Yesterday made for one long day at church. After our meeting, we had a potluck dinner followed by a prayer walk around the neighborhood. It was such a great day to walk through the neighborhood, and I htink everyone had a good time, and also further caught the vision for the neighborhood.

Shortly after we were on our way, we stopped to talk to our friend Bill who told me that his rental house had been broken into (allegedly by the house next door known as "the brown house" which is a haven for drug use/distribution, prostitution, and other illegal activities) and the appliances were all stolen. Bill was understandable angered over this. Bill is a bit of bulldog in the neighborhood. I have a feeling this is not the last we hear about this incident. So when we arrived at Bill's rental we prayed for the house, for Bill, and for the people at the brown house who were sitting on the lawn (as usual) watching us pray.

Later on, we ran into Patty, another neighbor who is eager to see us take ownership of the 923 Oak St. house for use as a co-op house. Patty was gardening and weeding. She was excited to see us out and about.

We also prayed at Oak School, one of the many schools that closed years ago when the city's population shrank and it no longer was needed. The school is where several of our soldiers went to school. The neighborhood has hopes that it will find some purpose, but in the meantime, they keep it secured and safe. Recently a third drug house has popped up near it. The drug houses are full of apathetic men who dump their trash across the street and then watch us pick it up when we do the clean ups through Clean & Green. One drug house has been there 21 years. The police know about it, but our city is not concerned with it apparently. I'm tempted to get them a sign that says "Drug House - est. 1989".

As we wrapped up the prayer walk we talked about how the work in the neighborhood is somewhat slow going but is meaningful and will reap rewards as long as we are prayed up, read up, and filled up. We finished up by praying at Memorial Park, the site where a lot of our work happens. We prayed about our continued work and seeking God's will always, especially as we stand on the precipice of a new work which will further expand what we do here in the neighborhood with the addition of the ignite team.