Prayer Room Stories
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I want to share a small testimony. My father was involved in Santeria / Boodoo for all his life. Ever since I was converted I knew that he was doing wrong. When I was in SFOT , Captain Gordon Sparks told me , he was going to help me pray for my father. After 8 years of prayers In march 07, one of my ladies gave me a plane ticket to Puerto Rico and we went together. We visit different people and we saw the glory of our Lord and Savior JesusChrist working among us. We went to visit my father and we presented him the plan of salvation and he accepted. we pray for him and his family and left very happy. Praise God.
Carmen Sullivan, Captain
Corps Officer
Northeast Ohio Division of The Salvation Army
We wanted to do a little report to DHQ about our 24/7 prayer week here in Greenfield. It was a wonderful experience for all of us here at the corps. We had excellent participation. Over 17 people participated and we managed to cover all 24 hours every day. The corps people were very good to take hours and come to the church in the evening so that Sunny and I did not have to take all of the overnight hours. Everyone that took time to participate felt that they were blessed by the experience. The people have asked that we do a one day prayer vigil once a month.
We converted one of our Sunday school classrooms into a dedicated prayer room that we decorated and hung prayer requests. The people added their own prayer requests to the board as the week went on. It was a wonderful time of the corps people supporting one another and coming closer to God to intercede for each other. I am attaching some pictures of our prayer room. We got a lot of inspiration from the prayer room at camp wonderland this summer.
This Sunday we had some answer to prayer with 45 people in holiness meeting which is excellent. Even Sunday school had over 30 people which is very high for us. We had seekers at the mercy seat as well. . . God has been VERY good to us this week. We will continue to pray to keep this new flame alive and our corps members excited about prayer.
Captains Joshua & Sun-Kyung Simpson
Greenfield, Massachusetts
What a blessing this was. We did a major out reach to all churches and social agency's in towns as well as used the 24/7 DVD on our local access channel. There was a press release in our local paper as well as the Recorder. We had many responses because of this from out side of Athol as well as locally. We placed a banner on our building as well as a central location in town. We had responses from Gardner, Amherst, Greenfield, Petersham, Baldwinville as well as Athol and orange. What a blessing this was for our Corps.
We had people of all ages come in from as young a five years old to as old as 70. One of the blessings we had accrued after our 24/7 ended. One of the children from our corps who is 5 years old called me on the phone to talk to me and asked if I was going to the church that night to pray. When I told him I was not he wanted to know why we were not still there praying. I explained that the Corps would be open during the day if people wanted to prayer but that the 24/7 had ended. He was upset by this because he wanted to come down to pray. What a blessing this was to see a young child so effected by this. We also had two men who came from Gardner to pray and while they were her CSM Daniel Parsons had come down to check on the snow blower because we were going to have a storm that night and while he was here he ended up spending at least an hour with one of the gentlemen sharing the gospel and having prayer with Him.
One other blessing we had came from an unexpected source. The recorder which is a news paper that serves Franklin County and the North Quabbin area called me and did a interview about our 24/7 prayer room as well as came in and took a picture of our prayer room. The amazing part a bit this is that they placed it on the from page of there News Paper on the last day of our 24/7 prayer and because of this we had five men who meet in Greenfield every Friday come in that night to use our Chapel to have a praise and worship sing along as well as a time of prayer. What a Blessing Praise the Lord!!! I will be sending you a copy of the article.
Blessings,
Major Sharon Whispell
I just wanted to let you know that Astoria had a prayer room open for two weeks before Easter. It was open from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and many people from within the congregation and the community came and prayed and shared. Many prayers were answered, in particular one for housing was answered on Good Friday. I will share any other stories and photos with you as we receive them.
Thank you for all you do for the Kingdom.
Captain. Virginia Bermeo
Astoria Corps
I asked the development department to send me the prayer requests from our Donors. Hundreds have come in. I answer each one with a poem to fit the request and prayed over every request before the cards are destroyed (confidentiality).
The response has been overwhelming testimonies of praise for answered prayers, surprise by one donor she had asked God if people really prayed for her who did not know her. Many requests are for healing or strength to handle cancer, for lost loved ones and family peace.
God is still on the throne and it is good to know people are seeking Him.
Major Dorothy Lykes
Commanding Officer and Director of Spiritual Ministry
Cleveland New Hope Citadel Corps
We praise God for the continued, fervent interest in the 24/7 prayer room we have established here. It has been opened from 6AM - 10:30PM everyday since our week was completed the beginning of March. Prayers lifted there, even for our own granddaughter, have been wonderfully answered. I have been pleased with the response from the beneficiaries here in Manhattan, to the idea of maintaining the opportunity for them to pray, separately, away from disturbances. This is evidence of the Spirit's work in the lives of our people. We will continue to pray, and to encourage these new believers in their faith.
This endeavor will have uncountable eternal rewards.
In His peace and joy,
Deborah L. Cranford, MA, Major
Manhattan ARC
Just wanted to share that our department (development) here in Philadelphia is committed to filling every hour slot on May 4th for the 24/7 prayer initiative. This is very exciting and gratifying to see our team stepping up voluntarily to participate. Every slot is filled except two (still working on that). My Administrative, Assistant, Debbie Fisher, has encouraged it along and organized everything. Recently, some of the team formed a spontaneous prayer circle to pray for one of our staff who had just lost a brother and subsequently just received news that another brother was in the hospital with major heart issues. I was out of the office at the time. It's one thing to twist people's arms and try to get them to participate. It's another when people are sensing the reality of God's loving presence in their day to day lives and more freely responding and participating. It's really good to see. So don't let anyone tell you that fund raisers can't be spiritually sensitive or even humble. :)
Prayer Room Participant
We praise God for an outpouring of his Holy Spirit during the week up to Easter and beyond. We celebrated Holy Week Devotions with Lt.-Colonels Joe & Betty Bassett who took us thru a walk with the disciples of Jesus in a dramatic and engaging way. At the same time we gradually built the prayer room and invited people to stay and dwell in the Sanctuary before and after program hours.
Our Easter Garden designed by Majors Davis was a welcoming focal point as we celebrated Good Friday and Easter. The fragrances drew people into the Sanctuary and contributed to involving all senses in worship.Our 24/7 prayer slot for April 10-11 filled up with willing volunteers. We had an opening "Concert of Prayer" attended by 41 residents "kicking off" our prayer watch. This was such a blessed event. Many of our residents had never experienced anything like it and God was really moving in our midst during this hour.
We turned our Lounge/Library into a Sanctuary for prayer with different stations such as a reading corner with devotional books & Bibles. This worked out really well since our people read a lot and are used to moving around in the library. It was really a non-threatening way of involving people in prayer who normally wouldn't attend a Christian service.
We had a creative station were residents as well as visitors painted and expressed prayers through colors and shapes. We had a writing corner where we made it possible to write prayers in the Williams prayer journal and post prayers as well for others to share.
We placed pictures, icons and paintings in one area where people could pray "visual prayers". On our big screen TV we had some Scriptural DVDs available for viewing for those who wanted to share the Gospel thru a movie and we had a CD player available for use as well.
The most moving thing, however, was the "Wailing Wall" where our people could place private prayers to God. This resonated so well, especially with our Jewish residents (about 60 % of our population is Jewish). Every day more and more prayers were added and this wall made out of simple cardboard became a place for reverence and for praying small and large prayers for our world. Very powerful.
I have had reports from those signing up to pray that they really experienced the touch of God. It was moving to me to see one of our residents of Catholic faith bring her Rosary and being deeply submerged in prayer. Another person had tears in her eyes when she shared how beautifully the Lord met her in this place.
We learned this week that in all our ministry here at the Williams we reach much longer and deeper than we dare to think sometimes. It was moving and overwhelming to see residents regardless of their sometimes high age, step up to the plate and volunteer to pray even in the early morning hours and thanking us for entrusting them with such a precious responsibility.
May the Lord's name be lifted high through all our prayers and efforts and thank you for letting the Williams Residence be part of this endeavor designed by God.
May God Bless You!
A. A. Margareta Ivarsson, Captain
Assistant to the Administrator
Williams Residence
NY, NY