SOAR MONTREAL- 1 week of 24-7 in 4 environments.

It's been an exhausting but great week here in Montreal. Last Wednesday over 200 youth showed up in Montreal to "shine" in our city. They spent the first few days in orientation, learning about the city and getting to know each other. Then Sunday night began a full week of prayer and mission- it has been amazing!

We've been praying 24-7 in 4 different environments since Sunday night. The first time I've ever done something like this but we needed to find a solution to not have access to the main prayer room at night and all the students going out on mission during the day. The schedule is pretty colorful but we're managing to keep the prayer going all day and night!

Saturday afternoon I did two workshops on prayer and in each one we set up a prayer room: one on the guys floor and another on the girls floor for them to take turns praying through the night. Then Sunday, I set up the prayer van which has been at different mission assignments all week. I had no idea how it would work, but 5 days in, it actually seems to be working!

I was just walking over to Second Cup to write this blog and a couple guys stopped me to share their prayer room experience. They said that they've experienced God in an amazing way through these prayer rooms this week- One of the youth even said that he goes up to the all guys-all night prayer room during the day when he needs some quite time away. Many people are asking for more info on how to start a prayer room back home.

The prayer van has also been great. We've printed cards in french and english that say, "How can we pray for you" with space for people to write requests. Most teams have had the opportunity to 'prayer card' in the area they're serving and pray right in the community for all that is going on.

Overall, it's been an amazing week of God doing amazing things through prayer. Love it!

Even Strippers Pray..... My Dream for Montreal.

I need to be up in a few hours to drive to Ottawa but can't sleep...

I just had an amazing night.... I could write until the sun rises, but for now, I'll just write about what impacted me most. I went to Montreal's biggest, best and most known strip club tonight. One of my best friends used to be a dancer at this club around nine years ago and has been a Christian now for two years- amazing girl with an amazing heart who is totally willing to help and support me in getting to Know Montreal's sex industry. We've been praying about this for months, have even prayed outside a strip club and felt tonight that we were ready to go in (unless God said otherwise and stopped us).

We reconnected with Sabrina, one of her old friends who is still dancing there nine years later. Toward the end of the conversation we asked if she needed anything or if there was anything we could pray for her... after giving us a couple prayer requests she proceeded to tell us that she prayed every night. You know when you have those lightbulb moments... I had one and now I can't stop thinking about it.

This is my dream:

Even strippers pray and are seeking spirituality. What if we had a 24-7 place of prayer in the heart of the city? This place would be open around the clock to welcome busy city people to just come pray, be still and connect with God at any hour of the day. It would be creative, artistic and full of authentic and fun community to just be there or play music, paint, pray with people, answer questions, have a meaningful conversation... A place where we could invite people, like Sabrina, back to pray if she needed some space or someone to chat with. Our generation is deeply spiritual, especially in Quebec where we've grown up in a post-catholic, extremely secular culture with very minimal religion... People are open to prayer and God... Maybe people just need a little support and prayer at times to keep walking in the right direction...

So God, I pray for this dream.... that you would prepare us for it and bring it on!!