Prayer Room Stories
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January/February 2007
Thank you for your initiatives on prayer this year. Thank you especially for the prayer room - that brought release for me a month ago... I consistently met with God there (I know.. I meet with Him at home and elsewhere, too), but that meeting place gave me something to look forward to every morning for that period.. when I had nowhere else to turn.
I offered prayers of thankfulness to God for you these past few nights (from last Thursday). And while I was at it... I prayed for God to protect your home and to give you wisdom in decision-making, and also that God would strengthen you and hold you when the enemy attacks you for daring to threaten him as you have been doing.
God bless your efforts, Major... and "Thank You" again.
Prayer Room Participant
I wanted to let you how wonderful it was to have the24/7 prayer at the Cleveland ARC on December 29th!!!! We took a room and transformed it into a Prayer Boiler Room Fabric on the walls, white Christmas lights under it..... we had 19 stations the men could go to.Over the24 hour period over 80 men from the center kept the prayer going....breakthroughs began to happen in lives. Men were saved and all glory given to the Father....it was beyond words....The men have asked to keep the room and we are. We need the conference table for staff meeting but the room is consecrated to the Lord and what we do is as well so we will continue to have our meeting in there. It is called the Prayer Boiler Room and is open from 5:30am - 10:30pm.. The writings and drawings are deep and personal and this room will not be opened to the general population only to residents and staff....praise God for what is happening because of the prayer room....
Blessings,
Major Beth Muhs
ARC Cleveland
Just wanted to share we just finished our 24/7 prayer time and we had such a great response. The men really poured their heart and soul into it. They created a prayer wall around the cross were they taped their prayer request so whoever was the prayer warrior could see them and prayer for them. The men have asked to share their experiences in writing so we may be sharing some with you.
Major Ann Greenaway
ARC Toledo, Ohio
I just wanted you to know that Piqua Ohio has involved Christian belief churches in the community to participate in the 24/7 week of prayer. Out of 42 churches there are 5 other churches participating. A small percentage yes but met with 100% support from these churches. There are times that there are as many as 4 persons praying at a given time. I have also included shut-ins to take an hour at any given time. There were several Prayer Warriors who took on the same hour for the whole week! I was truly inspired. One church wanted to take on a whole 24 hour block! God is moving in Piqua. Keep your eye on his amazing work here.
Major Margaret Starnes
Corps Officer
Piqua Ohio
God has really blessed us through this. we did one day of prayer in December and some people signed up that we didn't expect. one young adult said that she was worried about filling an hour but the time flew by and she is eager to participate again. she works in the office that has been handling all the Katrina stuff and said she went through a booklet they have and prayed for all the situations and people listed. a coworker came by and asked what she was doing and then asked to join her, so they ended up praying together. we had an "out of this world" young adult bible study on Friday night with more attending than ever before. we are studying revelation and did chapter 2 and talked about what Jesus might say to our church. anyway, there was more participation than usual and we just asked if people wanted to share about their prayer experiences. most of them shared that the hour went by more quickly than they ever could have imagined (we keep hearing this). one young woman actually signed up for every day of the week except one. she said she used one hour to write a letter to God on her computer. it ended up being six pages and when she was done she just read her bible. a few talked about how they used the time to sing. [One of our teens] said he plays his guitar and sings and plays drums for some of the time. I love that they are using their gifts to worship. some people listen to music. . . . it has been wonderful to hear people's stories and see the excitement they have about spending time with the Lord. I can't wait till the prayer room is done!
thank you so much for promoting this. we needed it! God bless you.
Major Carol Ditmer
Hempstead Corps, GNY
We did do our week of prayer in October, 20th through 27th. We fixed up a room to be used strictly for prayer. We have kept it opened and it will remain open for anyone to use. During the week of prayer, we were able to have someone in the prayer room all except for 12 hours. Those hours someone was praying from their homes. We had other churches join in with us that week to keep coverage. The prayer room is still open and our people and community people continue to use it.
The Hardiman's
Franklin, PA
I want to share how much of a blessing it was to be a part of the 24/7 Prayer movement. Our Corps is small in number, we have been growing, but still we are pretty small. My wife and I signed up for the movement to get our Corps involved and they supported, but being small their sign ups didn't cover half of the required time. I am a member of a local ministerial association and we had recently planned an ecumenical service for the week of prayer for Christian unity, so I figured hey, they could sign up too. We invited every church in the community to join us in prayer and I am pleased to report they supported. With Corps involvement and community church support we filled every hour. It was a long and tiring week for my wife and me because we had to keep the building open and such, but it was spiritually rewarding. It was a blessed time and we were happy for the opportunity to be involved.
We will continue to pray for the movement and the all of those involved.
Blessings,
Shane Budd, Captain
Ogdensburg, New York
"My experience in observing our Corps week of Constant prayer was
wonderful. I chose the unusual time of 2:00 in the morning until 4:00 a.m. From Friday, November 17, 2006 until Friday, November 24, 2006. At first I thought, “What have I done?!” I'll never get up at that time and fall asleep before 4 a.m. I was wrong. The time wasn't even long enough. The experience of being completely alone - just me and God -- was awesome. I
looked forward to 2 a.m. and even felt like praying after 4 o’clock, and was able
to get up at my normal time. I kept a diary of the week and now it helps me as I read the pages
through from time to time.I started with these verses:
Psalm 139: 23, 24 "Search me O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts. And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Psalm 146:2
"While I live will I praise the Lord; I will sing praise unto my God while I have my being!"
and I ended my week with:
I Corinthians 3:11
"For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ."
Luke 18:1
"We should always pray and not give up."Thank you Lord for the power of Prayer.
Karen Bender, Major
Corps Officer
Northeast Ohio Division of the Salvation Army
Mount Vernon Corps
I wanted to tell you of the great success of our prayer room. Now we didn't have our room up 24/7 the people prayed at home. Our Learning Center Director has been working with the children to teach them of the love of God, and through this prayer room found much excitementgenerated. They would literally line up to take a turn in the prayer room. If there was no one in line and someone returned they would say, "Can I go, can I go?" Each child was able to go in by themselves to pray, write, draw or do whatever it is that they wanted in speaking to the Lord. It was such a success that we kept it up an extra week.
We had people from our corps spending time with the Lord. This has definitely come at the most opportune time for us. We are going through a period where death, disease, illness, and social concerns are serious. We have had a death a week for the last 3 weeks, and have had people become aware of serious illness in their bodies. The Lord has become the focus, and we are beginning to see a new spirit in the congregation. The singing on Sunday has never been so alive.......we are very ready for the Lord to just bless us, and for us to bless Him in return. We do believe that much of this is due to the concentrated prayer.
May He ignite you today,
Sue
Susan M. Hinzman, Major
Commanding Officer & Associate Lake County Coordinator
Northeast Ohio Division of The Salvation Army
Lake County Area Services/Painesville Corps Community Center
Greetings fellow Prayer Partners and Warriors!
Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place! We have felt HIS mighty power and HIS grace! My heart is overwhelmed and I cannot contain the joy that fills my heart just now. To God be the Glory! All praise to Jehovah!
A week before our 24/7 Prayer Room officially opened, our team spearheaded by Heather, one of our teens met to put our room together and spend time in prayer afterwards seeking God's favor and anointing upon the room, the people who would pass by and those who came in....that in itself was powerful as we knew right away that God was not only present but purposed in that place!
As the time drew near, there was still spaces on the sign up sheet but people came through and made serious time commitments (some wondering how they could do one hour of prayer let alone two and three at a time!) But hallelujah, the Lord revealed Himself and our people are excited about prayer.....they are changed because of prayer and they don't want to stop.
Let me just share with you a few fragments of our prayer journal.
entries:
I wasn't sure what to expect, in fact I was a bit hesitant but now I understand what you mean when you talk about the fullness of the Spirit and how amazing it is to spend time with God! I never knew there were so many ways to pray!
Whenever "Mrs. C" would talk about praying prostrate at the feet of King Jesus, I just could not imagine it or see myself in that position....but praise God, He brought me lower than my knees and I wept and wept as His Spirit cleansed me and brought healing that I cannot even find words for yet!
Thank you Lord for new insight and the revelation that we are bound together through prayer! I did not realize how much we truly are a family here. I found myself praying out loud (whoa) and praying over the prayer requests that filled our wall.
As I read the Scripture wall, my heart leaped because I felt such a connection with my prayer family! Don't stop the prayer room.....and when is the next 24/3 sign up time???
Dear Jesus, this pillow is really soft and I've never prayed on a pillow like this before. I think it's here because of Mrs. "C"s knees. Could you please help her knees and help me to be a better pray-er, that way we can see more things happen.
PS. I like the drawing area too....I hope you like my picture. And God bless my family because we need it. Amen
Prayer Room Participant
Satan wasn't about to sit back and let this be easy. The day the 24/7 (3) our weekend, was to begin, we hosted the funeral of Major Mary Ellen Mackay...my dear friend....but even in the midst of the funeral, the committal, and tending to the family afterwards how blessed we were to have our Corps family step up to ministry....feeding the family, greeting the folks as they arrived and even tending to the parking lot! Ministry and mission in action. Then on Saturday, we had nother funeral, our Social Service Director's husband, pulling us out of town for the day. But praise God....we didn't skip a beat and people stood in the gap even to the tune of one person covering a seven hour period of prayer! His response was....I'm a changed man and now I truly know how to pray and have experienced the grip of grace on my life in a way I never could have imagined. I have been with the Lord and am not the same!
People are still in that prayer room on a daily basis, seeking, singing, praying, sculpting, drawing, kneeling and falling prostrate at HIS feet! Our sign up sheet for the World Day of Prayer Vigil wasn't up but a few minutes and people were signing up. We also have committed to 24/3 during Holy Week...Tues. - Thursday, culminating the week with Good Friday Tenabrae and of course, Sunrise and Easter Meetings!
Alive and well and on our Knees in Nashua!
Sustained By Grace!
Barbara J. Carvill, Major
Corps Officer
The Salvation Army
1 Montgomery Ave.
Nashua, NH 03060
From Brooklyn Bay Ridge Corps:
Following their week of 24/7 prayer -- the grown-ups are saying: "When are we going to do this again?" The kids are saying: "Can we do this every month?" We are not the same. More later . . . We are beginning to have a new appreciation of the war songs of the Army.
Captain Fran Rader
From Boston, Massachusetts DHQ:Many have shared how special our DHQ Prayer Room as been . . . this week. Many of have used the space and time and God has met us in special ways during the time. It's the whole reason it was set up and offered.
[Boston Central Corps Officer] said the corps is not going to need that room for anything specific and he'd like us to be able to keep the room open. This gives us each the opportunity to continue the prayer journey we’ve have begun and to have a place to go during lunch or break time as well as before or after work hours. It's ours -- use it -- see what God will do!
Major Sandra Jackson