National Day of Prayer - May 7th!

Hi Ann! Thanks for following this blog, especially in its infancy. I look forward to linking with other friends' blogs.

I'm going to interrupt my Prayer Booth story for this special announcement/reminder. I just found out this morning that Thursday May 7th is the National Day of Prayer. That's like 10 days from now. I'll have more information coming about that soon but I thought I'd better help get the word out for now as it snuck up on me.

If you live in or near Siloam Springs here is what I have found out so far. The following is copied and pasted from another source.

· Siloam Springs Noon Prayer: At noon across from City Hall in frontof the First Presbyterian Church on Broadway Street. For moreinformation, call Tricia Estes at 524-4823 or e-mail triciafaye@earthlink.net

· Siloam Springs Evening Prayer: From 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the JohnBrown University Cathedral, 2000 W. University. For more information,call Tricia Estes at 524-4823 or e-mail triciafaye@earthlink.net

I'm planning on trying to attend both of these. I've also since learned that I have other friends planning on this as well as the church at large I attend.

I'm going to throw this out for Ann:

· Lowell Morning Prayer: From 7 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. at the City Administration Building's Council Chambers, 216 N. Lincoln St. For more information, call Cheri Mead at 601-5121 or e-mail cherimead@cox.net

My point is, find the local events in your area and try to attend. Benton County has a bunch. If you can't find one, let me know. I will help.

One other plug I'd like to make is, please pray for the church of Siloam Springs. A community of less than 14,000 has 52 churches that call Siloam Springs home by address. You will soon learn how close this is to my heart, praying for the greater church of Siloam Springs. Here's a little tidbit I'd like to throw out just to give you a picture. Try googling "the church of siloam springs" or "greater church of siloam springs". Make sure you use the quotes so you search for the phrase. I'd be interested in hearing what you find.

And returning to the original topic, here's a great and helpful link.

http://www.nwanews.com/bcdr/News/72945/

And while we're on that topic, the Global Day of Prayer is May 31st this year. Here's a link more more info.

http://www.globaldayofprayer.com/

- Wade Baker

Free Prayer Booth - Birth of the Idea

It was the Free Prayer booth at this weekend's Dogwood Festival that prompted me to start this blog. Let me tell you a little about it. I will start as far back as I recall.

About a month ago a dear friend of mine, I'll go ahead and name him, Phil, gave me a generous handful of CD's to listen to. They are chock full of recorded sermons from Bethel Church in Redding, CA. I'm still not really sure which one it was but several weeks ago I was listening to one of the sermons and Bill Johnson told a story (testimony) of an older lady believer who entered a bar, sat down and ordered a Sprite and put up a sign that read, "Free Prayer". I believe a young man went with her and sat off a ways. Pretty soon people started responding and eventually the young man felt compelled to join in and help. One man was so moved by the ministry that he offered to buy the young man a drink. The young man replied that he didn't drink so the bar customer asked him what he was doing there. The young man said, "I came here to pray for you." You can imagine what impact this would have had. (I think there may be a similar story in one of Johnson's books.)

So last Sunday, about 8 days ago I'm down in the park with my wife, Gina Baker. We were walking along and I looked down. I saw spray painted lines and markings on the green grass. I asked Gina what it was for and she said, "the Dogwood Festival". I asked her when it was going to be and she said the following weekend.

In that instant I had a mental picture of me sitting at a booth at the Dogwood Festival with a sign on a table that had two words on it, the first over the second, "Free Prayer". It was a very vivid picture. I could see the size of the sign, the color of the letters, the color of the background, a white tent. I could see the white plastic tables and what was on them. I could even see roughly where it was and it's orientation. I could see that the tent had white sides and also see that I was sitting alone in that moment.

According to the Siloam Springs Chamber of Commerce's website, "The Dogwood Festival attracts an estimated 30,000 people each year to the city's two adjacent downtown parks." That's more than twice the city's population in an area that can't be much larger than a square mile, a few small city blocks.

More to come...

- Wade Baker

This 1st post is a test/introduction

Ok, so this is really a test. I'm entering the world of blog for the first time and just want to see what this is like.

Ok, I see what that looks like. I apologize in advance if my entries come across as tentative. I'm sure you'll understand, for now.

I'd better introduce myself, at least a little, for now. My name is Wade Baker and I live in Siloam Springs, AR. I chose the name Pool of Siloam, a reference from the bible, to set the tone for the things on my heart for the community I live in.

And I might as well get one thing straight. I'm going to type like I talk, okay? Please forgive, excuse typos, bad (poor) grammar and the commas, slashes and parenthesis. I'll try and run an occasional spell check when I remember. My point is, I'm trying to best convey my conversational style and not so worried about winning the spelling bee.

Ok, enough disclaimer/preface for now. Ah, that's so freeing. And yes, I'll jump around a bit; just following my brain.

So, let's get some other stuff out of the way. I've lived in Siloam Springs a little more than 10 years now. I've been married to my young bride for that same length of time. She imported me here from Orlando, FL. That story will come someday soon. I'm setting this blog up to primarily tell you about the incredible things happening in this community but my life is so intertwined with it that I don't think I should try to separate them. So is this about me or Siloam Springs? Yes. I'll try not to bore you with the "me" parts. Just know there is some related reason for sharing so You may have to figure it out if it's not obvious.

I won't have much time today to kick this off but I'll try and fill you in over the next few days. There are many stories to catch you up on. I will tell you the freshest thing on my mind is the Free Prayer booth we had at this weekend's Dogwood Festival. There were an estimated 30,000 people there this weekend. What an opportunity! I've had a bunch of people asking me about it so I figure I better start doing a better job of getting the word out. Let's just say for now, it was incredible! There will be much decompressing and many more realizations to come. In the menatime, ask me about the pregnant lady Tiffany I had the blessing to pray with. Then I'll know you read this post. :) Later! - Wade Baker