come down.

Tonight was different. Something happened that we've not seen before. As Jonathan was talking to some particularly rowdy guys, one of them really began to engage him and listen. But this isn't about that guy. The older man standing behind him was listening intently to what Jonathan had to say. After a few minutes, the younger abandoned the conversation to return to the pleasures of sin, apathetic to the condition of his soul. But the older man stayed, gazing at Jonathan. He approached and spoke to him.

"I am convicted by the Holy Spirit."

Those were his words. And he meant it, too. He said that he knew that he could not go back into the strip club. And he didn't. He and Jonathan disappeared around the corner to go get food and talk – anything to distract him from being tempted to return to his friends inside. Over dinner, Jonathan discovered that Moondog is a gypsy who currently resides outside of Atlanta. Moondog called his family on his cell phone and made Jonathan talk to them about the Gospel and Jesus. It was amazing! 20 months of doing this and we've not seen that kind of Godly repentance in anyone. When they returned, Moondog would not stop thanking us and offering to buy us food and water. He was so grateful. Even when his friends begged and pleaded with him to return inside, he did not, but sent others in to fetch them out when the taxi finally came.

Pray for Moondog. Pray that God will continue this work in his heart. He is a natural leader and some of the other men who were with him who also were gypsies respected him and looked up to him very much. Pray that God will sanctify his heart and use him to reach the Romanian gypsies that he lives among as they nomadically migrate around the county looking for work.

Man, it was good to see God working so clearly tonight. Keep praying for Athens. The dam is about to break.

Encouragement from overseas...

TO THE ISSACHARIANS FROM SOME GIDEONITES...
ISAIAH 41:17-20
... for your further encouragement




Tim Harrold
24-7 Prayer East of London Boiler Room
Thurrock Essex UK
NETWORKS + COMMUNITY
*Gatekeepers of the Gateway*
tim@elbr.net

Something bigger goin' on!!!

From 11.9.06

a VERY BRIEF overview...
After having only 5 people last week all I've been hearing is that we need to be faithful with little! So i was so surprised when i started hearing about people all over the place planning on coming to the Siege! As people strolled into our little office space on the second floor, i was in awe of what God is doing...

..yes, we packed that room with zealous young people who long for PURITY!! My room mate lost count at 50. There were students from 4 other colleges (GCSU, GA State, Perimeter, and one from UCF.. and who knows, there could have been more!)We worshipped and cried out, shared stories and the guys hit the street as a confident army of 17 or so... and the girls of course stayed upstairs to pray, listen and worship!! There were more than 30 of us at once up there!!

God spoke to a few with specific things to pray and even name of another woman to pray for!! AND, He is releasing His "war cry" for purity in His Bride... thats us... we need purity first, then it will flow out!! ANd its so much bigger than just Athens....not that we have anything figured out, but just this issue in the Body Of Christ.... and i LOVE joining in large numbers to pray... esp because God is aparently doing something in this state!

WE LOVE YOU JESUS... COME!!!

Pure Life Testimonial from 11.9.06

This past Thursday night at Pure Life was both fruitful and encouraging to all involved. We witnessed the power of the Holy Spirit moving in the prayer room and on the street. We have several testimonies that are unusually cool so I will share a bit of those.

The first has to do with a girl who approached us on the wall around 12:30 am. She was somewhat skeptical as she began talking to us, and she only wanted to know the reason for us standing on the wall blindfolded. We began to share with her our hearts for repentance in the city and the church (meaning, we are standing there repenting on behalf of the church and the city). We began to explain to her how the love of Christ compels us to pray for the city, and share the gospel, and point people toward lives of purity and joy. As we were sharing with her she began to tear up and she just kept asking, “Why? Why, Should I believe?” I explained to her that everyone in the world desired to be loved with an everlasting, unfailing, perfect love (Despite our brokenness). Furthermore, there is only one person in the world who can offer that type of love, His name is Jesus.

As is the case with many of the people that we talk to, she had been involved in church at one point in her life and it just didn’t ‘stick’. She had prayed the prayer of salvation and she has been touched by the Lord at different times in her life. But over the years she had become jaded and she honestly didn’t see any authenticity in Christianity. However, after 25 minutes of sharing our hearts with her she agreed to let us pray with her. As we began to pray for her the Holy Spirit began to move on her heart and she began crying openly. After we finished praying she hugged us, we exchanged numbers and extended the invitation for her to join us at church this coming Sunday. PLEASE PRAY THAT SHE WOULD USE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO GET PLUGGED IN TO A BODY OF BELIEVERS.

Within minutes two other girls walked up to us. They immediately began expressing their gratitude for our prayers, and they were genuinely encouraged by the fact that young men were standing for purity. Now that in itself isn’t something uncommon for us on a Thursday night, however, it was the nature of these two girls that really surprised us. One of the girls, was just recently released from jail and the other girl, was wearing a shirt with a half-naked person on it. I honestly believed that they were strippers judging by the nature of their attire…needless to say they weren’t our stereotypical supporters (you really can’t judge by appearances). It turns out they weren’t strippers, but they were definitely in need of a touch from heaven. We shared testimonies with them and offered to pray over them before they left. They quickly consented. As we began praying for them one began to weep (no joke she cried for 10 minutes straight…that is a looong time!)

The Holy Spirit began impressing on my heart to ask for a full revelation of Jesus’ love (Eph 3:16-20) to fall on her, and her friend joined right in with me. The Father was healing and mending deep wounds in her and all the pain she had been going through was being released in her tears. After it was over she was beaming. She gave us her number and urged us to pick her up on our way to church on Sunday. PLEASE PRAY FOR THEM!!!
We had many other encouraging opportunities to pray with and encourage people on the street...

prayer requests....in the streets

So while we were in Ibiza Spain this summer (shout out to them-check out their blog http://24-7ibiza.blogspot.com/) we got to spend time with some great people who have a heart for the drunk, drugged, dirty, and deceived who seek fulfillment in fleeting pleasure. Ibiza is a city much like Athens, but worse. There, one of the ways they go about sharing the message of salvation is by going out on the street at night when everyone is out and mostly drunk and high, and take prayer requests- the idea is to bless, not sell Christianity. Their experiences with this, and even our own while we were there, is that people will talk to you about God or Jesus if they see that your heart is to bless them, not to sell something to them. Sometimes people laugh or say something shallow. Often times, they open up and are honest, quite desperate in their own lives for God to heal a grandmother or parent or something real. Once they saw God heal a guy’s knee, and He ended up in the prayer room that night. The team takes the prayer request cards and posts them up on the walls of the prayer room-so the names of the hundreds of people they have talked to are prayed over, and in mercy, God may reveal Himself to these people. God is using this way of doing things in Ibiza-we saw it ourselves.

So how does this apply to us? And is doing that watering down the gospel or the reality that these people need an encounter with Truth? I’ve wondered this for months since we returned from Europe, and finally have gotten some clarity on it now. Someone here had a dream concerning downtown and the prayer room and stuff that included pieces of paper with “prayer request” written on the top. Then a few weeks later, Mike had so much favor with people during the Toppers Siege when he just asked if he could p ray for people. It is an immediate way to people’s needs and hearts- and also an opportunity for God to show His power over all things- His ability to answer our requests. So I believe God confirmed this is something for here

So I’ve been praying about this and every time just thought I shouldn’t plan it, but that it would be a grassroots thing, much like the Toppers thing started… AND THAT’S JUST WHAT HAPPENED FRIDAY NIGHT!! My roommate felt this on her heart, and so did some other people- to just go out there and see what happens!! So I am hoping that they blog their experiences, because they were far more interesting than my own.

So we may just do it again this Friday night, start around midnight, and pray up and go out…get over our fear of man, and be on the streets with people, and GO WITH EXPECTATION. And think about it, right now the city is being soaked in prayer-its gotta be God to do something like this! Join us, if you’d like, feel free to email if you want to come.

JESUS, come change this city, come soften the hearts of people, to see your undying love and full salvation….We invite you and long for you to do this!!

Eager for a move of His Spirit in Athens,
Dana

Strippers, DJs and Vietnam Vets

Postdated Sept.23:

It's Saturday night and I ought to be in bed like a good husband/daddy resting up for church tomorrow, but I'm too wired up to sleep. Spent Friday running Ethan to school and Noah to the doctor (all's well now) and the my folks came to visit all day today, so I've had no time since events transpired Thursday night to relay them to you. I am, however, still excited about them, so hang on and let me tell you…

I hadn't been out to the Toppers outreach in literally months. With Abigayle's arrival and adjusting to being the new director of the Journey this summer and fall, life has just been to crazy for me to have time to stand on a sidewalk from 11pm – 2am on Thursday nights. Finally, life is settling down, so this week I ventured back out.

I'd had a taste of evangelism again lately open-air preaching with a friend at the Tate student center. We preached for 4 hours and the first 2 were dry. Students just kept walking by, apathetic to the Gospel. But then the entire staff of the Wesley Foundation, who were having a day of prayer and fasting, arrived in the plaza to be our "crowd" and pray for us the second 2 hours, and the most amazing thing happened…lots of students began to stop and listen and ask questions and engage us. It was GREAT! So, given how dry my summer has been considering how little I've had to offer anyone else, that day of preaching got me stirred up again.

So out I venture on Thursday night, returning to what I began almost 1 year ago. A handful of faithful guys show up, we prayed with the ladies of Tribe Issachar, and off we went to the sidewalk in front of Toppers. Now, I had several good conversations with people that night, but there are 3 that have really stayed on my heart that I want to share with you…

The first is Forest. Yes, like Gump. He is a large man. Probably 6'2" and close to 275lbs. Gentle guy though. He was talking with Jonathan and some of the other guys initially, but brought Matt and me into the conversation a different points. Turns out our new friend Forest is a DJ at Toppers. He tells us that he knows that the environment that he works in is wrong and harmful, not only to the girls who work there, but to him as well. So we're chatting and he says something that perks my little ears up. He says, "You know, I can see myself where you guys are in 10 years or so…I'm starting to bend this way…" We ask for him to elaborate on this "bending our way" idea.

He is talking when a petite little blond walks up and side hugs him. She's mainly looking at the ground, not wanting to interrupt but I can see enough of her face to see the dark eyeliner and harsh makeup of someone who works on a stage. Our eyes meet and I ask her name. "Carrie," is her reply.

"How are you tonight, Carrie?"

"Pretty good. I'm running an errand to go get cigarettes for a friend inside. I'm a dancer here." Eyes back to the pavement.

"Carrie? My friend Matt and I were just wondering if there is anything that we can be praying for you about."

Eyes peer out, surprised from under a brow and face that is still mostly parallel to the concrete. She studies us for a moment to see if we're serious, and then, after deciding that we're legit, she offers, "My kids."

Well, of course I begin sharing about my kids and connecting with her. She lights up as she relays stories about her 5 r. old and almost 4 yr. old. Carrie almost apologetically offered that her kids go to church every day. They're in day care at a church and she wants them to get a better upbringing than the one she had. It's amazing how the conviction of the Holy Spirit can come on someone you've only offered to pray for. But she knows why we're there and what we're about. She finishes telling us about her kids and I said to her, "Can we just pray right now for them?"

Again surprise lights up her eyes and she smiles and enthusiastically says "Yes!" So we bow our heads, 2 campus ministers and a stripper on a sidewalk in downtown Athens at 12:30am and begin to call out to the God who made Heaven and earth that He would watch over 2 special children, that they might be assured of the love of their mother, and also, that they would be even more assured of the love of their heavenly Father. It was so great to see Carrie beaming as she walked away.

Once she left, I turned my attention back to Forest. He was wrapping up with some of the other guys and getting ready to leave. Now, I have on my person lately several little cards that have the days of the week and a blank line underneath that says next to it "Time of Day." At the top it reads:

APPOINTMENT CARD

Fill in the date of your death

And then beneath the place to fill in day and time it says:

Please don't forget to call me on the day you're going to die. Then we can discuss eternity.

Just under that is my name and cell phone number. On the back is a Gospel presentation. Someone gave me a stack of these and I have been using them a lot lately.

So just before Forest leaves, I ask him about the "10 years from now" thing he said. I wanted to know if he knew that even had 10 years to live. He laughed it off, apparently not worried about dying, so I asked "Can I give you this?" and I handed him the card.

He took a moment to look at it and the expression on his face changed from one of careless enjoyment of the evening to one of sudden realization and concern. He looked me right in the eyes and said "Man, that's heavy."

"yeah, it is, Forest. And the truth is, you can't fill that card out because you don't know when you'll die. It could be next month, next week, tomorrow, or even tonight. Think about it. This isn't something you want to put off – this is your eternity we're talking about here."

Forest went away still looking at the card and thinking about what we said.

Finally, there was Joe. Joe was drunk. Joe is in his 60's. Joe came out of Toppers and wanted to know what we were doing. Joe didn't have any concept of personal space. We began to talk and the short of it is that Joe was in Vietnam, was a preacher, was a police officer and now crawls inside a bottle to try to forget life. He challenged us to quote verses and he would finish them before we could. He knew the Word. He tried to tell me he was Secret Service and was in Toppers to bust a couple of pedophiles. I looked him straight in the eyes and said "If you want to go in there, you're a grown man and I won't stop you. But Joe, you don't have to rationalize your sins to me." He stood there staring at me and turned away in a huff. 10 minutes later he was back in my face.

As he was relaying his story to me in between trips in and out of Toppers, it came up that Joe had been shot twice in the line of duty as a police and that there was some resentment over not having received any commendation for that. He was angry at police and angry about crack heads who got out of jail within 24 hours only to go back to their drugs and crime. He was just angry.

I began to talk to Joe about the failure of the Law to change men. I was explaining that that was the whole idea Paul explored in Romans when the Holy Spirit spoke to me and showed me the more excellent way.

I stopped mid-sentence. "Thank you, Joe."

"What?"

"Thank you. Thank you for being a police officer. Thank you for taking 2 bullets to protect innocent lives."

"Stop it man! You don't need to thank me." He countered.

But Joe, I'm down here tonight and my wife and kids are home alone and it's men and women in uniform that protect my family on nights like tonight. I wasn't there when you got shot, but I want to say thank you on behalf of those who never had the opportunity, or the courage. Thank you, Joe. I mean it." And I placed my hand on his shoulder.

Joe stared and me and then his eyes began to fill with tears. Then he couldn't stop the weeping. After a few minutes of sobbing on the sidewalk, Joe said "I'll be right back," and disappeared into Toppers. 2 minutes later he was back on the street and came to me and said, "I don't need to be in there. I know better. And I'm done drinking. I need to go home. I went and asked the bartender to call me a cab."

Just before he climbed in to the cab to leave, Joe took my hand in his and thanked me and said, "No one's ever done for me what you did tonight." And he was gone.

I think about those 3 lives that I had a chance to touch and I just think how amazing it is that I get to do what I do. Is there any better life than that of one lived in obedience and service to the King?

Mike Satterfield (mike@thejourneyuga.com)

post stories from your time in the prayer room, answered prayers, meetings with the Lord, visions, etc.

www.tribeissachar.com