A team of ten women attended the Holland Tulip Festival in Holland ,MI, from May 8-11, 2013. Our objective was to
experience the Festival which is the third most visited Festival in the USA and to get ideas and inspiration for what
might be done in an outreach situation for the coming years. Not only did we enjoy seeing those beautiful tulips everywhere
but also have many conversations with other attendees as well as the local folk.
We basically divided our time into two categories- attending Tulip Festival events,
“spying out the land”, assessing the atmosphere and prayer driving/walking
AND praying and dialoguing together to ascertain what God was telling us there
at the time and for the future.
There is a established and respectful traditional link between God and most of the people in Holland.
When in conversation with folks and asked why we had come (interesting question to me as
there were thousand of tourists there), we replied we were there to pray for the city and its people, almost
everyone responded how wonderful that was and how the city needed prayer. Unfortunately
often when continuing the conversation, we asked how we should pray for their city and found that
most requests involved their own personal needs or silence. There was little vision for their own
purpose or that of the city with regard to active pursuit of God.
Since our original plan was to be like “Joshua and Caleb” spies,we were not seeking to actively evangelize.
I am sure, however, that after these many conversations, questions and intrigue grew in people’s hearts
as they considered this mysterious possibility of a personal relationship with God. It is our hope and conviction
that this will occur in Holland.
Since we received two very strong words from the Lord directing planting seeds and alerting us to
Holland’s purpose when praying together the first night, we also activated the area with the prophetic
act of sprinkling seeds in many place around the city. It was amazing to us that after we split up in
twosomes and prayed around the downtown area for a couple of hours, we had covered 6 of the 7 mountains
in prayer without any previous planning or discussion.One of the memorable times of the trip was when 8
of us crammed together in a van and drove around Hope College campus at 9:30PM praying, declaring,
singing and planting seeds. We trust that God will reveal Himself there to those college students. We are
looking for a revival in that city.
Thanks once again for faithfully praying for us. We could definitely tell that there were prayers on our behalf.
All in all, we were moved by the care and co-ordination God provided as we gave ourselves to this task.
We were very thankful to have been a part of His plan.
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