Thursday, Oct. 18th was one of the most encouraging days I
can remember.
Over four hours through two video discussions and a larger
conversation with many of the 10 Days Boston hosts present, we shared “tales of
the Kingdom”. I listened for hours but
it seemed like we had days worth of material.
In terms of sheer volume of testimony, and in terms of the encouragement
it brought to me personally, the day was unparalleled.
As we heard story after story, I was reminded of the end of
the gospel of John: Jesus did too many amazing things to write them all down!
The same is true today when Jesus is in the midst of His people—He does too
much for us to keep track of!
JOY! Friends sharing Stories about Jesus
As I arrived 20 minutes late to our debrief meeting at EGC,
I literally found the meeting by following the sound of laughter. As we continued meeting together, we
continued to laugh. Why were we all so
happy? First of all, it’s because we’re
friends and we like being together! New friends
are welcomed easily into the mix. Christ
dwells in all of us individually—His presence is even more special when we come
together.
The stories that we shared about God’s work were the other
source of Joy. Throughout the day, I
heard story after story of God’s work during the 10 Days. They’re the kind of stories that make you
say, “Wow” or “No Way”. Sometimes, they
just make you laugh.
Honestly, I was “in shock” just from the sheer volume of
things God had done. Even the things
that were hard seemed to be encouraging, just another learning experience on
our journey together. I was reminded of how
Jesus and the disciples rejoiced when the disciples returned from their first
mission trip full of testimonies about the power of God.
I think Jesus was rejoicing with us as well.
Pastor Dana Baker, Keith Bellevue, LaTonya Brown, and Jonathan Friz discuss the impact of 10 Days in Boston and on the South Shore
Pastor Dana Baker, Keith Bellevue, LaTonya Brown, and Jonathan Friz discuss the impact of 10 Days in Boston and on the South Shore
Personal
Transformation
This Fall, YWAM Boston was really the heart of the 10 Days,
serving by leading much of the daytime prayer and also by doing daily
outreaches all throughout the city. Without
a doubt, YWAM Boston was the single biggest encouragement to me personally
during this 10 Days. I’m so grateful for
them! It’s been a joy to hear how 10
Days impacted them personally and as a group.
Aaron Cieply (YWAM Boston) shared the personal
transformation he experienced and witnessed in others. His own heart was transformed as he learned
how to be a “Mary”, sitting at Jesus’ feet, rather than constantly trying to
serve the Lord as a “Martha”. He shared
the revelation he experienced that “Lovers actually accomplish more than
workers” and his experience of sharing then getting to share the gospel out of
place of rest and a heart full of God’s love.
Keith Bellevue (10 Days South Shore) shared some of the
surprises that God had in store for him. “We went into the 10 Days with the
intent that we were going to "tear down strongholds" and "take
back our land for the Kingdom!" But, by the second day, it seemed clear
that the Lord was more interested in truly knowing [us]..., and in so doing it
seems our original intent was accomplished…”
Keith also shared his surprise at the turnout and the
transformation that followed: “We expected many people to come to the evening
gathering at their own church, we were shocked to also see a core of about
twenty to thirty people that came night after night with burning hearts from
this time of personal sacrifice.”
In this group of people,
Keith began to witness a steady work of transformation happening
day-by-day. A week in, those who had
been showing up night after night were visibly different than when the 10 Days
began—God was doing a deep, inner work that was manifest in their faces, their
speech, the prayers they prayed, and the way they loved each other.
Encouragement in the
Presence of God
One of the most common reports was simply that people left
the gatherings encouraged and refreshed by God’s presence. That may not sound flashy; however, it’s
impossible for the Church to do anything without God’s presence. Encouragement from the Lord is like food that
strengthens us from day-to-day. If we’re
discouraged, we’re not effective in any aspect of our Christian life.
Satt Scrivner (10 Days North Shore) said that this was the
testimony he heard more than any other. After
their times together, believers would share with him how much they enjoyed
being in God’s presence together and what an encouragement the time had been to
them.
Pastor Lorraine Anderson (International Community Church)
reported how encouraged she was both by God’s presence and by seeing such a
diverse group (Anglo, Black, Hispanic, Deaf, Burmese, and more) worshipping
together. Pastor Dana Baker (Grace
Chapel), Bishop Brian Greene (Pentecostal Tabernacle), and many others shared the
encouragement that came during personal prayer ministry, when God would often speak
into people’s lives through a complete stranger.
Part of the encouragement that came during this time was
simply this: We need to find a way to do this more often—it can’t be limited to
a “once a year” event.
New Relationships and
Open Doors
I was extremely impressed by the perseverance and
determination showed by many of the evening hosts in pursuing relationships
with others in the Body of Christ. They
exhibited determination, love, wisdom, and unshakeable hope as they lovingly
tried to bring others into this season of encountering the Lord together.
Part of our unshakeable hope that we share is a confidence
that some way, somehow, the Father is going to answer Jesus’ prayer in John 17—“let
them be ONE as we are One.” I believe
that God is raising up many in this generation who will persevere with
tenacious hope for the fulfillment of this prayer. Only God can do it (we’re asking for a
miracle), but we get to partner with Him through our faith and perseverance in
love.
One of testimonies from this year was related to the Catholic/Protestant
divide. During the 10 Days in 2011, my
good friend Christ (rhymes with ‘wrist’) Otto had a profound experience with the
Lord. The gist of it was this: 10 Days was supposed to reach out to the
Catholic Church, something we had not attempted to that point. John Spaddacini, a Roman Catholic friend,
helped us immensely by making contact with many potential hosts. However, as we approached the final weeks, all
the doors we knocked on were still closed.
We held open one day out of 10 “in hope” that God would do something “last
minute”.
As our final leads fell through, we decided to call for a “day
of mourning”, inviting Catholics and Protestants to fast and pray as we sought
the Lord to break down this historic, cultural, and theological divide. We
held a silent vigil at St. Clement, a 24/7 Catholic prayer and adoration center
in the heart of Boston.
Bishop Brian Greene (Pentecostal Tabernacle), Dr. Vito Nicastro (Archdiocese of Boston), Aaron Cieply (YWAM Boston) and Jonathan Friz (10 Days) discuss signs of God's work during the 10 Days Boston.
Dr. Vito Nicastro, director of Ecumenical affairs for the
Archdiocese responded to this invitation by fasting, praying, and meeting us
there. He was touched that 20 young
people (YWAM again) showed up to pray in a place that was so distinctly
Catholic and foreign to them. As he later shared, Catholic teaching on “Unity” says
that it is only a “work of the Holy Spirit”.
The official teaching states that any “unity” effort worthy of the name
must be rooted in “prayer, fasting, and repentance.” Evidently, we both had the same ideas about
what would bring about real unity!
Emails and long phone conversations between Vito and many
other evangelicals followed. Protestants
were invited and many came to a historic meeting on the Physician Assisted
Suicide bill which included about 60 leaders from all three major streams of
the Christian faith: Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Eastern Orthodox. Friendship, love, and trust are budding. Both sides are hopeful about what might come.
Next Year: Growing
Deep, Going Wide
Sept 4-14, 2013 are the dates for the 10 Days next
year. Once again, the month of September
will be a “month for unity” with UNOW on Sept 28th and the Convoy of
Hope city-wide outreach on September 21st. Here’s how we think God
is leading us for next year:
Going Deep
Without a doubt, there is a relationship between time spent
in God’s presence and personal transformation.
If you want to be like Jesus, spending lots of time with Him can’t hurt. Next year, we hope to see more and more
people setting apart all or part of the 10 Days to “seek God’s face”. That means taking time off from “normal” life
to discover “real” life.
As Bishop Brian Greene pointed out, people will wait in line
overnight, sleeping on the ground in the cold to get something as trivial as an
iPhone. They’ll “lose track of time”
playing a video game. We believe that
God is so much better, so much more fascinating than anything this world has to
offer. An iPhone can connect you to the
world, but only the Holy Spirit can connect you to the God of the Universe. We’re
hoping to see more and more people discovering the goodness of Jesus as they
consecrate all or part of the 10 Days for prayer.
Mark your calendar now—set a date with the Lord. Whatever you decide to do, experience
suggests strongly that you won’t be disappointed with your decision.
Going Wide
This year, for the first time, we had three “city-wide
church” 10 Day gatherings and two smaller 10 Day gatherings happening at the
same time. I believe this is going to
continue to spread in years to come. We believe
that this vision is something that God wants to establish as a regular rhythm
in city-wide churches around the nation and the world.
Deep and Wide
Deep is real, Holy, and permanent. Wide is exciting, encouraging and promising. What really gets me excited is when Deep and
Wide come together.
We’re envisioning many people, many cities, many nations “dropping
everything” to seek God in unity as city and regional churches on an annual
basis during the fall Biblical feasts. I’m
imagining certain cities almost “stopping” for Sabbath-like 10 Day seasons of repentance,
fasting, transformation, and renewal.
“Well, that’s impossible!”
We say that this kind of thing is impossible, but I think what we really
mean is “it would take a miracle”. Personally,
I’ve been spending a lot of time with people who don’t seem to understand that “things
are impossible” since they keep seeing God doing miracles when they step out in
faith. Personally, I’m betting on those
guys and their God over “impossible”.
How would God respond if an entire City took a day, or even
10 Days to seek His face together? And what if this was happening not just in
one city, but in thousands of places around the world? If this what happened this year is the result
of a relatively few people saying “yes”, what could the Lord do if entire
cities went deep with God together? I’ve
never seen it happen, but I’ve seen enough to get an idea of how good it would
be. We’re going to see this someday…and
rejoice!
--Jonathan Friz, 10 Days Boston
