Benalla Baptist Church praises God for the many wonderful blessings that He continues to pour out as they join together regularly and intentionally in prayer. “It’s not because of anything clever that we have been doing. We have consciously handed our fellowship over to God for Him to lead and guide us, so we are seeing His direct intervention in our lives and the lives of those we are encountering in the community,” says Pastor Graham Brodie
From this intentional focus on prayer, there have been many specific miraculous answers to prayers among their church community, such as the healthy birth of a baby boy after his mother suffered a hemorrhage and medical tests suggested her baby had passed away; someone receiving God’s special power to fight addiction; a rapid recovery [NK1.1]from a car incident; and the swift healing of a crushed vertebra. In addition, they have also had new opportunities for faith conversations with those attending the church’s winter refuge program and weekly “café church” – another clear answer to prayer.
One prayer Benalla congregation continues to pray is that the Lord would call more people to the fellowship, and He has done so, with the average number of regular attendees climbing from around 40 to around 65 over the past year. “We have not adopted any clever program to achieve this growth. Rather, we have simply depended on God to enable us to clearly proclaim the truth of His Word and to build genuine community within the body of Christ as it is manifest at Benalla Baptist Church..”
The church started meeting more regularly to pray, sparked by a message that a church member shared one Sunday. “Several of us felt that God was prompting us to be more faithful in prayer, so we instigated further prayer meetings, with the intent of petitioning our Heavenly Father for revival among us and in our area of the state. We also face serious challenges as well but through this, God has been with us and active among us, as our stories attest,”
The church now holds early-morning prayer meetings four days a week, plus prayer three days a week before its affiliated Olive Tree Opportunity Shop opens, and also before Sunday services. Prayer and fasting days are held monthly. A Thanksgiving Service was held on New Year’s Day to praise God for His spectacular interventions in people’s lives throughout the year.