Bibles and Tennis Shoes

We are leaving in just a few days for another country where we will be serving as God’s Intercessors. Months of planning have already gone into this trip; all of which can be traced back to a single prayer well over a year ago. 

A travel prayer team was built after meeting with the field leader and discussing how we could best serve them in prayer.  Phone calls, messages and emails led us forward and kept us all in unity.  Then, the logistics started and they have been no small task. 

We started researching and learning all about the area where we will serve in prayer.  I’ve learned that knowing about the history, religion and culture of a country make a big difference in being able to pray over a place and its people.  Prior to each step, I prayed.  After each step, I prayed again.  We are committing all plans to the Lord.

And now, it’s time to pack.  How does an intercessor pack for a prayer team trip?  It begins with Bibles and tennis shoes.  These are two critical items that must be packed for every prayer trip anywhere we go.  Having the Word of God in hand and keeping our feet comfortable to stand for long periods while praying with people and to walk for many miles while praying over the land is imperative.

Amid the pile of items that have landed somewhere in or near our open suitcases are two other key items – water bottles and prayer journals.  Our Bible offers us the ‘living water’, and our water bottles hold our physical water to keep our bodies going strong.  I can’t imagine taking a prayer trip without a prayer journal. 

We pray for so many different people with so many different needs that it becomes necessary to make sure we are writing down the needs each person has so we can intercede well for them.  We may often be laying one hand upon the person and holding our prayer journals in the other hand as we intercede!  These are so important that I often purchase them for the team members to be sure we all have them.

Other important items to pack include the things that our field missionaries have requested that we bring to them.  Let’s face it, shipping costs, if the items can even be shipped, are quite prohibitive to our missionaries in getting the things they need.  So, we bring them.  I have currently packed shoes, shirts, medications, satellite phones, drums (yes, drums) and 32 pounds of Bibles amid many other items to take to the fields as I’ve traveled.  There are times that I’ve wondered if there will still be room for my clothes!

You see even in the packing God is preparing us to put the needs of others ahead of our own.  And at each juncture of preparation, I pray.  When I reach this point in a trip where we are only a few days from leaving, I am often praying without ceasing.  Everything I do in preparation at this point is done while I am praying.  And it will be with excitement and gratitude that I put my Bible and my tennis shoes in my suitcase and head to the airport.  It truly is a joy to ‘Go into all the Nations’ and serve the Lord our God in intercession.  I am blessed to be called by God as one of his intercessors.

By Jacqui – One of God’s Intercessors