Praying in Grimstad

Today our school took a drive to Grimstad, a city about an hour from Flekkeroy. While there, we prayed for a couple topics in two different locations. One thing I love about this school is that we're not only learning about prayer; we're also learning how to lead others in prayer. So we have many opportunities to lead prayer times for our school and for the IBC as well. Earier this week, the students were split into 2 teams (3 students in each team) and given the task of planning an hour prayer time for a specific topic in Grimstad. My team's topic was the youth of the city (exciting for me!). Now some people might be thinking, "What is there, really, to planning a prayer time? Don't you just pray?" While, of course, that is surely acceptable to God, I'm learning that prayer can be so much more creative and exciting! It doesn't have to be boring and quiet and solemn; and putting effort into planning the time contributes much to keeping it from being so.

So this morning we first drove to a gymnasium where a youth rally is going to be held next week, and the other team led us in an hour of prayer for that. Then we drove downtown to a street where all the youth hang out on the weekends (comparable to RiverPark, for you Fresnans :-)). That was where my team led. We walked down the street, praying for God's Spirit to be there, then we met together again to pray into a few specific issues for the youth in Grimstad, such as divorce, depression, and gangs/violence. We had each topic written on a heart in a basket. Someone would draw a heart and we would pray for that subject for a few minutes, and then someone would draw another heart. We ended with a time of singing, asking God to come and show His power in that place. At first, I thought an hour would be a really long time to pray, but it's amazing how quickly it passed.

All in all, it was a great day! I never knew that praying for 2 1/2 hours could be so easy and fun. And I also really enjoyed planning for today. For those of you who know me well, this won't come as a surprise! I love planning parties, meetings, vacations, schedules, lives (yeah Sarah?? :-)), and prayer times are no exception! I'd just never tried it before this school. I look forward to focusing my "planner" energy into many more prayer times in the future :-).