Cadets Are Learning to Pray

Prayer was a significant aspect of family life when Rev. Wendell Davelaar first started as a Calvinist Cadet Corps counselor in 1976.

But that is no longer the case for the cadets he sees, the pastor of Rudyard Christian Reformed Church in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula said last week during a conference for CCC counselors in Grand Rapids.

“I see fewer and fewer kids coming from homes where prayer is important,” said Davelaar at one of the conference seminars. “This means we need to have a culture of prayer (in CCC). We need to teach these boys how to pray.”

About 60 CCC counselors from across North America attended the three-day conference that included speakers, seminars and special devotional times.

CCC is an independent,  non-denominational youth ministry that  helps the local church, including many CRC congregations, to share Christ's love with boys from their church and community.

The theme of the conference, which takes place twice every two years, was “Work in Progress.” It was based on Philippians 1:6 that says, “He (that is  God) who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.”

Jim Hoekstra, chaplain of the Calvinist Cadet Corps,  spoke about this theme during the opening devotion on the second day of the conference.

“We are a work in progress as day after day, month after month, season after season, we witness to and come into contact with God’s love,” said Hoekstra.

“May the cadets see that love in us as we follow God’s call.”

Seminars offered at the conference included one on the basics of long-distance bicycling; another on media and youth; one on addressing substance abuse, and another on building pinewood derby cars.

Then there was Davelaar’s seminar on prayer.

“Prayer may be the most frightening moment in a cadet meeting,” said Davelaar.

“But by praying themselves, cadets get a chance to learn that prayer doesn’t have to be all that scary.”

Even Christ’s disciples needed to be taught to pray by following the lead of Jesus in saying the Lord’s Prayer.

Before working on pinewood derby cars, making crafts or earning merit badges, the cadets pray. Then, after their activities for an evening, they pray. Sometimes, depending on what is happening, they stop and pray during a meeting.

“We let them know that they can pray for anything as long as they do it reverently,” said Davelaar.

“We teach them to keep prayer simple so it is something they can handle.”

Once they are comfortable and begin to open up, cadets will pray for sick siblings, a deceased pet, for success in school, and for any number of things.

“We try to teach them to pray without judgement and to pray at the drop of a hat,” said Davelaar. “Prayer is an avenue they always have available to them.”