The Gift of Prayer

A simple cardboard box wrapped in bright flowered paper and tied with a yellow ribbon. A gift? Yes. This particular box is a prayer box where Evangel Home residents may anonymously deposit their prayer requests. It sits on a table in the Crisis Home and once a week the slips of paper are removed from inside and the requests they contain are sent to the Board of Directors for prayer.
 
This little box represents a gift for at least two groups at Evangel Home -- the residents and the Board of Directors. The residents certainly consider it a gift knowing, perhaps for the very first time, that someone cares enough about them and their needs to pray specifically for them. The Board of Directors also considers it a gift, as well as a privilege, to be entrusted to carry each one of these needs to God.
 
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one...”

--Matthew 6:9-13 (NIV)