New Hope Through Prayer: Katelyn Fajardo

Matthew 9

36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

We have been praying fervently for this community and for the students on Louisiana Tech’s campus that they would find a home at Wesley like so many of us have, and in doing so that they would come to know the Lord in newer and deeper ways. I can say without a doubt that the Lord has been answering those prayers. At the first orientation I went to after returning from missions, our team of students and staff who had come to meet new students were filled with excitement. We made fools of ourselves cheering for orientation groups and dancing to the Tech fight songs. To be working together again in the name of the Lord after some of us had been apart for more than a month was something we could all recognize was a gift, and it seemed to bring us endless joy. Not only that, but this was a kind of joy that begged to be shared and we couldn’t help but do just that. We found ourselves sharing with these new students more of ourselves and our time than I think some of us expected to be willing to offer. These students were revealing to us parts of ourselves that seem to instinctively reach for other people and show them they’re welcome. Although, I’m not so sure it’s instinctive. I think it’s habitual. I think it’s learned and I just didn’t notice how deeply we were learning it.

I could talk about any number of aspects of our spiritual formation at the Wesley that could make Christian love a habit--from the practices we’re taught in meetings with our discipleship team to the posture of hospitality and love we consistently saw from our brothers and sisters in Mexico. However, at least for myself, I think among the most powerful of these influences is how we’re learning to pray; that is to say often and together. We walked through this concept as a community for a few weeks this summer reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together. In this book, Bonhoeffer teaches about Christian community, service, confession, and as previously mentioned, prayer (both alone and in community). In these discussions, I was shown the justification for why I found one part of this summer to be so beautiful. I was one of the members of the mission team the Wesley sent to Mexico this year, and one of my favorite things we did on the trip was morning and evening prayer using the book Shorter Christian Prayer. This consisted of reading through Psalms and other scripture chosen for the day, offering intercessory prayers for one another, praying the Lord’s prayer (in Spanish), and singing canticles with tired, sweet voices. Something about this practice of prayer taught me what it really means to bear one another’s burdens and what it means to entrust yourself in the Lord’s care. On this trip to Mexico specifically, so many of us were made to understand our desperate need for the Lord and for each other. We know we are powerless without help from the God who made us, so we pray often. We know we are made to be in relationship with one another, so we pray together. Practicing this daily began to turn our eyes away from ourselves and our own power (or more likely a lack thereof) and towards the incomprehensible, life saving power and love of Jesus Christ. He answered prayers daily on that trip and I think we all came back having been relieved, at least in part, of our own self-concern. 

I say all this in an attempt to make some sense of just why the interns, discipleship, and I feel so hopeful for this school year that is just beginning. All summer I have seen the Lord’s compassion and faithfulness, both in my own life and in the lives of my brothers and sisters in this community. In everything we do, from inviting new students to parties to planning our worship services, there has been a sense of joy, expectation, and hope. It’s easy for me to discredit this hope as just common anticipation of something different, which anyone could feel at the start of some new chapter. After all, where was this hope at the end of last year? But I think if there is a mistake there, it is never in the hoping, but the lack. Ours is a hope no longer rooted in our own capabilities, but rooted in faith in a God who has clearly been moving within us. Our faith is in the God of the universe who hears our prayers and has compassion for us.

Since making the Wesley her home nearly 4 years ago, Katelyn Fajardo has become a beloved member of this community, being trusted to lead small groups as well as the worship team. She is a wise and caring member of our body who seeks to speak worth and the truth of Jesus’ love into others. After graduating from Louisiana Tech in Psychology this coming spring, she will begin the Wesley’s ministry internship.