Spotlight Interview: Sally Burke invites moms, grandparents, and everyone else to pray for our schools
Back to school is here. Hard to believe, but it’s true. As we prepare to send our children back to school (or have already done so) we are thinking about much more than checking off the school supply list or packing lunches. It’s everything that awaits our children in the coming year— safety and protection, social dynamics and friendships, what ideas and influences they will encounter, and the daily learning, growing and flourishing that takes place inside a classroom.
Culturally, there is so much attention focused on what is happening to our kids’ hearts and minds in classrooms. And you don’t need to be a parent of school-aged children to feel the weight of how our schools are shaping and influencing the next generation. How can we have a positive impact on what’s happening in every school in America? We can pray. We can commit to covering our students, teachers, administrators and buildings in prayer.
There are thousands of moms in the United States, and in 150 countries, gathering together weekly to pray for our students and schools, through Moms in Prayer. We are grateful to have Sally Burke with us from Moms In Prayer. You can connect with the organization, find a local group, and find helpful resources, at momsinprayer.org.
This is an edited excerpt of Carmen’s interview on Mornings with Carmen. To hear the full interview, listen online at MyFaithRadio.com.
Carmen: I saw a group of people walking the perimeter of the school property when that was going on, and I thought to myself, “Yep, they’re prayer-walking their school campus,” and that made my heart delight, and reminded me that we need to get more and more moms, and grandmas, and aunts out there doing that. So, who and what is Moms In Prayer?
Sally: Well, Moms In Prayer is simply where two or more women gather together, just one hour once a week, and they pray. Our mission is to impact children in schools, for Christ by gathering women together to pray. Our vision is that every child, every school, in the world would be covered in prayer.
Carmen:I love that. So this is an international effort, I’d love for you to touch on that as well. But this is happening in local communities across the United States. So, can you maybe take us into a Moms In Prayer experience? What would a woman who’s engaged in Moms In Prayer experience in that one hour a week with other moms?
Sally: Moms In Prayer simply began when one mom was so burdened, Fern Nichols, for her children, that she grabbed another mom, and they prayed. So one hour once a week, you meet locally, I meet in Temecula. I prayed for my kids that were in elementary school, and that’s when I started. We start with praise. The four steps are praise, silent confession, thanksgiving, and intercession.When I joined, I never prayed out loud before in my life. That group just welcomed me in. I heard the praises of these precious women, the scripture, “God is sovereign. God is omniscience. God is omnipresent,” just all of those praises, God’s word going up, and I knew this was a place for me.
Well, as we began to put our children’s name in God’s word, in scripture, I would see the most remarkable answers to prayer. Whether it be a child that struggled with reading, learning to read. Or, a child finding a best friend. Or over 100 kids would come in monthly and hear the good news, and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Or 14, now it’s 15 out of 22 of the original teachers we prayed for came to know Jesus, and then they began to pray. I like how one of the teachers said, “This was a public school and yet it is as if we were on a private Christian campus.” God did that by us coming together that one hour once a week and praying, giving our burdens, our fears, our worries to God, and Him unleashing His power to do His will on that campus.
Carmen: Every school is a school that needs God’s protection, God’s provision, every child is in need of God’s promises. Our schools seem like places where so much evil is focused, all this attention is focused on capturing their little hearts and minds. This is actually a really positive way that we, as Christians, can engage in that spiritual battle. It’s also really life-giving and empowering to moms and to their kids. Can you talk a little bit about that? This is a ministry that gives you as much as it gets. Does that make sense at all, Sally?
Sally: Oh, yeah. Yeah, it forever changed my life. As a brand new Christian, as brand new to prayer, and now I’m teaching women around the world to pray, and empowering them. Since the beginning of time, the enemy has been after the children of God, and nothing is new under the sun. God tells us in Ephesians 6, “Our battle is not against flesh and blood. It’s a spiritual battle.” Then he tells you, “Put on the form of God,” and then he tells you, “Pray. Pray using God’s word.”So, we have an incredible opportunity. The enemy would like to think, “Oh, he has the school campuses.” It doesn’t matter if your child’s homeschooled, private school, charter school, or public school, you have an opportunity, this divine moment in time, to impact them. God has chosen these children in this period of time, He’s placed them right here to rise up like David, who slew a giant. Daniel, who closed the mouths of lions. Esther, who saved a nation.
Our children have been placed right here. Our part is prayer. You look at Ezekiel 22, God says, “Who will stand in the gap for my children?” Nobody, and they were taken captive. Yet, Moses and his friends stood in the gap and prayed, and those children were sent to the Promised Land. God has the most incredible plan for this next generation. I know that ’cause He’s raised up tens of thousands of women all over the world to be praying for this generation. So, we must be about prayer. As soon as I went into my first Moms In Prayer meeting, I was so touched by God.
God has chosen these children in this period of time, He’s placed them right here to rise up like David, who slew a giant. Daniel, who closed the mouths of lions. Esther, who saved a nation.
Sally Burke
Our children have been placed right here. Our part is prayer.
I’ve been in it 33 years now, and every time it’s a divine moment of time as I go into my group, and I pray, and God moves on those campuses. Whatever campus I pray for, he’s moving. I like how you say protection, because I get hundreds of answers to prayer and reports every other month in over 150 countries.There’ll be such things as, in just one state where four shootings were stopped. Even though those people had guns on the campus and had plans to shoot, they were stopped because that Moms In Prayer group had been praying for protection. Or when I was in Little Rock, Arkansas, I had this one school, the tornado just went around it because those moms had gathered that morning and prayed for protection. It’s amazing what God will do, but we have not because we ask not. So please, come be a part of Moms In Prayer. There’s so many more schools to cover in prayer.
Carmen: One of the things I love about the Moms In Prayer website, Sally is the blog. I recently read the blog that’s posted there called, God is with You Through the Ups & Downs of Motherhood. We’re talking a lot about God’s presence here on Faith Radio during the month of August, so I thought it’s a prime opportunity to lift up this particular blog and celebrate the presence of God, and the care of God, and the way that we speak that over our kids.
Sally: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I usually like to start my school year with that attribute of God, that He is all present, He’s all present with our children. He doesn’t leave them nor forsake them. He’s right there with them. In the ups and downs, there’s always going to be a battle for the children, but when you go into that Moms In Prayer group, that other mom, like Aaron and Hur that held up the arms of Moses as the children of Israel were in battle, we grow tired, we grow weary. Yet God, and these other women, come alongside us. God knows the plans that He has for our children, to prosper them, to give them a future and a hope, not harm. So we must always remember that there are going to be good days, and there are going to be really, really tough days. All of us face that. Every single one of us faces that.
Yet, the battle belongs to the Lord, and the Lord will give us that shalom, that peace. He tells us, “Be anxious for nothing, but in all things by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to Him.”
Here’s the great exchange, and He will give you that peace that’s beyond all understanding. He will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. So our part is to come to the very Throne Room of God, knowing that God is the one who created our kids, the one who has ordained their days, the one who knows what their future and their hope is, and He’s right there with them in that classroom. He’s right there with them in that school. Or if they’re adults, or the grandchildren, He is right there with them.
The battle belongs to the Lord, and the Lord will give us that shalom, that peace. He tells us, “Be anxious for nothing, but in all things by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to Him.”
Sally Burke
Here’s the great exchange, and He will give you that peace that’s beyond all understanding. He will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. So our part is to come to the very Throne Room of God, knowing that God is the one who created our kids, the one who has ordained their days, the one who knows what their future and their hope is, and He’s right there with them in that classroom. He’s right there with them in that school. Or if they’re adults, or the grandchildren, He is right there with them.
Carmen: Yeah, I love that. Maybe you’re listening right now, and you’ve forgotten this great truth, that God cares about you. He cares about your household. He cares about your child, your grandchild, their school, their classmates, their teacher, the administrators, the coaches, the janitor, the lunch ladies. God cares about the kids that nobody else seems to care about.
We are called to be a people of prayer, who then genuinely extend care in the spirit of the God who cares for us. We talk a lot about sharing the gospel. This is an important tangible component of walking our faith out in the reality of the world that God so loves. So we want to invite you, if you’re not engaged in a prayer group, Moms In Prayer is a great tangible way to get engaged. Now, let me ask this, Sally, if somebody’s listening right now, and they’re like, “Well, I’m not a mom who has kids at home. Is Moms In Prayer still for me?”
Sally: Oh, yes. The older our kids get, the more they need prayer, it seems. They’re not in our house, but they’re still making decisions that affect their lives. They still need our prayers. Trust me, my adult children are so very grateful that I pray for them. Then my grandchildren, I get the opportunity to pray for them. Then I get the opportunity, if my kids are grown, I can pray for a local school that’s not covered.I have witnessed how the transformation at the local school, where my kids don’t even go to, now has prayer, and what God is doing on that campus. So please, women, we have three country coordinators who are not moms, but the children of their country are their children. So, please come and join us. Just go to momsinprayer.org and be a part of what God is doing on behalf of the children in schools.
Carmen: It’s so encouraging to the moms of the kids who happen to be in a particular school, or in a particular community to have other women, particularly older women of faith, walk with them in the midst of this. It also gives us that intergenerational opportunity to begin entering into real friendships. We have proximity with women who are younger than us, and gives us that opportunity to then walk with them during the stretch of discipleship that they happen to be in right now.
In all likelihood, it’s a stretch that you, as an older disciple, have already traversed. So what a privilege and what a blessing to circle back around and walk in this stretch with moms who might be experiencing many of those struggles that you experienced in the past, but they’re doing it for the first time with their kids.
Listener’s Guide: What’s Next?
Before you quickly move on to the next thing on our to-do list, let’s take a moment to pause, reflect on what we have heard and consider what God may be asking us to do in response.
Reflect
- When you think about engaging with our school system, where have you put prayer on your to-do list? Is it something you do early and often, or does it seem like an afterthought to other activities?
- If you are a parent or grandparent with school-aged children, how can you take your worries and concerns about the coming school year and commit them in prayer to the one who promises to never leave nor forsake us, or our children?
Pray
- Commit to pray for our schools— for the students, teachers and faculty. Pray specifically and with expectancy that God will move.
- Invite your small group, Sunday School or Bible Study group to pray with you for schools in your community, and for teachers, school administrators and students who are in your church.
- If you don’t have children or grandchildren currently in school, consider “adopting” your local school through joining a Moms in Prayer group or in your own prayer life.
Act
- Ask a family with students or a teacher from your local school how you might pray for them and follow up regularly throughout the year.
- Consider donating school supply items to help a child be prepared for success this year. Pray over the items you purchase and for the child/ren who will receive the items.
- Volunteer in your church’s student ministry— teach Sunday School or Bible study for students. As you become involved in their life, ask them how you can pray for them specifically.
- Look for more resources including prayer sheets or a Moms in Prayer group in your area, visit https://momsinprayer.org/
