Children's Prayer Army Takes Flight
-Samantha Allgood
"I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the LORD, do not keep silent, and give Him no rest till He establishes and till he makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth,” (NKJV, Isaiah 62:6-7).
Learning simple truths
Twenty-one children gathered on a windy October afternoon to witness the miracle of the wind as demonstrated by their gusting kites. As a child’s kite drifted particularly high, Fritz Dale, Leadership Conference Prayer Director of EFCA, explained the power of the Holy Spirit as it related to the wind.
This annual “Prayer-Day-Away” marked the beginning of another fruitful year for this group of fourth-through-sixth graders. As a ministry of New Hope Church (New Hope, MN), Beth Pederson began a children’s prayer team in October 2002, which has since grown into a group of 27 eager children, named HopeWatchers.
The story
“The birth of this ministry is the direct result of the Lord working on my heart and growing me in prayer under the ministry and teaching of Steve Loopstra,” Pederson said. “I was a person who was not necessarily comfortable with praying aloud or in a group. But soon after practicing prayer in a group and growing during my own personal prayer time I felt the Lord prompting me to begin to teach what I had learned to the children.”
Throughout the eight years of ministry, the children have been blessed with opportunities to pray at Promise Keepers, ALPHA conference and the Evangelical Free Church Conference, while also committed to supporting their church staff, elders and global missionaries. Pederson reflects the significance of training these students into “young men and women of the word and of prayer.” “It’s not about doing devotions; it’s about being devoted,” she said.
Honest faith
As the group continues their weekly meetings from September through May, it is Pederson’s goal to equip the students with the tools of spirit-led prayer, also engaging the children with weekly prayer and scripture challenges.
“One of the things I really see,” noted Pederson, “is kids pray in faith.” They don’t have past experience with God not answering prayer; they don’t ask “why,” she explained. They simply pray in faith, believing God is going to hear and answer. “I think it’s a powerful statement to say that we’re a praying church, but it’s an even more powerful statement to say that we have an army of praying kids,” she said.
Join the ranks
“It is my prayer that as you go as leaders to train up not only children but families in the area of prayer you will receive power from the Holy Spirit, to be ‘His witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth,’” Pederson commissioned.
May you rekindle the sparkle of child-like faith as you continue to press-in on your own prayer journey, experiencing His spirit afresh, just as a kite is lifted by the wind.
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