Crime Reduced in Major Cities through Prayer-Walking

Examiner.com

From Jacksonville, Florida to Chico, California and across the Atlantic to the UK, citizens are talking the law into their own hands–well sort of…They are prayer walking through the meanest streets of their cities for the main goal of reducing crime.

At the World Prayer Center in Colorado Springs, a large group of Evangelicals meet in a Tuesday night gathering they call Revival Town. Led by The Desperation Band this band of people are a mix of prayer warriors from small, medium, and mega churches throughout Colorado–who want to see changes in their cities and towns. One of those ways is to be strategically praying for their communities by walking the streets.

In Jacksonville, Florida, churches are aligning themselves to a new movement that they hope and pray will reduce a rising wave of violent crime. At http://www.jacksonvilleprayerwalking.com a blueprint of the specific plan to mobilize over 100 prayer teams in every “sub-sector of the city.” There are six zones, according to the website with their primary mission to “Prayer walk the city to confront the current crime and murder rate of Jacksonville.” They are organizing training for participants and leaders and are involving all churches in this movement. While the Jacksonville plan is just getting started there are models in other cities that have shown a reduction in crime.

Most notably the city of Chico, California has consistently had teams of prayer-walkers since Halloween 2001. The violent crime rate has been reduced 25 percent since “intercessors began taking it to the streets.” (http://cityreaching.pbwiki.com)

In London the BBC reports that a Metropolitan Police Detective leads 25 officers through the meanest streets of his borough. Detective John Sutherland uses the usual night stick, handcuffs, and police tools yet also uses prayer throughout the community he serves to combat crime. “I believe in the power of prayer,” the 33 year old cop says, “and I believe in Jesus.” “If you pray for a criminal and he becomes a Christian, one of the impacts is that he may stop criminal behavior.” Sutherland compiles crime stats in his borough and makes a prayer list, sends it to 150 prayer warriors in the community. The BBC reports that since Sutherland has done this “street crime and burglary have fallen when prayer is in the mix.” Sutherland explains, “I have seen enough answers o prayer  my life to take it beyond the point of coincidence.”

Throughout the UK a movement that is growing is the training and mobilization of Street Pastors. In Aberdeen, Scotland, Street Pastors from the Salvation Army are a constant presence of meeting practical needs, getting help for the homeless, the night revelers who have had too much to drink, and to pray for and with these people. There are over 100 teams around the UK and a documentary of the Street Pastors (youtube.com/watch?v=NokodTxj4Ts.) The no-judgmental relational approach is being hailed in reducing crime statistics as well.

In Denver, the Street School and Open Door Fellowship, has been affecting change in the city, by taking back the territory of Colfax and Marion Streets. Believers including prayer-walkers prayed specifically about taking back  a high crime area, partnered with other churches and bought homes and businesses that were known by police to be crack houses, places of prostitution, and where violent crime was high. Today the block is known for ministry, halfway houses, safe homes for abused women, and a street school for the homeless who  can earn a diploma. It is a success story that was birthed out of prayer walking over 20 years ago. For more information please visit http://www.envoytown.com.

Americans Pray

By Jennifer Harper, Washington Times

Politicians come and go, fashions evolve and the culture shifts with alarming frequency. One thing remains constant, though.

Americans pray. A lot.

Ninety percent have a spiritual interlude with God every day, according to a study released Thursday by Brandeis University. Half pray several times a day, in fact.

“Most prayer writers imagine a God who is accessible, listening, and a source of emotional and psychological support, who at least sometimes answers back,” said Wendy Cadge, a sociologist who directed the research.

The experience is intensely personal, with eight out of 10 beginning their prayers with a familiar greeting, like “Dear Lord” or “Hello Jesus.”

Three quarters pray for themselves , families and friends – with about a quarter praying for themselves alone. We pray for the big stuff, like health and employment. And we pray for the small stuff, too, like a good parking spot, or finding lost car keys. We ask God to guard loved ones who are airborne, or watch over children left alone for a spell.

Ninety percent of Americans pray to God daily, according to a Brandeis University study released Thursday.

Ms. Cadge and her colleagues based their findings on a very direct source – 683 prayers gleaned from four journals handwritten by hundreds of hopeful, grateful or worried patients and visitors at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore. The volumes had been placed near the main lobby over the years and are part of a collection of 40 books; hospital chaplains routinely have set out a blank book every two months since the 1990s.

The pages are filled with the often straightforward thanksgivings and petitions of the passing public:

“Dear Jesus, thanks for staying by my side. I love you,” one person wrote.

“Dear Lord: I leave it in your hands,” noted another.

A third simply declared, “Love U.”

Most of the prayers were improvised and followed similar patterns, the researchers found. Twenty-eight percent were requests of God, 28 percent were prayers to both thank God and ask for help, while another 22 percent were thank yous.

“Prayer writers also tend to frame their prayers broadly,” Ms. Cadge said, adding that the prayers helped people reflect on and “reframe” difficult events in the context of their own beliefs.

Two-thirds of hospitals associated with academic institutions offer similar “prayer books” for their visitors, she said, though most hospital administrators caution the public to use only first names or initials to protect patient privacy.

“If researchers studying religion and health take seriously even the possibility that prayer may influence health, they need to learn more about what people pray for, how they pray, and what they hope will result from their prayers,” Ms. Cadge said.

Indeed, other research has revealed a link between better health and the spiritual life.

A 2006 University of Pittsburgh Medical Center study that analyzed actuarial death rates found that weekly worship service attendance could add up to three years to a person´s life.

Prayer is the most commonly used “alternative medicine,” according to a survey of more than 31,000 adults released by the National Institutes of Health in 2004 – more popular than acupuncture, chiropractic, yoga and vitamins.

According to the agency, prayer is considered a “mind-body therapy.”

The Washington Times, LLC

40 Days for Peace and Prayer

City turns to prayer to reduce crime

40 days ago Sunday, area church leaders kicked off an initiative to pray for the union and protection of the Peoria area community. Residents concluded that effort Sunday night, just one day after Peoria’s first homicide of 2009. News 25’s Michelle Mantel shows us how spiritual leaders are using prayer to push away crime and bring in peace. It was a room full of faith. Hundreds of people held their spirits high for the last day of 40 Days of Prayer. This is the second year for Peoria’s 40 Days of Prayer, which some say will hopefully protect the streets and people of the Peoria area. Prayer attendee Dean Grabill said, ” I think a great sense of concern for the community also that with the crime rate and the number of homicides there has been we need to do something.” Prayer seemed to be the answer for a local drop in crime. Pastor Mike Kerby of Push for Peace said, “Last year murder was down by 2/3rds that means 3 times as many people survived.” But that was not the case for 19 year old Mario McGee, the victim of Peoria’s first homicide of the year. Authorities say he was shot in the head after a home invasion early Saturday morning. Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis said, “…a very unfortunate circumstance that happened in Peoria yesterday when a young man’s life was taken. I think it was a sign from Satan saying ‘I’m going to get you’.” Pastor William Preston said, “In light of the homicide yesterday we just believe that is an attempt to distract us and we know that god is still real and still working.” People are using prayer to hopefully get answers to their cries for help, for their life and the community. Preston said, “Different races, different cultures coming all

together and that’s to see our city transform.” Police have yet to make an arrest in Mario McGee’s murder. Meanwhile, a local pastor points out that even though the city’s murder rate dropped, he says the use of illegal guns increased with shootings occurring on a routine basis. That’s why Harvey Burnett is calling on all community pastors to meet this Thursday to come up with a plan to curb crime and end what he calls a crisis.

Prayers are Answered: Prices are Down

By Jeff Dufour and Patrick Gavin

God-given gas?

Earlier this year, we told you about the “Pray at the Pump” movement, which brought prayer vigils to local gas stations, so as to petition the Almighty to bring fuel prices down. Well, now that gas has crept below $2 per gallon again, this past Wednesday and Thursday, founder Rocky Twyman and his comrades gathered again to proclaim their effort a success.

On Wednesday afternoon, they congregated at the Shell station at the corner of Upshur Street and Georgia Avenue, then again at the Shell on Montgomery Village Avenue in Gaithersburg. Their purpose? According to a release, it was to “thank God … for answering their prayer during the holiday season.”

That’s not all: The group is attempting to build on the movement’s success by beginning a “Pray Down the Greed on Wall Street” movement to help solve the economic crisis.

Survey: 9 in 10 Americans Believe in Miracles

By Eric Young, Christian Post Reporter

Nearly 9 in 10 Americans believe miracles have occurred in the past and can still occur today, according to a new national survey.

While only 48 percent of those surveyed by N.J.-based HCD Research said miracle stories presented in religious texts should be taken as literally true, 86 percent said they believe that miracles have occurred in the past and 85 percent believe that they can occur today.

The new survey also found a slight majority (56 percent) of Americans claimed to have seen situations and circumstances with themselves, friends and/or family members which they consider to be “miraculous” or “unexplainable by science.”

“Modern people believe in miracles, but only more subtle ones,” commented the Rev. John McNeil, a Methodist minister and a blogger for HCD Research’s website MediaCurves.com.

“Perhaps many of us believe in divine interventions about attitudes and other psychological states, but not in large changes of matter,” he explained Tuesday – one day after the survey’s results were released. “Thus prayers for a friend to have hope or courage seem plausible, but prayers for a family member to re-grow a limb or be cured of a fast-progressing fatal illness seem pointless.”

When asked how much of the outcome of medical or surgical treatment they believe is related to forces totally outside of human control, 55 percent of responders said either very little or none of the outcome should be attributed to non-human forces such as the supernatural or “acts of God.” Only 45 percent said either all or most of medical outcomes are influenced by non-human forces.

Still, 76 percent of responders said they pray for individual friends and family members and 71 percent encourage family and friends to pray.

“It looks like most of us are clinging to a hope that a benevolent force beyond nature can intervene for our good and the good of our loved ones,” McNeil commented.

The new survey, conducted Dec. 6-8, was part of an effort to obtain Americans’ perceptions of faith, prayer and miracles in both the medical world as well as their everyday lives.

Those surveyed represent American consumers from Christian (Roman Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox Christian and other), Jewish (Orthodox Jewish, Conservative Jewish, Reform Jewish and Culturally Jewish), Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Scientologist, Islamic, Shinto, Sikh, and other religious traditions as well as those with no religious traditions.

On the Web:

Detailed results of the survey at

www.mediacurves.com

Pastor Testifies to Power of Prayer with $1.5M

LONGVIEW, Texas (AP) – A Texas pastor’s prayer for $1 million to pay for his congregation’s church building has been answered abundantly.

The Rev. Tom McDaniels, whose Lifebridge Christian Center meets in a Longview hotel, says he took a bank deposit slip and wrote $1 million on it almost 2 years ago, then kept it and prayed over it.

Last week, McDaniels says a business owner asked him how much was needed to pay for the church.

The pastor said $1.4 million. The benefactor then wrote a check for $1.5 million.

The church, which has been under construction, can now open debt-free.

McDaniels says he believes that in these economic times, “the Lord wanted to show his power.“

Pilots Run Out of Fuel, Pray, Land Near Jesus Sign

The Associated Press

It seemed like an almost literal answer to their prayers. When two New Zealand pilots ran out of fuel in a microlight airplane they offered prayers and were able to make an emergency landing in a field – coming to rest right next to a sign reading, “Jesus is Lord.”

Grant Stubbs and Owen Wilson, both from the town of Blenheim on the country’s South Island, were flying up the sloping valley of Pelorus Sound when the engine spluttered, coughed and died.

“My friend and I are both Christians so our immediate reaction in a life-threatening situation was to ask for God’s help,” Stubbs told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

He said he prayed during the ill-fated flight Sunday that the tiny craft would get over the top of a ridge and that they would find a landing site that was not too steep – or in the nearby sea.

Wilson said that the pair would have been in deep trouble if the fuel had run out five minutes earlier.

“If it had to run out, that was the place to be,” he said. “There was an instantaneous answer to prayer as we crossed the ridge and there was an airfield – I didn’t know it existed till then.”

After Wilson glided the powerless craft to a landing on the grassy strip, the pair noticed they were beside a 20-foot-tall sign that read, “Jesus is Lord – The Bible.”

Nearby residents provided them with gas to fly the home-built plane back to base.

Drop In Orlando Crime Rate Attributed To Prayer

Channel 13 Central Florida News reports

Orlando police said the streets are safer, but there is no clear answer as to why.

Some said the answer is the police crackdown that is forcing the crime rate to drop, but many others believe the answer is prayer.

Orlando police said the crime rate dropped drastically last month, and some religious leaders said God should take the credit.

After holding a 40-day prayer vigil, it just so happens that same month was the slowest for killings in Orlando and Orange county.

Patton Prayer Answered

Anxious moments for ex-CU coach after shooting at NIU – By The Associated Press, reported in the Denver Post

CHICAGO ­ Northern Illinois coach Ricardo Patton was returning from a recruiting trip when he heard about the campus shooting. Immediately, his mind started racing.

He knew one son was OK. He couldn’t reach the other one, though.

“Fortunately, our players were all together in practice,” Patton said Monday.

His son Michael is on the Northern Illinois basketball team and was at practice. Tracking down older son Ricardo Jr., a Huskies football player, wasn’t as easy.

Last week, Steven Kaz-mierczak entered a science lecture with a shotgun and pistols. He killed five people while wounding 16 before taking his own life.

With the campus locked down, there was no cellphone access. It took a few hours for the coach to get hold of Ricardo Jr.

“That was a tense moment,” the coach said. “But I was very prayerful that he was OK.”

Having his sons there “certainly gives me a perspective about how parents might be feeling about their students being here on campus,” he said. “We’ve had a wonderful experience here. There are some wonderful people. It’s a great academic institution. Those things are still in place.”

For Patton, the shootings jarred memories of the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. He was the coach at Colorado at the time and through last season. One of his players, Josh Townsend, lost a sister.

“I remember Josh Town-send’s mother stating it was very important that Josh was part of the team, and it’s no different now,” Patton said.

Patton remembered his Colorado team rallying around Townsend. Now, the coach expects the players to support each other when they return to campus today.

There will be no athletic competitions ­ home or away ­ until Feb. 25, when classes resume. The Huskies are 6-17 and are fifth in the Mid-American Conference’s six-team West division.

That means games against Western Michigan, Toledo and Tennessee State were called off. Patton said he thought only one might be rescheduled.

No NIU athletes were among the dead or wounded. The school is offering grief counseling, and coaches already met with counselors.

But there are bigger issues, bigger concerns.

“For me, it just confirms what I’ve always believed, and that is that our charge as coaches is greater than playing games,” Patton said. “Our charge as coaches is to help mold and shape young people’s lives and give them direction. The game is certainly secondary.”

View original article>>

Prayer Works – No Murders in Washington DC July 21-26

Reported in Christian Newswire

WASHINGTON, July 28 /Christian Newswire/ — There were no murders in Washington, D.C., from July 21 to July 26, while around the clock prayer vigils were being held under a large tent on the National Mall seeking God for a reduction in crime in the nationÕs capital.

14 murders were committed in Washington, D.C. during the first 13 days of July prompting city officials to declare a “crime emergency”.

The Christian Defense Coalition sponsored six days of around the clock prayer vigils under a large tent on the National Mall, from July 21 to July 26, seeking God to reduce the crime rate in the nation’s capital over the next six months.

The Christian Defense Coalition encourages the faith community around the country to sponsor prayer vigils in areas with high crime rates.

Rev. Patrick J. Mahoney, Director of the Christian Defense Coalition, comments, “It is important to remember during times of crisis, challenge and adversity Americans should always turn to God in prayer. We are thankful that during our prayer vigils on the National Mall innocent life was protected in Washington, D.C. Our hope and prayer is that we will now see a reduction in crime, in our nation’s capital, over the next six months. Through the years, prayer has changed the course of history and helped reduce human suffering around the world. We encourage the faith community to step out of their comfort zones and safety and move boldly into the public square in response to pressing social concerns. God has called Christians to engage culture–not to run from it.”

Food Kitchens See Burning Need, Answered Prayer

by Frank Gray, Journalgazette.net

Thursdays are usually slow at the St. Mary’s Soup Kitchen. Traditionally, one 60-gallon vat of soup is enough to satisfy the people who come to the church, usually on foot or on bicycles.

On any other day, two vats have always been plenty to serve all comers and even supply soup to other soup kitchens in town.

No more. In the past few months, the number of people coming to the kitchen for a sack of food has been growing.

Last month, four times in one week, the kitchen ran out of soup, unheard of. Another soup kitchen, St. Andrews of New Haven Avenue, was also running out, and when it appealed to St. Mary’s for help, the cupboard was bare.

Now, it’s not uncommon to have to cook three vats of soup in the kitchen’s big commercial cookers.

The run isn’t only at St. Mary’s and St. Andrews. At Miss Virginia’s, a food pantry on Hanna Street, about 475 families a week have typically come to the pantry for food, which includes bread, milk, eggs, vegetables and canned goods. In the past few months, the number of families showing up has jumped by about 100 a week.

“We’re trying to figure out why,” said Tom Osborn, who runs the pantry.

Demand has outstripped the pantry’s capacity on some days. It’s not unusual to find a line of people at the front door of Miss Virginia’s stretching all the way around the building and down the alley next to the house. The line would form at 10 a.m., and by 1 p.m., everyone would be served.

These days, when 1 p.m. arrives, and when the volunteers start leaving, a line is still there.

It’s happening everywhere, even in rural areas like Churubusco, Osborn said.

Time was, traffic was heaviest at the end of the month, when people were running out of money. Now, it’s heavy all the time. Every day, new people are calling, asking how to sign up for help.

“We’ve been taxed,” Osborn says.

It’s phenomenal that some kitchens are running out of food, says Diane Day, who runs the St. Mary’s Soup Kitchen. In the past few years, only once were the soup pots completely drained. Now it’s common.

Day pulls out some numbers, showing demand at her kitchen. In June and July, the number of people served by the kitchen was up nearly 50 percent from June and July 2004.

Kitchen and pantry owners can only guess what’s going on.

Most customers used to be homeless people, a lot of single men. Most came on foot. Now, there are more families, and they are arriving in cars, suggesting hunger is now spreading among people who were always self-sufficient. Many are working. Some even show up early, looking for something to eat before they go to work.

That tells soup kitchen workers something. People are working, but they’re barely making enough to get by. They’re working for minimum wage. They’re getting hammered by higher gasoline prices, higher utility costs. They’re beginning to ask the soup kitchen whether it helps with utility bills or helps pay reconnect fees to get utilities turned back on, and even for furniture.

So what do you do when you run out of food? What do they do at St. Mary’s, at St. Andrews, at Miss Virginia’s?

You pray for a miracle.

Not long ago, St. Mary’s was clean out of soup, but people kept coming. Just then, a man came to the door. He had sandwiches, prepackaged, the sort you’d find in vending machines, two big bags full of them. Did they need them?

Of course the kitchen needed them.

Makes you believe it when people say, “The Lord will provide.”

Until just a few days ago, the store room at Miss Virginia’s was practically bare.

Then came the accident, the blessed accident.

A tractor-trailer rig carrying food &emdash; cold cuts, hot dogs, bologna, cheese, cream cheese, all kinds of stuff &emdash; got into a wreck and overturned on its way to the Wal-Mart distribution center in Auburn.

Wal-Mart rejected the load from the crash. That’s not uncommon.

So the trucking company called St. Mary’s. Could you use any of this?

In short order, about two dozen pallets, stacked 6 feet high, started arriving.

Now, Miss Virginia’s has one cooler packed with Velveeta cheese and cream cheese and another packed with bologna, hot dogs and other cold cuts, all with expiration dates of Nov. 17. St. Mary’s got several pallets. Community Harvest got several pallets.

Tuesday afternoon, as cooks got the fixin’s ready for Wednesday’s soup, volunteers were busy cutting up hot dogs. The bean soup, today’s at least, would have meat in it – hot dogs.

Thank God for little blessings.

Outside Miss Virginia’s, where people stood on the ramp waiting to get inside for a single grocery sack of food, I told a man about the accident, about the load of food that had come in.

He smiled. “Divine invention”, he said. He knows the term is divine intervention, but “in the hood”, he said, they call it divine invention.

Answer to Prayer Keeps School Afloat

News Channel 5.com

NASHVILLE, Tenn.- A funding crisis has left Fisk University struggling to operate, but what happened Sunday may have signaled the start of a brand new financial beginning.

Fisk University received a surprise donation Sunday that could mean the difference in shutting down or staying open.

The university president has said that after December 15th, it is unclear whether the university can meet its operating budget. Despite its rich history, Fisk has struggled to make ends meet for years, and with no assets to mortgage it’s a tough battle.

Fisk has had financial problems for years and a $30 million art deal they hoped would bring them out of the red, has been delayed in court for two years.

“Nashville knew our need and seems to not be doing anything about it,” said Fisk’s President Hazel O’Leary in front of the audience at Mt. Zion Baptist Church Sunday.

But, Sunday, Mt. Zion Baptist Church stepped in donating $10,000 to Fisk, so the university can stay afloat. The room was filled with cheers as the check was brought on stage.

“We don’t need to lose Fisk, put our arms around the school and show the love this community can show,” said Bishop Joseph Walker of Mt. Zion Baptist Church.

In addition, the university received a promise from a foundation to match dollar for dollar every contribution up to one million dollars from this week until the end of the year.

“So what was 10 is now 20, and that’s a miraculous thing,” said O’Leary.

Fisk has made public pleas before, but now the need is critical.

“The hard thing mentioning a problem is most want to invest in a success; and while Fisk has not been a success in raising money, it is has been a success in changing the lives of thousands of young people who go on to make contributions to their community,” said O’Leary.

O’Leary said after Mount Zion’s donation and donations made at her mother’s funeral a few weeks ago, she feels the university can keep running at least until the end of the school year.

How long after that just depends on how much more people are willing to donate.

“So now I believe the challenge is definitely on the table,” said O’Leary.

The members at Mt. Zion Baptist Church said they are going to lead the charge in raising money for Fisk University. They plan on asking other local places of worship to contribute to the university.

Healing in Indiana

We have been participating in the “Divine Experiment” (21 days of prayer, fasting, and repentance). The sister of one of our staff members had a portion of her kidney removed due to cancer. Two months later she began to have complications. Just as the doctors were going to have to take drastic measures, the problem was corrected. She was healed and is doing fine now. – Indiana

Crime Drop in Minnesota

We have seen people delivered from tobacco and alcohol. The crime rate was so high the police had declared the immediate area out of control. Yet we’ve seen the entire block cleared of crime centers. The houses used for this purpose are now vacant and boarded up for sale. – Minnesota

Ivy League Revival

We are seeing revival in our colleges and universities here in the Northeast – even at the Ivy League schools. – Mary B. (NAL, Northeast region)

Renewed Church Unity

Prayer has renewed unity between the churches in our small community; we recently had 16 churches from eight denominations come together for a week of prayer and youth activities. – John P. (NDP Coordinator)

Prayer in Action

We have seen prayer bring Christians and service agencies in unity to meet the needs of our community. Prayer helped the “Church” in our community put hands and feet to our prayers. – Regina K. (NDP Coordinator)

24/7 Prayer in Washington State

As a result of prayer, an ongoing prayer initiative was started to have 24/7 prayer in each county of WA state. Since we started crime has been a target and this year we saw crime in every major city decrease with Seattle reporting a 40-year low. – Tim T. (WA State Coordinator)
Learn more at www.watchmanministries.com

Prayer for Leaders

We have been praying for the seven spheres of influence for years and we have seen the fruit in godly Christian leadership of our community. It is a blessing for the Body of Christ to see and hear these men and women of God express their faith, and for these leaders to have insight and knowledge on how to turn around and pray specifically for our community at public meetings.
- Larraine H. (NDP Coordinator)

Prayer Unity

Prayer has enabled us to cover the county with pastors, equally representing black/white/male/female and denominations. It has worked out supernaturally.
- Kathy R. (NDP Coordinator)

Community Prayer in Pennsylvania

Recently at a community-wide event, an Amish man prayed a prayer of forgiveness; there is an awakening among the Amish community for their need for the Lord. His prayer made a huge impact on the hearts of the people in Lancaster County. – Dona F. (Pennsylvania Coordinator)

Healing in Florida

There is a dedicated prayer group in our state and an International House of Prayer. God has blessed our prayers for government. Our new Lt. Governor shared at a NDP observance about how God raised him from his death bed because of people praying for him. He believes in the power of prayer! – Pam O. (Florida State Coordinator and NAL)

60 Churches Gather in Tennessee

Recently, we had a challenge to have 50 churches in our area bring 50 people to a prayer event. We had 60 churches sign up and we prayed and worshiped in unity. – Stephanie M. (Tennessee Coordinator)

Churches Unite in California

We are seeing unity in the Body of Christ. In our town we have ten Christian churches; nine now meet together monthly to pray. – Carol H. (California Coordinator)

Crime, Suicide, Unemployment Drop in California

We gather baseline stats from public agencies such as the county sheriff and state patrol, county coroner, and local hospital, as well as from the employment development agency. Transforming Prayer in 2006 was conducted from February 2 through May 4, 2006. At the end of that time we returned to the same agencies for updated stats so that we could proclaim what God had done during the time of prayer. In 2006 part 1 crime in the county areas went down by 22% as compared to an 11% drop in 2005 (whole year) and a 22% drop in the prayer period for 2004. Suicides were reduced by about 10%. Unemployment was reduced by 1.1% – a significant reduction considering the 7% overall rate that was in force for parts of 2005 in our county. In the public health arena we saw traffic fatalities reduced by 40%, cancer admissions to Mercy Hospital down by 58%, and youth deaths from all (sudden) causes were down by at least 50% . – Jim (California)

Inmate Saved

“Glory to God Jehovah for He is worthy to be praised!! Abba Father!! I know that whatever God’s will towards anything will be for the best. I have been incarcerated for 10 plus years and am grateful for I know that I wouldn’t have been saved, met Jesus, found the Holy Spirit nor would I have willingly become a member of co-depenency and recovery. For now I know that not only was I arrested (held accountable), but rescued as well. Glory Hallelujah, Abba Father”
- Female Inmate who wrote NDP after prayer event

God vs. doctor: 1 in 2 say prayer saves the dying

20 percent of docs also say God can reverse terminal prognosis, study finds

CHICAGO – When it comes to saving lives, God trumps doctors for many Americans.

An eye-opening survey reveals widespread belief that divine intervention can revive dying patients. And, researchers said, doctors “need to be prepared to deal with families who are waiting for a miracle.”

More than half of randomly surveyed adults ­ 57 percent ­ said God’s intervention could save a family member even if physicians declared treatment would be futile. And nearly three-quarters said patients have a right to demand such treatment.

When asked to imagine their own relatives being gravely ill or injured, nearly 20 percent of doctors and other medical workers said God could reverse a hopeless outcome.

“Sensitivity to this belief will promote development of a trusting relationship” with patients and their families, according to researchers. That trust, they said, is needed to help doctors explain objective, overwhelming scientific evidence showing that continued treatment would be worthless.

Pat Loder, a Milford, Mich., woman whose two young children were killed in a 1991 car crash, said she clung to a belief that God would intervene when things looked hopeless.

“When you’re a parent and you’re standing over the body of your child who you think is dying … you have to have that” belief, Loder said.

While doctors should be prepared to deal with those beliefs, they also shouldn’t “sugarcoat” the truth about a patient’s condition, Loder said.

Being honest in a sensitive way helps family members make excruciating decisions about whether to let dying patients linger, or allow doctors to turn off life-prolonging equipment so that organs can be donated, Loder said.

Loder was driving when a speeding motorcycle slammed into the family’s car. Both children were rushed unconscious to hospitals, and Loder says she believes doctors did everything they could. They were not able to revive her 5-year-old son; soon after her 8-year-old daughter was declared brain dead.

She said her beliefs about divine intervention have changed.

“I have become more of a realist,” she said. “I know that none of us are immune from anything.”

Loder was not involved in the survey, which appears in Monday’s Archives of Surgery.

It involved 1,000 U.S. adults randomly selected to answer questions by telephone about their views on end-of-life medical care. They were surveyed in 2005, along with 774 doctors, nurses and other medical workers who responded to mailed questions.

Survey questions mostly dealt with untimely deaths from trauma such as accidents and violence. These deaths are often particularly tough on relatives because they are more unexpected than deaths from lingering illnesses such as cancer, and the patients tend to be younger.

Helping families come to terms

Dr. Lenworth Jacobs, a University of Connecticut surgery professor and trauma chief at Hartford Hospital, was the lead author.

He said trauma treatment advances have allowed patients who previously would have died at the scene to survive longer. That shift means hospital trauma specialists “are much more heavily engaged in the death process,” he said.

Jacobs said he frequently meets people who think God will save their dying loved one and who want medical procedures to continue.

“You can’t say, ‘That’s nonsense.’ You have to respect that” and try to show them X-rays, CAT scans and other medical evidence indicating death is imminent, he said.

Relatives need to know that “it’s not that you don’t want a miracle to happen, it’s just that is not going to happen today with this patient,” he said.

Families occasionally persist and hospitals have gone to court seeking to stop medical treatment doctors believe is futile, but such cases are quite rare.

Dr. Michael Sise, trauma medical director at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego, called the study “a great contribution” to one of the most intense issues doctors face.

Sise, a Catholic doctor working in a Catholic hospital, said miracles don’t happen when medical evidence shows death is near.

“That’s just not a realistic situation,” he said.

Looking for a miracle

Sise recalled a teenager severely injured in a gang beating who died soon afterward at his hospital.

The mother “absolutely did not want to withdraw” medical equipment despite the severity of her child’s brain injuries, which ensured she would never wake up, Sise said. “The mom was playing religious tapes in the room, and obviously was very focused on looking for a miracle.”

Claudia McCormick, a nurse and trauma program director at Duke University Hospital, said she also has never seen that kind of miracle. But her niece’s recovery after being hit by a boat while inner-tubing earlier this year came close.

The boat backed into her and its propeller “caught her in the side of the head. She had no pulse when they pulled her out of the water,” McCormick said.

Doctors at the hospital where she was airlifted said “it really doesn’t look good.” And while it never reached the point where withdrawing lifesaving equipment was discussed, McCormick recalled one of her doctors saying later: ‘”God has plans for this child. I never thought she’d be here.’”

Like many hospitals, Duke uses a team approach to help relatives deal with dying trauma victims, enlisting social workers, grief counselors and chaplains to work with doctors and nurses.

If the family still says, “We just can’t shut that machine off, then, you know what, we can’t shut that machine off,” McCormick said.

“Sometimes,” she said, “you might have a family that’s having a hard time and it might take another day, and that’s OK.”

The Associated Press 2008 – MSNBC

Man returns to Jesus at NDP event

“I am still in awe as to what has been happening to me these last couple of weeks. Thank you for helping me back to Jesus Christ!”
- JL, Texas