The Upper Room
Tonight we prayed. And when I say we prayed, I mean we really prayed. It wasn't the routine dinner prayer or the quick quip heavenward. It wasn't the hurried fulfillment of someone's prayer request or the almost mandatory close to a Bible study. It was hard core, honest to goodness, heart-pleading prayer. While Ecuadorians were trained to join our team of teachers this week in Esmeraldas, the rest of us gathered in an upper room to cover the place of this ministry in prayer.
An upper room of a double level compound built of cold cement and stretching long with door after door of empty classrooms.An upper room plain and small.
It reminded me of another upper room; one where prayer met flames of the Holy Spirit indwelling. He was there tonight too.There, amidst the echos of children playing in the gated courtyard and sounds of traffic from the streets seeping through the walls, God walked. And I cried.There is no way I can love these kids like Christ loves them. He knows every hair on their heads, every dream in their hearts. He made them with just as much purpose as He made me. But how do we communicate that to street kids?Singing: sweet tones dripping smooth off cement walls. We certainly aren't angels, but few choirs I've heard sounded better than that praise tonight in a hollow upper room just waiting to be filled. In that upper room, we poured out so we could be filled. In that upper room, we will pour out so others can be filled. Then we will come empty to our maker again, ready for more. Starting Wednesday, those rooms will be filled with hundreds of souls that are hollow. Please pray that we be used as the method by which they might be filled with the life and joy they were meant to have in Jesus. And pray that the name of Jesus might every moment become more precious to us.
Pray also that the photography team will be able to use the cameras with the kids and that none of the point and shoot cameras will walk off down an Esmeraldas alley, never to return. Pray that our photo stories would be impactful and relatable to the lives these kids lead.Signing off for the photography team,AtaliePartner with us in Prayer. We need it.