Ordinary women--extraordinary GOD!

I have the privilege of praying with THE most amazing group of women ever! For eight and a half years, the "Prayer Moms" have prayed every week for the youth ministry at our church. Although our group has numbered as many as 17 women, we've had a solid group of less than 10 for the last few years. We collect prayer requests from our youth kids and maintain a Facebook page for their prayer needs and those of our church and community as well. We each pray for a couple of youth leaders/student leaders (switching it up every month by drawing names) so as to be personal encouragers to them in the work of the ministry. We help with special events and participate in camps as well. While the story behind this crazy, precious ministry is another post entirely, today I just want to write about the ladies I get to pray with. First of all, we are just plain FUN. We can get to laughing so hard we cry. The jokes that can run through 8 years of the kind of connectedness prayer brings are just simply lifelong joys. Ask any of us about the moms who have been "parking lot pick-ups": two moms, several years apart, thought they were just dropping their kids off for another routine Tuesday night, but before they left the parking lot they had floundered their way into the ministry and simply have never been the same! Ask us why we call ourselves "hoopties." Ask us about one mom's blundered Thanksgiving prayer that still has us wiping the hysterical tears out of our eyes and will likely go down in prayer history. Ask us about the mom who called from a Mexico summer camp, hopping from one side of the road to the other to maintain cell reception long enough to tell us a youth leader had split his head open, kids were breaking out in red bumps, sand flies were eating them alive and could we PLEASE PRAY HARDER?! And there are a million more laughs. They are just treasures to me. Secondly, we are passionate about what we do. We love our youth and our youth leaders, and we love to pray. We have prayed through tears for the families of young people who have ended their lives. We have prayed "angrily" against the enemy when kids have been so ripped off by his lies that they have really hurt those around them. We have prayed determinedly the "bust-em" prayer for kids who are needing some good ol' discipline, by God and parents. We have prayed pleadingly for youth leaders who need jobs, or apartments, or healing. We have prayed boldly for spiritual protection for those under attack. And lastly, we are all growing together in the Lord. Being in this ministry requires lots of time in the Word, in fellowship, and (DUH) in prayer, all of which grow our faith. There is plenty of room for growth--personal and spiritual--in this ministry. No requirements for spiritual gianthood...none of us would have met them. Just a willingness to be teachable as our knees get scraped and our pride gets stomped and our cars break down and our bodies get sick and our spirits get weary and...as, ultimately, the dross burns off. It's kinda like a special forces team, I guess...when I look around the room at these precious faces of my fellow intercessors, I think of the spiritual realm we spend so much time in and how it marks us with a certain je-ne-sais-quoi (see Mom, I really do remember some French!). I love these ladies. I love to laugh with them, pray with them, grow with them. They are such jewels in my heart and I thank God for them over and over and over. However, as special as they are in my life, we are all really just ordinary women. If you saw us walking through the mall or sitting in Starbucks, we wouldn't stick out. We are sinners saved by grace. We don't have any special qualifications to be intercessors. However, we have an EXTRAORDINARY GOD who has called us, taught us, protected us, provided for us, and grown us in this ministry. And that is the best part of the whole story.