Please Pray for the homosexual communities in San Francisco and the JHOP-SF Team

Below is a couple videos and a letter from the JHOP – San Francisco Team and I wanted to share it with everyone…. My spirit was deeply moved when I read the letter and watched the videos. It brought me to tears and took me to my knees. I want to ask you all to join in contending in the place of prayer for the homosexual communities around the nation and especially in SF as well as praying for the JHOP team in SF. They were simply praying quietly and worshiping God in a district of SF called Castro which they do on a regular basis on Friday nights. They were not being loud, marching, or protesting concerning Proposition 8. They were simply praying...quietly.

While they continued to peacefully worship God, the mob of homosexuals hit them, knocked them down, kicked them, spit on them, urinated on them, threw hot drinks on them, groped them, tried to undress them and threatened to their face, "We will kill you!" I am so proud of the JHOP-SF group who is taking the worship of the King to the deep and dark places of the nation and extremely proud of the way they handled the situation.






Letter from the JHOP-SF Team:

We wanted to write you and fill you guys in on what happened to our team here in San Francisco last night. This is what happened from one point of view and gives a pretty good overview of the night.

I went to the Castro (the homosexual district of San Francisco) with JHOPSF (I have been with the Justice House of Prayer San Francisco since April 2008.) like we usually do on Friday nights.
Normally, we sit on 18th and Castro, and someone plays the guitar, and we all worship God. Often times people will be drawn to us, even if only for curiosity of what we're doing, so we get to talk to them, and tell them about the Love of Jesus Christ. On rare occasions, when the Holy Spirit clearly guides one of us (usually a leader), one person will open-air preach for a little bit.

Sometimes a person will yell at us, or maybe a few. Sometimes people will ignore us. Sometimes people will let us pray with them. We get different responses from different people each time, but the Lord always meets us there.

This time was not a normal night. It was the first time we'd been back in the Castro to do our normal outreach since California Proposition 8, which defined marriage as "one man with one woman" was passed. Apparently, previously, someone at a No on 8 rally singled out Promised Land Fellowship (The church that we attend), and specifically the team they send out to the Castro on Friday nights (us) as being affiliated with the Yes on 8 campaign (which is partially true. All the individuals involved with the Castro Outreach were involved with the Yes on 8 campaign, but mostly in prayer. However, the Castro Outreach isn't about Gay marriage, or politics - it's about Jesus Christ.).

We played the guitar and sang together and worshiped the Lord. Nobody preached. Nobody even really talked to anyone except for a little bit near the beginning.

After just singing and worshiping God for a while, Roger decided that we should all hold hands in a circle and continue singing. So we did.

Someone (actually a person who came up and hugged and kissed some of us who he knew from the past and was asking us how we were doing) convinced some people that we were there to protest against the No on 8 campaign.

Then some guy who was dressed up like one of the sisters (The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence is a group of men who dress up in drag like nuns and call themselves the spiritual authority of the Castro.) took a curtain-type thing and wrapped it around us.

Then a crowd started gathering. We began to sing "Amazing Grace," and basically sang that song the whole night. (at some points we also sang "Nothing but the Blood of Jesus" and "Oh the Blood of Jesus".)

At first, they just shouted at us, using crude, rude, and foul language and calling us names like "haters" and "bigots." Since it was a long night, I can't even begin to remember all of the things that were shouted and/or chanted at us.

Then, they started throwing hot coffee, some people got it in their faces, soda and alcohol on us and spitting (and maybe even peeing) on us.

Then, a group of guys surrounded us with whistles, and blasted them inches away from our ears continually.

Then, they started getting violent and started shoving us. We just gathered in as tight as we could together and worshiped singing Amazing Grace.

At one point a man tried to steal one of our Bibles. One of the girls noticed, so she walked up to him and said "Hey, that's not yours, can you please give it back?" He responded by hitting her on the head with the Bible, shoving her to the ground, and kicking her. I called the cops, and when they got there, they pulled her out of the circle and asked her if she wanted to press charges. She said "No, tell him I forgive him." Afterwards, she didn't rejoin us in the circle, but she made friends with one of the people in the crowd, and really connected heart to heart.

Our leader got death threats. As the leader of our group, people looked him in the eyes and said "I am going to kill you." and they were serious. A cop heard one of them, and confronted him.

(This part is kinda graphic, so you should skip the paragraph if you don't want to be offended.) It wasn't long before the violence turned to perversion. They were touching and grabbing me, and trying to shove things in my butt, and even trying to take off my pants - basically trying to molest me. I used one hand to hold my pants up, while I used the other arm to hold one of the girls. The guys huddled around all the girls, and protected them.

Soon after, the cops came and stood between us and the mob. When it was getting more heated, the cops were like "You guys should leave" because it was getting harder to protect us. And our leader said "We want to stay." Then they said, "If you want to get out you have to get out now."

Someone tried to steal my backpack, but I tapped a cop on the shoulder and said "Hey, that's my bag." and he got it from him and gave it to me. Others weren't so lucky. Probably half our team got their jackets stolen.

Eventually, as the crowd was getting more and more uncontrollable, the cops were afraid for our lives, so they escorted us to our van. (The cops were very nice to us from start to finish.)
Our van was parked pretty far because it was hard to find parking that day. As the cops escorted us, the mob followed us, until the cops formed a line and held off the people so we could drive away. We took the long way home, just in case anyone tried to follow us.

When we got home, we prayed and sang more, and then prayed over each other.

The whole experience made me love and brought me closer to God and my friends and the people in the Castro as well as the Church in general and the lost.

Please know my heart. All of what we do is for the Love of Jesus Christ, and the love for those in the Castro. The Bible says to love God, and then love people. We can only love because He loved us first. We can't hate the people because they are just broken and blinded by the spirit of this age. Our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against Principalities and Powers. It's not a political thing, we just love the people. We don't want to convert gays to straight people. We want them to know the Love of Jesus Christ. Even if someone never becomes attracted to the other sex, they can still love Jesus Christ with all their heart, mind, and soul. As the mob raged, all I could pray was "God have mercy." It really is all about God's mercy. He desires mercy over judgment. He desires for all to be saved.

One of the things that I remember them chanting was "Shame on you." One of our girls later pointed out how, in some weird way, it's a privilege for us because we know that Jesus bore all our shame and all our transgressions on the cross. So it's kinda like taking on their shame so we can cast it onto Jesus.

This is the raw footage of the walk from 18th and Castro Street to our car. It was only the very tail end of the night and says that we were all about Prop 8... when in reality we had nothing to do with Prop 8 this night.
http://www.ktvu.com/news/17986914/detail.html

May the Holy Lord God Almighty, Who Was, Who Is, and Who Is To Come, be glorified now and forevermore. Amen.

Thank you for praying for us, and more for this people in the Castro. We have found ourselves even more broken over them. We love you!

A Response to the Elections: Response, Repentance, Regrouping and Relentless..... Bound4Life

To the pro-life remnant in America,

I'm sure this email finds many of you still trying to process and make sense out of last week's election. No doubt there are more questions today than answers. If you're like me, then you've been looking for responses from Christian leaders to help understand where we are today. Please bear with me as I attempt to construct thoughts regarding what has happened and what it means for Bound4LIFE and the pro-life movement.

Response

First of all let me express my sincere gratitude to all those that have followed through with their vows concerning prayer for the ending of abortion, voting for pro-life candidates and obeying God when it comes to compassion and justice. I believe the Life Band represents something larger than any of us realize right now. It helps us align with God's heart and purposes in the earth, and we can never go wrong following this simple path. As always God has moved through a remnant to make his will known.

It has become quite clear that the majority of the American Church has chosen to promote pro-abortion agents and pro-death policies. I believe God is grieved over these choices. It was within our ability to propel life-saving efforts for the unborn and plead the cause of the helpless, but because we have rejected that sacred responsibility I believe judgment will begin with the house of God. I also believe it will cost us dearly. Some will be tempted to dodge their culpability declaring "Well, it happened so it must have been God's will all along." This would be flawed thinking in the extreme. To quote Dutch Sheets, "Too much emphasis on God's sovereignty and we're worthless; too little and we're hopeless."

A rule of thumb that I have embraced is "A casual approach to the prophetic word will produce casualties." In this case, the cry for "change" was greater than the cry for "mercy." We have asked for a king, and a king has been given to us. We will now collectively drink from this cup, and concerning the pre-born children the casualties are quite literal. Today we find ourselves standing knee deep in the blood of 50 million children asking God to bless us and fix our economy. So still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether".

Repentance

The responsibility lies with the Church. We are supposed to lead the way; we are to be the head and not the tail, and we will be forced to live with the consequences of our choices. Please forgive me if this sounds overly harsh. My intent is not to accuse; instead it is for us to accept responsibility. After all the Church is the hope of the world.

Now is the time for God to work repentance in our hearts; deep repentance on behalf of a confused Church and wayward nation. We should all review Daniel 9 as a model for this. May God do a quick work in us and restore us to our proper place. The scripture remains just as true today as it did before the elections, "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." (2 Ch 7:14)

Regrouping

If I learned anything during this campaign, it was how powerful it can be when a people that feel disenfranchised from government mobilize at the grassroots level around a singular, unwavering message. As we pick ourselves up from this moment and move forward let us not depart from the place of intense prayer and fasting. God has driven us here for a reason, and it must continue. We are all in the School of Prayer now. God is bringing forth a revolutionary prayer movement in the earth, and it is still in its infancy. The Church must learn and embrace that the prayer meeting is the governmental center of the universe. Not only does prayer directly effect change for God's purposes, but we should also expect an explosion of creativity if we will remain focused in the place of prayer.

• Creativity for new pro-life strategies
• Creativity for public policy
• Creativity for unity and mobilization
• Creativity for shifting culture through media
• Creativity for adoption reform
  

Our prayer mandate remains the same: "I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone--for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." (1 Ti 2:1-4)

Relentless

Moral authority is on our side. Abortion and the pro-death culture is heavily entrenched in the American psyche. The blood of the innocent has fueled the demonization of our culture for nearly 36 years. That is no excuse, however, to give up or even slow down now. On the contrary let us double our efforts and continue to face the giant that dares to mock the armies of the living God. Yes, we have lost an important battle. Yes, our efforts have experienced a great setback. Yes, the days ahead will be difficult to say the least. But history reminds us that the light of revelation can dawn on even the most difficult of social evils--slavery. Decade after decade passed while God relentlessly raised up voices for righteousness ultimately aligning the nation to His divine will.

There is good reason to think that without the steady drumbeat of Christian condemnation from the abolitionist preachers, there would never have been sufficient antislavery sentiment--to say nothing of antislavery interest--to enable the nation finally to go to war over the issue. Equally important, there might never have been sufficient antislavery preaching if not for the tireless evangelizing of such abolitionists as Charles Finney and his protégé Theodore Weld, who successfully targeted, among their many audiences, young college students who would, they knew, be the nation's future leaders. From town to town they went...at every stop bringing their message that slavery was contrary to the Gospels. Until, finally, people came to believe it.

- Stephen L. Carter, God's Name in Vain

President-Elect Barack Obama has stated that "culture wars are just so 90's and their days are growing dark.' Let our posture reflect that we are just beginning and that we will not give up on America and the next generation. We will continue to pray for this President, Congress and Supreme Court and then for those that come after them. Let the government of earth know that God has already installed His King on His holy hill.


Continuing to strike the arrows (2 Ki 13:17-19),

Matt Lockett
Executive Director
Bound4LIFE Intl.

Beardyman

This guy is absolutely amazing.... I don't know how anyone can do this.... as you watch it just gets better and better.