This month we are primarily doing house visits. We go door to door with Pastor Jojo and do mini Bible studies with people, ask what they need prayer for and pray for them. Prayer has never been a super strong point for me. I definitely pray when I need something. I definitely pray if someone else needs something, but I rarely pray for the sake of praying.
I am a terrible example of Paul’s commandment to the Thessalonians when he says “Pray without ceasing.” It’s something that I’ve wanted to challenge myself in on the Race – and specifically this month. I want to develop a desire to pray more. I want to feel like prayer is more like a conversation between friends. I want all of these things and yet doubt still rises up in me. I know it is the evil one lying to me. I know that God hears my prayers. I know that he answers my prayers. I know that he cares.
I have listened to like five or six podcasts over the past couple of weeks on the topic of prayer. One of my pastors did a sermon on “pray without ceasing”. It was strange for me to listen to, because as I thought about it, it’s definitely not something that I do.
I shared my thoughts about prayer and where I was one day during devos at Pastor Jojo’s house. Well that was a mistake. Not really – but he definitely challenged me in the area of prayer after that. He called on me at almost every house to close us in prayer. It was good. I was outside my comfort zone and he knew it.
We ended up at a house in a different Barangay that we had been asked to come pray over. While we were inside, the son of the woman we were praying for, Kier, came home. She had just finished telling us about how he was a Catholic (that’s really bad here…) and he wasn’t born again. When he showed up, I knew God was about to work.
I was begging with God to please not let Pastor Jojo pick on me to minister to this guy. I felt inferior. I felt like I wouldn’t know what to say to the guy. I felt like if he asked me a question that I couldn’t answer, I would ruin the whole process.
Of course Pastor Jojo picked me to minister to this guy. The words that were so frequent “Ed, maybe you can share the gospel with him.” I was thinking to myself “Oh, great! God, please show up here so I don’t make a fool of myself”. He showed up. I read something from John, I think, that talked about Jesus being the only way to the heaven. Kier said that he was scared because he didn’t want to change the way he was living. I gave him a little talk about grace and forgiveness and he said “OK”. I didn’t know what the “OK” meant, but Pastor Jojo did.
He asked me to come over and pray with Kier to accept Jesus. At this point, I’m still thinking to myself, “You have to got to be kidding me. I am so not qualified for this.” I went over to him, placed my hand on his shoulder and made up a little prayer from what I remember from other altar calls I’ve heard. I made sure to use simple words so he would understand what he was saying. I made sure to throw in that I am thankful for his unending grace and forgiveness. Before I knew it, the prayer was over. He had repeated every word after me. I shook his hand and congratulated him. He was the newest member of Heaven and the angels were rejoicing for he would someday be joining them!
It was a crazy experience. It’s still outside my comfort zone. It still felt awkward. It still seems outside my realm of expertise, but God showed up. The Holy Spirit worked in Kier through me. It was nuts.
