Nell Green, one of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Global Missions field personnel, has taken the concept of prayer walking to a virtual level. Green has developed an online prayer walk accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world with Internet access.
The seed of the idea began when Nell and her husband, Butch Green, 20 year global missions veterans, started leading teams of people on “prayer encounters” through Brussels, telling them what to pray for at each stop along the way. More structured than the traditional prayer walk where individuals pray silently with no direction from a prayer leader, the Greens' prayer encounters helped participants understand missions better and pray more specifically.
“Years ago, prayer walking became very popular, but something about it doesn't appeal to a lot of people,” Nell said. “They think, ‘I don't pray that deeply.' So when we lead groups, instead of having people rely upon their own senses and their own prayer ability, we lead them in knowing what to pray for. It is a way for people to see and hear, yet not leave it all up to their imaginations.”
Finding that individuals were leaving the prayer encounter experience with changed lives, Nell wanted to offer the opportunity to more people. So she conceived of a way to send the images and sounds of Brussels to them, by creating a virtual prayer walk as a tool to help churches pray for internationals in a more informed, heartfelt way.
A friend helped Nell put her own slides from Brussels to the music of “The Lord's Prayer” in Arabic. Between photos of cityscapes, Arab immigrants and local pastors and congregations, there are Bible verses, simple statements describing the life and needs of immigrants and suggestions of petitions to God.
The virtual prayer walk is nearly three minutes long. The Greens have been using the video in churches they visit and now that it is available online, encourage congregations to use it on Wednesday nights during prayer meetings or on Sunday mornings during a time set aside for missions.
“I really believe that we've come to a point where people want to engage [in missions] but don't know how,” said Nell. “We found when we were doing prayer encounters that groups like to go and do something. That's great – we need them. [But] one of our greatest needs is the support of prayer on the field, to grow us in our missional task. And absolutely anyone can pray.”
Nell is committed to working on developing an international prayer network and plans to create additional virtual prayer walks.
To view the International Cluster Virtual Prayer Walk, go to the Fellowship's Web site www.thefellowship.info/involved/pray. Support the Greens' ministry by giving to the Offering for Global Missions. To give, go to www.thefellowship.info/involved/give.