Prayer is power.
“In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not
know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us
through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the
Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the
will of God.” Romans 8:26,27
At our
fundraiser in March we decided to raise money to go towards an
outreach/mentoring/missions trip for the summer of 2012. Although there were moments that felt as if
nothing would actually come together to make this trip a reality, through
prayer, God’s hand opening doors, and the guidance of Bev and Dan our
trip became a reality!
August 17-31 Anchored Warriors did our first out of
Canada trip to the Hopi Reservation in Arizona, USA. We had a total of 14
people on our trip. Tristan, Lesley, Kim, Bev and myself
each had prayed about and asked a certain number of youth to come on the trip with
the intention of not only an outreach but also a mentoring trip. Kim, Tristan
and Lesley each had one youth and I had three wonderful girls to get to know,
talk to about God and help them grow as leaders and in themselves. Dan was our fearless driver and mechanic as we ended up broken down more than once in our borrowed 20 passenger bus.
Bev took on
the role of cook, and nurse and she had a close friend of hers to help with the
cooking who she was able to mentor on the trip.
We went down to Hopi not really having any idea what
to expect as none of us had been there before other than Kim when she was 17.
Our connection was Kim’s cousin Chelsea who had been running a youth ministry
in Hopi for three years through Ron Hutchcraft Ministries. We arrived after
three long days to an amazing facility as Chelsea had hooked us up with staying
at the mission center. We had more than everything we needed for our stay
there. During the course of our week and a bit stay on the reserve we were able to learn a lot about both the Hopi culture and the power of prayer.
Some of the things we participated in during our time in Arizona were: helping Chelsea with different projects around her house such as organizing ministry resource storage rooms and re-graveling the driveway, making and serving supper for the youth night and interacting and spending time with the students that attended the youth ministry.
We also attended one of Chelsea’s youth leadership bible studies, got a tour of the reserve by a local elder who showed us his corn field and taught us all about the sacred ways the Hopi grow their corn and some of the things they believe. We took an opportunity to do a prayer walk around the local village on the reserve, hiked up a Mesa, and even visited an area covered in ancient drawings.
Our youth were also able to organize and run an outreach night for the Hopi youth. They put together a skit to perform, games to play, crafts and art to show the other youth how to do, and one of our youth shared her testimony to the group. It was so encouraging to see our young leaders step up and reach out to other Aboriginal youth and to have so much fun doing it too!
Every day we made time for devotionals with our youth. My time proved interesting as I had three girls while everyone else had one youth. I made a point to set aside time during the day to talk with each of my girls and pray with them. It was so encouraging to see each of them, completely different personalities, and in completely different points in their journey with God, seeking His face and trying to work through their own personal struggles and learning about being a strong leader. It was very evident that God was and is still at work in each of their lives.
Every evening we discussed a different “word of the day” of what it meant to be a good leader and what we saw in them that day. We also gave a strong focus on the importance of the youth sharing their stories and where they were in their journey with God. This was such an amazing experience as we saw each of the youth really grow and step out of their comfort zone in sharing their stories- the good and the bad- with us.
By the end of our time in Arizona one of the biggest things that our youth had learned and that we had talked about was the power of prayer. Chelsea said their team motto out there was “prayer is power” and that became our motto for the week too. I have actually never seen youth pray that much before in all my time in ministry. It was such an encouraging experience for us as leaders and I know the youth came out of it changed.
Thank you for your prayers and support to make that trip possible. Please continue praying for our youth and that God would keep turning their eyes to Him in each and every situation they face.
