Prayer Wall
Not long ago a block wall appeared at the front of the stage in our church. The blocks were stacked loosely with plenty of room between them. As part of the service each week, we were shown a short video that highlighted one of the outreach initiatives our church does. One week we were shown a video about the water crisis in Africa. Another week we saw how church members provided housing for a needy family in Mexico. At the close of service, we were invited to write down prayers and then slip them between the blocks, like they do at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.
This sort of thing is right up my alley. I take satisfaction in creating a physical action for a spiritual reality. i enjoyed writing down a heartfelt prayer for those in need of housing. I drew out a little mental map prayer of anything that came to mind when I prayed about the water crisis. As the weeks went by, we could all see all these prayers piling up in the spaces in the wall. For me it wasn't just slips of paper, but it was the building blocks faith for what God wanted to do through us.
This week we were shown a short video about human trafficking in San Diego. As a father of a daughter, I can't imagine—I don't want to imagine—what reality is like for so many. When it came time to write down the prayer. I just couldn't. I stared at the little strip of paper with a pen in hand, but words wouldn't come. Then I felt like an idea was dropped into my mind. I should leave the paper blank. It could represent all the unspoken prayers of the women and girls that have been kidnapped and taken… Somewhere between those bricks, is an unspoken prayer, that I'm praying gets answered.
To whomever decided we should have a block wall in the front of our church, thank you. I pray that God answers all these prayers through us.