2012 Prayerwalk Testimony

Praying in front of Alhambra City Hall

Pastor Jimmy Tam of Sunrise Christian Church in Alhambra shared some of his reflections on our annual prayerwalk two Sundays ago as well as his journey to seeing the importance of prayer in seeing our community transformed.

The 2012 Alhambra City Prayer Walk was a day that I really looked forward to with great expectation and excitement. To me it was not just an event, but a crucial step in pursuing the vision of city transformation and spiritual revival. I am convinced that God’s requirement for sending us revival is for all His people in the city to come together for united prayer. For Alhambra, it happened on 2/19 Sunday at 1-3pm with over seventy brothers and sisters from different churches, ages, ethnic backgrounds, and languages. I was so honored and excited to be a part of this strategic spiritual alliance. 

As we gathered and started our prayer walk in the center of the city, I felt a sense of excitement, spiritual passion, faith and unity among us. As we moved from one station to another, the presence of the Holy Spirit was getting stronger as our brothers and sisters prayed more fervently. Another wonderful experience of this year’s prayer walk was that each individual would pair up with a fellow Christian from another church as prayer partners. I was very touched and encouraged by the compassion and love of my prayer partner Mike from Gateway Community Church for his earnest intercession for the people, the government, and the churches of Alhambra. I was convinced that our passionate prayers had not only touched God’s heart, but they were the actual expression of God’s compassion and vision for the city.  I also believe that the spiritual effect of this year’s Alhambra Prayer Walk would continue to bring transformations to both the spiritual and physical realms of our community.

My journey into the ministry of prayer and the starting of the Sunrise House of Prayer in Alhambra began about three years ago. As I met different individuals and families in our community, I began to see the needs and brokenness of the people. I saw bondages and brokenness that result from drug and gambling addictions, materialism, divorces and broken families, depressions and homelessness. Even though there are quite a number of churches in Alhambra, we have not been able to make a significant difference and impact in bringing healing, freedom and transformation in these people’s lives. Many of them are still waiting to be touched by the love and power of Jesus Christ. As I researched and learned from the examples of city transformation in different parts of the world in recent times, the number one common factor for transformation and revival to take place is PRAYER.  

Prayer, especially citywide united prayer, is the way God uses to manifest His love and power.  I began to realize that due to the lack of extended passionate prayers, the ministry works that I did produced very little long-term spiritual results. But as we started to pray more, we started to see amazing transformations in people’s lives. By God’s grace, we are seeing drug addicts set free after a miraculous encounter with Jesus through prayer, and couples on the brink of divorce and suicide due to the husband’s longtime addiction in gambling restored to hope, freedom and reconciliation within two months of desperate and united prayers. I am now very convinced that nothing else we do can be more important and more influential that prayer.  I pray that the Church in Alhambra will come together as one to pray more often and in greater numbers in the days to come. If this happens, city transformation and revival will come to Alhambra soon.