2017 is here! I hope you are having a great new year. Below I give an update from the amazing Igniting Azusa East New Years gathering, along with some info on upcoming trips and projects I am working on.
Also, if you have yet to DOWNLOAD OUR 2017 VISION PACKET (PDF format), go ahead and do that! We are so excited about what God has for us in the coming season.
I could write paragraphs about the hundreds of people who gathered for Igniting Azusa East in Dunn, NC December 30-31 weekend w\ Lou Engle, Mike Thornton and Abner Suarez. We partnered with other ministries to plan this gathering in lieu of the annual Phenomenon conference we have hosted in previous years. I organized the worship teams, and it was possibly my favorite worship leading experience ever. Every night the congregation “took over” and spontaneous worship (with no music) erupted for 15-30 minutes! Here are a few testimonies from the weekend…
“Such an amazing time this weekend was !!! Such a wonderful representation of unity and Gods Love. True History being uncovered and reversing the curse through forgiveness and unifying the races.” – Sara
“It’s hard to explain but I tell you what.. God’s glorious love is shining through daily since the #IgnitingAzusaEast Conference and I will tell you this.. I will NEVER be the same and I am falling more and more in love with Him moment by moment…” – Lori
“So this past weekend was incredible at Azusa East Conference 110th anniversary celebration. Many were touched by this event. Many healings took place! I as well, was set on fire! No man is going to stop what God has called me to!” – Ken
Julius, one of the worship leaders called it “The most incredible moment of my life!”
About to lead worship at 6am at Opendoor Church
What else am I up to? Glad you asked! Here’s a few things that have been happening…
- Helping to rebuild the Burn Greenville team to continue monthly Burns in the Greenville area
- Opendoor Church just finished 21 days of prayer and fasting, including daily prayer meetings. I led worship at two of those prayer meetings and shared a brief prayer teaching one morning.
- I recently drove to Washington, DC for the launch event for Awaken the Dawn, a gathering on the National Mall in October with 50-tents (representing each state) hosting non-stop worship along with outreach around the DC area. I will be involved in helping mobilize NC and the southeast for this historic gathering.
- Moving my office from the Collide building into our home
- Clearing out the storage room of stuff that came from the Boiler Room (the glamorous part of ministry)
- Developing and revamping the 24-7 North Carolina and Presence Pioneers web sites
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Prayer Points
- In a few days I will be driving down to Birmingham, AL for the weekend. I will be meeting with prayer leaders there, dreaming/planning about taking the Jesus Tent down there and leading worship at the Ignite UAB campus ministry. I will be visiting with Burn Atlanta and Burn Columbia along the way.
- Pray for finances and partners for our 2017 vision, particularly increased traveling costs in this new season
It was kind of icy and messy, but we technically got some snow in Greenville and the kids were super excited!
PS. Connect with Shepard on Instagram for more family photos
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