Does He hear the prayers of the unsaved?

My theory? YES, absolutely YES!!

And my theory is based on my privileged experience last week at our 5th & 6th grade kid's church evening, Route 56...

I was not having one of my finest prego evenings last Wednesday, as there were 52 exuberant kids running around playing a form of dodgeball, increasing the headache and putting me on the verge of nausea. I was just flat spent, but knew in my heart that God had called me to that place for such a time as that night. After games and snacks, we all parted ways into our small group session before Will's teaching would begin. I happened to have a group of girls who I've gotten quite comfortable with, so boldly asked them if any of them would be so courageous as to pray for me and the baby that night, so that God would give me strength to make it through the night. After many of them pointed at the other one next to them for a couple of minutes (I didn't know what torture I would be causing them) one usually reserved little girl raised her hand, and said "Well, I'll do it then!" as she could tell none of her little peers were going to step up to the prayer plate. I was totally blessed by the offer and we all bowed our heads. Her prayer was very short and sweet "Lord, please help Krystal get to feeling better and give her strength to make it through the rest of the night. (next was the tear-jerker...) And Lord when it comes to the delivery of this baby, please make it smooth. In Jesus name, Amen." Talk about clinging to the prayers of those with childlike faith. I felt at the end that she had some kind of connection to God, that she had really tapped into His heart and the storehouses of grace were going to be poured out on me right then. What kind of 5th grader would have the insight to pray over one of my deeper fears right now? Could that have possibly been the still small voice of the Spirit, speaking to hers?

Needless to say, I made it through the rest of the night without the distraction of the prego pains I had been grieved by earlier that night. There are moments like those when you almost forget there is a wee little life being formed and knitted together inside you and you praise God for them.

So, the night came to an end and this same little prayer warrior came up to me afterwards for a great big hug and I was able to share the fact that God heard her prayer and had answered by laying His strength-giving, healing hands on me for the rest of the night, hopefully encouraging her own faith as mine had been. I had already almost spaced the fact that Will had just ended his mini-sermon that night by offering any of the kids to approach he, Derick, Abby or I with the heart's desire to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior (prego moment?) What I didn't realize as my little prayer warrior was clinging near my side over the next five minutes, was that as the rest of the kids dispersed into the night, she was still standing there waiting with a deep question (the deepest one can ever really hunger for the answer for) in her big beautiful eyes. "Krystal," she finally asked, after the others were finally gone. "Yes sweet pea, what can I do for you?" "Well, I think this is the night that it's time for me to pray to receive Jesus into my heart," she proclaimed with a huge beam on her face. I was totally overcome by the boldness that I normally didn't see in this sweet face, on top of the biggest question someone can pose to you, in request that I pray with her. What a sheer privilege! I asked her what brought her to that place in her heart and mind and she said it was just that when Will shared tonight, she couldn't shake the fact that she knew it was the night it had to happen. She was very amazed by the story of creation and the examples of our Creator God's hands that Will shared about, and she just knew it was time. That was enough of a reason for me, so we knelt down together, as the rest of the crowd was fading out the doors and we walked together, down the path of grace, to the foot of the cross and held one another's hands as I had the humbling privilege of walking through with and ushering her little heart right into heaven's gates, straight into her new Abba Father's arms.

I truly don't believe that there is anything else to live for and it just doesn't get better than experiencing this piece of eternal life and eternal work on earth. So, my theory on that initial question of the day? Does God hear the prayers of the unsaved? Yes, I believe He hears and sees the sincere heart and eyes of faith that beseech Him for something they might not even understand for themselves yet. And this little girl just didn't know at the moment of her prayer mid-way through the night where her own heart would be in relation to that God she prayed to on my behalf, by the end of the evening. I believe our hearts will be bound through eternity by the privilege we partook in together, of praying for the hearts of one another, to the mighty Creator God that we both now serve.

Exhausted, Edgy and Emo...

Can I please get an amen from past, current or present prego-mamas?!
Or I betcha I could get an amen from my Will, the loudest.

Despite not having many of my finer, Spirit-filled moments in the most recent future, I am sitting (mostly on the couch) daily right now, in awe of the wonder going on inside me.

So, if you were wondering how I was feeling (the seeming question of the hour for pregnant mamas), there's the report, which is also nothing short of a PRAYER REQUEST for my poor husband mostly! I do figure it a privilege to lay down these discomforts at the cross of Christ, in gratitude for what I get house inside me right now.

Just a few words the Lord spoke deep to my E.E.E. heart the other morning from Isaiah 40...""COMFORT, yes, comfort My people!" ...He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, And carry them in His bosom, And gently lead those who are with young...Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD,
The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall,

But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint."

The word on the pregnancy street is that our babe is the size of a lentil bean right now, and Baby I's nose, mouth, ears, eyes, pituitary glands, brains, muscles, bones and intestines are forming this week too (no wonder there's a wee bit of exhuastion going on.)

So here's to our wee lentil bean...

In our 6th week...

Thanks to whattoexpect.com we get our daily updates, here's one on our little sweet pea...

"Week 6: Bending Over Forward
Practitioners measure embryos as small as yours from precious little crown to cute little rump. That's because as your baby grows, his or her legs will be bent, making it hard to measure the full length of the body. This week your baby's crown-to-rump measurement is anywhere from a fifth to a quarter of an inch, and growing — making it the size of a sweet pea (your little sweet pea!).
So, if your womb had a view, what would you see? The folds of tissue in the prominent bump on top (the head) are developing into your baby's jaws, cheeks, and chin. And are those little indentations on both sides of the head the adorable dimples you always hoped your baby would inherit from your mom's side of the family? No, they're ear canals in the making. Small bumps on the face will form the eyes and button nose in a few weeks time. Also taking shape this week: your baby's kidneys, liver, and lungs."

p.s. Praise be to God--I'm feeling great, just tired with a capital "T". So, I'm trying to listen to my body when it says rest. It's hard for a not-easily-resting person, but I'm being humbled into this place of rest for-the-sake-of the babe and this miraculous work going on inside the belly, already learning about the sacrifices of the mama that I've heard about for so long! Coveting your prayers for all of our continued health and strength over the coming days, weeks and months...

My Christ-following friends...

Click on the link below to read the article that my dear Serenity and her husband Andy were interviewed in, in regards to their newest mission from the Lord...
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/karen_sorenson/index.ssf?/base/living/1199496310207760.xml&coll=7&thispage=2
I'm definitely inspired by them and was also able to go up to Portland to surprise Seren the other day to assist her w/her 3 kiddies while she and Andy put on a homeless banquet (including backpacks, jackets, clothes and shoe-handouts, hot showers, haircuts, football-watching and feasting) on New Year's Day. One of the biggest words God spoke to my heart that day was when one of the homeless men, just as he was walking in the door reached out to touch my chin in his own little gesture of hello and I quickly knee-jerked with a response of retreating myself and the baby I was holding, about 2 feet back. The moment I jerked back in shock of myself and I'm sure the rest surrounding me, God impressed these words on my heart and repeated them all day long, I touched the lepers, Krystal (those who were diseased, cast out from the normal, healthy and necessary loving interactions with other human beings and otherwise considered as appalling and sinful to draw near to) and I let them touch Him. As tears stung my eyes during this and many other encounters this day, threatening to spill all over the place, I retreated back down to the "kids room" downstairs to ponder what this really meant and what God was really trying to speak to me this day. Just a few of the many tumbling thoughts in my heart that whole afternoon...Am I ever really willing to touch, not just serve meals or build houses for the downtrodden outcasts in the world? I find that I, and I would assume many others, live so fearful of them and want to serve them only close enough, so that we still feel comfortable in our clean, healthy and safe little worlds. Do I really encounter them like Jesus did, touching them, letting them touch me, showing a vested concern and interest in their stories and souls with a love that only God can pour into and out of me towards them, which is what ultimately draws their hearts into healing and wholeness in Him?
This experience of a love feast for the homeless in a private home of a Christian family up in Portland, was something so out of the ordinary from our typical serving-comfort-zone, that I think it made each of us squirm over it, in our own way, throughout most of the day (especially our hair-cutting servant as she had to squish a lice on herself as she was washing her hands after all of the cuts and the 2 women that had to clean up the fecal matter all over the shower and clothing from one man that had an accident all over himself.) But the most precious ones to watch interact with the "dirty and sometimes stinky and dangerous" homeless? THE CHILDREN. Jesus always said to come to Him as little children and that as much as we do unto the poor and needy we do unto Him. The servant-families who brought their children to the banquet were I'm certain (as I was an adopt-an-aunty for the day), more than a little uneasy about the safety of their children in different measures that day. But you would have never known it from the group of children themselves. You'll see in some of the pictures in my album that they spent time that day, when they could escape from the downstairs "kids room", they reached out, sat near, sat on laps and listened with the purest of hearts that we adults sometimes lose in in "oh-so-mature-knowledge" of the dangers and lack of sanitation of these homeless people. If only we could reach out to others like those children, all of the walls would be torn down and we would all stand next to and before one another w/o shame, judgment or condemnation b/c we all serve and have need of the same loving, holy and forgiving God and Savior, Jesus Christ, Who is NO RESPECTER of persons. This experience sure humbled me into the desire to challenge myself and find opportunities to do it more often. Each of the people we served that New Year's day had a story to share, many of them actually, and all of them deserved a right to have them heard, prayed over and sympathized over with a love that only Christ can extend to them, through us. Let's be watchful together for more of those God-opportunities to reach out to the "lepers" of our world today, your socks will be blessed off way more than they have need of them.
P.S. I had a man who I was holding a mirror for while he gave himself a much-needed shave job, in our make-shift beauty parlor, ask me why I did something like this. I wish I could go back now with what I see now, after God has ruminated these things into my heart deeper, and share with Patrick more honestly and with more clarity what God has impressed onto my heart about why it is truly more blessed to give than to receive.

Click on the link below for an album of the New Year's Day homeless banquet and celebration (the 3 beautimous wee ones you see in a lot of pics are Seren & Andy's kiddos, whom I treasure SO much)...

New Year's Day Homeless Banquet with Coulombe's

The up-and-coming Irwin adventure!