Prayer Month: Day 28

Well… it’s over. It was a long, emotional, prayerful day with a very anticlimactic end as I sat at 11pm and prayed for my marriage during the credits of a Harry Potter movie. I’m not sure whether to be relieved or sad. It was such an insanely difficult year with so many trials and heartache… but I also learned more about myself (both good and bad) and grew closer to God than I ever have before in my life.

I also thought I would have some great new adventure that God presented to me as the “next” thing, but He didn’t (sorry for all those disappointed… I was a tad bummed to). I will say that He has made some things very clear. Certain people to reach out to (and most of the time this is not the fun hang out with on the weekends kind of people… it is the hard, probably seems awkward, maybe even fear of being physically hurt kind of situations), or things/situations/people to continue to daily lift up in prayer. Things from EVERY SINGLE MONTH of fasting that improved me that I should continue on with... or start again if I have stopped while focusing on another area.

I have some things that God is nudging me to do… but they are a lot of things that are putting my iron in the fire and wait to see where God takes it. I don’t like sitting and waiting or not having a detailed plan lined out (ask my husband… this is painfully true), but that is what God has asked me to do… so I will.

I am going to spend sometime over the next week or so re-reading all my journal entries over the last 11 months.  I hope to come back and write a reflective entry at some point. This has been a year of tremendous growth, and I appreciate all of you that have joined me on this wild ride. I hope that in some way it has made you think, or challenged you, or encouraged you in your relationship with God. Thank you so much for taking time out of your lives to join me on this amazing journey. It means more than you will ever know.

 So whether you eat, or drink, or give up electronics, give away possessions, wear 9 articles of clothing, eat only fruit, veggies, and meat, recycle everything, limit your spending, evaluate all roles in your life, take care of your physical and spiritual health, or pause 7 times a day to pray… or whatever you do, DO IT ALL for the glory of God. (ok… maybe not exactly scriptural… but now you get to read the verse how I read it. :)) 1 Corinthians 10:31

Prayer Month: Day 26

The power of prayer built a fresh drinking water well for an entire village in the northern part of Africa.  In case you think you didn’t read that right… yes… the power of prayer built a fresh drinking water well for an ENTIRE VILLAGE in northern Africa!!!

"And if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded.” -Matthew 10:42

I am going to be the first person to admit that I did not think it was possible. I wanted it to be possible. I prayed for it numerous times a day throughout the entire fast. But from the very beginning (about 7 weeks ago) I have been telling people as we were doing jobs to raise money, “yes it is $10,000… but we will just raise whatever we can and send that.” I really did not believe that God would provide. I thought God would teach us all (me and my children) some marvelous lessons and we able to send “some” money to help out with the water situation, but I really did not think (even though I was praying for it) the goal of $10,000 could be met by Christmas. God has a lovely way of proving me wrong… a lot!

The entire experience was amazing and exhausting. I am not going to lie… when December 23^rd came and it was our last day of jobs for the well was here, I was relieved. I am so proud of my children. I wanted to quit, I know there were times they wanted to quit. It seemed that baking and doing jobs to raise money for the well project took up almost all of our free time in December. I just kept reminding them (and myself) that this is something they committed to doing. Things that are good and right are not always easy and fun.  Sometimes we have to give up our Lego building time, or TV time, or sleeping in time in order to do something for someone else.  There were a lot of super great lessons that the kids (and Eric and I) got to learn throughout this process.

The thing I think I love the most is that God has shown me once again, the power of prayer can do ANYTHING! There is no reasonable, logical way that 4 children under the age of 8 should have been able to raise $10,000 to provide clean water to village in the name of Jesus… but they did. Through prayer, determination, and a LOT of VERY generous people… we did it! So whether you gave $2 or $2,000 or said a prayer for our mission, you helped spread the love of Jesus to an entire village in Africa. Thank you!

Christian Relief Fund said that the well will be built at the end of January/beginning of February and they will send us pictures. I am so excited! I’m not sure if I will still be blogging (my last day of the final fast is Saturday)… because I am not sure what I would blog about. :) But I might come back and share pictures with anyone that wants to see them.

I am starting to get very emotional at the ending of the fast. It has been an amazing year, though one of the most difficult in my life.  I have been attacked by Satan in numerous ways I did not think I could handle. But, I have grown closer to God than I ever dreamed possible. My last day is Saturday. I’m not 100% sure what God’s plan is for me following this journey, but I am thankful He took me on it.

Thanks for joining me on the journey!

Prayer Month: Day 21

This prayer fast has been amazing. I have seen things happen that I never dreamed possible through the power of prayer this month.  God is moving mountains on my behalf and for others this month… and I can hardly contain my excitement!

For some reason I am always surprised when God answers my prayers. I guess it just goes to show that I have a lot of work yet to do in the faith department. I asked God to show me specific things and people that maybe I was not thinking of to pray for… and of course He did. People that I don’t think about all the time, very out of the blue are on my mind constantly for days. When I reach out, almost every single one of them has something going on in their life that they could use specific prayer for. Even through an add in my FB feed… I saw a shirt with a saying that I just love (and I think I will establish as my life motto) “Be the Change you Hope to See in the World”. So fantastic… isn’t that they way it should be. As Michael Jackson said, “I’m starting with the man in the mirror.” You can only be in charge of your actions… so why not start there. Anyway… through this add, upon further investigation, there was a big long story about girls in India and sex trafficking. So guess what is taking up a lot of prayer time at 5pm? God works in wondrous ways (even if it is through and add for a cute shirt on FB).

God has also used my little “ding” when it is time to pray as a great reminder of what His purpose is. I was sitting listening to a conversation that I was about to chime in my “two cents” (that was absolutely of no benefit to anyone other than to make sure people knew how I felt…not constructive or loving) and then what do you know… literally as I inhaled to say my “thoughts” the chime went off to pray. He is so great about that ‘perfect timing” thing… isn’t He?

I am on my final week of the prayer fast and the entire journey will come to a close. What an amazing way to end… and during the week of Christmas… could not be more perfect!

Thanks for joining me on the journey!

Prayer Month: Day 18

It has been a crazy whirlwind last 10 days. And there are only 10 days left of THE ENTIRE 11 MONTH FASTING PROCESS!!!! Excited, scared, nervous, thankful, relived, unsure of what is to come are all the things I think about when I think this “project” in my life coming to a close. 

Let me start this blogpost  by saying my amazing, awesome, Godly council members were so very generous as to take my prayer pauses for me on the day of the Grandpa’s funeral. I did the 6am and 11pm… they covered the entire day in between so I didn’t have to think or pray for anything but my family that day. What a blessing.

It has been very busy… ‘tis the season, right? Between end of the quarter school projects, Christmas activities and parties, and lots and lots of projects for the fresh water well project… we have been busy! At the beginning of the month I would kind of get frustrated when my little “ding” went off on my phone and I was in the middle of something else. I am sad to say I thought, “ugh… have to pray again” when I was busy doing other things. But as of late, the last 4 days in particular… I found it as a relief. When I would hear the reminder chime it was like, “ahhh… a pause. This is nice.”

Another change I see is how often I am “praying” (just chatting it up with my heavenly father) when it is not a scheduled time to pray. I feel like I do it all the time. The set times are just reminders of specific other things to pray about. But I really feel like I am just talking to Him all the time about what is going on, how I should handle things, things I’m thinking about, you name it… I’m probably talking to God about it.  And it is really kind of weird. These are all things that I would probably think about or worry about normally, I’m just in a different mind set of directing EVERYTHING to God. I don’t really think in terms of “how am I going to do this?” or “how can I make this work?” I just think of God and me as inseparable… I wouldn’t imagine doing anything without consulting Him first. “Ok, what’s the plan?” or “how are YOU going to handle this?” or “how will YOU make this work?” And I guess that was really the point of this whole 11 month fasting process… to make us inseparable…. I just didn’t know that was it going in. :) And the great discovery in all this is that we always have been, and always will be inseparable… I just acknowledge it in a way that makes even the small, minuet things in life radiate with the presence of God. And let me tell you from experience, viewing things from that prospective makes life (and all the joys and heartaches that come along with it… big and small) so much easier.

Mike Pace, the preacher at my grandpa’s funeral (and preacher from my childhood) said something that was hard to hear at first, but ever so true and freeing once I thought on it. He said, (and I paraphrase) “This is the day we wait for. The whole point of living life is so we can die and go be with our heavenly father.” So true. Hard to hear when you have lost a loved one, but, so very true. Some of us get to meet him sooner than others, but our entire life here on earth is simply just waiting to be with the Lord.  I hope to do my best to share the love of Jesus with as many people as I can before I get there. I want to glorify God in all of my actions while I am waiting. But my ultimate goal is just to be with Him. And when you think about life like that, it just seems a little sweeter.

This has been an incredible, powerful month. I am so very thankful that I saved this for my final month. I think there were so many lessons that I learned in the fasts leading up to this that prepared me for the genuine transformation of my relationship with the Lord during this month of constant prayer.

It has been an amazing journey, thanks for joining me on it!

Prayer Month: Day 8

Today was a rough day. My grandpa died today. Today was a lot of praying, but not for anything on the list. Just praying for my family, and our loss. My grandpa was a great man that loved the Lord. He was very sick, and for my grandpa… I am so glad he gets to go home to Jesus. He has lived a long and full life, and he was ready to go. But it is those of us that are here that I cried for today. Those that will be lonely without him, and will miss him everyday.

I am 2 weeks shy of my 33^rd birthday, and until today I have got to spend almost 33 whole years of my life with all four of my grandparents living and in my life. I grew up in a town where both sets of grandparents lived, and they were a part of every holiday, special occasion, milestone, church every Sunday and just everyday living. That is such a blessing that most people in this world do not have… I know my children are not blessed with that. It’s a thing that I very much took for granted during my youth. But over the past 10 years or so, I have really treasured the fact that I have had a unique gift that not everyone does. And I am thankful.

So, tonight as I stood in line to pay for two little girl black dresses for a funeral, and my chime went off on my phone to pray, I just let tears roll down my face. I pray for those hurting with the loss of a wonderful man, but also a prayer of thanksgiving of no more suffering and no more pain for a man who was tired and ready to go home.

We love you and we will miss you grandpa. Rest in peace, until we meet again.

James “Jim” Walker

May 21, 1931- December 10, 2013