Moms Pray For Teachers, Students

FARMINGTON — Michelle Naylor does not consider herself a leader but 14 years ago, she felt God calling her to step out in praying for the Farmington schools, students and teachers.

Naylor and a handful of moms have been doing just that on a weekly basis for the past 14 years. She started when her oldest son, Jacob, was in kindergarten. Jacob is now a freshman at the University of Arkansas but Naylor has two other sons still attending Farmington schools.

At the time, Naylor said a mom in Fayetteville shared about a ministry of young moms praying for their children.

“I felt God was saying you need to step out,” Naylor said. “I felt like I needed to step out and do that.”

Moms in Touch was started in 1984 in British Columbia by Fern Nichols, whose sons were entering junior high. Nichols was concerned about the pressures her boys would be facing as they got older. She asked God to give her another mom who would pray with her for their children. This was the beginning of Moms in Touch International. Today, the mission is the same for the organization — “to impact children and schools worldwide for Christ by gathering mothers to pray” — but the name is changed to Moms in Prayer International. The group’s vision is to have every school in the world covered with prayer. Moms in Prayer is in every state in the United States and is represented in more than 140 countries.

Naylor said being involved in a Moms group has taught her how to pray and shown her how strong other moms are.

“It’s meant everything to me as a mom,” Naylor said. “We’ve had real struggles that needed to be prayed for and I’ve realized as my kids have gotten older that I need to pray even more for them.”

All prayers are kept confidential and each week, the moms pray for their own children and other requests. To make it more personal, they choose a few teachers each week and pray specifically for those teachers.

The prayers are conversational and usually spoken out loud, though no one is required to pray out loud.

Naylor said a group of four to five moms is consistently coming now and over the years, about 20 moms have been involved. Any moms interested in coming to pray are welcome, she added.

The group meets at 8:30 a. m. Tuesday mornings at First Baptist Church in Farmington on Rheas Mill Road but it is not a “Baptist thing or a Methodist thing but a Christian thing,” said Karen Lipford, who has been involved about 13 years. She is the only one right now who attends FBC Farmington. The others go to churches in Fayetteville and Prairie Grove.

Lipford first started when her oldest, now a senior at Farmington, was in kindergarten. To her, the most important part is a group of mothers praying together.

“Most Christian moms pray for their kids,” Lipford said. “It’s a book answer but this is one-accord praying. As far as I know, we’ll be together until we have grandkids.”

Naylor said the moms have seen many prayers answered over the years and seen their own children grow spiritually. At times, they’ve encouraged teachers through treats or other ways but the main focus of the group is prayer.

Farmington does not have a Moms group for working mothers at this time but Naylor said she would help start one if some mothers are interested in it.