Rachel's Prayer

Lord, I come before you now to add my voice to those here. I come to you to thank you for all that you are, all that you have ever been and all that you will forever be. You are never ending. You are all knowing. You are all powerful. You are everything we could ever need or desire. You are the creator of all things, and in You all things dwell. All things were created for Your Glory.


You are the one we look to today. We look to you for your heart, for your will, for your purposes.  We come before you to ask for your blessing. We need you to pour your blessings over us. We are your people, your children. Lord, we need your strength, we need to know your heart. We canʼt touch and bless this world around us without your blessings flowing through us. Please bless us now.


Strengthen us now. Give us your heart, place your desires in us.  I come before you, God, to lift up those you have placed in leadership over us.  Those who pour out their lives to govern and lead. Those, who together make decisions that affect so many lives around them. Jesus, be their strength. Jesus, be gracious to them, pour out your wisdom into their lives. Jesus, give them discernment to understand all that is going on around them. Jesus, touch them with your peace, with your joy, with your very presence.


I pray for these Members of our Legislative Assembly. You love them so much.  You desire so much for them. You care about every area of their lives. Bless them and their families, their friends, those whose lives they touch. Let them be such a blessing to all of those around them.


Please Lord, give them a clear purpose, a clear vision, give them your eyes to see, your ears to hear, your heart to know. Let them lead with Strength and Humility, with Wisdom and Understanding. Let them lead with Love and Mercy, with Compassion and Grace.


I bless them Lord, and I thank you for them. I thank you for their desire to serve, for their desire to do what they can to make this a better place. I bless them God, and I give them to you. You are the Way. You are the Truth, You are the Life. Jesus, you are all that we need. Thank you for your heart. Thank you for your Love.


In Your Name - Amen




RACHAELʼS PRAYER Feb. 26, 2009

2009 MLA Prayer Breakfast Report

I've just come from our Third Annual MLA Prayer Breakfast.  What a fantastic time!  This was our first every sold out event and it was by far the best one we've ever had.  We had a strong turnout of MLA's which is our primary goal, but we also had a fantastic turnout by the church at large in Victoria and at least one guest from Vancouver. 

Pastor and author Mark Buchanan did an amazing job as our speaker.  He was challenging, inspiring and tremendously effective in communicating the key points of Micah 6:8.  He spoke to MLA's while he spoke to us and he did it in a way that was non-threatening while at the same time pointing us to the need to walk in humility before our God. 

Rachel Smith led us in prayer for our MLA's this morning.  She prepared a beautiful written prayer that she read with poise and grace.  I will post a copy of it later today.  I hope that you will enjoy it as much as we did.

Barb Schindel (my wife) and Nicholas Simons (MLA, Gibsons Sunshine Coast) did an instrumental duet of Amazing Grace.  They played the same number during our chapel service in November of 2007. 

We were only able to do this with the help of our partners, friends and local churches and businesses who sponsor tables, buy tickets, volunteer, pray and serve in whatever way they can.  This is a team effort and we all made today a huge success. 

We have some great photo's from this morning as well.  I will upload them to our gallery as soon as I receive them.

In The News...

We were in the news twice last week due to our PrayBC initiative.  In both cases we were noted for having a unique approach. This is great news for us and just adds to the profile that we've been building. 

This is where you'll find us in the Vancouver Sun.  This link takes you to a fantastic BC political site called, BC2009.  Feel free to add comments on either site in support of what we are doing. 

MissionsFest Vancouver - 2009

We just got back from a fantastic 3 days at MissionsFest in Vancouver. MissionsFest is one of the largest Christian gatherings in North America. In addition to speakers like Tony Campolo and Mark Buchanan, missions agencies from around the world were represented at Canada Place. I have no idea how many agencies were represented but reports were that the crowd was in excess of 30,000 people over 3 days. It was a busy and energizing atmosphere.  I could not have done it alone and I was so happy to have several volunteers work with me at the booth.  Donna and Gail had a steady stream of people coming by to see them.  Who could resist those smiles?  (The coke cans on the table came from a booth up the way who were very generous and kept me in particular well fueled with sugar and caffiene during the entire conference.)

This was our first year at MissionsFest as an exhibitor.  Our main goal in participating this year was to meet as many people as possible and tell them about our vision for PrayBC.  Our hardworking team of volunteers gave away just under 300 mugs and about 1000 bookmarks to people who visited our booth.

Here's a picture of Barb and our friend and fellow blogger Sonya from Kamloops.  Sonya and her husband are ministry partners as well and it's always fun to see them.  We saw many other ministry partners and friends over the time we were there and at times it felt like a family reunion.  It's amazing to meet people who pray, give and believe that we need to invest in the lives of leaders in this way.

 

We were so happy to have Rob Parker from the National House of Prayer in Ottawa come by to say hello as well.  Rob and the entire team at NHOP are doing a great work and are a real inspiration to us.  I was able to present Rob with a PrayBC mug.  It's great to know that we will have people praying for the BC Provincial Election all the way in Ontario.

MissionsFest really wanted to focus on encouraging youth and young adults to participate this year and they certainly achieved their goal.  These young ladies will be old enough to vote in the election on May 12 and also joined our prayer network in order to pray but to also be informed of the issues in a non-partisan manner.                                                                 If you'd like to see more pictures from MissionsFest, you can join the Leading Influence group on FaceBook where they will be posted later today.