"Hey kids, tonight, we're going to take an hour before dinner and prayer walk around our neighborhood. As we walk, and pray, we can see what doors God opens for us to talk to them about Jesus." "What? All of us, together?” They reply with a little whining tone of voice. “What if we don't know what to say?" “We’ll just see who is friendly and willing to talk with us. Then a spiritual conversation might just happen.” Sam tells them, "Nathan and Gracie will go with Mom to the temple park, while Joy and Lily will go with me to the nearby school running track.”
3 years ago Beyond President, Kent Parks, and his core leadership team overseas inspired us into evangelistic prayer-walking when they led us out into the neighborhoods of rural Taiwan to prayer walk and evangelize even without being able to speak Chinese. Since then our family keeps our heart soft toward hurting people by going out into our streets, parks, and school campuses to simply pray and have spiritual conversations. We don’t need tracts, we just start with small talk and shift into a spiritual topic, continuing on if the person shows interest.
Sometimes I get too busy and self-important to slow down to notice my neighbors, let alone love them like Jesus. When my To-Do list becomes all-important, I might fail to notice my neighbors and pray for them. There are needs all around such as the depressed, bearded young man down the street who constantly plays video games or the hard-working Mom recycling trash to make enough money to support her daughter with Down Syndrome. Prayer walking reminds me to see people with God’s heart again. Also it sets aside time to practice moving from simple conversations into spiritual topics like, ‘What do you think about heaven and hell?’ or ‘Why do you make offerings in your religion?’
So how about you? Could this bring some excitement into your walk with God? Grab a friend and get out in your neighborhood to walk and pray. Ask God to see what He sees there. Then you can strike up some conversations. Often God has prepared somebody for you to meet who is willing to talk on spiritual matters. Contact us if you want some suggestions, we’d love to share more ideas on prayer-walking.
Prayer Requests
Praise: For a fruitful summer so far traveling to Thailand and serving at the Taiwan Missionary Fellowship conference. I was able to initiate and create a prayer room to welcome all missionaries in Taiwan to seek God and return to His heart for intimacy.
. Helen has had the joy of translating for the adoptive parents of Bobby, a special 5 year old boy with Down Syndrome who will get adopted by his forever family on August 30.
. I (Helen) am wanting to focus some time to developing my Taiwanese language. I’ve spent the past 7 years learning Mandarin, but God is showing me His power when I share the gospel in the Taiwanese language because it seems to cut to the heart of the older generation. Pray for me to find a good tutor to help me develop more spiritual vocabulary to share the gospel more effectively.