Prayer Mission Trip

This past week I had the chance to be a part of a prayer team. Ten people from Canada and the US came for the week. The team was here was to pray...simply pray. One person on the team works with an organization called Prayer Missions International (PMI). PMI sends teams all over the world on prayer trips. This team visited Sous Espwa’s partner organizations to encourage them and pray with them. I witnessed the benefit of the team being here. 

Jenny’s dad told a story the night of our orientation. He said that in 2009, two months before the earthquake, a prayer team came down for a prayer mission trip and visited all the partner organizations. Then, in January God rocked Port-au-Prince with an earthquake. Roughly 220,000 people died. Yet, every single person that the prayer team prayed over survived the quake. The team prayed God’s protection over these people and not one of them died! That is a powerful testimony to God responding to our prayer. James 5:16, “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”

Ruth had told me that being part of a prayer team is intense; I wasn’t exactly sure what she meant. However, after the prayer time on Tuesday I could already feel the intensity. Tuesday afternoon the team started by praying with the Sous Espwa staff. They began with a large group prayer and then prayed one on one with us. It was really interesting to me because I had never been involved in this kind of prayer. 

I am not a praying person- I usually pray for myself and a few other people, if I think of it. I had never realized the importance of prayer. Before the team got here I was given a few reading on intercessory prayer and I learned a lot from those. The main idea of intercessory prayer is to seek God’s will through prayer and then pray God’s will on the situation. 

“When we pray, God works!” What a simple way to describe intercessory prayer and to explain its purpose. Augustine wrote, “Prayer is to intercede for the well-being of others before God.” Prayer is God’s plan. God initiated intercession so He could work on earth in the way He wanted to, in response to prayer. By means of intercessory prayer He invites us to labor with him for the well-being of others. Prayer did not happen because people wanted things from God and decided to plead with Him for them. Prayer is not

a human strategy for acquiring things. Nobody thought it up. Intercessory prayer is God’s way of giving us a stake in His kingdom building work. He takes the initiative but involves us through prayer and our ministry activities. As we do our part—asking in His name and stepping out in ministry—He does His part.

~Passage from Alvin VanderGriend’s book, Praying God’s Heart

Wednesday I spent a full day with the prayer team. We visited two organizations- the Theological Seminary of the Union of Baptist Churches in Haiti and St. Vincent’s Center for Handicapped Children. The visit started off with us asking the staff at the organization how they have witnessed God at work in their ministry. It was really great to hear the stories of how God had noticeably worked in the past and how He is continuing to work through their ministry. I love hearing God stories! Following that, we asked for specific things we could pray about. The staff shared many concerns, related to the organization, with us. 

Then we sat with the staff and prayed. One person from the prayer team started off the prayer and then everyone else jumped in. The prayers were Spirit led, meaning the team listened to the Holy Spirit speaking to them and then prayed whatever was placed on their heart. Sometimes a Bible verse was read or we sang a song. A few times I thought the things people prayed about didn’t make sense with the requests shared. But it was because they listened to the Spirit’s promptings and, although I didn’t understand the reasoning behind it, it was exactly what the staff needed to hear. God knows what His children need more than we do. 

One of the goals of the prayer team was to encourage the ministry’s staff. The team did this by praying for each staff person individually. We gave each one a chance to share their personal requests- the areas they needed God’s strength within their own lives and within their family. Then we placed hands on each person and prayed for them; these prayers were especially powerful because the Spirit revealed many things to those on our team. At the end of the prayer, I could tell that those we prayed over were renewed and strengthened. They were so very thankful that we spent time praying for their needs and lifting up their ministry before God. 

I’m grateful I had the opportunity to join this team. I learned so much from just being with them for one day.

If you want to serve abroad, but don’t feel qualified (or strong enough ;) to join a work team, consider joining a prayer team. It’s a wonderful, unique opportunity to get involved in furthering God’s kingdom.