Taking Prayer to the Streets in Ontario Town

Members of Maitland River Community Christian Reformed Church started the Wingham Adopt-a-Street Prayer Initiative with the hope of covering the town with prayer for the next year.

Doug Kuyvenhoven (left) and John Kranenburg bring prayer initiative to the streets of Wingham, Ontario.

After hearing about the success of similar programs at a conference, the church’s director, John Kranenburg, and small groups director Doug Kuyvenhoven brought the idea to their church family.

Six churches have joined the effort; each designated a prayer captain to meet together and to enlist pray-ers. “The growing unity among the churches and the presence of the Holy Spirit at these organizing meetings was tangible,” said Kuyvenhoven.

Over 80 people from the seven churches have adopted streets, committing to pray for them at least five times each week for a year. Because so many have signed up, longer streets were divided and prayer points such as the hospital, police station, town hall, and schools were added. Prayer captains plan to meet regularly with other prayer leaders and will encourage street adopters to continue praying each day and prayer-walking each week.

Encouraged by the support from participating churches, Kuyvenhoven is hopeful about the initiative. “It gives individual Christians something tangible to pray for. We believe that the launch of the adopt-a-street prayer initiative will mark a spiritual turning point for Wingham.”