Charlotte247’s Weblog

Thanks to a donation from here, I  was able to put a dvd player in the Isaiah 58 prayer station with a dvd about the world’s statistics on poverty. The thing that caught my attention in 24-7 today was watching a homeless person watch that dvd.  I’d never seen anyone that transfixed by a single video. Instead of coming out of it with a sense of entitlement of what others owe him in help & support, he came out wanting to do more for those far more poor than he himself. Today, that homeless guy encountered the word of the Lord in that I58 booth. But he himself was was the word of the Lord to me.  At 24-7, the homless & businessman & anglican preist, & the artists, they all come with the same need to seek & hear from God. And God delivers.

okay, here goes: 

it was my first experience in a 24-7 prayer room and i felt truly blessed to be there.  I thought i might have trouble finding it, but it turned out not to be so difficult. i knocked on the door, but no one answered so i opened it and slipped inside. i was first struck by the darkness, it was almost eerie, but in a good way. i scanned the front desk and then made my way into the heart of the room. at the time i was reading velvet elvis and in the book he asked the question “have you ever been in a place where you felt you ought to remove your shoes because you sensed you were on holy ground?” i’d never had an experience of that sorts until this moment. i slipped off my sandals near the footprints on the cement. i turned circles for a minute and ended up in the lost and found. i wrote down the names that were in my head and glanced over at the help desk. what wonderful names! i walked over and stood on the couch, stared hard at the world map. i have felt a strong desire to go to london, and an even stronger desire to be of help to africa. i had been trying to figure out where God was leading me. i ran my hand over much of the world. “Lord, should i go to Africa?” i stumbled. i had meant to say london. i think visited most of the “stations” while i was there. i sat a chair at one point, put my feet up and felt this indescribable peace. i drew a fairly bad picture at the table. i scribbled a prayer into a notebook at one of the desks. i listened to the nooma video “rain,” and as it was ending i glanced over the the wall adjacent to the tv screen. in bold letters a question, “what’s you’re biggest fear?” without a breath it hit me. i read further. “take a slip of paper, jot down your fears and place them at the feet of Jesus.” i did. i sat down in front of the painting on the hard wooden chair, i let the paper slip out of my hand. at this point i was sobbing, and it felt so good. i sat there for a long time, then, slowly i made my way back to the lost and found, keeping the promise i made when i wrote down my own names. by now there was another body there and i felt it was time for me to go. i thought the light out side would jar my system but it wasn’t so bad. i felt energized and excited and contemplative and ready.  well, i guess this a bit long, but this is how it was for me. thank you so much for all that you guys do!Brandy

Hey,

Just wanted to let you know that I visited the Prayer Room about 3 weeks ago and it has been on my mind since!  I had been feeling over that last while that something was missing from my life, but I really didnt know what. I have several friends, a decent job, you know, things are going ok, but something was missing.  I grew up in Church, attending off and on, but in the last 2-3 years had kinda gotten a little disillusioned with it.  Anyway, without getting into all of that, I heard about this Prayer Room in Charlotte and checked out the website.  I liked what I was reading and decided to stop by.  I stopped by one Saturday afternoon around 3:00, no one was there except for Jere, tending the site.  I was rather nervous as I didn’t know exactly what to expect, but as soon as I walked in, I felt comforted. Jere showed me around the Room and as he did this, in the most reverant place that I have ever been, I could feel the presence of Christ!!  No more nervous, no more feeling wierd going into a new place, only the feeling of peace!  We prayed just b4 I left and I felt comforted that I had connected with God and that I had a new purpose in life!  Please let me know what it is that I can do to help you guys keep up this work, God’ work!!  I am ready and willing!  Thanks so much for what you are doing!!  -B.

 Just out of a Justice Project Team meeting prepping the teams that will be on the streets today serving the inner-city neighborhood we’ve adopted.  The community room was packed. I talked through I58 & about serving with hands a-n-d- hearts. Some cried. Hope that was a good sign.  Most had never been to the 24-7prayerroom, so there was some hang out time on the front end as well as casual conversation about 24-7, prayer, & ways to do mercy justice with the 300 volunteers from NLchurch small groups in addition to the other J.P.volunteers.  A certain NL small group pre-commited Feb-April to meet at the site every weekend for justice related conversation & to tackle some smaller service projects weekly after each talk. Discuss then do; a great apprenticing model. There’s plenty for them to do.  Oddly, a lot of stray people stopped in 24-7 seeing the door open. Seriously, about 15 individuals stopped in thinking we were open on Sundays now.  Of course we’d love to be open more hours, but need more people to volunteer to staff so we can increase hours open. So….if anyone wants to offer to staff a few Saturdays between 4-9pm or especially any time on Sundays between 2 -6pm contact: www.charlotte24-7@hotmail.com

It was here when I opened the site this morning.  It was still here when I got back to the prayer room early evening… The manifest presence of God turned up a notch. Tangible, oh yeah. When I came to open up the site for the evening someone had been waiting outside to get into the prayer room.  They knew we re-open every evening at 5pm. Still they came early to be the first one in the space tonight.  Hopped on a bus, headed on over & stood out in the cold for a bit. Guess they thought it worth the wait… Standing here in the space now, I think they are right.  You, well, you just gotta come see it for yourself. If you can, get down here tonight Nov15th or Friday 16.  God is clearly up to something.  Yeah, get down here, find a spot off to yourself alone or sit in the middle of the room & see for yourself why everyone is praying.