I've created the following prayer guide for our friends and families. If you wouldn't mind praying for us each day, that would be much appreciated.
Sunday: Please pray for traveling mercies. 11 people in a van for 9 hours doesn’t sound
like the best way to enjoy the Sabbath. Please pray for patience and peace as we
experience our first full day together. Pray for our host, Christ’s Church of St. Charles,
Missouri and thank God for their
dedicated service toward us. Pray for
our huge shopping trip and our opening night of devotions and ask God to be
present in each of those. As well, as
Him to bless us with a very restful night’s sleep.
Monday: Please pray that we start the week strong,
with great energy. Pray that as we meet
Mark and Joani and Katie (our hosts at Oasis International), that we will truly
feel God’s calling on their lives and serve them as Christ taught us to serve. Pray that the refugees we meet today will
welcome us even as strangers. Lift up
our afternoon as we travel to the top of the Gateway Arch. Pray that this will be an enjoyable
experience; free from motion sickness and serious height fears.
Tuesday: Please pray that as we continue at Oasis,
that we may truly soak in the meaning of our theme verses: Colossians 3:22-24. Pray that we will work today as if working for
the Lord, because that is our purpose this week. As we look forward to our first opportunity to
shower on Tuesday evening, may this be a time of true refreshment and
relaxation. Pray that through these days
of hard work and evenings of fun experiences, we will bond together as a group
working toward one cause.
Wednesday: Please pray that as we wake up, we wake up
knowing that God alone is our strength. Pray that as we face one of the most difficult
days of the week, that we will look upon this day with joy. Today we look forward to the fact that we will
be able to take in some of the sights and sounds of downtown St. Louis after our hard work. We are clean and done with crockpot
meals. We are also very tired as our
11:30 bedtime and 6:30 wake up calls are taking a toll on us. Pray that as we enjoy pizza with Mark and
Joani and Katie, we will enjoy their company and their stories.
Thursday: Please pray that today, as we say “good-bye”
to our friends at Oasis International, that this may be a day of hope instead
of sadness. We know that our God will
continue to work in St. Louis
even when we have long since gone. Pray
that many of the Muslim refugees that we’ve met will realize the Truth in
Christianity so that we may reunite with them again in the glorious returning
of Christ. As we take the evening and go
to a historical park and learn about the Native American tribes that once
inhabited the land, pray that we will take it in with great respect. Pray for good weather and for just a chance to
enjoy the great outdoors along the Mississippi River.
Friday: Please keep today in special prayer. We will get to sleep in a little bit because
we have no plans until the midday. We
will enjoy lunch at a homeless shelter, where we will do some small flooring
projects and then go on a “homeless” tour – a tour that talks about a side of
St. Louis that we were unable to fully grasp this week, but a topic that has
always been in the hearts of many in our group. Pray that as we enjoy a strange dinner at a
roadside diner, that we can truly celebrate the hard work that we did this
week. Pray that we can fall asleep
knowing that we did, in fact, work as though working for the Lord.
Saturday: Today, we begin with cleaning and packing
and probably a bit of crankiness. It’s been
a long week and no one is very excited about the drive home. Please pray that Kraig will be focused and
patient and well-rested as he drives our group back to Grand Rapids.
Pray that as we reunite with our families, they will hear our stories – they
will laugh when we laugh, cry when we cry and ponder when we ponder. Pray that we will not greet our families with
crankiness, but in a rejoice and renewed excitement about working and serving
our God.
