REAP Granada: the light in the dark; what a ministry! it’s hard to explain it because they don’t focus on only one or two ministries, rather they are constantly evolving & adding new aspects to better serve the community. i’ll name just a few of their ministries: basketball camps & tournaments on the weekends to keep kids off the streets, farming to grow food & herbs used for medicine in the community, prison ministry, distributing food at nursing homes & the dump, putting on sports camps, & prayer walking throughout the surrounding villages. while all are absolutely incredible & so much fun to be a part of, the one that has captured my heart is prayer walking.
prayer walking looks like your team of 6 people being grouped with a translator & a guide. the guide is someone who lives in the local village & knows the community members very well. the translator can live in the village or may be from a different part of Granada but is there to help you talk with the guide & the locals. the guide then leads us to different homes in his village that he knows either need specific prayer or appreciate being encouraged & taught or even to people who want to pray for us. i wanted to share two stories from my prayer walks thus far.
one day we were just walking down the street off to our next house & a woman walked by us & asked for prayer. as we began talking to her we heard some of her testimony & were able to pray for a skin condition she had. she then brought us to her home so that we could know where she lived in case we ever wanted to visit her again. we have been back twice to stay in touch & get to know her better. she has told us different visions or healings/experiences she has had with Jesus. she tells us she prays for every world race squad that works with REAP because she has experienced the love of Jesus from them & has even been healed by previous teams. she once broke down because she had no food or water to give us, but we were able to encourage her & tell her that she had already given us the best gift we could have asked for: a home away from home. while she had very little, she knew it all belonged to God and wanted to share it with us. so, each day when we go out, we look for Maria & make sure to say hello.
the next day we went to a different village. the first house we stopped at our guide & translator explained that this house needed immediate prayer because this woman’s brothers & sons had gone through something traumatic the night before. as we arrived & the woman began to tell her story, we learned that her two brothers & three sons had been arrested for a murder they had no connection to. they were in the wrong place & all got arrested. we prayed for their innocence to be revealed & God’s justice to pursue. we told her we would be back to check on her family & would continue to pray. we continued on our prayer walk & about 1.5 hours later we were finishing up when our guide started to yell something. our translator then explained that he had seen one of the boys that had been arrested. as we were saying our final prayer to close the walk, another boy ran up to us & explained that him & his entire family had been released from jail & had made it home safely. his mother made him come show us that our prayers had been answered. praise the Lord he listens & breaks the chains off his children!
prayer walking can be awkward when you ask random people personal questions, but if you can push through the awkwardness & extend a loving hand to those needing prayer, you’ll be amazed at what God can do with it. it has made me step out of my comfort zone and fully rely on the Holy Spirit to be my guide. sometimes nothing happens when we ask for healing or the people are not very receptive of the prayers, but those stories where God shows up in a huge way keep us going! there are many more stories i would love to share about prayer walking & what all we have experienced, but for now those two will do. don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions!
as always, thanks for reading!
love,
mads
below are some pictures from the last two weeks!
my team at the site of an active volcano crater
mi hermano de otra madre: Guasa! Guasa is one of our guides on prayer walks & has one of the coolest testimonies! thankful for this pal!
part of my team at the top of a hill we hiked to pray over the city of Granada
