Prayer

First things first - Thank you for all your prayers. I could not have done this without them. Man, I had half a post written about the prayer room experience and I lost it. Here's a quick synopsis:

Our mantra for the weekend was this: "It's all about you, Jesus." We would need it.

Thursday night: Covering the camp. The 3 of us in the Prayer Room covered the camp in prayer and anointed every doorway and chair those girls went through or touched. We walked every room and anointed every bed.

Friday: A day of preparing the way. It was a day of discovery for us. We felt like God led us to different scripture He wanted us to pray over them. We were delighted as each one showed us how much He loves them, what His vision is for them and how He desperately wants to rescue them. (Free will - a strange and wonderful thing) Friday night I was struck with a pain in my hip that was really debilitating. I covered it up with laughter because I thought I must have looked so funny trying to get up and down. I found out the next morning what that was all about.

Saturday: I woke up Saturday morning thinking "Don't mask your pain." So I asked God what that was all about. I knew He didn't want any of the team members to mask their pain, that if we wanted this to be a safe place for the girls to let go of their pain they needed to know they weren't alone and that there were others there who were in pain also. He then led me through what I can only describe as a ritual cleansing as I prepared for the battle of the day. Fascinating. I was also told that when I stepped foot in the Prayer Room that I would not come out until the battle was fought. I wonder now if I was obedient to this. I entered at 6:00 a.m. and fell to my knees at the altar. That's when I heard the cry of her heart. I don't know who "her" is but I felt her agony and wrote down the words that were coming to me. This is what I felt: "" One of the team members came in and I read it to her. She said this was exactly what the clergy team had done the night before with the cleansing. We were definitely on the same page. That is so cool. All day Saturday was a day of battle for these young women. We cried out, we sobbed, we held them in our arms, we carried them. That night at 9:00 I had an opportunity to see their faces. I couldn't pass it by. I left the prayer room for about 20 minutes. Then I went to bed at midnight completely spent and still in pain. I awoke at 3:00 a.m. praying still.

Sunday - Got up at 5:00 and again got cleansed. By 6:00 the Prayer Team was in the conference room praying over each girl's chair - each table - each inside team member. We prayed joy and freedom and victory over that place! Then we went back to our secret place. This was a day of freedom but we would still have to contend for it. The coolest thing that happened was this: We were praying over the speaker for the "God Empowers You" talk and as she left the room we began to clap. I told the other women to keep clapping until she got in the conference room. The clapping was resonating through the corridors - it was so cool. As she went in I told them not to stop. We continued to clap through her entire talk (and that woman can talk!) When she came back she asked how we knew she was coming because she assumed we had started clapping again. Then she said, "don't tell me you've been clapping that whole time." When I told her we had she was amazed. It was a very powerful time of worship for us. And I was told later that clapping is biblical and that things are broken off when you clap. I need to find that.

So we followed the girls over to the closing and I asked our God Empowers You speaker to pray over my hip before we leave the camp. As soon as it was over we found each other and she prayed a very powerful prayer of healing for me. I just laid in her arms and, if the girls weren't standing right there I would have been blubbering. She asked me what was wrong and I knew I hadn't been released yet. She told me that is not unusual, but that it would come. So, I came home with a pain in my hip which comes and goes. Soon it will be gone.

There is so much more. The story continues. But right now I need to stand up and move this hip around. If I might impose, I would ask you to pray for these three: Amber, Alisha and Alyssa. They have stolen my heart.