Being Present

This summer, one of our Discipleship Families decided to set up a table at the weekly Monongahela Area Farmer’s Market. They called the table THE HOPE DEPOT. There they offered to pray for people or to have them fill out a prayer request card. Each week 10-20 people stopped by to be prayed for or just to talk. Some were believers, but many were people who were just hurting. The market organizers were impressed by the positive comments and reports they received about The Hope Depot.

In ways only God does, connections were orchestrated  through this opportunity.

One of our members wrote, “At work just now a co-worker started talking to me about the farmers market because she thought she saw me there 2 weeks ago. (She is on a different team and I don't know her very well, don't even know her name) I mentioned that I'm friends with the people who had the prayer table and she started telling me about how you guys prayed for her and gave her a little book and how she was a little nervous being prayed for but it just felt right to her, and how you guys just somehow knew that she needed it that day because of what she was dealing with on that day,”

Another member shared, “So I invited my neighbor Kevin and his family to church. He asked where we were located and I told him. He said that’s so crazy I was driving by there during the early part of the pandemic and they had a drive through prayer. He said I wanted to stop but I was afraid. I explained about The Hope Depot and he said that is so cool tell me about it. I explained how when you guys were coming up with the idea some of us had reservations, but how every week people are coming up and asking for prayer.”

Sometimes all we have to do is simply be present for people—in unexpected locations, at unexpected times—and they will see God's love for them.