Praying Them Home

I have been up for several hours now. Praying. Praying them home. Today, the team that left almost 2 weeks ago returns home. I must admit something here — I've prayed a lot these last 2 weeks. I've prayed to the point of almost being no good for anything else. Yes, it's true —I've gone through the motions of everyday life — so to speak. Get up, get ready, pray. Repeat. In between, I've met with friends, gone to lunch, had coffee, done a little shopping, gone on walks, and even out to dinner. Yet after each outing, I've come home and once again prayed. Sometimes during the night, I would wake and pray some more for the team and for my husband. Going through the motions of life, but really just wanting to pray for their safety--our team.

Over the past 2 weeks, my husband has been great about calling and texting me almost every day. So yes, I've known all along just what their needs have been. I've done as I was asked, though, and kept all that pertinent information to myself. I've been good. However, I didn't feel too good about keeping quiet. I wanted to shout out to everyone — are you praying? Really praying? Because they need you! They need you now!

They needed prayer when they got their first flat tire, and again as they drove through one city, with police banging on the doors of their vans with billy clubs — they needed prayer. They needed prayer when one got so sick that he needed IV's--yes, they needed prayer. And the day they visited the hospital--well, that day, they really needed prayer--for what they saw, for what they heard, and for how they felt. They needed prayer.

It is very interesting to me how, for the past 2 months, I've been facilitating a small group where we went through the book Love To Pray. We've learned about prayer, we've prayed together, and we've seen the way God answers prayer. God's timing is amazing! Because the last 2 weeks we've had something really important to pray about. Our Congo team. They needed us. However, other things were also happening during the last couple of months--one person's mother passed away, another went through cancer treatment, another is preparing for a mission trip to Honduras, another is grieving for the salvation of their child, and another needed prayer while caring for their elderly parents. Yes, we all had needs; we all needed God to meet us just where we were. And He did. He met us as we prayed. He showed us things we never imagined. Because we prayed. We learned we listened, we prayed.

So now we are praying them home. We pray for their safety on their last leg in the air — from Brussels to Chicago. They will also need us when they get home--to process, to share, to try their hardest to get across to us, who've stayed home--just what it was really like in Africa.

I am praying. Praying them home. And you know what? I am praying for them to go back to Africa. Back to minister to a people whom I am sure have grown to love.