Prayer Stations at Ground Zero  

 
It was a privilege for us to go
to New York to coordinate the Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Prayer Station Ministry, facilitating hundreds of people from across the USA to help in the aftermath of the terrorist attack. It involved training volunteers, taking teams out to pray, running an office and coordinating two housing facilities. God had something supernatural happening, for it would not have been possible to do all that in our own strength!

Initially, the area surrounding Ground Zero was not such a pleasant area to be in. The charred remains of the buildings still smouldered and a pungent odor filled the air. On windy days the air was full of ash. When workers came by you could see the signs of deep grieving. Their stories are too graphic to write, it’s like cleaning up after a holocaust.

Not a day passed without someone returning to the area for the first time since September 11th and wanting prayer. A man who worked on the 70th floor of the WTC and escaped five minutes prior to its collapse, came for prayer and gave his life to God. Tom prayed with a guy who had been rescued from being buried in the crash and was returning to the area for the first time, the day another plane crashed in NY. He was visibly touched by God's peace. It is always awesome to see God move, and the deep gratitude in people's eyes when they say, "Thank you so much".

We prayed with people who were there September 11, family members and friends of those lost in the disaster, construction workers and for many police. Even a cab driver pulled up to the curb and called out for someone to come pray for him.
We prayed with people from Afghanistan, an African American Muslim, a Hindu and Buddhist who gave their lives to Jesus. Students from Stanford were making a documentary and decided to interview one of our guys , who offered to pray for them, so they filmed that too!

Volunteers’ responses to the question, “How has working here impacted you?” Challenging. Fun. Strategic. An eye opener. Getting the church out into the world. Life changing. Praying for others is transforming. Reaching out to people is not strange and when we do, God makes his presence known. It is amazing how interested passers by are to receive prayer.

In the first 2 months we
- prayed with more than 4,000 people.
- over 600 people volunteered
- provided housing for over 250 people
- gave away tens of thousands of pieces of literature
- saw hundreds come to Jesus

There was considerable positive media coverage.
A Russian tv crew came to do an interview. That in itself was great, but of all prayer stations, that was the one where we had a Russian girl volunteering that day.

Mayor Giuliani came to one of the stations to say thanks. When the entire perimeter of the WTC became accessible again, we took teams around on prayer walks, which took 2-3 hours. The views revealed other buildings damaged, many more businesses affected. Those living or working in neighboring buildings have to daily look into what is left of the nightmarish horror they saw first hand. So much to pray for, so good to be there to do so.

A great encouragement was seeing the body of Christ work together. Varying groups gave their resources of housing, equipment, teams, music, literature, finances etc. to make this happen.