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
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