SISTERS, OREGON
In January 2011 I met Kris on the beach in Kona, Hawaii. She shared about her involvement in prayer at the Roosevelt High School. I was inspired by her story and went back home and talked with my pastor about starting a canopy of prayer to cover our high school in Oregon. He challenged me to include the elementary and middle school too! My concern was finding enough people to pray for that many students. I decided to cover the middle and high schools the first year (2011-2012). I had more people who wanted to pray and not enough cards to give them! The next year I added the elementary school. People asked me to include the Christian school and another smaller school too! I did and I still had people asking for a prayer card when I didn’t have any left to give. Our schools did not have the challenges that Roosevelt had, so the results were not as dramatic, but what amazed me was that in our small community we had nine churches covering five schools, praying for every student, teacher, coach, and staff for a whole school year! The results were a growth in unity among our churches, increase in school attendance, decrease in suspensions, decrease in the dropout rate, improvement in grades, and an increase in the graduation rate! These are only a few indicators that can be measured. Only God knows what took place in the hearts of the people who prayed and who were prayed for! I challenge you to take up the mantel to organize a canopy of prayer for your schools and see what God will do.
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. I John 5:14-15
Paula Perkins
Sisters, Oregon