IHOP Day 3

Well I’m recouping from a rather intensely quiet prayer slot in the 10am today. Drinking my juice in the coffeeshop.

A couple metaphors for IHOP have been striking me in the past day…

The Simpsons
I don’t mean this in a comedic way, but it is just so bizarre to be sitting in the Prayer Room or the church service and seeing all the people from the various media including the webcast, conferences, and even many of your blogs that I follow. Every one here is unique and it is kind of like watching the Simpsons, in that you recognize various people and want to say hi to them.

The Zoo
I also don’t mean this in a weird way, but the HOP is sort of like a zoo. All of the worship leaders are now on global display and the worldwide broadcasting has necessitated a heightening of the platform, which I would suspect could be very much like a cage. The greater platform comes with the price of less spontaneity and a casual atmosphere gives way to a formal one.

I also suspect that it can be somewhat highly annoying to be engaged in pacing around the room and have people who you don’t know are out of town blog lurkers saying hi and trying to converse while in the prayer room. “Who is that?” So I’m trying to give you all space.

Stadium Prayer
I could not really fathom the logistics of stadiums full of intercessors praying and fasting. How do they walk around? I gotta walk around when I pray. I am realizing that you actually can have an intense prayer meeting and be limited to your seat due to population density. The stadium is just a much higher level than this, and I now have a vision that it can happen… at least for those who ramp up to it.

The Juice Challenge

Still up for buying brown water or juice for those who seek it. Just go to the “About Me” page for a photo of what I look like…

IHOP Day 2

I am beat. Not too much, but I will really start to drag if I don’t get some more rest. Went back to the base for a 1 hour nap that almost hit the spot.

I would like to develop a thought regarding the inverse proportions out here. Basically on the east coast where I am from, people are everywhere and it is annoyingly crowded all the time, EXCEPT in the church. So you get all bent out of shape going through life if you are not careful. It is hard to love others sometimes because it is so crowded.

Out here in KC, from what I have seen (very little but it’s my best guess), this situation is flipped over a bit. It is a city but the density is not quite as crowded, EXCEPT in the church or the prayer house.

My point is that I have a newfound respect for a group of people who are at times crammed into church or a prayer room (I’m sitting toward the front of it and the lights courtesy of God TV are so bright that I may get a headache). On top of this they are ALL attempting to walk out some form of fasting for the next 39 days. I cannot fathom the potential to get really irritable after day 2, and for what it’s worth, I give you guys some kudos (humble kudos I guess).

Praying at the UN

One of the cool things about living in Philly is that I got to go to the protest at the United Nations back in September when Ahmedinijad from Iran was given an audience there, despite his intentions to blow Israel off the map. I don’t know whether it was more fun to pray Psalm 83 to the UN or to get a free ride with the locals from the non-messianic synagogue, or to receive their appreciation for standing with them for Israel. Here’s 15 seconds of the glorious chaos:

Trip to IHOP, Day 1

In the interest of my readers who are not here at the KC IHOP I will be blogging my experiences here from my outsider’s perspective. Perhaps these perspectives will be amusing or even insightful for the locals here. If you didn’t pray for my uncle, please do.

Forerunner Christian Fellowship: AM
After attending churches in Philly suburbs that have 25-50 members for the past year, attending a small megachurch was a bit different. No room to walk around, you are stuck in between people. Very little jumping around or outwardly demonstrative worship in the congregation.

The Camera-Probe Droid

There was a funky videocamera attached to a 50 foot pole that would capture the worshippers in the middle of their interactions with the Divine, for the thousands of voyeurs on the other side of the monitor or TV. I find these weird cameras swinging around reminiscent of a droid from Star Wars. It puts a frigid vibe on my worship anytime a camera is in front of me. This may be because I was jumbo-tronned at a PK gathering awhile ago.

Forerunner Christian Fellowship: PM

This was the same thing. Makes sense since the poor nightwatch people probably don’t make it in for the AM.

The Men’s Room

Due to flight restrictions banning liquids, I was a bit dehydrated yesterday, so I drank extra water during the service, which was a problem towards the end of the AM service. It took me 10 minutes in the cattle herd at the end to reach the bathroom. I was even more incredulous that the men’s room had a single stall? Had to wait behind three other guys in there. When I got in, I realized that I could select from a #1 (urinal), #2, (toilet) or take the literal plunge and shower under my choice of 5 shower heads. Never have I had such an array of selections for my hygienic needs after having to wait in line for so long.

Nightwatch

My evening is about to come to a close. It is 140 am and I have a JoCo retreat to register for in 6 hours… still wired from my flight out here and the events of Saturday. My hosts are calling me “Jack Bauer” because I was up for nearly 24 after doing a 4-6 am at a “24” service in PA.

Until tomorrow…

Uncle Bruce and the Ladder

He fell off it yesterday morning from the 2nd floor.

Just found out about this tonight after church. Don’t think that he or my aunt would mind my blogging this, as long as we pray for him. He has a shattered shoulder and a “brain bleed” that is being monitored. He had a Level II Trauma but is stable I think. I will update as I hear good news.

Even in this there was a high level of protection. His glasses fell with him but remained intact instead of shattering. I believe that God is able and eager to speed up his recuperation and fully restore the use of his arm which is in need of serious rehab in the natural right now. As well as dissolving any clots from this bleed.

Fortunately I happen to be stuck at a 24 hour prayer center all week long, so Uncle Bruce will be getting some serious prayer here.

The Challenge is ON!

This is it!

First 3 KC IHOP commenters win free food at the location of your choice! The winning vote gets it.

This is for lunch on Monday the 28th, hours before the beginning of the fast.

Options already suggested include Waldo, Jack Stack, some juice place, or another place that strikes your fancy.

Just a way of saying “thank you” for all you intercessors. Who’s in?

FCF Webcast Down Again

Ugggh. I would be happy to pay significantly more money than I give for the webcast just to be able to tune into the Forerunner church service in the Sunday pm. Starving for food out here sometimes and this is where I used to get it. Now I get this message:

 Windows Media Player cannot connect to the server. The server name might not be correct, the server might not be available, or your proxy settings might not be correct.

The only issue is that the “proxy”, the “server name”, and the “server availability” was just peachy until the signal got overloaded with viewers. Why should I be kicked off the stream? The worship was heating up and I was going for it, but now after 11 attempts I am giving up this week. 0 for 2 the last 2 weeks.

Is it a consolation that I will actually be there next week? Suppose so.  Ugggh.

Behold, the Challenge Draweth Nigh

IHOP residents, be on the lookout because some free food is around the corner for you!

The Challenge will consist of a free lunch at a location of your choice. I will put this up for a vote. But the voting booth is not yet open!

You must wait for the appointed time, which will be closer to next week and my appearing next Sunday. If you will, this will be my “second coming” to the original IHOP, for you students of eschatology. (I just spelled eschatology on the first try and the red underline has not appeared… did I actually spell it correctly?!?). My original visitation to IHOP was back in 2002, in a humble series of singlewide trailers and weird poofy carpets that tripped you if you hurried too much.

The challenge will be open to the first 3 responders in the comments. But that’s not all: Winner #1 gets to bring along a friend / spouse / significant other of their choice. So there will be 5 of us to enjoy a lunch. This winning lunch will occur Monday, May 28. You will have plenty of digestion time before the 40 day fast begins! I think I have a 2 hour window per the JoCo retreat schedule. If someone can verify the JoCo schedule that would be great!

Also the winners must arrange the transportation since I will be carless all week. I will also warn the winners in advance to be prepared to hear my recruitment schpiel for intercessors to move out here to Philadelphia where there is no functioning HOP but once a month.

So this Challenge shall come as a thief – be watchful, and subscribe to the CBB, preferably with a feed reader – because the contest will be over in the blink of an eye!

Foiled Again!

To all you IHOP denizens who have subscribed to CBB in hopes of cashing in on FREE food during my visit (May 26 – June 3) in the spirit of the famed “Cheesesteak Challenge” –

We’re gonna need some creativity to make this work.

Perhaps a member of the Sanhedrin could figure a solution.

You can read about the original challenge and my first visit to the firetrap glorious “IHOP 1.0” in 2002 in this post. Basically it rocked, except that no one wanted to talk much due to a 40 day fast from food, meetings, conversations, and other legitimate forms of recreation as I recall. I thought that was fairly cool and intense and understood the premise of what they were up to “in the grace of God”. To foster goodwill and friendship upon my arrival, I announced a Special Dispensation of a Culinary Challenge.

“Problem”:

It seems that I’m yet again arriving just in time for another 40 day fast (I hate when that happens 🙂 ). If I read my special bulletin correctly,

“We will be launching this [40 day] fast with a worldwide simulcast on God TV on May 26.”

Well golly if that ain’t the day the good folks at Southwest drop me off in KCMO. I find sometimes that Lou’s communications are sometimes contradicting, and sure enough, earlier in the bulletin it describes the fast commencing May 28 in the evening, which is Monday night.

So I need some counsel here. I’m too lazy to track back 40 days from 7/7/7 on my calendar, and even if I did, my accounting will pale against whatever the official dates are.

Question: Can we figure out a way to make this work? There are 2 possibilities:

1. IF the fast starts on Monday pm, the Challenge will occur before Monday evening, which works fine – The Challenge is ON!
2. If it starts upon my arrival Saturday pm on the 26th, the challenge would likely consist of a trip to the local juicing bar or a pathetic cup of steaming brown liquid. I do not expect such an offer to tantalize any savvy CBB reader. This original Challenge is much too grand to work even under “Daniel fast” guidelines!

However I can all but guarantee that if any of you came to Philly, there would not be any fasting mandate whatsoever to prohibit the gluttony and dullness of spirit that comes from a cheesesteak. If there were, I am sure this city would not be leading the nation in murder rates.

OK, so please somebody find out the scoop here. I don’t want to encourage anyone to stumble over food here, so before further Challenge announcements, I need proof of the correct dates.

Anyone with an acceptable suggestion that would appeal to people within the cultural bounds, let me know!

Stupid Terrorists in Philly

Apparently these guys lived in Cherry Hill across the river and were trying to storm Ft. Dix in NJ.

They took their videotapes of OBL’s training/terror camp footage to one of those places where you get your video’s converted to DVDs. Fortunately the guy converting this tape called the FBI.

I’m really glad these guys don’t have the tech savvy to do that themselves. Keep praying, Philadelphia!