In touch with prayer.

Byline: Jeff Wright The Register-Guard

When it comes to surviving a new school year, students aren't the only ones tempted to say a little prayer.

Once a week every week, several hundred mothers gather in small groups across Lane County with a single-minded goal: to pray for their children's safety, classmates, schools, teachers and principals.

This fall, prayer groups are meeting on behalf of at least 35 schools in Eugene, Springfield, Junction City and Pleasant Hill. That's better than 20 percent of the 167 schools - public, private and alternative - in Lane County.

The groups are affiliated with Moms in Touch International, a 20-year-old Christian ministry based in California. The ministry's ultimate goal is to have prayer groups meeting on behalf of every school in the country.

Many moms "graduate" from an elementary school's prayer group to a middle school's to a high school's as their own children move up the education ladder.

Randi Nelson, for example, first got involved in a group when her two sons attended Washington Elementary School in Eugene. She moved to other groups praying on behalf of Monroe Middle and Sheldon High schools - and now leads a group whose members' children are enrolled in college.

The prayer groups typically draw anywhere from three to eight moms. They meet for an hour, usually at one of the mom's homes, and follow a prescribed format of praise, confession and thanksgiving. Most of the hour is spent in conversational prayer asking God to watch over a school's students and staff.

"It's not tea time, it's not cookies and coffee time, it's not chit-chat time. It's prayer time, and we're pretty strict about that," Nelson said. "It's moms who believe in prayer and wouldn't be there otherwise."

Some of the groups have been meeting locally since the 1980s, largely out of the public eye. But a recent spike in participation has spurred the moms to expand their outreach, with a pair of informational meetings slated for Tuesday. Nelson, who oversees the prayer groups in a six-county region, said the potential for growth is exciting for such a relatively unchurched part of the country as Oregon.

Historically, the moms have kept a mostly low profile, in deference to the "quiet work" of prayer and to not stir concerns about separation of church and state, Nelson said.

The ministry takes pains to pray for schools but not in schools, she said. Moms don't distribute fliers in schools or submit information to school newsletters, she said.

Strict confidentiality is also required within the groups. "We don't want our meetings to become gossip sessions," she said. "We're there to pray."

Prayer group moms have been known to take a plate of cookies into a school's teacher staff room - with a principal's advance blessing. And members aren't bashful about praying for students' and others' personal salvation - a religious commitment to Jesus Christ.

The moms represent a range of Christian denominations, mostly evangelical or nondenominational. Women come to the meetings with different traditions and styles of prayer, "and this gives us common ground," Nelson said.

For most, the efficacy of their prayers is beyond doubt.

Christine McCullough, currently leading a prayer group for Spencer Butte Middle School in south Eugene, recalls the time a teacher asked for another prayer group's help in resolving a long-simmering dispute between two boys who many feared were about to come to blows.

"The next week, the teacher came up to me and said, `Wow, those boys are acting like best friends. What happened?' ' recalled McCullough. "God steps in when we ask him."

Nelson cites the time her prayer group asked for protection for her son as he rode his bike to school. A few days later, Nelson said, she delayed her son on the front porch for a minute - just as a drunk driver careened through the neighborhood where he would otherwise have been riding.

"Our mouths just dropped," she said. "I remember saying, `Now I know why we prayed for you.' '

Beyond the potential benefits for others, Nelson and other moms say the prayer groups have also enriched and transformed their own lives.

"When you call on other people to say, `I need prayer,' and you know they are going to do it, that's a whole chunk of peace of mind you couldn't otherwise imagine," Nelson said.

Moms can and do pray for their children on their own, of course. But that's not as powerful as praying with other like-minded women each week, said Becky Gee, part of a prayer group for Camp Creek Elementary School in east Springfield.

"No matter how much I believe in prayer, I still need that (prayer group) time on my calendar, that accountability," said Gee, who refers to herself and her colleagues as "moms-in-touchers."

"The burden we carry for our own children is so much lighter when we share it with others," she said.

Jeanette Engel said her group last year prayed for every student by name at Roosevelt Middle School - more than 700 students in all. The experience, she said, helped expand her circle of compassion.

"I'd volunteer at school, see those other kids in person and think , `I have prayed for you,' ' she said. "It's just an honor and a privilege to pray for other people's children."

MOMS IN TOUCH INTERNATIONAL

Prayer groups place focus on local schools

Informational meetings: Tuesday, 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Eastside Faith Center, 89 Centennial Loop in Eugene, and 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Twin Rivers Baptist Church, 1660 Mohawk Blvd. in Springfield

More information: 344-7853, [e-mail] or www.momsintouch.org

SCHOOLS WITH MOM PRAYER GROUPS

Eugene: Bertha Holt Elementary, Corridor Alternative, Crest Drive Elementary, Edgewood Elementary/Evergreen Alternative, Eugene Christian School, Fox Hollow/ French Immersion, Meadowlark Elementary/Buena Vista Spanish Immersion, Jefferson Middle/Magnet Arts, Kennedy Middle, Roosevelt Middle, Spencer Butte Middle, Churchill High, Marist High, Sheldon High, South Eugene High

Springfield: Camp Creek Elementary, Centennial Elementary, Goshen Elementary, Guy Lee Elementary, Mohawk Elementary, Mount Vernon Elementary, Page Elementary, Briggs Middle, Thurston Middle, Springfield High, Thurston High

Other communities: Laurel Elementary and Oaklea Middle, Junction City; Pleasant Hill Elementary, Pleasant Hill Junior High, Pleasant Hill High

Also: Two prayer groups for college-age students; one for home-schooled students; one grandmothers' group

CAPTION(S):

Moms in Touch members Donna Tolbert (from left), Timmy Schoepke, Christine McCullough, Jeanette Engel and Randi Nelson join in prayer for children and the schools they attend. Different groups meet regularly to pray for children of all ages.