A group drove all the way in from Connecticut to join us here in Chicago!

We did something new with the group on Tuesday night. A church that we have been attending while we’ve been here has a prayer meeting every Tuesday. So we decided dinner would be early and the prayer meeting would be our worship for the night. When we arrived at the church it took everything in me to not get super excited and nervous.

Have you ever told a friend about something you really enjoy? It’s a risk, right? What if they don’t like it? What if they do like it, but not as much as you do? What if it’s weirder than usual? What if they’re not in the right mood for it? But, it’s so awesome…

Deep breath, turn it over to go and we walked through the large wooden doors and headed into the old church that stands on the corner. Music boomed from the sanctuary upstairs, and the joy of being in God’s house filled me. We were given prayer cards that had been filled out either on the previous Sunday or Sunday’s prior. As a body we were going to pray over the church, the neighborhood, the city and the prayer cards.

I looked around at each student as they examined the cards they held. The whole body worshiped with everything in them, and then something happened that I don’t think any of us expected.

It came time to pray over the leaders of the church, and the pastor at the pulpit announced to the church that a group of missionaries was with them tonight. He asked the church to turn and to pray over all of us.

Roughly one hundred people turned to face us, stretched out their hands and began to pray over us.

It’s been a while since I had an experience like that in a church building. They didn’t just pray but gave us words of wisdom and encouragement.

The depth of prayer that we all experienced that night was beautiful. It reflected the fullness of the body, the necessity of each part. It was a night that we all needed, a night of reminding us of our purpose, and who we are really here to serve.

This group showed off all week their joy to serve and to jump in. We’ve been blessed this summer with groups who love to serve and play while doing it. That night set them up for worshiping and serving all week.