Nightline Online

Last night's broadcast of the Justice House of Prayer segment can be seen at this link. Click on "God's Interns." Everyone is really pleased with the report. I don't think they could have put us in a better light.

Whew...

So yesterday ended up not being the high pressure situation that we thought it might be. The journalists were very respectful. Lou did not feel like they were out to expose or exploit us. We will be one of three segments of the half hour show that will air tomorrow night. We originally thought we were the entire 30-minute program, but I guess they've changed the format since Ted Koppel retired. If any friends or family out there could please record the program on DVD and send it to me, I would be extremely grateful.

A Day In The Life

Please pray for our group today. Nightline will be following our group today from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. They will be interviewing Lou and probably most of the interns. All this is provoked by two key cases before the Supreme Court this week. The first case, Scheidler v. National Organization for Women, deals with racketeering allegations against the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue. In the second, Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood, the justices will review a decision by the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals striking down a New Hampshire law requiring a minor seeking an abortion to notify at least one parent. There's also a third companion case. It all begins this Wednesday, November 30, and they plan to air the program that evening. Undoubtedly, the journalists are looking for "an angle." They've been very interested in the fact that our group prays 24 hours a day for God's will in the courts and government of America. Our prayer is that the report will show us to be sensitive and compassionate in our effort to end abortion. Luke 12 says not to worry about what to say. "Come Holy Spirit and teach us what to say."

Nightline

Well, we have made the decision to go through with the Nightline interview. It looks like this will happen quickly. They will interview our group on Monday from 11am-7pm. They will interview Lou Engle primarily, but they've asked for free access to the whole community. They will join us at the wall in front of the Supreme Court and at JHOP, but we've decided not to allow them to come to the farm where we live. Please pray for our group and especially Lou. Obviously, there's huge potential for them to portray us as a bunch of kooks. They've really been drawn to the "dream" aspect of our group. That's cool, but who knows how something like that will come across. They've guaranteed us 3 million viewers. In particular, the initial interviewer was blown away by the "Horton Hears A Who" dream. You could literally see something click as she heard the story. I woke up thinking about it this morning. What if the Spirit of God falls as 3 million people hear the Horton message? What if 3 million people begin to think differently because of it? What could happen? What if...(you fill in the blank)
It has maybe felt a little dangerous and vulnerable for us to do an interview like this. There has been a fear that maybe all our ducks weren't in a row. We've been cautious and prayerful leading up to this decision. I was talking with Lou a couple days ago and he said God had woke him up in the middle of the night with the direction to do it. As we were discussing it Lou told me, "We have to do it for the sake of the babies." These words have stuck with me for the last two days now. They were the first words I heard this morning when I opened my eyes. This is an Esther moment for us. She didn't play it safe. Her people's lives were at stake, and she said, "I'll go in and if I die, I die." For the sake of the babies! If we die, we die.

Wanna see my scabs?

Just wanted to let everyone know that Sam's doing great. We prayed the evening his spots started showing up, and it has turned out to be a very mild case of chicken pox overall. He barely ran a fever that first night. You wouldn't know that anything is wrong with him to watch him play. He acts like it's just business as usual. What few spots he did end up getting are already scabbed over (gross) and healing up. He's not even itchy. Looks like nobody else in the camp contracted it either, so the other children's parents are very relieved.

Here a spot, there a spot, everywhere a spot spot

It's official–Sam has chicken pox. The poor little guy is covered head to toe. He must have been exposed at the children's conference in Charlotte a couple weeks ago. Everyone agrees though that even with the spots he's still about the cutest thing they've ever seen. Please pray for him as chicken pox take about 10 days to run their course.

Cough Hack Wheeze

Please pray for Kim and I. Some sickness has gone through the camp, and it hit us both last week and now. I was sick for most of last week with severe congestion, coughing and sore throat. The symtoms are still kind of lingering, and Kim got it this week. It seems to be a bit more severe for her. Please pray for the speedy recovery of both of us. All of the kids seems to be doing fine.

Everyone is commenting on how well Sam is talking lately. He seems to have become quite the socialite. His little two-year-old monologues can be very entertaining, albeit mostly undecipherable. However, something has changed in the last couple weeks, and he is becoming more articulate. It has been a beautiful autumn. I had forgotten the beauty of turning leaves lingering on the branches after living in Colorado for so long. The picture is the view from our bedroom window–absolutely stunning. We all enjoyed feeding apples to the horses on Sunday. We have about 14 horses in our pasture right now, and the kids love to spend time at the fence with them.

We're continuing with a 24/6 schedule in the JHOP. It makes me happy that we're sustaining day and night prayer now. In my dream that sent us on our journey, the nightwatch was so key to accomplishing the objective. Please continue to pray for the confirmation of Samuel Alito. We believe he is God's chosen instrument for the high court. Pray for favor for this man. Also pray that our leadership team would have wisdom. We were recently contacted by Nightline. They would like to interview us and report on the organization, but we're not sure if we want to be "outed" in this way just yet.

My poor little blog

My entries to this blog have really suffered over the last few weeks. Things have been really busy. Last week our crew traveled to our Charlotte base for a children's equipping conference. It was outstanding. Taylor really received some amazing things. She heard the voice of the Lord like never before in her life. I am a proud papa, and I'm excited to see her calling develop. We were in the middle of an Esther fast last week when things suddenly changed with the Courts. We were unsettled about Harriet Miers and had been for some time. We called the fast in order to cry out for God to clarify the situation. Our prayer was for a crystal clear word for her or to remove her. After two days of the three-day fast, she stepped down from the nomination. Interestingly, in the void of a clear word on Miers, we had received other words that seem to have given us direction concerning Samuel Alito. You can read the article that Lou Engle has written about that direction. In response, we have set our faces to pray and fast for this man's confirmation. Although our numbers do not comfortably support a 24/7 schedule, we have moved into day and night intercession for this critical season. All past battles have led up to this battle. We cannot waiver in the divine moment. The Drudge Report said it best last week with the headline "This one is going to be Armageddon." We initially set out on this schedule when the outlook was a mid-December confirmation (about 40 days). Now the schedule has been set for mid-January, so we'll be going 24/7 for about 70 days. We've completed the first week, and everyone is in high spirits. The radical schedule change is a little hard to get used to, but everyone is extremely positive. We have a morning crew that goes 6 a.m. to noon, an afternoon team goes noon to 6 p.m., the evening team covers 6 p.m. to midnight, and the nightwatch crew blasts through the night from midnight to 6 a.m. We're also currently doing a 21-day liquid fast to see breakthrough in these areas. Consider joining us in prayer and fasting during this pivitol season in America. Stay up to date at our new website jhop.org. It relaunched a few days ago and is in the process of completion. We'll be including in our media section mp3 files of our prayer sets for free download. You'll also be able to subscribe to the free podcast via iTunes. We'll be keeping important news posted and also a blog of thoughts and current events. So download away and join us in prayer to see the nation turned back to God. We also just announced our annual DC conference for January. Consider joining us and be equipped by national and local leaders including Lou Engle, Dutch Sheets, Francis Frangipane, Karen Wheaton and others.