When Nanette Hoogsteen, a member of Meadowvale CRC in Mississauga, Ontario, saw a flyer inviting people to be part of a new kind of missions trip focused on prayer, she knew God was asking her to go.
Although she knew the power of prayer, nothing could have prepared her for the way that she, her teammates, and others experienced God's presence during a prayer trip t o Nicaragua.
In mid-October, Hoogsteen and six other North Americans traveled to Managua, eager to see the ministries of the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee and Christian Reformed World Missions and to pray for the people involved in them.
The trip was part of a new partnership between Prayer Missions International and CRWM to send teams out to pray specifically for ministry fields.
The team's week began with an overview of ministry in Nicaragua and a prayer walk through the Nehemiah Center—a national organization that brings international and national agencies together to encourage transformation in every sector of Nicaraguan life. The prayer team met with 45-50 members of the Nehemiah Center, splitting into small groups to pray with and for them.
During the next few days they traveled to several communities, meeting and praying for local pastors and their families.
"God showed us that he was doing a new thing. . . . In obedience, all we did was ask. We were ready to walk through any door that opened for us to pray," Hoogsteen says.
"People were amazed that [the team] came just to pray with and for them," says Steve Holtrop, a CRWM missionary in Nicaragua. "One pastor said, 'As pastors, no one prays for us, and we needed that.'"
About the Author
Sarah Van Stempvoort is a writer with Christian Reformed World Missions.
