Our church just started a wonderful new ministry based on an idea originating from Cordele (GA) First United Methodist Church. We are passing out prayer pagers to persons in need of special, concerted prayer.
These pagers are set to vibrate everytime someone calls the unique number of the pager. As people in our church and on our prayer chain lift someone up in prayer, they dial the pager number, punch in "111" to represent the Trinity, and the pager vibrates to let the recipient know that someone has prayed for them.
While we all know that prayer works, there may be long periods of time between lifting up a prayer and seeing an answer to that prayer. With the prayer pager ministry, the person with the pager immediately knows that someone is praying for them and the person who is praying can also receive the tangible benefit of knowing that their prayers on behalf of that person caused the pager to vibrate. We have found that it actually breathes new life into a prayer ministry when the person praying knows that the recipient will be aware of their prayers and that if they don't pray, the pager stays silent.
We have given out two of these pagers so far in our church, and already it has caused a flurry of prayers through the prayer chain and the membership as a whole. I am praying that this ministry might spark a revival in our church as we begin to pray earnestly, not only for those with the pagers, but for all those in need in our church family. Everyone is waiting and watching to see how God is going to move in response to our prayers.
Mrs. Georgianne Hughes from Cordele First UMC, who first was given this vision of the prayer pager ministry, spoke at our church last Sunday and shared with us stories about how this ministry has affected their church and the individuals that were prayed for. She told about one case where a young man got in trouble with the law and had to go to court for the first time in his life. He was given a prayer pager, and as he stood before the judge, it just kept going off and off again. The judge asked him about it, and he told him it was a prayer pager and that each time it went off, that it was a member of his church praying specifically for him. The judge was silent and finally released him with no penalty. He said that if that young man had so many people willing to stand for him at this time and to support him and hold him accountable, then he was going to release the young man back to the care of his church. When the man turned the pager back in to the prayer committee, he wept as he said that before he got the pager, "he didn't know anyone cared." God is using this ministry to touch lives and revive prayer ministries throughout the U.S.
If anyone is interested in this pager ministry, they can contact Netlink Avenue in Cordele, GA, and they will send you prayer pagers at no cost. The only cost to the church is the monthly fee for the service. Netlink will UPS the pagers to you, no matter where you are, and will set the coverage area and numbers for where you are located. This ministry is so successful that they now have one person whose sole job is to handle the prayer pager ministry. You can reach them at 229-273-2090.
1 comment:
This is both very clever and very sweet! It’s so great to see the pager technology used in this way. It’s very uplifting, and it gives people hope and encourages faith. I hope that the church is still propagating these prayer pagers these days because it really is helpful to know that someone out there cares about you.
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