wfn.org | Upper Room prayer center expects more calls with article

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Aug. 20, 2002  News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.   10-71B{370}

By the Rev. J. Richard Peck*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - An 800 line attracts diverse callers, even when it
is a prayer line. Some of the calls are serious, but a few may appear
frivolous, says Jim Roy, manager of the Upper Room Living Prayer Center.

The center answers more than 20,000 phone requests for prayers and an
additional 5,000 by fax, mail or e-mail. Those numbers are expected to
increase when 4 million readers of Prevention magazine learn about the
toll-free service in the October issue.

Roy, director of the program since 1994, plans to retire Sept. 30. One of
the callers he remembers was a lady named Ida who made several calls over a
two-month period asking volunteers to pray that she get a new, red Cherokee
Jeep. About 18 months later, Roy received a call from the same woman
thanking him for the prayers. She did not receive the Jeep, but she came to
know Christ through an evangelist who drove to the church in a red Cherokee
Jeep.  

"We train our volunteers not to be judgmental about callers," Roy says. "We
ask them to pray for the need behind the request."

Roy says he is recruiting and training additional volunteers. Currently, 120
volunteers in Nashville routinely answer calls during the daytime. Another
5,000 people in groups across America answer calls in two-hour shifts over
extended periods of time. Requests from these two groups are sent to one of
350 covenant groups around the world that offer prayers for an additional 30
days. These covenant groups are located across the United States, the
Philippines, South Africa and Australia.

The prayer center is underwritten by United Methodist Men. In the last two
years, the UM Men's Foundation has underwritten the toll-free phone expense
at a total cost of some $47,000. This year, the foundation has been able to
give only $10,000. The center does not receive any funds from the general
church.

Roy believes the Holy Spirit is involved in the way in which callers are
matched with volunteers. Once a caller asked in broken English if anyone
could pray with her in Chinese. The volunteer, who had served for 13 years
as a missionary in China, was able to answer the woman in Chinese.

A second case would convince any skeptics about God's involvement. A group
of United Methodist Men had recruited a team to answer the prayer line on a
Saturday. One young man was reluctant to serve, but said he would be willing
to act as a backup. He was asked to serve for only 30 minutes at the end of
an eight-hour shift. As his time was nearly over, he received a call from a
lady who was crying hysterically. She had lost a leg from the knee down and
her prosthesis was causing her a great deal of pain. He asked her if she had
grieved for the missing limb. She said no. He explained that grieving was an
important step in the healing process, and he also suggested that she return
to have the prosthesis adjusted because it was probably not fitted
correctly. She asked how he knew all this. "I design prostheses," he
replied. She called back later to say the prosthesis had been adjusted and
she was no longer in pain.

To qualify as a member of the covenant prayer team, volunteers are asked to
go through a six-week study of a Work Book of Living Prayer (Upper Room
Books, 2000) by Maxie Dunnam. That study is followed by a study of either
Devotional Life in the Wesleyan Tradition (Upper Room Books, 1983) by Steve
Harper or Invitation to Presence (Upper Room Books, 1995) by Wendy Miller.

More information is available at the Upper Room Web site, www.upperroom.org,
or by calling the prayer center at (800) 251-2468. 

# # #

*Peck is communications consultant for the churchwide Commission on United
Methodist Men in Nashville, Tenn.

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United Methodist News Service
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