Latest News
01-11-12
Local Partnerships for Healing
By Michelle Noyes, Local Outreach Assistant at The Falls Church
On a hot summer day in 2009, Nar Taing, Local Outreach Coordinator at the Falls Church (TFC), pumped gas into her car at a Culmore area gas station, watching as a day laborer approached the man at the pump next to hers. To Nar’s surprise, the two men bowed their heads and started to pray together. After a few moments, the spontaneous prayer session ended and the day laborer went back to his post on the corner of the intersection. Moved, Nar asked the man at the pump how the day laborer had known to come to him for prayer? The man at the pump explained that at one time he had been on the streets too and was known to be a Christian. “Life on the street is very hard. That man is in a desperate time and just wanted someone to pray with him; He knew I would pray if he asked me.”
As Nar drove away from the gas station she knew that she had witnessed the Body of Christ in action. “I saw a critical need in the community for prayer and I thought: if we, the body of Christ, can offer prayer in a nonthreatening way, this is the best thing we can give to our neighbors.” This marked the beginning of a new vision and work of the Lord, as she actively sought a way to make prayer available for the community. Nar recognized an opportunity to do just this in TFC’s partnership with the Culmore Clinic. She envisioned healing prayer volunteers offering prayer to clinic patients.
There was just one problem. At that time, Fairfax County supplied the Culmore Clinic’s office space, allowing the clinic to open its doors one day a week without having to rent space. However, while utilizing this resource, the clinic had to stay strictly secular. In order to incorporate healing prayer into the clinic offerings, the Culmore Clinic would have to move out of the free office space supplied by the County.
Now, two years later, the Lord has beautifully orchestrated a solution. Columbia Baptist Church (a ministry partner of TFC Local Outreach) is blessed to have two buildings; their building located a mile from TFC, and another, in the heart of Bailey’s Crossroads, just 300 yards from the current location of the Culmore Clinic. This Columbia Baptist “Crossroads Campus” was originally planned to be a mission center in partnership with Oasis Friendship Center; however, building renovations delayed the process and Oasis moved into a different space. In August of 2011, Columbia Baptist was left with an empty building and a heart for missions: the perfect opportunity to host the Culmore Clinic on private property, making it possible to offer healing prayer to the clinic patients, our neighbors. To remove any doubt as to whether God was blessing this opportunity, at the same time as these pieces were coming together, TFC Rector John Yates announced that he felt God was calling TFC to “bring healing prayer to the community.” The timing was perfect.
After several months of prayer and conversation, the Culmore Clinic, TFC, and Columbia Baptist have entered into a new partnership. On November 19, 2011, representatives from the Culmore Clinic, from TFC, and from Columbia Baptist gathered with other Culmore Clinic partners, past and present volunteers, and with patients in the Columbia at Crossroads Campus sanctuary. Together, we celebrated the ministry of the Culmore Clinic, past, present, and future, and cut a ribbon, opening the new doors of the Culmore Clinic at Columbia Baptist Crossroads Campus. In January, healing prayer volunteers trained by the TFC healing prayer ministry will begin to offer prayer to the community at the Culmore Clinic.
In the words of Nar Taing, “This is what we need to be as a church: open, willing and available to pray.” Praise the Lord for providing partners within the Body of Christ to make this ministry possible. In this partnership, everybody wins. Columbia Baptist receives a well-organized ministry, the Culmore Clinic, to operate within their newly renovated space. The Culmore Clinic is finally able to incorporate healing prayer into their ministry. And TFC can now expand the reach of the healing prayer ministry beyond the walls of the church. But most of all, people from all walks of life, all faiths, all economic situations, will have a safe place to ask for and receive prayer.
View photos.
On a hot summer day in 2009, Nar Taing, Local Outreach Coordinator at the Falls Church (TFC), pumped gas into her car at a Culmore area gas station, watching as a day laborer approached the man at the pump next to hers. To Nar’s surprise, the two men bowed their heads and started to pray together. After a few moments, the spontaneous prayer session ended and the day laborer went back to his post on the corner of the intersection. Moved, Nar asked the man at the pump how the day laborer had known to come to him for prayer? The man at the pump explained that at one time he had been on the streets too and was known to be a Christian. “Life on the street is very hard. That man is in a desperate time and just wanted someone to pray with him; He knew I would pray if he asked me.” As Nar drove away from the gas station she knew that she had witnessed the Body of Christ in action. “I saw a critical need in the community for prayer and I thought: if we, the body of Christ, can offer prayer in a nonthreatening way, this is the best thing we can give to our neighbors.” This marked the beginning of a new vision and work of the Lord, as she actively sought a way to make prayer available for the community. Nar recognized an opportunity to do just this in TFC’s partnership with the Culmore Clinic. She envisioned healing prayer volunteers offering prayer to clinic patients.
There was just one problem. At that time, Fairfax County supplied the Culmore Clinic’s office space, allowing the clinic to open its doors one day a week without having to rent space. However, while utilizing this resource, the clinic had to stay strictly secular. In order to incorporate healing prayer into the clinic offerings, the Culmore Clinic would have to move out of the free office space supplied by the County.
Now, two years later, the Lord has beautifully orchestrated a solution. Columbia Baptist Church (a ministry partner of TFC Local Outreach) is blessed to have two buildings; their building located a mile from TFC, and another, in the heart of Bailey’s Crossroads, just 300 yards from the current location of the Culmore Clinic. This Columbia Baptist “Crossroads Campus” was originally planned to be a mission center in partnership with Oasis Friendship Center; however, building renovations delayed the process and Oasis moved into a different space. In August of 2011, Columbia Baptist was left with an empty building and a heart for missions: the perfect opportunity to host the Culmore Clinic on private property, making it possible to offer healing prayer to the clinic patients, our neighbors. To remove any doubt as to whether God was blessing this opportunity, at the same time as these pieces were coming together, TFC Rector John Yates announced that he felt God was calling TFC to “bring healing prayer to the community.” The timing was perfect.
After several months of prayer and conversation, the Culmore Clinic, TFC, and Columbia Baptist have entered into a new partnership. On November 19, 2011, representatives from the Culmore Clinic, from TFC, and from Columbia Baptist gathered with other Culmore Clinic partners, past and present volunteers, and with patients in the Columbia at Crossroads Campus sanctuary. Together, we celebrated the ministry of the Culmore Clinic, past, present, and future, and cut a ribbon, opening the new doors of the Culmore Clinic at Columbia Baptist Crossroads Campus. In January, healing prayer volunteers trained by the TFC healing prayer ministry will begin to offer prayer to the community at the Culmore Clinic.
In the words of Nar Taing, “This is what we need to be as a church: open, willing and available to pray.” Praise the Lord for providing partners within the Body of Christ to make this ministry possible. In this partnership, everybody wins. Columbia Baptist receives a well-organized ministry, the Culmore Clinic, to operate within their newly renovated space. The Culmore Clinic is finally able to incorporate healing prayer into their ministry. And TFC can now expand the reach of the healing prayer ministry beyond the walls of the church. But most of all, people from all walks of life, all faiths, all economic situations, will have a safe place to ask for and receive prayer.
View photos.