🙌It's the Friday Call to Worship!🙌
I publicly lamented in last week’s call to worship. I disclosed (what feels like) longsuffering with our family’s visas and ability to travel. I was astounded by the feedback - a good indicator I’d lost hope. So many were praying, encouraging, and holding up my arms when I was too tired to do it myself. (Read Exodus 17:11-13.)
That same day… The same day you responded, prayed, and hoped when I could not… Everything changed. Our immigraion lawyer responded with two clear options:
Keep doing what you’ve been doing and hope for a different oucome. (That’s Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity.)
Leave South Africa with my two youngest sons before my current volunteer visa expires, and apply for all three of our visas in America - with a much higher probability for success.
This one email was an unforseen gamechanger… something out of nothing… in a day of prayer. I exposed a weak place in my heart. You responded with prayer. Something changed. The plot twist: We have less than three weeks to get ready! And we have to stay in America until we receive visa outcomes - “one to three months or more”.
Fingerprints, police clearances, medical reports, paperwork, school meetings, one-way tickets, special needs travel, endless details… The exuberant costs and planning are fueled by joy and thanksgiving. A ten year stronghold is being torn down by the faith of other people. I get the privilege of doing the legwork, and my legs are moving so fast right now. But I want the ones who’ve prayed to know your prayers are changing stories and forging freedom. Don’t ever forget that.
I think I’ve been held all these years by the prayers I didn’t know were being prayed. I wonder how much the purpose of our prayers is to keep learning to let God and His people partner with us in our hopes, dreams, hurts, and in-betweens. We hold up our arms in surrendered worship to the God who doesn’t miss a single heartcry, uttered or not. We hold up the arms of others when theirs get tired. This is our call to worship.
**I’ll be sharing more details about our upcoming trip next week via email. Let me know if you’d like to join our email list so you don’t miss an update.
Listen to Elevation Worship’s “Call God”.