Kids

Back in August 1996 God told me in a dream that I had a part in the families of our Caleb Project staff – a part to play through prayer. So I started collecting prayer requests for each of the kids through their parents and about twice a year I led the staff in lifting these kids and their parents up in prayer. It’s been more than ten years since then.

With all that has gone on in recent months and years… Caleb Project’s shift from being more family-focused to being primarily business-oriented, the merger that made us co-workers with people whose families we might never meet, then the disintegration of the new organization altogether, I led prayer a few times but sort of lost focus.

In fact, I did not realize until the last month or so that four of the kids we’d been praying for since they were small were approaching a significant rite of passage, graduating from high school. In each case I'd been closer to their older siblings, and had not realized what was going on with these 'younger' kids. Those 8-year-olds are now 18-year-olds!

Three of the families invited me to graduation events. It was such a blessing to see how they have grown up, grown in their faith, acquired the skills and maturity and experience to take the next step in life. May God use these kids to change the world...

I know that many, many people have prayed for, befriended, supported, and invested in the lives of these kids. Although I have not been close to most of them or even spent much time with them in recent years, I’ve been part of their lives by coming alongside their parents, grandparents, and many others in prayer. What an honor it has been for me - for all of our former colleagues - to be part of the lives of Jennifer, Lauren, Lori, and Luke (and the others) in this small way. There’s an open house for Lauren this afternoon, so I just went through my files and made copies of all the things we’d prayed about for her and her sisters. God has done a lot!

There's something about growing up / raising kids together that creates a deep bond; perhaps these families will never know that kind of community again. They are in a different place in life. But may the Lord continue to place these kids and their parents in places of nevertheless rich and fruitful community and raise up others to pray into being the things He wants to do in their lives.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (Hebrews 12:1)