My journey begins when i first came to the US to go to college. The first semester was going along pretty alright, and i was having a ton of fun in school, making new friends and all. i never thought very much about prayer, uttering it every now and then when i got desperate. in fact i hated praying. i never could understand how people always had so much to say when i could barely come up with 2 sentences. i always thought of it as kind of boring, and i never ever knew where to start.
at the end of nov 2009, a 46 hours of nonstop prayer event was organized. all of a sudden, i was like "this sounds pretty cool". there were time slots to sign up for, but i never exactly signed up for any in particular because i was just like "well, i guess i could drop by at some point". it was only when i was asked did i sign up to be in there for 1 slot (1 hour) when it finally came to the day for the event to kick off, i was excited. and i thought to myself, "this is crazy. i'm excited and i dont even like prayer."
i found myself hanging out in the prayer room for quite a bit of time. hours of just spending time in there going through the different stations. to me, prayer was always like having to physically talk to God and so the idea of all these different ways of praying was an eye opener. of course, the art station was what drew me the most and i found myself sitting there and painting one picture after another, after another. i dont even know where all the inspiration or ideas came from, but i was enjoying it.
Earlier, my friend Mariam had asked if i would go with her if she signed up for a 2am slot on the last morning and i agreed. we had gone back to the prayer at about 10pm and ended up deciding to stay until the slot was over. we spent a lot of time just doing worship, i remembered playing the guitar and when my fingers hurt, i switched to hitting some chords on the keyboard that was there too. i remember during one of our conversations, she said "won't it just be awesome if we could hear angels?" and i remember thinking, "well, sure, that would be pretty cool" and that was all that i ever thought of it. before we even realized, we were in there till 5 in the morning. i couldn't help but think, "if all we were doing in there was some form of prayer, we were praying for a long time!"
i never ever prayed for so long in my entire life, and i realized that i did enjoy it. so i went back, got a couple of hours of sleep, and went back to the prayer room way before my 12 noon slot, all ready with packed lunch and what not. it was like i was camping out there. i dont know what it was, but i just really enjoyed being in there.
i did what i only could best, worship. i wanted to go deeper, but at the same time, my hour slot was almost over and i was afraid to be worshipping when the person with the next slot came in. so i kinda waited, and the person never showed. it wasn't long before i got deeper and deeper into worship. i was singing and i heard my voice change, it became so rich and full, i almost couldn't recognize it. and then i began to hear all these harmonies, the most beautiful voices and so i peeked open my eyes because i thought someone else was in the room. but there was no one. i closed my eyes again and i could hear it again. clearer and clearer. n slowly it began to dawn on me that it had to be angels. because there was no one around, and the sound was just so pure and beautiful.
by the time i was done with my worship time, i was so stunned i had heard angels i had to just sit for about an hour and just soak in His presence. i stayed in the prayer room for the rest of the day until we had the closing service to end the 46 hours of continuous prayer. even though the event was over, God had stirred something in me that caused me to start liking prayer.
along with this 46 hour prayer event, we were launching a prayer room on campus, conversion of a little chapel in the library, the following day. which also happened to be my first birthday ever in the US. in the words of my friend Molly, "the prayer room is a birthday gift from us and God to you." which i thought was cool and funny at the same time.
over the next semester, i found myself simply loving the prayer room. i was in there so much it was literally my 2nd home. i spent more time in there than i did in my own room. there was just something different about the atmosphere in that room. just because i was in there didn't mean i was praying all the time. i still struggled with how to pray. i did my homework in there (i was very productive in there because there was no distractions) and sometimes just sat there in the silence and said "hi God".
a year later, i still love the prayer room. we've had a second event, a 48/49 hours of prayer (cos of time difference) and i got to be a part of setting up the event this time. there are so many times i get so overwhelmed with school and people and have no where to go, but being in the prayer room brings so much comfort. it's not about how much you have to say, its just being in His presence and being still before Him.
since i've been in the US, i've also had numerous people that came up to me, different times and told me "you're an intercessor". every time i hear that, i just kinda laugh it off, like God was playing some kind of a joke on me. i'm just like "really God? it's not very funny. i don't even like prayer. i don't even know how to go about praying those 2 hours, never ending prayers. i can't even pray for 10 minutes and you want me to be an intercessor? yeah right." the one thing i couldn't doubt though, was that prayer was becoming more and more important in my life. i started believing that prayers worked and would try to spend time praying a little here and there, instead of only in times of desperation.
if you haven't got the idea, my head's probably one of the hardest nut to crack. and so despite all the signs and people telling me and everything else that was happening in my life, i still did not get it that God was calling me. until the OneThing conference in IHOP-KC.
