Pray it doesn't rain

Stepping out in faith involves risk.

But I think God loves when we believe and trust Him. It's gotta put a smile on His face when we take him at his word and we stand on it.

Last week we had planned an open-air worship time intermingled with evangelism/prayer ministry on the streets. But as the time drew near for our outreach, the weather forecast was depressing and dismal.

Every time I looked online-- and I looked almost hourly--it was predicting rain. Even the day before I told my neighbors "I'm praying it doesn't rain tomorrow..." and they said "You're wasting your time...it's going to rain...!"  It was already raining and it didn't look good.

But that night I wasn't going to give in.  We had a five hour Burn worship and prayer time at St. Michael le Belfrey that Friday night before our outreach.

I stood up in front of  the congregation that night and said "Listen, the bible says that Elijah prayed it wouldn't rain...and he had a nature like ours...and it didn't rain for years--not that I want a drought over here--but I would love for us to pull together our faith and believe God can stop the rain for our outreach!"

So we prayed.

And sure enough...when the day rolled around, it was looking a little ominous but it cleared up...and it was looking really beautiful during our outreach! God did it.

Not only did we worship on the streets and evangelize, but we offered prayer to people who were passing by. Several people came forward for prayer. Some on our team even got the names of people and what they needed prayer for.

I received a beautiful e mail from someone we prayed for on the streets.

My husband and I were walking around York and came across your prayer ministry table outside the church. We are both committed Christians. I have been in somewhat of a wilderness for the last year and went for prayer for my neck and shoulder. Your three ladies all had words that someone would come for these complaints. More important to me than healing was what has happened to me since. Something broke in me and my fire is coming back. Although the neck and shoulder still very painful what was important to me was to know that the Lord cared and loves me enough to mention me to three different people!

It makes it all worth it to know that God is touching lives.

There was a tourist who stumbled across our worship time from Kansas City. He was remarking about the strong presence of God in the city--and he is also someone who regularly goes to the IHOP prayer room in Kansas. So many people said it was encouraging to have worship on the streets.

Another man who is a believer struggling to make his acting relevant to his Christianity said he also came into contact with someone who was preaching him the gospel from our group and he was really encouraged to see us using our music and worship on the streets.

For me this kind of ministry is the fulfillment of something I've had on my heart for years. I've always wanted to mix worship and evangelism. I'm so grateful that my church has given me the green light to do this here in York and that we have so many wonderful people who are willing to step out into this ministry.

We will be doing more outreach this summer: May 31st, June 28th, July 19th-- 1-3 pm on the forecourt of St. Mike's. 
You are welcome to worship our great God with us!