A dad who prays..

A few months ago we had the honor of having the author of The Circle Maker, Mark Batterson join us at our church. Pastor Mark talked about his new book and the power of prayer. It was in incredible time, it was one of those moments though when you may not realize the power and potential of the influence until later on. In preparation for Pastor Mark I read the AMAZING book he wrote. While I was reading it one day my dad asked me if he could borrow my copy when I was done. I surprisingly had a second copy of the book, I gave it to my dad around 10pm... by 3pm the next day my dad had read the book from cover to cover and was quoting things left and right to me. I was pretty impressed, partly because of how quickly he read it, but more so because of how much it impacted him so deeply.

The Circle Maker is all about prayer, it's believing that your prayers are going to, can and will make a difference in your own life, in the lives of others and even in the most impossible of situations. If you're not willing to put the principles into practice The Circle Maker is just a book with some pretty cool stories. I fortunately have a dad who prays. My dad prays for his family, others, and situations that he nor anyone else other than God could really do something about.

Last Tuesday morning my families mini van got stolen from right out in front of our house. It left our family feeling pretty violated and it made it so that my car was the only car left for transportation for the house hold. Due to our crazy and busy schedules I wasn't all that much help and my car only fits 4-5 people (there's 7 of us). But, my dad is a praying dad... which encouraged the rest of us to pray and believe for something. My entire household (along with some Facebook & Twitter friends) began to pray and believe that God could and would do something to change our situation. My dad lost an entire week of work because he didn't have his car (which he needs for work), that was a major bummer. But God is faithful... and we decided to trust in Him. We were slightly discouraged by Saturday realizing that without our mini van transportation for things was going to become increasingly more difficult, but we kept circling and believing. My dad went outside and walked and prayed circles believing that God had something in store for our family.

Around 9pm Saturday my brother asked me to move my car out of the drive way, I wasn't really sure why and then I went outside. Sitting in the very spot our mini van was stolen from was a conversion van. I walked over to my dad and the man driving the car and listened to the conversation and was BLOWN away by what was happening. This guy hands my dad the keys and says "you cannot be without a car." So as we sat in the van reflecting on how amazing God is I watch my praying father tear up, I was baffled at how awesome God was to my family in this situation and in so many others.

The best part of the story is without a doubt the fact that the man who gave the keys to my father is now more than likely joining our family for Easter. The thought of being beyond blessed with this amazing gift God brought into our lives is one thing but knowing that this extremely frustrating situation brought about some pretty incredible life changing moments is even more incredible. (PS... Point People, the man who handed my dad the keys to the car was written on the door of influence a few weeks ago... SO don't loose hope and keep praying for the names you wrote on the door)

I am so incredibly thankful for my dad who prays. His faith and belief has inspired my family to believe a little bigger and to open our hearts and minds to the fact that sometimes a not so awesome situation can be used to bring about AMAZING moments that draw people back to or to God.

This is what God blessed my family with... this is what sitting inside of an answered prayer circle looks like...