A couple months ago I asked one of my best friends to move to Montreal to join me on this crazzzy journey I find myself in... I was on a road trip with Wendy Andrews (24-7 US team) and we got into a conversation about how I often feel alone and discussed what it would look like to grow a 24-7 team up in Canada. I knew in that moment that I needed to seriously ask Kayla to move to Montreal, for real, to join me on this adventure.
From a small town somewhere between Kansas City and Minneapolis I sent Kayla a serious, God inspired text message asking her to pray about moving to Montreal.... She said YES!!
Kayla just started blogging, in preparation to move, and recently wrote this blog about her journey of prayer to Montreal:
So I've been wondering where to start and really the best solution I have come up with is to share my journey (thus far) on prayer.... since after all that's what I'm going to Montreal to do.
So here's a bit of an overview on my last 10 years...
I can remember as far back as the late 90's, when I started my first ever prayer journal. I've always been a big journaler, but I remember a distinct season where my journal consisted entirely of prayers. I was dependant upon it. Another memory I have would be in 2001, went I to Summit Bible College. It was there that I became a member of my first ever prayer group. There were 6 girls, who got together everyday after supper to pray together. This group was a significant group/marker in my life, as I remember getting together with these girls to share my heart and pray. There were people in the group I wouldn't normally hang around with but we were so close we felt lost when a day would go by that we couldn't meet with each other. Then I remember going to Brazil in 2003. While I was there I remember thinking one day near the beginning of my trip, "I didn't realize no one would speak English here, and I'm so staved to talk with someone" but it was there that I learned that God can become our conscience, and what I mean by that is after a while my thoughts became prayers. I got to a point where I couldn't really separate my thoughts from a prayer. God was my friend, and we just hung out together all day. Two weeks into this trip someone came from Canada I think they almost died of talking overload. I talked for an entire afternoon straight! But it was weird the more I had people to talk to, after a while, I just wanted to find space alone so I could be with God in my thoughts. Then, last summer, while I was in Calgary, I worked a place that was a 45 min walk from my house. The walk seemed long at the beginning, but soon my walks became prayer walks, and soon I got to a place where I was wishing the walks were longer. I would get to work everyday in tears, just so in love with God. Then last September I remember being in a place of brokenness, I remember being at the end of Kayla, and feeling so lost for answers in life. I journalled a lot, but every time I did I found there were more and more question with no answers to those questions. It was there that I declared myself in a "season of prayer", because there was nothing else I could do. God reduced me to this point, and at the time I thought it sucked, but I realise now that He was doing something. At Thanksgiving I met up with my friend Daria (whom you will hear a lot about in this blog so remember that name) and I told her about my "season" and she said she was in that same place. So we decided to pray together on the phone. With honest efforts, we have been doing this since (although when she's on the road its more difficult) little did I know that God was doing all this for a bigger purpose. Daria is one of the girls I prayed with daily at summit, and now for the last year holding each other up in prayer, and now I am moving to Montreal to live with her and start this prayer community. Funny how God works!
God has sewed prayer into my life through certain events and seasons, and he is continuing to do so. Prayer isn't the answer to all of life's problems, but God is! Prayer is the gift we have been given to commune with God, to join his rhythms, and to see his face.
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