A group of Calvary moms meets once a week to pray together for our families and school community.
Weekly moms prayer group experiences answered prayers, invites other moms
By Barb VanDyke
Leader, Moms in Prayer
Calvary Schools of Holland
Although we are privileged and blessed to be mothers, we moms can sometimes feel overwhelmed with all of the responsibilities involved with caring for our families. So there is a group of Calvary moms who gather together each week to pray for our school and our families.
The Calvary Schools of Holland chapter of Moms in Prayer is part of an international organization impacting schools worldwide for Christ by gathering mothers to pray.
Every Thursday afternoon from 1:30-3:00pm, we meet in the teacher’s lounge at Plasman campus to pray. Starting with a time of fellowship, we share prayer requests with confidentiality and then move into organized times of praise, confession, thanksgiving, and intercession.
Something new we have added this year are prayer walks. Prayer walks take place toward the end of our prayer time. We walk and pray (weather permitting) around one campus each week, alternating campuses each week. We love the visible symbolism it brings in surrounding our schools with prayer. Moms who are unable to join us for the first half of our meeting are welcome to join in to walk and pray.
The Moms in Prayer group does a weekly prayer walk around our school campuses.
Coming together each week affords us the opportunity to share our struggles with friends who truly care, understand, and most importantly, can bring these concerns together with us before God’s throne. As we pray for specific areas in each other’s children’s lives, we become more intimately bonded to one another. We look forward to seeing how God will use our prayer, and when God answers, we celebrate together.
One mom recently shared, “Being a part of MIP has helped me really get to know several other moms here at Calvary. Not only have I gotten to know the moms, but after praying together over their children and the teachers, I am also getting to know them. This is such a blessing. Our care for each other has grown, and we even feel comfortable reaching out to each other outside of prayer meetings as we need prayer.”
These are powerful times as we come to God using His Word to intercede on behalf of children, teachers and staff, and school concerns. This year, we have specifically prayed for good health and continued in-person learning. Although it has been a struggle, there is much to be thankful for. While we all have been praying individually about this, there’s something more powerful in a group prayer.
It has also been a priority to lift up our leadership as they carry heavy loads, in a difficult year, navigating protocols in uncharted territory. And most importantly, we pray that each child would come to a saving knowledge of our Lord and Savior.
It is exciting to see how God is answering our prayers. Some have been prayed over for years, when God begins His work, in His timing. Together, we celebrate and praise Him. It is also a work of the Holy Spirit when we hear another mom pray specifically for our child in ways only He could lead. It’s truly a blessing and gives us confidence the Lord is working! We have seen God supply the needs of the school, prayed children through difficult circumstances, seen victories in families, celebrated successful surgeries, and rejoiced upon good doctor reports.
While praying for our school community, moms also pray for each other individually
As a group we have been so blessed to see God clearly answering our requests, from sending friends to cheer a sick son, to calming anxious hearts, to guiding in parenting, and fixing leaking pipes. God is so clearly answering and providing. It is so amazing to watch how He intervenes and provides abundantly above all we could ask or think.
As busy moms there is so much vying for our attention and endless lists to get done. But because we know there is so much power in prayer, we make it a priority to meet each week, as a group, to bring our children and school before the Lord. It brings us so much joy to know we are doing what we believe to be the single most important link in what the Lord is doing at Calvary.
All moms are invited to join us. We have two meetings left this school year, on May 20 and May 27. Christian mothers, grandmothers, and any woman who wants to pray for our school is invited to attend. Come join us on Thursday afternoons as we witness together that God answers prayer!
Barb VanDyke leads our Moms in Prayer group and has been part of the Calvary community since 1988, when her two children attended as students. She currently has one daughter and three grandchildren enrolled at the school, along with one grandson who graduated last year.