A Christmas Miracle!

My blog has resurrected from the dead, it’s truly a Christmas miracle! Actually it’s just the result of being bored at my parents house in Maryland, nothing to do with Christmas or miracles at all.

I’ve been in Maryland for a little over a week, and I am so ready to be back in South Carolina…unfortunately I still have 5 days before that can happen. 2 weeks is a really really long time to be away. My shift leader at ZHOP, Ryan, tried to tell me that when I was planning my trip, but at the time I decided not to listen to his wisdom and just go for 2 weeks. Bad, bad, choice. By day 1 I came to the realization that a lifestyle of prayer, and living in a community of people who pray is the only life for me. So let this be a lesson to everyone, when your leader tries to give you advice about something, you should probably just listen.

I have really enjoyed spending time with my family and friends here though. The holiday season is probably one of my favorite seasons, especially when spent with family, friends, and the ones that you love. (in re-reading that last sentence I realized it sounds like something from a Hallmark card) Christmas was great this year, got more than I asked for, and gave more than I thought I could give (thanks Lord for providing Christmas spending money!).

Life has been good since I last updated this thing, I’m still on the evening (6pm-midnight) shift(section) at ZHOP and loving every minute of it. I plan on being on the evening shift for a long, long time. (Unless the Lord has something else planned). Everyone on the evening shift has become like a member of my family, I love ‘em all a lot. I’m still singing a lot in the house of prayer on about 3 different teams, and a random team here or there to fill in. What can I say? I love to sing especially when it’s ministering to the heart of the Lord. I spent some time in Sept-Oct recording a live from the prayer room CD with a team I sing on at ZHOP. It should be released early in 2008, I’m excited about it coming out. I’ve also started leading a few of my own sets each week at ZHOP (after much persuasion from friends/leaders at ZHOP cause it’s definitely not something I would’ve done on my own). I found that after getting through the anxiety of leading by myself, it’s actually really fun, I’m beginning to love doing it. I’ve picked up a few new administration positions at ZHOP, the only problem is I can’t seem to get rid of the old admin positions, which means a lot of work!

When I get back to ZHOP next week, I’m gonna hit the ground running, preparing for the start of the Jan 08 Zadok Internship (our young adult internship), re-working some things on the website I manage, try and get content for 2 different newsletters that I oversee, and a bunch of other things that I can’t remember right now. All this while still being in the prayer room from 6pm-midnight, 6 days a week. I’m also going to IHOP-Atlanta for a few days at the end of January for a house of prayer leadership summit. (I’m pretty excited about this trip! For some reason I love Atlanta a lot and it’ll be fun to travel.) Plus who wouldn’t want to spend a whole weekend listening to people like Allen Hood, Dave Sliker, Billy Humphrey, and Kirk Bennett speak?

Well I hope any of you that still read this are caught up on my life.

Whoa, time flies when you’re not paying attention to your blog.

So, sorry to those of you that may check this for updates. I’ve allowed the business of life to take over, and I’ve forsaken my blog.

A lot has happened since I left ya’ll. Lets see….

Camp David ended.

I helped run the Holy Revolution Conference at ZHOP. Aside from helping run the conference I also ended up singing on 4 out of the 6 main worship sessions. A year ago, I wouldn’t have even pictured myself singing at all on a team at ZHOP, but for awhile this summer I was actually singing on 5 teams haha. Funny how the Lord does things.

After the conference we had a 2 week period where we as a staff held meetings every night at 7:30 and waited on the Lord and asked Him to come, and He did. The Lord would touch people every night, I am changed forever because of those meetings. The Lord did many many things in my heart and in the hearts of everyone that came to the meetings.

I went to Maryland for a week, first with my whole family from down here for a family reunion, then I just hung out at my parents house all week. It rained most of the time I was there, so I found myself either watching the IHOP webstream, or watching Food Network (which in turn made me want to cook a lot)

Now I’m back, I’ve joined the 6pm-midnight shift at ZHOP, I’m singing on a lot of teams still, but only one team full time. The other teams usually need me to sing, so I do, but I haven’t committed to them full time.

Well, thats where my life is now, some day this blog will back to it’s full potential like it was last year when I started it.

Prayers are being answered

Another Chipotle opened up in the Charlotte area, this one is 20 minutes closer than the first one that opened. I’m sure if ZHOP keeps praying we’ll soon have one right across from the prayer room.

The grand opening is tomorrow, but for the past 2 days they were open to the public and everything was free (just like the last one that opened.) This time I was lucky enough to make it to get a free burrito, we also made a last minute choice and brought all the Camp David interns with us. So all in all there were 60 people from ZHOP at Chipotle tonight from 6pm-7pm.

This time I ordered a Barbacoa burrito, with black beans, medium salsa, cheese, sour cream, and gauc. It was great.

I love Chipotle!

Picture extravaganza

There it is, the moment after my ear got pierced. Probably not the safest thing to have someone pierce it with a needle, but what can I say, I just wanted it done.

Here are some of the interns (plus Travis) that I’ve been with this past month.

This is Maggie right before I raised her from the dead.  Actually I don’t know why she is on the floor, probably passed out from the stress of helping to lead 45 interns.

Mountain of the Lord

So, I climbed a mountain today.

In the rain.

With 45 interns ages 13-17

10 adults.

2 and 1/2 hours up

2 hours down

Lots of steep hills

And about 200 steep steps right before the top.

It was interesting to say the least.

On the way down the Mt. we took a wrong turn and ended up on a completely different path, ultimately ending up on the complete opposite side from where we began. It was a lonnnng day.

Spontaneity

Around 11:40pm last night, I got my ear pierced. It was a random, spontaneous thing that I decided to do after having a long day with the interns.

I got it pierced in my cartilage at the top of my left ear, I’m not gonna lie, it hurt, but it looks sweet.

Mom, if you’re reading this I hope you aren’t freaking out

In a day or so I’ll have a picture of me sitting with the needle still in my ear after getting it pierced.

45 teenagers, a musty hotel, and the Lord.

Well, today is day 6 of a 21 day youth internship at ZHOP. To me it feels like it has already been 21 days. I have the privilege of  being on a team of 4 that help lead the internship, it’s been crazy, but fun at the same time. I also have to stay in the hotel with the interns, it’s fun sometimes, but other times I long to sleep in my own bed. I have 3 guys in my hotel room that I lead, they are all pretty awesome, it’s great to watch them as the Lord encounters them day after day. I’m learning so much about laying my life down and serving the next generation.

Here are some random things that have happened this past week:

• Spending 4 hours last Sunday purchasing stuff for the internship that was starting the next day. (We can be very last minute around here)
•  Living in Morningstar Hotel for the 3 weeks. (The hotel was the Grand Hotel at Heritage USA (Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s ministry). I’m pretty sure the furniture, lights, bedding, and pictures on the walls have been there since Jim and Tammy Faye owned it.
• Having a spontaneous baptism service at a community pool.
• Eating good home-cooked meals for lunch and dinner for free
• Watching interns encounter the Lord in the prayer room.
• Random wrestling matches in hotel rooms (I lose pretty much every time haha)
• Watching some of the interns having a mosh pit in the hotel hallways.
• Being at the ER til 1am because an interns arm was smashed against a wall during the aforementioned mosh pit.
• Adding “No Mosh Pits” to our increasing list of internship guidelines.
• The Lord encountering many during a 4pm intercession set yesterday. The team (I sing on the set) came into the briefing for the set, weary and tired, not sure of how the set would go. It turned out that we didn’t even pray the whole time. Repentance fell in the room as we sang about giving ourselves over fully to the Lord. One of my favorite moments of the set was when we began to sing “You are the potter, I am the clay” over and over again as a chorus, I had to stop singing because I was weeping, I looked up and noticed most of the room and most of the team doing the same thing. It was powerful. I might upload the file to my blog for people to listen to.  When the time came for the team to debrief we spent the first the first 5 minutes in silence. It was the craziest set I have ever been on probably.

Well you’ve come to the end of another one of my random blogs, I hope you enjoyed it.

A somewhat scattered and random update on my life

So, I know I haven’t written anything worth reading in this for awhile. I’m writing in it today because as I was walking into ZHOP someone asked me if I was going to start blogging again. Maybe this is my way of saying “yes.”

I’ve read so much about the iPhone recently, that I kind of want one. Anyone want to sow one into me?

ZHOP’s youth internship starts on Monday! I’ve been doing admin and planning for it for months. Everything is finally falling into place; thanks to Chinese food and a 3 hour meeting today we only have a few minute details to hammer out. I will also be living with the interns for the 3 weeks that they are here, I did the same thing last year and loved it. Teenagers bring such a zeal and passion for the Lord to the prayer room. I’m excited for the internship to start.

I had a good 4th of July, fireworks don’t phase me much anymore cause they seem to be going off non-stop in my neighborhood. When I told my dad this he said it sounded like I lived in “Hick-ville USA”, but I don’t. I guess when you have fireworks available to you everyday of the year you might as well shoot them off 24/7. My July 4th celebration started at a cookout and ended in the ZHOP parking lot watching praying for my life to be spared because bottle rockets + 12 year old kids aren’t a very good combination.

Well, I have officially lost my train of thought so I am ending this post. Leave me a comment so I know who still reads this thing.

Explain this to me

I ordered 5 CD binders for our audio archives at ZHOP from Sears.com and when the shipment comes it is 5 wireless computer mice.

I called Sears.com and told them what happened, and they didn’t even tell me how or why they messed up. They just took my order again.

For the 0 of you that still read this I just wanted to let you know that I’m still alive and maybe I’ll update more often.

Happy Birthday to Shawn

It’s Shawn Blanc’s (thefightspot.com) 26th birthday today!

He also just launched a new blog: shawnblanc.net. Go and check it out.

Happy Birthday Shawn!