Yesterday, we drove two hours from Hainichen to Wittenberg - the town where Martin Luther lived and where he is reputed to have nailed his "95 theses" to the door of the Castle Church. We drove through torrential rain; in fact, rain and thunderstorms were forecast for the whole day - something that was a real concern for me, as walking around in wet clothes is risky for my lung condition.
To make good use of our journey time, we all had our "quiet time" (devotional time alone with God) in the bus. Our readings, from John chapters 15 and 17, were about what it means to bring glory to God - by obeying the things He asks us to do, and thus bearing good fruit in our lives. So we also had a time of listening to God and asking Him what He wanted us to do that day in Wittenberg.
In each vehicle, someone wrote down the different impressions that the children, teenagers and adults received. Some were impressions about what He wanted us to do or to pray in Wittenberg; several were impressions that we should hold on to God's joy and not allow ourselves to get tired or discouraged because of the heavy rain. One of the more mysterious prayer impressions was when 10 year old Mélodie saw a picture of a poppy. No one was sure exactly what it meant, but we wrote it in our notebook, anyway.
On arrival in Wittenberg, we had to dash through the rain to the first church we'd felt we should pray at. But, amazingly, when we came out of the church fifteen minutes later, the rain had almost stopped, and the weather remained dry and sunny for the rest of the day. The torrential rain only started up again when we were getting into the vehicles for our journey home... and it was really heavy the whole way. I think I was the most thankful of all that God seemed to have held back the rain for our time in Wittenberg.
At one point, as we were praying together outside another church building, someone noticed a little coffee shop called the poppy café. "Look," they said, "It's just like the picture that Mélodie had while we were praying." The café was closed, but we gathered in front of it to ask God what we should do or pray there. While four small groups took time to pray the things that God showed us, Mélodie's group rang the doorbell, hoping to meet the owners and ask them if we could pray a prayer of blessing for them.
It was only a small detail among the other things we did and prayed yesterday, but one 10 year old had her picture of God enlarged, being reminded that she too could hear His voice and bring Him glory by a simple step of obedience.
