Prayer Impact: How one group started

There were some groups of Christians from different churches praying for their neighbours before Prayer Impact started. Here is an account of how one group started:

I don't remember how long ago we started praying but I know it took the Lord quite a long time to persuade me to do it! He must have been nudging me for a good year, and I kept putting Him off, although I knew that all I had to do was knock on a neighbour's door. I had met her at a Praise Impact meeting in the Methodist church; she was very friendly but somehow I couldn't pluck up the courage to ask her if she'd like to get together and start praying for our neighbours. The day after I retired, I even saw her in Waitrose, but I'm ashamed to say that I ignored her and crept past on the other side of the vegetables. I remember saying "Please Lord, not yet, it's my first day."

However, soon afterwards she called out to me one day as I walked past her house. Over coffee I knew I'd have to broach the subject, so I took a deep breath and told her how I'd been feeling that I should get together with a Christian from a different church to pray for the neighbours.

Her response was immediate "Yes, what a good idea. When shall we start?"

At first it was just the two of us, fitting our prayer times around her duties as a nurse. Then gradually three other ladies joined and we had to establish a set meeting time. Eventually the first lady dropped out, one has recently moved away and others have joined: so there are now four of us, representing three different churches.

We meet every Tuesday evening for about half an hour. We start with a news update, requests and answers to prayer. Then, after a short Bible reading, we usually only pray for ten or fifteen minutes.

The idea of little groups all over the town, each praying for their own street or block of flats, is awesome. I'm convinced that even if people from different denominations who had never prayed out loud, just agreed to pray in silence together, the Lord would hear their unity.

Patsy Robinson
Petersfield Methodist Church

Patsy's group pray for homes in the following roads:

• Noreuil Road
• Gloucester Close
• Princess Road
• Queens Road

If you live in any of these roads and would like to join her please contact John and he will put you in touch.