This afternoon Herman (SMI translator) and I were prayer walking in the Hunting Park neighborhood when the 5.9 earthquake from Virginia hit our area in Philly. It had been a particularly dry afternoon with not much activity at all. Most people were not answering their doors for spiritual follow-ups (SMI patients) and I was feeling spiritually blah. It seemed like a waste of time, minus the praying part. The question “Why are we walking these streets after SMI?” was definitely floating around in my head.

So Herman continued to pray as we were walking down Raymond Street, back to the block where my car was parked. Part of it went like this ” Lord open up the heavens and pour down your blessings on this place open these doors for the gospel to enter homes “. We said “Amen” and seconds later about 25 people on the block came out of their houses all at once and began looking around talking to each other trying to figure out what just happened. We didn’t know what happened either, we didn’t feel anything. All we knew was God was listening and wanted us to talk to people!

So we explained to a woman with her son on her porch that we were just praying for a revival and blessing the neighborhood and all of a sudden everyone came outside. She asked us what church we were with, so we told her about the local church Grace and Peace and she seemed really interested in attending.

We also met up with a SMI patient who was loading his car with tools and supplies in case of an evacuation. We laid hands on him and prayed with him.

We later tuned into the radio and found out that much of the east coast was affected by the earthquake, but the fact that it happened when it did still amazes us. That’s the power of prayer! Praise the Lord.

Sam