COMMENT Amidst the controversies and national woes, rise in religious extremism and race politics that threaten the fabrics of the Malaysian society, the Christian community has found it ‘refreshing’ to do prayer walks around the country.

At the same time, a number of churches are holding prayer vigils during the coming weekend leading to Merdeka celebration. Others choose to go on bicycles as they cycle and pray for the major cities in the country.

In the past, churches were mainly inward-looking, but when crises struck the nation, they realised that they have an important role to play - to stand in the gap to pray for the nation.

In my 35 years as a Christian, personally I have never seen churches coming together to pray for the nation as much as in the past few years.

Instead of being confined to the four walls of the church, with the occasional prayer for the Agong, the prime minister, the cabinet and the people in power, now small groups are praying in every nook and corner and at some of the country’s national landmarks which have significant history.

They join in prayer walks and climb mountains where they can experience undistracted hours of prayer.

At the time of writing, a group was already on the way up climbing the peak of Bukit Sadok in Ulu Layar Betong, Sarawak, where they will be praying for the nation.

“With all that the nation is going through, the church is also awakened,” said a pastor, who preferred to remain anonymous. “We are seeing more Christians participating in prayer walks than at any other times. It shows that even the church is concerned about what is happening to the nation.”

My own experience

The prayer walks, which started some two years ago, have become a weekly programme written into church activities.

Senior pastors of some of the major churches in the Klang Valley were spotted with some of the small groups of people walking around Dataran Merdeka for their weekly prayer walk when I, too, decided to join a group on Saturday morning.

Even some expatriates decided to give up their sleep to join their church groups to go to the streets to pray for the country.

My group, comprising the older people, decided to do the prayer walk from Dataran Merdeka to the Central Market. Unashamedly, with eyes opened, we were praying along as we walked.

While some passers-by may have been staring and wondering why all the movement of the lips, this was ‘fun’ in that most of us had never had such an experience praying and walking at the same time.

It reminded me of Jesus walking with two of his disciples to Emmaus after his resurrection. He talked to them, they talked to him, but neither one knew it was Jesus with them until they reached Emmaus.

The prayer walk is also in line with the words of Jesus who said that his presence is not only confined to the local church building. Jesus said: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

For most part of the prayer walk, our focus was on asking God to heal the land and reign sovereign over the nation. It appears that in toughest times of the country’s history, Christians are upholding the first tenet of the Rukunegara, ‘Belief in God’.

However, at one point, we also prayed for the street people who were found sleeping along the roadside.

One of us decided that the next round the group goes for a prayer walk, instead of just ending the prayer walk with a nice sumptuous breakfast at Dataran Merdeka, we should bring along some food to share with the street people at least to give them a good meal for the day.

The church’s response

Referring to another scripture, the pastor explained more about the prayer walk: “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.”

This, to some, is the only best way to bring down what they call the ‘spiritual fortresses’ that have been set up in certain locations around the country. They are strongholds that have a grip on people’s lives.

“This is the work of the church to liberate lives that are held in bondage,” he said.

So, prayer walks are just ordinary Christians walking in fours or fives around the city; as they walk, they talk and pray at the same time based on what they see. They are not security threats to the country.

So, the next time you see someone ‘mumbling away’, give him or her a thumbs-up sign. He could be an IT professional, a university professor or just another simple old man who is concerned about the country’s future.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.