Prayer on the streets

New York commemorated two anniversaries last week while I was there attending a Global Cities consulation. The first was the discovery of the Hudson River exactly 400 years ago by Henry Hudson on his fruitless search for a passage to the East, sponsored by the City of Amsterdam. This led to the founding of New Amsterdam as a Dutch trading settlement, later to be taken over by the British and renamed New York.

The Empire State Building was appropriately floodlit in orange, and later in the red-white-and-blue of the Dutch flag. A range of cultural events and exhibitions was held in lower Manhattan, some attended by Crown Prince Willem-Alexander. Classic Dutch sailing boats sailed out on to the Hudson River and around the Statue of Liberty, giving New Yorkers a rare flashback to the pioneering days.

The second commemoration, on Friday, was the eight anniversary of 9/11, the day that transformed the city's skyline in 2001.

Flags everywhere were at half-mast, in memory of the three thousand crushed in the rubble of the twin towers before a live global television audience.

Nick Savoca, director of YWAM New York, was forty miles away on Long Island at the YWAM training centre when word came through of the first phase of the tragedy. Like millions of others around the world, he and his staff were watching in helpless horror when the second plane struck.

Staff members began crying and praying, not knowing what would come next. Nick went to his office and began receiving a stream of emails from other YWAM centres offering to send relief teams.

Confused
Nick and his staff asked God together how they should get involved. They felt God say, 'through prayer'. Yes, of course they would pray, but how practically could they serve? Through prayer, came the answer again. The people of New York were hurting, confused, disorientated, grieving, shocked and fearful. They needed people to pray with, people who would pray for them.

Quickly Nick realised what they should do. Since 1992, he and his staff had been setting up prayer stations around the city, with portable tables for literature, and bright red banners and aprons for the workers, each with 'Prayer Station' in bold white letters. If you need gas, explains Nick, you go to a gas station. So why not a prayer station?

Nick and his colleagues had developed a regular ritual of travelling to downtown Manhattan, setting up stations in up to a dozen locations, and being available to pray for passers-by. Right from the start people had responded positively, even lining up for prayer.

As we travelled together out from the city to Long Island this weekend, Nick shared story after story of healings and transformed lives after prayer at a station. Many had asked for prayer for employment, returning the very next day reporting great excitement that they had found a job after months of looking. One woman was on her way home to commit suicide when her life was changed for ever after receiving prayer.

'Tell us more about this God of yours,' was the common response after people had experience answered prayer, said Nick. A Muslim imam, carrying a large Koran, had even agreed to prayer for his wife to find a job. The next day the imam sought the prayer team out to thank them for answered prayer.

After 9/11, Nick realised the trauma would last for months, and he and his team would need commit for at least a year of regular presence downtown. The smell of the carnage hung over the downtown area for months, he said. People didn't come for answers, just support, and expressed gratitude for the opportunity to be prayed for for a few minutes.

Peter Jennings of ABC television sent a camera crew to report nation-wide on these 'Christians whom some accuse of exploiting a disaster to spread their religion'. After three hours of following up passers-by who had received prayer, they found none with complaints of any manipulation, but many with compliments and appreciation.

Over the year following 9/11, Nick reported, some 50,000 people had been prayed for. And three thousand had become believers-about the same number killed in the Twin Towers tragedy.

Till next week,

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