As the sign-up sheet got passed around in church for the 15 Hours of Prayer Event, all I could think of was “Huh? 30 minutes? I am supposed to pray for a 30 minute time slot? What am I going to say? I can barely think of things to pray about for 5 minutes some days before my mind wanders off.”
However, our dear enthusiastic pastors, Pastor Obed Salazar and Pastor Tom Baker, had been preaching away on the subject of prayer for about a month and I was liking what they said. It made sense. I believed them. I knew they were right, I just had never done something like that before. Yet my heart yearned for it!
The plan was that on May 31st, the church would pray for 15 hours (in 30 minute time slots) from 5 am to 8 pm. We would pray at church or at home. There were specific people and events to pray for at certain times. Pastor Obed, being the techie that he is, would send us a reminder text before our scheduled time slot.
So I signed my name in the 1-1:30 pm time slot. My sweet husband signed up with me. We were ready when our reminder text came through, and knelt down, and started to pray for our church. We had determined to pray for church members by going one-by-one through the names in the church directory. As we held up folks before our Savior, asking for His blessing and intervention in their lives, we remembered situations in their lives where blessings and interventions were desired. Some names on the list we did not even recognize, some we had never met, others had left the congregation for different reasons. Every name on the list got our attention and prayer. But then, all of a sudden, the timer went off and we had only made it through Page 8 of the directory! We still had 6 more pages to go! How fast those 30 minutes went while lifting up those names to the Heavenly Throne!
Bob Hiles, another church member, also signed up to pray for a 30 minute time slot. “I never thought I could ever pray that long. I have never done that before.” But, he set his timer and began his prayer for the leaders of our country and church. To his surprise, he was rudely interrupted before he got through all his prayers, and had to tell Alexa to “…Be quiet!” so that he could extend his prayer time another 15 minutes and complete his assignment. His reaction to his experience? “Let’s do it again!”
Another church member took a different approach to the 15 Hours of Prayer. As a professional driver transporting all classes of society, Ellie Ruxton determined her approach would be to pray for all her passengers as well as for community members she saw as she drove by. One special event stands out in her mind. A few days after she had prayed for one of the homeless ladies she had seen, that very same lady became her passenger that Ellie drove her to her “new home” in a city nearby. Answer to prayer!
15 hours. 30 participants. A church going in the right direction!
Marcia Harycki, Assistant Communication Director for the Chippewa Valley Seventh-day Adventist Church