LONGVIEW, TX (KLTV) -
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"It impacts the world, what takes place in here. It's awesome," said Pastor Bud Miller. He took us inside the prayer room at Crossroads Community Church in Longview. A place he says has inspired and changed his congregation and community.
"Prayer rooms are something that's happening many places, it's not unique to us. We have modeled it off of something probably we saw," Miller said.
Candles, music and privacy are all provided in the peaceful room. And although it's not a trend that began at this church, it is beginning to spread through them. A pastor from Costa Rica visited the East Texas Church, and was moved by the spirit of their prayer room. "God really stirred his heart so we provided the black paper and the chalk and sent him home with that," said Miller.
A Guatemalan pastor who also visited was in the middle of construction on a new building for their church of about 1,000 people when they too were convicted to create a prayer room of their own. "And they actually built like an upper room prayer room that is really amazing," Miller said. "And we got to go help them kick that off."
When the week starts the walls of the prayer room are completely black. Visitors are given chalk and encouraged to write whatever is on their hearts. And the walls are then covered with everything from names to scriptures and even personal prayers.
Miller said, "it's so powerful just coming in here and connecting to the prayers that people have written. When asked what kind of emotion he gets when he reads some of the really intimate things, Miller replied, "Intense. Coming later in the week and praying the walls as I call it and hearing how people are crying out to God or even just scripture is wow."
Crossroads Community Church just completed two weeks of continuous prayer in January. An experience that Miller hopes will continue to shape the church and remind people of the impact prayer can have.
"You know he's at work when you see things on the wall," Miller said. "And the prayer, you know God is working."
