A QUIET, PICTURESQUE valley is becoming an international center for intercession, as prayer groups "travel the world" without needing a passport...
Church groups and individuals pray for different parts of the world as they stand looking over landscape typical of that region, along a two-mile route winding through Gideon's Fields, 20 acres of sloping countryside outside of Tauranga.
A map and cassette taped guide lead visitors round the unique facility, with brief commentaries on various parts of the world heard against background noises - including wildlife and traffic- typical of the area.
Further prayer points are provided at nine stations, where updated information gathered from a wide range of missionary organizations is filed in waterproof cases.
With young pine trees, bush, open land, hills, an island and a waterfall along the route, each station resembles one of the nine regions selected for prayer, which include the Pacific islands, Europe, Africa, Asia, North America, and Australia.
"We believe that many people will be called to go to the nations they pray for here," said Linda Cowie of Mercy Ships-New Zealand, which has established and administers the property on behalf of an independent Christian trust.
"We also want it to be a place where Christians can come away from the city and enjoy the beauty and peace, and have an opportunity simply to be refreshed by God."
Bordered by farmland and crossed by a small river, the recently-opened prayer garden - already being used by local groups, though it will not officially be dedicated until next year - marks the final chapter in a 20-year story.
The land was named Gideon's Field after a local Christian farmer who owned part of the property flew over the area in the mid-1970s, and felt that it should be set apart for God. Together with a neighboring farmer, also a Christian, he established a Christian youth camp site which was used for several years.
When that program ended in the late 1980s, the land was sold to Christians who believed they should retain the property until it was ready to be used for God again - and did so until one of them met Cowie at a prayer conference.
"We began to share our visions, and I told her that we were believing that God would provide a property that would work alongside our Mercy Ships ministry. She told me about Gideon's Field," said Cowie, who directs the work of Mercy Ships-Pacific with her husband, David.
"The fact that the river which borders the property empties into the harbor where our ship is docked when it is in its home port seemed to us to be a significant picture of the two being tied together."
Future plans for the prayer garden include building a "marae" - Maori for meeting place - where up to 250 people could gather for prayer seminars, and setting up a phone link for urgent prayer requests over the by telephone or through the Internet.
"We believe that the name given to the property so many years Ago is significant, and that it will be a place where a new Gideon's Army is raised up to go out and do great things for God."
Mercy Ships was founded in 1978 as the maritime division of Youth With A Mission. Mercy Ships-Pacific was established in 1990, since when the Tauranga-based ministry has sailed thousands of miles throughout the Pacific, combining free health and medical care wIth evangelism.
Last updated: 1996, July 21 /pf