Prior to September 11, we had already scheduled the Jesus Revolution team to be going to churches and schools in the Northeast of the country. Suddenly we found ourselves ministering to some who had known individuals who died that day and many whose sense of security had just been newly shattered.
That fall I saw firsthand how people responded swiftly with fresh decisions to change their lives, as the heart of the Northeast had been broken and soft before God in the wake of 9/11. Many, in deep repentance and tears, made decisions for Jesus and took a fresh look at the priorities of their lives. The temporal values of this world suddenly were giving way to what really mattered. Commitments were made to live for God and to reach out to those who didn’t know Him.
But that window of a softened heart seemed to close very quickly. By January of the following year it seemed that everything had gone back to normal. Well, things may have gone back to normal for most, but not for me. I was marked by it all. Maybe you share the same sentiment. Our national response to God on the heels of 9/11 left me wanting so much more. I just knew that we hadn’t responded as we should have. Perhaps it was because of my previous experience.
Before going to YWAM, my life had been transformed by Jesus because of friends who responded correctly to tragedy. In fact, this personal revival in the love of God is what led me into YWAM in the first place and into being open enough to hear God’s call for my life. Several youth from my county had started a home group Bible study that met on Tuesday nights. Then, one of them, Diana Sharp, died suddenly in a car accident just two months after they had begun this little fellowship. Her funeral was on a Tuesday morning. Fifty teens went forward to the altar and gave their lives to Jesus at her funeral. At the end of the funeral, Diana’s Tuesday Night Bible Study (TBS) friends had printed invitations to attend their meeting that week. One of those who attended was quoted as saying, “We just hung out, cried and prayed together.” What had begun as a simple Bible study turned into quite a move of God. TBS doubled in size that week of Diana’s funeral and didn’t stop growing for years.
Impact the culture of your generation by joining this worship led community in our nation’s capital city!
God is raising up a generation of worshipers who are in love with Jesus and who desire to see His name lifted high! Come and join us in our nation’s capitol as we bring an unceasing song of adoration to the one we love simply because He is worthy. Oh that our love for the man Christ Jesus would bind us together in strength and unity, that as we fix our gaze on Heaven, we could declare to this culture the worthiness of Christ.
Rev. 5:11-13
Then I heard the voices of many angels, the four living creatures, and the leaders surrounding the throne. They numbered ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands times thousands. In a loud voice they were singing,
“The lamb who was slain deserves to receive power, wealth, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and praise.”
I heard every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth, and on the sea. Every creature in those places was singing,
“To the one who sits on the throne and to the lamb be praise, honor, glory, and power forever and ever.”
It’s time to build the wall. I’m talking about intercession. True protection.
“So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land….” Ezekiel 22:30
There are many things you could do this summer. I want you to call you to the wall in DC. Would you come to our nation’s Capitol and stand before God on behalf of our nation as an intercessor? It’s a rare group of selfless ones that will respond to this call. No candies. No flashy promises of great times. Just God.
We simply must pray from our guts for our country right now. The youth of America must understand what is meant by the phrase, “Save yourselves from this perverse generation!” Acts 2:40 They must understand! They must understand! If we pray, they will.
God can do more in a moment than we can do in a lifetime. That’s settled. We all understand that. Let’s pray in faith for that moment when God shows up!
Please watch this recent night watch video:
David’s Tent has been stirred to gather a delegate from each state for 2, 50 day, 50 state, “Intercessory Prayer Congresses” to pray in unity this summer into fall. We believe it’s time for this strategic army of prayer warriors to come together in DC and pray to win a generation to Jesus! Will you be one of them?
The first Prayer Congress will be: July 1 – August 20 The second Prayer Congress is: August 20 – October 10. (The second will end with Awaken The Dawn. www.awakenthedawn.org)
The cost for room and board with us in our community houses is $700 for one congress or $1300 if you want to stay for both, all 100 days. This will all culminate with the 50 tent (state by state) gathering on the National Mall, called Awaken the Dawn.
If you have any questions about the Prayer Congress or would like more information, please email Anna at volunteer@davidstentdc.org Please pray and ask the Lord if you should apply to be a delegate from your state! (If you can’t come, please make sure someone from your state can.)
Keep in mind this will probably be the hardest thing you’ve ever done. “Laying down your life” is the calling card for a true intercessor. That means a cross. Your friends will be posting amazing pictures of being at the beach, family outings, on amazing trips, getting that new car with their summer job money etc… Meanwhile you will be living in dormitory housing in community, in a hectic city, and simply going to a tent each day to cry out to God in prayer and worship. You will need to know that God is your reward. It’s this type of people though, that God will answer!
“Gather together to Me my consecrated ones, Those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.” Psalms 50:5
Thank you for praying Col. 1:11 for our staff. There is refreshment and fresh fiery zeal coming upon us!
For His Glory, Always, Jason Hershey, Founder, DavidsTentDC
David’s Tent is caught between two competing, but both valuable, visions for the National Mall, and Capital City. King David’s vision for His Capital City: A place for all Israel to gather, worship and give thanks to the Lord! (Psalms 122)
Thank you all that have been praying for David’s Tent DC’s new location. We consider every prayer part of our worship and declaration that Jesus is Worthy of the highest, centermost places of our lives and culture. Through this all, we’re still singing at the Tent!
Thank you for so many that have put their efforts together to contact members in Congress too. Your efforts opened up a great dialogue with the National Park Service (NPS) yesterday. They didn’t give us an option, but there was a discussion about the possibility of an option.
The possibility of the option floated, would have us stay where we are at Constitutions Gardens Plaza, but be coexisting with the construction trailers and equipment for the restoration project of the lock-keepers house on the corner. They warned us that we have to measure it out to see if we’d all fit there and there would be much noise throughout the day, but it’s a possibility of an option for us. (This would only be to buy us time, not a long term solution. Eventually a restaurant will be build on our spot.) This will be further explored as we walk the site all together next Wednesday afternoon, making measurements to see if we’d even all fit there. It’s a tight squeeze for sure.
In my guts, I’m skeptical this is “it.” But we will be considering it in the meantime. Let’s contend for His best in faith, prayer and action! Yesterday’s meeting was bountifully productive though. We were honored to have a great candid dialogue with those that we are working with at the NPS permits office.
The NPS permits office wasn’t notified until recently that this reconstruction project of Constitution Gardens is starting. It was planned for a long time, but on hold. Suddenly the funding came in and triggered the quick beginning, The notified us as soon as it was handed to them. The permits office hasn’t been given a solid start date yet, just a commission to not permit anybody there after our current permit runs out March 10.
The NPS permits office is bound to the constraints put on them from higher up. They explained their conundrum with us. Several years ago, congress gave them the mandate to make the mall area beautiful and fulfill the vision of George Washington to have the Capitol in the midst of rolling green hill spaces. The NPS just in the last couple years put 8 million dollars into the reconstruction of the sod on the main stretch of the mall. Next is Washington Monument Grounds, as piece by piece, they are redoing the turf. Which is why the new turf regulations were enacted last year, and our tent can’t be on grass any more than 5 days at a time now.
So why not just make more hardscape places? With each new monument, museum or restaurant, that vision of a Capitol surrounded by rolling green spaces is being chipped away. The NPS was mandated by congress to defend that vision and get the mall area looking beautiful.
On the other hand, the NPS is also to be permitting 1st amendment demonstrations on those same areas. These two visions, beautify the National Mall and make room for 1st Amendment demonstration, conflict greatly, at great cost and stress for all involved.
This is why your calls and letters to congress were and are so important. Keep them rolling! I want to be clear: I do not think the NPS is being malicious toward us. I would say the opposite. I really trust they are trying to find a solution, but their hands are tied. We need Congress or the Executive Branch to act. What is OUR GENERATIONS vision for our Capital City? Will 24/7 worship and Praise, and Jesus Himself, be part of our vision for the Capital going forward?
We’ve come full circle back to the vision of David’s Tent DC! King David made the Lord the central vision in his administration. With a 24/7 worship tent employing 4288 musicians and singers adjacent to his palace, David wanted to be sure God knew, that he had enthroned God over his administration. Will the David hearts arise!?
So far, from the response that I’m getting. I’m encouraged! There is a remnant in congress, and around America, that loves Jesus with all their hearts and not only do they know that He’s the Lord, but have also made Him their Lord.
This video of the Moravians is a “must watch.” We must know our history! I was trained as a young man in missions under the tutelage of Youth With A Mission (YWAM). From a missions perspective I was gripped at the Moravian Model of 24/7 prayer leading to the birthing of the modern day missions movement. The story of the Moravians caused me to dream of a fresh wave of prayer and missions in my generation!
That’s how long David’s Tent has been running and our American Sign Language (ASL) team has been serving with the tent. It is quite hard to believe how quickly time flies. It is truly amazing how something so simple like going to the tent every day to worship from our hearts can become one of the greatest and deepest lessons that we will ever learn in life. I am so grateful for the people I have encountered such as the people who were simply passing by the tent, to the regular attendees, to the people who were just visiting for a few hours, and to our faithful David’s Tent staff. Whether the conversation between a person and I was just for a minute or for an hour, I still felt each person I met made a difference. It is not David’s Tent that brought each person to the tent, but God.
I am humbled and honored that the leaders for David’s Tent were open to having the American Sign Language aspect of worship in the tent. Having this opportunity to serve this team with ASL has broken many barriers and opened new doors for Deaf people like myself and for the Deaf community as whole. I personally already love worship, but with this experience, I have gained a new insight on how to worship and fell deeper in love with Jesus.
It is a bittersweet feeling as the ASL team will complete our commitment with David’s Tent on November 8th even when David’s Tent will continue indefinitely. However, it does not mean that we will not take what we have learned from God through David’s Tent and be able to share our stories with other people in the Deaf community. It is a marvelous thing to witness when the diversity in God’s kingdom is brought together to worship only one person: Jesus Christ. I know for a fact that David’s Tent has shifted some grounds for His kingdom come. I am looking forward to see the harvest that has been planted for this past year with each of us: Deaf and hearing alike.
One of the lessons that I would like to share for what God has taught me for this past year is “morning glory.” I am not a morning person. I do not think I ever will be a morning person. I have tried hard to train myself to be a morning person, but I think I have finally come to accept the terms that I am just simply not a morning person.
In the beginning, our ASL team was assigned for a morning shift starting at 7am. I was mortified because this means I have to get up early! Maybe for some of you 7am is not early, but it is early for me! I was trying to think of how I would be able to have energy before the sun comes out! It was a rough start and I really felt it would be impossible for me to continue for a whole year with this time shift! Well, I definitely made it. Our time shift did change throughout the year, but it always remained in the morning.
Over time, my heart began to change. I started to see the wonderful things about the morning. At David’s Tent, I get to see plenty of flocks of beautiful birds flying around the National Mall.
I get to see the sun rising up slowly to kiss the sky. I get to see the morning mist that sleeps on the grass. I get to see life in the city before it becomes alive. Most of all, I get to experience God’s love, first thing in the morning, before anything else. Proverbs 3:9 come in mind for this. We talk about honoring the Lord with our finances, but what about our time too? That moment when dawn breaks, before we even bother getting out of bed, do we honor the Lord with our time? Spend our quiet time first thing in the morning? Just something to think about.
No, I have not transformed into a giddy morning person, but I am a lot more grateful for the beauty of getting up early in the morning. I am grateful for being able to worship through sign language. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to serve Jesus with David’s Tent. Most of all, I am grateful for God has taught me about His original morning glory that just constantly overwhelms me in every way possible.
Keep in mind this will probably be the hardest thing you’ve ever done. “Laying down your life” is the calling card for a true intercessor. That means a cross. Your friends will be posting amazing pictures of being at the beach, family outings, on amazing trips, getting that new car with their summer job money etc… Meanwhile you will be living in dormitory housing in community, in a hectic city, and simply going to a tent each day to cry out to God in prayer and worship. You will need to know that God is your reward. It’s this type of people though, that God will answer!
Thank you all that have been praying for David’s Tent DC’s new location. We consider every prayer part of our worship and declaration that Jesus is Worthy of the highest, centermost places of our lives and culture. Through this all, we’re still singing at the Tent!
14 months.
In the beginning, our ASL team was assigned for a morning shift starting at 7am. I was mortified because this means I have to get up early! Maybe for some of you 7am is not early, but it is early for me! I was trying to think of how I would be able to have energy before the sun comes out! It was a rough start and I really felt it would be impossible for me to continue for a whole year with this time shift! Well, I definitely made it. Our time shift did change throughout the year, but it always remained in the morning.
