Montalvo Travel Blog: June 2012

Madison WI

On the way to Madison, Ginger had a seven hour layover in Cleveland. She saw the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, designed by I. M. Pei. (He likes pyramids; you may recognize his famous one at the Louvre.) The people of Cleveland were unusually nice; trollys are free and there are people who help you find the correct subway or work the change machines.

Ginger attend a training course to be part of Urbana 2012's Intercessory Prayer Team. (Urbana is InterVarsity's national missions conference in St. Louis.) Others were there from the New England region for New Staff Orientation or other trainings. We all got together one night, and our hotel is right across the street from the Capital.

During the week, Ginger spent most of her time with her small group, Jeremiah (Idaho), Hope (Rhode Island), leader Carolyn (New Jersey) and Joe (North Carolina). Hearing their stories and praying together was the best part of the week. One of the first prayers of the week was after reading the story of the paralytic (Mark 2:1-5). We told the group something that was personally holding us back in our relationship with God, something that "paralyzed" us. We sat silently and envisioned carry our friend to Jesus for healing, then shared insights and prayed out loud. The confession and healing set us up for a powerful week.

The best study of the week was "Images of God." [missing link] The lesson was about how you view God- is He loving and merciful, or hateful and unconcerned? If God in your mind is untrustworthy or doesn't care about you, it's hard to pray. We tried to be honest with those feelings and fears and confront them with scripture and remembrances on God's love.

The 7 AM daily prayer meetings were also wonderful, which broke any stereotype one may have of prayer meetings being boring, quiet, or inactive. (This is the "I am here" breath prayer.)

Madison is a fun, quirky town. Every day, we had lunches out. There are many food trucks and fun places to eat in Madison. Hope found us some tasty dairy-free gelato. (We like wearing our conference badges everywhere!)

One day, the intercessors had our lesson and prayer time outdoors on the Capital lawn. We prayed a lot about Urbana and the background ministry we'll be doing there. Urbana will have intercessors praying 24/7 in teams and three-hour shifts. It may be worshipping, celebrating, listening, liturgical, cross-cultural or acting-it-out prayers. There's a separate team called "Prayer Ministry" which will be available to students and attendees to seek personal prayers. Intercessors are different in that we will mostly be unseen.

It's true that intercessors learn to levitate.