Praying in the Spirit

Bridges Academy is a Christian boarding school for orphans and vulnerable children (aged 12-19) who have come from the local townships. As with most Christian schools, there are some children who have a personal relationship with God and some who do not. Thus, one of the ways ROCKHARBOR teams support this school is through the spiritual development of these students.

Every year I’ve gone, spiritual development has looked a little bit different. In 2010, each team member picked a spiritual discipline and taught each grade level about it. In 2011, two to three team members were assigned to do nightly devotions with about 8 students. This year, our team of four did devotions every night with the entire school. This consisted of 51 students and 3 house parents. What was unique about this year is that I had the opportunity to lead most of the nightly devotions and give the message during the church service one Sunday. The topic that I kept feeling called to speak about was prayer. There were two moments in particular on the trip that stand out to me because they were so grounded in our team’s desire to being open and vulnerable to the Spirit as we prayed with and for the students.

 (Leading devotions for the first time on the trip)

The first one happened at the end of one of our devotions. Everyone was asked to turn toward the people closest to them and form a group of three. As it always happens when I’m there, I just happened to be sitting that night right next to my sponsor child, Sive, and Thandie who is unofficially my other child at that school. We were asked to spend time praying for each other. Not to ask questions, but to be sensitive to the Spirit and to the needs we knew the other people might have. In doing this, it created a very vulnerable time of prayer where the Spirit moved in each of us and ended with tears of joy. It’s something I won’t ever forget.

(This picture of the three of us was taken on the one warm day of winter that we experienced there.)

The second moment came on the last night of our trip. Everyone on the team had a chance to stand up and share some things that the students could specifically pray for them for. After we did this, we went and stood at various spots around the room while the students came and took turns laying hands on us and praying for each of us. I just remember feeling a constant stream of new hands coming and going as silence and prayers in IsiXhosa swirled around me. The one moment in the midst of all of this that I will remember most is feeling someone come behind me, rest their arm across my back and lay their head down on it and pray for me. It was such an intimate gesture that I believe can only come from a place of feeling safe and loved. It made me so incredibly grateful for all of the moments and opportunities I have had over the past three years to build relationships with these kids and to give the love of God away to them through conversations and other every day ways while I’ve been there.

Please continue to pray for the students at Bridges Academy. Pray for them to continue to grow in their faith and knowledge of who God is. Please pray for their studies and for their continued health and safety.