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HOPE Heals is on Facebook.
Some of the biggest pray-ers in your church may be your teens. They often have some wonderful stories. Right now they're starting school again, and need our prayers. Let's pray for them and for their families and teachers...maybe assign each one a prayer partner...?
At a Teen Prayer Conference in Ohio, the teens were given some time on Sabbath afternoon to spend in ministry. They sometimes participate in activities many adults would not do. We've seen large numbers crowded into a hospital room singing, sharing, and praying until there was such peace and power in that place you could feel it in the walls. Others may visit nursing homes, airport terminals, malls, or just prayerwalk in the community.
One group of teens were assigned to go "mingle" and pray with people at a shopping mall. The idea was to get acquainted with the shoppers and pray with them if the occasion presented itself, "mingling with people as one who sought their good."
One extremely shy teenager was very uncomfortable with such an approach. He was assigned to the mall, but wandered around, praying silently as some of his friends walked up to tables in the food court, sat down and started talking to the diners. They seemed so at ease. I could never do that! he thought. So he stayed to himself and asked God, "Lord, is there anybody here for me? I don't know what I'm doing." Glancing upstairs to the upper level, he saw a bench with someone sitting on one end. So he decided to sit down and think and pray.
The young woman on the other end of the bench seemed pleasant and friendly, so he started talking to her. After the small talk, he asked, "May I ask you a personal question?"
"Sure."
"Do you believe in prayer?"
"Do I believe in prayer! Let me tell you something that happened in my life that changed my attitude toward prayer forever. Ten years ago I had a baby at Kettering Medical Center. The baby wasn't doing well and the doctors told us he might die. In fact, they hinted to my husband that they had given up hope.
"One afternoon a group of young people from the Seventh-day Adventist church came into my hospital room and said they were there singing and visiting patients. So we got acquainted, and I told them about the heartbreaking situation I was facing. And they said, 'Could we pray for your baby?'
"These kids stood around the bed and lifted my little one up to God's throne. They asked God to touch that little life and bring healing if it was His will. It seemed everyone else had given up but this group of young people asked God for the impossible. God answered the prayers of those teenagers! My baby was healed, and today I have a healthy 10-year-old because those Adventist young people prayed."
"I'm a Seventh-day Adventist," the young man told her. And then he took the opportunity to pray with her on that bench and to thank God for what He had done ten years before, and to ask God to continue blessing the woman's family.
That night when everyone returned to share their stories, his friends were amazed to see this shy kid, who had never been up front, eagerly jump up and tell what had happened to him that day. He could not keep the story to himself; it just bubbled out of him and became a great source of praise that evening.
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| Youth sing and pray for a home-bound member |
Such sharing times are Spirit-filled events. At a Teen Prayer Conference in Keene, Texas which began at 7:30 - the teens were still eagerly sharing at midnight. One young participant said, "You can't imagine how much power there was in that room. There were tons of kids who thought it was cool to be excited about God."
God sees immense value in our kids, and has a plan and purpose for each life. Please pray for the teens in your church and community. Wrap arms of prayer and love around them and see what God can do.
Recently one 16-year-old asked his grandmother for a Bible (he doesn't live in a Christian environment). She was thrilled, and asked what had piqued his interest in the Bible. He said, "I watched the video you got for me, 'THE SECRETS OF JONATHAN SPERRY,' Grandma. I watched it 7 times, and it made me want to study the Bible for myself."
(By the way, this is an outstanding video for young people. While it has a couple of brief statements about the state of the dead that we do not agree with, these offer opportunities for teaching). The video can be purchased at Amazon.com.
And please share your stories with us. God is doing things like this every day and your story can be someone else's motivation.
Blessings,
Ruthie
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Ruthie Jacobsen
NAD Prayer Coordinator
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This Month's Zinger
You are coming to the King
So large petitions with you bring!
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Prayer Events - all across North America
Pray for our Constituency Meetings
A Conference Constituency meeting is generally a one-day event held quinquennially bringing together Conference leadership and delegates from each church to conduct the business of that field. It receives reports, selects Conference leadership, and votes on plans for that field. A Union Conference Constituency session conducts similar business for the Union territory it serves (a group of Conferences), conducting its business with delegates from each Conference it oversees. These sessions transact significant items of church business and it is essential that they are covered with prayer from the members in those fields. Watch for dates and times in your Union paper and keep them in your prayers.
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All Night Call to Prayer
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Phone: 404-891-6338
ID 772 937#
Our next all-night call will be
September 1.
10:00 p.m. - 5:00 a.m. (EDT)
Mark that date on your calendar.
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Pray For Our Conferences and Their Leaders By Name
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All Night Call to Prayer - September 1
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