Greetings!
The pictures below are from last Friday night's Arise! Prayer and Praise service. Arise! is an African worship service that is part of Northminster Presbyterian Church, made up primarily of refugees and asylum seekers from African countries. I was invited to share because they are eager to reach our city with the gospel and wanted some training on how best to do that. This isn't their primary service - that's on Sunday. This is an extra midweek prayer and praise service. I believe I was the one who received the greater gift.
As person after person prayed and praised God, thanking Him for so graciously leading them to America, thanking God for asylum being granted after many years... As the songs broke out one on top of another, sung passionately by both children and their parents on a Friday night... As testimonies poured out one after another... I believe I was the one who received the greater gift.
One particularly striking testimony said this: "My mother and father died, my husband died, but my Jesus - my Jesus never dies."
I told them at the start of the service that regardless of the circumstances that brought them to America, I believed that God brought them to Tucson as a gift to us. We need to learn from their passion, their faith, their persistence in prayer, their emphases on relationship and community and collaboration. God has brought our city a great gift in these dear sisters and brothers in the Lord.
Dave Drum, Founder
J17 Ministries
