The following is the first of seven updates about this year’s mission trip to the Appalachian Mountains. I apologize that these are going to come sporadically during the trip; however, I will post them in installments, and hopefully they will all be written at the end of the day in question.
“Appalachia,” as we call it, is a mission in which my home church joins with approximately fifty other church groups in our denomination to put on Vacation Bible School (VBS) for churches in the mountains of Tennessee and Kentucky. We and two of the other church groups work together to provide VBS for a rural church of about thirty members, many of whom have jobs that make it difficult to take off during the week to do their own VBS program. That’s where we come in.
In the past, we’ve had anywhere from ten to thirty-five kids come to VBS in a day. Some of the kids belong to members; others are the children of members’ friends or just neighborhood kids. We’ve been attending long enough now (something like nineteen years) to where it’s pretty well known that Bible School’s going to happen the first full week in July. Thankfully, we have a few wonderful ladies in the church who do their best to make sure the kids head our way.
Here’s how Saturday has gone:
We planned on leaving our church at nine in the morning Saturday. Right about that time, my dad got a call saying the van was shifting gears wildly and the youth director was on his way back to the van rental place to get something else. After lots of luggage shifting and van-trading, we left an hour and a half late but without having to use the U-Haul trailer we’d reserved. Hooray for that! After we stopped at the closest BP for our traditional snack stock-up, we got on the road for good. We were blessed to only have gotten stuck in traffic once, and we arrived still with plenty of time to get dinner and be at the large group meeting on time.
Every evening we have a meeting in which all of the church groups come together for worship, teaching and prayer. Saturday night was the first of those meetings. This year’s teaching series will be on prayer; they’ve arranged for different speakers to present on different aspects of our prayer lives each night. Yesterday the speaker discussed the Purpose, Power and Persistence of Prayer.
Purpose: Prayer is communication with God. As with any relationship, we have to actually COMMUNICATE with God in order to know Him better and for the relationship to be beneficial. We pray because we are told to do so (Ephesians 6:18); because Jesus prayed, and we are called to follow His example (Luke 6:12); because we need God’s grace and mercy; because God gives us joy in it (John 16:24); because we must pray to receive the peace of God (Philippians 4:6); and because it helps us grow spiritually (Psalm 139, vs. 23-26?).
Power: Prayer arms us for spiritual battle. It prepares us, focuses us, and protects us.
Persistence: We are to pray continually (1 Thessalonians 5:17); we are to pray in different ways, with different goals, and for all people.
Things that hinder our prayer: selfishness, sin, idols, lack of forgiveness, lack of faith
And my favorite quotation from the evening: “For FROM Him and THROUGH Him and TO Him is everything!” It has nothing to do with me – it’s all about Christ.
After we finished the final songs, we broke into our groups for a time of prayer. This is something that we did in years past, but hadn’t done for maybe five or so years. I’d really missed the prayer time when we didn’t have it, and I’m incredibly thankful for the opportunity to devote our final minutes to prayer once again. This group of kids, I am so shocked and pleased and proud of their spiritual maturity. We have twenty-four in our group, and most all of us, including the eleven-year-old, had something to give to God during our prayer time. I’m often struck by how well our group works together – we have great relationships with each other, very little drama or attitude, and a genuine love and care for the welfare of the individuals in our circle – but I was blown away by how much everyone seemed to rely on God and His will for the week. It makes me want to cry just thinking about it.
Tonight was such an emotionally and intellectually fulfilling experience. I greatly look forward to the other worship times and sermons, and I will do my best to give you the highlights as I did here. Be in prayer for us (even in retrospect, as you will be reading this later!) for guidance and growth this week!
For the next update, scroll up or click here.
For the next update, scroll up or click here.
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