I turned 24 today.
Gone are the days of being 23. It was a good birthday thinking back. The day started (at 12am) with me watching the second half of the Rugby World Cup game between Wales and Fiji - I was going for Fiji - and the Fijians actually won! (this was the first time they have qualified - or something like that). So that was cool.
It was then time for bed followed by a big day at church. We had City Evangelism today which, as usual, was a blessing. But this time round, instead of going out there in the 'battlefield', a few of us decided to pray instead (the prayer team, at the time, was harnessing the power of one).
This was the first time I joined the prayer team and to be honest, I started off thinking - Oh man, how am I supposed to pray for two and a half hours??!?!? What have I gotten myself into??!! But knowing that it had to be done, we split into pairs and got down on our knees (not literally, that could've been painful).
It was really incredible, despite only having three calls of help from the field, we managed to be led by the Spirit to pray for different things the whole time. It was actually good to have had a background of going out to evangelise previously because while praying, I kept thinking about the struggles I would usually have going out there on a normal non-praying day, and then I could pray really specifically for such things for all of my brothers and sisters. For example, when I got out usually, I am always facing the struggle of finding people to talk to and getting tired toward the end. So we prayed that people would always have people to talk to and toward the end, we prayed that people would have the energy to keep going.
Hour after hour passed and before we knew it, Wendy (our super-duper prayer co-ordinator) was telling us there was only one more round left! The time had seriously gone by REALLY fast. I really thank God for the testimony time afterwards because it was really encouraging to hear about what had happened in the city.
Things we had been praying for had actually been answered! For example, we prayed that Christians would be encouraged while they saw us evangelising in the city - and then Aunty Lehia shared that she met a Christian lady who saw us, was encouraged by it, and even wanted to sign up for the next CE! Another example was that we prayed that God would lead our soldiers to people who had received a tract previously or have had someone share the gospel with them before. People shared that people they talked to had:
--> received a tract that morning while walking along the Swan River
--> gone to church for the first time that morning and
--> received three tracts that afternoon alone
There were other examples, but I just wanted to share a few to show how awesome God works. I was so encouraged. It not only made me really wish that I could have been part fo the prayer meetings in the Spurgeon and Wesley eras, but it also really added to my burden to evangelise! (Praying about this world's need to get saved for two and a half hours will do that to you!)
After the sharing, we sat down to a church-cooked meal prepared by some loving sisters and then some of us went to Gelare's for coffee afterwards.
All in all, it was a day spent for the Lord and I just pray that more days will be spent similarly in the coming year!
