Personal stories from the Prayer Line

UMNS - An 800 phone line attracts diverse callers, even when it is a prayer line. Some of the calls are serious, but a few may appear frivolous, says Jim Roy, manager of the Upper Room Living Prayer Center. The center answers more than 20,000 phone requests for prayers and an additional 5,000 by fax, mail or e-mail.

One of the callers Roy remembers, was a lady named Ida who made several calls over a two-month period asking volunteers to pray that she get a new, red Cherokee Jeep. About 18 months later, Roy received a call from the same woman thanking him for the prayers. She did not receive the Jeep, but she came to know Christ through an evangelist who drove to the church in a red Cherokee Jeep. "We train our volunteers not to be judgmental about callers," Roy says. "We ask them to pray for the need behind the request."

Roy says he is recruiting and training additional volunteers. Currently, 120 volunteers in Nashville routinely answer calls during the daytime. Another 5,000 people in groups across America answer calls in two-hour shifts.

Requests from these groups are sent to one of 350 covenant groups around the world that offer prayers for an additional 30 days.

UMMen foot the bill

In the last two years, the UM Men's Foundation has underwritten the toll-free phone expense at a total cost of some $47,000. This year, the foundation has been able to give only $10,000. The center receives no funds from the general church.

Roy, who has been director of the program since 1994, believes the Holy Spirit is involved in the way in which callers are matched with volunteers. Once a caller asked in broken English if anyone could pray with her in Chinese. The volunteer, who had served for 13 years as a missionary in China, was able to answer the woman in Chinese.

A second case would convince any skeptics about God's involvement. A group of United Methodist Men had recruited a team to answer the prayer line on a Saturday. One young man was reluctant to serve, but said he would be willing to act as a backup. He was asked to serve for only 30 minutes at the end of an eight-hour shift.

As his time was nearly over, he received a call from a lady who was crying hysterically. She had lost a leg from the knee down and her prosthesis was causing her a great deal of pain. He asked her if she had grieved for the missing limb. She said no. He explained that grieving was an important step in the healing process, and he also suggested that she return to have the prosthesis adjusted because it was probably not fitted correctly. She asked how he knew all this. "I design prostheses," he replied. She called back later to say the prosthesis had been adjusted and she was no longer in pain.

How to get involved:

Covenant prayer team volunteers complete a six-week study of a Work Book of Living Prayer by Maxie Dunnam. That study is followed by a study of either Devotional Life in the Wesleyan Tradition by Steve Harper or Invitation to Presence by Wendy Miller. More information is available at www.upperroom.org, or by calling 800/251-2468.

Last updated on 01/14/2004

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