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So I'm a little behind on reporting in... my apologies.  Well, much has happened... it feels much more than just the end of the 2nd full day of our 24/7 prayer tent.  I've been so consumed with this that its almost all I think about.  I keep telling people that I've been very "Martha" these past few days, even though I am here all the time I haven't really took time to pray through the stations in our tent like others... I've still just been working on setting things up.  Ha ha, well that part will settle down soon, and I'll be able to be "Mary" at our tent soon.

Its been amazing... the schedule has filled up...  I'm currently sitting in the prayer tent with seven other people... and its 2:30 in the morning!!!!  This place is such a blessing to so many people.  People keep saying "Does this have to end?"  So we're thinking of trying to extend this prayer tent for another week.  Several people have asked about the possibility of finding a permanent place to do prayer.

One of the girls here shared that these past few days have been like a dream... all because of UPHOP... that this is what is consuming her, its all she thinks about, and its where she wants to be all the time.  She even struggles with thoughts of skipping class just to spend time with God in the prayer room!  And the amazing thing is... that is not a unique sentiment... that is how many many people feel.  We are seeing a rise in people's passion and desire to pray.  And if its not a new thing... it is so encouraging to see how much prayer is going on!  And there is a LOT of prayer going on!!

I was always hoping that the prayer tent would touch and empassion people for prayer and intimacy but I never expected that this would be something they would feel like they couldn't live without...

Another underanticipated blessing from all this is that people are consistently meeting other Christians on campus that they've never met before.  A stronger sense of unity seems to naturally be coming about...

The Church is coming together here at Penn, and a passion for God and for prayer is increasing.  A new fire is kindling here, and Jesus' proclaimation that "My House SHALL be a House of Prayer" is beginning to come to pass here at Penn.

Well, now for my update on the past two days...

Monday...

Our first full day one Monday had us seeing a constant flow of people in and out of the prayer room, there was hardly ever only just one person in there.  Several times people would say, "I'm just popping in for a little bit, I can't stay long" but would end up praying for an hour or more!  One person said "I can only stay for 10 minutes" and about a half an hour later I asked him "so you decided to stay?"  His response was "oh... how long have I been here?"  Ha ha! He didn't even realize!  At someone's initial suggestion, I had bought a clock from IKEA to place in the tent, but there was something about the timeless nature of the prayer tent that made us decide not to use it.  There's something precious about suspending time for a period to seek the Lord...

In the evening time, I was returning to the tent from shopping for the tent, and as I walk into the tent I am greeted by about 15 faces!  Some people are evidently rescheduling their prayer meetings to meet in the House of Prayer instead!!!  Another prayer meeting is coming to the HOP instead on Thursday and Full Measure has a couple scheduled prayer times in the tent throughout this week.  Another small group evidently has scheduled a time to meet and pray at the tent!  This place is quickly becoming a central place for a good portion of the Christian community here.

As the prayer meeting turned towards worship thet area around the tent was filled with people's voices united in worship.  It was beautiful!  Several people lingered afterwards to pray with new friends they had just made that night.

The majority of the rest of the evening was spent trying to figure out how to warm up the tent.  It was freezing the night before and this night was supposed to be the worst of the week... we needed some heat for the people in there!  Dave brought over a kerosene heater he had inherited but as we tried to get it to work, we discovered it had no wick!!  And by this time it was 9:30 at night.  Recalling that Home Depot closed at 10PM, I jetted over there and bought extra wick but also another kerosene heater just in case we couldn't get the first one working.

Well... we ended up just using the new one and good thing too!  It gave off a strong amount of heat throughout the night!  Unfortunately, the tent was a little too ventilated between the roof tarp and the walls, and the heat wouldn't retain... and it quickly became freezing within the tent as the heat escaped through the gaps in the tent and through the cold air that was blowing in.  Even my -20 degree mummy sleeping bag wasn't able to keep me warm!  I felt so bad for the other's in there that night.

Well, other changes we made to the tent that night:
-We modified the holy of holies... very pretty in the inside now!
-Added a communion table.
-Set up the confession table with the "sin bin."  Now people can write down and confess their sin, place it in the shredder and listen to the sweet sound of forgiveness as it is torn to bits!

...Now its past 4 in the morning and there are still 6 people in here... onto today's update...

Tuesday

Well with the kerosene heater we can say that we have a little furnace in the tent!  This place is becoming a literal prayer furnace!  Ha ha!

Getting some feedback from people today... I kept hearing over and over again people keep saying "you can really feel His presence there... God is definitely here."  Honestly I've been so Martha'ed out just and basically living at the prayer tent that I've been taking it for granted... but it becomes noticeable as I leave and go to other places... I feel a physical lingerance of God upon my body... like an aura of heat!  Its good to know that just being in the tent we pick something up of Him, and as we leave, we take it with us.

Another common sentiment from several people: "I just want to live here..." It feels at home to be in the presence of our God doesn't it...

Well... we finally got our big banner printed out today.  We put up on the tent late afternoon.  And it made quite the difference.  Many people had missed our little 8.5 x 11 sign earlier... but now everyone could see the 10 foot banner saying "House of Prayer! Come on innnnn....!"  well, not exactly like that but that was the basic gist of the sign."  More and more people ended up walking in than during the previous days now that they knew what it was. 

Interestingly we could see and hear several mixed opinions from people as they walked by.  A few were like "cool!" while others blatantly bothered by it, and many others mocked it.  Those who did choose to come in were all pleasantly surprised... this tent surprised everyone initially, even the Christians.  It is sad though, how people just seem to make immediate judgements and mis-assumptions when they see the tent... I don't know what the source is... either academic pride or from being wounded by the Church... probably a mixture of both.  (Remind me to talk about my thoughts from Margaret Cho's stint tonite... a bit of a rude awakening about how many people view the Church and Christians in America)

Well, as I came into today, I saw that many people had been using the communion table and sin bin!!  And the prayer walls are filling up quickly!  Once again in the evening there were just an unending small crowd of people in the prayer tent.  Most of one small group all came after their meeting, but not because they planned it... they just all wanted to and ended up here.

There is rumor that the DP is running an article about the prayer tent tomorrow... so we'll see what happens.

Well... I spend a good 4 hours taping up the gaps between the roof and the walls today to try to keep more heat in the tent.  And sealing up the door was interesting... I proundly announce the unveiling of "Duct-tape Velcro"  I'm not going to explain here... you'll just have to see for yourself.  But anyways... the point is that it worked!!!  The heater is actually retaining heat and the tent is markedly warmer!  Its almost 6AM as I wrap this up and even though the heater is helping a lot... it still is quite cold in here... but at least bearable now.

Anyways... I'm too tired to post pictures, right now but I'll get some up in the next day or two.

Well... Its almost 4:30 AM... ~ 11 hours since the commissioning of UPHOP... 7.5 hours since we officially started the prayer room.  It is 34 degrees out right now... just a bit nippy I must say.  As cold as it has been, its been amazing how many people have come to the tent to pray, and how long they endure the cold.  Its been truly a blessing just to see the hearts of the people here.  Tomorrow... we shall have a heater... Lord willing!

Several people have come into the tent to ask what it was, and almost everyone passing by gives a curious look at/inside the tent.  Everyone who is just finding out about this say it is "very cool."

Christians at Penn seem to be taking ownership of the prayer tent.. which is awesome.  I continue recieve emails from people encouraging others in their fellowship to sign up and how exciting and important this is.  Watching person after person come into the tent tonite to the point of being crowded was such a blessing.  It made me wonder if one week was really enough?  Could we extend this to two??  I could feel the flame of His presence in the middle of the room at the end of the time.  The unlit fire in the altar of prayer were praying for just two days ago was kindled in a mighty way today... may none be untouched by the Fire of His Heart.

Hmm.... Tomorrow the rubber hits the road I guess... well in terms of the high profileness of the prayer tent.  I pray that God's presence will draw people to Him, and that they may be drawn to check out the tent and encounter God's presence.  May lives be Holy Spirit Transformed Lord...

Well... here's my play by play for this past day...

We had a mad scramble to decorate the tent.  At the time of the commissioning, construction was still very much in progress!!  Ha ha.  I spun it as symbolizing God still in process of building the Church up as a House of Prayer . 

The commissioning went remarkably well.  A couple students from Temple's House of Prayer were able to come to pray for us and pass on the prayer torch!  A good 10-15 people were there total.  After the usual late start, we went into opening prayer.  I decided to open the time up with multi-generational prayer, and had Dave Collins, me, and the 2nd youngest student there pray .  Symbolically representing the generations of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.

From there we went into a time of worship... and the presence of God filled the tent... we could all feel it.  I was about to go onto the next part of the agenda... but I couldn't... so we kept praying until I felt a release to keep going.  It was amazing... with no music or prayer leader, people went into spontaneous praising and worshipping God for about 10-15 minutes, motivated by the presence of God strong in our midst.

After that we went into the anointing time... we blessed some olive oil, and had everyone dip their fingers and anoint the walls and poles of the tent while they prayed.  You can see the stains on the prayer wall.  And then we did the outside of the tent, anointing even the foundations of the tent, and sealing up the entrance way.  I then took the remaining oil and tossed it up to the ceiling of the tent... sealing it up and anointing it for an open heaven.

As we had Jere from Temple pray and pass on the prayer torch, the bells from a local church started ringing, switching into a celebratory organ melody as we we concluded the commissioning.  It was all uncannily coordinated.  Well, I can't say it was the perfect ceremony... it was definitely very informal, and at time comical.  But then again, we're not here to perfrom the perfect ceremony... no legalism here please!  When Jere tried lighting the candle... it took like... 7 tries to get it lit ha ha.  It was almost as if God was purposely making the ceremony light to make sure that we couldn't glorify the ceremony.

God has been remarkable good... as He usually is   Why am I still surprised by that?

Well... here are some pictures of today:

Nothing on the walls!

Building the walls!

Prayer in the furnace

Many flames

Day T-2 for UPHOP...  Day 17 in the Boston Uprising...  Day 57 in the national 24/7 prayer chain... soon... we will join in on this national prayer movement...

So the prayer tent went up today... there it is standing out there in the middle of college green!  It looks pretty plain and obscure... hard to imagine it becoming a holy, God-filled place during this upcoming week.  But God can even turn the most inconspicuous vessels into a place radiant with His Glory... He does it with us all the time!

(For those of you who don't know... UPenn is doing a week of 24/7 prayer in conjunction with a nationwide 24/7 prayer chain.  We're doing ours in a tent in the center of campus.  We're calling it the University of Pennsylvania House of Prayer... or UPHOP for short.  Check out www.pennforjesus.com for more details.)

And we wasted no time... some of us started doing some spot prayers in and around the tent throughout the day.  Kinda funny that we're praying for a place that will have prayer going on all the time.  When do we NOT pray for stuff we are doing?  Ha ha, I think I like it that we think to pray over every step of everything that we're doing... even praying for prayer!!

Well, I sent this out the our p4j listserve late this afternoon:  "Now that the physical walls and foundations of the tent are up, we now want to collectively build up the spiritual foundations and walls up before we start going full blown prayer on Sunday."  And called for some time to pray over the tent site at midnite today and 11AM tomorrow.  (I'm considering doing midnight again tomorrow as well...)

Around midnight I was expecting only a handful of people at the tent.  And as I was walking over with Mark, I was thinking "its only going to be the two of us isn't it"  And then we saw someone pop outta the tent, and Mark said he thought it was frat people.  I was thinking... "oh great... its being invaded... grrr"  And when I got to the entrance I saw another little tent inside, the tent that the frats/sorors were using during the day, and a swarm of people (I couldn't see faces yet cause it was so dark inside).  And of course I thought it was frat/soror people... I wasn't expecting that many people there and there was that little tent in the middle OUR tent!  I started entertaining thoughts of how I was going to tell them to get out.  Then all of a sudden I hear people saying "Hey Mark!"  And as I took a closer look in the darkness, I saw familar faces!

Dude!! The tent was full of Christians!!

Dumbfounded... I asked them "what are you guys doing here??"  Surely they couldn't be here in response to my email about praying over the tent tonite!?  I was expecting only like.. 3-5 tops.  They said, "what do you think we're here for? To pray for the tent of course." Oh Lord forgive me for my lack of faith!

There were seriously like... 25-30 people there!?!  Wow... if that isn't an encouraging sign...

They were almost all from Living Water too.  It was hilarious... we couldn't really see each other.  The cell phone lamps were being gratuitously used as we were talking to each other.

Well, we spend a good 20-30 minutes praying for the tent.  We all stood along the inside perimeter of the tent.  Facing inward, we prayed for cleansing and sanctification of the ground.  The we turned around and placing our hands on the tent walls, prayed to build up the spiritual walls of the prayer house for protection from unGodly influences from without but an overflowing of God's Spirit from within.  Then we turn inward, lifted our hands to the heavens and praised God for who He is and then prayed for God to create an open Heaven above this tent.  I told them to use their spiritual keys that God had given us to open that door to His Glory... a door that no man can shut, and many people actually followed suit making the gestures of opening a locked door in the heavenlies while they prayed.  It was pretty cool.

There was an interesting interruption in the middle of our prayer time of building up the walls.  Some guys peeked out of curiosity and saw a bunch of people all facing the walls of the tent muttering under their breathe.  With a quick "Oh, sorry!" they left... but within a minute started shaking the poles of the tent screaming "Don't listen to those cult bastards!  Jesus loves you! Jesus Loves you!"  Ummm.... it really confused me and everyone in the tent.  Interesting how they were shaking the physical walls of the tent while we were praying to build up the spiritual ones...

Anyways... praying all that time I felt that there needed to be a fire started in the center of the tent... God's spiritual fire.  But in the spirit it just seemed to be unlit... and yet... at the same time it didn't feel like it was the right time to pray for that beacon to be lit yet.  So we didn't pray for that.  And it makes sense... our prayer house hasn't yet officially started.  We are preparing the temple to recieve His fire.  And I'm pretty certain we will feel the fire of God kindled in that place when we commence the prayer room.

Also... I couldn't help but think of the significance that the tent was filled primarily with Living Water people.  Because that was very much in line with what we wanted for the tent.  A place filled with the presense of God... a place of an overflowing of His living water to the rest of the campus.  As we were walking away, one of the LW girls said that she kept thinking that as well... and I took it as confirmation... that it was a sign of what He was going to do... Establish a well of His Living Water... and many people were going to drink from it from around the campus...

If these things are starting to happen even before we comence the 24/7 prayer... I am excited an in expectant wonder about what God is going to do once the prayer room starts...

Lord Jesus... let Your Glorly fall...