Houston – Dallas County Version happened this weekend. While I stayed home doing some family stuff, I was able to keep track of our team on the trip down there via text. You will find some of the texts at the bottom of this message. God was clearly there. More importantly it seems really clear that our team is all on the same page strategy wise about using events like the Houston trip to build on our ministry cycle and help people meet and walk with Jesus.

Praise Report:

• Praise God for what He has done in Houston this last weekend. Praise Him for the students and what they experienced. Praise God for the volunteers and the circumstances. Praise God!
• Praise God as Roy with Area Mobilizer Jeff Anthony and new staff Peter Sample were able to be part of the Right Now Conference. (http://rightnow.org) Probably the greatest blessing was confirmation that we got that we are moving the direction the church is moving in also but maybe a little ahead. The church is re-learning about relational (vs. programmed) ministry.They are also learning how to minster in a multicultural context. These are how we’ve always done things and our M:28 ministry fits very well what they want to do too. A second major blessing is that Roy got to spend his first protracted amount of time with Peter since he joined ISI. That was very important relationship building and passing on of values, etc.
• We got through this week with a little stress but some good memories. Timothy forgot half of the food for the camping trip for his whole patrol for the weekend. He learned an important lesson about planning and execution and Roy was able to drive to Texas motor speedway where the Camporee was.
• Friday night was once again fruitful. Roy has set up a couple of appointments this coming week to go deeper with some of the students who indicated interest. He also connected with some new students that will likely move in the same direction.

Pray for “Fervent Prayer”

• Only if God is leading can ministry happen. If this is true, prayer therefore needs to be a greater priority than any task we do.
• God works when people pray. When incredible movements have happened around the world where thousands of churches have formed in a very short time, “Crazy Passionate Prayer” was always there. Studies have shown empirically that sparkers of movement, on average, pray 3-6 hours per day.
• Crazy passionate prayer also can be done using prayer movements.
• Our team is learning how to and are doing prayer efforts before every event. We are not doing so well in consistently praying with such fervor. Also spiritual attacks happen when prayer like this is happening.
• We need you all to pray for protection as we pray. We also need you all as our vanguard to continually cover us and pray with us. Pray also for prayer warriors, workers for the harvest who can be part of our prayer efforts, etc.