Glorious arches of prayer!

If you are familiar with Athens and UGA at all you know that the arches are one of the major icons for our city.  Other that may be the elliptical "G" there isn't a more recognizable symbol for our area.  For this reason and others the Lord has led the Siege Team the past few weeks to stand in front of the arches to pray with people.  It has been incredible!  We have been holding up some small signs; "Mighty to Save," "Free Prayer," and "Need Healing?"  We also greet people and ask them if they would like prayer.  Some people look away, some smile, some ask us to pray for them but EVERYONE takes notice.  We've seen people stopping at the red light in their car just stop and stare at the signs.  One lady actually rolled down her window and asked what we were doing.  Before the light turned green she had yelled out her prayer request!  Every more encouraging is the fact that we have seen several other people from different ministries downtown sharing the love and truth of Christ!  Now that's truly the beginning of a SIEGE on the city. ~Pastor Anthony

Ready?

Hi everyone! And the good news is.... (drum roll please)...

THE SIEGE TEAM IS BACK!!!

Well, almost. The first official siege team outing of the year will be Monday night, February 7th.

Here are three things you can do to be a part...

1. Join us! 

Go here and sign up for the Siege Team small group (we're group 22-G). We'll be meeting on Monday nights starting at 7:00pm.

2. Follow our blog. 

Just click the little "Follow" button off to your right and keep up with what the Lord does every week.

3. Pray for us. 

We need this most of all. Check out this verse.

If you're new to the Siege Team or our blog, take a glance at some of our previous blog posts to see what the Lord has done in 2010. We can't wait to see what's in store for 2011!

We Have the Ball!

Wow! Its 2011. I still can't believe it. Even though our Siege Team is taking a break I thought I would post about what the Lord has revealed to me during the break! I know most of the time when I went with the team downtown I would feel overwhelmed by all the sin that was surrounding me. I would go downtown ready to see what the Lord was going to do but when I got there I felt weak. I constantly asked myself, "Am I really making a difference?"  I often felt weak until a few weeks ago when I began reading a book called Jesus Culture by Banning Liebscher and in the book he talks about revival, healing, and sharing God's love with others! I began to read a chapter about God's love and sharing it with others and again I asked myself the question, "But am I really making a difference?" The book talked about how just one can affect the world. That answered my question with a better answer than I was expecting! The book confronted my attitude of "I'm weak and I can't do it" with a football analogy! Let me point out 1st of all that I do not like football I don't think its entertaining at all, but that didn't mean God couldn't use football to speak to me! Anywho, the book began to say if life is like football, there's 2 teams, God vs. satan! When people become Christians we get the football!! That's the part that's the most important to understand is we have the ball. We're in control of the game! We're always in control of the game because we have Jesus! Satan never gets the ball. He thought he had the ball when Jesus was crucified, but Jesus rose again! So satan never had or has the ball! We have the ball, all we have to do is listen to Jesus, the coach of the team. He calls the plays and we run them! We're never on defense! If the Lord is calling the plays and we listen, then the outcome is, of course, we win! We win our towns, schools, cities, government, and even the world to Christ! The Lord really showed me I'm not weak. I have the ball and with His Holy Spirit I can win the game! The next time you think "I cant do that" just ask Jesus, "Do you want me to run that play?" We have the ball, now its time to get a touchdown!

Isaiah 61-
¹ The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
   because the LORD has anointed me
   to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
   to proclaim freedom for the captives
   and release from darkness for the prisoners,^[a]
2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor
   and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
 ³ and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
   instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
   instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
   instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
   a planting of the LORD
   for the display of his splendor.

-Kendall

Our last official Siege Team outing for the year

Wipe your tears from your eyes!  I promise it will be OK but yes its true.  Last night was our last official outing for the Siege Team this year.  We've got a lot of events coming up with the holiday season upon us so we felt it was wise to take the next 2 months off.  We will start meeting again in January.

Our last night, went really well!  When we were praying in the prayer room before going out we reflected on all the people that the Lord has allowed us to touch over the past 6 months.  WOW!  What a privilege to partner with Him in sharing His love and truth!  I think one of the best stories that we remembered was that of our dear friend Barry.  We meet Barry several months back.  He was basically homeless and unemployed- only a few odd jobs here and there.  He was very appreciative of our prayers and encouragement.  Barry was also surprisingly perceptive. (A lot of people on the streets have been beat down by life for so long that they are often very hard to clearly communicate with)  When we prayed for him one of the team members asked Barry to really be open to the Holy Spirit speaking to him.  Barry is a believer so he said he would.  After we prayed we asked him what the Lord told him.  He said that the Lord told him that these people he had met would help him and that he would find a job soon.  Barry asked after we first meet him if he could come to church.  Some of the team that lived near downtown offer to pick him up the following Sunday.  I am ashamed to say that I honestly didn't think he would come.  Boy was I wrong!  He came for almost every Sunday the next month!  Well we haven't seen him in a few weeks.  We had confirmed last night from some of his friends that he has gotten a job on a farm and it seems that this job includes housing!  Praise God!  We finished the night with a prayer walking stopping at the Statue of Athena in front of the Classic Center and then the Court House.

May the Lord continue to lead us all to take this city for Christ in our everyday lives! ~ Pastor Anthony  

Saturday Night Fever!

This past Saturday night Central Station joined with the Siege Team and hit the streets.  It was about 40 degrees and the Georgia game had been over for about 4 hrs when we got downtown.  We had the Astounding Alan join us performing some great illusions.  He drew quite a crowd.  We also had hot coco and some great cup cakes.

  Three testimonies that stand out- 1) there were two guys that hesitatingly took cups of hot coco and then said, "Why are y'all doing this?"  We smiled and replied "To show the love of God because God's love is free just like this coco!"
2)  I talked with an employee of the Grill and he asked who we were.  I told him and started asking about him.  Turns out he is a Christian who wants to be a missionary to Nicaragua!  This is a country that our church has been involved with for years.  In fact this guy had worked with Amigos for Christ whom we have worked with a lot in the past!

3)  A very intoxicated guy came stumbling down the street and then sat down right in front of the people leading worship in our group.  It was literally like he got sober for a few seconds.  He suddenly replied as the worship was enveloping him, "This feels so right!"  The lady leading worship was standing on a ledge over him and leaned down over him.  The worship song was basically saying glory to God in the highest.  The guy then abruptly stood up and said "I've got to go."  It was if the love of God and conviction of the Holy Spirit hit him both at the same time!

I pray that this man and all we touched would be drawn closer to Christ this week and reminded of His kindness, grace and love for them.  -Pastor Anthony

Sandwiches, Suicide and Hope

When we went out this past week we made up a bunch of sandwiches to hand out.  We also had to jugs of hot chocolate.  We have had several people ask us for food and its always difficult to say yes to one but not another.  Well we had plenty this time for any one who wanted something.  One of our regulars can up when we arrived and we found out that he was really struggling.  Apparently he had just been released from a mental hospital.  He was feeling very down and said he had been having a lot of suicidal thoughts.  We asked him if we could pray for him.  As we prayed for him I noticed that he pulled his hat down over his eyes and began to quietly weep.  When we finished praying for him he said that he felt so much better.  Please remember this man in your prayers.  I am reminded of what a pastor friend (www.rescueatlanta.com) that works with the homeless in Atlanta says when asked what his ministry does.  "Quite simply, we give people hope."  May we continue to give people hope in Christ Jesus- the source of True hope. 

~ Pastor Anthony

Are You Ready?

The Lord is most definitely taking the world in a new direction! Every week I see it as I go downtown, as I go to the mall, as I go to the grocery store, or even as I sit at home!  The Lord is pouring out His Spirit on the dry ground, as He said He would do in the end times! There's a cloud on the horizon and its about to rain! Christians will never be the same. We will only get a taste of Gods glory! But His glory will be the only thing that satisfies our lovesick heart! We will never go back to the way things were! Hes about to move, Hes about to shine His light brighter than ever before, Hes coming! Are you ready for the rain?

Glory To God Forever! Receive His Wind, Receive His Holy Spirit!

-Kendall-