Report on 10 Days Boston from Kelly Steinhaus

10 Days of worship, prayer, and fasting, building up to the Boston Night of Worship on October 9...

From September 29 to October 9, I worked with two other leaders in the area to organize and plan 10 Days Boston, which involved two daytime prayer sets each day, as well as evening gatherings happening in churches throughout the city. In the planning, we intentionally reached out to a variety of denominations and people groups throughout the city. I felt that each night I experienced a different part of the heart of God - it's not every day you get to worship with Koreans or say Psalm 133 in Arabic. It truly gives you an understanding that truly it is Christ who binds the Church together.

One huge blessing was that a gentleman in the area offered to video updates for us during the ten days. So even if you weren't here in the Boston area, or weren't able to participate, you can still check out what God was doing!

Here's a video about the vision of the 10 Days - graciously prepared by the video team at Pentecostal Tabernacle and beautifully done:

Here are the video updates that Brandt Gillespie of Pray.tv prepared for us. I served as the "on-scene reporter"...I never imagined that I would be on some sort of televised production, but sometimes God surprises us with the opportunities that come our way!

Personally, I feel completely grown, changed through this experience. It was an incredible season for me - not simply from the ten days, but from the entire process of working with my brothers Jonathan and Frank - catching the vision and running with it to mobilize leaders of congregations in different churches. Each evening gathering had about an average of fifty to one hundred people in attendance - so to think that this vision touched 500 to 1000 people in the area is pretty incredible. I sense that there is a fabric that is being interwoven, knitted together among the body, and that rather than the end of the ten days, this is the beginning...

I have also experienced a greater understanding as to the transformative power of prayer and fasting. There is something about fasting that enables you to completely die to yourself and rely only on Christ. That, coupled with spending 7+ hours a day in the presence of God, praying, worshipping, journaling, being with God's people - my heart feels completely soft to the movings of the spirit. Right now, I don't want to do anything to quench His spirit, His leadings. As the fast concluded, I feel a sort of resurrection to new life. I now have a greater sense of what God is saying and doing, a clearer voice, greater intimacy than before, and I praise Him for that.

Corporately, what I am beginning to understand is that there is something released between individuals when they decide to pray and fast together - deciding to consecrate not only their time but their physical nourishment for the sake of Christ together. This engages hearts, minds, bodies, and souls and begins to bring them together into a spiritual union. One tangible expression of this was during the Arabic and Messianic Jewish gathering where Pastor Khokhlan washed the feet of his Arab brothers as a symbol of reconciliation among the people groups (see video update #3 for real-time footage)

Jonathan remarked how he now doesn't see the colors of people's skin anymore - as though there is no difference at all, or that the differences are something highly valuable. I feel similarly - and it was a running joke that Frank called Jonathan and myself his "twin brother and sister." As the ten days progressed, an incredible sense of brotherly love began to emerge between Frank, Jonathan, and myself - and we couldn't even sit at the Boston Night of Worship in separate seats without texting one another, longing to worship together as we had for the past ten days.

Colossians 3:14 says "Beyond all these things, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity." My question is - what could God do with a church that is united like that? What if not just dozens, but hundreds, thousands of Christians were able to experience that spiritual union and the cords of love that bound us together...What if, instead of just joining in this movement for one evening gathering or a few daytime prayer sets, what if people decided to truly devote and dedicate the ten days to God and to the Church in this city? When the Church is truly united as one, we will be a force to be reckoned with...

--Kelly Steinhaus, Unite Boston