All of our students have been adopted for the coming year, but I fear that we have lost sight of the vision I originally had for this ministry. The main purpose behind our "adopt-a-student ministry" was to have people praying consistently for them during the school year. What brought me to begin this at Calvary were Paul's Letters. One of the repeated themes in his letters is consistency in praying, both through his example and his instruction. Praying must be a priority in our relationships.On a practical level I believe all of our students need prayer. They all face pressure and temptations, and I believe it is our spiritual obligation to take each of them to the throne of grace. On more than one occasion Blake told Barb that he knew people were praying for him during exam week.
However, I think the train has derailed a little and, therefore, next year we will have a major overhaul to this ministry. I sense that we have focused more on gifts than prayer. This practice is destructive to the kids for two reasons: first, it makes them more selfish because they get used to looking for a gift when they see their adoptive family on Sunday; second, it takes away from the main focus of prayer. I daresay that some have even hesitated in adopting a student to pray for because it means more buying.
I'll lay the burden of derailing the train on myself, but from here on let's keep the focus on praying. To encourage you to remember here are some tips that may help:
- Place reminders in your life to pray (i.e., pictures on refrigerators, names on a sticky note in the car, etc.).
- Ask you student (or parent) to give you a class schedule.
- Be sensitive to pressure cooker times in your student's life (i.e., exams).
I think without too much trouble we'll get back on track, and as we grow our students will know that we've got them covered in prayer!
Grace & Peace,
Scott
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