A Flash Prayer Gathering on Treasure Island???

So I've got this idea in my head that I keep trying to pray away, ...but it keeps coming back. It's about calling a flash* prayer gathering on Treasure Island someday/sometime during SFSU's, SJSU's, & CSUEB's Spring Break (March 24-28). I keep telling Jesus, "Don't you know I'm at max capacity right now in all areas of life; that my yard needs attention, my garage is cluttered, and I've got home repairs that need to be done?" To be a faithful steward of my household I need to spend most of my spring break being about "Habitat for Curranity", ...not host some crazy prayer meeting on this forsaken island in the middle of San Francisco Bay!!! Holy Spirit you have some nerve, ...to strike a nerve in me at such a time as this!



Yes Father, ...that still small voice of your Spirit is whispering to me, "college students in the Bay Area need to come together and pray for college students in the Bay Area". Yes Lord, I know. And yes Lord, ...I know they need to pray "now". It will bring you great glory in your Kingdom for them to fervently pray the prayers that only Bay Area collegians can pray, ...for spiritual revival, for spiritual renewal, and for spiritual awakening in their hearts, on their campuses this spring. Selah.



You see I've been compelled and increasingly burdened to pray for college students over the past few months. There are so many things going on spiritually in so many areas on so many levels that all my spiritual alarms are going off. Yes Jesus, I truly want to pray for them over spring break. I'd even love to take a 1/2 Day with You on Treasure Island and invest some of my solitude with you to pray for them. I love it's wild windswept open spaces, unpredictable weather and empty buildings, ...they are a remarkable Bay Area "wilderness" one can escape to -to pray. But, to call and mobilze, and organize the gathering???? Oh Lord, ...I know what that will cost in terms of spiritual warefare alone. But it's not the spiritual warefare, ...it's having the faith that You will keep the administrative details for me to a bare minimum that tests me. Paperwork and phone calls and text messages are making me weak in the knees these days Lord. Have mercy!



So, here I sit in my office in Martinez on a lazy late Sunday afternoon waiting and wondering and reflecting. I Facebook messaged a collection of friends in campus ministry yesterday morning about the idea (the Lord woke me up and told me to message them before I lost my nerve!). And I sent 2 emails to The City asking the persons responsible for the big abandoned military chapel just inside the Island's main gate, ...about what's involved in using it. And so I shall wait. To hear back from them and to wait upon the Lord.



Hmmmm, a half-day on Treasure Island with the Lord would be so refreshing over "my" Spring Break. I'd love to spend extended time with Jesus walking and praying and thinking in that lonely place. So I've penciled into my calendar: Wednesday March 26th from 10am-pm for a "1/2 Day with the Lord" (alone).

But what about this "flash prayer gathering" idea Lord? When and where? Early morning, late afternoon, night? How? Will I be selfish and stall??? I have so many undone tasks here at home. Maybe the night of March 26th? Oh lord send me some wise counselors. Father give me a "lucky break". Holy Spirit help me find the "sweet spot" in that week when Bay Area college students are free to gather and pray...



Into your hands Jesus I commit the need I see and the idea I have. I choose to wait on You to work and trust You to show me Your Way. My hands are empty Lord, ...but open receive anything from yours...



your servant, daniel





*def. of flash": 1) spontaneous, 2) easy to plan, 3) easy to publicize, 4) easy to get to, 5) mass-convergence of bodies in one location for a short period of time, ...6) low-cost, 7) high-fun, 8) big enduring impact



Note: I've kept this passage before me as I pray for my own life, wife and children, ...and for the lives of college students here in the Bay Area. I don't understand verse 7 very well; but, God has used verse 6 powerfully again and again in my life over the years -since 1987. This passage is informing and forming my imagination and prayers. Let's humble ourselves and pray!

"So he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel:

'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty.

"What are you, O mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground.

Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of 'God bless it! God bless it!' "

(Zechariah 4: 6,7 -NIV)