UPDATE: Prayer Requests

Thank you to everyone who was able to make it out to the Nalos’ house Monday to join us in prayer!  It was so great to see you and reconnect!  It was such a joy to be able to share personally what God has been doing in Olympia with you!

For those of you who weren’t able to make it Monday, but are committed to praying for us (thank you!), here are the prayer requests I promised we’d be sharing with you:

• Kate is pregnant!  If you haven’t heard on Facebook or elsewhere, we’re expecting baby number 3 to join us in early December!  :)  The latter part of this year is going to be a pretty serious period of transition for us as we will be selling/buying our car, moving and having a baby (hopefully somewhat close to that order).
• Leader training at REALITY: Our next missional leader training event here at REALITY has been moved to early June.  Pray that God puts this on people’s hearts in a clear way that leads to many being stirred for his purposes in their lives.
• Missional Communities at REALITY: We are continuing to see communities of people living life as God’s family, putting him on display to the world in very exciting ways.  Please pray that our present missional communities would be sensitive to how the Spirit is leading each of them to live as communities shaped by the Gospel.

If I have left anything out or if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me through my Facebook, or the contact page on this blog.  You’re also welcome to visit any of REALITY’s gatherings if you’d like to get a closer look

What do your prayers reveal?

Here’s a little experiment I’d be curious to try (but probably won’t so, feel free to steal it and report back afterward).

• Part 1: Find some church forsaken corner of the city you live in and ask the people there what they’d like you to pray for on their behalf.
• Part 2: Find some overtly church inhabited corner of the city you live in and ask what’d they’d like you to pray for on their behalf.
• Part 3: Compare the answers and ask, “Is there any discernible difference between the two sets of answers?”

Perhaps this isn’t a fair experiment.  In fact, I’d say it probably isn’t.  Still it gets me thinking…

Last week during REALITY’s gathering times Paul taught on the Gospel power.  This week as he was leading us through the Gospel purpose I found myself thinking, “What would it look like for our prayers to have equal parts Gospel power and Gospel purpose?”

Through my growing up years I remember prayer requests being heavily lopsided in the Gospel power direction.  That is, I believed something like, “Since God has extended his power to save me, why not spend my prayer life asking him to use his power for other things that would help me and add to my comfort?”  So, the classic, “Pray that I can get rid of this cold, do well on this test, win this game, read my Bible more, stop sinning so much, etc., etc., etc.”  My prayer life ratted me out.  I didn’t believe God had anything better for either of us to do, and my prayers revealed that.

I would venture that our prayers (or lack of them) reveal plenty about what we believe about God if we will bravely venture to let them speak.

Praying with Students–HVC Update

You may remember a few months ago I began meeting with one of our friends at his school to pray and seek the Lord’s kingdom on campus.  Most of the time Andre and I met alone, a few times we would be joined by others.

HVC Staff

Today, at Andre’s invitation, I joined a new student led prayer group which was started only a couple weeks ago (to my knowledge), but saw around twenty students coming together!  While it was only a short first impression, I’m excited to see how God will work through this group of enthusiastic youths to bless their campus!

Please continue to pray for this group, especially that they could lock on to God’s heart for their school beyond the “boring classes” and “trouble with grades” type requests that typically claim center-stage in student life.

Last Night’s Prayer Meeting

Thursday nights these days Kate and I trade off watching Jude and joining a small group of people in our church praying for and sharing about what the Lord is doing in and around us in the places we reside.  Last night was my turn to go to the prayer meeting.

At one point in the night between worship songs, I was reading Acts 4 where the saints are praying after the proclamation of the Gospel (mission) has gotten them in to trouble. Let me quote verses 29 and 30–

And now, Lord, pay attention to their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your message with great courage, even as you extend your hand to heal, and to bring about miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

I love this passage for a couple reasons.  1) we know that God values the situation we live in (i.e. “their threats”) because he came in to our situation in the Incarnation. 2) The praying believers ask only for courage to do what their life in Christ leads them to do–to speak the Good News.  3) It is God who does the healing; His action validates the claim upon which we, His followers, have staked our lives.  So good.
So, following our time of prayer it was great to hear the things the Lord is doing in people’s lives (even through my broken Dutch ).  Some of you might remember about a month ago that I had asked for prayer for someone’s neighbor who was close to accepting Jesus.  Last night I heard that that person had come to faith in the last month!  Our Prayer in action as the heals in the name of his servant Jesus!

Your prayers are effective in the building of Christ’s Kingdom in Holland!