The prayers of a righteous person are powerful and effective. James 5:16
Last week, one of my dear teammates challenged us to be bold and specific with our prayers. I decided to give it a try…
This week we switched up our teams (I miss my old team SO MUCH!! But I’m also loving this new group that I’m with), and we all scattered to different cities throughout Sri Lanka.
So, Monday as we were driving into this new city, I felt the Lord impressing on my heart that our biggest ministry here these next 3 weeks was going to be to pray. I thought that was kind of weird, Lord is that really what you want us to do? Like, is that the main thing?
Pray over every inch of this city kept ringing in my head. It kept ringing and ringing and ringing that night and the next morning.
I also prayed that night Lord please bring us a believer that lives here and speaks fluent English. We’ve got no host and no contacts here this month, and this city is overwhelmingly foreign to all of us in so many ways. It’s SO different here than anywhere I’ve been before. With all of that, I felt like we really needed an English speaking believer to help guide us.
I was also praying for the owners of the hostel where we are staying. They are such a sweet family: a husband, wife, and daughter. They are Buddhist. They speak some English, but not enough for us to have an in depth conversation about anything covered in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. Catch my drift? Remember my location 🙂 I prayed Lord let our light shine so brightly, that they can see it. Let Your presence here be felt by them through us.
I prayed all of that again yesterday morning. During our team time later that same morning we were praying and spending time in the Word together, and out of nowhere in walks an English speaking pastor. He said “I have two questions for you: 1. Do you follow Jesus? 2. Do you believe in the power of the Holy Spirit?” We were all flabbergasted that he just showed up! I mean this dude literally just waltzed right into our Bible study. He told us that the owner of the hostel had called him (during our team time) because we seemed to have the same light that he had. The hostel owners recognized that we share the same faith as the pastor without us even telling him that we’re believers. He told the pastor, “things have felt so different here since this group arrived.”
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaattttttt?!?!?!?!?
I started crying.
So we talked with the pastor for awhile and asked him how we can best serve here, he said “we need a lot of prayer. I feel like I am the only person here praying for my city.”
I started crying harder.
Last night the pastor came back and brought us all dinner—p.s. give me all the curry, it’s delicious. After we ate, we all (my team, the pastor, and the hostel owners) sat around and shared testimonies and prayed together. Then the hostel owners asked us if, while we stay here, we would continue to pray with them, lead them in the Word, and go with them to church. Um, YES!!! They also said that we are all one big happy family. God is good, y’all!! As if that wasn’t enough, our new pastor friend said that he would love to help guide us in ministry this month. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!!
But wait, there’s more!
Come to find out, my church back home is doing a week long prayer thing right now. Guess what the main prayer topic was for yesterday? The Great Commission and those on the field right now. My mom said, “Meg, there is no coincidence that you saw God show up in a big way. People are praying for YOU, by name, and look at what happened!” Amen, mama. Thank you, church. Above all, thank you LORD.
This is all so mind blowing, and yet not surprising at all because I know my God is FAITHFUL.
Keep praying, friends!
