Minneapolis Prayer Center in Need of Help

MINNEAPOLIS - A woman who is trying to change a tough block in North Minneapolis, on life at a time, needs help.

For too long, it's been a boulevard of broken dreams. Drive down West Broadway and it's easy to see the empty store fronts.

Jariland Spence believes it's harder to see the empty hearts. There is a simple sign that says prayer center. Sister Spence delivers a simple message: ministering to a lost generation.

Walk-ins are always welcome. They come in alone, sometimes in groups of every faith to simply pray.

Men like Willis Lowe, who met sister Spence during one of her Sunday morning visits to the Hennepin County Jail; where she prays with inmates, go to the prayer center.

“She came and she moved me,” said Lowe. “She moved a lot of people and she helped us get our faith back."

But Spence says her greatest success so far is Arthur Fields. Fields has a rap sheet going back 24 years. He did hard time when he got caught with a kilo of cocaine. But even a vice-lord has a bottom.

"In March, he walked in here on his way to get beer and crack and it was our regular prayer day," said Spence.

Fields got baptized that night.

A couple years ago, Spence turned her sewing shop into the prayer center, and then opened a thrift store next door. She calls the block, “kingdom square.”

But Spence also has a problem. Because she doesn't own this building, doesn't have a long term lease, several of her donors have stopped giving. She admits, straight up, she is three months behind on her rent and expects to get evicted any day now.

There've been offers of financial support from government leaders but always with the catch, of separating church and state.

For now, she relies on small donations and the generosity of strangers.

Fields is now working in the thrift shop, trying to get others to leave the street life, including his own son.

Spence understands the skeptics, because there's really no name for what she does. She's neither a church, nor a social service agency. She is just a woman who has expectations, for people who no longer have any for themselves.

For more information

http://www.godsprayercenter.org/about/

821 1/2 Broadway
Minneapolis, MN 55411
612-522-3015