A typical day at Washington House of Prayer

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 So we have been in DC serving with YWAM at the Washington House of Prayer for about 5 weeks now! It has been a great amazing experience and God is growing us so much! I wanted to write a blog explaining what we do here so you know what kinds of things we do! So I am just going to go through a normal (although flexibility is the key because everyday has changes) day for us! 

For the last four weeks, our team has met at 6:00 AM at the White House Ellipse, the park right behind the White House, to pray fro 6 to 7 for an event called David's tent, 40 days and nights of continual worship to Jesus enthroning him as Lord over America.  The 40 days before the November 2012 election.  The event will be at this park, thus we come every morning preparing for the event by praying at the place. For more information go to http://dchop.org/.  I plan to write another blog about this event!  

We also host teams that come to DC for mission trips from around the United States.  So when a team is with us, they will join us in the morning for praying for David's tent and for Jesus to be Lord over America.  When I took this picture there was a youth group from Georgia with us! 

After the Ellipse, we dropped off Dan at the metro and he rode public transportation to Gallaudet University everyday were he was taking ASL 1 and ASL 2 language classes! He had classes from 9 to 2 everyday!  He learned a ton and his confidence in using ASL has greatly increased! He just completed his 4 weeks of ASL classes last week Friday! So this week is the first week that Dan will be joining the team for the full day!  It is a great week to start we as have a team of 60 youths from a church in VA here on a mission trip!

Then our team meets together from 730 to 10 for a devotional, worship and prayer.  These times are amazing to develop unity among our team and pray for breakthrough in our own lives as a community before leading others into intimacy with Jesus.  Everyday looks different.  We all take turns leading the devotional about a characteristic of God and then worship/pray together.  One day there is a bunch of worship other days more prayer.  We allow the Holy Spirit to led us in what to do for that day. 

         

   After our set of worship and prayer, the team splits up and works on their role for David's tent, such as scheduling the worship teams or researching about the housing options.  As I prayed about where God wanted me to serve, I felt a strong call to help the leaders, Jason and Kimberlee, at home with their four kids and help around the house.  Kimberlee does homeschooling, cleans, cooks and does                  it all with four kids! She is amazing and I get to help her at home.  I am writing another blog about the fun things that I do with the kids at home! 

Then on Tuesday and Friday nights, we have a worship/prayer set open for the public. Dan plays on the worship team and I interpret for our Deaf friends that come.  This time is a time for people in DC to worship Jesus and then pray for specific things on His heart.  We have a worship leader that leads us in worship as well as a prayer leader that seeks God's heart for that night on what we should pray for.  We have prayed for peace in Israel, the end of abortion, strengthening of traditional marriage in America, breakthrough in America and many other things! The picture below is of the YWAM DC team!  There is a group of about 16 of us, a few are not in the picture!  

Currently, Dan and I are visiting churches on Sundays to see where God would like us to get plugged into and serve while we are here in DC.  On our free time, we also go out with some of the friends that we have been meeting or reconnecting with here in DC and Gallaudet University.  One Sunday, we visited our friends Laura church and then spend the day with Laura and her friend Tom, who is doing a summer internship at Gallaudet University.  Later that week, Dan had the opportunity to have lunch with Tom at Gallaudet. 

Here is another day, where after Dan's classes and my interpreter workshop, we had the opportunity to go to the DC zoo and met up with friends.  Here Dan is explaining in American Sign Language how we met in New Mexico! 

Divine Appointments in Washington DC

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We have been in Washington DC in for only 4 short weeks, and already God has moved in such mighty ways! Below are a few of the divine appointments that God has set up for us!

Above is Laura Penrod, she was a camper at Camp Lions of IL when I worked at a summer camp for the Deaf when I was in college.  She was one of the campers that I got really close with and developed a friendship with.  We keep in touch for a few years after camp but then lost touch with each other.  Three months ago, two months before moving to DC, I receive a FB message from her with the pictures above.  She was going through things and found this pictures and shared that she missed me.  In this email she explained that she was a senior at Gallaudet university this year.  And she was doing well but it was hard to be a christian at Gallaudet.  I quickly emailed back stating that we were moving to DC and would be there for her senior year.  The first time Dan and I were on campus, I walked by the computer lab and guess who was working, YEP Laura was!  It was a divine appointment!  Laura was the first our a handful of Deaf friends to come to the Washington House of Prayer and comes regularly to the worship/prayer times!  She loves it so much she always invites a friend!  I am so blessed by her eagerness to know God more and grow in relationship with him!  

Laura than invited Dan and I to a Deaf bible study that she goes to and so we went! The leader of the bible study (the guy with blond hair with his hand up in the picture below), Rusty, was a friend of mine when I went to Gallaudet.  When he saw me he recognized me right away and quickly gave me a hug! 

As I went I meet many Deaf people as well as interpreters for the Deaf at the bible study.  It was a great connection point and we plan to continue to go to the bible study throughout the year.  But God had so much more than this.  The women who has her arm up in the corner of the women was the interpreter for the night, as two hearing adults attend the bible study as well.  Loriel is her name and she is a staff interpreter at Gallaudet University and little did I know but she was the coordinator for the Interpreter Week that I attended at Gallaudet university last week!  

Above are the two coordinators for the Interpreter Training Week that I attended this last week at Gallaudet.  Loriel is on the left and Phyllis is on the right.  Both are strong christians and amazing interpreters!  God planned that I would learn from them the whole week of my workshop at Gallaudet! 

Divine Appointments in Washington DC, Part 2

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So there were just so many divine appointments and open doors 

that I needed to add a part 2 to the blog so here it is! 

In the picture below is Kari and her mom Diana.  Kari was an undergrad student at Gallaudet when I attended school there.  We were friends and knew that each other were strong Christians.  As I knew that were were moving to DC I emailed her on FB asking if she was still a student and living in DC.  She wrote back explaining that she graduate but was still living in DC as an independent full-time missionary! And the she knew of YWAM as her mother, who is Deaf did a DTS in Kona Hawaii through an interpreter in 1982 and went to Philippains and Twain for outreach.  Kari and her brother were kids at the time their partners did their DTS thus spend the 3 months on the Kona base and then went on outreach with them!  I was so excited to see Kari!  The same week we arrived in DC, Kari's mother was visiting DC!  So that week I had the chance to go out to lunch with Kari and her mom.  We  chatted for 4 hours about what God was doing in our lives and had done as well as her experience doing a DTS through an interpreter and any suggestions that she had for us as we desire to set one up in ASL for Deaf people to do!  It was such an amazing connection! 

Kari also attends the YWAM House of Prayer and Laura Penrod's (the girl I wrote the last blog about) happen to just move in with Kari as her roommate! Small world! Well, a week ago Kari shared that she was having some friends come into town that she would like me to meet who were christians and asked if I could go out on Thursday night!  I said I would love to.  Well, during the first day of interpreter workshop at Gallaudet, I met another interpreter who was christian named Abby (picture below).  She shared she was excited to meet another christian who was in the Deaf community as she has not met any and really wanted to get more involved in ways that she can use her gift of signing to bring Deaf people into a deeper relationship with Jesus.  We talked and got along great.  Well, a couple days later God laid it on my heart to invite Abby to Thursday night outing as well so she could meet some Deaf people that love Jesus! So we came too! 

Dan, Abby and I meet Kari and her friends at the zoo!  One of her friends was a Deaf missionary that serves in Honduras at a Deaf school named Azael!  I had met Azael in Honduras in Dan and I's first DTS outreach that we staffed when we were in Honduras.  A good friend Alissa was on a missionary trip in Tegucigalpa, Honduras that same week that Dan and I were in Tegucigalpa for our outreach! So I joined my friend Alissa for a day at the Deaf school that she was working at and met Azael.  It was the same guy! It was so cool to see him again and hear about what God was doing in the Deaf community in Honduras.  

The other friend that Kari had was a girl named Jenna, who was Azael's girlfriend.  We got to talking and she shared that she was involved in CRU and every summer interpreters for the Summer Project for CRU for people who are Deaf but just last year realized that she needs more interpreters due to the increased amount of Deaf people that want to attend as well the need to interpret all day long.  She was not even gone finished explaining when Abby started asking questions and shared that she wanted to become one of the interpreters next summer for the summer project!  That is why I knew I had to invite Abby, God wanted her to connect with Jenna! They exchanged emails and plan to keep in touch.  Abby got motivated to get involved with CRU in her city in Houston TX. 

It was such an amazing night! We glorified God by sharing what He was doing in our lives and then spend some time praying for God's will to happen in the Deaf community as it is in heaven! We praised Him for what He is already doing and asked Him for MORE!!! What divine appointments! 

Thank you Jesus!

Below are some pictures of the socialization after the worship/prayer sets at the House of Prayer.  We have had 6 different Deaf friends come within the last 3 weeks! The YWAM staff are so interested in learning ASL and the Deaf people are so excited to teach that we end up staying at least an hour after the worship just hanging out!  It is so beautiful and fun to be a part of! 

Laura is teaching Kate and Rachel, YWAM staff, the ABCs in American Sign Language! (above) 

Dan is using his ASL skills to get to know Tom, Laura's friend, better!  By the way, Tom is another divine appointment! Alissa my friend who went to Honduras is Tom's interpreter at his college in Florida! Tom was in DC at Gallaudet for the summer for an internship!  Small world! He was able to come to the House of Prayer two times before leaving for the summer! We miss you Tom!

Kari using her sense of humor and God given gifts to communicate with hearing people to teach ASL as well as make everyone laugh really hard! 

We are so excited about what God is doing and what more He has planned for us in Washington, DC!