As the Spiritual Life Director at Helping Up Mission, one of the things that is most meaningful to me is our daily prayer list. The list is new every morning and each day any men can put their own requests for that day on the sheet.
Since today’s requests don’t transfer to tomorrow, someone has to “reup” again tomorrow or it will not be on the list. As I see it, if it is really important to you today, you will make sure it gets on the sheet today. Whatever the request, we know it is important to God. And if it is important to that guy and God, it is important to the rest of us.
So we have a couple of dozen prayer requests on our sheet every day and it is my privilege to pray for each one by name. We do the requests from each class during that class time. The lessons I have learned from that prayer sheet are significant. Most striking to me is the number of men who put their loved ones on the sheet every single day – even though they often still aren’t speaking to us. Consequently, I get to know their families pretty well and sometimes, when a guy gets in a hurry and forgets something, I know their request well enough to just add it in to my prayer!
Another thing that is meaningful to me is how often men ask prayer for the whole HUM family (including our donors and volunteers!) or for another specific Program member. And every day someone prays for those out there in our city who are still struggling with addiction.
Finally, when men do pray for themselves on our prayer sheet, it is almost exclusively to be able to continue to walk in their recovery. I almost never see what I would call a “selfish” prayer. The men in our Spiritual Recovery Program get to really understand their priorities and responsibilities and their prayers show it.
Thank you very much for your prayers on our behalf. And, while we covet your prayers, we are also praying much for each other and for you. Prayer is a critical part of the internal workings of Helping Up Mission. So…let us pray.
Sincerely,
Pastor Gary Byers
Spiritual Life Director