Forty-five community members from various cities in San Diego County assembled for a one hour prayer rally at the San Diego City Hall Concourse on Tuesday, September 12, 2006. Sponsored by the Hillcrest Mission and the James Hartline Report, the event called "Shake The City," was the largest prayer event in many years in the city hall area itself. For many in attendance, it was the first time that they had ever participated so openly in an event which was designed to bring about a spiritual revival into the heart of San Diego's government.
It was evident that many on the prayer team had made great personal sacrifices to be in attendance at the city hall rally. Don Lindsay had just been given notice that he was being evicted from his home of eleven years. In the midst of being forced out of his beloved house, Lindsay grabbed his faithful guitar and raced over to the city hall concourse just so he could stand in the gap for the city of San Diego by playing praise songs for the gathered army of prayer warriors.
Quiet and usually restrained in her outward emotions, grandmother Julie Smith broke down in tears as she took her turn to pray for all of the grandmas and their grandkids in the city of San Diego. Demonstrating great courage, Smith told the crowd how she had pled with her own daughter not to have an abortion, even offering to pay for the baby's upkeep if the baby could just be brought to full term. Smith did not prevail and the baby was aborted. Casting aside her own pain over the loss, Smith planted her feet firmly on the concrete of the city hall's troubled concourse and cried out to heaven for all of the babies in her city, that they would be born with loving and caring parents and grandparents who would raise them up rightly.
Billy Jennings, who has been laboring tirelessly to evangelize the rough and tumble streets of communities throughout San Diego County, made his prayerful stand for all of the lost souls in Amercia's Finest City. Phil Magnan and Anthony Brannan came all the way from Chula Vista to fight in prayer for the people of San Diego. Magnan will soon depart with his wife to become missionaries in the socialistic country of Hungary. San Diego may never see the Magnans again, thus the willingness of Phil Magnan to set aside his busy preparations to leave the United States, just so that he could be a part of this revolutionary city hall prayer rally, truly added a more precious component to the event.
Stephanie Hopping, a warrior for the unborn children of San Diego, gave an outstanding presentation on Proposition 85, the Parents Right To Know Initiative that will be on the November ballot. Hopping encouraged the entire rally to fight for the life of the babies of San Diego by voting Yes on Prop. 85 in the upcoming election.
Determined to address the great moral decline in San Diego, Eddie and April Brown took their stand with the other Christians at this amazing downtown prayer event. The Browns have been leading a new and truly revolutionary ministry in San Diego: The Justice House of Prayer. JHOP San Diego is on the cutting edge of ministry and the Browns are part of a new breed of young Christians that are determined to bring back justice to the broken municipal government of this city. The type of ministry that Eddie and April Brown are engaged in, comes with a price. Just this past week, these two warriors in the battle to fight for the unborn babies of their generation, were hit with the sharpest arrow that satan could have shot at this young couple who have been married for the less than a year. April miscarried her new baby and now this young couple, who have already given so much for the cause of Christ, are now in need of the very grace that they have extended to so many others.
Many of San Diego's leading Christian women business leaders and politicians linked arm in arm with the other believers at this unique prayer event. Priscilla Schreiber, senior Boardmember of the Grossmont Union High School District, and Martha Doiron, Boardmember of the influential organization Volunteers In Politics, both led prayers related to their respective areas of professional influence.
Vida Wade, a veteran of the "Not On My Watch" Team City Council Christian activist group, led the prayer rally with intercession on behalf of all of the women's ministries in San Diego. Kim Tran and her husband, attorney Robert Sutton, stood in the gap for all of the Christians who are involved in the political arena, including those who are running for public office.
Rounding out the prayer rally team leaders were the outstanding members of the Mission Valley Christian Fellowship Youth Ministry . Jenna Southern and Hilary LaHay, along with Jessica Aldaba, took their stand in prayer on behalf of all the young kids of San Diego who are in desperate need of help from Jesus Christ.
James Hartline, Director of the Shake The City Prayer Rallies, has announced that the prayer rally on September 12th was just the beginning of a nationwide effort to reclaim city halls throughout America for the cause of Christ. Hartline has announced that "Shake The City, Part 2 - The Revolution" is already being planned. Cities in Missouri, as well as Chula Vista, California, San Diego, California, and El Cajon, California have already signed up to participate in the next prayer rally in which all city halls will hold rallies at the same time.
Hartline says, "It is time for a revolution. Not with man-made weapons, but with the Word of God and an army of Christians taking their stand in prayer at every city hall in this nation. One nation, joined together by the power of a holy God and a repentent and redeemed people crying out for justice and righteousness."
James Hartline is the publisher of The James Hartline Report & Director of The Hillcrest Mission