About Austin House of Prayer
The content of this ten-year vision was written in 2005, and by the grace of God we are well on our way to seeing it realized. In fact, God has already taken us further in the areas of collaboration, partnership, and building prayer in the whole city than we dreamed just four years ago.
Austin House of Prayer (AHOP) is a 501(C)3 non-profit Christian organization.All participants are also active members of local Christian churches.Our goal is spiritual transformation in the city of Austin.Our efforts center on building united 24/7 prayer in the greater Austin area, because God has always preceded renewal by raising up persistent prayer.We own a for-profit economic engine to fuel our future growth.Our partnerships stretch through our facility, across the city, and around the world.We envision a multi-acre permanent location in Austin that offers community for young adults, retreat and prayer resources for churches, and a collaborative environment for other non-profit ministries – all revolving around a night & day prayer room filled with art, music, worship, and intercession.
Our programs and services
God has called us to these six programs as we pursue the vision of building united 24/7 prayer in Austin.
Youth Track
Encouraging young adults to become people of prayer in high school, as a solid foundation for a lifetime of service and ministry
Church Track
Strengthening prayer in local Christian churches, and unity in prayer between those churches
Austin 24-7 Prayer Calendar
Maintaining a single 24-7 prayer calendar that tracks the various churches and ministries that are engaged in continuous prayer
The AHOP Community
Building a core community of Christians praying and working towards reconciliation
The Seabrook Center
Working side-by-side with other non-profits and churches to mutually assist each other in realizing our visions, and to offer to the city a model for collaborative partnership
AHOP Retreats
Developing a retreat center inside the Austin city limits to serve Christian churches & ministries
Youth Track
Encouraging young adults to become people of prayer in high school, as a solid foundation for a lifetime of service and ministry
Church Track
Strengthening prayer in local Christian churches, and unity in prayer between those churches
Austin 24-7 Prayer Calendar
Maintaining a single 24-7 prayer calendar that tracks the various churches and ministries that are engaged in continuous prayer
The AHOP Community
Building a core community of Christians praying and working towards reconciliation
The Seabrook Center
Working side-by-side with other non-profits and churches to mutually assist each other in realizing our visions, and to offer to the city a model for collaborative partnership
AHOP Retreats
Developing a retreat center inside the Austin city limits to serve Christian churches & ministries
One Day in the Life of AHOP, in 2015
The content of this ten-year vision was written in 2005, and by the grace of God we are well on our way to seeing it realized.In fact, God has already taken us further in the areas of collaboration, partnership, and building prayer in the whole city than we dreamed just four years ago.Ten years from now we envision a campus that has a lively ebb and flow of people – core AHOP staff, young interns, prayer leaders from local churches, customers, visitors and retreatants. A typical day in the life of AHOP in ten years might have these ingredients
Midnight The Night Watch begins with community prayer from 12am to 1am – including guitars, drums, and an amped violin. At 1am, a small band of young people from a local charismatic church continues to blend Biblical prayers with spontaneous music while the remainder of the group walks down to the warehouse to bottle water and put on custom labels for the next day’s deliveries.
3 am Two tattooed youths heading home from a night of partying on 6th Street wander in, attracted by the lights and music. They are greeted at the door and offered good cold water, which they laughingly refuse. The prayer team is crying out for prodigals to return home. The two youths begin weeping, and the doorkeeper comes in to pray with them.
6 am The Night Watch strikes their last weary chord, which is picked up by the worship pastor of a local Korean church, who has come in for his morning session with two of the young men he is discipling. They all three pray together (in Korean) for the members of their church from Colossians 1:9 (to be “filled with the knowledge of God’s will”). When they leave, they will switch to English to bless the day shift for the water business, who come in at 7 am each morning to pray together before working together.
9:30 am A group of UT students is discussing Lenin’s writings over coffee on the outside patio of the cafe. “What makes this coffee so good?” they ask the waitress. “We use our own Cielo water,” she replies, then adds: “You know, Lenin wrote about common people but actually couldn’t stand them. But Jesus ate with ordinary people like you and me, invited them over, walked and talked with them, healed them, and died for them.” (the conversation heats up)
Noon Businessmen, students, housewives, and landscapers trickle in to the prayer room to spend their lunch hour in prayer. They are led by a Methodist and an Episcopalian (though they don’t know it). They praise God from Matthew 6 (“hallowed be your name”), then pray for a release of effective evangelism in missions fields around the world from Colossians 4 (“pray that a door would be opened for the word of God”).
1:30 pm As three Cielo delivery trucks leave the loading docks of the business, five Baptist pastors who have come down from the Dallas/Fort Worth area are receiving their orientation in the community center for a two-day prayer retreat. They are told that “The café closes at 10pm, the prayer room is open around the clock, with community prayer when the bells ring. May God refresh you with peace during your retreat!”
4:45 pm Prior to leading her 5pm – 6pm shift in the prayer room, a young black Catholic who has been making home water deliveries all day pins three new prayer requests from customers to the intercession board in the prayer room: For the safe delivery of Mary K’s grandchild, for David C’s sister who has just been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and for Donna T’s son Reginald who is traveling in Cambodia, that he would meet Jesus in that country.
7 pm The AHOP leadership team meets in the warehouse team room (since the offices are still under construction). They prepare for the dialogue that they will host next week between Hispanic Catholic and Protestant leaders from around the city. The ten men and women grapple with how to help these two groups overcome traditional animosities to recognize the common ground of the gospel that is shared and work together to address the pressing problems of the city. After the meeting breaks up, several head over to the prayer room.
11:15 pm In the prayer room, a Taize group is singing a Latin chorus, “Veni Sanctus Spiritus”. Two of the Baptist pastors are deep in prayer, and the young prodigals have returned (earlier this time), their hearts inescapably drawn by the prospect that God their Father is watching for them, ready to receive them with open arms as soon as they turn back to Him. Another young man picks up a box of pastels in the prayer room and begins a mural on the art wall that three hours from now will be a visual prayer illustrating the verse “the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the seas” …
3 am Two tattooed youths heading home from a night of partying on 6th Street wander in, attracted by the lights and music. They are greeted at the door and offered good cold water, which they laughingly refuse. The prayer team is crying out for prodigals to return home. The two youths begin weeping, and the doorkeeper comes in to pray with them.
6 am The Night Watch strikes their last weary chord, which is picked up by the worship pastor of a local Korean church, who has come in for his morning session with two of the young men he is discipling. They all three pray together (in Korean) for the members of their church from Colossians 1:9 (to be “filled with the knowledge of God’s will”). When they leave, they will switch to English to bless the day shift for the water business, who come in at 7 am each morning to pray together before working together.
9:30 am A group of UT students is discussing Lenin’s writings over coffee on the outside patio of the cafe. “What makes this coffee so good?” they ask the waitress. “We use our own Cielo water,” she replies, then adds: “You know, Lenin wrote about common people but actually couldn’t stand them. But Jesus ate with ordinary people like you and me, invited them over, walked and talked with them, healed them, and died for them.” (the conversation heats up)
Noon Businessmen, students, housewives, and landscapers trickle in to the prayer room to spend their lunch hour in prayer. They are led by a Methodist and an Episcopalian (though they don’t know it). They praise God from Matthew 6 (“hallowed be your name”), then pray for a release of effective evangelism in missions fields around the world from Colossians 4 (“pray that a door would be opened for the word of God”).
1:30 pm As three Cielo delivery trucks leave the loading docks of the business, five Baptist pastors who have come down from the Dallas/Fort Worth area are receiving their orientation in the community center for a two-day prayer retreat. They are told that “The café closes at 10pm, the prayer room is open around the clock, with community prayer when the bells ring. May God refresh you with peace during your retreat!”
4:45 pm Prior to leading her 5pm – 6pm shift in the prayer room, a young black Catholic who has been making home water deliveries all day pins three new prayer requests from customers to the intercession board in the prayer room: For the safe delivery of Mary K’s grandchild, for David C’s sister who has just been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and for Donna T’s son Reginald who is traveling in Cambodia, that he would meet Jesus in that country.
7 pm The AHOP leadership team meets in the warehouse team room (since the offices are still under construction). They prepare for the dialogue that they will host next week between Hispanic Catholic and Protestant leaders from around the city. The ten men and women grapple with how to help these two groups overcome traditional animosities to recognize the common ground of the gospel that is shared and work together to address the pressing problems of the city. After the meeting breaks up, several head over to the prayer room.
11:15 pm In the prayer room, a Taize group is singing a Latin chorus, “Veni Sanctus Spiritus”. Two of the Baptist pastors are deep in prayer, and the young prodigals have returned (earlier this time), their hearts inescapably drawn by the prospect that God their Father is watching for them, ready to receive them with open arms as soon as they turn back to Him. Another young man picks up a box of pastels in the prayer room and begins a mural on the art wall that three hours from now will be a visual prayer illustrating the verse “the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the seas” …
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Everyone who visits AHOP ends up saying, "Wow, I had no idea what this was really about until I came and saw it for myself ..." So perhaps you'll be intrigued enough to visit us yourself!
