Moving Forward

An inspiration week has now past us by. We’ve been filled with new insights into our future and the things that God has in store for us. Learning what it means to be a servant leader and also being enlightened on the different ways we turn away from God’s calling into our lives.
We started the week by looking into the life of Moses and looking at 6 different ways that he made up excuses for not wanting to go to stand up against King Pharaoh. These 6 area’s hitting home to each one of us, knowing that at one moment in time I’ve said each one to God and tried to justify it by some sort of means. After looking at the life of Moses we moved onto the book of Judges and, with the help of all the students doing research on a couple judges, we moved forward to look at what it means to be an effective leader. Sadly I was only there to hear the first couple points in this topic due to being busy with other base things but they were powerful and I got to hear a little bit more later on on the rest of the points. But I can also see the areas of my life where these have taken place and are currently taking place as well. Starting off with perceiving a need that is something that we are doing here in Malawi with this YWAM base, we perceive the need for Malawian missionaries around the world and are doing our best to equip Malawians to go through-out the world preaching the good news.
From there we moved into talking about 12 ways God uses a leader: which is a powerful way into looking at the different leaders that God used in the Bible and how we are called into a life of obedience to what God is calling us to do. Our obedience to God is life changing to others around us and can bring transformation to the nations in doing so. We are called to life lives that expect God to work when we do our little part. Trust that God will do more than we can ever imagine possible and more than we can expect. When we walk in obedience with God we know that He works for His glory and is using us in a small part of a bigger picture. Though many times we do not know the outcome of our obedience God is working mightily and in stepping out in faith we are expecting God to show His power. I’m reminded of the “umbrella” story I mentioned in one of my first blogs from this trip that talks about expecting God to work when we pray/move in faith.

On Friday evening we started 24 hours of fasting, prayer, intercession and worship. This is our second time doing an extended time of prayer and of fasting, but our first time to put the two together in one slot. I was very excited about jumping into the prayer time and once the signup sheet for hours of prayer slots was done I quickly added me name in for 2 hours of prayer in the middle of the night hearing from different people that the late night prayer slots were powerful. I also have been trying to increase the length of time I am able to pray for, looking back at our first time of 24 hours of prayer 1 hour alone was not enough hence signing up for 2 hours in a row (which I can tell you was still not enough).

Let me introduce you to our prayer tend:
You walk into the large red tend and straight ahead of you on the far side of the tent is the “holy of Holies” of our prayer time. While walking towards the “holy of holies” on your left are pictures of kids hanging on the wall, your mind wonders where the kids are and what their lives have entailed to this point, saying a soft prayer as you keep walking forward. As you come to the white cloth that separates the outer court area from the inside the prior person greets you and says a short prayer for you, blessings you and asking for the Holy Spirit to speak to you and touch your heart that hour. You walk in to the presence of God that has been evident from the testimonies of those that have gone before you. You look around though the first thing that has caught your mind is the wall standing before you, that in the past was white but now is teaming with colors from different people writing and drawing prayers, words of encouragement, scriptures and pictures of “typical” Christian signs. As you look over it you read each saying that is on it, reading over the scripture and praying for things that people have written.
There is some soft music playing in the background that you just now have noticed, though you don’t understand all the words (as a western) you sing alone as best as you can but just enjoy the background music. As you move to the left of the Graffiti wall you read more read some scriptures posted on the wall about prayer and intercession. Seeing the guitar leaning against the wall and pick it up, strumming a couple notes, realizing that you can’t play much you put it back down and saying a quick thanks for all the people that God has gifted with the ability to play music. Hanging on the curtain is a piece of cardboard with pictures on it. Pictures resembling different area’s in injustice in the world, things like: abortion, slaves, child soldiers and many more. You spend a good portion of time praying for child slaves, prostitutes and soldiers as you have always had a heart for the children of the world.
On the other end of where you stand, past the graffiti wall and the entrance in which you came in you sit on the grown, staring into a cub surrounded by the crown of thorns. Beside it, below the cross is a bun, the body of Christ. You spend some time meditating on Jesus’ death and thanking Him for dying for your sins. As you say Amen you hear the sound of food steps in the grass outside and realize that your hour is already over and the next person is coming to take over for you.

Now this wasn’t my personal experience this time but is a sum up of what different people have gone through as well as my first experience in the prayer tent a couple weeks ago. My experience this time around, during my first 2 hours in the middle of the night was amazing. I went into the tent with expectations to be praying for a couple different things and God had different plans. I didn’t even get to the “holy of holies” and stayed walking around in the outer court area. I spent my time praying for a couple different individuals and got some pictures and words for them which was amazing. It was incredible to sit in God’s presence for those 2 hours and just know that He is speaking powerfully. Shortly before my time was up I started to feel uninterested in prayer, more so because I knew my time was almost over and the next person was on their way shortly. But I grabbed some paper and a marker and pressed on and wrote some words about prayer and just was praising God through written word. This season of my life God has really shown me the power of prayer and I’ve really started to enjoy it and spending time with God seeking the things that are on His heart and how He wants me to pray about them but also that He puts a burden on my heart to do something about those area’s as well.
It really was a powerful week and everything seemed to just fit together, prayer, lectures, and e-mails I received from people it was astonishing to see that God uses people all around the world to bring a message about the same topic to one area.

Prayer:
-We are starting outreach preparation now and looking towards what is going to happen for the next two months.
-Pray that God reveals his calling to each one of the students and his plans for there life
-Continual pray for the revival on Malawi and that God uses us in some small powerful way
-Pray for a boldness for us as we go out and preach
- Our team safety and unit in the outreach phase.

thank you all dearly for your prayers and constant support in this season of my life.