Where Two or Three Are Gathered
During each week of the free farmers market this fall, at the edge of the Redeemer parking lot sat an extra booth marked by a display of colorful ribbons and notecards. This was the prayer ministry’s table where members of Redeemer’s prayer team would offer to pray for anyone who was open to it.
While guests waited in line, they would pass the prayer booth on their way to enter the market. Some approached on their own to fill out a notecard with their request and clip it to the ribbon display, but many waited until they were invited. “Some people didn’t come and then after they were invited they came week after week,” explained Jim Godfrey, the leader of intercessory prayer at Redeemer. “It was a privilege to pray for everyone who came.”
This opportunity for prayer came at a time when it’s been more difficult for the prayer team to reach people. They still meet for prayer for an hour and a half every Tuesday, pray throughout the week, and offer to pray for people on Sundays, but it’s been far different than before. “So many informal networks of communications have broken down during quarantine,” Jim explained. Normally he or other members of the prayer team would hear of requests while people were talking after Sunday service or at other events throughout the week, but this hasn’t been easy during quarantine because of the reduced amount of both interactions and events. So when the opportunity for prayer at the outdoor market presented itself, they were ready.
As this has been a time of great difficulty for many, this prayer ministry served to meet the need for prayer which this past year has made so evident. While prayer is always both good and necessary, this year of heightened sickness, loneliness, and fear of the unknown seems to have created a longing that wasn’t there before--people are seeking comfort. “When you’re praying for someone, there’s an element of reassurance that happens,” Jim explained. “Part of praying for them is wanting them to know how precious they are to God and to be assured that they are deeply loved--for them to have a tangible feeling of the presence of God and His love, no matter what circumstance they’re in.” Around 90% of the people the team invited for prayer agreed to be prayed for, and Jim estimates that around one out of every four of them cried as they heard words of comfort and truth. “I see tears as a sign of the Spirit,” he explained.
The booth was generally manned by two members of Redeemer’s prayer team, and sometimes clergy as well. “I really liked when we had more than just one person there because there’s an energy that comes when two or three or more people are praying. And somebody might have some insight that another person might not.”
This special energy and presence of the Holy Spirit was evident in the tears which people shed, but also in the miraculous answers which they received. One Redeemer congregant had been walking with a cane due to a bad fall. Each week that he came, the team prayed for him. By the last week he was walking cane-free. One woman had asked for prayer for her ailing grandmother. She returned the next week to tell the prayer team that her grandmother had been healed. Leigh Wills, the manager of the market and a Redeemer congregant, experienced healing in the very moment which Jim and another prayer team member prayed for her. Leigh had struggled with back pain since her teenage years and had 3 surgeries in order to try to resolve it, but often continued to have pain which sometimes made it difficult to even sit or stand. “It had been pouring the night before the market and I had been up late trying to figure out how we would pull it off in the rain, but we couldn’t cancel. I was sore and just wanted to go home that next day at the market.” But in the midst of the slower, rainy market that Saturday morning, Leigh decided to ask for prayer for her back. “They didn’t know any of the history at all,” she explained. “I’ve never experienced anything like that before. I don’t want to say it was a tingle, it was just a sensation. I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit, and I think they did too. How do you put something like that in words?” Her pain went away in that moment, and she hasn’t experienced any significant pain since then.
The prayer team prayed similarly for the healing of many. They prayed for peace for those who were experiencing anxiety, for friendship for the lonely, for lost children to return home to the Lord, and many other requests. One 5 year old even asked if they could pray for her to have a unicorn. Jim explained that the delight and gratefulness of those who were prayed for was evident. This gratefulness was seen in moments such as the unfolding of one of the prayer notecards which read, “I will pray for you too. Love you.”
In total, over the course of the farmers market, the prayer team prayed for well over 200 people, around 80% of which were not previously connected with Redeemer at all. “Often people start praying with a sense of judgment or that they don’t deserve the Spirit to come into their lives. But there’s a transformation that happens when He comes with love and redemption.” The prayer team was immensely grateful for each opportunity to share this grace of God with all those who came.
If you would like to receive prayer, please let us know. The prayer team would be delighted to pray with and for you.
