PHW Book Club Discussion: The Circle Maker, Chapter Six

Thank you for joining the Partners in Health and Wholeness Book Club. You can officially sign-up here. Through it, we hope to engage people of faith in discussions over why our health matters. Just look for the picture of the apple on the books and you will find past Book Club entries. Our current choice of reading is “The Circle Maker” by Mark Batterson.

While prayer is not a replacement for good health choices and appropriate medical care, as people of faith, we believe prayer plays an essential role in our lives. In addition, studies have shown it can improve medical outcomes and that it boosts physical and emotional health.

You can’t never always tell, is what Batterson drives home within this chapter. The famous cliché reiterates his point, anything could happen. As my family and I pray for my dad, who is in the ICU, it is amazing the many stories we hear of people being lead to pray for Dad and our family at odd hours of the night.

I’m encouraged by the boldness of all the prayers. In fact, I’ve started to awake early in the morning just to praise the Lord and pray for other concerns. It is a feeling that “I get to” participate in the miracles that so many of us yearn for.

Another example is the prayer text line that was started within the Central South-East Region of PHW. This prayer line is a platform for people to join together over specific prayers to pray for and through difficult health situations. The group of ten is working hard within communities to change the health profile which includes health education of church members, holding different church health events, and changing the foods eaten at congregational gatherings; but the group also recognizes that being in one accord and praying is just as important as the action piece. In fact, we are applying the “You can’t never always tell” slogan, and we are looking out for our community’s breakthrough to better health. It might happen through a church’s health fair or it might happen through a children’s nutrition program or it might happen through legislative change, no matter how it happens, we are believing and working toward it happening.