About a week ago, my team and I (we call ourselves the September
Scallywags) stood by a lake in the center of University Island and
shouted the name of Jesus as loud as we could. It was great! I
think the other Scallywags thought I was crazy for suggesting it.
For me it was a declaration of His rightful reign as King over the
Island.
That moment was the close to our prayer walk around the lake. Prayer walks are when we walk and talk to God, asking Him to move in a
specific area. We do them about once a week or so.
You know, usually I like to write about happy things, things that
make people think, “Wow, look what God is doing in Asia!” But the
reality of it is that my life, while really exciting and privileged
in many ways, is full of happy days AND sad ones, heavenly AND
mundane, successful AND not so much. So to give you a peek, i’m
going to back up my shouting prayer walk story and let you know how
it REALLY went.
We left from home around 10:30am, a half an hour late, and we had a
time crunch because people had things to do in the early afternoon.
The plan was to spend some time praying near the lake and then talk
during lunch about the importance of scheduling. We took the subway
to the Island, but then had to walk about 15-20 minutes to the
lake. Did i mention it was HOT, and the sun was beating down? Well,
it was. Upon arriving at the lake, I tell the Scallywags that we’re
going to walk around the lake and pray. I think they were expecting
to sit down and pray.
So we began. But hardly anyone said anything to God; instead they
were talking to each other about unrelated things. It felt forced,
and I was frustrated. About half way around, I finally said
something to them about it. I don’t think I was the hero at the
moment. After walking a total of 45 minutes or so around the lake,
we finally arrived back at our starting point, where we shouted His
name. And they thought I was strange.
Then we walked 15-20 minutes to a street where there were lots of
little restaurants, but we had limited time. I made a quick
decision to eat at a B-level fast food place, and then I made the
bad decision to press forward with our scheduling talk even though
some were in a bad mood and we were running out of time. Then the
other Scallywags split, and I sat for a while at the restaurant
trying not to get a headache.
The good news is that God uses us oh-so-human people to do great
things, and faith is what rises above a bad day to give us hope.
And last time I checked, God responds to people with faith and acts
on our behalf and for His kingdom. So you with me? Let’s be people
of faith!