Participants pray for rain during Monday’s prayer service at Visser Farms in Olive Township.
(Photo courtesy Tyler Wagenmaker)
By Greg Chandler
Zeeland Record
About 200 people gathered Monday night at Visser Farms in Olive Township to pray for rain.
Pastors from five area Christian Reformed churches – Beaverdam, Borculo, North Blendon, Drenthe and Rusk – led the 30-minute prayer service. It was the second straight summer the local churches had organized a prayer service, asking God to send rain for the crops in a season where there has been little rain.
“We’re all praying together and crying out to God,” said Tyler Wagenmaker, pastor of Beaverdam CRC, who organized the service.
Pastors from the participating churches read passages of Scripture, from both the Old and New Testaments, and offered prayers of adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication.
A storm system earlier in the day on Monday brought rain to the area, which Pastor Mark Neymeiyer of Rusk CRC noted in his prayer.
“You have shown your mercy to us in advance of our even asking, with the rain we received already this day, from your grace and mercy,” Neymeiyer said.
“We confess that we a proud people. We often think we do deserve everything that we get. We have tilled the soil and planted and witnessed the life come out of the seeds, and we look at these beautiful big plants – the corn standing right beside us now – and we expect a bountiful harvest. Perhaps we expect too much. Maybe we thought it was what we deserved for our hard work,” Neymeiyer added.
Pastor Gary DeKoekkoek of Drenthe CRC gave an opportunity for participants to pray individually as well as corporately.
“There’s more on your hearts than just the need for rain – that’s a big one, and that’s why we’re here,” DeKoekkoek said. “But there’s more.”
“We need you. We can’t make it rain. But you can, and we thank you for the mercy that you showed to us in those showers of blessings. Lord, send more rain, in your time,” DeKoekkoek prayed.
Wagenmaker, drawing from the story of the prayer meeting from the 12th chapter of Acts after the apostle Peter had been imprisoned, spoke of the power of prayer and of churches coming together to appeal to God for rain.
“This is the blessing of living in a place like West Michigan, that we have so many different churches that are represented here,” he said. “How good it is to be able to come together as brothers and sisters in Christ, and to be drawn together, because sometimes that’s what challenges do - it draws people together and that strengthens the bonds of Christian fellowship, it strengthens the church.”
Zeeland Record
About 200 people gathered Monday night at Visser Farms in Olive Township to pray for rain.
Pastors from five area Christian Reformed churches – Beaverdam, Borculo, North Blendon, Drenthe and Rusk – led the 30-minute prayer service. It was the second straight summer the local churches had organized a prayer service, asking God to send rain for the crops in a season where there has been little rain.
“We’re all praying together and crying out to God,” said Tyler Wagenmaker, pastor of Beaverdam CRC, who organized the service.
Pastors from the participating churches read passages of Scripture, from both the Old and New Testaments, and offered prayers of adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication.
A storm system earlier in the day on Monday brought rain to the area, which Pastor Mark Neymeiyer of Rusk CRC noted in his prayer.
“You have shown your mercy to us in advance of our even asking, with the rain we received already this day, from your grace and mercy,” Neymeiyer said.
“We confess that we a proud people. We often think we do deserve everything that we get. We have tilled the soil and planted and witnessed the life come out of the seeds, and we look at these beautiful big plants – the corn standing right beside us now – and we expect a bountiful harvest. Perhaps we expect too much. Maybe we thought it was what we deserved for our hard work,” Neymeiyer added.
Pastor Gary DeKoekkoek of Drenthe CRC gave an opportunity for participants to pray individually as well as corporately.
“There’s more on your hearts than just the need for rain – that’s a big one, and that’s why we’re here,” DeKoekkoek said. “But there’s more.”
“We need you. We can’t make it rain. But you can, and we thank you for the mercy that you showed to us in those showers of blessings. Lord, send more rain, in your time,” DeKoekkoek prayed.
Wagenmaker, drawing from the story of the prayer meeting from the 12th chapter of Acts after the apostle Peter had been imprisoned, spoke of the power of prayer and of churches coming together to appeal to God for rain.
“This is the blessing of living in a place like West Michigan, that we have so many different churches that are represented here,” he said. “How good it is to be able to come together as brothers and sisters in Christ, and to be drawn together, because sometimes that’s what challenges do - it draws people together and that strengthens the bonds of Christian fellowship, it strengthens the church.”
––––––––––––––––––––
Subscribe to the Legal News!
https://www.legalnews.com/Home/Subscription
Full access to public notices, articles, columns, archives, statistics, calendar and more
Day Pass Only $4.95!
One-County $80/year
Three-County & Full Pass also available
