The power of prayer on mission trips

The driver of the truck in which Adam traveled called on him to pray, asking the Lord for a smooth crossing. He prayed. “Great, if we don’t get across it’s my fault,” he was quick to comment. But they did get across, without one vehicle getting stopped.

Throughout the week, Adam encountered situations requiring his prayers. He prayed, and a mis-directed van was located. He prayed, and a much-needed ladder came on the next truck.

The family at Adam’s worksite slept under a roof held down by trash and rock filled tin cans. The oldest child, aged 14, was responsible for her six younger brothers and sisters. The parents were gone in the mornings before the team arrived, and didn’t come home until long after they left in the evenings.

About mid-week, the team began praying that the parents would come home, even if just for an hour one afternoon to give the kids permission to go to Vacation Bible School. They didn’t come and didn’t come.

Then, on the morning of the last day, the parents were home when the team arrived. In that one day, through the witness of Adam’s team, the children were taken to VBS, and both parents came to know Christ.

It wasn’t surprising when Adam stood up during the time of sharing at the end of the trip and shared the work God had been doing in his heart.

“For the first time last night I really had a talk with God,” he said. “I committed my life to him in a different way than before.”

For Adam, God became a God of miracles; a God not only of grace, forgiveness and salvation, but someone who is waiting to affect the little practical details of his life.

As the Adams in your group are asked to step out in faith and see that God is there waiting to catch them, they’ll trust Him more. As they pray for one another, they’ll experience what Lori felt when she needed prayer and was able to count on her teammates.

Lori had been having a difficult time communicating the gospel to the woman her door-to-door team had approached. She was really starting to get frustrated when she noticed the three guys on her team had wandered out of the yard and down the street a ways.

As she was just about to quit trying, suddenly the woman’s face lit up and she told Lori, through a translator, that she understood. The rest of their conversation was easy and comfortable for Lori, and at the end she led the woman in a prayer acknowledging Jesus as her Savior.

Lori ran back to Ryan, Joe and Andrew and told them her news.

“At first she just wasn’t getting it,” she explained, “And then all of a sudden it was like talking to a different person!”

The guys were floored.  They had walked away to pray at just the time Lori began to connect with the woman.