
OK, I’m sitting here, blogging in bed…at 9:30am, debating going to church (now that I am an unemployed youth pastor, I can sleep in if I want…) or staying in my pajamas…just taking some time to recover from this weekend’s amazing 30 hour famine (yeah, I’m now the volunteer in our youth ministry…so I run the big special events like the famine, til they hire the new person)
Anyway…checking in on my email, and discovered the 24-7 newsletter…24-7 folks based in chichester changed my life a long time ago…well at least 4 years ago!
And sometimes avoid their website, because I always start crying…not that “oh woe is me” crying or even “happy tears of joy”, but rather the holy spirit kind of crying, where you have nothing to do with the tears, they just keep coming!
Last week I blogged briefly about a dream I had last summer while in the outer banks of north Carolina…and I was asked to expand on that post and tell more about my dream…
Three years ago, when my family and my extended family were on vacation in duck, nc, rob and I noticed just how many college students were working in all the shops, restaurants and bistros around the beach. Yeah, I know that this happens up and down the coast, but this isn’t Daytona, or fort Lauderdale, this is a more mellow family focused place…so I guess I wondered what these “kids” did after hours?
And who was doing “church” for them? Or really, “who was being Jesus to these folks in their late teens and early twenties? ( I think about this lost people group all the time! And I love hearing their stories and what they are thinking about…to the chagrin of some of my friends who ask if I don’t have friends my own age)…anyway we left the beach and life happened and we did other things for vacation the next couple of years…
In 04, we went back to duck, nc…many of you followed that trip due to the three hurricanes that were happening during our two week stay…(thanks god that we had two weeks) any way, now the college-age students aren’t Americans…now they are mainly internationals from all over, but many from Slavic countries…and also, the Hispanic population has exploded (they are now doing all the jobs that the American teens won’t take and one shop owner said that places like mcdonalds rent homes for them in order for the golden arches to have a labor force and many Hispanic folks live in large groups in one home. ) Every restaurant we went in, and each shop provided a new adventure with another culture. In our favorite bbq restaurant I met a girl from Russia who said there was an organization that helped them get visas for summer work and that they rented houses together to save money. I drove my kids crazy always asking where someone was from and how thy got there, etc. I also was asking “where are the people loving these international students to jesus? “ and who is doing church for these Hispanic families ? ( the only internet café was in the Hispanic grocery store! We had a blast there!) Also during this trip, you need to know that my beach reading was RED MOON RISING…the story of how the 24-7 prayer stuff got started. An amazing book out from relavant books….(as well as reading How the Irish saved civilization)
So the god-dream became” why couldn’t there be a 24-7 prayer house at the outerbanks? Why couldn’t someone, or some church provide the money to rent a house for 2-4 months..where there could be food, music, and a space for a 24-7 experiential prayer room? What else would be needed? Other college-age or young adults, etc. to work at bistros and shops to make friends with the international students…money for food and supplies, churches and folks to pray….and churches in the area to keep stuff going during the off season…some one who likes to do music, video, dj stuff so we could have awesome parties with jesus centers…
And maybe these could spread up and down the east coast from beach town to beach town…like the monasteries of aidan from lindesfarne spread down the coast of Northumbria in England!!!!
I shared this dream briefly with a small group at the Episcopal church in the outer banks…but sadly I didn’t follow up on it…and life happened again, and other things filled my time and my brain…and being the add girl that I am, I got distracted from this god dream and moved on to a couple of others….
But in reading the last 24-7 newsletter (they are starting a boiler room in ibiza and London) and after seeing hotel Rwanda yesterday… and after the comment from last week…I had to revisit the dream and throw it out to the blog world to see if anyone wants to pick it up…I know the power of a team effort…and it would have to be a team…not just one crazy ohio celtic person’s wonderings…
And maybe it is too late for an entire summer blitz this year…but maybe not?!
God is big and he can do above and beyond my small mindedness….maybe it’s spring break praying over the beach….or praying this summer and starting to build relationships with shop owners and restaurant owners around the outerbanks….and then next year having the house?….i don’t know….i just know that the need is there…and god has brought the nations to our door and we need to go into the culture to bring his love! I also know that this could happen wherever we live if we just choose to see the possibilities! We could begin to hang out with the lost people groups around our cities and neighborhoods…maybe not as glamorous or fun as the beach, but still where jesus would be…in the clubs and coffeehouses, in the art galleries and pubs, on the college campus, and in the inner city….
SO WHAT DO YOU THINK? ANY ONE INTERESTED?
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