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About a year ago, I was at a women's retreat with other women from our ministry. We had an afternoon where we did a prayer mosaic - going to different stations and praying through different things in our life, and also praying for different people. I got to the station about praying for different people on campus that needed to accept Christ and asking God what our next step was with these people. I found around 10 girls in my phone that I had either been sharing with or had recently met that I had yet to share the Gospel with that year.

I could share multiple stories from not only praying for these girls and me sharing with them, but to save time, I'll just let you know I got to share with  6 out of the 10 after that retreat. I even got to share with someone completely new because of setting up an appointment with a gal on my list! This girl who came in on our conversation just kept telling me, after I had shared the gospel with her, "Wow! I have never heard this before! Wow!!"

But here is my favorite story (so far) from this prayer list. I got to share the gospel with Nicole at a retreat last year, and I knew another lady on our staff team was also sharing with her consistently. But I hadn't been as faithful to pray for her to be saved until I put her on my list. By our first retreat this fall, she made the decision to put her trust in Christ!! Later this semester, she came to a prayer night we had at our house. I encouraged everyone there to write down 5 people at home who needed Jesus and 5 people from school, then ask God how to reach them. I then share how Nicole was on my list for under a year until she accepted Christ. During the break, Nicole pulled me aside and told me, "I just wanted to say thank you for praying for me! I had no idea that I was on a list or that someone cared for me enough to keep praying for me." You should have heard her reaction when she found out it wasn't only me, but our whole staff team and her closest friends praying for her too! And little does she know that there were even more when it came to all our supporters and the supporters of our staff also praying. And little do we know who else was involved in this miraculous event for Nicole's life to go from death to life!!

I share this story because prayer is powerful! I have been so unfaithful when it has come to prayer, but God has changed my view of prayer by seeing how much He has done in the lives of a a handful of people just because I specifically prayed. James 5:16b says, "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." We often  believe the lie that our role in prayer is minimal, where scripture shows us that our prayers are actually effective and powerful.

Leah works with Master Plan Ministries at Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO. Other than watching college students' lives change, she enjoys getting her mind blown by God and His Word, watching sci fi, baking cupcakes, and spending time with her hunky husband.