Praying On Site With Insight
More Prayerwalking Stories

One prayerwalk team prayed for a young man who was so gravely ill with a mental disease that he could not leave his house. This group also prayed that the locusts would not attack the village. The villagers asked us to praise God because we had previously prayed for a young woman who was paralyzed since having a child, and now she was up and walking around. They were giving God the credit for healing her. We had prayed earlier in the year for a good rice harvest, and the villagers were praising God that they had more rice to harvest this year than in many previous years.

When a group of prayerwalkers came to this same village a month later, the young man with the mental illness came to personally thank us for praying for him and showed us that his condition was greatly improved. He asked that we would continue to pray for him, and he accepted a Bible from one of our prayerwalkers.

The next month when we had a dental clinic in the village, the villagers told us how God had answered our prayers concerning the locusts. When the ladies were harvesting rice, they looked up and saw a large swarm of locusts. As the locusts started to land, the ladies started crying, and the insects left. The villagers gave God the credit for not allowing the locusts to eat the rice.

When another prayerwalk team arrived in late July, we had many opportunities to greet people and pray in their homes. We asked God to give health and strength to the women as they worked in the rice fields and to the men who worked in the peanut, corn, and millet fields. We prayed for sufficient amounts of rain to provide for a good harvest. We were able to pray in a mosque that every person would know and realize that Jesus is their Savior and that every knee would someday bow to him. The villagers praised God for the many ways He had answered prayers for their village: some of the sick being healed, having a good rice harvest, and relationships in the village being more peaceful.

Lee and Donelle Kauffman -  Jola-Fonyi (JOH-luh-FOH-nyee) Team

One team of volunteers arrived in the capital city of Dakar, Senegal to pray for the entire city, the country, and the Wolof people group from several key sites and vantage points. Before coming, they had spent months preparing, studying, listening to a language CD, reading, and praying together. They met as a team, and they were oriented to Senegal and customs of the Wolof by two college-aged Missionary Kids (MKs) whose parents would host the team. Some of the information was not new to all of them because three of the team members were returning volunteers.

Afterwards, these volunteers talked about their prayerwalk preparation and experiences:

"This time I really felt like I bonded with the people. Last time I just couldn't take it all in."

"Even after all we read and the pictures we saw, I could not visualize what we were coming to. That trip around the city to pray and get a perspective the first day really helped me to see the needs and the vastness of the people."

"I can't believe how much just trying to greet in their language opened their hearts and helped us to find common ground. Praying for them will not be generic in the future."

"I feel like I really know the people, and now I really know how to pray."

"You have been telling us these things all these years when you come and speak (in our church), but I could never understand. Now I do. They are just like us, and they need Christ."

"Having the missionaries walk with us meant a lot because you were able to interpret more than just words."

"For me the highlight was when we visited the placed high above the city. I felt like Jesus looking down from the temple, and I wanted to gather the people and tell them the truth."

When the team was asked if they would be willing to return if God directed them to, each one replied, "Absolutely! Meanwhile, I am forever changed."

Tammy Cortimilia -  Wolof (WUHL-uf) Team

About three years ago, prayerwalkers from the U.S.A. traveled to a rural area of Senegal. Several Wolof villages were given the opportunity to host them in their midst and allow them to walk the length and width of the village, praying for it and its people. Two villages accepted the offer; one declined.

The prayerwalking volunteers arrived and began to pray on site. In the process, they spent time with villagers and listened to their needs so they could better pray for specific individuals, families, and other requests. In addition, they prayed for all of the villagers to receive peace from God and the blessing promised to all peoples through the descendant of Abraham. In the first village, in house after house, one need surfaced over and over, "Water! - Our women are having to carry water from too far away," they said. "We need a well in our village." In the second village, the same refrained echoed throughout, "Water!"

About a year after the team returned to the U.S.A., the government aid organization of a Muslim nation made a visit to the same area. After a survey, they determined that the two villages where the prayerwalkers had poured out their hearts to God on behalf of the people were the best places to dig new wells. And dig they did, until each village had its own new well.

In the fall of 2005 testimonies from these villages were shared with Baptist representatives. People from the two villages reported, "We know why we received the well in our village; it was because the prayerwalkers had come and prayed for us before the survey was made. We praise God for the well. Now our women do not have to walk so far for water!" And from the village that did not receive the prayerwalkers? They, too, indicated that the two events were linked, by saying, "We know that God did not give us a well because we turned down His messengers who were willing to pray for us."

God is glorified in all three villages, as all three recognize that God answers the prayer of His people. The prayerwalkers interceded on their behalf, and God responded to their need. "...you can say to this mountain, 'go throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." Matt 21:21a-22

Pray that the Wolof of all three of these villages will understand the importance of their right response to His invitation of forgiveness and reconciliation, for they stand without excuse (Romans 1).

Tammy Cortimilia -  Wolof (WUHL-uf) Team