Wah-tuh-mall-uh Prayer and Praise

As a way to encourage those of us embarking for distant lands to share the gospel the Lighthouse class came together to hold a prayer and praise before we left the next day. To say the presence of the Spirit was apparent would be an understatement and to be honest it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life as I was completely overwhelmed by how blessed I was to be a part of a group of people who had such love for one another. My good friends Brady and Katie opened us in song and the 40+ people who were gathered in Nate's apartment raised our voices in heartfelt worship to our Lord. In between songs whoever felt led would share a verse that God had put on their heart. I wanted to share and started flipping through the Bible. I had no idea what to share but God chose this moment to speak to me in the book of Psalms, Psalm 67 to be exact.

1 May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face shine upon us,
Selah
2 that your ways may be known on earth,
your salvation among all nations.
3 May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you.
4 May the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you rule the peoples justly
and guide the nations of the earth.
Selah
5 May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you.
6 Then the land will yield its harvest,
and God, our God, will bless us.
7 God will bless us,
and all the ends of the earth will fear him.

Even at that moment I was just rejoicing in how God was speaking to me reinforcing my purposes for this trip as well as articulating my own desires. After a few more songs the missionaries paired off, I being with Byron, and then those there to pray for us split into groups of 3-6. Each group would spend a few minutes praying over a pair and then would move on to the next pair. Again the work of the Spirit was apparent and I felt truly annointed by the many prayers that were lifted up in encouragement and protection over us. Unfortunately no words of mine can fully express how powerful it was, but it definitly strengthened me to go home and finish packing which I had just started a few hours before. Let me close this with me expressing the deepest thank you to each of you who has prayed for me and continue to lift me up to the Lord. I appreciate it more than you will probabally ever know, but do know that it gives me so much confidence for the Lord is faithful and the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. My life is evidence of that!! Praise God!!