Have you ever asked a question not getting the answer you wanted only to find out later it was the answer you needed?
In May, I was in the place where I was saying to the Lord “A pandemic? Really?” He gently directed me to Ecclesiastes 3, “A time for everything under heaven.” Respectfully I continued to ask, “But Lord, why a pandemic?” Not having my full attention, Jesus took me to the second half of the second verse. “A time to plant and a time to harvest” (NLT). Being somewhat seasoned in life, I remembered the song “Turn, Turn, Turn” and the phrase ‘a time to reap and a time to sow.’ Trivia question, who was the band that released this song in 1965? There is a time for everything, you have to read to the end for the answer!
I continued with the Lord, and with a grumbling spirit I said, “I can’t sow. I am an Area Developer and I sow by going and meeting people and building relationships and building teams that start Young Life. I can’t sow right now because of this blasted pandemic.” Thankfully the Lord is patient and I felt like he said to me, “Steve, we sow in prayer.”
So, I got to work and assembled a list of the schools that do not have Young Life in our region. Contacting some nearby staff we scheduled days to pray together onsite, at schools. Ten weeks and ten prayer tours later the Lord had taken me to 118 middle schools, high schools and colleges covering 3,738 miles. I was humbled by the magnitude of the task before us while standing in school parking lots to pray for kids, teachers, coaches, parents, churches and entire communities.
I might never see the full impact of these prayer tours, but the Lord has already connected provided people in two new communities where info meetings are happening. More importantly, we have seen one college junior come to Christ!
Young Life’s history rests on prayer. Clara Frasher and her prayer circle were critical to Jim Rayburn’s first club at Gainesville HS. Every kid we desire to know Christ is moved by prayer.
Here is a confession. I only prayed at schools in the western and central part of our region. I plan to get with the staff in the northern part of our region to pray with them at the remaining 80 schools that are without Young Life.
This leads me to wonder if as a mission could we possibly pray at every school this school year? I don’t know what this might mean for our international partners but in the US there are roughly 22,000 high schools, 16,000 middle / junior highs and 4,400 colleges. That is 42,400 prayer opportunities for our staff, leaders and committee in the US. 200 down, 42,200 left. Let’s Go!
Oh, the band that released “Turn, Turn, Turn?” The Byrd’s.
Written by: Steve Schmitt (steveschmitt57@gmail.com)