Shoaf Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. "Colossians 4:2

The confirmation class assignment at First United Methodist Church in Bourbon, Indiana, was to walk through town stopping at points of interest and praying for that particular establishment. We stopped at the library, the post office, the drug store, hardware store, bank and a couple of restaurants. Then we went to the tavern and stood in front of the door and prayed for the customers, for the staff and owners.

Back at the church, we sat in a circle on the floor and lit a candle. We talked about our experience and I ask the kids how they felt about what we did. One of the youth said, "It was really weird praying at the tavern."

As we talked about the different businesses and what they meant to our community, we heard a colossal boom and the electricity went off all over town. We walked around town to see if we could find out what happened and learned that the transformer at the tavern blew up. WOW! The kids said. That's awesome.

The electricity was off for most of the night, and at the Coffee Cup restaurant the next morning, it was rumored that the Methodist kids had prayed at the tavern door.

When one of the town leaders saw me, he said, "Bonnie, people have called to ask me to tell you Methodists to quit praying." I smiled. I don't know why it happened when it did, but somehow God was in that moment and the people of Bourbon knew it.

In World War II, there was an advisor to Churchill who organized a group of people who dropped what they were doing every night at a prescribed hour for one minute to collectively pray for the safety of England, its people and peace. This had an amazing effect as bombing stopped.

There is now a group of people organizing the same thing here in America.

They are asking us to pray each evening at 9 p.m. If you are so inclined, stop whatever you are doing and spend one minute praying for the safety of the Untied States, our troops, our citizens and for peace in the world.

Our prayers are the most powerful asset we have.

Bonnie Shoaf is pastor at Burlington United Methodist Church.