Drop a request in community prayer boxes in Ligonier, New Stanton

Pandemic or no pandemic, life can be tough.

“There are always distraught people out there with no one to help them,” said Ron Ingelido, lead pastor of New Stanton Assembly of God. “The community has to know that we’re there in their time of need.”

The church has established a new outreach by placing a prayer box at its Family Life Campus at 1132 Thermo Village Road. A large sign announces it.

People can stop by, fill out a card describing their prayer need and drop it in the box, knowing that church members will attend to it, Ingelido said. There’s a line on the card for a first name, but no other personal information is requested.

Cards with the church’s service times also are available.

The idea actually came from a prayer box at Heritage United Methodist Church on the Ligonier Diamond.

Jamie Seech of Ligonier shared information about that box with her parents, Dale and Sue Wiseman of Hempfield, who are members of the New Stanton congregation.

“Our daughter saw their box on Facebook, and we took the idea to the pastor,” Dale Wiseman said. “We worked off of their design.”

“We’re copycats,” Sue Wiseman said.

The box went up outside the Ligonier church in October, following renovation of its community building. It faces Cherry Alley, just south of the Diamond on South Market Street.

“When we renovated our education department, one thing I said I wanted to have was a prayer room,” Pastor Frank Hodges said. “I asked that our members pledge 30 minutes a week to prayer.

“There are two baskets in the room for prayer requests,” he said. “One says ‘to be prayed for’ and the other says ‘prayed for.’ ”

The box was a way for the church to minister to community members who did not have a faith community, Hodges said.

“We usually get about two or three (requests) a week,” he said. “Some are pretty alarming. Some are for sickness in the family or something like that, but some are from people who are pretty desperate and are just looking for someone to pray for them.

“We pray almost on a daily basis.”

The New Stanton church has a phone prayer team and a group that meets Thursday mornings to pray for the needs of the congregation, Sue Wiseman said.

The Wisemans are members of a small home group that also prays.

“The prayer requests will be included in all of our prayer times,” she said.

“As a church, we’re always looking for ways to help out in the community,” Dale Wiseman said. “Lots of people don’t attend church, so this gives us an opportunity to pray for them.”

The box has a sturdy design, Dale Wiseman added.

“It’s very high quality. It will stand for a very long time,” Hodges said. “We felt, if it was worth doing, it was worth doing right.”