Every Tuesday a group of women from a small suburban church meet to pray. Okay, the women also meet in their church parlor to talk, to catch up on the events of their community, to eat cakes and pastries that they take turns baking. But they spend most of their time together praying about the concerns passed on to them by others in their church, by townspeople, by relatives and friends. Because their faithfulness in prayer is well known in the area, they get prayer requests from far and wide.

            Over the last few years they have been praying for a baby. Not just any baby, although they will gladly add any baby to their prayer list, but for a baby long hoped for by friends who want to adopt a little girl born in China. The friends have been waiting for papers to be processed, for government officials to sign documents, for bureaucrats to act. Just recently, the couple received news that there is a baby for them, that papers have been signed, and that the time has come to go to China and bring the infant home. In fact, the time has come immediately and the parents must go, leaving behind them unfinished preparations for the baby’s homecoming.

            Don’t worry, the women of the prayer group say to the parents. While you are away picking up the baby, we will take care of everything back here. We will be an “Emergency Baby Committee,” painting the nursery, putting the bed together, stacking the diapers, getting the clothes ready. Prayers formed by words became prayers made of action.

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