Prayer and Love

Oklahoma City » Several years ago, I was standing in line to pay the academy school bill for my son to receive his diploma when a frail man and woman walked up to my son and asked him if his name was Joseph Park. He replied with a yes, and they proceeded to tell him that they had been praying for him all that year. Tears came to my eyes as I remembered my son’s hardships of a best friend dying earlier in the year, and the newness of being away from home for the first time. What a gift I received at that moment! Knowing the pain and loss that young man was going to experience that senior year, God had two extra people praying for him! Praise the Lord!

I think of that often and when this school year began, I wanted all of the young people at Parkview Adventist Academy to experience that gift. The village secretary at Summit Ridge, Donita Lawless, and I worked to partner up a child with a Summit Ridge resident for prayer partners. Four months passed with everyone praying and now it was time for all of them to meet. December 20 is usually a homemade gift exchange and agape feast with the students, but this year we had an agape feast with games, gift exchange, music and fun with our prayer partners from Summit Ridge. What a beautiful union! There was lots of laughter, singing, and playing.

But the prayer life of many of these children doesn’t end here. Every day at Parkview Academy, one, two, or three students are outside of each classroom door praying for the students in the room along with the teacher and the families they all represent. They even pray for the offices, office staff, library, librarians, music room and more! One moment last year when the younger elementary students were praying outside the classrooms, a precious young second grader saw the disturbance of a classmate to his classroom. She immediately put down her head and started praying for him to receive the Holy Spirit and be at peace. That is power!

Steps to Christ says that “prayer is the key in the hand of faith to unlock heaven’s storehouse.” It is our prayer that each of these young people learns the gift and power that God has so freely given! Praise the Lord for the gift of prayer.

By Annette Park