Lesson From Mississippi: Prayer
I was reminded on this trip that prayer is the proper response to any situation. I used to struggle with the command to pray continually. Still do actually, but it's getting easier.
On the way down our OLD bus had some electrical problems. It would run, but we were running out of power for out headlights. We prayed and they worked.
Each night we had devotions with the kids in different cottages. The older teens talked about God and sex and how God does have a plan for sex. The little kids talked about how to be good friends. My group was in Emergency Care, the place kids go right after they are taken from their homes. We talked about Trust, Love and Hope. The three girls could not understand why God was putting them through this, yet they turned to prayer for help. Prayer seemed to be the only thing that comforted them. It was their only hope.
We almost killed someone and almost died ourselves. Let me explain. Jackson has one of the highest crime rates in the country and we were staying right in the middle of the Queen's and the President's gang territory. That's why the campus was gated. We left for Ohio at 1:45 am on Saturday. About a mile from the village we were passing a bar that was closing and there were people everywhere. Cars were blocking the road and people were in the street either yelling or directing traffic. Our brakes went out. There were two people in the road in front of us and I am pretty sure that if we had hit them there would have been a riot and I don't think we would have lived. We started praying and at the last minute the emergency brake caught and we slowed down enough for them to get out of the road.
They dropped us off at a church parking lot and limped the bus to a shop where they determined that they needed to take the brakes apart to figure out what is wrong. The Village sent some vans for us and we went back to sleep. Unfortunately, everything we had was packed on the bus. I slept on the floor with 3 other girls with just some foam for our mattress, two blankets to share and a package of toilet paper as my pillow. What an experience.
I know these seem like small examples of the power of prayer. There were a million little ones throughout the week that I am not going to try and explain. Please just trust me that I was reminded to pray. Continually. Because God does listen.
On the way down our OLD bus had some electrical problems. It would run, but we were running out of power for out headlights. We prayed and they worked.
Each night we had devotions with the kids in different cottages. The older teens talked about God and sex and how God does have a plan for sex. The little kids talked about how to be good friends. My group was in Emergency Care, the place kids go right after they are taken from their homes. We talked about Trust, Love and Hope. The three girls could not understand why God was putting them through this, yet they turned to prayer for help. Prayer seemed to be the only thing that comforted them. It was their only hope.
We almost killed someone and almost died ourselves. Let me explain. Jackson has one of the highest crime rates in the country and we were staying right in the middle of the Queen's and the President's gang territory. That's why the campus was gated. We left for Ohio at 1:45 am on Saturday. About a mile from the village we were passing a bar that was closing and there were people everywhere. Cars were blocking the road and people were in the street either yelling or directing traffic. Our brakes went out. There were two people in the road in front of us and I am pretty sure that if we had hit them there would have been a riot and I don't think we would have lived. We started praying and at the last minute the emergency brake caught and we slowed down enough for them to get out of the road.
They dropped us off at a church parking lot and limped the bus to a shop where they determined that they needed to take the brakes apart to figure out what is wrong. The Village sent some vans for us and we went back to sleep. Unfortunately, everything we had was packed on the bus. I slept on the floor with 3 other girls with just some foam for our mattress, two blankets to share and a package of toilet paper as my pillow. What an experience.
I know these seem like small examples of the power of prayer. There were a million little ones throughout the week that I am not going to try and explain. Please just trust me that I was reminded to pray. Continually. Because God does listen.
posted by Andi at
7:31 PM
