ISAIAH 35

In January 2012, in the deep of winter, I drove to the newly acquired land to pray. Inside the car, my fingers flipped through the pages of my Chinese-English Bible and stopped at Isaiah 35. I carried the Bible in my arms, put on my snow boots, walked through knee-high snow, and prayed Isaiah 35 over the land. I felt it was for this land, especially when I saw the words “Rose of Sharon,” because the road is Sharon Ave.

35 The desert and the parched land will be glad,
the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus,
2 it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
the splendor of Carmel and Sharon;
they will see the glory of the Lord,
the splendor of our God.
3 Strengthen the feeble hands,
steady the knees that give way;
4 say to those with fearful hearts,
“Be strong, do not fear; your God will come,
he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution he will come to save you.”
5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
6 Then will the lame leap like a deer,
and the mute tongue shout for joy.
Water will gush forth in the wilderness
and streams in the desert.
7 The burning sand will become a pool,
the thirsty ground bubbling springs.
In the haunts where jackals once lay,
grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.
8 And a highway will be there;
it will be called the Way of Holiness;
it will be for those who walk on that Way.
The unclean will not journey on it;
wicked fools will not go about on it.
9 No lion will be there,
nor any ravenous beast;
they will not be found there.
But only the redeemed will walk there,
10 and those the Lord has rescued will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

The Garden Center

MTU co-sponsored a Business Plan Competition with Western Michigan University, and I joined at the last minute. I needed a business idea, so I thought of the two newly purchased lots and said to the Lord, “One lot I can use for a garden business, the other lot to build a house of prayer for You.” The competition ended on March 30, and my team advanced to the second round. I didn’t win the top prize, but this event pushed me to open G&A Garden Center in May 2012. The Lord’s favor has been very abundant.

(Insert the photos of the land – past and present)

New season, new wine and new oil – 2019

On the evening of May 2, 2019, the first meeting of our Chinese worship and prayer group began at my house. It happened to be the National Day of Prayer. I spent the whole day cleaning and setting up succulent planters. That evening, Sun Jie, Zhaohui, Meng Meng, Dong Yan, and Shu Han came. We used my projector to display the lyrics on the wall, sang songs everyone chose, and then held hands and prayed together.

Several “coincidences” confirmed God’s blessing:
1. The date – it was the National Day of Prayer.
2. Zhaohui said she would come early, so I changed the time from 7:00 pm to 6:00 pm. She helped me tune the projector; without her, I could not have used it, and it became vital for our worship.
3. Cleaning took so long that I didn’t finish making dinner. Meng Meng brought her mother’s lamb buns, enough for all of us.
4. Meng Meng brought her 3-year-old daughter Qi Qi and asked if Sun Jie would bring her children. Soon, Sun Jie arrived with her three children, saying her husband had been watching them and it was her turn. When she heard Qi Qi was there, she was happy. I rejoiced inside, sensing God’s will, and all the children loved the gathering and wanted to return.
5. The next day, Dongyan said she was filled with the Holy Spirit while singing and praying the night before.

I started this because I listened to my friend Minghui. When I shared my dilemma about what to do with the land, she said, “Building the house of prayer was a vision God gave to YOU. You should start first. If you leave someday, maybe God will send someone else to finish.” I told her the people I often prayed with were leaving in June, and she said, “Start it now before they leave.” I said my garden business was busy, and she replied, “You can do both at the same time.” What a determined lady she was!

Through these simple conversations, my puzzle was suddenly solved. I felt the Lord speaking wisdom to me through Minghui—whose name means “wisdom.” So I acted quickly.

After the sisters left on May 2, I sat on the couch and thought that the purpose of this worship was to give people an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Casually scrolling on my phone, I immediately saw an article from “Wall of Glory/Prayer Fire 5/2” that felt like the Holy Spirit speaking. I excerpted it here:

“A life that is constantly being repaired, alleluia! Lord, You are the holy Lamb, the great and fearsome God. We are to praise Your great name. Yes, now into a new season, new wine and new oil to be greatly poured, the river of life from God to fill our lives. The old things are over, everything is renewed. Lord, we are willing to stride forward, to take heavenly blessings and anointing, to see the world with a new eye, to praise You with a new heart. Yes, good will be accomplished, the glory of God will be all over the earth. Hallelujah, hallelujah, praise the Lord’s holy name. We pray in the name of Jesus, Amen.”

May 10, 2019

At our second worship and prayer meeting at my house, I was thinking about the future. I was following a Bible reading plan and came to Proverbs 24:27: “Finish your outdoor work and get your fields ready; after that, build your house.”

This verse jumped out at me. “Outdoor work,” “get your fields ready,” “build your house” fit my situation perfectly. After the Garden Center started, I worked very hard. No one knows “outdoor work” better than I do, because the business had no building—only a flimsy tent for seven years. I knew what it meant to work under sun, wind, rain, and snow.

“Get your fields ready”—what fields but the vacant lot promised for the house of prayer?
“Build your house”—what house but the house of prayer?

It seemed the Lord was clearly speaking about building a house of prayer—both a spiritual and a physical house.

June 13, 2019

On a Thursday evening, I went alone to HBC to pray because Dongyan couldn’t come. After about an hour of praying about building the house of prayer, I felt the need to hear from the Lord. I opened that day’s reading and found words that felt like a direct answer to my prayers for people, materials, and angelic help to prepare the way:

Isaiah 45:2 – “I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron.”
Isaiah 45:3 – “I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name.”

The Name of Isaiah35 House of Prayer International

As confirmations and promises became clearer, I took steps of action. I joined a monthly prayer group in Calumet that had been meeting for over 25 years at the home of Marion Polassari, a devoted intercessor in her 90s. There I shared my vision of a house of prayer. Sister Lynn and missionary Marlain went to the land to blow the shofar and pray. Lynn insisted the name of the house of prayer should include “International.” So in December 2019, I registered “Sharon House of Prayer International” through Michigan’s charity organization website.

In January 2020, I attended the Intercessors for Israel (IFI) conference in Jerusalem. One of the speakers, Steve Lightle, shared how the Lord gave him visions of gathering scattered Jewish people back to their promised land, using Isaiah 35 as his theme. When I later shared my story of the miracle land and Isaiah 35 with him, he called me “the Isaiah 35 lady.”

When I returned to the U.S. on February 1, 2020, the Covid pandemic was beginning. In March, we moved the Thursday prayer meeting to Zoom and made it weekly. In March 2021, I met a Spirit-filled sister, Linda, who told me about the 508(c)(1)(a) structure that gives faith-based organizations tax exemption without restricting free speech. I sensed the Lord’s direction. Destiny508, the organization that helps ministries register 508(c)(1)(a) status, happened to be offering a $700 discount in June, so I registered.

When it came time to name the organization, my thoughts raced. I remembered how, when I first went to the land to pray, my fingers opened to Isaiah 35 and I prayed it over the land. The first part of the chapter (verses 1–2) speaks of natural, physical transformation—the desert and parched land rejoicing and blooming—which has already been partially fulfilled through the Garden Center. (Insert the photos of the land – past and present)

Now the rest of the chapter—the glory of the LORD, the splendor of our God, strengthening feeble hands, steadying weak knees, opening blind eyes and deaf ears—will be fulfilled through the house of prayer. The “Miracle Land” (insert the link) closely reflects what Isaiah 35 describes.

So I quickly wrote the name “Isaiah35 House of Prayer International.” I kept “International” because Lynn, who insisted on it, once pointed around our lunch table and said, “You are from China, she is from Zimbabwe, and we are from the U.S. We are international.” Well said, Sister Lynn. International it is!