Prayer Walking
15/02/2007 9:00 am <>
For more than one and a half years several OMF missionaries have been taking prayer walks around two schools in the Wanhua area of Taipei. We usually go out in pairs, starting at the Dali Elementary School, where we run a weekly club for kids at risk.
We walk and pray conversationally. We pray for the people living in Wanhua and for the churches that are there, that they might become lighthouses that attract people in darkness. We walk through the park where we have children’s meetings, praying for the many foreign maids sitting with the old people they look after and for our next outreach in the park. Then we walk back to the Dali Elementary School, praying for its teachers and students. We praise God for the open door we have been given to come into this school and for all the contacts we already have. When school is out, we stand at the entrance and say “hello” to the kids. It is amazing how many come running right into our arms and just want a hug! Often there are opportunities to talk to a parent or a grandparent.
After the kids have dispersed, we go on to the next school: the Double Park Junior High School The school is in the Fu Min District, the most run down and socially troubled area of Wanhua. The active temples that surround the school make it a really dark area spiritually. How good it is to proclaim the victory of Jesus and to pray for His light to shine there! When school is out, we stand outside the school, silently blessing the students and talking to them as opportunities are given.
Some OMF missionaries and local churches have had outreaches into this school in the past. But recently the school stopped all Christian activities. What a surprise when the school’s social worker phoned me before Christmas and invited me to talk about Christmas to three hundred kids and their teachers! I was asked not to preach. I promised that I wouldn’t "preach", but told her that I had to talk about Jesus, as He is the Lord of Christmas. I heard a long "Oooooooooooh……" at the other end of the phone line, but then a final "OK". It was a great opportunity!
Sometimes our prayer walks also involve very practical things, like buying hot noodle soup for a freezing street sleeper or helping a little kid put a bicycle chain back on his bicycle. We recently sat down and listened to the struggles of Arika, a maid from Vietnam who misses her husband and two kids very much. She was so thankful that we gave her something to read in Vietnamese. Communicating with her was very difficult, but she was glad that someone cared for her.
We don’t see immediate results from our prayer walks. But we believe that our God is a prayer-answering God, and that things are happening in the unseen world. We appreciate your praying with us and for us and are looking forward to see what God is going to do here in Wanhua.
Margret Zingg - Taipei
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