Prayer Night

The Church has been working a lot on vision and church growth. I've already spoke some on the different meetings and outings the church has done in an effort to better see the needs in the Beeck and Meiderich areas. There is still a lot of work to be done as the vision and goals are being formed, but we knew as a church how important it was to cover every aspect of vision and church growth in prayer, so we planned a prayer night. Planning this prayer night took me back to my Ozark days where my floormates and I made a prayer room to pray for the nations. I remember how big of a change it was for us in our lives and our ministry visions, just focusing and spending the time praying. sometimes together, sometimes alone, but having the common goal be for the expansion of the kingdom. I was very excited to create a little of that here for this night. 

We started the night talking about Acts 1:14, which talks about how the disciples, the women, Jesus' brothers, and Mary devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, that was what the night was about. Coming together and praying over our part in the Great commission and our part in the Church in Duisburg. This night was very different from anything the church members had done before, we had set up 4 different interactive prayer stations that focused on different areas of outreach and growth. 

The first station was the "insecurity" station.

 So many of us let our fears and worries stop us from going out and spreading the Gospel. It is so easy to let those fears and worries turn into burdens of failure and things that we try to hide from ourselves and others by making excuses. This station was about calling out our insecurities and giving them over to God. Psalms 55:22 says "Cast your burden on to the Lord, and he will sustain you." When you came to this station you were to write down your insecurity on the card, then pray giving them to God. Then you could stamp the word "Danke" (Thank you) over what you wrote down, A thank you for him hearing our requests and taking our burdens (1 John 5:15) Then we hung our signs on the cross as a sort of symbolic gesture. 

The next station was our "Church Map" station.

  This station had five columns set up, each column had a heading "Beeck" "Meiderich" "Duisburg" "Germany" and "The world". When you look at a map, you see all of the places you can go and the different routes you can take to get there. This station was about looking at the places God had put us in, as the church where we wanted to go, and praying out to God about the way He wants us to go there.
 One of my favorite ways to communicate with God is through written word, and that is what we did in this station. We wrote out letters to God praying over each of these places and asking for boldness to step out in faith to reach them. 

 Intercession station

2 Timothy 2:1 "First of all, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made for all people." This station was us, as a church doing that. We had made a bunch of little flags that had specific people groups on them. These ranged from prostitutes to police officers, from the persecuted church to the rescue workers in Nepal. At this station you just grabbed a few of the flags and prayed over whoever was on that flag. We prayed specifically for these people and that they see God's love for them.

The final station was "The big Picture"

  This station is where we prayed over the great commission and our individual part in that as Christians. In a puzzle every piece is invaluable, you cannot finish a puzzle if certain pieces are never played, or are lost. The great commission cannot be completed without us as Christians listening to God's command and going out and making disciples of all tongues, tribes, and nations. We had set out puzzle pieces in this station, each took a puzzle piece and wrote Matthew 28:18-20 on the back, and kept it as a reminder that each of us has a part in God's grand picture. We prayed over seeing our  invaluable part in the puzzle and allowing ourselves to be used by God.

 Anytime you spend in prayer is time well spent, but there is just something special about coming together with a group of people and praying in different ways towards one goal.
Overall the prayer night turned out to be a great night. We had 9 people show up, and everyone did a great job stepping out of their comfort zones and seeing the value of these different prayer methods. The response at the end was positive and many said they would like to do it again!

My time in Duisburg is quickly coming to an end, I'll be heading out May 21st to another part of Germany before heading back to the Kontaktmission home office for the crashweekend! This next week is going to be quite busy with the church retreat. We leave on the 13th and will return the 17th. We are having an international theme and I am excited to get to share on two days and make an American type meal for the church :)

Please Pray
For the retreat weekend
- for those planning the weekend
- for those who will be teaching and sharing this weekend
-for the church members to become closer and more unified throughout this retreat
For safe travels
-Silvia (the minister I've been working under) is heading to the States on vacation on the 21st
-Me as I move on to my next city in Germany
For the Crash weekend
-all those planning the event and training
-all those who will be traveling to Germany before heading out on their summer internships and short-term trips
 Thanks again for all of your support and prayers!


I'm going to leave you with this awesome photo...

The FeG Duisburg-Beeck youth group :) last Wednesday was my last time to hangout with them since this Wednesday is the retreat, but it was so much fun getting to know this crazy group!
Oh and notice the beautifully painted wall behind them... we thought the red would never be finished.