OOB 2006 Starts!

Old Orchard beach 2006 has begun! Well, not technically. It officially starts tonight at 7 PM, but last night was the Northern New England's Musical night, when we preface the entire territorial event with an evening of musical worship, invoking God's presence, preparing hearts and lifting up the Name of Jesus.

I must admit, I was a bit surprised at the small attendance compared to previous years (but the current spiritual climate fits as no small part of an explanation). I wonder why it is often hard to draw people out for a night of worship?

We offered the musical "Experiencing God," by Henry Blackaby and, if I do say so myself (being a part of the presentation), it was a powerful expression of worship. There was a minor setback to the flow of worship when we took a few moments to officially send off our NNE candidates to the SFOT (it should have been done some other time- not during the musical; perhaps before it began would have fit better. If you follow my blog, you know I have a "thing" about carefully preparing the flow of a meeting! {stepping down off my soapbox for now}), but that was easily overshadowed by the seekers during the altar call. Many of these seekers were children! YES! They were listening to God's voice as he called them! I love that like nothing else!

By the way, the only Northern New England Candidates this year are from the Bangor Corps (more on that later- tomorrow?)!

This musical worship evening is a fantastic way of opening/preparing for the OOB meetings. Drew Poulopoulos (yes, it's spelled that way!), our Divisional Music Director, prepares and presents such powerful events! I believe it is because he works so hard and much of that work is done on his knees. He is also faithful to included the whole body of believers in his events. You just can't beat that kind of spiritual power! How blessed we are to have his influence in our division.

At the pier ministry this year, you will find a team from The War College helping out. The team is composed of staff, current and past TWC students. They will each participate in different ways including music, evangelism, prophetic evangelism, etc. (but no Jenn & Josh- {sniff}).

New to OOB this year, is the 24/7 prayer room. Another big YES! People have been encouraged to sign up and Debbie & I have taken a few slots between us. I am so looking forward to that time in prayer. There have been a few prophetic words regarding the prayer room, which will help us focus and fight off the enemy's attempts to kill it. Kudos to Janet Munn for arranging this prayer furnace. It seems our territory is warming up to this kind of power.

So if you're near Maine in the next few days, drop by OOB and look us up!