Each day throughout the month of August, regardless of the weather, Brian Stephens could be spotted sitting in a red, rocking lounge chair in front of New Holland Baptist Church, most likely with his head bowed in prayer.
Stephens said he would set up his chair and tent facing toward Jesse Jewell Parkway around 6:30 each morning. Until 8:15 that night, he would spend time praying for the surrounding community and passengers inside the hundreds of cars that pass the church each day.
“I just would pray that people would look up, see this cross, see the sign that says pray and the little flags that say let’s pray,” said Stephens. “My hope was that the whisper of the Lord would speak to them and as they went through their day, they could continue their conversation with him.”
Stephens only left his post when necessary; he would leave if he needed to cut his grass, get his hair cut or spend Friday night on a date with his wife. During those rare moments, a member of the church family would fill in to ensure that the post was never left open, and no prayer went unsaid.
Some days Stephens spent alone out on the hot asphalt, but occasionally someone would stop with a special prayer request. Stephens would encourage them to write their “HIMpossibles”, problems only God could fix, on a piece of paper and then Stephens would staple them to a wooden cross he built in front of the church.
“People just pulled up and began to tell me their life story and where they were in their burdens,” said Stephens. “We would write them on the card and we started stapling them to the cross…my goal was that people would look up and have a conversation with God.”
Sometimes people did not need to leave their cars to have a talk with Stephens. If it was a time of day with heavy traffic, passengers could call to Stephens from their cars.
Others would simply honk their horns in encouragement.
“I began to know people by their honk, I told everybody we’re gonna rename the church Horn Honking Baptist Church,” Stephens said, chuckling. “I have a lady right here [across the street] who is blind and she will sit up on her front porch. And the first thing she said to me is, ‘Pastor, they’re honking about 250 times a day!’”
Eventually, Stephens also started selling hot dogs with a drink and chips at his spot to anyone who wanted to stop. He sold his “prayer dogs” for 50 cents each.
Stephens said the idea to sit outside each day and pray was pure inspiration from God. He explained that he was leading a study that encourages community members to draw a circle around their community and then pray for everything inside the circle.
Following an early morning of prayer at the church, God impressed upon Stephens a special way that he could pray for the community, specifically the old New Holland mill village.
“The thought came to me about putting up a cross and praying for the city,” said Stephens. “A couple days later, I get here and I start my prayer…and it was like, I didn’t hear an audible voice, nothing mystical or anything like that. But this huge impression came upon me, ‘So are you gonna do it or not?’”
Fortunately, the church congregation immediately supported the idea. However, Stephens did initially face some adversity from the weather.
Stephens sat outside during thunderstorms caused by hurricanes Fred and Ida, but it was a thunderstorm that popped up a week before Fred hit that really caught him off guard.
He said a thunderstorm with strong winds almost took away his tent and him with it.
“The drops started to hit and I got my Bible, put it in the truck, and when I came back out, the wind was coming. And I grabbed a hold of the tent and it was like one of those gliders, I was kind of flying through the air a little bit,” said Stephens. “I’m sure the angels were smiling and the demons were laughing at me, but that’s okay too.”
Whether rain or shine, Stephens never missed a day praying at the church from August 1 until August 31. He said he does not know yet if he will do it again.
“I did that under the Lord, so if he tells me to, I’ll do it willfully…we’ll see,” said Stephens.
