From the boiler room

"Do you want some rock?"

I could barely make out what the young woman said and I probably wouldn't have known what she was talking about had I not been informed by my hosts of their encounters with people trying to sell them drugs. Her voice was so faint that only the most attentive person would have heard her cry for help. She was desperate - probably needing food.

About four hours earlier I went to meet with our group for lunch even though they were about to leave and I didn't end up eating. As I returned to my car exhausted from the morning I realized that I had parked outside a gay bar. Soon four men would be standing just a few feet from my car smoking cigarettes. They were just trying to fit in - looking for someone who would love them.

I both of these situations I become so aware of the situation that is at hand in San Francisco. I became aware of the utter importance of what our friends and hosts at Justice House of Prayer (JHOP) are doing. They are praying for a city to be transformed. On the street right below their flat on Haight Street you could minister to the homeless, drug dealers, club goers, and homosexuals.

Almost coincidentally, over the next few days I read, "Red Moon Rising" and saw what seemed to be the same situation played out in countries across Europe. I read story after story of radical lovers of Jesus who would pray and then go out among the lowest of society to minister the gospel.

To me, this book felt more like my own story than an assignment. I love just going to pray in the "Boiler Room" just as much as I like getting out on the streets and seeing people get touched by God. It also didn't hurt that I have been given a prophetic word about being like the Moravians.

Now more than ever I see the importance of prayer and loving people. If only my prayer tanks had not just been emptied when I crossed paths with the men outside the gay bar or the woman who wanted to sell me drugs. When the intercessor also becomes an evangelist and the evangelist also becomes an intercessor some amazing fruit truly will be reaped. Now is the time for us to shine, the red moon is rising.