Prayer-Walking Evening #14

Bridget and I went prayer walking again on May 11, a couple weeks ago, for the 14th prayer-walking adventure around Kanazawa. We started this time by walking through Naga-machi, the old samurai district, which has a river running through the edge of that area. As we stood on a bridge and prayed, I had the sense that our prayers were like that small river (more of a stream, really). That water ends up in the Sea of Japan, just like our small prayers end up being filtered through the King of the universe and going out as they are needed, through his power. 

I started out the evening, honestly, by not wanting to go on the walk. I was having doubts that it really mattered, and frankly I felt tired and just wanted to rest at home. That metaphor of the water really buoyed my spirits. 

A little while later we walked past a stream of clubs and bars and I noticed that one of them was called The Virgin. About one minute later, we paused at the red light at this intersection and I saw this Virginia S. pack of cigarettes sticking out from between two poles. What was God saying to my spirit about virgins/Virginia? I asked him to enlighten me, and I felt he was whispering to me about all of us being cleansed and made new by his spirit, like a virgin. All of us, not just those caught up in sex trafficking. 

A few days later, I listened to this podcast episode about Julian of Norwich, who was a mystic in the UK hundreds of years ago. She saw "showings," or visions from God. Here's what she wrote down one time: "Jesus answered with these words, saying: 'All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.' . . . This was said so tenderly, without blame of any kind toward me or anybody else'" (from this Wikipedia page). Amen! 

As we were walking back to the car, Bridget suggested that we just stop right there on the side of the road and hold hands and pray. So we did, in front of a lively restaurant. We were both half laughing, wondering what everybody walking by thought of those strange gaijin women! But what Bridget prayed really touched my heart: she asked God for more faith for us both, confessing that we don't trust him enough and that we were reluctant to pray that evening. My spirit was boosted a hundredfold! I felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.

And we ended the night by singing Bridget's favorite church song that they sing at the conclusion of each service at her home church in Kenya: Bind us together, Lord, bind us together, with chords that cannot be broken.