Prayer Pebbles and Ripples of Influence

So...this seems to have turned into more of a "newsletter reminder spot" and not really a blog.  Since my "Countdown to Walk to Emmaus" post in January much life has happened!!

I will be posting more pictures to help you see, but within the last week I received a note from a high school friend that started me thinking about how God blesses us and how we can bless others by coming to Him in intentional ongoing prayer.  

We got into a short conversation in a Facebook message about praying for a friend and she mentioned "prayer pebbles" and I asked her to explain and subsequently asked if I could share this great idea with you (my three faithful blog readers!!) !! 

She wanted me to let you know this was not her original idea and that she had gotten it from her pastor's family. They live in Oregon and we are blessed by all of them.  

Here is her explanation of "Prayer Pebbles" and a picture she sent of our "Table" pebble!!

"So, prayer pebbles. I have one for each family in our church (we only have about 35 families) and one for each missions family our church supports (plus you). If I know that families are going through something for an extended time, I will leave their pebble in the 'pool' for however long. Otherwise I will randomly select 3-5 families a week to blanket in prayer for that week. Then I set their pebbles aside until I have prayed through the whole group and start the process over again. Your mission field is especially active this time of year so I will leave your pebble in throughout the summer. Maggie (*her daughter*) and I spend so much time in the car that we keep the pebbles in the car and pray while we are driving. For those families with teens she is often more aware of prayer needs for the kids so it opens up a door for talking about those things. The visual reminder helps me to be more faithful to my verbal commitments to pray." 

Thank you dear friend and to ALL who have prayed for us!!

The RIPPLE EFFECT of those prayers bless our family, our ministry and those we serve!  The IMPACT on our hearts ripple way beyond today and into ETERNITY!

Blessed to Be a Blessing,
Melanie
Heb 12:1-3

Lessons from Summer 2012

Our climbing wall at camp has an element called the Jacob's Ladder or Dangling Duo.  It is a free swinging ladder made up of 4x4s suspended 40' in the air.  Each space between rungs is 6" wider than the space below it and it takes strength, agility and team work to reach the top since this is a two person activity. 

Earlier this summer I was working the belay rope for a young lady.  She was about half way up the ladder with her partner when it appeared she would not be able to go any further.  I finally asked her the question I learned in training, and one we as one of His servants should always be ready to ask, "What do you need and how can I help you?"  Her response was I just need to rest for a moment.  She then proceeded to climb to the top of the ladder with her partner.  Afterwards, she thanked me for believing in her and helping her achieve this goal.  To be perfectly honest, I thought she had reached her limit and wouldn't be able to go any further.  What I wanting was to lower her down so that we could load up our equipment and quit for the day. 

Jesus never gave up on Peter even after Peter denied Him three times.  Where would I be if God gave up on me when I had reached what I thought was my limit.  Thank you to all those who have given me encouragement at times when I was ready to give up and help me not to give up on others too quickly.

Drudgery or Service??

What is the difference between simple drudgery and joyful service? The difference became apparent to me recently.

A few weeks ago, we had a group of men down from Casper for a weekend retreat. One of the activities we offered was for them to try our climbing wall and zip line. After I had unhooked the same guy from the zip line for the 3rd or 4th time, he commented that it must be pretty boring doing that all of the time. I didn’t say so to him but I have to confess that I was thinking, haven’t you guys had enough yet?

Then I was reminded of a kid's camp we had a few weeks prior to that. It was 45 kids from the 4th and 5th grade classes of one of the schools here in Laramie. We were running the climbing wall and zip line for them too and my job was to put a climbing harness on the kids and when they came back from the zip line, take the harness off and put it on the next kid. For about 4 hours that day it was put a harness on, take a harness off, repeat.
 


What stuck with me was one boy who was wearing mud boots which aren’t the best for climbing in. I asked him how high he thought he could climb and he said he wanted to go on the zip line but didn’t know how far up the wall he could get but that he was going to try. I asked if he had ever seen the movie “Facing the Giants” and he said no. So I told him about the scene where the coach made Brock do the death crawl blindfolded with a kid on his back and encouraged, cajoled, harangued him until he had gone the whole length of the field. I told this kid that I wanted him to go as far up the wall as he could then go a little farther. In short, we were able to talk him to the top of the climbing wall and he then rode the zip line down. When he came back to me to have his harness taken off, this kid who was around 4 foot tall was wearing a 6 foot smile. That is what our ministry is about and what turns what could be drudgery into joyful service.

Since we weren’t able to openly talk about spiritual things with those kids, my prayer is that my example from the movie prompted him to go home and watch it with his family. Remembering that smile and seeing other people’s joy in their experiences at Table in the Wilderness is one of the many rewards we receive for making the huge changes in our lives and following God on this faith journey.

And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.~~ Colossians 3:17 (NIV)


Waldo