5•5•5 Worship Rally Newsletter Article
31 May 2005
by Joie Pirkey
I am so excited to finally be getting the chance to write this newsletter article. So much is happening that I don’t know where to begin.
The 5•5•5 Worship Rally was a blast! I feel weird about how fun and uplifting the event actually was. The setting of the abortion facility of course was grim. But from the very first worship song at exactly 12:00 a.m. to the very last at 11:59 p.m., I was deeply and profoundly moved.
I had been intending to spend the entire 24 hours there so at about 3:00 the afternoon before I tried to get some sleep. No Z’s sawed however, because I was simply too excited. I began to pray that God would help me sleep. Instead of a quiet prayer slipping into a few hours of deep sleep God opened up the view and I began having a vision.
I saw the ‘stars’ and then the dove (who is the Holy Spirit). It was very clear. I immediately asked if He was truly going to take down the ‘altar of death’. He responded by saying, “Listen”. I didn’t understand what He meant until it occurred to me to try listening. I heard two blasts of a train whistle passing through town.
“The train?” I asked.
He answered by saying, “Remember?”
Immediately I thought of the trip down to Nashville where God confirmed to me through three of the speakers that the abortion facility and the Paradise Club were altars to the enemy. He also confirmed that He would take them down to fulfill the call to remove the stones.
The strange thing was that during these messages a train kept blowing its whistle in the background. The funny thing was that the horn would blow at just the time that the speaker would emphasize a point. It was as if we were hearing an audible exclamation point. I heard people speak of the train whistle afterward as if it was an act of God but I thought that that was a bit of a stretch being that the church was situated right next to a train yard. I thought it was an odd coincidence.
Hearing the train whistle just after I had asked if He was going to take down the abortion facility was to me, then, a confirmation that my mind could not have made up.
Later the next evening, as the 24 hours of worship came to an end, I felt lead to open my Bible. I came upon Psalm 18. It was obvious to me that the Lord wanted me to read this chapter at the very end of the night. I played the last song and chose it because of its prophetic accuracy in regards to what was happening there.
(See the song lyrics to “Did You Feel The Mountains Tremble?” at the end of this newsletter.)
At exactly 12:00 midnight the song shut off. We were playing it on a boom box that worked perfectly fine the previous 24 hours. It simply shut off. Someone asked why it had shut off, wondering if it meant anything. I took out my cell phone and the clock read 12:00. “I think it means we’re finished.” I answered half joking. We stopped singing and I began to read Psalm 18.
When I got to the verse that reads, “In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried to my God for help; He heard my voice out of His temple, and my cry for help before Him came into His ears.” Just then we heard two loud blasts from a train whistle. The sound arrested me. I screamed out, “The train whistle!” I shocked the 15 or so people that were still there. I told them that I knew that they didn’t understand but that I would explain what the whistle meant in this newsletter. Once again God confirmed to me that He would take down this altar of death and that He had heard our cry for help. The intensity in the air was thick. I continued reading,
“Then the earth shook and quaked; and the foundations of the mountains were trembling and were shaken, because He was angry. Smoke went up out of His nostrils, and fire from His mouth devoured; coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also and came down
with thick darkness under His feet.” Right then the super huge billboard sign advertising the casino that stands over the facility went out! It just shut off. I quickly finished the chapter and said “let’s get out of here”. We were laughing and a bit frightened and really not sure what to think. The lady who lives next door said that the sign never goes out at night. We were hurrying to say the least. My son Zeb picked up the boom box to carry it to the car. The situation was so charged with awe that when the music resumed as he lifted it off the ground, he screamed, dropped it, and ran half way across the field. We all thought that was funny.
It’s interesting to me in retrospect how God was kind to those of us who were there at the end. He was kind to confirm to us that He was pleased by what we had done and that He heard us and that He would do what He said. Now we wait. But while we wait we have that small sample of what the Lord will do and it was very encouraging to me and to those who were there.
I wanted to address one other thing that unexpectedly happened during those 24 hours. Many, and when I say many I mean more than 10, people approached me with quiet confessions of previous abortions that they or their girlfriends had had. It was sobering. It was also somehow beautiful. To be able to see and hear the effects of the sweet forgiveness of our Lord for these people was deeply moving. To stand there person after person and see in their eyes the sorrow
but not the shame was amazing. The power of the cross and the redemption that the blood of Jesus offers is nothing less than life changing. And so very beautiful. The freedom that these men and women had to stand before the Lord and worship Him was miraculous. I believe that God will, in His perfect time, as has been prophesied, take down the abortion facility on Gillette Street. I believe that the building will be plowed under and that the plot of barren land that will remain will be a testimony of the work of the Lord. I believe that all of it will be an awesome miracle. But I also believe that the purpose of it all is to stir the faith of the people so that more can and will experience the saving grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
May His will be done in the Fox Valley as it is in Heaven.
Did You Feel The Mountains Tremble?
Could this be the land of the free
Could this be the land of the free
Let salvation's waves crash on these shores again
And the tide of Your great love come rushing in
Could this be the land of the free
Did you feel the mountains tremble
Did you hear the oceans roar
When the people rose to sing of
Jesus Christ the risen one
Did you feel the people tremble
Did you hear the singers roar
When the lost began to sing of
Jesus Christ, the saving one
And we can see that, God, You're moving
A mighty river through the nations
When young and old return to Jesus
Fling wide, you heavenly gates
Prepare the way of the risen Lord
Prepare the way
Open up the doors and let the music play
Let the streets resound with singing
Songs that bring Your hope
Songs that bring Your joy
Dancers who dance upon injustice
Do you feel the darkness tremble
When all the saints join in one song
And all the streams flow as one river
To wash away our brokenness
And here we see that, God, You're moving
A time of jubilee is coming
When young and old return to Jesus
Fling wide, you heavenly gates
Prepare the way of the risen Lord
Words and music by Martin Smith
©1994 Curious? Music UK/EMI Christian Music Publishing
