This is going to be quite long by the way. However, I have included pictures.
Well, as most of you may know, in January I returned to the Fredericksburg Prayer Furnace to do a program called College of Sacred Scripture. College of Sacred Scripture, or CSS, is exactly what it sounds like. It is a full-time Bible school run by the Prayer Furnace. The goal of CSS is to raise up a generation of those who will devote themselves to the study of the Word of God in a world that is becoming increasingly secular. Those who are rooted and grounded in the Word and cannot be shaken. College of Sacred Scripture aims to accomplish this within the context of night a day prayer. CSS realises that without a life of prayer, there can be no intimacy; and without intimacy no hunger for the Word. CSS doesn't exist to simply teach students what the Bible says, but to encourage them to search out the Scriptures themselves, to experience what David meant when he said "One thing have I desired". It is in the place of prayer that we position our hearts to receive encounter with God
That being said, this is the first time that I really took some classes on the Bible. There were five full-time CSS students this past semester and I really bonded with them. I took 4 classes; Genesis 1-3: The Beginning and End of All Things taught by Mark Kazmier, New Testament Survey taught by Mark Kazmier, Sermon on the Mount taught by Bowie Curry, and Introduction to End Times taught by Randy Martinez. All the classes I took were taught by senior leaders at the Prayer Furnace. I received three As and one B, Sermon on the Mount. We also had a "class" called Antioch Seminar. It's not really so much of a class as it is a discussion panel among students and College of Sacred Scripture leadership. This past semester it was on Fridays, the end of the week and we would just talk about how our week went, what we were struggling with, breakthroughs we'd had, prayer requests, and occasionally just prophesy over each other. We also went through Dietrich Bonhoeffer's the Cost of Discipleship.
CSS was an amazing experience for me. It really challenged to actually study what I heard in class and to search out the Scriptures for myself. It also helped me become more disciplined because I wanted to take these classes and I wanted to bring glory to God through what I did.
Along with taking classes I was on staff full-time at the Prayer Furnace. This isn't required of students, but I felt it was what the Lord wanted me to do. A requirement to be on staff full-time is to have 42 scheduled prayer room hours and service/team building hours per week. The required hours for the prayer room are 22 hours a week and service/team building hours is 20. Prayer room hours are exactly what they sound like. Hours spent in the prayer room. This may sound like a lot, but it actually isn't. If you spend your time wisely, the hours will pass quickly even though there are always those hours that pass by painfully slow. Service and team building hours are regularly scheduled commitments that are connected to the departments and ministries of the Prayer Furnace. My service hours included running projection, singing on worship sets, cleaning, and working for the FPF bookstore. My team building hours consisted of classes, worship team briefings, and section meetings. Another requirement for Part-time and full-time staff is to raise support as a missionary. I really got to see the Lord breakthrough in me and my friends' lives. I was born into the mission field, so raising support was never a foreign concept for me. I had just never done it on my own. I have no idea how but I managed to always get my rent paid, have food to eat, and give away almost all the money I received to other missionaries on the base. My parents helped me of course. They are the ones who mostly paid my rent which is a testimony in itself! My missionary parents could support me full-time! I am so blessed of the Lord! Raising support helped me trust completely in God's sovereignty.
In April, we began a 21 day community fast for the establishing of a night watch in Virginia and for the upcoming Awaken the Dawn conference. Since we were contending for a night watch, the Prayer Furnace decided to launch one. I prayed about it and I felt like God was telling me to go ahead and do it. One of the requirements for students to do night watch was to ask Mark, the CSS president, permission. After I got the okay from Mark, with the requirement that I still attend all my classes, I signed up for night watch. FPF usually has just three sections; morning, 6AM-12P, Afternoon, 12PM-6PM, and evening, 6PM-12AM. So night watch was 12AM-6AM. I am normally on the afternoon section which is the opposite of night, so switching to nights was particularly hard for me. Somehow I managed to get through the three weeks without abandoning my classes, on top of that it was finals week, and I didn't go insane so I say it was the grace of God!
Then May 18-21 was Awaken the Dawn, or ATD. Awaken the Dawn is an annual conference the Prayer Furnace does in hopes of awaken the hearts of a generation to the message of Christ, to stir up this nation into realising the hour in which we are living, to encourage believers to keep strong in their faith and not waiver; as well as to bring salvation to non believers. This year, ATD was in a tent!
This called for a lot of manual labour setting up a 5,000 person tent! We also had to set up smaller tents for registration and bookstore tables, the prayer room, the food tent, and also the speaker tent.
After Awaken the Dawn I came back home to Richmond. It was nice to have some relaxing time and catch up with some of my friends. I hadn't seen most of them since August! I also spent time with my family and talked about what I'll be doing this next season. After much thought and prayer, my parents and I agree that I should return to the Fredericksburg Prayer Furnace in the fall and complete another semester of College of Sacred Scripture. I'm very excited to see what the Lord will be doing in my life during this next season! :D
All photos taken by Tim Yantz
