By Madeleine Pointner
Collaboration Project Administrative Assistant

Just when the Easter bustle started picking up, three teams from Faith Community Bible Church, City Church, and a Northside collaborative group at the YWAM Madison base dedicated rooms in their buildings for a 24-7 prayer vigil through all of Holy Week (the week leading up to Easter). In preparing for Easter, these churches created spaces for Christians from around the community to come together in prayer.

People from over fourteen different churches and organizations all around Dane County signed up for hour-long slots to pray during Holy Week. The Holy Week of Prayer was an opportunity to walk alongside Jesus in this Holy Week of remembrance by setting aside time and space for prayer. It is in prayer that we can engage with Jesus, allowing him to draw us into the story of his Passion, one day at a time. And the spaces themselves offered places for people to encounter Christ in real time and space. 

Here are a few stories from different locations during the past week. 

One participant shared that a mail carrier came in and interacted with the prayer room at the Northside (YWAM base) location: 

“During my prayer room time today our mail lady came through. She paused to read the welcome sign on the door…I knew she was pausing to see what all the “decor” was about…[as] she came up the stairs, she said to me ‘Wow, this is really beautiful and so nice.’ Then she offered a piece of her story, ‘You know I just put my father in Hospice on April 2nd, he died April 3rd and we buried him April 8th.’ I responded with my condolences and told her this space was open to the public all week and she was welcome to come at any time. It’s a reminder that death isn’t the end.”

Another participant shared: 

“My friend who I invited went with her daughter and mother-in-law and said it touched her. In fact, I just got another text now saying she signed up for two more slots (one herself and one with her husband). Go God.”

And here’s a testimony from a volunteer who set up one of the rooms:

“I loved the experience of pouring into this prayer event...it’s often in the preparation that I experience significant spiritual growth. It motivates me! It blesses me deeply when I observe people encountering and responding to God.”

And a final story from one of the prayer rooms:

“A UW student who is the prayer team leader for Badger Cru, took a night watch - 6 hours - in the FCBC prayer room!

Not only is prayer in the week before Easter an opportunity to join Jesus in the narrative, but it also can move us to powerful and effective intercession. We ask that our merciful Savior, the Savior of Calvary, will be near to those who suffer, who grieve, who live in war-torn lands, who do not yet know Christ. When we seek God’s face for the sake of others in intercession, we are entering into the most real thing about Easter: Christ drew near to the world and made a way to be reconciled to God. Prayer is the reality that allows us, as a community of churches, to put down roots in this reality of being in Christ together. We cry out for Christ’s mercy on the world and we receive the reality of his Resurrection power, together. 

This, my friends, is the “why” behind the 24-7 Prayer Initiative this past week. Our own Dane County church community set aside hours of our time to cry out to the Lord as we remembered and re-lived the reality of the Cross and Resurrection. This kind of prayer can change us and can change Dane County. This kind of prayer can make the reality of the Resurrection more tangible in Dane County. Alleluia, Christ is Risen! 

We invite you to partner with us in telling stories that highlight how God is working in and through the local church by supporting Collaboration Project today.