Paris Mountain and Reedy River

A Land of Generosity, Hospitality and Entrepreneurship

First these blessings flowed through the Cherokees to a settler named Richard Pearis – around 1770, he married a Cherokee woman and received 100,000 acres in the once-forbidden Cherokee Hunting Ground. In that land Pearis established a plantation on the Reedy River which is now downtown Greenville and built a couple of mills and a trading post – it is said he lived the life of a prince.

After the Revolutionary War, portions of the land changed hands a couple of times until 1815 when it was sold to Vardry McBee of Lincolnton, NC who became known as the father of Greenville. Although McBee was an absentee landlord, he understood how to grow a community. “He gave land for the first schools (the Greenville Male and Female Academies), for the first four churches (Episcopal, Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian), and he established a brick yard, rock quarry, and saw mill, in addition to corn and grist mills, a tannery, and a large general store. Seven miles south of town he built a paper factory and cotton and woolen mills. Alston’s former home became a boarding house for the summer visitors who were making the little village a summer resort.”  (Excerpt from Greenville SC.gov)

So we started our prayer journey at Paris Mountain named after Richard Pearis.

Paris Mountain

After getting settled in a family picnic area, we began to release worship unto the Lord. And then we began interjecting prayers as led by Holy Spirit. We prayed for the Cherokees and the land. We marveled at their honor of another man from a different race/a different ethnos and their gift of land, and we released that spirit of generosity over the county and the state. We also repented for the general treatment of the native peoples – the many broken covenants and the innocent bloodshed of their families along the Trail of Tears.

We thanked the Lord that the state had preserved a place for people and families to enjoy, We prayed for a return to the enjoyment of beauty and simplicity of spending time together. We also prayed for a flourishing of creativity and a respect for nature. We came against the practice of witchcraft that we had heard about and we cried out for revival as there was a true sense of the earth waiting for a return of the Lord’s glory through the manifestation of the sons of God.

We enjoyed the company of the families of ducks and geese as they seemed to respond to our worship and our prayers. Before we departed, I looked around to see if “our congregation” was still with us but the geese at least had wandered to the center of the lake there. So I stood on the bank and called out to them that I would love for them to come back so I could take their picture – and they responded – how cool!

Falls Park and Reedy River

Next we ventured to downtown Greenville to pray at Falls Park and Reedy River to likewise speak into the blessings released by Vardry McBee and his spirit of entrepreneurship, generosity and hospitality. We walked through the park and over the Liberty Bridge and prayed in the spirit.

We found several displays that gave more history of the revitalization and we used those and Furman University area as places to make decrees. We thanked the Lord for restoration and asked for a greater outpouring to flow from Greenville to other parts of the Carolinas!

We will be back!

As we parted, we promised our friend Caroline Harnish, who is an artist that now lives nearby, that we would return with more of the team to do a Worship & Prayer Gathering. (We love connecting with folks who live in the counties we are praying in!)

We knew that there were already great ministries flourishing in Greenville but we felt the Lord was directing us to add our part to further release the blessings of Greenville – she is important to the prophetic destiny of South Carolina and beyond!

So stay tuned for more to come!

Worship & Prayer Gathering – York County, SC

In the meantime…for those in the Carolinas, consider joining us for our Worship & Prayer Gathering on Saturday, September 17th, 2016 from 4:00-7:00 pm at Barnes Recital Hall at Winthrop University to “Release Blessings Over York County SC”.