Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. – Romans 12:12 (NIV)

Our women’s prayer group is going into week 7 of intercessory prayer, Monday to Friday via conference calls. I just realized last week that we have prayed for our children, church, country, and the world an equivalent of two semesters’ worth of prayers or a year’s worth in only six weeks! Wow that’s incredible! All because of COVID-19.

As I reflect back in my four years of organizing and leading the two women’s prayer groups at my church and in my town, I am grateful for the many types of believers that I have met. I must’ve sown good seeds of love and support into them because whenever I am in need of prayers and support, they overwhelm me with their prayers and support!! 🥰

This past Friday my son had a fever and he wasn’t feeling well. I asked for prayers thinking about COVID-19. I had so many prayer text groups and Facebook support groups to rely upon. And I knew that they will be really praying for my son and family. Having this prayer support really helped me especially on Saturday morning when I woke up with an intense headache and feeling rundown. If my head wasn’t hurting so much I probably would’ve freaked out about COVID-19 and called the pediatrician. Instead I took Tylenol and just slept. My husband wasn’t feeling well too. Fortunately my son was doing well on Saturday and he had no fever.

My headache was gone by Saturday night and I slept well. My family all were fine on Sunday morning. Then I noticed these reddish rash dots on my son’s body and then in the afternoon I saw that his cheeks and ears were red too. I felt his forehead and alarmed that it was warm again. His temperature was on higher side for a teenager at 102. Once I noted his temperature I asked for another round of prayers again.

My son was annoyed with my concerns and was telling me that he felt fine. He ate well throughout the day too. Still being alarmed, I called his pediatrician office after dinner. Since it was Sunday night, I spoke with an attending nurse. The nurse told me that they treat all fevers as being COVID-19 positive and to quarantine him etc. Oh boy, that did not happen in my house. 🤦‍♀️ Through prayers and Tylenol, his temperature went back to normal again and right before bed I gave him Tylenol. And I just felt his forehead at 5am and he feels normal. Praise God!

I really don’t know if I brought back COVID-19 virus or another virus in my shopping trip to Wegmans earlier that week. I know I did my best wearing a mask, gloves and keeping a safe distance from others. I even wiped down my groceries in the garage as best as I can before bringing them in. Groceries not needing refrigeration, I left out in the garage for an extra day too. The cashier at Wegmans didn’t have a partition between us like Costco has, and since I was carefully bagging my groceries between food needing refrigeration and not, I now realize that I was in closer contact with her. And her face mask didn’t cover her fully. I remember now that her nose was exposed. Wegmans doesn’t have enough room for us to be six feet apart. Her name is Ava. I was surprised as an elderly woman that she was working as a cashier at a supermarket. I pray that she’s okay. After paying, I said to her “God bless and keep you” and that I’ll pray for her. Her eyes told me that she was smiling and touched by my words. She said thank you.

Since the nurse last night suggested, I’ll call the pediatrician office today and tell them about our weekend sicknesses. Fortunately my daughter never felt sick like we three did. She’s probably the strongest person in our family. I’ve heard that many young nurses don’t have symptoms even when they test positive for COVID-19.

As I reflect back on our weekend, I am so thankful for my many prayer ladies who love and care for me. I didn’t tell my mom or mother-in-law because I didn’t want to worry them but I’ll call them today or tomorrow once I see that my son’s fever is totally gone.

Thank you Jesus for our fellowship with one another in your church. It’s really important to get along with everyone and develop good relationships. I don’t remember where I heard this from but a Christian leader said you can know if you are a good leader by looking at who and how many are following you. The many ladies that are following me through the body of Christ are my friends and I can trust them with my prayers.

I never thought I’d be a leader especially in the body of Christ since my husband and children do not have my faith…yet. Instead my family is teaching me the art and how’s of evangelism. Perhaps that’s why God has placed me into the world of PTO leadership in secular schools. He wants to create bridges with the jaded people so that they can be won over one by one. Many in our community grew up with religious traditions and have been jaded by scandals in the church and powerless religion. This evangelism effort starts with prayer and lots of love and blessings sown in between, and ends with prayer.

One of the things that I’ve noticed is that there are bold believers who speak the truth of the gospel, but because their actions and words without love being demonstrated, in a sense their breath smells very foul and so people just turn away from them when they speak. Consistency in love and blessings are the only way these types of people in our affluent and well-educated, jaded community to listen to you. Bridge building happens one brick at a time or one prayer at a time. However once the bridge has been made, you can go back and forth between two opposing sides, and one by one we can win them over to our side since this is God’s will for everyone to be saved.

I love Mother Theresa and her quotes. I’ve never read her biography just a children’s version while back. I should one day. She inspires me to keep on being faithful in love and prayers because that’s the work that God has given me to do. As I look behind me and see the many ladies that follow me through the prayer groups and the many people listening to me through the PTO or HOA, I know that I’m being faithful. It’s not my focus to be successful or how much harvest is being produced. That’s God’s responsibility.

COVID-19 seems like it’ll be with us for a while. And it appears to be extremely contagious no matter how careful we are. As I reflect on the many prayers that we have prayed together the last four years and past six weeks, perhaps this method is the only way for the world to listen to the whispers of God and for the prodigals to come back home, for the jaded world to give Jesus Christ a chance and become saved, for his believers to truly become his disciples, and to learn how to love and forgive one another well so that the world will see us in one accord joined together by love. The world needs to see real love in action and words, and with great patience and genuine hope.

Holy Spirit, as we enter into another week of prayer, please help me to love well. So that my prayers will be passionate for the lost people. Thank you for working with imperfect vessels like me. I’m humbled and awed that you can do so much with folks like me. Thank you for giving me much time lately to journal too. I’ll do my best to write more so that I don’t forget these lessons learned in the quiet times.

Wow the pediatrician thinks we’ve been exposed to COVID-19. I’m so surprised since we’ve been very careful. Evan will take his drive by test on Friday. Thank Jesus that he’s doing well and eating good too. We are all feeling well and healthy too. Regardless of the test result, God knows and I’ll rest in Him as I’m waiting.