On March 14 - 16, 2024, hundreds of people participated in a fifty hour, non-stop worship and prayer gathering called Pray for the Lou 50 that convened on the 7th floor of the Larson Financial Group Building across the street from the Old Court House, a block or so from the iconic St. Louis Arch. In addition, 26 prayer walking teams blanketed neighborhoods throughout the region on that Saturday with prayer and kindness.
You can imagine the amount of prep, detailed communication, and spiritual, physical, and emotional labor that goes into designing and facilitating an event like this. It took a lot of woman and man power, fueled by Holy Ghost power (come on!) to make it all come together. While my memories are still fresh and my body is recovering, I wanted to share some of my personal highlights:
Our worship teams/leaders were prepared and passionate. Every group and/or worship leader gave it their all for their two hours. What a blessing!
I was really blessed at how diverse our participants were. Multiple ethnicities represented in the room at all times.
Besides Succat Hallel in Jerusalem, PFTL 50 had the most awesome view of any house of prayer I've ever visited. Check out the photo below.
This is the famous Old Court House from the infamous Dred Scott decision. Our live worship and prayer space was located across the street from us. The Arch was located to the left, about a block away outside the shot (and blocked by buildings). Completely surreal.
Families came and their kiddos enjoyed our adjoining children’s space.
Prayer Wall in the Children's Corner
I was blessed by how thankful people were that PFTL was hosting this event. Our team received a steady stream of “thank yous” from folks all throughout the weekend. “Enter his gates with thanksgiving. Enter His courts with praise….”
The Imago Dei Prayer Space* was a powerful experience for people as well. We enjoyed good participation in this “quiet” part of PFTL 50. In fact, our “Every Person Has a Piece to Play” puzzle/prayer station was completed so early, I had to keep undoing the 500-piece puzzle so that more people could add a piece during that last day.
The PFTL Team "Puzzler" and her helpers. (I asked Savannah to help me get the puzzle started before the event started.)
Wall of Faith (taken from Hebrews 11). People could add a name to the St. Louis Wall of Faith in the Imago Dei Prayer Space.
I got to jump onto my friend Lydie's worship set with my flute on Friday afternoon. Sooo yummy! (See photo below.)
My friend and former Civil Righteousness University student Naomi Rust travelled all the way from southern Ohio to serve with the PFTL team. What a blessing to spend so much time with her! And, she served like a rockstar, even helping with an overnight shift.
Naomi is pictured in upper left corner.
This team was outside handing out flyers,
inviting people to join us for PFTL 50.
One of our youngest participants and his parents
(part of a worship team from Terre Haute, IN)
Worship Leading:
I was tasked with closing out our final two hours as the worship leader. I definitely felt the honor of being asked, but I was also concerned how much energy and vocal strength I’d have after helping to oversee 5o hours of live worship and prayer. Plus, I struggled to find instrumentalists who were available to help me. (I just don’t yet have the worship connections yet down here in STL as I did in Kzoo...) But, God….
During the two weeks before the event, there was a young woman named Carmen who had reached out to PFTL to sing, but we had already filled all of the worship team spots. When I called and spoke with her, I had a sense she could really sing….and so I invited her to join my worship team on that Saturday. Then, I was able to secure a drummer to help…..but that was it. My team was tiny.
2/3rds of our Impromptu Worship Flag Team: Josiah & Me (JoAnna not pictured.)
My Ferguson Prayer Furnace co-director Hannah found someone who could sing and play acoustic (who was a really good friend of ours - shout out to Cassaundra E.!) and so we had a team of four for the final two hours. Besides a quick 15 minute “get to know each other” run through, excluding the drummer who was playing on the set right before ours, that was all the prep our team had before we led.
Small Group Prayer during PFTL 50.
Here’s the Holy Spirit part……when the three of us ladies began singing together in the Briefing Room, it felt like we had always sung together. Harmonies locked in and the flow was there. I could tell we all sensed that the Lord was in our midst. Cassaundra shared that she had had three activities planned for that day and they ALL suddenly cancelled, leaving her available to join us. Our good friend Jonathan (JT) (my boss and colleague) spontaneously joined our team with some hand drums and contributed his velvety tenor harmony. So fun!
Kurt Wilson, Founder of PFTL (Brooke, his wife and co-founder, is not pictured)
As we sat down with our instruments (keyboard and flute for me), the room was already packed. The excitement and anticipation was tangibly thrumming. Mama Thelma, our team’s spiritual mom and chief encourager, read the final portion of scripture from the Book of Acts and then led in the Lord’s Prayer. [Every hour during PFTL 50 began with a reading from Acts, a snippet of a liturgical response, and a recitation of the Lord’s prayer. We knew we needed to provide some theological structure for our 50 hours of worship and prayer. We read through the entire Book of Acts during those 3 days.]
From the very first notes of the keyboard and guitar, people were dancing, jumping, clapping, rejoicing, and celebrating for what the Lord had done in our midst. So much fun! (I maaaaay have even jumped off my keyboard and started spinning myself at one point. Haha!)
Mama Thelma
For the next two hours, we praised and prayed and prophesied to the city. Kurt Wilson (founder of PFTL) and Thelma had designed the time so that some of our city’s veteran intercessors were leading out in prayer. It was this beautiful synergy of honor, prophetic anointing, dreaming with God, and powerful worship; a holy dance between a unified Bride and her Bridegroom King. There were tears and shouts and declarations. There were even a few quieter moments that allowed everyone to catch their breath before the next wave of celebration.
PURE JOY! Our worship team for Hours 49 + 50; From L to R: Carmen, Cassaundra, Tami, Pilan, JT
And my role as the worship leader? I can’t say I was the conductor of the Holy Ghost train or the director of the worship symphony this time. It was more like we all grabbed our surf boards and caught His powerful wave - together.
Confession...
On a personal note, I was reminded again that spiritual authority and anointing have nothing to do with the latest songs, coolest jeans, or tattooed forearms. At the moments when I wonder if I’m aging out of being relevant in my worship leading, with my crinkled, paper song sheets, greying hair, and bifocals, my Father gifts me with a worship experience like Saturday evening. All of these years that I’ve been swimming out into the deep has taught me how to catch His waves. And to do it with a room full of hungry worshipers? PURE JOY. I am thankful. Perhaps I’m just getting started. ;-)
Final thought...
And what makes it all the more beautiful? Getting to do this with my PFTL tribe. Friends that love our city well, serve those in their neighborhoods and on the streets, and try their very best, through the power of the Holy Spirit, to live out the gospel in their daily lives. I can tell you that we don’t all think the same on every issue, but we do have this in common - we love Jesus, we love people, and we love and honor each other. That’s enough.
PFTL Team from L to R: Leah, Savannah, Thelma, Mark, Kurt, Tami, Andrew
This past weekend we washed the feet of our city through prayer and worship and created a throne of praise for our beautiful Lord (Ps. 22). Over 500 believers from dozens of ministries did this for no pay and for no charge.
Why?
The Lamb is worthy.
Maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus.
Amen.
PFTL 50 Stats:
20 Worship Leaders/Teams
150 musicians/singers
35 Prayer Leaders
35 Ministries represented (including those from, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, including Chicago)
500 Participants
50 People experienced Imago Dei Prayer Space
26 prayer walking locations
30 street ministers (during St. Patrick’s Day parade)
*The Imago Dei Prayer Space is a creative, interactive racial healing prayer space that helps people listen, learn, lament, and love. It’s a holy journey through scripture, historical events, present day realities, prophetic art, personal testimonies, and interactive prayer stations. 24-7 Prayer USA and Civil Righteousness were the original designers/hosts in the summer of 2020.
The PFTL 50 version explored unity in the Body of Christ and prayer for the St. Louis region. We offered 7 prayer stations and 6 of them were designed specifically for PFTL 50.
Each payer station is an invitation into the heart of God for St. Louis and offers scriptures to read, an action or activity for someone to do, questions to ponder, and prayers and/or confessions to make.
**For short videos from the 50 hours, check out my FB or IG accounts.