Prayer Walking in Appalachia

April 15-17, 2011, I shadowed Christy Barnard on a trip to Appalachia. Our group was a drama team from a Christian School in West Virginia, and they were so excited to be on the trip! On the last afternoon of ministry, our team split into three groups. 

 

My group was supposed to go door-to-door. It was me, Jennifer, Ben (both group leaders), and a student named Tabitha. All of us were quiet people, not the sort to just walk up to someone and start a conversation. This was their first time going door-to-door/prayer walking in this way. We didn't know what to expect…. but were excited about what could happen.

As we started walking through the town, we realized that all the stores were closed. There was no one around. We prayed and turned left, then found ourselves at another street corner, prayed, and turned right. At that point, I reached into my pocket and realized I'd left my phone in the car (which never happens). The group agreed to continue walking straight down the road while I returned to my car for my phone. On the way back, I noticed them stopped at a corner, talking. Jennifer suggested walking back to an earlier location and trying another street, where she saw people earlier. We prayed about it and started walking in that direction.

But when we got to that street, no one was there. It turned out that everything in the town closed at noon on Saturdays. I kept praying, "God, please just lead us to someone who needs to hear about you."

A few minutes later, a car drove past us, parked in front of an attorney's office, and a man got out. He walked to the door, tried the handle to find it locked, and walked back to his car. Something in me jumped… this would probably be one of the only people we'd see the entire afternoon.

So I spoke up, "Anyone there?"

 

"Nope!" he said. 

 

"How are you today?"

 

"Terrible!" He said.

 

We kept walking towards him. "I'm sorry to hear that," I said. "What's wrong?"

He started telling us about his roof, how shingles were blowing off it and he needs to get it repaired. He said he was going somewhere, but kept talking with us. He was from West Virginia, and when my group, who was also from WV heard that, they started talking like old friends. That opened the conversation wide open. He told us about how he'd been sick… he'd lost over 90lbs and couldn't eat. "Could we pray for you?" I asked. "Sure." He said.

 

After we prayed for him, he started telling us another story about how he injured his back in the 1950's and his back/neck had hurt ever since then. He wasn't able to stand for more than 10 minutes because he was always in pain. "Can we pray for your back and neck?" I asked. "Sure." He said.

 

After we prayed, I asked, "How do you feel?"

 

"A little better," he said. Then he launched into another story. By the end of our hour long conversation, in which we were standing the entire time, we learned about his neighbor with a "nasty" attitude, his bi-polar daughter who was a drug addict and scammed him out of $27,000, his grandbaby that died…. so much pain. The group shared with him about the Lord and how He can heal a broken heart. He started to cry and said, "Thank you. I am so glad I met you today. I knew the office was closed but still felt like I should come anyway… now I know why. And you know what? My back doesn't hurt at all! I've stood for longer than I ever have- and I don't have any pain!"

 

Praise the Lord! He healed Billy! SO COOL! AHHHHHH!!!!