Hello everyone,
Thanks for checking my blog. I hope that you are all doing well!
Just wanted to let you all know that I really do intend to make a quick video blog from my time in Kansas City, so keep checking the blog for that.
In other news, something really exciting is happening tomorrow! The HoPE Prayer Room is opening on Tuesday nights from 7-9PM! Not only is this initiative happening to help give people options who have regular jobs, HoPE Tuesdays are going to be a time of learning as well as praying, as some people involved with House of Prayer are going to be taking time to share what God's laid on their hearts pertaining to prayer and the apostolic prayers.
Tuesday nights are something that I am taking a bit of leadership in, as I will be there every week to lead worship, run PowerPoint, sing, pray, and eventually even teach (I will keep you posted as far as when this will be happening).
Feel free to drop by the Marketplace Chapel in West Edmonton Mall on Tuesday nights to really get an idea about what God is doing at the House of Prayer. For a bit more info on it specifically, check out Jim Hall's (Director of HoPE) blog by clicking here.
Thanks a lot!
Daunavan
Monday, February 21, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
Sitting in MCI
Well, here I sit, sitting in the Kansas City Airport, waiting for the flight to Minneapolis and then back home! I'm actually going to be working on a video blog tomorrow with more details and visuals from the trip... so this is more of a reflective deal tonight.
At this point In leaving I am torn. My time here has been amazing, our schedule has basically been eat, pray, and meet with people who have been involved at iHOP for years. It has been quite different from 'real life,' but it has been so enjoyable. I keep telling people that the only thing that could have made this trip any better was if my beautiful wife could have come, and I do mean that!
Other than missing Kirsten (I know, cry me a river and all that), I'm excited to go home because the trip here has been so good. I have felt equipped the whole time that we have been here, and equipping really starts to get exciting when the work is being done, and there's a lot of work to do. I have never been in an environment before that has lended itself to so much reflection, planning, and great conversation. All of that is going to start to take shape in the next couple months.
I will be posting again in the next couple of days to go more in depth about the good that God is doing, so this is mostly just to get you excited!
Thanks for your prayers while I was gone, I could feel an uncanny ability to connect with God over this last week and I know that a lot of that has to do with the fact that I have a whole team of people praying for me at home. Thanks so much!
See you in 6 hours, Edmonton!
At this point In leaving I am torn. My time here has been amazing, our schedule has basically been eat, pray, and meet with people who have been involved at iHOP for years. It has been quite different from 'real life,' but it has been so enjoyable. I keep telling people that the only thing that could have made this trip any better was if my beautiful wife could have come, and I do mean that!
Other than missing Kirsten (I know, cry me a river and all that), I'm excited to go home because the trip here has been so good. I have felt equipped the whole time that we have been here, and equipping really starts to get exciting when the work is being done, and there's a lot of work to do. I have never been in an environment before that has lended itself to so much reflection, planning, and great conversation. All of that is going to start to take shape in the next couple months.
I will be posting again in the next couple of days to go more in depth about the good that God is doing, so this is mostly just to get you excited!
Thanks for your prayers while I was gone, I could feel an uncanny ability to connect with God over this last week and I know that a lot of that has to do with the fact that I have a whole team of people praying for me at home. Thanks so much!
See you in 6 hours, Edmonton!
Sunday, February 6, 2011
International House of Prayer in Kansas City
So I was planning on doing a video blog, but I seemed to foget one extremely important thing to make that happen, my cord to connect my video camera to the computer! So that's not going to happen. The other problem is that the internet here is super slow, so even if I could have made a quick video update, it would have taken ages for it to upload. So the video update is going to have to wait, but if you have some time to read, please read this blog as it's pretty awesome what's happening here in Kansas City!
What I'm Doing:
There is a team of 9 of us up from Edmonton in Kansas City, Missouri from House of Prayer Edmonton to visit the International House of Prayer. The team consists of myself, Nathan (volunteer), Jim Hall (director of HoPE), Georgina (volunteer), Maria & Troy (Maria is an intercessory missionary with me!) Peter and Colleen (House of Prayer enthusiasts, and faithful intercessors) and Carlotta (HoPE enthusiast). The purpose of this trip was simply to visit and observe a culture where night and day prayer is happening and has happened for 12 years! We did not come with an agenda or really anything lined up, we simply came to learn and encounter God.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the International House of Prayer, it is a missions base in Kansas City that has birthed out of a vision that their founder (Mike Bickle) had to see night and day prayer estabilshed on the Earth. Think of the Levites ministering in the tabernacle to God. For years, 24/7 they were paid to play their instruements and worship God. We refer to this idea as ministering to God, and we do this by singing songs of worship to God (both praise and surrender) and by taking time to intercede for world events (they've basically been praying everyday for hours for Egypt). So, the prayer room is simply one aspect of IHoP. IHoP also has Sunday services, conferences, a university, internships, adoption agencies... it's a huge deal! With over 1000 staff and interns, God truly has blessed the International House of Prayer and He has truly answered many of their prayers. I am no expert on the ins and outs of IHoP, so if you want more information, check out their website (www.ihop.org). To see a live feed of the prayer room (which is brodcast world wide 24/7) just click on prayer room and You can get a bit of an idea of what goes on in the prayer room (it truly is amazing).
So we came here to get an idea of what goes on here and to visit the prayer room. Our basic daily schedule has consisted of being in the prayer room and eating. In the midst of that, some really awesome stuff has been happening. I had the opportunity to visit a prophecy room and it was here where they encouraged me that, though I am facing life-change, God has all of the details under control and He has been the one working in my decisions from the beginning. For those of you who don't know, I quit my job at Transcend a few weeks ago so that I could commit to House of Prayer more and finish school. This prophetic word (from a complete stranger who had no idea of my situation) really affirmed where I am at!
Along with getting to the prophecy room, our group has been overwhelmingly blessed from some of the key leaders here at IHoP. Wes Martin and Justin Rizzo blocked out a period of time where we were simply able to talk to them and ask them questions. It was a very fast hour and a half as Wes and Justin really shared their hearts with us, affirming what God's doing at House of Prayer and really challenging us as they talked about how they live their lives! After this, Justin invited myself and Maria to his worship practice as well as their briefing session for their time in the prayer room, and this was awesome! Justin is an incredibly gifted musician and someone I respect and look up to as a worship leader as well as an intercessor. to be able to watch him interact with his teams and friends was extremely encouraging and I learned so much simply by being there. It was a huge honor to observe Justin in his element (and even here a new song that even his band was hearing for the first time!) Wes has also told us that he would love to meet with us all again before we leave, so I am anticipating another great period of time for us to really talk to Wes about where things are at! I'm excited for this.
Probably one of the most intense times we've ever had for our group happened yesterday. Peter and Colleen are partners with IHoP, so they come to visit quite often (so often, that they have purchased a house and rented it out mainly so that when they are here they can stay in a guest suite). In their time here, they have met many people involved with IHoP, two of which are very gifted prophetically (they both serve on prophecy and evangelism teams here). These two met with our group yesterday and we had an incredibly powerful time of group prophecy. They went around the circle and prophecied over each one of us! The accuracy of what they said was phenomenal and it was a blessing that we were all able to experience this together. It really helped us grow as a group and we learned a lot about each other and what God is doing for the group. It was quite humbling to realize that I am a part of such an anointed group of people who really are going to be used by god in profound and uniqe ways.
The other aspect of this trip that has been amazing has been the conversations that have arisen with people from my group. House of Prayer Edmonton is still very small and in a place where we are on the verge of a lot of growth. This growth comes with a need for strategy as well as vision and a lot of the conversations that we have been having have been extremely exciting as we look forward to going home and really seeing HoPE take off!
So that's a bit of a summary of what I've been doing practically while I've been here at the International House of Prayer. It's been awesome and I'm extremely excited about what I'm learning and what God's doing! Today or later tomorrow I am going to take some time to write out a blog about what I'm learning, as God has been teaching me a lot about who He is and who I am.
I hope that you are doing amazing and that God is speaking to each of You. thanks for your support and friendships. It means the world to know that I have such incredible people at home who have my back!
You are greatly appreciated!
Daunavan
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Welcome to a New Season of Life...
Hello everyone! thanks again for checking out my blog! This blog post has been a long time coming but at the same time, a lot of what I have to say is only recent news, so I hope that it will fill you all in.
Major news Update...
There is no easy way to say this, so I am just going to throw it out there: I had to quit my job at Transcend.
This was not an easy decision especially given where Kirsten and I are at financially, but I felt that this was something that God was leading me to do and, after lots of consideration, the only way that I would be able to finish school and avoid "burning out" this semester. I saw that a lot of what I had on my plate was really boggin me down as I was committed to over 55 hours a week and I was simply not able to get all of my responsibilities (with the third service as well as House of Prayer) done to the best of my abilities. I'm sorry that I could not tell everyone in person about this, so I thought that I would use this as my way of communicating it. I had a great time at Transcend and if anyone that I worked with there is reading this, please know that I LOVED working there it just came down to my own personal health and having the time to give my best to the ministries that I am involved with.
Where does this Leave Kirsten and Myself?
Currently, I am committed to House of Prayer for 20-25 hours a week, the Third service for 10 hours a week, and finishing school (10-15 hours a week). Because of this change in our working situation, Kirsten and I are trusting more than ever that God will be providing finances for us at through my work at House of Prayer, so please don't be surprised if you get an email of phone call from me in the near future and please prayerfully consider tithing some of your money to House of Prayer (of which 90% of that money will be my salary and you will receive a donation receipt). If you would like to initiate this conversation, please email me or call me!
More than money though, Kirsten and I are in need of your prayers! I am not concerned about the financial situation (as Charlie Robinson prophesied over me on the DAY of my last shift: "You are entering a new season in life, you have a lot of unknowns, but everything will be taken care of, so you don't need to worry about it," so I'm not worried, but I do know more than ever that I need to depend on God's Spirit for our every day needs.
Please Follow my Blog
One of my number one priorities right now with House of Prayer is communication (communicating with people who are currently supporting me as well as those who are simply curious) so I am making it a goal to be weekly updating my blog with news as well as things that I am learning and want to pass along. Simply click "Follow my blog" on the right of my page so that you'll get updated when I do a new post! I would love to hear from you if you have any questions about House of Prayer or about how Kirsten and I are doing! Thanks for reading this and please know that we are daily praying for you (and all believers) in the prayer room, that God would be revealing His heart and character to each of you!
Blessings,
Daunavan
Major news Update...
There is no easy way to say this, so I am just going to throw it out there: I had to quit my job at Transcend.
This was not an easy decision especially given where Kirsten and I are at financially, but I felt that this was something that God was leading me to do and, after lots of consideration, the only way that I would be able to finish school and avoid "burning out" this semester. I saw that a lot of what I had on my plate was really boggin me down as I was committed to over 55 hours a week and I was simply not able to get all of my responsibilities (with the third service as well as House of Prayer) done to the best of my abilities. I'm sorry that I could not tell everyone in person about this, so I thought that I would use this as my way of communicating it. I had a great time at Transcend and if anyone that I worked with there is reading this, please know that I LOVED working there it just came down to my own personal health and having the time to give my best to the ministries that I am involved with.
Where does this Leave Kirsten and Myself?
Currently, I am committed to House of Prayer for 20-25 hours a week, the Third service for 10 hours a week, and finishing school (10-15 hours a week). Because of this change in our working situation, Kirsten and I are trusting more than ever that God will be providing finances for us at through my work at House of Prayer, so please don't be surprised if you get an email of phone call from me in the near future and please prayerfully consider tithing some of your money to House of Prayer (of which 90% of that money will be my salary and you will receive a donation receipt). If you would like to initiate this conversation, please email me or call me!
More than money though, Kirsten and I are in need of your prayers! I am not concerned about the financial situation (as Charlie Robinson prophesied over me on the DAY of my last shift: "You are entering a new season in life, you have a lot of unknowns, but everything will be taken care of, so you don't need to worry about it," so I'm not worried, but I do know more than ever that I need to depend on God's Spirit for our every day needs.
Please Follow my Blog
One of my number one priorities right now with House of Prayer is communication (communicating with people who are currently supporting me as well as those who are simply curious) so I am making it a goal to be weekly updating my blog with news as well as things that I am learning and want to pass along. Simply click "Follow my blog" on the right of my page so that you'll get updated when I do a new post! I would love to hear from you if you have any questions about House of Prayer or about how Kirsten and I are doing! Thanks for reading this and please know that we are daily praying for you (and all believers) in the prayer room, that God would be revealing His heart and character to each of you!
Blessings,
Daunavan
Thursday, December 16, 2010
The Last Few Months
First off, I want to begin by thanking you again for taking the time to read this and pray for me! I will be taking much more time to be blogging in the new year, and I am excited to have a team of people that I know are going to be reading these posts and taking the time to pray for me. I'm home sick from work today and between naps I thought that I would take some time to let you all know how I am doing. Thanks so much!
These Last Few Months
The last few months for me have been quite a ride. Work has been great. Transcend is an amazing company and incredible people work there. I am getting trained as a barista in the new year so that is an exciting step, but besides Transcend I am doing very well. God has been teaching me a lot over the past few months and I look forward to blogging about it soon. For the time being I will simply let you know what I have been up to.
The last two months with House of Prayer have consisted mostly of fundraising and training. While Fundraising has been quite challenging, God has come through every month as we are often wondering where money is going to come from. It has been a stretching time but God has been growing my faith in Him as well as my ability to trust Him for things like finances. Please continue reading if you would like to support me financially.
Possibly the most exciting thing that has happened in the last few months was the training provided by House of Prayer (for more information about training, please click here). House of Prayer has offered three different levels of training Intentional Discipleship Training 1&2, and Leadership Discipleship Training. IDT 1&2 focussed more on what some key elements are to being a disciple of Christ: Intercessory Prayer and Worship, the Foundations of night and day prayer, A Sermon on the Mount Lifestyle, and Prayer and the End Times (for example). These two levels of training were awesome and I know that I wasn't the only person who was challenged as well as encouraged to get real in my walk with God and take steps in seeing my relationships with Him be all the more fruitful. LDT focussed more on the practical aspects of what happens in our time in the prayer room (combining worship and intercession) and we took time to focus on the prayer room model . What was extremely exciting about LDT was to see the amount of people (14 or so) come every week for 6 weeks and really devote themselves to getting raised up and being excited about House of Prayer. These training times were great for me and I would encourage anyone reading this to click here and find out when the next times these courses are being offered are!
Other than training and fundraising, my job with House of Prayer has been very task-oriented. Week to week the realities and needs of the job are shifting so every week I am focussing my time a bit differently.
Looking Ahead
2011 is a very exciting time as much of what has been happening recently is, we believe, God preparing us for this new 'season' of ministry. Like I said, there are many people who have gone through our discipleship and now we can honestly be excited about them becoming leaders (and some of them hopefully missionaries) in the new year.
One of the things that I am extremely excited about is opening the prayer room more during 'non-work-hours.' We will be opening the prayer room on Tuesday nights in February and part of my responsibility will be to plan those times and ensure that there are worship/prayer leaders present.
Along with this (this is what I'm most excited about). HoPE is taking a trip down to Kansas City in February to the International House of Prayer. IHoP is not a prayer room that we are affiliated with but a lot of the heart behind HoPE has come through IHoP teaching and IHoP's prayer room ministry. Their prayer room has been open for over 10 years 24/7/365 and it will be a privilege to go down there and sit in their prayer room/meet leaders there and be a part of that culture. This trip does come with a large financial aspect to it, though, and I am praying that God will help me fundraise additional amounts of money so I am able to go on this trip. If you are reading this paragraph and would like to support me by paying for a portion of this trip (flights, hotel room for a night, gas for the car ride home etc.) Please contact me and I will let you know how you can give and receive a donation receipt. I am extremely excited for this trip!
Please Take some Time to Consider...
Thanks for taking the time to read what I am up to and what I am looking forward to over these next couple months. As you can tell, every day is a journey of faith and it's exciting to know that God is looking out for me.
As this year winds to a close, I would like you to take some time to consider how or if you could support me financially. Every bit of funds that you would give will get you a charitable donation receipt and will go towards my day-to-day expenses as well as this trip to Kansas City. Your prayers are also appreciated that God will continue to provide! Please contact me if you would like to join with what God is doing at HoPE financially.
Thanks for taking the time to read this! I pray that you will be blessed!
Daunavan
These Last Few Months
The last few months for me have been quite a ride. Work has been great. Transcend is an amazing company and incredible people work there. I am getting trained as a barista in the new year so that is an exciting step, but besides Transcend I am doing very well. God has been teaching me a lot over the past few months and I look forward to blogging about it soon. For the time being I will simply let you know what I have been up to.
The last two months with House of Prayer have consisted mostly of fundraising and training. While Fundraising has been quite challenging, God has come through every month as we are often wondering where money is going to come from. It has been a stretching time but God has been growing my faith in Him as well as my ability to trust Him for things like finances. Please continue reading if you would like to support me financially.
Possibly the most exciting thing that has happened in the last few months was the training provided by House of Prayer (for more information about training, please click here). House of Prayer has offered three different levels of training Intentional Discipleship Training 1&2, and Leadership Discipleship Training. IDT 1&2 focussed more on what some key elements are to being a disciple of Christ: Intercessory Prayer and Worship, the Foundations of night and day prayer, A Sermon on the Mount Lifestyle, and Prayer and the End Times (for example). These two levels of training were awesome and I know that I wasn't the only person who was challenged as well as encouraged to get real in my walk with God and take steps in seeing my relationships with Him be all the more fruitful. LDT focussed more on the practical aspects of what happens in our time in the prayer room (combining worship and intercession) and we took time to focus on the prayer room model . What was extremely exciting about LDT was to see the amount of people (14 or so) come every week for 6 weeks and really devote themselves to getting raised up and being excited about House of Prayer. These training times were great for me and I would encourage anyone reading this to click here and find out when the next times these courses are being offered are!
Other than training and fundraising, my job with House of Prayer has been very task-oriented. Week to week the realities and needs of the job are shifting so every week I am focussing my time a bit differently.
Looking Ahead
2011 is a very exciting time as much of what has been happening recently is, we believe, God preparing us for this new 'season' of ministry. Like I said, there are many people who have gone through our discipleship and now we can honestly be excited about them becoming leaders (and some of them hopefully missionaries) in the new year.
One of the things that I am extremely excited about is opening the prayer room more during 'non-work-hours.' We will be opening the prayer room on Tuesday nights in February and part of my responsibility will be to plan those times and ensure that there are worship/prayer leaders present.
Along with this (this is what I'm most excited about). HoPE is taking a trip down to Kansas City in February to the International House of Prayer. IHoP is not a prayer room that we are affiliated with but a lot of the heart behind HoPE has come through IHoP teaching and IHoP's prayer room ministry. Their prayer room has been open for over 10 years 24/7/365 and it will be a privilege to go down there and sit in their prayer room/meet leaders there and be a part of that culture. This trip does come with a large financial aspect to it, though, and I am praying that God will help me fundraise additional amounts of money so I am able to go on this trip. If you are reading this paragraph and would like to support me by paying for a portion of this trip (flights, hotel room for a night, gas for the car ride home etc.) Please contact me and I will let you know how you can give and receive a donation receipt. I am extremely excited for this trip!
Please Take some Time to Consider...
Thanks for taking the time to read what I am up to and what I am looking forward to over these next couple months. As you can tell, every day is a journey of faith and it's exciting to know that God is looking out for me.
As this year winds to a close, I would like you to take some time to consider how or if you could support me financially. Every bit of funds that you would give will get you a charitable donation receipt and will go towards my day-to-day expenses as well as this trip to Kansas City. Your prayers are also appreciated that God will continue to provide! Please contact me if you would like to join with what God is doing at HoPE financially.
Thanks for taking the time to read this! I pray that you will be blessed!
Daunavan
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Post #1...What I'm up To!
First of all, I want to thank you for reading my blog! My prayer is that it will be useful for you as far as understanding what God is doing in and through me at House of Prayer, but more importantly, I hope that this blog encourages you and uplifts you in your walk with God. I will be pretty transparent with what God is doing in my heart and my hope in that is that God will be speaking to you through what I'm learning and doing! So thank you so much for reading. If you want to, please subscribe to the blog as I will be updating it (hopefully weekly) starting this week!
So I figure for the first blog post just to give everyone an update on what I am doing in life right now! I am primarily working 20 hours/week with the House of Prayer Edmonton (an organization here in Edmonton committed to seeing night and day prayer established in the city as well as discipling and raising up believers here who will be faithful intercessors in their own churches). My job with them is an intercessory missionary (this is a fancy way of saying that I am raising my own support in order to be able to intercede (pray) for the city!) At this point, a typical week with House of Prayer consists of 10-12 hours in the prayer room (3-4 of which I am leading worship) praying for the city, 4-6 hours of fund-raising and support, and the remainder of my time I spend doing discipleship training (being discipled and (soon) discipling), working on technical aspects that have to do with the prayer room, and getting the word out about HoPE (through video work, meetings, and telling everyone I know). This is an incredible job as it really has set me on fire for God and what He's doing in the city. If you want to know more about HoPE check out their website or give me a call and I'd love to tell you about it. If you'd like to be a part of what God is doing at House of Prayer either financially or prayerfully, please email me and I'll get ahold of you immediately!
Along with House of Prayer, I am also working at Transcend Coffee and McKernan Baptist Church (3rd service Intern). Both of these jobs are great as they are supportive of what I'm doing in HoPE and my involvement in each is a positive benefit to the other! I encourage you to stop by sometime at Transcend Argyle (I work from 3-6) Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and I'll have you try some awesome coffee!
My internship at McKernan is the last item that I would like to tell each of you about as It's going amazing! This year, we have had huge amounts of people out each week and the way that the Holy Spirit is working has been awesome. I have an incredible team of leaders around me and they are really helping to 'lighten the load' as the service is becoming a tremendous amount of work. I invite you to come check out the third service sometime (McKernan Baptist Church Lighthouse @ 6:00 on Sunday's 11119-76 ave) as it is quite a different service and I believe that you will be blessed if you come! As well, the first Sunday of every month we are providing a free meal, so feel free to come on a communion Sunday and you can eat with our community!
Thanks for reading my blog. I look forward to hearing from you if you have any questions or want to get together for coffee.. as busy as my schedule sounds, I would easily be able to find time to meet with you!
Thanks and blessings,
Daunavan Buyer
So I figure for the first blog post just to give everyone an update on what I am doing in life right now! I am primarily working 20 hours/week with the House of Prayer Edmonton (an organization here in Edmonton committed to seeing night and day prayer established in the city as well as discipling and raising up believers here who will be faithful intercessors in their own churches). My job with them is an intercessory missionary (this is a fancy way of saying that I am raising my own support in order to be able to intercede (pray) for the city!) At this point, a typical week with House of Prayer consists of 10-12 hours in the prayer room (3-4 of which I am leading worship) praying for the city, 4-6 hours of fund-raising and support, and the remainder of my time I spend doing discipleship training (being discipled and (soon) discipling), working on technical aspects that have to do with the prayer room, and getting the word out about HoPE (through video work, meetings, and telling everyone I know). This is an incredible job as it really has set me on fire for God and what He's doing in the city. If you want to know more about HoPE check out their website or give me a call and I'd love to tell you about it. If you'd like to be a part of what God is doing at House of Prayer either financially or prayerfully, please email me and I'll get ahold of you immediately!
Along with House of Prayer, I am also working at Transcend Coffee and McKernan Baptist Church (3rd service Intern). Both of these jobs are great as they are supportive of what I'm doing in HoPE and my involvement in each is a positive benefit to the other! I encourage you to stop by sometime at Transcend Argyle (I work from 3-6) Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and I'll have you try some awesome coffee!
My internship at McKernan is the last item that I would like to tell each of you about as It's going amazing! This year, we have had huge amounts of people out each week and the way that the Holy Spirit is working has been awesome. I have an incredible team of leaders around me and they are really helping to 'lighten the load' as the service is becoming a tremendous amount of work. I invite you to come check out the third service sometime (McKernan Baptist Church Lighthouse @ 6:00 on Sunday's 11119-76 ave) as it is quite a different service and I believe that you will be blessed if you come! As well, the first Sunday of every month we are providing a free meal, so feel free to come on a communion Sunday and you can eat with our community!
Thanks for reading my blog. I look forward to hearing from you if you have any questions or want to get together for coffee.. as busy as my schedule sounds, I would easily be able to find time to meet with you!
Thanks and blessings,
Daunavan Buyer
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