The Edge of Hell

From Kara: It seems as though the blog has gotten away from us! It's been almost a month and a half since our last post and since then we have wrapped up track one, had a two week break, and finished our first 2 full weeks of track two. It was a good break and I think we're ready to get back to writing about our accounts about what the Lord is showing us in and out of the prayer room.

The emphasis of track two seems to be taking the things the Lord is showing us about himself and his love for people and demonstrating them in the physical realm and outside of the walls of IHOP. This includes street evangelism, which in all honesty I am not very well equipped in, have many reservations, and this past Saturday had the chance to dive into head on. That brings me to the Edge of Hell.

Downtown Kansas City is known for a couple big haunted house exhibits during the month of October. (This isn't my sister Kimmy's "haunted house" that she put on in her bedroom for a birthday party one year...my family is quite creative to say the least). Tons of people, young and old, line up around the block to attend "The Edge of Hell" and "The Beast," and we get to be there to talk to people about spiritual things and pray that the Lord breaks in and saves people.

Not only did I feel super awkward in the social sense, but there was such a heavy spiritually dark presence as Brendon and I walked the blocks of abandoned buildings reconstructed as houses of horror, intermingled with screams, guys with chain saws (sans chain) chasing people around, and Michael Jackson's "Thriller" blasting over the loud speakers. We knew the demons were there and they knew we were there as well. I made Brendon promise that he would be my physical partner the entire night, also because he's been blessed with the gift of gab to talk to random people. I just felt lame...and kind of like I was on a re-con mission.

We had the opportunity to talk with a mother and her young daughter about her beliefs and what she thought about Jesus. She didn't believe that Jesus was the Savior of the world and didn't want to be persuaded otherwise, but it was good to talk with her nonetheless. I wanted to tell her about God's love for her and that He saw and desired her heart as well. Unfortunately that was an afterthought as we walked away. Ah, help me Lord to be bold! We walked together and continued to pray. Later on, the Lord highlighted a middle school boy sitting somewhat out of place among other pre-teen "zombie girls". In a moment of uncharacteristic boldness I introduced myself to him and talked to him about the Lord, his beliefs, his likes and dislikes, and told him what God thought about him: that God had a plan for his life and that he loved him. He had to go quickly as he was being called away. He accepted a few resources we were given to hand out and in my mind I prayed that a wall of fire would surround this young teenager and that the Lord would send his ministering angels and other believers to continue to plant, water and grow that spiritual seed.

Mmm. I guess I did it. And then I realized that it was not really about me, but about the Lord's heart being declared in a way that I was very unfamiliar with and somewhat skeptical. He truly can use anything and anybody to spread the truth of who he is. I also learned that I have a daunting cloud overhead that reads "the fear of man" that often storms above me. This is something I know the Lord is reworking and will continue to put me in circumstances where boldness is required. The last thing that struck me was the necessity of being bold in the arena of evangelism and declaring God's plan of salvation (whether through long-term relationships or "cold-turkey-street-style") because hell is a real place and this life is truly only a shadow of the eternal. Lord continue to make my heart break with the things that break yours.