Pray With Africa

Fellow Builders!!

My name is Nicole Guthrie and I graduated from SC in 2007 and wanted to share a bit with you all what I have been up to this past year. Thank you, Steve Wilke, for continuing to encourage me to post on the blog, and I apologize for it's lateness.

I spent this past summer in Tanzania volunteering at an Orphanage in a small rural town called Tarime with 40 of the most precious kids on the planet!! Towards the end of my time there I had decided to stay at the orphanage until October because a number of events had occurred which were more than likely going to leave the kids going from having 8-9 adults spending time with them to none. It's funny how things work out, though. The very next day after my decision to stay, I received an email from the great Ashlee Alley, entitled "You know what they say..." followed by the first line of the email, "...Make plans and God laughs." I knew what followed would be interesting.

Of course it was. She was passing on information about an organization called Pray With Africa, which is an extension of Upper Room Ministries and a part of the General Board of Discipleship based in Nashville, TN. The next thing I knew I was traveling around Tanzania on a bus running errands, praying about where God wanted me to be. I had two great options, but as things happened to work out God made a way for me to be a part of Pray With Africa and for the kids in Tanzania to still have people present. About a week later, after changing my flight and booking a new one, I was in Nashville.

Pray With Africa's mission is to inspire people to connect across continents, pray each others' prayers, and in turn put those prayers into action. Our purpose is to build relationships across the globe and change the world through prayer and action. We live by a simple philosophy of Learn, Pray, Act. We believe that there is power in story and knowing each others' stories, so first we invite you to learn the stories of others, learn about the issues, begin building these relationships. Then moving from a place of relationship we begin to pray each others' prayers and build a community. And only from this place of relationship and prayer should we act, so that we act from a place of love and community, rather than guilt and charity.

We are traveling the East Coast sharing our 40 minute film Listen: A New African Narrative. Here is a short blurb about the film:

"The nightly news is filled with images of tragedy, chaos, and conflict from the African continent. Drought and famine. Disease and poverty. War. These have been the narratives of Africa.

It’s time to tell the whole story.

Listen: A New African Narrative offers an inspiring and hopeful vision of the Africa beyond the headlines. Journey across the continent, to Liberia, Mali, Uganda, South Africa and Malawi, alongside five remarkable leaders who are transforming their communities through hard work and persistent prayer."

Two teams have headed out on the road traveling the East Coast, one going Northeast, and one going Southeast to share this film and our philosophy with churches, schools, universities, pretty much anyone who is willing to have us and is interested in seeing the film and knowing more. I am a part of the Northeast team and as I am typing this I am sitting in a dorm room at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington D.C. and am so grateful of the students who are letting us crash their apartment for the night! This movement and community of believers rooted in prayer is so powerful to me and I believe if we all adopted the philosophy of Learning, and Praying and Acting the world can and WILL change and be different! Being a part of spreading that message is such a blessing and privilege!

My "tribe" will be in D.C./Baltimore for the next week or so before heading to Delaware, Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York City, all through Pennsylvania, Cincinnati, and back down to Nashville by November 9th! If you are in those areas and want to come to a screening or want to host one we still have spots available and would love to come share! You can email me at nicolepwa@gmail.com or give me a call on my cell phone 620-218-3549. We are hoping to have tours in the spring, so contact me if you're interested in that as well! You can also visit our website at www.praywithafrica.com to find out more and to join our prayer community online!! I'd love to hear from you also if you have any other questions or just to chat about Pray With Africa in general!

Many Blessings to all you fellow builders...let us begin and continue to build relationships and change the world through community, prayer, and action!!