Post-Passion Atlanta 08 Regional

Okay~I've been trying for a week now to sit down and write a "THANK YOU!!!" to those who covered me in prayer while I served on the Intercession Team at Passion::Atlanta Regional on April 11-12th. Okay~so I took a few days to recover physically, while my spiritual mind and heart remained somewhere in between heaven and earth. Nine days after leaving the Gwinnett Arena, when I try to think of what to say, I'm still stuck with: WOW! PRAISE JESUS! HE IS ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY AWESOME! and WHAT A PRIVILEGE IT WAS AND IS TO SERVE HIM! TO SOMEHOW BE A PART OF SUCH A HUGELY BIGGER PICTURE AS HIS KINGDOM!

Okay, you get the idea...but I'm still gonna try! We twelve intercessors (thirteen, with our leader, Anne) became two sub-teams, as each team took two turns in the prayer room and two turns out in the arena during the four sessions. Our prayer room, dubbed "The party suite," consisted of a suite with box seats about midway up the arena, at the center-court line. In each session we opened wide the sliding glass doors to join in with the 9500+ worshipers led by Chris Tomlin, David Crowder, Charlie Hall, Christy Nockles, and/or some combination thereof. Once the musical worship wound down and the speaker began (either Louie Giglio or Francis Chan), we closed the sliding glass door so we could focus on intercession, yet still with one ear to the speaker.

While out in the session, the six on my team spread to different spots in the arena - sometimes I stood in the "nosebleed section and looked out over the crowd. Sometimes I stood on the floor, at the back of the incredibly enthusiastic "floor people," absolutely amazed to be in the midst of such energetic worship! Sometimes I stood up in the stands, amongst the college students, occasionally joining in prayer triads as Louie led the group in prayer for their campuses and/or communities, for this nation, for people in other nations...lots of prayer times! Usually I stayed on the fringe, praying for the Spirit to lead each triad around the arena in His work of intercession...imagine this, 9500+ people in threesomes (3,166 little huddles) all praying at once. Close your eyes and imagine a soft "beehive" sound of Kingdom activity...gentle yet quite loud...yet our Father listened intently to EVERY PRAYER! At some point Louie would give an update on "Do Something Now" - you see, each person was to bring at least one towel and a pair of socks to donate to homeless shelters in Atlanta. Plus, they could donate to help drill wells in Africa. In addition, they were encouraged to help send the Passion team around the world to 17 different cities (from Sao Paulo to Kuala Lampur to Kampala, London to Jakarta to Vancouver...) beginning May 16 in Kiev, Ukraine. From the Atlanta crowd, they ended up with 6,140 towels, 27,900 pairs of socks, 11 wells in Africa, and $118,430 for the Passion World Tour!

Louie and Francis spoke powerfully, clearly communicating the word of God in a manner that really spoke to the hearts of college students. Each talk ended with a challenge and a time of silence for people to reflect, pray, and do serious business with the Lord. I encourage you to read testimonies from the conference on the Passion blog, http://www.268blog.blogspot.com/
Truly, that blog tells the ongoing story of what God is doing as a result of this conference and the other five regionals that Passion conducted around the country during the past several months.

To those who prayed for me, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! You played a vital role in this Kingdom work. Keep praying for these 9500+ college students and their leaders as they impact their campuses. And please pray for Passion Conferences in the coming weeks and months as they begin the world tour. (For more information on this ministry, go to their website, 268generation.com.)