When Garry Ketchen and Christopher Anderson committed to prayer walking from their church, Bristo Baptist, around the local community, they had no idea what it would lead to! Christopher shares with us here about the power of prayer walking and the amazing impact they’ve seen over recent months…
“Before when the pandemic set in, and there was no opportunity to continue previous activities, we were at a bit of a loss for a while. Prior to the Pandemic, we had regular Prayer Walks with our friends at Granton Baptist Church, between our churches, and arranged walks of our own around the area of the church and beyond, but perhaps not to the extent that we would like to have done.
Quietness of inactivity encouraged us to take stock, and reprioritise. As things began to open up again, we came to a point of re-evaluating all that we are doing and we decided to devote specific times during the week to Prayer Walk our area.
Once we had identified those times a number of people came on board. We planned our routes, and set off. We have found this to be a real blessing in many ways. It has given us the opportunity to get to know one another better. Walking together is a great way of generating conversation. We have been able to get to know our neighbourhood better, both the people and the place. We have been able to offer prayer to individuals we meet week in and week out. For example, every Tuesday lunch time, we met a gentleman walking his two dogs and after meeting him a few times, we got on speaking terms and explained who we were, what we were doing, and obviously offered him prayer! He seemed a bit nervous at this point, and asked that we pray for more sunshine, and went on his way. You can imagine his response the next time we met him, on a beautiful sunny day!!
In all seriousness, our opportunities to be connected to and to minister to our community has really opened up since we began these Prayer Walks. We have also met many individuals whom we have got to know much better through this kind of interaction.
We have been contacted by a local school in order to help deliver part of their Christian content on their curriculum.
We have been contacted by two different neighbourhood groups in order to provide meeting space and carol singers!
We have been contacted about supporting refugees who have moved to the city. We have had an upturn in people attending our Toddler Group, particularly local people around the area of the church.
Furthermore, God has spoken to different individuals on the walk in different ways to confirm the vision he has for us as a fellowship. All within, or just on the edge, of the Prayer Walk perimeter.
We would definitely recommend that this is something you should do, if its on your heart. The Lord is waiting to bless us all through our daily conversations with Him!”
By Rev Christopher Anderson, Community Pastor, Bristo Baptist Church in Edinburgh
