My 1-1-1 Project

This month will be one year since I started my "1-1-1 Project."

About one year ago (on 8/28/08 to be exact), I was running really late for work. The 60 was horrid because of an accident so I tried to take the 10, which wasn't any better. Frustrated, I got off the 10 and tried to take the streets. I was running VERY late, but God had a reason behind it. As I waited at red light after red light, I listened to Focus on the Family. That day Lee Strobel was speaking. As a former Athiest who went on a scientific quest to disprove the notion of a Creator, only to prove that there is One, he is definitely someone who's insights I like to hear.

Well, it got to a point where he started talking about prayer life and how we need to pray for people we know who are not saved. He got into how at his church they started a 1-1-1 project: Pray 1 time a day at 1 o'clock for 1 person who is unsaved. Well, it turned out to be a huge success. Almost immediately people were coming back telling him about the miracles and work that God had done as a result of their project.

This message fired me up and as soon as I got to work I wrote an email to my saved friends and family asking them to join me in doing the same:

Basically, it's a call to pray everyday at 1 o'clock for 1 minute for 1 person in your life who doesn't know the Lord. They had started this project two months before Easter and wanted them to pray for their chosen person everyday until Easter to see what happens... to see just how many people are changed by it. Of course, within weeks, the stories started pouring in about people who were giving their lives to Jesus. This moved me so much that I just started crying (I literally ruined my make-up for today!). That's when God put it on my heart to share this with you and to ask that you join me in doing the same thing.

I definitely have more than one person in my life who is lost and needs the Lord,
but I'm going to choose just one for now and pray for that person everyday at 1 PM for 1 minute, but I'm personally not going to do it for just a certain amount of time. I'm going to do it until that person has come to the Lord. Even if it takes years. (You can set a time limit if you want to. It's up to you and whatever God lays it on your heart to do.)

Won't you join me? Prayer works! God is faithful, even if He doesn't answer right away... We all have someone in our life who is lost, whether it's someone who just doesn't know enough to make the decision, or someone who has completely turned his/her back on God all together. We may not have the ability to personally bring them to Him for whatever reason, but He does. He can change their lives! He has the power.

God Bless you guys! I hope you can give just one minute of your life each day to ask the Lord to save one persons life for eternity....

Well, I have kept my promise to pray every day all the way up until now, except instead of 1 person, it has changed to 3 (and I usually do the praying at night before I go to bed). I've been praying for these three people for almost the entire year, and although none of them has accepted the Lord, I have still seen some work in their lives.

The biggest work I've seen through this project , however, was that I began to see big blessings in my own life since I started praying for others. I believe it is what opened up the door for me to finally get over myself and start to surrender to the Lord. A little after I started this project, I began Women's Bible Study, went to the Women's Retreat (where I surrendered my life fully to the Lord), and started to get more involved in church, including volunteering for Children's Ministry.

Everything is not all fine and dandy though at times. I admit that sometimes I get frustrated and impatient because I'm not seeing the progress that I would like to see with these three people, but I have to remind myself of what I said in that email: Even if it takes years! I will keep praying until my last breath if I have to. If it's to happen, it will happen when He ordains it. My only job here is to keep praying, and to rejoice in the little bits of progress I do get to witness.... God really is SO GOOD!