Grow

I know that it's been forever and a day since I've blogged. You'll have to find it in your hearts to forgive me. I had too much on my heart and on my mind and in my life to put into words. The last week of June, I and four others from our church went on a missions trip to Ponemah in the Red Lake Reservation.

At the end of this trip, Tiffany asked us to prepare answers for people who we knew would be asking us about our time at Mokahum and Ponemah, and she told us to just take the one aspect of the week that impacted us the most deeply and to talk about that. However, I just can't get away from the fact that there were two things that really stood out to me, so you get to hear about both of them.

The first is that on this trip, I really gained a strong sense of the unity of the church and really being the body of Christ. It's a concept I've read about before, and I've heard sermons on it, and heard songs about it, but it hasn't really resonated with me before this trip. I first felt this on Sunday the 26th, when we were commissioned. As I felt hands on my shoulders and as Pastor Bruce prayed, I realized that all of us were coming before God together, as one, and seeking His protection, His guidance, and His hand to be on our team. But the Spirit was there, and there was unity. I realized that our team was not leaving church for a week and coming back with a news report of how another church grew, but that we as a church, as the body of Christ, were reaching out to a broken people who were not in the family, and our team was truly priviledged to be the fingertips.

That knowledge was both amazing and comforting to me. We going to serve aware of the people we would be serving and also aware the supporting prayers from the rest of the Spiritual family. When we got to Mokahum, we met the team from Grand Forks. Hearing them talk about their church and the leadership there and the people praying for them took everything I'd just learned about unity and magnified it 100-fold. I realized something that I hadn't had time to even think about before, that our church wasn't alone! There was a church in Grand Forks that was reaching out by our side - a church that we could serve with, work with, worship with and fellowship with and pray with! My concept of family grew by lightyears. Throughout the week, our whole team, I think, felt a strong connection to the Grand Forks team. By the time we'd known them almost three days, it felt as though we'd known them for years because of the Spiritual oneness that was so present. The experience was completely beyond anything I'd ever imagined before and it brings to mind Philipians 1:27 "Whatever happens, conducet yourselves in a manner worthy of the Gospel of
Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absensce, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the Faith of the gospel without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you." And also Philipians 2: 2 "Then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose." That was Mokahum all the way.

The second thing that was really impressed on my heart was the power of the the need for prayer. This lesson also started, I think, with our commissioning. The fact that we were all gathered together to pray, really made a strong impression on me. Afterwards also, so many people came up to me and us and just encouraged us by letting us know they would be praying for us and all of your prayers have been a huge blessing. At Mokahum and Ponemah, our team and the Grand Forks team were praying together all the time. We prayed in the vehicles on the way to Ponemah for the kids that we would be seeing that day, we prayed when we ate together for the afternoons ahead of us, or behind us, we prayed in the evenings before we went out sharing the Gospel, and even as we walked around sharing with different people. And whenever we sat down together to talk, we would open and close in prayer, and all this prayer really was powerful.

The day that I really learned this though was at Ponemah on Friday. We had just begun the last afternoon of VBS and we were opening with some singing. I was standing at the back of the room, almost squirming. I could feel that there was a strong oppression in the room. I felt almost smothered and I couldn't sing at all. I wanted to go grab our team and take them outside and tell them all to pray, but they were all busy keeping a child in line, or holding somebody on their laps, so I just started praying by myself. I just begged God to put his hand of protection over the building and over the hearts and minds of everybody present, both the leaders and the kids, and I kept praying that over and over until it was time to move on to our next activity.

It wasn't until about 3 that afternoon, when we were ready to do our skit, that there was peace - and then it was so peaceful that it was exciting! We were enthused, the kids were actually quiet and listened, and we could all feel the freedom from the earlier oppression and the joy that came with that. The rest of the day was clearly Spirit-filled and beautiful. But Ponemah that day had been a true battle ground. It was challenging because when we started, there was such oppression that the natural response was despair - it was discouraging and intimidating. But if you read past the "official" armor of God, Ephesians 6:18 says "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests."  And also James 5:16-18 "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops." God listens to our prayer, and our prayer carries weight with him. Prayer is powerful.