By Jenn Holden, Back2Back Monterrey Staff
A few months ago, God put a project in my heart for the children I serve in Mexico and now it has finally begun. It started with a dream and culminated into a massive purchase of blank page sketchbooks from Amazon. While home for Easter, I carefully labeled each book with the name of each child.
I called together friends and family to join me at my home for a special event. Right there in my living room, we worshipped together, and my friend shared about the power of prayer. Then, we put her words into practice, each person grabbing a book or two, which included photos of each child, and started to pray. We prayed in color, in written word, in boldness and on paper, filling the books with dreams, encouraging words and big prayers. To me, these beautiful moments of people I love scattered throughout my backyard, living room and kitchen praying for children I cherish was the beginning of a movement I hope lasts for years to come.
Today, each child has a 200-page book that sits on the bookshelf beside my bed, and my vision is to continuously fill each and every one of the books with the following:
– Encouragement
– Memories – both written and in photos
– Prayers – the big bold kind and the consistent everyday kind
– Letters
– Visions for their future
– Stories of how we have seen God working in the life of the child
I dream of continuing to fill these books throughout the years and asking others to do the same. Then, as the children leave the children’s home or reach a significant milestone in their lives, we will be able to present them with proof of answered prayers, sweet childhood moments and most of all, evidence of God who loves them so much He consistently sent people into their lives to live life with them, encourage them and cry out to Jesus for them.
And I pray the impact is deep. I pray those who write, pray and draw in these books would experience God in a powerful way as they stand in the gap and that the children are overwhelmed by God’s love as they someday flip through the pages of a book created just for them.
But in the meantime, we pray in secret. We store up memories in these books the children don’t even know exist. And we invite more people to join us and lift their voices. Because their story is not over yet, and as we write out our prayers, we plead for God to write a story of redemption and rescue, trusting that in His love, He will answer.
Jenn Holden is living out her God-given dream in Monterrey, Mexico, serving orphans and vulnerable children with Back2Back Ministries.