This month I’m staying with team Woof doing Unsung Heroes ministry. Basically, our team works as a networking agent for AIM, seeking out new ministry contacts for future World Racers to have the opportunity to serve with.
Unsung Heroes can be anyone from coffee shop owners, missions organizations, English teachers, church planters, and anything in between. The difference is, Unsung Heroes are Kingdom minded people who live the day to day serving Jesus with their lives. Their stories are unsung and unknown, masked by the daily grind, yet their impact on their community is eternal. We seek them out to hear their stories, encourage and help.
For a team doing Unsung Heroes for the month, race life can look a little different. We like to call ministry this month “Ask The Lord” (ATL). We pray, we worship and we listen for The Lord to lead us. Sometimes ministry looks like handing out food, playing with children on the streets, making friends at coffee shops & cafes, street worship and a lot of prayer walking.
And so today, we prayer walked.
We walked a lot. We walked down the street past the fresh fruit, nuts and flower vendors. We walked past the street market and bustling shops. We crossed the trolley tracks with train windows full of people traveling to work, to class and to meet with friends. We passed the cafes and coffee shops drifting sweet smells into the street. We passed a bakery full of fresh baked bread and a pastry shop window filled with sugary sweets. We walked through an old neighborhood of stone homes filled with generations of stories and families and memories. We walked through a new ritzy neighborhood bubbling with young people and fancy cars. We walked through a park filled with signs of spring. We walked by a gas station, through a summer amusement park and into a car dealership lot. Then we dead ended in the heart of industrial Sofia, Bulgaria.
It wasn’t where we had planned to go. Why would you prayer walk through office buildings? Cold, concrete giants in a world of life and vibrant color. And yet, there we were in the company of ten story tall grey buildings. Some were finished, glimmering with their glass windows and full of people fulfilling their daily 9-5 grind. Others were only being started, the fresh beginnings of construction with wires, metal and concrete sticking out of everywhere. Either way, the industrial office part of town is not where any city advertises the tourists to go. Yet in our prayer walking and seeking The Lord, this is where we found ourselves.
And yet, I was entranced with the construction around me. The pillars of concrete waiting to be made into something. Stable, strong and tall. The foundations around me were the beginnings, and somehow a perfect reminder of how we must sow into the foundations of our lives. A building must have a good foundation. Yet life needs more than a simple good foundation- it needs to be unshakeable. The finished buildings around had strong and sturdy foundations that had been laid before- faithful and diligent work. Now, they held the offices of hundreds of lives every day. The lives of fathers, mothers, brothers, uncles and dear friends- people.
These are the people the Kingdom is built on.
People with stories. Faces on the trains, children in the parks, students walking to school, businessmen, homemakers, shopkeepers and everyone in between. We had walked miles and seen dozens of faces. It is all of those faces that create the foundation of the Kingdom. Hearts set upon the Rock- hearts that cannot be shaken once they are awakened to life.
I may not be able to save someone. I may not be able to save anyone. But I know a God who can. And He does. He builds His Kingdom in the hearts of those who build their lives on Him. There are a thousand things to keep me from helping others see Him- the language, culture, social norm, and every misunderstanding in between. But we have something far more powerful that I too often forget.
Prayer.
In Joshua, as the Lord had finally allowed His people to enter into their promised land, He tells Joshua, “I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses.”
EVERY PLACE WHERE YOU SET YOUR FOOT.
The very ground where we step, the footsteps we walk in faithful prayer are claiming ground for the Kingdom. Every office building, every construction zone, every park, metro, shop, hostel, school, street corner and cobblestone can be claimed as an unshakeable foundation. Prayer walking is more than just words mumbled in my mind while aimlessly wandering amidst the busy streets. It’s faithful proclamations, claiming hope with every step, stirring up the already present Holy Spirit to awaken life. Powerful beyond measure, this kind of prayer leaves literal footprints of God’s Kingdom on earth.
I want to be an woman who brings the Kingdom. I want to build firm foundations in prayer. I want to see people, to really see faces as hearts to be loved and stories to be heard. I want to see lives awakened to real life. I will smile with love at anyone who I pass by. I will give food to those hungry and in need. I will give my time, even if for a moment. I will laugh, sing, dance and cherish moments with those who gracefully cross paths with my life. I will live life to the fullest. And I will prayer walk Kingdom change wherever my feet may go.
I want lived in shoes. Old, worn out and full of holes because of the thousands of miles I’ve trekked claiming the kingdom where I set my feet.
These boots were made for prayer walking.
