If you would have asked what is the one thing you are afraid of before the race it probably would have been praying out loud. I was fine praying to myself but if everyone was asked to pray I would start shaking and probably try to leave the room. In the past two months I have had to pray way more than I was comfortable with but it wasn’t till here in Ethiopia did I really feel the power of praying out loud for some one.
This month we are working with Andrew Palau’s Love Ethiopia festival. The festival is a huge event in the city to spread the love of Jesus! For the week leading up to the festival they have a lot of events happening to get people excited and to let people know all about it. We were assigned groups to work in. The group I was placed in was called Eye Glass clinic #1. As much as I was excited for the festival Eye Glass Clinic #1 sounded awful. We got to the church the first day set up and we were ready for patients. I really didn’t want to have to be one on one with people and I really didn’t want to have to ask people if I could pray for them. I had about three patients come in I fit them for glasses and off they went. When it came to the fourth patient I felt the Lord tell me I needed to pray for the woman sitting across from me. We went through the fitting process found the right pair of glasses and I asked “can I pray for you”. She smiled and said yes, she wanted me to pray for her health. I prayed with my translator for the woman. When we said Amen and opened our eyes to say Good Bye to the woman had tears in her eyes. I realized right then that it did not matter that I was afraid to pray out loud when you pray for someone it is powerful. After that moment I could not wait to ask every one that came to my table if I could pray for them.
I truly believe God choose to have me in Eye Glass Clinic #1 because he wanted me to learn to love praying out loud! He wanted me to never worry about saying the wrong thing because I am talking to him and showing other people how wonderful it really is to be able to talk to our Father any time. He wanted me to know that I can never say the wrong thing because he already knows what I am about to say.
“The prayer of faith will save one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.” –James 5 15-16
