Just One Hour

"My chains are gone, I've been set free. My God, My Savior has ransomed me. And like a flood His mercy reigns, unending love, amazing grace." -Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) by Chris Tomlin

Yesterday after our sessions we were able to do some exploring. We went to a vineyard in Stellenbosch and a beach in Somerset West. After that we went to the mall in Somerset West and were given four hours to walk around, eat, or do whatever we wanted. My little group went to this restaurant in the mall called Spur's. It was so much fun just to relax and be away from the Island for a little while. After a very long dinner we went to Mugg & Bean for dessert...finally!! After eating double our weight we headed back home for an amazing night of worship. 

We sang at least eight different songs and stopped in between some of them to read a few passages that dealt with these themes: adoration (Psalm 8), confession (Psalm 32), and our response back to God(1 Peter 1:3-9). It was amazing. I could feel the Holy Spirit's presence in the room. I became so overwhelmed by some of the truths and desires I was singing (i.e. Nothing compares to Your embrace/consume me from the inside out). After all of the songs We heard the passage about when Jesus prays in Gethsemane before He's crucified:

"Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, 'Sit here while I go over there and pray.' He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, 'My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.' Going a little farther, he fell with His face to the ground and prayed, 'My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.' Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. 'Couldn't you men keep watch with me for one hour?' he asked Peter. 'Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.' He went away a second time and prayed, 'My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.' When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing. Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, 'Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!'" Matthew 26:36-46

We were split up into four teams and given two different times throughout the night that we would have to wake up and come together and pray. Jesus' disciples couldn't even stay awake for an hour to pray while Jesus did, so we were going to dedicate an hour that night (two rounds of 30 minutes each) to just pray. So that means that we would have four hours, from midnight to 4am, of people constantly praying. I was on Team Three with Brant, Ethan, Clark, Mary Morgan, Calyn, and Mary Carr. A lot of people wrote down specific prayer requests and put them on tiny sheets of paper in the middle of the room. Our times were at 12:55-1:30 and 2:55-3:30. For the first five minutes of every session we would join with the group that was praying before us, then we would divide the prayer requests up among us and pray for each thing individually out loud. 

Team Three!

It was so awesome to see what's really on some people's hearts here. Some notes remained anonymous, but most had a name attached so we could pray for that person specifically. It was so worth only getting about an hour of sleep, and just to experience praying to God at all hours during the night. We were abruptly woken up at 4:30 to start our day. We had no idea what the rest of the day would look like. These groups we thought were just prayer groups turned into our teams during the entire process of what happened today. The trust bank is definitely open with all the members of Team Three.

I hope your day is brighter now than before, if anything you've just read has inspired or encouraged you thank the Lord; for it is His Spirit that flows through my body, my heart, and through my fingertips as I wrote this. Bless you.