Fern Nichols - Moms in Prayer: Standing in the Gap for Your Children

To my beloved husband,

Rle, my lifelong partner and friend.

Your prayers and loving support are treasured in my heart.

To my children, Ty, Troy, Travis, and Trisha.

Each of you has written page after page upon my heart

of Gods faithfulness and loving-kindness.

Im honored beyond words that Im your mom.

And Im abundantly blessed that God has given me

three beautiful, godly daughters-in-love, Patti, Bonnie, and Tara,

as well as a son-in-love, Chris, and eight grandchildren.

And to my mom, for teaching me to pray.

I pray this book will be a legacy of Gods power through prayer

to each succeeding generation of our family

and the family of God.

Let this be written for a future generation,
that a people not yet created may praise the LORD.
(Psalm 102:18)

O ne of the greatest miracles of God is His calling of single individuals to do gargantuan jobs for Him. God sees in these people what the Christian world may not yet recognize that persons potential leadership, perseverance, sacrifice, and spiritual power. The Billy Grahams and the Mother Teresas of the world are such people and so is Fern Nichols.

God saw multitudes of children in desperate need of prayer, and He saw Fern with her burning passion to pray for her own children as they faced peer pressure, classroom teaching contrary to their beliefs, and role models that challenged their lifestyle and faith in Jesus. Enlisting a few moms to pray with her, Ferns passion suddenly became a calling from God Himself that every child needs a praying mom. It was Gods call for Fern to inspire and organize other moms to pray for their children and God led this call to a ministry that exploded from the starting block. Now moms pray every week for their children in all 50 states and more than 140 countries!

My first memory of Fern is as a bubbly young mom with tireless passion for her fledgling organization seeking advice about corporate prayer. As we have become close personal and spiritual friends, Ive watched her unquenchable passion turn into a single-minded lifestyle with the goal of giving every child the praying mom he or she needs and deserves.

Are you reading this book because you too have a burning desire for God to protect your children from the evils vying for their minds and bodies through drugs, violence, and false teachings? Are you saying, Im too insignificant, unimportant for God to use my prayers? Never underestimate the power of one persons prayers including your own!

In this book Fern takes you personally on her journey of becoming a powerful pray-er. Her practical tools woven throughout the book show how you too can become a biblically accurate intercessor. Brimming with awesome true illustrations, this book will continuously propel you to trust what God will do when you have the courage to pray.

Fern will help you with answers to puzzling questions such as: How do I remain a confident pray-er even when God doesnt seem to be answering? How is Satan trying to hinder me from praying? How do I overcome the things that keep me from actually praying? Which Scriptures are, or are not, for everybody to pray? Does God send angels to answer my prayers? Is prayer necessary in Christian schools? How can I enlist teachers as pray-ers? And how can I cover in prayer the kids in my childrens school who do not have a praying mom?

Ferns four steps explain in depth what to do in your prayer time, including why your most important prayer is for others salvation: praise because of Gods attributes, confession so you will have prayer power, thanksgiving in not for all things, and intercession.

This is one of the most uplifting books Ive ever read. Page by page it pulled me ever closer to Jesus who loved all the children and admonished His disciples to permit the little children to come to Him.

As I carefully read this manuscript, my whole being was engulfed with an unusual spiritual warmth and hope in the biblical assurance that God is still on His throne and will rescue our children if we pray.

This book should not be lightly scanned but prayerfully studied with the same burning passion that God gave Fern. Laboring, weeping, persevering, believing. Study this book until you have applied its teachings until you are transformed as a pray-er until God is also producing miracles as you pray until God answers each of your prayers in His way, in His time, and for His reasons but always for the good of your child. Thats what a praying mom is.

G rowing up, all I wanted was to be a mom. I remember praying as a young girl that marriage and motherhood would be part of Gods plan for me. And I was delighted when He answered my prayer. But then imagine my amazement when God asked me to help birth a worldwide ministry with moms praying every week for their children and schools in 50 states and more than 140 countries.

Moms in Prayer International (formerly Moms in Touch International) began with a small prayer in my kitchen, when I faced a crisis. The year was 1984, the place was British Columbia, Canada. My husband, Rle (pronounced Ar-lee), and I had four children. The first three were boys, and since Rle coached the Athletes in Action basketball team for Campus Crusade for Christ, we kidded each other that we could end up giving birth to our own five-man team. But God in His perfect plan gave us one more child, and this time it was a girl.

What Can I Do?!

The day of my crisis was in September, at the beginning of the school year. I had just hugged and kissed my two eldest sons as I sent them off to the public junior high school not too far from our home. As I walked back to the kitchen, fearful thoughts formed when I considered what they would be facing. I knew the school would be a battlefield for their hearts and minds. The temptations loomed in my imagination: immorality, drugs, alcohol, pornography, vulgar language, and philosophies that would undermine their faith.

Oh, Lord, I prayed aloud, please protect them, enable them to see clearly the difference between right and wrong, and help them to make godly decisions.

But even after calling out to the Lord, the burden for my sons remained. The urgency to protect them from evil was intense. I cried and begged the Lord that none of my children would live a moment in Satans kingdom, that Satan would not gleefully get one speck of their lives, and that he would have no satisfaction over any of them believing his lies. With passion comes a vision, a dream, an idea. I knew united prayer was the answer.

Dear Father, I prayed, there must be one other mom who would take time out of her busy schedule to pray with me.

One simple prayer and one desperate heart equaled one answer from God. He laid on my heart another mom, Linda. I immediately called her and shared my fears and concerns for our children and the school. Linda, I said, I feel as though Im sending them into darkness every day. We need to protect their hearts through prayer. Would you pray with me for one hour starting next week?

Her response was a quick yes. Then we thought of other moms who would also want to pray, and the following week we had five women in my home.