jonathan’s blog

IHOP Sacred Trust. What is that? There are certain commitments each person on IHOP staff has to make. This is grossly oversimplified, but depending on the type of role or position, you have to commit to a certain number of ‘service hours’ and ‘prayer hours’. Service hours are activities ranging from ushering, bathroom cleanup, parking attendant to business administration and teaching. Prayer hours are exactly that, hours of prayer in the IHOP Global Prayer Room.

Service hours? No problem. Between class time and doing this Strategic Planning/Budget project for the next few months…we’ll have an abundance of service hours. Prayer hours? That’s a whole different story. Emily and I are each committed to putting in 12 hours of prayer hours. That means we have to be onsite, in the prayer room, for at least 12 hours each, per week. Writing all that out…it doesn’t sound that bad. But wow…add to that class time, Strategic Planning/Budget meetings, and 3 kids…trying to find 12 hours in the prayer room has been really hard! Even logistically, just for our family, if I’m in the prayer room by myself, that means Emily has to fly solo with all three kids during that time…and vice versa!

I’ve been battling with this and it hasn’t been easy. Not just the literal hours and physical energy our new schedule entails. But the mindset…that I “need” to spend time in the prayer room, has been a hard one to swallow. I remember when the Exodus struggled through our NT Blasts (read 10 chapters of NT each day to finish NT in one month…it really is a blast!) I think I heard from a couple of our people about how that wasn’t the way they were used to reading the Bible. Ha…I had that exact thought so many times this week, “God, this isn’t how I like to spend time with you!” Funny how an activity changes when you ‘have’ to do it.

I think Emily and I are still trying to find a rhythm in all of this. There were moments this week, in the prayer room where I really started to value the extended hours in there. Where the heavy burden began to turn into an escort into the deeper things of God. Not to say it’s any easier. Not to say I didn’t procrastinate my hours until the LAST possible hour. Really, I waited until Sunday night, 11:00pm to midnight for my final hour!

So I was there, struggling to stay awake, engaged, trying to interact with God. And as midnight drew near, I witnessed for the first time the ‘changing of the guards’ as the night shift or “night watch” came on board. Totally exhausted and packing up my stuff to go home, suddenly a flood of people started arriving…fresh, awake, and ready to pray! Some even had their kids with them! You could just feel the room change in anticipation as this new group came in.

I’ve heard of these night watch types before. They start at midnight, and go until 6am. It’s a very tight group, because they go 6 hours straight EVERY single night together. These people aren’t just your usual night owls. In order to sustain midnight to 6am shifts, they actually alter their entire sleep schedule around…so they are sleeping when most people are awake, and awake when most people are sleeping! It all makes sense in theory, but actually seeing them arrive, at midnight, as I was yearning to retire for the evening…it was nothing short of amazing.

These people, have adjusted their entire lives to pray. That’s a message in and of itself! They arrive at the prayer room, at midnight…fresh and ready to go. While so many of the rest of us, adjust prayer to fit into our busy schedules, these people have adjusted their lives to fit prayer. That’s awesome. No…trust me, I entertain NO thoughts of joining the night watch. But to know, that these people (and their kids!), if they can adjust their entire sleep schedule and lives to do this…surely I can find a way to adjust for 12 hours of flexible prayer each week! God, I need your grace!

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Check this out!  It looks like an Awakening Meeting, or a Conference, or a Sunday Service.  But no…it’s just a staff meeting!  I’ve been to a bunch of meetings, but all smaller than this.  I was told there was a Mandatory All Staff Meeting.  I was expecting a few hundred…but they were expecting upwards of 800!  haha.  Coming from a church of 25…an 800 person staff meeting was a bit overwhelming.

Home…was a different, sad, sad, story.  We were supposed to have dinner with the Yap’s tonight…an activity the kids go nuts over.  But Rebekah got sick, and is running a high fever.  Poor girl is miserable.  So she stayed home with Noah and me tonight, while Kay and Em brought dinner over to the Yap’s.  Bekah cried and cried.  We ate Popeye’s, made popcorn, and went down to watch TV.  Here she is…a little less miserable because of the combination of motrin and TV.

Noah…completely oblivious to his sister’s illness and otherwise gross disposition…happily reaped the benefits of a night in front of the TV with popcorn.  I have NO IDEA why his foot is in the popcorn bowl…

Very into the popcorn.  Very into the TV.

Kay came back and went to work on the leftover popcorn.  Yes…there are two bins of popcorn.  In my efforts to cheer Bekah up, I popped a butter blend and a kettle korn flavor.  After we got snuggled in front of the TV…she told me she didn’t want to eat any popcorn.  Oh well…I tried.

This…this is the work of my son with markers on the downstairs wall.  Oh man…did he get in trouble.  By far, the biggest spanking he’s gotten in his almost 2 years of life.

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Kay has had this really wiggly tooth in front…for the longest time.  It just flapped around.  It would bleed everywhere when we brushed it, but it just wouldn’t come out!  Finally, this last week, over a meal of California Rolls…it finally popped out!

Noah and Sarah playing together!

I’m not sure how this guy sees depth perception, volume, or spatial awareness…but here he is trying to get into his toy Ark.  Sorry Noah…you have to find a bigger Ark!

Bekah, for some reason, likes to nap in all of her normal clothes.  All the rest of us love to change into our more comfortable sleep clothes…but Bekah always insists on sleeping in her day clothes.  Including her socks!

It was cold today…and on the way out of our mud room, Kay and Bekah each grabbed a scarf, gloves, and other warm clothes.  On the way to Super Target, Bekah yells from the back, “Can you turn the music higher!?”  Look at this!  No wonder she couldn’t hear the music, she’s got her ear muffs on!

It rained ICE last night.  Really, no better way to explain it.  It was not cold enough for it to snow the whole time…so it rained.  But it was cold enough for the rain to become ice.  And wow…by the morning, there was a layer of ICE over everything!  Here is my lawn, a layer of ice, cruchy, crunchy ice.

I left my car out so that I could get a free car wash in the rain.  Probably a lame idea.  This is not snow on the car…its a layer of ice.  Almost the entire car had a shell of really thick ice!

I cracked through a little, so that I could see how thick the ice was.

I spent all this time looking at the ice shell on my car…but when we started driving around…wow!  Everything was so beautiful.  Really scary and dangerous to drive…but really amazing to look at.  All the bushes and trees were covered in ice.  Everything was sparkly and silvery.

This past week the EFC-LA Pastoral and Admin Staff came out for their annual staff retreat.  They had lots of time in the prayer room and the awakening services.  We also had them over for dinner one of the evenings.

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Just in case…just in case ya’ll forgot where we live.  Here is cattle grazing, not more than a mile from our home!

The girls had a Birthday Tea Party to go to.  Here they are, freezing cold, but very excited!

The Birthday Tea Party left Noah and I with some private father and son time.  So what did we do?  Well…for starters, we dropped the girls off at their Tea Time, and then rushed home.  I forgot to bring out Noah’s shoes!  When it’s 20 degrees outside, you tend to rush, herd the kids into the car, get them buckled in, daipers, wipes, jackets…I overlooked SHOES!  We rushed home, and then rushed out to grab some Valentine’s Day balloons.  The cheap-o in me has a hard enough time buying flowers at normal prices (which I admittedly don’t really do)…but to pay the 500% Valentines Day markup?…sorry Emily!  So this has been the alternative as of late, balloon boquets, they last longer than roses (actually, roses have an exceptionally SHORT life span, making their purchase an even worse economic reality!).  Plus, the balloons also double for the kids as toy clubs and fencing swords!  OK…all romance is now complete gone.  Ha…hope you like the balloons, Happy Valentine’s Day!

After the balloon purchases, I took Noah to see the Lee’s Summit train station, where there is a Red Caboose on display.  Needless to say, the little guy was SO EXCITED!

But get this, the historic train station also doubles as a live Amtrak station.  And lo and behold, while we were driving away a live one pulled in!  Noah just about went nuts.  To actually see, a real train this close, to feel it as it rumbled by, to see it completely dwarf us in our car…I think he was undone!

We came back home to find a box in the mail from Ayi-2, Uncle-2, and Lina.  The kids got a Valentine’s all the way from Los Angeles!  The girls got purses, bags (made by Liz with their names stitched on), and an assortment of candy.  Noah got a bag with car stickers.  He was ooohhhing and aaahhing over the stickers.

I took a late shower, around 4am, and heard Noah calling out to me.  He can be a light sleeper, and sometimes the shower wakes him up, since it’s adjacent to his room.  I got out of the shower and told him to go lie down in my bed.  When I finally got dried and changed, I found him sitting, very wide awake, on my bed with the stickers in his hand.  This would be a normal picture of a kid with his fun stickers…except its 4:02 in the morning!!!

And finally, my VERY CRAFTY wife made these super cute Valentine holders.

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It’s really cold again.  Today was almost unbearable.  Being outside for just a few seconds was…painful!

Anyway, here are the kids, warm and comfy in they PJ’s. 

admin My Family, The Midwest

As a kid, I remember how fun it was, playing in the snow at Big Bear Lake or Lake Arrowhead.  But now as a parent, playing in the snow is a HUGE pain!  It’s not just bundling up the kids for the cold…it’s bundling them up for the snow.  Each one has boots, snow clothes, gloves, hats, jackets…let’s just say it’s quite the commitment when you tell the kids they can play in the snow.  But, Emily and I made it a point to let the kids play in the snow for a bit today.  I guess the Yap’s had the same thought…so we met them (and some neighbors) in the middle.  Well…more the Yap’s backyard…anyway, here are the pics.

We’ll start backwards, with the finished product.  A snowman!  A huge one!  In spite of the group pose and the satisfied looks of completion on their faces, it was Mitch that did most of the work!  Rolling and lifting these snowman body parts is not easy work!  Actually, I think this snowman probably weighed more than any of these kids!  If you look carefully, in between Bekah’s head and the snowman’s head, you can see Noah.  He had fun playing in the snow.  But when Lillian brought out the raisens to make the snowman’s face, Noah grabbed a box, walked over to the house, plopped down on the steps, and just stuffed his face with raisins for the rest of the play time.  Thanks Lillian for the raisens…and thanks for taking some of these pics, I can’t believe my battery died!

Division of labor.  Bekah making snowballs.  Juli and Kay making a snow fort.  Luke and Jesse rolling up the Snowman’s body.

Kay and Bekah were super sealed for the snow.  Snow boots, cool overallish outfits, down jackets, hat and gloves.  A long checklist, but after they were suited up, it was great!  I didn’t have to worry about them at all, just let them loose in the snow!  Noah was a differnet story.  He had no gloves and had the tendency to stick his fingers in the snow until the cold became painful!  I had to keep an extra eye the little guy.

It looks like they are incubating HUGE eggs!

Whenever this dog comes running out, 2 things always happen at the same time.  Kay and Bekah run screaming away, as if its some kind of dangerous pitbull.  But Noah, runs right towards it.  He’s never actually caught up to it…I wonder what he’d do if he got his hands on it.

What’s Juli got in her hand?

A snowball!

Bekah rolling, rolling, and rolling…

…up a seat!

Here’s Mitch doing the heavy rolling…

…and the heavy lifting.

At home, in the warm living room, by the fire, drinking a hot bowl of soup.  Perfect way to end playtime in the snow.

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Em and Noah chilling…or I should say ‘warming’ by the fireplace.  We actually use our fireplace ALL the time out here.  It’s warm!  It actually heats up the room so that it’s nice and toasty.  It’s one of those gas fireplaces, that gets turned on and off with the flip of a switch.  Even our kids know how to run in from the freezing cold, flip the switch, and huddle in front of the heat.

Noah has become quite fond of “Uncle John”.  It must be a little strange for Noah.  He sees Uncle John at home.  He sees Uncle John at the prayer room.  Then he sees Uncle John at the Awakening meetings.  Uncle John is everywhere!  John’s M3 has a very distinct sound…and the other day, as John pulled into the garage, Noah came yelling, “Uncle John coming!  Uncle John coming!”

Noah, knocking down a set of ‘decline push-ups’…getting some definition into those pecs.

So far, this post has been featuring Noah…but the sisters.  Wow.  I found them doing the STRANGEST thing in the bath tup today.  For some reason, they’ve been so enamored with the Baptisms going on at the Student Awakening services.  Kay keeps telling me her favorite parts are the testimonies and the baptisms.  Bekah keeps asking when she can get baptized.  Well…they went ahead and held their own little service tonight.  I was in the other room just letting them play in the water, when I heard this, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”  Lo and behold, I came in to find Kay, holding Bekah as they do the awakening services, getting ready to do full immersion baptism…with Bekah holding her nose, preparring for the dunk!  Great practice girls!  -  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

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The International House of Prayer University (IHOPU) Student Awakening. On 11/11 of last year, the Holy Spirit moved in a morning class of first-year students. They saw physical healing, deliverance, and students filled with a spirit of joy. I got 2 texts from different people around dinner time, saying that the Holy Spirit broke out among the students…and that they had been going straight for 9 hours. Word spread quickly, and over 2,000 people found their way to the Forerunner School of Ministry (FSM) auditorium that evening. The meeting continued well past midnight, running for more than 15 hours straight. All classes for the next few days were cancelled, students gathered to just receive all that the Spirit was pouring out.

We got there that first night…and the Presence of God was so strong. You could just sense his glory. We went last night, and they just baptized their 1,000th person! One Thousand baptisms since 11/11/09! People are getting delivered, set free from addictions, shame, depression. Physical healings are happening, eyes and ears being healed. Really amazing stuff. God moving, in just as much power, if not more, each night.

Emily and I have been bringing the kids as often as we can. Worship at these meetings are insane. When you hear/see the testimonies of people that are being ministered to by God, when you see life after life, dying to sin and raising in Christ through baptism…worship just FLOWS! Really…the celebration that goes on here…wow!

There are many that feel this is the beginning of the 3rd Great Awakening for this country. Those are big words! The first and second Great Awakenings shook the entire country; full blown revival can change the very heart of a nation. Oh how we need you to come!

God, how gracious of you…to allow us to experience this special outpouring!

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