Dry Bones and Living Hope
By Caleb Bagdanov, Director of Student Ministries
Tomorrow, a team of 34 high school students and 11 adult leaders from our church will head to Ensenada, Mexico to serve alongside our partners at Rancho Agua Viva Ministries. As bags are packed and final preparations are made, we go with a shared theme that has been shaping our prayers and hopes, a vision from Ezekiel 37, the valley of dry bones.
In this powerful passage, God brings the prophet Ezekiel to an expansive valley filled with dry, dead bones. The imagery is striking, a picture of complete hopelessness. God asks Ezekiel a piercing question, “Son of man, can these bones live?” What follows is a reminder that renewal does not begin with human effort, planning, or strength, but with the Spirit of God. As God’s breath enters the bones, what was once dead comes alive. God forms a people again, restored, breathing, and ready to live as his own. As we prepare to leave tomorrow, this vision shapes how we are praying, not only for our team and the people we will work alongside in Mexico, but for our entire church family.
It would be easy to think about this trip only in terms of what we will do. We will fix bikes, serve families at our Vacation Bible School, and support the local church by helping with some construction projects. We will work hard and these outward expressions of love matter deeply. But alongside our acts of service, we are praying that God would do a work in us. That he would breathe fresh life into places that feel dry, places marked by weariness, distraction, fear, or complacency, and that he would renew us by his Spirit. Furthermore, Scripture reminds us that true renewal is never meant to stop with us.
When God revives his people in Ezekiel 37, it is not simply so they can feel alive again. It is so they can live as God’s people in the world. Revival always has a direction. It moves outward. It leads to obedience, humility, and love. This is where our theme connects so clearly to the way of Jesus.
Jesus shows us what Spirit-filled life looks like. It is a life rooted in deep love for God and expressed through faithful love for our neighbors. Renewal that ends with personal inspiration or spiritual excitement misses God’s heart. The Spirit revives us so that we might reflect Jesus more clearly, serving sacrificially, tearing down the dividing walls of hostility, seeking the good of others, and embodying God’s love in real and tangible ways. As a team, we are praying not only, “Can these bones live?” but also, “Lord, breathe on us, and send us.”
As we leave tomorrow, we invite you to join us in prayer.
Please pray for our Mexico team. Pray for our safety, unity, humility, and hearts that are attentive to the Spirit’s work. Pray for the people and communities we will serve, that they would experience God’s love through both our words and our actions. And pray for our church, that God would bring renewal among us, not for our comfort, but so that we might more fully live the way of Jesus for the sake of our neighbors.
May the Spirit who brings dry bones to life breathe fresh life into us all and lead us into deeper love of God and truer love of neighbor.
Caleb