Testimonies are beginning to come in on how people are building meaningful relationships with their neighbors. One of the members of Calvary Community Church was able to remove a big problem on his street by building a fence for his handicapped neighbor who was having large groups of drunks lounging in his back yard after the neighborhood bar closed at one in the morning. Immediately the problems and vandalism stopped. All the neighbors were amazed that someone would do this for free, for a neighbor.

Another family takes soup to the homeless downtown on Sunday afternoons. Back in their neighborhood they would take soup to a different home on their block for supper that evening. The neighbors were amazed that people still do this in the city. This same family arranges a block party BBQ each year for the whole street. Neighbors that are connected are more likely to care for each other and make sure their street is safe.

Yet another family mentioned that they have been praying for their neighborhood for a number of years. Recently a drug house was discovered and shut down a block over from their home. We believe that as God’s people pray, criminal activity will be revealed and whole neighborhoods will be changed for the better.

Recently a family invited a whole house of Philippine workers down their street over for Thanksgiving Dinner that they have begun building bridges with. The six workers had a wonderful evening of food, games, music and sharing life stories. At the end of the evening they all shared hugs at the door and expressed how much they enjoyed being part of a family. The plan is to continue on-going gatherings with opportunities to share faith stories.

As people have taken the responsibility to pray for their neighbors seriously their eyes are opening and they are seeing them with Jesus eyes. When we truly love our neighbors and cover our cities in prayer our communities and our country will be transformed from the inside out.