Morning Prayer in Moses Lake

by Kathy Marson

UCC Prayer Ministry coordinator

One day in January, a member of the Moses Lake Seventh-day Adventist Church, Shirley Meharry, commented, "we need to be praying for the Holy Spirit every day."

Pastor Clinton agreed with her. He says, “ The Lord put the thought in my mind of inviting people to join together each morning on Zoom to pray together.”

The church had started using Zoom to stay connected since Covid-19 began. It took time to help people learn how to get on through a computer or by phone. When people learned, they really appreciated the opportunity to connect with each other.

They began to meet and pray together at 7 a.m. every morning. An average of 8 to 10 people join. They begin with prayer and a reading from the Bible by one of the participants. Sometimes they share why it is important to them. Then they pray about the verse read. After that they pray about situations that need God’s help and intervention. The casual prayer meeting lasts about 30 minutes. At the end, the pastor mutes everyone accept the song leader and they sing a chorus together.  

Members have seen God working in response to prayer. One prayer partner has a sister that a stroke. The doctors said the chances are she would never recover. The prayer group knew she had not surrendered her life to Jesus, so they prayed that if she needed more time the Lord would help her recover. She is now out of the hospital and recovering. They are praying for the Lord to help her to give her life to Jesus.

“Sometimes the answers to our requests are not what we wanted, but it is neat to see evidence of the Lord leading,” says pastor Clinton. “One young woman had a heart defect that needed a special kind of surgery where she had to go to New York. She and her husband had turned away from God. We prayed that the Lord would use this circumstance to draw them closer to Him.”

After some time in quarantine, the young lady was taken to the hospital to prepare for surgery. Being in the hospital for over a week, she talked to her mom more than they had for a long time. Her heart became softened to the Lord. After surgery she seemed to be doing well. But then her body began to shut down. Unfortunately, she passed away, but members of the prayer group rejoice that God was able to come near to her.

We share this simple story of how one church meets six days a week to pray together, so that we will always remember there is power in prayer. It can begin with a small group, together, on the phone, or on zoom. The Moses Lake Church is located at: 1601 W Valley Rd Ste A in Moses Lake, Washington. It is one of the more than 120 Seventh-day Adventist congregations in the Upper Columbia Conference.