2009 Desperation & Furnace updates

We just got done with an incredible conference season. Desperation was absolutely amazing. Thanks to all of you that helped in any way!!!

These might have been some of my favorite Desperation Conferences yet. Worship was thick and the students response was awesome.

The theme was Light Up the World. The weekend started with a single candle on the stage as we sang "There is a light that shines in the darkness" by Delirious. It concluded in the same way, but with each student holding up a light - it was awesome!

One of the real practical ways that God brought the theme to life This summer was through a spontaneous offering in order to build an orphan home. The students sacrificially gave over $60,000 and through a partnership with a local businessman we will be able to build three orphan homes. It was incredible to witness! It was completely a God-thing.

It is on to Furnace time and I wanted to let you all know that God is really stirring some incredible things here! I have more anticipation for this upcoming year then ever before.

In the book Red Moon Rising the author states, "We don't want to withdraw people from society to live in spiritual bubbles of perpetual prayer; rather we want to immerse ourselves in society, having immersed ourselves in the Spirit - in the world, and yet full of God and overflowing."

I believe that this statement is what the Furnace has always been about, but God is moving and giving even more vision to be this kind of people.

Finally, I wanted to let those of you that are in town know that we are going to be having the Furnace Gathering this Thursday. Justin Steinhart is going to be speaking...any of you that know Justin know that you do not want to miss that!
Oh, one more thin - we updated the Furnace website. Check it out at www.thefurnace.net

I pray that your heart is alive in God and that you are ever growing closer to Him!

Much love,

Dan Perkins

Summer!

Oh there is so much to say! Furnace banquet was awesome, we have already had amazing trips to Honduras and Germany, and Revival Town is rockin'! It has been a great summer already.

I did want to put up a reminder that for the first time ever we will be having summer Gatherings for all that would like to come. We’ll starting this Thursday. Here are the dates and speakers for the summer:
June 4th: Joe Couch
June 11th: Daniel Webb
June 18th: David Perkins
June 25-27: DESPERATION CONFERENCE
July 2nd: Dan Perkins
July 9th: David Perkins
July 16-18: DESPERATION CONFERENCE
July 25: Justin Steinhart

Also a reminder that Revival Town, Monday night and Wednesday night prayer meetings are still happening.


I love you all! I hope to see you all periodically through the summer. Spread the word to those that don’t read blogs.

Much love!

Furnace Tour - Nights of Desperation

Tour has been amazing so far! We are currently taking respite at the International House of Prayer. I love what God is doing here and being in the prayer room.

This has been an incredible trip so far. On Wednesday we were at Trinity Fellowship in Amarillo, Texas. They are fresh into their incredible new facility. This was actually only the second week that the youth had a meeting in the new auditorium. What a night! God really challenged our hearts as we cried out for Him to move in student’s lives. It was fun to see how much love their was in the Furnace students hearts for young people that they had never met. They worshiped hard and prayed even harder! It was an incredible start to the tour.

On Thursday we traveled to Gateway Church's campus in North Richland Hills, Texas. Ben Pirtle and his team are doing an amazing job there. I was blown away by the level of passion and fervency that so many of these students possessed. They jumped right in and we all went for it together. It was fun to connect with our new family.

On Friday we hung out with our old friends at Hope Community Church in Springfield, MO - Quick shout out to Justin Chandler! The Lord led in such a powerful way through Jon Egan and the Desperation Band on Friday. Worship was intense; it was powerful to join together and behold our King. I was also amazed by the stories that Furnace students came out with about heart change in students from the beginning of the night to the end. There were a number of youth groups that came out on a Friday night to pray and worship; what a testimony that God is moving in young people's lives!

Tonight we are in Olathe, KS with Life Church and Pastor Greg Hall. I cannot wait!!!

Furnace Tour

Tour - my favorite time of the year. Each semester the Furnace loads up in buses and hits the road to go do Nights of Desperation for about a week.

Tomorrow we are headed to Amarillo, TX. Then on to Dallas,TX, Springfield, MO, Olathe, KS, and Kansas City, KS.

I'll make sure to keep this updated on what is happening each night.

Nuggs Night!

From Chris walking onto the court asking to take a shot during warm-ups to Kenton and crew sneaking down to the lower bowl during the second half, Friday nights Nuggets game was a blast!

About 30 of us ventured to Denver to watch the Nuggets take on the Warriors. We had an incredible time doing the Nuggets dance (thanks Drew, Matt, and Adam) and all wondering what our free hot dogs were really made of. I was impressed by the basketball knowledge dropped by the ladies that came as well. They seemed to really know their stuff.

It was a game full of thunderous dunks, a few "throw it down big man" moments and ca-cawing for the Birdman!

We had a lot of fun and enjoyed the Nuggets victory, but in the end my favorite moment had to be when Chris actually got that shot that he asked for...A-I-R B-A-L-L!


p.s. Thanks for the pic Kenton and I'm sorry for sniping your other one.

Jared Anderson Recording

The Furnace Sunday night prayer meeting is going to be moved to be moved to join the Jared Anderson recording. Come to this night of worship as he records his next album on Sunday, March 15th at 6pm.

See you there!

This is a post from the Furnace prayer leaders blog by Matt Timmermeyer. They are seeing God do amazing things at the Wednesday prayer meeting, so I just wanted to post it here as well. Enjoy:


I had been so excited this whole week. Sunday hit i knew something huge was going to happen. Prayer started and something big was happening. I just kept on saying the Lord is going to break through this place tonight. He's really going to move tonight. So I felt the Lord said just put away everything and just sit and wait. We did this and as i sat there i remembered how excited i was throughout the week because i knew God had been preparing something. He then showed me. It wasn't a vision of the present or the future but of the last 4 days. It was what the Lord had been doing..."He was preparing gifts for us. For the last 4 days he had been running all over the place, finding supplies, putting things together, wrapping/ unwrapping. Sweat was dripping from his face. He was running all around putting gifts together. Anticipation filled him and he just finished the gifts for us right before prayer started. So the Lord then said share your vision with them after you ask them what their greatest need is right now. He said "don't worry, i already prepared my gift according to what they are going to ask for" lolol. So then i asked everyone to write down their greatest need and to trust me and BELIEVE in where im going with this. They wrote down their greatest need and then i shared the vision with them. Everyone was so excited and filled with anticipation. I then said the Lord only asks a gift in return and that is repentance. So in a way we were exchanging gifts. We got in groups and started praying over one another. The next thing i know people are speaking prophecy over one another, crying, people were falling to the ground. There was confirming prophecy all over the room. I dont think i have ever seen so many tears at one time. We prayer for the first 2 hours. The room was so thick with the presence of God. Everyone was sprinting around, or crying, or just passed out HAHA JOY JOY! It was 11:00 and i said if anyone needs to leave u can, but we are just getting started. The Lord is about to rip this place open. I said i feel this a chance to go beyond the finite and the known and lets press. I also said that there will be a special annointing for sleep and quickly prayed for supernatural rest (by the way, i talked to a lot of people this morning and they said they had received eternal rest! Hallelujah!) So next, we needed to get on our knees in surrender. Just get on your knees and pray, yell, cry, laugh, rejoice (because the joy of the Lord was in the room) be silent, scream, praise. So we did, and immediately the joy of the Haven OVERWHELMED us! Everyone just started laughing, rejoicing, screaming, crying. Then after about 10 min of this it died out. then i felt the Lord say "No! theres More! I have food to eat that you know nothing about. this is a chance to enter into the unknown" So i said to everyone "guy's the Lord just gave us all gifts and filled our plates to the overflowing and now we are stuffed, but this is what the Lord is saying "We can end it here and reflect on our full stomachs right now or we can press beyond the finiteness and into the inner chambers of the Lord. So it picked back up. Everyone just started moaning, groaning, crying, yelling-asking for more. Then we finally started playing worship and everyone stood up dancing. Then all of the sudden, as if one body, we all stopped dancing. Everyones jaw dropped and eyes were bulging (I kid u not) THIS IS WHERE HEAVEN RIPPED OPEN! It was as if an invisible veil, or wall was just removed and we had stepped into the private courts of the Lord. Everyone felt and knew it! Now FIRE was in the room! Everyone said it was unlike anything they have ever experienced before (and I mean that)...No one had ever experienced such depth and thickness (at least thats what everyone told me)...There were several times I actually 100% thought that Jesus was actually in the room. I stopped dancing to start looking aroundthe room. His presence was so thick, i literally though the roof was on fire! and im not just saying that to describe pretty christian talk or some metaphor or something! We actually thought Jesus was walking around the roof was on fire! We danced and worshipped and received for another 2 hours! People were dancing and all of the sudden collapsing to the ground and started weeping. People were sprinting laps around the chapel! I heard cries and moans in ways i have never heard before! It was like dancing in the inner court for over an hour. HEAVEN RIPPED OPEN IN THAT ROOM LAST NIGHT!!!.............. This is how the last 5 weeks have been since retreat. There is something happening here, some sort of annointing i have never come across. Its become FAMILY and we all love eachother and we are COMMUNITY. Its as if the last 5 prayer meetings, people havnt been coming to pray. Its as if there coming because Jesus and the Kingdom of God is coming. Its as if we are ENCOUNTERING JESUS AND THE KINGDOM EVERY WED NIGHT!!! The Holy Spirit is overflowing the room!!! We ended at 1:oo am and keep ending between midnight and then so im looking for another worship leader to take over the second 2 hours. let me know if you guys know anyone :).................................................................... Last night the roof blew off! HEAVEN was RENDED and if there were trees in there, then they would have caught on fire. if there was water in there, then it would have boiled- ISAIAH 64:1-2