A
couple of months ago, the Raleigh Fellows had the incredible opportunity to
travel up to National Harbor, Md., to attend the International Justice Mission’s
(IJM) Global Prayer Gathering. For those
of you who have never heard of the International Justice Mission, IJM is a
global organization that fights to protect the poor from violence and slavery
in the developing world. They do this by “rescuing victims, restoring
survivors, bringing criminals to justice, and by strengthening justice systems,”
to quote from their mission statement
Their concern is primarily centered on those who are victims of slavery,
sex trafficking, sexual violence, police brutality, property grabbing, and
citizen rights abuse.
“Jesus, I pray
for a miracle.”
The
Global Prayer Gathering gave us the opportunity to step into the lives of the
field directors and their teams as they return from places like Mumbai, Rwanda,
Phnom Penh, and Guatemala (just to name a few) to be prayed over, and to share
in how the Lord is changing lives and judicial systems in these third world
countries. We were asked to take this
time to rejoice for the miraculous work God is doing, and to lament over those
who are still amidst terrible suffering.
Our days were spent deep in prayer as we would begin in the large group
where we would worship with singer/songwriter, Sara Groves, and would listen to
keynote speakers. From there, we would
break up into groups and visit various rooms that were focused in on one area
of the world, like Rwanda, where we would listen to the prayer request, and go
into a powerful time of intercession.
“Jesus, make
loud the voice of those who seek justice for those who have no voice.”
The
overarching statement of the weekend was, “Because prayer matters.” From a personal standpoint, I have always known
that prayer is a pivotal part of my relationship with God. The idea that we have the ability to speak
directly to the Maker of heaven and earth has always astonished me. However, this prayer gathering gave me a new
and powerful perspective on prayer, and reminded me of God’s strong desire for
us to come to Him with ALL of our needs.
Isaiah 58:9 says, “Then you will call and the Lord will answer; you will
cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.”
With this in mind we entered into those hours of coming before the
throne of God and praying on our knees for those suffering thousands of miles
away.
“Jesus, bring
deliverance to the widows in Kampala, Uganda, who are experiencing violence and
devastation to their land.”
On
Saturday morning, we took our seats in the large group room which held a little
over a thousand people. We began with
worship, announcements, and then jumped into listening to a key speaker from
Mumbai. I was already feeling emotion
from the prayer time, and then as I listened to the story of six young ladies
who had been captured into the sex slave industry in India, my heart dropped
even lower. The speaker then described
his team’s decision to go into the brothel to free these girls who were daily
objectified and broken. We were so
captivated by his steadiness and the excitement in his voice as he went deeper
into the account. Several times his team
and the police raided the brothel in search of the girls—each time failing to
find them. The police became more
irritated with each failed attempt when finally, late one night, they raided
once more, and began to knock on the panels and floors to listen to any hollow
sounds. One policeman finally knocked
once on a wall in the kitchen. He began
to break the wall down and found a small hole.
They wiggled their way down the long passage and found a small
room. There were the six young girls who
had been forced to wait the raid out. I
felt big tears roll down my cheek as I listened in disbelief to the success of
freeing these slaves. We began to clap
as he wrapped the story up, and then finally the clapping stopped when he
announced, “Now we are going to go live to Mumbai to talk to three of the girls
who were rescued.” I looked at the other
Fellows faces and we were visibly shocked.
It was one of the most powerful moments of the weekend. Each girl took a moment to talk and then
shared various prayer requests. I will
never forget their beautiful faces as they attested to the power of God, and
for the deliverance out of the pit. My
favorite part was when it was finally revealed to them who they were speaking
to as the camera showed the crowd and we rose to applaud them. They laughed and looked at each other. It must have lasted for a few minutes.
“You will be
called the Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets to dwell in.”
All
in all, the weekend was like drinking from a rushing fire hydrant. We felt full with the Spirit as we buckled to
leave for Raleigh. All of us agreed,
there is power in prayer, and we serve a God who is passionate about justice,
and using His creation to bring that forward.
