Mountainside pray-ers
It is said that all big spiritual movements begin with prayer.
In October 2022 at Mountainside Lutheran Church, Auckland, a call went out for those interested in praying, to meet for prayer. It started with a small group of people praying faithfully every 2nd and 4th Wednesday evenings. Some people attend every time, and others less regularly, but we consistently have 5-10 pray-ers attend. We have since started a WhatsApp group for sharing prayer requests during the fortnight. Some of our pray-ers opt to participate on the night we meet by praying at home for the shared needs.
We pray for physical (health, work, immigration, family, housing etc) and spiritual needs and spiritual growth amongst our congregation and those we have contact with. There have also been some big prayer needs in terms of direction and discernment, within the congregation and the wider LCA and LCNZ. We have seen many answered prayers, and many people (inside and outside of the church) encouraged that we would pray for them.
Earlier this year, a Hindu woman who attends our weekly playgroup with her daughter, approached me discretely after a session and asked if there was some way for her to ask for prayer at the church. I was excited to tell her “Yes!”. I prayed with her then, and when I offered that our Prayer Group could also pray for her needs, she immediately and gratefully accepted.
The New Zealand Prayer Network invited churches around New Zealand to join in around-the-clock prayer in the weeks leading up to Pentecost. Our group of pray-ers at Mountainside was eager to participate in some way. Having decided to hold a 24-hour prayer vigil in the 24 hours leading up to Pentecost Sunday we opened up participation from anyone at Mountainside, not just our Prayer Group. We had 29 individual people commit to praying for 1 hour wherever they were (some getting up through the night!), plus our Chinese brothers and sisters prayed together after their worship service on the Saturday afternoon. There was an exciting sense of Christian community and togetherness.
God is at work at Mountainside! We may not see the full picture of what he is doing, but he is definitely at work here.
Julie Kitchen
Auckland Mountainside
August 2024
