“I cried to the Lord because of my affliction, and He answered me.
Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and You heard my voice…
When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord;
And my prayer went up to you, Into Your holy temple.” Jonah 2: 2,7

I don’t know about you, but I often find that people share testimonies of the great things God has done, and we rejoice with them, but then it can be easy to turn away and think, “But what about me, Lord? I am still in the belly of the whale!” Parenting, it seems to me, is a life-long commitment, and heartache and dashed hopes can seem to last forever, too, as we wait on the Lord’s answers that so often do not come within our own chosen timeframe. While pondering this, it occurred to me that Jonah didn’t wait until he landed on the shore to praise God, but praised Him from the belly of the whale. So, for those mums out there who, like me, might still be there in the whale, I wanted to share some praise, as I know that God is with me and one day, because of His faithfulness, I shall yet see dry land. I also wanted to share some encouragement that part of the reason that I KNOW that He cares about my children so much, is the way He brought Mums in Prayer into my life.

My husband and I met on the mission field in Northern Asia and on our wedding day, just after we had made our vows and turned to walk down the aisle, someone leapt in front of us and said, “When your son is born, you shall call him…”. Well! Not an everyday occurrence, methinks! The name was an apostolic name, one I shall keep secret for my son’s sake, but let’s just say it spoke of the humble, godly character and missionary zeal we could anticipate in him. In due course, the Lord told me when he was to be born and, when I was still carrying him, I was given the same prophetic word whilst on two different continents: “This one will be greatly used of the Lord.” I imagined him to be a latter-day John the Baptist, prophesying before he could walk. He did make a commitment to the Lord when he was young, but it took me some years for me to realise that the reason that the Lord gave me these words was not because the fulfilment would be manifest from an early age, but because at times it would seem impossible to even imagine that this could come true.

I am a little hazy on the details, but it will be around 15 years ago, when the boys were very small, that somehow I came across a flyer about Moms in Prayer (Moms in Touch, as it was then). A little before that, a lady had joined our church, and, as she stood in front of me for the first time, when I knew nothing about her at all, the Lord pointed her out to me and said “Mother”. I introduced myself to her and it turned out she was indeed a mother – of six children, including a set of triplets, two of whom had special needs! We became friends and I spoke to her about starting a Moms in Prayer group together. She wanted to, but due to some negative external pressure at that time, sadly, the matter was dropped.

The years passed, and both of my sons (we had a second one, whom the Lord has named after a wonderful prophet) were attending church with us and professing their own faith. Then came the hormones. Sound familiar? In our oldest son in particular, teenage rebellion presenced itself among us until finally one Sunday morning those heart-crushing words rang in my ears: “I’m not going to church, mum. I’m not a Christian anymore.” What followed was a period in which our darling boy began experimenting with drugs and alcohol, started to drop out of school and got into a cycle of extreme anxiety and depression that culminated in a complete breakdown with him being set back not one, but two years in his education. Three years ago, the Lord told me that “the walls of Jericho would come down” and confirmed it through another prophetic sister, who did not know about the word He had given me, but I am still waiting…

Around October/November 2014, to my complete surprise, I received a letter from our local MIP area co-ordinator, inviting me to a prayer breakfast. I’ll be absolutely honest; my first thought was, “I haven’t got time for that!” Having delayed responding, I finally picked up the phone to politely decline, and within seconds of speaking to this lovely lady, I was in floods of tears, pouring out my heart about my son. By 1:30 that afternoon I was in a MIP group. When God decides it is time for something, there’s no arguing! By Christmas, we began to see the first signs of answered prayer, as we discovered a whole series of tabs open on the laptop of YouTube videos about end-times and other Christian themes. Previously, the Lord had spoken to me very clearly from Joshua 6:10 not to let “one word proceed from my mouth” until the day that the Lord said so; I had to take my hands off, keep quiet, and let God do it. However, there have been moments of grace, such as at this time, where our son has begun to ask questions, and I even found myself sitting up with him one night until 1 o’clock in the morning, as we discussed end-times, God and faith. As of that time, though not yet walking with the Lord, he has, I would say, aligned himself with Christians and is again beginning to show that he believes.

Having attended the MIP group for around a year, I began to sense it was time to set up our own more local group. I contacted my friend (the “Mother”) and reminded her of Mums in Prayer. For some time, we had no longer been in the same church and, as busy working mums, we had been trying to “get together for a coffee”, without success. All of a sudden, we have found that, because of the focused “hour of power” prayer arrangement of MIP, we are able to meet and pray every week. Also, the Lord has begun bringing other mums, and, having started with the two of us around six months ago, we are now a group of five, considering setting up a new twig shortly. The blessing of sitting with other mums, sharing tears, pain and burdens, but also hope, encouragement and love, is priceless. It is also a great blessing, honour and privilege to be able to bring hope to other mums, who are also desperate to see the power of God’s intervention in their own child’s life through prayer.

As for our son? He is now nearly twenty and, having been told he was in the top quartile in his year, with every expectation of academic success, he now has just a handful of GCSEs and, as of the end of the Easter holidays, has dropped out of education altogether for the moment, feeling unable to face the stress of another bout of retakes, and telling me “I’ll be a street cleaner; it’s all I’m worth.” He is also not yet walking with the Lord as I should like, and the vision that we were given so many years ago still seems to tarry … and tarry. I may not see it fulfilled while he still lives with us. Having hit this new low, where he seemed to give up all hope of a fulfilling future, a “chance remark” (?!) at our MIP group the preceding week, led us to an agency (run by a Christian!) which offers sheltered housing to young people who are struggling and supports them into employment, apprenticeships or education and towards independence. This looks to be the next step that the Lord has for him.

Just recently, the Lord gave us another picture, this time of white stones on the ground with beautiful fresh, green grass growing among them. Dare I begin to hope that the walls of Jericho are finally coming down? That very same week, I went to a MIP Conference, where Kathrin shared from Isaiah 44: 1-5. As I listened, I heard: “I will pour my Spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your offspring; they will spring up among the grass…”

As yet, he is an unfinished work and I will have to let him go, but I have the peace of mind that the Lord has His hand on him and though the vision tarry, it will surely come, and I have the comfort of my MIP group to help pray it in. Just this week, he has been ill. Lying in bed, with his face to the wall, for the first time in so many years he asked me, “Mum, please will you pray for me.” Oh yes, my darling. And I will never stop!

A British mum