5. The Approach

This outreach is somewhat different from the typical “Need Prayer?” booth that I describe in the book, Street Level Prayer. In this application of prayer outreach, we don’t sit back and wait for the students to come to us. We reach out and engage them in a conversation. There is a fine line between engaging and being pushy. We use questions to get them to stop and interact with us. Here are some examples to start the conversation:

• Hi, do you need any prayer?

• Hi, can we pray for you today?

• How can we pray for you today?

• How’s it going? Can we pray for you today?

If they say, “No, I’m good.” You can reply by saying, “Ok. Let me bless you.” Ask their name, and quickly pray a blessing over them. It could be as simple as: “Father, bless (their name) as she/he walks home. Watch over and protect her/him. In Jesus name, amen.”

When they choose to stop and pray with you, here are some follow up questions:

• What do you need prayer for? Grades, grandparents, family?

• Anything specific going on in your life we can pray for?

• Anything at school that we can pray about?

Then listen attentively to their story and ask a question or two to get more insight to their prayer needs. The next step is to introduce yourself and ask their first name to make it personal. Now we can engage in a short prayer. This is where the action is and we want to get to the prayer and not just have a conversation.