(Pictures coming soon when wi-fi is strong enough to handle it!!)
A few years back, if someone were to tell me to ask the Lord what ministry He wanted me to do that day….then proceed to tell me to wait for an answer from Him… I probably would have checked out. But, I've seen and heard the Lord in some pretty real and incredible ways this past year, so when our team was asked to participate in this type of "listening prayer" during launch, I was thrilled.
So we asked. And we listened. And we waited. The intermingling of darkness and light formed a woven pattern behind my closed eyelids. Whenever I tried to clear the palette and try again, the pattern kept coming back. Then I got that feeling in the top of my throat like I had words that needed to come out. So as much as I doubted my "vision," I just began to let it out.
"I see a woven pattern. Maybe like a para-cord bracelet." (I had no idea where that second sentence came from.)
We sat in silence for a few more minutes, no one confidence enough to speak. I knew what was going through their heads. This was new to us. What if we were wrong? You sure don't want to be wrong when relaying a message from the Lord. But I also knew that if we never took the leap of faith, we would never know if we were capable of hearing from Him in this way.
We decided to make our little circle a safe place for being wrong. The others agreed to say one thing that went through their head during our time of listening and not to worry about it being a true word from the Lord. As we went around the circle and shared one vision each, it honestly sounded like a pot luck of random items: A swing set, something yellow, a paint bucket, a little black girl with braided hair, a woven pattern and/or a para-cord bracelet.
We set off down the road and not too far along we spotted an elementary school playground with (yep, you guessed it) a swing set (picture coming soon). As we got closer to the school, we noticed a pattern on the building –a woven design made from dark and light colored bricks (picture coming soon). As we walked even further we noticed a yellow school bus with children unloading to an after school daycare. There were plenty of little black girls with braids, but we still weren't sure what to do with all of this. We went into the daycare and told them we had a couple of free hours if they needed help with anything, but we were kindly shut down.
After walking for a while longer, we were back at the school. Since we had no other leads, we decided to pray for Woodward Elementary School, the children, the neighborhood, the parents, and the teachers. When we finished praying, a police officer walked up to us, and before even reaching us, said "I hope you're praying." He proceeded to tell us about the history of the school and the corruption of the town. He told us that he has tried to leave that city three times, but the Lord keeps bringing him back. He is one of the few believers on the police force and it is a struggle for him. We could feel the heaviness of his heart and asked if we could pray for him. He told us that he couldn't wait to go home and tell his wife about meeting us.
We exchanged hugs and as he was about to leave we noticed something incredible on his wrist.
He was wearing a para-cord bracelet.
I was blown away and about started crying. I explained to him about the vision and he gave me the bracelet to remember what God had done that day.
I have no doubt that the Lord can, will, and wants to speak to my team this year. Listening prayer is a real and powerful gift. Please pray that my team is able to fearlessly steward this gift during our ministry these next 10 months!
