promise.

why War College students pray, alone, in an empty white room, in a slum hotel, for 9 hours (at least) per week:

if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

2 Chronicles 7:14

come on.

Joel Boyd

Sometimes I reflect and wonder if there is any difference that we make at The War College. Sometimes we just see the finest types of people come and continue to excel. Today I was visited by a Holy grad who encouraged my heart. Joel Boyd. Stephen Court calls him a walking prophetic act, Olivia Munn says he's grown the most out of anyone she's known. I see a lot of fruit in him. Gladly I can say he was in my discipleship and prayed for him regularly. He arrived with a proud legalism and left, holy: full of divine love. He is an example and encouragement to the faculty, current students and prospective students who could use an godly transformation.

Glory to God.
JE

Amazing Grace

My family got all Sallied up to go to a meeting at my dad's corps this Sunday. It was a powerful service focussing on Amazing Grace. I was hit at my need for grace in personal holiness and to be equipped with a challenge that confronts me.

I've been blessed to fall under the leadership of Steve and Danielle for nearly 5 years and they were given farewell orders a couple of weeks ago. This time has been great for seeing my glaring weaknesses with people and administratively. To be honest, I've been scared that I could be the demise of The War College. I knew this not to be true and told this lie to go away... But today this lie was put to death with the following words:

Through many dangers, toils and snares...
we have already come.
T'was Grace that brought us safe thus far...
and Grace will lead us home.

We've been graced to have Steve and Danielle. But God's unfathomable grace is sufficient to lead us to the point where He wants to take us. By God's grace that is made perfect in my weaknesses... I'll be able to lead The War College beyond what I can dream or imagine. I'm claiming that. Will you with me?

Break-Through On the Journey

Last week I had this great opportunity to attend The Journey.

Linwood House Ministries is based out of..... a house on the Sunshine Coast. Every two months or so they take women out of the Downtown East side (from all different places in the community) and bring them to this life size barbie doll house. Here the women are pampered and treated as the daughters of a King that they are. Throughout the 3 days, there is intentional time for them to bond with each other, to learn more and experience the fuller life Christ has to offer them.

On our first night at the house a conversation sparked up between a few of the ladies at the valentine craft table.
One woman was so upset about how much help she sees for the poor, drug addicted and prostituted in the Downtown East side. She insisted that they were all there by choice and that people spent too much time attempting to assist them and not enough time helping those who have made a better choice for their lives. At one point she said she didn't understand those people who came to the Downtown East side to help the "street women" and not the hard working "honest women"

I was amazed at the genuine anger in her tone. I thought to myself... "Do you know who half the people around you are? Do you know what we do?"
It was difficult for many of us to hold our tongues and not return in defense. I quickly realized that there were just somethings she had clearly been veiled from and that The Journey was the perfect place for her to be.
Throughout the rest of our time there she bonded with a few of the other ladies. She heard stories of their lives, where they had been and where they are today.
On Our last night together we watched a movie called "Akeelah and the Bee" (Great inspirational type of movie. I recommend it, if that's your kind of thing.)

The morning before we left we all sat around and debriefed about the movie and neat things we saw. This same woman said "It's really true that you can't judge a book by it's cover, and things aren't always as they seem."

That was a breaking moment for me. I could have cried as I once again stood in awe of Gods answer to our prayer for her.

This is such a touchy subject for some. We wast so much of our lives stereo-typing people and trying to figure out what category they fall into. That we miss out on really taking the opportunity, when it's there, to learn each persons individual story.

worth it.

perhaps the predominant impression of the War College, is one of extreme evangelism and radical sacrifice. this is undeniably true. but along with living in solidarity with the poor, worshipping like a bunch of maniacs, and preaching on the streets, these warriors also study study study. they learn spiritual disciplines, they write papers, they study the Word, they discuss, they read the Bible a ridiculous amount every day, and they memorize large swaths of that Word.

during the first two weeks of the War College they memorized "the Bridge," an evangelism tool used by the Navigators. it includes 13 verses (though i believe we did a souped up version with 15 verses), and in that it very clearly outlines the basis of our faith, and how one may be saved.
here's a link to it:
THE BRIDGE

during those first two weeks of War College boot camp, they must memorize the presentation, as well as present it to someone who they met on the streets (another assignment overlaps-- they have to meet 50 people in two weeks).

of course, it seems a bit forced. it's awkward to say to someone, "hey can i present this thing to you?" and then to whip out a napkin and a pen, and draw them a diagram of their potential journey to heaven or hell.
it is much improved by the fact that they have the Scripture verses memorized. it goes much smoother without pausing to look up every verse (though they have the references memorized, in case the individual cares to look them up).

praise report:

despite the potential cheesiness of this little evangelistic tool,
someone got saved after hearing it presented by one of our students!
hallelujah.
praise the Lord.

so, i encourage you all--
if i had it my way, you would all be friends with unbelievers, and lead them to the Lord in the context of relationship. but along with that, i highly recommend cold-call evangelism. you might get scoffed at, ridiculed, ignored, disappointed...or someone might get saved. it's a win-win situation for you: you either get to share in the sufferings of Christ, or you get to introduce someone to Him.

why not?

Perseverance

"We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us � they help us learn to endure. And endurance develops strength of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectation of salvation. And this expectation will not disappoint us. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love." - Romans 5:3 - 5

Our students are overcomers. We put them through quite a grueling schedule, often 16 hour days with interrupted sleep to pull late night War Room shifts. Not only this but the conditions in which they learn are not those with faint hearts. All of this displays our weakness and dependence on Him who provides strength from the inside out. This is how we know we are in training.

We are going through personal, emotional, spiritual struggles and not giving up. Most of these troubles are not our own. They are those of our neighbours. Last year I remember a seasoned War College student carrying the burden of her neighbour being beat up in the middle of the night. She prayed for intervention, we knocked on doors... and God worked within us, toughening us for these battles that we'll fight with love until Jesus comes. We are like the boxer, who is made a champion not in the ring but in his demanding training regime. We are like the soldier, who entering boot camp as a green citizen, is given a new perspective on the world, trained in military tactics and pushed beyond her own capabilities. The more we persevere, the more we are stretched, the more we grow, the more we become, the more use we are to God. Ultimately, we have a greater reward, a greater hope that is in heaven. The more we disregard our treasures and comfort in this world, the better off we are. One of my favourite quotes is this from CS Lewis, " Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither."

Next time I should blog about my theory of spiritual work-outs... It is just a theory...

unstoppable.

War College students are very interesting characters.

i suppose that is an odd thing for me to say, because i have only been on this side of the War College for 5 months.

despite that fact, much of my time is spent with these Warriors, and they regularly amaze and confound me.

for example:

i sauntered into the War Room (our 24-7 prayer room) last night, expecting to see one person, only to find a whole party of soldiers, praying and encouraging and drawing. all kinds of things going on. it's not a very large room, but it was very full. prayers going up all over the place.

then i spent some time praying against the injustice of prostitution with a few hallelujah lassies.
it went longer than planned (as usually happens with these girls-- hat tip Lynn, Dawn and Kirsten).

at about 10 o'clock at night, when we were finishing up, another warrior walked in (Steph) and suggested, "hey guys, i really feel like pressing in in prayer with a group tonight. you wanna join me?"

they just don't stop praying! what's going on!? everywhere i walked i kept bumping into little clusters of soldiers, humbling themselves and crying out to the Lord for our neighborhood.

beautiful. if they don't stop, they might start a Revolution or something.

The Unseen

Last night I was walking back from dinner at Denny's.
It' a good 20 blocks or so from there to where I was headed.
Generally I pass at least 3 homeless people per block and every five blocks or so someone will ask me for money.

As I walked down Georgia back towards the Downtown East side I was talking to Donny, not really paying attention to my surroundings. All of a sudden I physically felt like I hit a invisible wall. My head turned to one side and I saw this Young lady sitting on the ground crying.
I couldn't believe that I hadn't noticed her until I was standing directly in front of her. Having been brought to an abrupt stop by what I can only describe as...a God thing.
It was an eye opening night for me.
God was speaking to me about how even though I live in this place where these broken and hurting people are all around me, often times I don't even really see them.
Shortly after we left Mickey with some strong truths and prophetic words that God had for her, we ran into yet another woman named Kimberly.
She was walking the opposite way as us and asked for spare change. I began to say sorry and continue walking, then Donny stopped and started to exchange words with her as well.
Again I was amazed that I for the second time was going to walk away from the opportunity to spread the gospel and share truth.

It's an easy thing to no longer be present in the place where your present. To somewhere and see whats going on around you, but to not truly see the heart and life in it all.

I'm praying God give me more of His heart and allow me to have His eyes to see, at all times. I pray the same for all who read this entry

Growing Up in the Church

I recently had been corrected for saying that I'm recovering from growing up as an Officer's Kid.

Let me say I think we are all in need of recovering from something. In my neighbourhood most people are in need of recovering from addictions. I honestly don't have these sorts of temptations or need of deliverance... BUT... I have deeper issues because I grew up in the church. I'm more like the Pharisees. My sins are more deep and internal. The words of whitewashed tomb or dirty inside of cup are where I am because... Things on the outside look really good.

The nice thing is that I live in this War College/614 Community where people see enough of me that they can see 'inside.' This helps with things like... lack of patience, self righteousness etc.

Here is one example: I'm on a trip across Canada with my friend and a guy whom I respect big time, Michael Collins. We're peeling potatoes in a kitchen and he asks, "Can I speak something into your life?" That's a dangerous question to say yes to! He says, "You know what your problem is? You're self-righteous and you don't even see it." OUCH... That hurt but it was true. I thought that because I did some good things they made me good or better than those who weren't being as good as me. Really, my goodness is from God. I fall short in everything I do. I see this now and the nice thing is... I have more grace for others... more importantly myself.

So did growing up as an officer's kid make me this way? NO! This is a sin of my intellect not my upbringing. But, my upbringing gave me the opportunity to struggle with pride more than shooting heroin in my arm. Problem is that pride, as Jesus says to Pharisees, is what keeps you away from God.