Prayer

What actually is prayer? Is it something we say before a meal? A blessing we say only when somebody is ill? A picture we share on Facebook because it tells you that God won't bless you if you don't type "Amen" and click share? Is that what prayer has become? Something we do when we need something from a higher power than us? A powerless thing that we toss around as if it really has no significance?

During the last year or so God has really been impressing upon me not only the importance of prayer but the absolute need for a strong prayer life. Going to Uganda I believe was part of that. While I was there, prayer wasn't a choice, an option or an afterthought. Prayer is what kept me going, protected me and helped me be used by God.

One of my biggest revelations was this... even if in a moment we had everything we could ever need, we would still desperately need to pray. Prayer is our connection with God. It's the direct communication line with our Father. We can be on top of the highest mountain or deep in down in the darkest pit and find him the moment we speak. We can be lost deep in the forest of life or riding high on the top and each moment we need him just as deeply as the next. There's no place we can go, nothing anybody can do to severe that connection. Prayer I believe is the purest form of worship. We go before our holy, almighty, perfect Savior and he listens. We can come as we are, broken, lost, unsure, scared, sinful... and he hears our cry. We need that connection with God. Sometimes it's the days where things are going best that I feel I need God the most. I need a heart to heart connection with him, I need him to hear my praise, to hear my worship, to know how much I adore Him. Then there are times of struggle, there is the ordinary every day life. How does prayer fit in? Honestly, I think it is essential to life and none of us really know the full power of it. Prayer is powerful because we have a holy Father listening to our words.

The whole year of 2016 is one that constantly brought me to my knees in desperation prayer and then with my arms stretched wide in adoration to my King. The beginning of the year brought the re-connection with an old friend. One I'd kept in my nightly prayers for several years. Overwhelmed, unsure, confused.... I wasn't sure what God was doing. (I'd been praying for this and now God was answering but I was completely caught off guard) I'm somebody who likes to be in control. I like to know what I'm doing and this was an area of life where I really had no experience whatsoever. So many times a day I found myself on my knees asking for guidance and wisdom. With that God began preparing me for a relationship with the man that he planned me to spend my future with. Along with all that I had found out that there was a possibility that I might have cancer, that brought me into a deeper relationship and prayer life than ever before. The tests dragged out, and even though it was only the span of a couple weeks it seemed like an eternity, but in that time I saw God and life in a whole new light. I took a risk and I fell in love with my best friend, I told him how I felt about him. We started dating and summer flew by. Quickly approaching was the date for me to leave the country for a five week mission trip. Three days before I left he proposed to me and I said yes. Then crying I boarded the plane that would take me overseas. One of the hardest things I've ever done was leave the one I love standing at the airport.

My time in Uganda... I'm not sure I can ever fully articulate my experience there because I think it's something that you have to experience firsthand. Corinthians 6:12 came to life. "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." We were in a village that has some of the highest witchcraft and evil practices present. A lot of what I did while I was over there was prayer. When you go to a foreign country, to a place like that you want to fix everything. But you can't. You find that the power is all God's and one of your most important jobs is to intercede for others. There was specifically this one day when I was walking through the little village praying and I could literally feel the presence of evil all around me. I felt it so strongly I imagined I could reach out my hand and touch it. I knelt there in the middle of the dirt road and prayed, and its like I could see this picture of demons and satanic powers lining all sides of the road. They were trying to get to me, they were all around me but there in-between us were God's angels sent to guard me. They were fighting against the spiritual forces of darkness making the path clear for me and keeping me from harm. That picture hasn't left my mind. I realized how real that is every moment and we don't see it. Over there you can't help but see it. People openly practice witchcraft, people cast spells, demonic powers are alive and rampant. Back here in America we can forget. But that picture is true wherever we go. When we are driving down the road to work, playing with our kids, cooking dinner or hugging our spouse. And even more so when we kneel to pray or open our Bible to read. Satan is always out there trying to cause us to stumble, sending demons to cause us to lose faith or doubt. And so creates the spiritual warfare all around us as God's angels protect us from harm. In Uganda, prayer is an essential for survival. I don't think a believer could survive there without that connection with God.

So how does that apply to us in America? I think it is just as important or maybe even more so. Because especially when life is going good we let it slide. We put prayer on the back burner. A last resort to turn to when all else fails. But it's so much more than that. Prayer is a means of warfare we wage against the devil. It connects us to the one who has the power to change our circumstances and to change our hearts. The Bible says to be praying at all times in the Spirit. I believe we should be in constant connection to our Father. How can we expect our marriages to thrive, our children to grow into godly men and women without prayer? How can we complain about how awful life is when we are slacking in our prayer lives? I've spent close to a year in a relationship with the man who will soon be my husband. In just over a month we will say our marriage vows and begin our life as husband and wife. I can say with certainty already that without prayer we would not be together. And I know that without it there is no way that we will be able to stay together for the course of our lives. God has to be involved. He has to be the centerpiece of everything. 

Most of all... if you aren't staying plugged in to God, how do you expect to remain charged and ready for the life laid out before you? Take some time this week and dedicate it to quiet time to really connect your heart to God. And don't just make it another thing that you check off your to do list, integrate it into your life, let it seep into every aspect, every detail of every day.

Keep faith my fellow brothers and sisters and fight the good fight.

In Christ, KrissElise

The above picture is from a very powerful movie on prayer.

God Answers Prayers Even in the Most Desperate Times

So Monday morning at 5:00am we headed out to hike 11 miles to Ingomar Lake up Sawtooth Creek. Our plan was to camp at the lake Monday and Tuesday night and come back late Wednesday or early Thursday afternoon. We got a good start. Sawtooth trail was better maintained then we thought it would be. We made fairly good time considering we were carrying 40 lb backpacks. By the time we crossed the third creek crossing it was nearing 3:00. We took a break and pushed on the the spot another mile and a half or so up where we cut off trail crossed the creek and begun the several hour ascent up to what we thought was going to be Ingomar Lake. The downfall was worse than we thought. It took us awhile trying lots of different paths over the rough terrain, all the downed trees, rocks and bushes. Some places it was impossible to get through especially with our heavy packs that we had to move towards and alternate route. Josh was worried about getting too far right and missing the lake, I was worried about going too far left and running into dead fall that would be impossible to get through. We were pushing it to get to the top by dark. As we neared the top we realized we were not where we thought we were. Looking at the map we realized we were actually on the left side of the lake with a cliff in between us. We decided that the best thing would be to set up a makeshift camp where we were kind of at the top of the really steep stuff at a kind of flat area. We started a fire and set up our sleeping bags. We figured we'd stay the night there and in the morning we would head down around the west cliff and find the lake. That was about 7:45pm and it was completely dark by then. My stomach had started to hurt and I thought it was probably because I hadn't eaten enough to compensate for the calories I burned. So I ate some high calorie food and we sat by the fire for awhile, Josh cooked hamburgers and I tried to not focus on the pain. Around 9:30ish I decided I needed to take acetaminophen and try to sleep it off cause it was steadily getting worse. The next few hours I tossed and turned trying to lay in a position where it wouldn't hurt as much. Around 11:00 or 12:00 Josh asked if he should start a fire if maybe it would help if I sat up. I didn't know. He got up and started a fire and I decided I could take more pain killer but by the time he got it out of my pack the pain was so intense I was throwing up and knew it wouldn't help if I couldn't keep it down. Josh really started getting worried then and we sat for a little bit trying to decide whether it was more dangerous to try to head down through all that dead fall in the dark or to stay and do nothing. We decided we needed to try to head down the mountain. I sat by the fire while he packed up. He took some of the heavier items out of my pack and put them in his to make mine lighter. By the time we left camp it was 2:00 in the morning. It was really slow going because I needed to stop every ten feet or so because it hurt so much. I think we made it about 45 minutes before I laid down against a rock and was throwing up again. I told Josh I didn't think I could do this. He was really scared by then I could tell though he was trying to keep his cool. That's when we started playing our options out. Josh could go for search and rescue, but to get a signal to call out would be at least an hour and a half down through the dead fall and eight miles back down the trail. By the time search and rescue would be able to find me up there it might be too late. We had no idea how serious this was. So the decision we made at that point in time was to ditch a bunch of our gear so Josh could take both of our backpacks and see if we could make it down to the trail if I didn't have my pack. Where he could carry me out. We stayed at that place for a little bit while he figured out what we needed to take and what we could leave and I tried to catch my breath from the pain and get a little bit of energy to move. Josh asked me if there was anything I wanted. All I could think of is I wanted the pain to stop and I wanted Ken, I just wanted to feel my dad's arms around me one more time and feel like everything was gonna be okay. Neither of those could he give me though. At that point lying on that rock it hurt so bad and I felt so completely weak that the thought crossed my mind that dying would be okay because I didn't think we were gonna make it back and I just wanted the pain to stop. I asked Josh to give me my Bible which held a picture of Gavin I put in there the day before we left. I held it against me and thought about my family at home. At that moment I felt so overwhelmed with the power of their love for me that I knew we had to get out. We pushed on towards the cliff to the east knowing that if he needed to go out for help it would be easier to find me again if I was near there. We got into a rock field and went a little while across that. It was raining and it made the rocks slippery and twice as hard. I sat down on a rock and told Josh that I couldn't go further. We were both just sitting there crying out to God. Asking for His protection and mercy, for the pain to stop and to make it out alive. There was no way I could go farther. It would be hours before we even got down to the trail. The pain eased up a little while I was sitting there so we decided to put our sleeping bags under a tree and try to rest before moving on. I clutched the picture of Gavin close and lay there listening to the rain fall on the tarp over the top of us. I prayed until I fell asleep at some point. When we woke up the pain was gone. We continued down the mountain and had a fire at the trail to dry everything out and then headed the 10 miles out to the truck. When we got in cell service I called home and talked to Dale. Hearing a voice from home gave me the energy to go on the last five miles and I wanted to make sure they weren't worrying too much and knew that we were on our way out. I have never been so happy to see the truck as I was Tuesday night as we got to the trail head and it was turning dusk. We have not found out why I had the pain but I know God has His reasons. He protected us and answered our prayers. It's in times like that, when you are way out in the middle of nowhere, think you might be dying that God can show Himself most powerful. I am continually thankful that He got us out and was blessed to be in the arms of my family last night. Makes me want to never, ever take them for granted. And then while we were sitting around the kitchen table and I was telling them what happened Ken told me what was going on at home while I was out there...

"Monday evening (8 o'clock ish) I began to feel unsettled. Sometime between 9 and 9:30 pm Dale and I heard three loud knocks at the front door. Dale asked if we were expecting anyone. (Which is kind of interesting because it's not odd for somebody to show up at that time) I opened the door but no one was there. At the same time I had a very strong growth feeling that something was wrong and went downstairs and told Elli that we needed to pray. As we prayed the feeling slowly passed." ~Ken         

I was blown away by that. God told Ken to pray. Josh and I were praying. God answered our prayers. I don't know what happened up there or how life-threatening the situation was but I truly believe even more now that God answers prayers and that he provided protection for us. Maybe there is some reason we weren't supposed to get to the lake because before we left there were many people who expressed deep concern to me about us going and that isn't normal when we go out. And then we ended up in the wrong spot. Then when we thought we could get there the next morning I got the stomach pain. That's the only thing that would have kept us from continuing on. Either way. Whatever happened up there I know a couple things for sure. God is deeply involved in our lives. He is almighty and powerful. He cares for His children. And I am deeply loved. I see that now more than ever before. When we pray God works. I am just amazed by his presence and the way he works in our lives. May all glory and honor forever be His and His alone. Thank You God. ~Kriss

I held this picture the whole time. It gave me a reason to keep going.

 

This is what we were hiking in when we left the trail. This is what we were trying to come 

down through at 2:00am in the dark and snowy/rain.