When Lisa Miller and her family moved into their new home in Bloomington, MN, some of the first people they met were the neighbors living behind them. Their yards backed up to each other. Lisa found herself quickly developing a friendship with Rae Lynn Sandvig. As they spent hours chatting at their shared “backgate,” they discovered they both believe in Jesus and the power of prayer. And those backgate chats eventually led to a deeper friendship, a partnership, and a new prayer ministry.
Years earlier, when Lisa graduated from college, she began working as a labor and delivery nurse at an inner-city hospital in Denver, CO. She often felt sad, knowing many of the newborns went home to difficult situations. She determined to pray for every baby as she walked that little one from the delivery room to the newborn nursery. She knew she couldn’t do anything about his or her future, but praying over each child was a gift she could offer.
When Lisa and her husband Bill had two children of their own, she put together a spiral bound set of pictures and scriptural prayers as a gift for Bill. Eventually she took the gift back and began praying through the prayers herself, wearing out the prayer cards over the years.
Lisa shared this personal life treasure with Rae Lynn, and the two began dreaming about how to re-create Lisa’s cards and encourage others to pray faithfully and consistently for their children.
Their backgate conversations soon led to the creation of their ministry called Backgate Prayers. Inviting a graphic designer to join their team, Lisa and Rae Lynn began creating prayer card sets of 20 prayers, each personalized with the names and photos of their customers.
Backgate Prayers launched a website, and Heidi Wilson became one of the first to order a set of prayer cards personalized for her own children. Their names, Charlie and Ariana, are written into the prayers.
Heidi had prayed for her kids many times before. “But I recently have been able to prioritize it in my life,” she says. “Having a newborn again definitely makes life crazy and hectic, but there is also a lot of time to think during feedings and naps. Usually, I found myself on my phone checking social media or emails. But these cards have been a great reminder to use the time to pray for my kids.”
The cards have brought breadth and depth to Heidi’s prayers, with biblically based prayers ranging from salvation to character to spiritual growth to “giftings.”
Heidi adds, “There’s nothing . . . more precious than to pray Scripture over your children.”
For more information on Backgate Prayers, go to backgateprayers.com.
