Back in the late 1990's, I was one of a group of leaders who led a group of kids from a suburban town in Connecticut into the depths of West Virginia. We are talking way into the coal mining hills where moonshine is still made and maybe 1/3 of all houses have running water.

So how was it that a group of well fed kids and well intentioned adults end up there? As the pastor of a Baptist church told me, ?You people have answered our prayers. We have been praying that our spirit could be lifted and you have done that. The lord has answered our prayers?.

I was part of a youth group who made yearly big trips to help people. Our leader was someone who had contacts with people in West Virginia and had heard from someone that a particular area needed a lot of help. Gary, West Virginia was that area. In a space of 2 square miles, I must have counted at least 8 churches. It was truly an incredible site to see so many people praying in one area. But what did their prayers really accomplish?

We tore down a dilapidated condemned house, rebuilt a community center, visited with the elderly in an old folks home, met with old time coal miners who had black lung disease, and built a playground at an elementary school that hadn't seen one in many many years.

So was this the result of a bunch of people praying, or was it just coincidence? To the many people who prayed for a better way of life and for help in a community sense, they got the answer to their prayers. To us, we were just helping some people out and having a fun time doing it. Kids were getting an education outside of the box, and as adults, we were receiving the joy of knowing the benefit that we were conveying. Divine intervention? Who knows. But what I do know, is that many people prayed for something and to them, their prayers were answered. To me, that validates the power of prayer.

I hope that playground is as much fun being played on, as it was being built.