Okay God, here we go! Let's go meet the girls for our Bible study now. I don't exactly know what you want me to say today, but I am going to trust you for the words and the wisdom to know what to do. Oh and by the way, you know I don't have enough money to pay for parking in the garage, so I could really use your help finding a parking spot on the road again. Thank you for all the other times you have provided in this way. I know I can trust you for it. Thank you also for the oppor-tunity to meet with these girls. I just pray that I will be your vessel and you will use me to speak for you."
That's been the general direction of my prayers for the past several weeks as I've met with 1-3 girls in the Student Union Building (SUB) at Boise State University (BSU). Every Friday afternoon at 12:30, we gather together for a book/Bible study using the book "Why Pray?" by John F. DeVries. Since we are, in fact, studying the subject of prayer, it has been quite fun to arrive at the school proclaiming thanks to God for yet another prayer answered as a parking spot opens up right in front of me. Weekly, I get to share how my conversational prayers with God provide physical, tangible results to simple needs.
One of the girls, Leah* has been genuinely seeking an intimate relationship with Jesus, but not fully understanding what that meant. She accepted an invitation to attend the revival services at Nampa First in March, with speaker Dan Bohi. She left with a new understanding of what walking with Jesus entails. She had a lot to think about, but from what I could tell, went home without making any final decisions. Unfortunately, Leah soon began experiencing many difficult trials in her life. Even while she attended our Bible study, she withdrew and was dying in agony. I watched her every Friday as I tried to understand what was distressing her and to understand better how to pray for her. Her verbal response was typically a 1-2 word blanket phrase, but her body language screamed "I'm hurting!".
On Friday, April 15th, I watched several prayers receive an answer right in front of our eyes. This girl was in fact hurting, deeply. I'd prayed my same prayer on the way to BSU, once again asking for a parking spot and to have wisdom and the right words. This time...THREE spots were available in the free, 2-hour parking areas of the street. WOW! "Thank you God!!!" I said. But, each time I tried to park, the available spot was about a foot too short. ALL three of the first available parking spots were the same story. "Thanks God for all the spots,” I said again, “but what's going on?" Then I finally found a spot unrestricted by time and not requiring payment. It was a walk...but I would discover shortly why the other parking spots didn't work out.
As our study progressed, Leah sat quietly, her gaze drifting off to other things, and her participation only happened when she was asked to read. Finally, we came to prayer requests for the week. Again, 1-2 words was all she would offer. Feeling prompted by the Holy Spirit, I asked "Can I ask you a personal question?" A nod was her only response. I asked "How much of this has been going on since the revival services with Dan Bohi?” "Some" she said, "but some of it was an issue before then too." With a bit more conversation and following the Holy Spirit's lead, Leah spoke up and said "I'm just going to come out and tell you all what's been going on." She proceeded to describe some of the hurts and trials she'd been experiencing, confess some things she'd been doing, and admit that she didn't know what to do. The three of us listening to her knew we needed to surround her in prayer and to comfort her as long as she needed.
It was nearly 2:15 when all this unfolded. One of the other girls, Kate*, was supposed to leave for her 2:30 class, but she knew she needed to stay with Leah as well. In God’s perfect timing, as Kate looked up, she saw her professor for the next class walking by. Quickly, she withdrew her assignment folder, walked over to her professor, turned in the assignment and informed him that she could not be in class. Being freed up of all obligations, we were all able to sit in the middle of the SUB to surround Leah in prayer. We prayed with great intensity for a while and when we finished praying, we knew we'd experienced God's presence, a God-Space.
Making sure Leah was okay before we all departed, we wrapped up our session with a laugh. As we shifted in our seats, we bumped feet under the table. I curiously looked to see who I'd bumped and the sight made me laugh. We were all wearing the same kind of shoes (see picture). I pointed out our common look and we all started to laugh...and take pictures of the sight of course. (I later told Ben we were connected in soul [sole] in more than one way that day!) As I walked back to my car thanking God for what he had just done, I realized why all three of the original parking spots did not work. I had been there for more than three hours!
God knew what we needed that afternoon. He provided extra, free parking, a timely professor, similar shoes, laughter, relevant scriptures, courage and mostly His presence!!! The prayers have continued to be answered in the following weeks. The wall that's been keeping Leah from fully understanding a living relationship with Jesus Christ is being chipped away. With a gift of four tickets to the Easter drama, “No Greater Love”, (provided by a generous supporter of Crosswalks), Leah finally heard, and understood, what the Easter story is all about. On Easter Sunday, the following day, Leah’s comments on Facebook were "GUESS WHAT GUYS?!?!? IT'S EASTER SUNDAY!!!!! I LOVE EASTER!!!!! I blame Lynne*, Marie* and Tami Moore specifically. But only because God loves me enough to have put these awesome people in my life! Arigato (Thanks), God!"
So, why pray? Because God is working and passionately seeking the students at Boise State! We've been called to this ministry specifically for reasons like these...to love these students the way Christ loves us! Keep praying. Thank you for joining us in this journey. Your prayers are being answered. We have many more similar stories we could and will share with you in the future!
*fictitious names used to protect identity
