Charlotte247’s Weblog

Filled in for a staff member at 24-7 last night from 7-9. Good to hang out there knocking out work & prayer. Slow night. Just a handful of mostly 1st timers trickled in one at a time here & there. Each dived right in with God after walking sheepishly through the site & then landing each in their own perfect spot. Stayed open well past 9 to accommodate the two or three who lingered before God before heading home.   Saw one of them at 24-7 again when I stopped by today.  Was also introduced to Naeem, who had settled into the most comfortable chair at 24-7 & looked like he was knocking out some sermon prep. After a brief chat, we agreed to connect & talk further about what it could look like if Mosaic, the church he Pastors, were to sign on with The Justice Project. Seeing Staci Marinack was a nice surprise too. Good timing, as she offered to help with a specific Villa Heights resident we want to help by repairing the big holes in their ceiling where rain leaks in. All in all a good day.  P.S. I said yes to Renovatus. Got that nervous excitement about it right now. Ya know, the kind of nervous excitement you get when you’re standing in line to ride a roller coaster. You can see what’s ahead, the heights & dips, but you still wanna ride. I’m gonna take my seat, buckle up, & throw both hands in the air. Thanks for praying J.F 

It’s late night & a member of the 24-7 Team heads to the prayer room to lock up. As the door opens there’s a girl alone in the prayer room, clearly engaged in deeply thoughtful conversation with her Maker. She’s crying. She’s talking. She’s toe to toe with God. The team member slowly & quietly backs up & departs, giving her the space this scenario seems to be calling out for.  Returning 30 minutes later, the young girl is sitting on a bench by the door. She knows the prayer room closes at 10pm, but she wants to be there until she absolutely has to leave. She’s still crying as she recounts a tale of leaving Atlanta, traveling to Charlotte bound for MorningStar, but never making it passed 24-7. She says she’d been in the 24-7 prayer room for six hours that evening, blowing off other plans she’d made that night. She speaks of encountering Christ in an uncommon way in that uncommon space & the uncommon concept of being alone with God.  Almost always surrounded by people, her prayer life was built around corporate prayer but not individual prayer. Prayer was hardly ever just her & God alone. She had developed a public relationship with God, but not a private one… and the private one was far more piercing & poignant than anything she’d ever experienced.  For six hours she sat, paced, stood, danced the length of the space, & engaged the 24-7 liturgy while asking herself the posed questions & permitting herself the quiet listening space which most public settings disallow. She spoke of how God met her there through the images & music & liturgy & room to roam & run the span of the space while praying for herself & others. The whole time she recounted the tale, she cried. Ever seen someone cry tears of joy?   It’s almost unnerving to behold. While remaining committed to corporate prayer, now she plans to invest more deeply & consistently in her personal prayer life to encounter those aspects of God which He only reveals when we engage in some wholehearted one on one.

I’m knocking out some time at 24-7. A mother & son have just come in. She says she needs a place to clear her head. Her son asks for some more sticky-note post-its to stick on the wall of the reconciliation station. Clearly got some grudges he’s ready to lay down. A photographer & his girl stopped in shortly after to photograph the site for an upcoming issue of Charlotte Magazine. He has a favorite spot here. She looks around never having seen anything quite like it.  They stop by me desk before they leave. He says he really likes the space. Gives him stuff to think about. His girl especially likes it. They both make plans to come back when he’s off work to just take it all in & get some needed down time in the thick of the peace they feel here. The mother stops in to talk to me before she leaves with her son. Says the music helps her forgive & talk to God in wider ways than before. Holding her hands to both her cheeks, she is in the full grin of a soul set free. As she leaves she makes plans to return in a few hours to knock out some unfinished business with God. Yeah,this is why we exist.  For them. To host the encounters between God & the objects of His passion. Yeah, that’s why we’re here.

Last night John (homeless guy) & I (the hungry one) talked for 5 hrs straight.

It started when I turned around the corner & saw him waiting for me at the door of 24-7 with his hands raised.

In retrospect I’m not sure if they were ACTUALLY raised, or if that’s how I saw him. Hands raised to the sky, worshipping God.

We shared dinner & God for 5 hrs straight.  There were tears, worship & prayer.

It was a wonderful exchange between God, John & me.  We were both in awe of God & how he orchestrating our meeting, our conversation & the music.

We both walked into 24-7 one way, but walked out differently. 

Stretched, compassionate, hungry, full, heart grateful, naked, stripped, fulfilled, with the veil rent.

It was exactly what I’ve come to love about the great exchange I get from volunteering with 24-7 - a man/woman, black/white, rich/poor, hungry/full.

We left hugging each other truly thankful that we had not wasted the evening watching our favorite shows, but being fully engaged & investing in couch time with God.

We didn’t know going in, that we would leave seeing life thru another’s eyes, clearer, focused, compassionate & hungry for more.

Leaving in my fully gassed up 5 yr old car, him on foot we could hear God giggle – YESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-K

There’s a guy that keeps coming to 24-7 regularly in the evening. When he 1st came he unloaded his story on the person staffing that night. Rough story of a life of bad choices & tough brakes & of redemption & desire to rise above his past. Some staff members are uncomfortable with him, others not so much. He stops in after work & before bible study to read & meditate, he says. Sometimes if the song hits him in the right way, he stands &just sways to the music with his arms wrapped around himself. Most don’t get to see that side of him. Most see the tall dark ominous man with the face of a thousand tough stories. From the community room where I comfortably situate myself, I’ve seen him cry… & I’ve seen him laugh. Tonight we briefly talk about which translation of the Bible is better & which has the best annotations. Do Itrust him? Trust is not the question on the table. What is our role in nurturing his faith & friendship with God?  That’s the only question on the table right now for this the guy. Yeah, a song is making its way in… You can hear him simultaneously crying & worshiping. Yeah, that guy. The one most people fear. 24-7 is a safe place for him too.

The Pastors & Lead Team of a localChurch are spending the morning & afternoon in the 24-7prayer room today. Got a chance to talk to those guys beforehand. Their Sr.Pastor found it difficult to hold back tears at one point, so the talk was brief. We broached the subject of recreating the 24-7prayer room in a building he’s about to purchase in Matthews, a satellite sacred space for the suburbanites. Looking forward to pursuing that with him. Now I’m sitting at home thinking about all the prep that went into readying the prayer room for these guys. 24-7staff cleaning up the mess from group that reserved time there the night before, adding more substance & liturgy to the prayer stations, creating the right play list & burning CDs that would help pull these Pastors into God-surrender & piercing honesty before Him. As I lit the candles this morning, my hands trembled thinking about what would occur today between these individuals & their maker. Felt honored to play a role, any role in helping those God-encounters occur.

The floor of 24-7 is covered in chalk quotes & scribbled prayers.  24-7 prayer week is going powerfully for many & the prayer room looks as if people’s hearts have exploded in it.  Now I get stopped in coffee houses to be told about encounters both there & in the area of justice as a result of 24-7 spinning out words sent to change hearts & shift lifestyles.

I’m staffing at 24-7 tonight. The space is filled with some young girls each in a different station talking to God & preparing their hearts for their discipleship meeting soon starting in the community room they reserved for the night. This is their 1st time here. They move through the room & look into the prayer stations with wonder & excitement.  ’How Great Thou art’  is playing accapella on the stereo from a Passion eventyears back. Everything in the room is an on-ramp to locking gaze with a living God & doing some heart renovation. The room’s gravity pulls people toward that aim. Tonight, out of the corner of my eye I watch God pull these young girls to their knees & to His side.  Tomorrow at A-Pak the same thing will take place here among a bunch of adults. This  is why we exist.

At  24-7 tonight…

It’s, after 7pm, U2’s ‘Beautiful Day’ is blasting on the speakers, & the prayer room is filled with people, black & white, young & not so young, sprawled all over. Guitar music wafts in from the worship space. An artist  sits at the big table drawing Jesus as he sees him. A teenager talks to God about God. A missionary pulls aside to chill & be still with Jesus,  & noise from a station dvd played full volume makes its way to my ears. As I myself engage in a time of ministry to the Lord, someone  who looks about 12 years old stands behind me at the ‘Help Desk’ praying for others.     It’s a beautiful day indeed.

In the 24-7 Prayer Room over the past few days people have begun coming from their uptown offices in the afternoon to grab some time with God in these sacred spaces. Yesterday a woman gave her life back to God here. Today she brought her friend who even as I write this is clearly doing the same thing as the music wafts over the sound of her tears & worship. As she rushes past me looking for tissue she simple says…”This place is amazing”.  I know it’s God who she’s really talking about. She’s headed back into her encounter with God as I’m packing up to pick up my son from school. She doesn’t need to leave just because I do. She can take her time. No preacher will come to tell her the service is ending. She can track at her own pace. Walking out the door I say to myself…”Yeah, this is why 24-7 exists. Hosting the encounter between God & men. Yeah, that’s what we do”.

Sitting at 24-7 tonight.  People are in the sacred space with head’s tilted back in God-conversation. People are in the cafe in conversation with each other about God.  Some come in & thank me before leaving. Some, traveling from another country only express that  they wish they could stay longer. Me? Been sitting here sorting through some of the administrative stuff of 24-7. Sorting it out before Winter comes & we make a major thrust & lunge full speed ahead to instigate & host a year of 24-7prayer weeks for the city’s churches & universities. Will also add some weekend corporate prayer & worship at the site.  Luckily, ministers & musicians have been coming forward & asking to help bring that about. And finally, we’re working to get the PrayerRave on the schedule.  Insert big silly grin here! The core team that helped start this local 24-7 will be headed to make their home in Iceland in order to start a house of prayer there.  Yay them! I discipled both the guys helping spearhead that & I know they will have a blast as they launch out in faith to do what they believe God is calling them to out there.  I’m headed out the door now to tuck my son in, pray with him & then watch House, my favorite t.v. show. Ahhh life’s little pleasures.

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