As the first Thursday prayer meetings grew from 12 people in November of 1967 to hundreds over the following year [many came from Michigan, Ohio, and even Canada!], we “regular” attendees who lived in Ann Arbor felt the need to begin meeting on an additional day of the week to have a chance to focus on our own spiritual growth and worship of the Lord.  A few of us also met together outside of these prayer meetings to seek the Lord for what he wanted to do with us all.

I went into the Navy as my friends continued these gatherings.  One day on my ship, the Captain sent word that I had a “ship-to-shore” phone call.  It’s the only time I saw anyone receive such a call, and I thought as I went to answer it, “This must be something big”.  It was – people from the Ann Arbor prayer group were calling to let me know that God was calling them to bind themselves together to him in something called a “covenant” and could I pray that we would understand what it all means and respond to it.

My long distance call led to a long distance prayer, and the prayer group was able to accept God’s invitation 30 years ago and make that first Public Commitment to become a community.  After a few years, I completed my time in the Navy, returned to Ann Arbor and was able to publicly affirm my own commitment to that same way of life.  God deals with us, no matter where we are, as long as we love him and want to please him – and he is never a ‘long distance’ from us.