East Asia - September 2011 - Prayer Walking

Prayer Walking

I've never prayer-walked a city before.  On Thursday we took a high-speed train (120 mph) to a smaller city (only about 500,000 people). Jerry and I went with one of the friends we had met up with who works with college students, and we walked down the streets, praying out loud, conversationally, as we would pass by businesses.  We were gathering information about the city, and we were able to find a place that sold maps which were written in both Chinese and English (which we had been praying to find, it was great to thank God for answering that prayer!).  The friend we were with said she had never seen so many mahjong gambling parlors, there were several on many of the streets we walked. Another group that was with us told us about passing by a brothel, the heartache at seeing the young women being offered and the abortion clinic across the street from it. As in any large city anywhere (and even in smaller ones), there can be lost and lonely people, looking for some way to provide a living or some happiness or enjoyment.

There was also, though, great friendliness and hope within the city we walked. Jerry and I were at an elementary school as it was letting out for lunch (their lunch break is 2 1/2 hours, though they go to school from about 7:30 until 5:00, and once they reach high school, they go later in the evenings with study classes, go to school 7 days a week and only getting one day off a month). The children would come up to us in small groups and say "Hello" to practice their English. We would say "Hello, how are you?" and their response would be "Fine, thank you, and you?" and we would say we're fine.  They would giggle and run off to tell others that they spoke English to some Americans. We also came up to a secondary school during the lunch break, and a "motorcycle taxi" (basically a guy on a motorcycle who would negotiate a price and drive you to where you needed to be), was able to show us on the map where there was university in town (another answer to a prayer!). During the conversation, two other motorcycle cabs pulled up and the three of us each got on the back of one and had them take us to the University to check it out. And yes, I was riding without a helmet, but it was through the city as pretty safe speeds.... Another small group of ours was walking down an alley of homes, and someone leaned out from upstairs, said hello, and invited them to have lunch with their family.