1 Timothy 4:12

I realize this is out of order but I wanted to share it anyway.

I help teach AWANA at the local church here in Kijabe on Sunday afternoons. At the beginning of this year, the church started holding prayer meetings on Sunday afternoons for the upcoming elections in March. These prayer meetings started an hour after AWANA did so none of the other leaders could ever attend the meetings.

On Sunday March 2nd, the day before the elections, my phone service provider was acting up.  Any texts messages I received were delayed several hours. I arrived at AWANA on time, listened to the verses the children had memorized during the week, and then started game time. Only I and one other leader were there. However, as I was leading games, two other leaders showed up and told me that they had tried to text me that they had cancelled AWANA so they could attend at least one election prayer meeting. This obviously had been a DIVINE miscommunication because we already had many children at AWANA. The other leaders suggested that we just send the kids home, however, God gave me another idea. If it was so important for the AWANA leaders to go and pray for the elections, why not demonstrate the importance of prayer by having our own prayer meeting?

So while the other leader attended the prayer meeting, I divided the kids (ages toddler to 8th grade) into groups with at least 1 or 2 7th or 8th graders in each group to lead. Every group had a different aspect of the election to pray for. One prayed for the presidential race, one prayed for the numerous other races to would be voted on the following day, one group prayed for peace during the election, and  another prayed for peace after the election. Once I made sure each group knew what they were praying for, the groups each went to a different part of the field (where we hold AWANA) to pray. I cannot describe the joy I felt watching these young ones pray for their country. The adults of the church may have thought that these children were too young to participate in prayers, but God didn't. The leaders of each group made sure everyone in the group had a chance to pray, even the preschoolers. After all the group had finished prayer, we gathered back together for a final prayer and release the children to go home 15 minutes early.

God definitely had His Hand in the events of that day. He caused the text message cancelling AWANA to be delayed for several hours so I would be at AWANA that day. He gave me the idea to hold our own prayer meeting. He caused there to be the perfect number of 7th and 8th graders to lead the prayer groups and HE enabled even the youngest children to focus and concentrate for a full half hour during the prayers.

I was blessed and I hope this story blesses you as well!