Resonate Global Mission volunteer Pat Voetberg spent eight days in Obule, Uganda, and brought home a new way to pray.

“We here, especially in [my community] West Michigan, are often so careful,” said Pat. “We don’t want to say too much. We don’t want to be too vulnerable. Sometimes our culture really keeps us from expressing our faith.”

Pat is a member of Georgetown Christian Reformed Church in Hudsonville, Michigan. Her congregation supports Resonate missionaries Josh and Mandy Shaarda and Tim and Angie Sliedrecht. The church collaborated with Resonate to send a team of five volunteers to visit them and learn how God is working in and through their communities.

“They are so open about what they believe and their love for Jesus,” said Pat as she recalled a lively church service with a local congregation while visiting the Shaarda’s in Obule.

“They are uninhibited—not limited by what others think or [wondering] ‘am I doing it right?’ [It’s] just an all-out expression of their love for God expressed through song and dance ... Singing in Uganda is like an aerobic workout.”

Pat notes that there were no time constraints throughout the service. “It was three hours, but it didn’t feel like three hours … They just let the Spirit move them.”

But it was not just song and dance in Uganda that captured Pat’s heart; her favorite memory was praying with a group of nearly 20 women at a Bible study.

“It wasn’t just one person leading or individuals taking turns,” said Pat. ”When it was time to pray, everyone prayed what was on their hearts and lifted prayer requests that were mentioned.”

When Pat returned home, she and another volunteer brought this form of prayer to their own women’s Bible study in Michigan.

“The women really liked it,” Pat said. “Not everyone is comfortable praying out loud in front of people … I think more people get involved in praying this way. It’s just between you and God and there is no worrying about whether others approve of the way you word your prayer.”

She hopes it is one way her community can incorporate the excitement she experienced while worshiping in Uganda into their own worship.

Through Resonate, your missionaries are doing more than just proclaiming the gospel in other places. By building up the global church, Christians everywhere can discover new ways to live out their faith.  Thank you for supporting Resonate ministries as we seek to partner with people and learn more about how God is building his kingdom on earth.