Prayerwalking

This is a story from our mission trip to Colorado.  Before I ever left, my Sunday School teacher Judy Fields emailed me a Bible verse to encourage me on my trip as she left for her own mission trip to Zimbabwe.  Here is the Bible verse she sent me:  "The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights."  Habakkuk 3:19  Like I said before, this was my very first mission trip and also the longest time I had ever left my children. 

One of our activities on the mission trip was to go canvassing across 3 square miles of neighborhoods to hang door-hangers advertising the Easter Egg Hunt for The Pursuit Church of Fort Collins.  You can learn more about their church and their ministry by clicking on their name above.  Our entire group did this together on Tuesday morning.  On Wednesday and Thursday morning, Justin and I took our family groups to go out canvassing again while the other family groups did different service projects back at Immanuel Community, the church where we were staying.  Whew!  Did we ever walk or what!  On our first day of canvassing, we got some apartments and had to scale several flights of stairs to reach each set of apartments.  Also, I was expecting it to be cooler than it actually was...it was in the high 60's to mid 80's the whole time we were out canvassing.  So, since it was also my first time in the Colorado climate, I had to adjust to the elevation, the altitude, and the thinner air.  I got out of breath a lot.

By Wednesday, I felt a lot better, more adjusted and could walk without getting winded.  By Thursday...I was just tired.  We had been canvassing for two days straight for several hours at a time and I was just worn out.  After breakfast that morning, my stomach felt a little uneasy, I had a bit of a headache, my legs hurt, and I was just tired.  While I was walking down the sidewalk of this neighborhood, I saw a young woman playing with her dog in the yard.  I walked up to her, showed her the flyer and explained the event.  I said, "If you've got kids or if you know any neighborhood kids, invite them!" and she looked down and said, "I don't have any kids..." and the way she said it to me meant that she couldn't have kids or wished she had some.  I don't really know her story, but the Holy Spirit interceded for me and gave me a little bit of discernment in this moment.  I walked away and immediately began praying for her. 

I remembered what Mick told us while we were stuffing the Easter eggs.  He said he wanted us to pray over each and every egg and for the families, the people, and the children who would touch those eggs.  I felt convicted because I hadn't applied the same concept to canvassing.  I immediately began praying over each house and singing to myself as I walked down the street.  "The Lord is my strength, the Lord in His power is my strength day by day and every hour..."  I just kept singing that old song over and over again.  There were a couple of times I just wanted to stay on the van and not get out again, but as I was walking the Lord reminded me of Judy's verse.  "The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights."  When I thought I couldn't take another step, I prayed and I asked God for the strength to keep going.  I said, "God, I surely didn't ride 10 hours over here so I could just sit in a van and wear out...I am Your hands and feet over here. I am an extension of First Baptist Church and our Body of believers in Enid. Give me Your strength..." and you know what...He did.  I started singing, "I wanna be Your hands, I wanna be Your feet, I'll go where You send me, go where You send me..."  I felt another surge of energy as my thoughts traveled to our missions team in Zimbabwe.  I wondered if they felt like I did.  I prayed for them and I prayed for my Sunday School teacher Judy.  God reminded me that He is the God of nearby and far away (Jeremiah 23:23-24).

I ran into a lot of people on the streets in passing.  Sometimes I got to talk to them, sometimes I didn't.  Sometimes they were the electricians, carpet cleaners, or cleaning ladies, but I always caught a glimpse of their name tag and said a prayer for them.  I prayed for their life, for their hearts, for their families.  I didn't know if they were Christians or had a relationship with the Lord or not.  For just those moments as I was walking though I thought, "This person is 4 feet away from a Christian and they may not know it. I am praying for their soul and their life and for them to have a relationship with Jesus before they die."  Even though the opportunity didn't present itself for me to witness to them 1-on-1, I still got to pray for them.  I still got to pray to the One who has the Power to Save them.  I believe that God honors prayers like that.  Maybe one day I'll meet that electrician in heaven and he'll say, "Thank you for praying for me when you passed me on the sidewalk that day."