Word on the Street

From Al Engler

A few years ago, some couples living in a rural area outside of Seattle started thinking about the people in their social networks. Curt and Judy had been part of a community of horse lovers affiliated with a local club. They began to pray for the friends in that network.

A couple of friends that they began to pray for were George and Julia. George was a local contractor who had developed a love for horses. Julia was a young woman he had met on the job. They were living together and Julia was pregnant. Both George and Julia were divorced and really wanted to make this relationship work. Somehow, they felt that they needed a spiritual dimension to their lives. They visited several churches and could not find anything that connected with them.

Once after a horse show, George and Julia asked Curt and Judy about the relationship with God that they observed in Curt and Judy’s lives. They ended up talking for an hour about what a living relationship would look like. George mentioned that he and Julia wanted to get married, but did not know a “preacher” who could marry them. Judy mentioned that someone, a NavStaff, in their bible-reading group could perform weddings. George excitedly asked for his phone number.

Al and Iris (the NavStaff couple) were invited to George and Julia’s home for dinner. As the two couples sat down for dinner, George said, “We have begun to pray before we eat”, and bowed his head to give thanks. Al and Iris were thrilled to see clear evidence of spiritual hunger in George and Julia. They mainly talked about the possibility of Al performing a wedding for them, but at the end of the evening, George asked, “What is this bible thing you do?” Al invited George and Julia to come see.

The next Thursday, for the first time in their lives George and Julia began to read the eyewitness account of the life of Jesus as recorded in John’s Gospel. A year later, George and Julia are married parents of a one year old and are learning to follow Jesus in every aspect of their lives. Now there are two couples praying for the others in the horse-lover network.

(Note: names have been changed)

From Al Engler

• Ask the Lord for hundreds of transformed authentic followers of Christ who will have a penetrating influence on those around them.
• Ask the Lord to fulfill the promises stated in Ezekiel 36:37, 38 (NIV) for the Puget Sound Area; “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Once again I will yield to the plea of the house of Israel and do this for them: I will make their people as numerous as sheep, as numerous as the flocks for offerings at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts. So will the ruined cities be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”
• Ask the Lord to fulfill the promise given to Abraham for those serving Him in the Puget Sound Area: “He took him outside and said look toward heaven and number the stars if you are able to number them.” Then He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” Genesis 15:5
• Pray that God’s workers in the Puget Sound will be described as those who “serve God with wholehearted devotion and a willing mind.” I Chronicles 28:9
• Ask God to show the way and open doors of His choosing to bring about a loving multi-ethnic family of believers among Navigators in the Puget Sound Area.