The SHOP

After hinting at this for months it is now time to tell you all about The SHOP.

In the fall of 2009 while I was in China, my friend Alyssa was speaking in a conference about prayer and worship and she said, "When we pray for our cities it changes the atmosphere." Right then I saw a picture in my mind of a map of Seattle covered with glowing dots, the dots were houses of prayer, and the glory of God was coming down out of heaven onto the houses of prayer. Then it spread out connecting with each other changing the city from a city of darkness to a city of light.

The next thing I heard was, "Do it." I said to the Lord, "God, if you want me to do this you need to show me how." The rest of the trip he gave me strategy for what is now called The SHOP.

What is the SHOP exactly? At the most simplistic level it is believers living in authentic community with their lives centered around loving Jesus and seeing the love for the Lord transform Seattle. But what does that actually look like?

The three forms of the SHOP are: Community houses, The coffee shop, and The corporate Prayer room.

First the community. Everything in the Kingdom of God starts with Community, from the creation of the world to the SHOP. What we are going to do is get a house and live in, turn one room into a prayer room and go after true community, not just co-habitation. It is one thing to get a bunch of people to live together, frats do that, this is about being real raw and deep with each other. Laying down our lives to see each others dreams come to pass, encouraging and sharpening each other in our faith. The big thing here is community, calling in our neighbors and letting them know about the love of God by actually loving them.

Then there is the coffee shop. The last thing Seattle needs is a mediocre coffee ministry. Our first priority beyond even lots of ministry, is being the best. As a cafe in Seattle we want to have the highest quality in everything we do, from who we get our beans from too the roast all the way to pouring a perfect latte. Every cup is prayed over and all of our baristas will be trained on how to pull a perfect shot every time and how to hear the voice of the Lord. Attached to the cafe will be a prayer room, when the cafe is open the prayer room is open, and we will have people always in the prayer room singing songs to the Lord changing the atmosphere in the area. Then when some one comes into the cafe and gets their latte some one can give them a word from the Lord, then lead them to Jesus and right there in the cafe connect them to a community of people that will disciple them.

Discipleship is really at the heart and core of the SHOP. Teaching other people the teachings of Jesus and how to teach it to others is what Christianity is about. Its the model Jesus used, He got 12 knuckle heads taught them all he could over three years, died, rose and said now go teach everyone else. Thats what we want to do, Teach everyone about Jesus. But if only one person does it on their own the task is too big. So we get it smaller by multiplying ourselves.

Lastly is the corporate prayer room. This will be a place in the city that will be open fully to the public 24/7. The goal is to get 24/7 Prayer and worship shifting the spiritual atmosphere of the city.

Thats what the SHOP is all about.

The End Of A School And The Edge Of A Cliff

We are a week away from the end of our DTS, my students are absolutely amazing. I could not be more proud of them, they go out and tell everyone about Jesus. God has done some crazy things in my heart on this trip from bringing Kirsten into the picture, to giving me a renewed passion for discipleship and fresh faith for transformation in Seattle. After I return to Kona I will have a little bit of time off to sit reflect and relax after 6 intense months.

The other day The Lord said something to me, "Alex, get ready for an adventure." In six words God took every plan and sense of security and threw it out the window. You see when God tells you to get ready for an adventure that means you are about to dive into anything. There is no telling what may happen, it may be as small as going to the store and getting a free shirt, or you can end up in the middle of russia, or perhaps live in an airport, the options are as infinite as the one taking you on the adventure. This can be a scary place to be, a great abyss of unknown staring you in the face. However, when you understand God a little the fear melts away. God is infinitely good and loving, He is the one calling you away, He is the provider for the whole thing. When God tells you to get ready for an adventure, what he really is saying to you is "Get ready to see how good I am. I'm about to show off and everyone is going to see."

What will happen with The Seattle House Of Prayer? Will I go to South Africa and see Kirsten? Will I live in another airport? What is going to happen at Circuit Riders? Will I ever finish writing about my last adventure? I guess we will all have to wait and find out.

Living by Faith and Help

I live by faith. But I gotta pay the bills. In the last two years I have had more expenses then I truly care to think about, from plane tickets to food to rent, it has added up. Every penny I have prayed in. But every penny came from some one. So that being said I want to thank you.

Thank you.

I have not been able to be on this journey if it was not for you. You have made all of this possible. You have been just obedient to The Lord as I have. Thank you.

With that said, I want you to know that I have made all of this finance stuff easier for you my readers by expanding the blog and adding a page for you to donate on. Check it out.

also The SHOP. Get ready a post is in the works!

Thanks for reading. Also thank you to everyone who read last weeks post it was the most popular post in the history of the blog. I like that. I like her.

Introduction

An Update.

Well, We are on our way to Seattle now, so there is allot to tell you about on this adventure. My team is amazing, they are constantly looking for oportunities to share the gospel and bless people, we were at the laundry mat and they went to a conveniance store and prayed for the owner who

is a christian. We have prayed for close to 300 people sharing the love of God with them and telling them about The Lords heart for them. And now we are about to go to Seattle and Samammish for the finality of out trip.

But what about my adventure, well its been a crazy one. Let me tell you about my Girlfriend. What? You Haven't heard that Im in a relationship with an amazing woman of God. Kirsten and I have been friends since last february, When I first met her I knew she was cool, she has great style and fantastic taste in music and Loves Jesus in a way most people just don't. But at the time she was a friend and I looked at her like a sister. But that didn't last long. She quickly became a really close friend. Their was alot of times when something would spark in my heart and it was a little bit of love, but I refused to let my heart go to that place. As I continued to get to know her, I discovered more and more time and again how amazing she is. The thing that has always amazed me is her love for Jesus, she cares so much about him being loved by the lost that at times she is moved to tears. Who in Christianity cares about Jesus being loved more then their crap getting cleaned up? How much of my walk is about me? How much of my worship is about me feeling good? For you dear readers that Love the Lord and are single, once you find someone like that you pursue them, they are rare, however God is doing something and they are becoming more common.

It was Kirsten, that was there for me when I lived in the airport, and when my grandpa died. Thats when she became my best friend. And that is when I began to think to myself, hmm she's my best friend. But still I would not allow my heart to go to a place of love. I was in Hawaii over Christmas and so was she. She went to China and I stayed in Hawaii to staff the DTS. We stayed in touch, and when she came back she told me how she felt. Now I know this is going to sound crazy but at the time I said something to the effect of, "Hey, I'm really sorry, but I don't like you like that." I know dumb right?

The next day I got on a plane to go on outreach. I couldn't stop thinking about her, so I started to talk to the Lord about her. He told me it was my choice. One of my best friends and I were talking over the matter, and he asked if I could see myself doing life with her. That settled the matter for me. After that I had to wait till the 15th, Lord told me too. That night I got on skype and told her how I felt, day after that I asked her parents for their permission and blessing, all three of them said yes(Kirsten and her parents).

So for you dear readers, please welcome to the journey Kirsten Jean.

Quick Update

So, I don't think this is going to be a big theological discourse. We are on outreach now, its been crazy. our first few days we spent in San Diego, went to church and did a ministry night. Then we went to LA. We have been here going after family and friendship and seeing the kingdom. One of my highlights came from monday. We went down to venice beach and had one hour to release the love of God on the streets. So we split into groups of two, I was with my student Elizabeth, the first thing we did was pray for a guy advertising medical marijuana, asking that he would get baptized in the Holy Spirit. Then we saw homeless man, his name is Mike, we prayed for his finger that was badly burned, then we got him pizza. After that we met Terry "The Original Kick Me In The Ass Guy", he had a sign saying kick me in the Ass for $1. Instantly God started telling me about his value, "He is more valuable to me then all the gold and silver in the world." So I told him that and we prayed for him. He liked it. Then we hung out with the homeless. Now this is a rather poor strategy for the everyday, but for then it was a great thing. Loving the lost, intensely for a moment is better then never loving them for a life time.

Also there is new stuffs

יְהוָה יִרְאֶה The Lord Will Provide

God is good, my math however, is not. We are about to leave on outreach to the west coast this thursday. I am in charge of my teams finances and had failed to do a simple task of of keeping up on them, on tuesday we still needed $5,876.50. We were supposed to have had all of it in two weeks ago. I messed up. I added wrong and missed some stuff in our budget, and now we were in the soup. I have seen God provide money out of thin air, literally, I have seen thousands of dollars come in in a matter of minutes. I knew this was not to big for my God. So I asked him, "Jesus, what are the obediance steps you want me to be taking to see all of my teams money come in?" My reply was terrifying, "Nothing." To get my money I was to ask no one, no desperate calls, no emails, just pray. "Ask me and I will provide for you by tomorrow night." That was on wednesday. As I prayed and talked with my students, the number went down, by the end of the day it was at $3,626.50, by thursday lunch, $2,036, by that afternoon $1,230. That night, $1,130. By the end of our corporate gathering it was down to $670. And as of right now my team needs only $640. God is called by many names in the bible, one of my favorite is Adonai-Jira, The Lord will provide, we find this name in Genesis 22:14. Its part of the story of Abraham sacrificing his chosen son Isaac. If God calls us to do something he will always provide for us. Abraham killed a ram not his son. He has never left me lacking and he has always taken me to where He called me to go. Where is your lack, what is your need? Ask with faith and he will provide for you. My God is a provider, My God is faithful.

What am I going to do next?

Where am I going and what am I doing? Now thats an easy question for me. I am going to the west coast, starting in LA and headed to Seattle. I'm Co-leading a team to the west coast. RIght now I still need $2,000 for the whole trip. Is God Good yes Can he provide it? Yes? But where does it come from? You. But why would you donate? For a number of reasons, One you believe in what we are going to be doing. You believe in me. You want a tax write off. And many more. But what are we going to be doing? let me tell you all about it. In LA we will be training trainers, teaching the body of Christ how to multiply and doing simple street evangelism. We also will be going to Arizona for a few days to help with the premier of a film called "Sex And Money: A National Search For Human Worth" A documentary on sex trafficking in America. Then after a month we In LA we will head to Seattle with a few brief stops in between. In Seattle we will be preparing the way for the Seattle House of Prayer, A ministry that I am leading. The Seattle House of Prayer(SHOP) is a community of believers dedicated to radical relationship with Jesus Christ, Authentic community and seeing all of Seattle come to know and be in radical relationship with the person of Jesus Christ. We will be doing extended times of pray and worship in the city as well as street evangelism and planting simple house churches on university campuses. And where does this money go? Transportation, housing and ministry expenses. It will cover everything we need for the full 75 days of outreach. Well that sounds great Alex. Thank you very much. Another question for you, how do I donate? Well you can call or email +1 (808) 326-4428 / donorprocessing@uofnkona.edu or click this link

Thank you so much for all of your help over the last two years thank you for your prayers, and thanks for reading.

Also here is a trailer here for the film we are going to promote.