prayer mountain
Wednesday, September 3

i didn't have a dream yesterday, but i had a lot of trouble falling asleep. reason: i couldn't stop thinking about prayer mountains.

the YG missions team went to a prayer mountain back in LA, and ideas for how i would set up a prayer mountain kept popping in my mind.

the result of 3 hrs of yakob's thoughts running loose:

- buy a large property, one that has a mountain in it (crucial for "prayer mountain").
- location: part of rockies? or any stretch in nevada, arizona. desert mountains would actually be better for this...
- type of mountain: ideally, a mountain facing nature. meaning, facing desert, other mountains, streams, forest, etc.
- carve out circumferential paths along the mountain.
- carve out/cement several ascending stairways
- along each circumferential path, carve out or use cinder blocks to make little caves, each spaced apart by 10-20 ft.

in each cave:
- 7 ft high, 10 ft wide
- 1 small desk + chair. 1 light bulb/candle holder

in this prayer mountain, christians at all different levels of faith can come to pray. pastors, reverends, elders, youth, married couples, musical artists, seekers, young men on 40-day-fast-to-ask-God-if-she-is-the-one, all would be welcome.

and they would be free to pray LOUDLY. to pray without any sort of inhibition. to pray silently, to whisper, to talk, to shout, to cry in prayer.

at the base of the mountain, a much larger cave/ampitheatre would be carved out. at the deepest part of the cave, a 3 tiered podium, at different heights, to accommodate the tall as well as the short or youth. surrounding this podium are curved rows of stone seats, with the podium as the focus.

at this podium, the bible will be read non-stop. people who come to pray at the mountain will be asked to contribute by reading a minimum 1 hr at the podium, and may come down from their prayer cave to read more, should they get tired. a 1 yr scholarship will be provided to 2 young people (seminarians, recent grads, etc) to come be the supervisors for this scripture reading chain, as well as to fill in the hours when no one comes down to read. the bible will be read non-stop at this location.

at a small distance to the mountain will be the retreat center. it will provide small bottle of water and bread for nourishment for those who are not fasting. it will have burlap sacks, candles, flashlights, extra bibles, etc. for those who need it. it will not have much else.

i will start carving on a concave side of the mountain, so that acoustically, the sound of the prayers combined with the reading of scripture would form a steady murmur, a symphony of prayer.

it makes me smile to think of it.

yakob at 11:25 AM

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