Moms in Touch prayer group celebrates 25 years

Moms in Touch, a Christian organization formed specifically to pray for children and their schools, marked its first 25 years Saturday with a worldwide day of synchronized prayer.

Women gathered in groups to spend four hours praying, singing and celebrating their faith in the same structured program around the world, using a DVD format.
 

Normally, the groups meet for one hour a week to pray.

"I’m a walking example of what Moms in Touch can do,” said Pat Atkins, of Tuolumne. “Five years ago, my son was rebelling and wanted nothing to do with his family. I was desperate and heart broken. Today he has done a complete turn-around, and is even involved in the church ministry. I know it was God who turned him around, in answer to prayer. It had nothing to do with me.”

Cherie Beuse, of Arnold, said she became involved in the group about 15 years ago, when her daughter was starting high school. Today, Beuse is the Moms in Touch area coordinator for Calaveras, Alpine and Amador counties.

“It means so much, getting together and praying with other women for our children,” she said. “We can leave our fears with Him and know He’s working it out.”

She credits God’s answer to prayer with helping her daughter come out of an eating disorder.

“I think what makes it work is that we are focused,” said Ginny Milnik, Tuolumne County’s area coordinator. “We don’t gossip, and we don’t go wandering off topic. We praise God, have a time of silent confession, thank God for what he has done in our lives, pray for our own children and other children; and finally, pray for the school, staff, student body and administration.”

Colleen Henry, of Sonora, leads the Sonora Elementary and Sonora High groups.

“Prayer is the most invasive, aggressive, positive thing we can do for our kids,” she said. “This is the most important thing I do for my kids every week.”

Moms in Touch began in the fall of 1984 in Canada, when Fern Nichols’ two oldest children were entering junior high school and she was worried about whether they could resist immoral values, vulgar language, peer pressure and philosophies that would undermine their faith.

She prayed for her children and the school they attended and asked God to give her another mom who would be willing to pray with her for their children and the school. She started one group, and other groups began to spring up all over British Columbia, where they lived.

When her family moved to California in 1985, she prayed again, and that fall she began the first Moms in Touch International group for Poway High School in San Diego County.

In 1987, the first Moms in Touch booklet was published, and in January 1988, the group’s first retreat was held with 35 women. They prayed for national exposure, and that spring, Fern and 12 other women were invited to be on the Focus on the Family radio show, which got them more than 20,000 responses.