last week

do you ever find yourself amazed at your life?

i do.

it seems that things that should be normal rarely are, and things that should be unusual or odd have somehow become as much a part of my life as my arms.

to talk about my week would be odd because so many odd things happened, but in a way that seems normal and natural. i don't live an ordinary life, but that's exactly what i want to be ordinary about my life.

last monday came with this...


yep. that's my car. and that's the hole in my car. i was parked in my pastor's spot downtown since they were out of town. the person went through the whole car but there was nothing to steal. in the end i filed a police report over the phone and they called it vandalism since nothing was taken. if i'd known they were going to do that i would've left it unlocked for them.

tuesday we did our 'can we help' teams (the site's still under construction) where we give bottled water and snacks to people walking around the neighborhood of our church. we're just off the park blocks downtown which has recently been reclaimed as 'home' to our large population of homeless kids. the weather's been pretty hot so the water always goes really fast.

as our teams went out i was on a prayer walk team. we walk through the park blocks and pray for God to bless everyone that goes through there, and for God's peace to be there. we used to do this about 8 years ago and saw a significant drop in drug dealing and the other things that go with it. the drug dealing is back, and worse than ever. it's a huge community concern which we hope God will change. we are asking Him to change it. it's always amazing the way God speaks to us when we prayer walk, and one of those odd things that has become normal in my life.

thursday i met with a lady with whom i'm facilitating a bible study program. she's been through quite alot in life and is looking for something more than her life is headed toward now. i'm not only excited to do this with her, i'm honored to have the change to give to someone in the same way that others have poured into me. already i'm inspired by her determination to lay ahold of her destiny and see her life go from what it always has been to what it was always meant to be.

friday the dhop held a 24-hour prayer gathering in vancouver, washington. it's just north of us, and we held it there because we've been praying all around the city (east, west, south, now north) and knew we needed to pray there before we held our 48-hours of prayer and service downtown.


sunday we finished it off with prayer at ft vancouver. it's pretty significant because this fort is the foundation of the settling of not just this region, but down as far as san francisco, and north as far as british columbia. the choices made by those first settlers have had a profound impact on the spiritual climate of this area. it was an amazing prayer time.

so this upcoming weekend we are holding a 48-hour prayer and service event downtown. many local churches are involved, dhop is putting it on and my church is hosting it. we're going out in teams, from 10am to 10pm friday and saturday, and blessing the community by serving. we're feeding the homeless, giving food, prayer walking and tons of other things. we're even sending out some teams to walk around downtown and pray for people for healing or any other miraculous thing that God wants to do to show someone He loves them. at night, 10pm to 10am, we're going to be worshipping and praying throughout the night in the building where my church meets.

i know it's going to be wild. God's going to exceed all of our expectations...He always does. i've been praying for more than 15 years for God to come and make the crazy things normal, like healing, restoration of relationships, strange miracles. i know in my heart this is that and i can't wait!