During this pandemic, outreach has been a challenge. Unable to visit care facilities, pack backpack lunches at the mission or ring Salvation Army bells at Christmas, Prairie Voyager School in Grand Forks, North Dakota, has turned to a something simple.
Each week the school choses one member from the local Grand Forks church, one employee of the conference (office employee or pastor), and one teacher to pray for during morning worship. A postcard is sent to those individuals letting them know that the school is praying for their health and for God to work in their lives and mission.
One week recently, the specific local church member we had prayed for approached the teacher with a financial gift to the school. This individual shared that they had a week with “additional blessings” and after receiving the postcard wanted to pass along the blessing. As an exercise of faith, the students at Prairie Voyager have been praying for money to come in to pay the bills of the school. With this financial gift, the students were able to learn two important lessons: 1) God hears our prayers! and 2) faithfulness can produce unexpected blessings.
A second notable prayer occurred the week Dakota Adventist Academy was facing a crisis involving the closure of a local coal mine and the inability to receive a new supply in time (see the complete story in the April OUTLOOK). Eric Garrett, plant manager at DAA, brought the concern to the staff asking for an “Elijah” prayer that the coal already in the burner would not run out and would keep burning during the bitter cold spell. Our faithful God met the needs of the academy and the coal burned through the night! As Providence would have it, the person our school was praying for that week was Eric Garrett. Only God knew that Eric would need extra prayers that specific week.
“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us,” (1 John 5:14).
