Activity: Circles of Prayer
The Bethlehem Women’s Circles of Prayer group (now called "Women in Missions") was run, at the time of a 2012 visit, by Char Ransom. Ransom, who passed away in 2016, was a part of Bethlehem beginning in 1976 when she joined the church as Director of the Children’s Ministry. The flyer for Circles of Prayer read:
"Do you want to be a world Christian? Join us as we gather to worship, hear from women in missions, and pray for God’s purposes among the nations?"
One 2012 Circle of Prayer group featured a woman who, along with her husband and her two children, opened a hospital in Ethiopia that treated cleft lip and cleft palate. The missionary described the process of evangelizing and bringing the Word to Ethiopians while also healing children (and some adults). They successfully converted several Ethiopian patients and their families while working for Bethlehem Baptist. The Circle began with the singing of a hymn followed by a prayer led by Char Ransom. The Speaker then described what it was like for her family to be in Ethiopia and showed pictures of their life there, as well as pictures of children before surgery and after surgery. After her presentation, the women gathered in circles to pray for other female missionaries and their families abroad. Char Ransom had received lists of prayer requests from these missionaries abroad, and several examples of these prayers are below:
Pray for me as I now have an agent in New York for a book. I have a lot of work to do! Pray for wisdom and creativity as I write, and to be able to balance this work with my other roles as wife, mother, team leader, language learner and neighbor and friend to people both here in MN and when we return. –R in East Africa
That the Lord would bless us all with flexibility for sleeping arrangements and limited personal belongings (we are trying to keep our STUFF down to 44lbs per person). –J in East Africa
Pray for M as he corresponds with Internet contacts interested in Christianity. Pray for M and Ma as they discipline believers from Muslim backgrounds. May the Lord use events to soften and turn hearts toward him.”–M and Ma in the Middle East
After the circles of prayer, the women gathered for a light lunch provided by the church. On April 16th, 2012 organizers ladled cream of chicken soup into styrofoam bowls upon which women sprinkled shredded cheese, oyster crackers, and bacon bits. Thick slices of homemade bread and coffee complete the meal. The 20 women sat around circular tables and discussed the speaker. The conversation at my table got sidetracked (admittedly by my questions) about the women’s religious beliefs. Some of their answers to my questions are listed below:
Q: What does it mean to ‘know the Lord?’
A: To ‘Know the Lord’ means to accept Jesus Christ into your heart as your Lord and savior. It means to recognize that you are sinful but that you will be saved and go to heaven because Jesus died to forgive your sins.
Q: How do you pray?
A: We pray to talk to God, in our heads or out loud, often in groups. Some people aren’t comfortable praying out loud in groups so they pray without speaking which is fine. We pray to him as our father and we ask for forgiveness for our sins, we ask for help in our lives and we pray for other people and for God to help them.
Q: How do you know when you receive an answer to a prayer?
A: Some people hear God speak to them, but we (speaking at this table) have not. Instead, we think that everything happens because God intends for it to happen. We see God’s hand at work in the world and respond to that as signs from God.
One woman spoke about what she believed to be an example of God’s signs. She explained that her son had called her up the previous night to ask for her advice about whether or not he should specialize in cleft lip and palate in dental school. She prayed for her son, and then she attended the Circles of Prayer session and heard about the healing that the speaker and her family had performed in Ethiopia. The woman had not known about the topic of the talk before she arrived at Bethlehem that morning, but she takes it as a sign and answer to her prayer, and she plans to advise her son to specialize in the dentistry of cleft lip and palate.
