Praying for Abby's Boys

My Lakota sister is having a math camp for girls, but they live very far out in the country so it is difficult for family's to get their children there. So, when I saw some girls walking on the street that were former students. I asked them if they wanted to come. When the quickly agreed, I spoke with their families and loaded them up into my truck and headed for the country. On our 45 minute journey, I heard such disturbing things about the lives of the three students in my truck. They have been exposed to such awful situations.


After we arrived, I stayed about an hour before deciding to head out. But before I could leave, I gathered his family and the rest of the girls into a circle. When all shuffled into place, there were 11 children standing a circle. He then quickly left and returned with the Prayer Staff.

The Prayer Staff is a staff that first came to IW in a vision several years ago. He was told in this vision to fashion a Prayer Staff which was to carry the prayers of the children to world leaders, that their voices may be heard regarding issues of peace and justice. This staff is wakan-sacred, and only he and the children may touch it. The staff has been all around the world and many little hands have touched it, but little hands alone for no adult may touch the children's staff.

Well, tonight, I saw the Prayer Staff for the first time after hearing about it for nearly a year. He brought it out so that the children whom I loved so deeply might pray for four boys whom they have never met, but have learned about this year and have come to call "Abby's Boys."

The smell of burning sage wafted in the air as I watched each of the children hold that staff and silently say a prayer. Almost instantly, a dam burst open within me and I began to weep. Tears streamed down my face, tears for innocence lost. As I cried, my 13 year-old niece silently but firmly slipped her arms around my waist and cradled me like a baby as I wept. My salty tears dampened her shirt but she just held me, her tears mixing with mine.

When the Prayer Staff came to another one of the children--the girl whom I have come to call Hannah Montana--I noticed that she too was weeping. Then I glanced over and saw that my nine-year-old niece was crying too. As I considered the children weeping around me for four boys they will likely never meet, my weeping soon became sobbing. And as my brother prayed and sang in Lakota, I could feel the Spirit of God.

When he was finished closing our prayer time, the girls who had cried with me, came to me. The four of just mourned in each other's arms. Again, I was struck and deeply moved by the compassion of my children. All they know of Abby and her boys is what I have told them and a few pictures they have seen. Yet they were weeping for those boys as if they were their own brothers. I soon realized that my heart was not only breaking for Abby and her precious babies, but for my precious babies. I felt moved to pray for them and for the calling God has on their lives. And so, I held each one of those girls, many of whom have had absolutely disastrous home lives, and spoke my love and God's love over them. I could feel hope just pouring over their hurt hearts and I was praising God inside.

As I drove off, three of the girls were still crying, perhaps for the boys, or perhaps for their own deep wounds. Either way, I witnessed a moment when Heaven touched earth tonight.

B

Note: I have no additional new from Abby except that they have filed a police report. I promise to pass on any and every detail I get. Your prayers mean so much to us.