Joy on a prayerwalk

Over the weekend I walked way up north as a bit of a training exercise to see how I would cope with long distance.

As I walked, I prayed this over many of the passing motorists:
Lord, just give that person joy right now - even as they are driving. And give them travelling mercies Lord so the joy wouldn't cause accidents. Lord, let it be such a full measure of joy that it will impact their lives...

And 2 days later someone came up to me and asked if I was walking up north past Warkworth. i replied that it was me, and this person said that he noticed me as he was driving on that road, and as he went past me, he just felt such a measure of joy come over him ... and he mentioned that he will always remember that day!!

And now I know God has in a sovereign way also shown me that those prayers were not in vain.

And I just thank Jesus for encouraging and preparing me in body, mind and spirit for this trip. Amen.

Orchestrated prayerwalk

Today I want to share with you how the Lord orchestrated some wonderful “co-incidental” meetings for me to help prepare for the Auckland to Invercargill prayer-walk.

This is an amazing story and I give God all the glory for just caring about the detail so much, that He brought some real practical things to help me prepare.

I prepared to go for a 30km prayer-walk as part of my training. I packed my backpack and planned the route. About 3 hours before I left, I was asked to help someone else to get to church, which took me in a different direction and I started the walk in a totally different place from where i planned.

About 10km into this walk, a woman walking with walking poles, and a backpack, stopped and asked me how far it was to the Takapuna camp grounds. And so we started talking about where she was going, and it turned out she was on Day 16 of walking from the north (Cape Reinga) to the south (Invercargill) of New Zealand. Because she was also a keen mountaineer, I wanted to know more about what and how she packed and if she could give me advice.

I also learned that she was diagnosed with cancer (terminal). She said to me: "I can cry myself to sleep every day - OR - i could live my life to the full" ... that touched me.

Anyhow - I am amazed that God would be so interested in the details of my planning, that He would actually orchestrate for me to meet someone who is on the same long walk as what I am planning for ... and for me to have the opportunity to ask her some good questions about planning and packing.

Then something amazing happened ... An older man stepped onto the pavement - from crossing the road. He just started talking to us and walked a bit with us. he reached a place where he would turn off - and I felt the Lord nudge me to stand a bit back and just observe something precious. The next moment the man asked the woman if he could pray for her. She wasn't a christian but said she wouldn't mind a blessing like that. He put his hand on her shoulder and I realised that God wanted me to see how easy it can be to just reach out and pray for a stranger. And how we never know who we come across and how we are instruments - and always need to be ready for use by the Master.