Back in the States! Just landed less than three hours ago (a side note – washed my hands next to Newt Gingrich in the Atlanta airport men’s room as he talked on his cell phone about “congressional authority” and “secrecy”). And wanted to quickly update you on what happened when you prayed for widows and orphans, because it was nothing short of phenomenal.
It started out as
a blog about pain, but by the time I’d finished writing, it had turned into a call to action. Too many of us feel impotent in the face of pain. We see so much of it, we become desensitized. So, as I was leaving the next day for Africa, I felt led to ask you, my blog readers, to write down personal, individual prayers for the widows and orphans we’d be seeing in Swaziland.
I promised to pray the prayers over them when we arrived there. But how many to ask for? The number “100” popped into my head – a crazy number given the fact that the blog averages maybe five comments a day. I was tempted to hedge my bets by putting down a lower number. But I stuck with 100.
I didn’t have the details worked out, but after landing in South Africa, when I got on line and checked, there were 101 prayers on the blog! What a thrill to see that number. Many of your prayers were profound and heartfelt. A few were even written in Siswati (the local language).
Later, when our vision trip participants arrived, Shawn had 116 of the prayers printed out, cut, and laminated. A friend of his, Mrs. Rupert, had been widowed just three weeks earlier and took it upon herself to not only print them, but to pray over them, sometimes with tears.
We had 12 foot washing stations on that hot day in Nsoko. Widows and orphans from our eight care points (around 700 in all) lined up. We not only prayed your prayers, but our own as well. We had a nurse’s station there as well to tend to the various undoctored wounds we encountered along the way.
Although more than 50 of us washed feet, handed out shoes and prayed, all the individual attention we gave extended the process for about five hours in the blistering Swazi sun. Many of the children grew exhausted and slept on the ground while waiting.
When word got out about the Labron James shoes we were handing out (we gave away thousands of dollars of donated new shoes), the teenagers began to press in more.
My favorite interaction of the day was with Baby Moses’ mom – Philile. I went to her new house and prayed a prayer that Megan, one of the Racers who cared for Moses, had written out for her. It was a moving moment (I’ll post a video we took of it later).
All in all I just want to say “thank you!” to those of you who helped make this miracle happen. What a marvelous thing to be a part of a blog community that cares enough to reach out like this. It meant so much to all involved and it gives me hope that the family of God is far more powerful than it realizes.
If you have a friend that prayed one of the prayers we shared from the blog, please show them the video above. You’ll note in the video that I’m praying the prayer that Brooke wrote (#41).
This is heartwarming. Thanks for your faithfulness, Seth. Im grateful that you had this opportunity to get yourself uplifted in the challenging places you allow yourself to be (geographically, spiritually, organizationally, personally…)
I never really had a vision of Kingdom til Sarah introduced us to AIM via the World Race. Now, through you and others, daily blogs are daily bread.
Pat
Thank you so much, Seth, for posting this. I’ll make sure that my friends and family who posted prayers see it.
Praying for all those children and caretakers even now,
Elysa Mac
Okay…I have a question about the shoes. Is Labron James a sports figure? And did HE give the shoes or is it a type of shoe named after him like the Air Jordans?
He’s a pro basketball player. No, he didn’t give the shoes. Most of them came from http://www.samaritansfeet.org/
Hmmmmmm, Good stuff. May the seeds of encouragement and blessings for the widows and orphans, be nourished by the Lord himself!
Thanks for being the hands and feet of Jesus, Seth.
This video made me cry. How sweet.
We have so many spiritual widows and orphans all around us. Women and children who have been abandoned by their husbands and fathers. My children and I fall into that category.
And God calls us beloved too and rejoices over us with singing! He is my husband! He is father to my children.
I love the feet washing while praying such prayers. I’m inspired to do the same for the homeless and hurting in our community.
Thanks. Your doing great work.
Simply Beautiful!!
Thank you Seth. What good works for His Kingdom! Powerful stuff!! What an experience for everyone and a great way to draw in the readers of your blog. I will look forward to reading more about your trip.
seth – thank you for not just writing about this, but actually showing us by video and helping us see it even more. amazing.
seth-thanks alot, this has really touched my heart knowing that ‘you’are out there doing this true religion.we r doing something like that down here too. though we ve got some financial challenges.we r putting smiles on the faces of about 40 widows on saturday 12 of dec 2009. God bless
Dear beloved brethren,
Much greetings through the exalted name of our Loving savior Jesus Christ from
Kenya. I am very much pleased to tell you that your teachings on your website are a great blessing to me, my family and the young independent christian fellowship
that i founded when i got the call of the lord to do so. So, i, my wife , children and some few brethren from the community we are serving the lord under this christian fellowship.The fellowship is of 27 members. I also take care of ten orphans whose parents died. In this i am requesting you to send us more teachings that will enable us, as a small church to grow spiritually. As well it is my kind request that you also remember these needy orphans under my care in your daily prayers that God can open them ways for their needs both in physical and spiritual growth.As well I kindly invite you to come here in Kenya and bless our people with the gospel of our lord Jesus.Kenya needs mighty people of God to lead her in to salvation and know the Living God. Please have a kind consideration to extend your kind cooperation for the extension of the Kingdom of God. Praise the Lord
wonderful name of our Lord Christ Jesus. My heart rejoice as I reflect the fact that all of us share the abundance grace of Christ. I am sincerely grateful unto God for the wonderful work I believe you are doing and involved in during these last days, as you continually sharing the love of Christ with broken world and in the midst of the poorest community. (Isaiah 61:1) – a world which is desperately in need of the saving grace and power of our Lord Christ Jesus. It is with this in mind that I have always been in earnest prayers and in seeking the divine will of God to introduce me with you i got saved in Christ, and God called me into this great work of the kingdom in the love of God and since then I have witnessed the mighty move of God as souls are saved. I appreciated and thank God for calling me among the poor and orphans, as poor man to serve the community. On behalf of the servants of God and believers here, most humbly request and appeal to you to allow us to partner together and build up the Lords Ministry here in Kenya, so that all of us may be joined with bond of Christ Jesus in the fulfillment of the Great Commission according to the word of Jesus in the book of (Mathew 28:18 20) We are therefore more ready to work with you and be directly connected with you in the promoting of the gospel of Christ in Africa. We are bears of the good tidings of great joy.also read from Proverbs 25:25 and God bless you.Sincerely Pastor Isaac
Dear Mr. Barnes,
I am a widow too with two teenage sons who are still in Grades 11 and 8, 17 and 14 years of ages. My husband died of heart attack in 2016, he barely left us anything. Even the house we lived in, I had to sell because he left us with mortgages I was left to settle. We moved to another city here in the Philippines in order to be able to survive. I resigned from work abroad and took my children home to study in the Philippines in 2010. Now, at 55 I am back working again so I could support my sons. But the pay here
is meagre. I could hardly make both ends meet. Please include us in your prayers. I don’t know how we can survive….help please…..please pray for my sons, Vian Paolo and Marco Palacio. May they grow up to be responsible and kind, God-loving and fearing. May they always be healthy, strong and safe. AMEN.
I also pray for these people – Architect Cesar Senti and family, whom we have paid to build our little home but 9 months after, he still has not delivered. I also pray for friends like Molly Alvarez, Modesta Puyat and Mathilda Lucero- people who pretended to be friends only to hurt us. I pray for all those who have helped us- my sisters Malu, Nori and brother Henry. Bless them and their families Amen.
Anna, that sounds so hard! How do you make it? I pray that someone sees you. Manny Carlos, a pastor at Victory Church in Manila could perhaps help. Could you go there and ask for him? Let him know that I suggested you contact him.
God bless you.