It was typical Saturday morning, sunny Southern California kinda day. Everyone seemed to be going somewhere. With urgency. With no time to wait. I stood silently anxious at the intersection of busy, residential streets. This was familiar territory. I loved this neighborhood. Lots of great memories were made here. I drove those streets daily in my car.
Only this day was different. What a unique perspective this would be.
I would be walking up to each door at each house. I couldn’t wait to talk to the people about voting. And to engage them in conversation about voting their values, and defending liberty and freedom.
My husband, Craig, was running in a special election in California for the U.S Congress. So naturally, I enlisted to walk neighborhood precincts. Every address in this nation, and the registered voters that live there are assigned to a specific precinct. All of this information is placed on a voter-list database.
Any campaign for an elected office has access to these voter lists. Campaigns divide the voter lists into neighborhood precincts. Volunteers place the precincts with the voter lists into packets. Anyone who works for a campaign and wants to help get the vote out will be given a precinct packet. I was armed with a clipboard, pen and precinct packets, and I resolved strategically to cover the area. Pretty simple list. What a powerful resource.
Prayer. It’s also pretty simple. It’s the powerful resource for strategically covering an area. It was a no-brainer to make prayer an integral part of our campaign. It started with early-morning prayer meetings, which grew into neighborhood prayer walks and eventually districtwide prayer drives.
But there had to be more than this.
We needed to utilize the tools that we already had, to target specific areas. We began by putting up the congressional district map in our campaign office, outlining on it where the precincts are. Daily, we updated the map and specifically marked the precincts that were walked and covered by volunteers. Then it dawned on me.
Why not have a prayer warrior who lives in that neighborhood — within that precinct — “adopt” the precinct? And in that adoption, they will be able to target specific streets, homes and names in prayer!
So, we launched Adopt A Precinct during our campaign. A series of videos explaining Adopt A Precinct were sent out to our database, and interested people quickly signed up. They received the precinct of their choice via email. In their hands, they now had exact names, streets and neighborhoods to pray for. They began to rally the troops. Some precincts enlisted their small groups. Others invited individuals. All precincts were activated for transformational prayer throughout the district.
Hundreds of precincts were adopted. Hundreds of prayer warriors were mobilized.
Thousands of households were specifically prayed for. Hundreds of thousands of individual names were covered in prayer. The effect on that election cycle was beyond special.
You are beyond special. Pretty unique. Loved. Your home and those who live with you are special. Are pretty unique. Are loved.
Your street. Your block. Your neighborhood. Is special. Is pretty unique. Is loved. What if someone seriously prayed for you. By name. For your home. Your street. Your block. Your neighborhood.
Maybe you stand silently anxious at the intersection of prayer and action. Because it’s unfamiliar territory. Maybe your life is anxious and busy, and certainly doesn’t feel residential. Maybe you resolve to make a difference. In your home. Your street. Your neighborhood. Your city. Your state. Your country.
But you don’t know where to enlist.
Imagine every campaign in this nation utilizing this targeted strategy, because every campaign seems to be going somewhere. Imagine every campaign mobilizing an army of saints to specifically pray. With urgency. Imagine every campaign activating the one and only true hope into each neighborhood. On every street. We have no time to wait.
Wherever you live, a campaign is happening, from local elections to presidential.
You get to be the voice to tell them about Adopt A Precinct, you get to drive them to victoryupdates.com so they can see the videos and learn, and you get to email me: shellynotw@gmail.com if you have questions.
• Ms. Shelly Huey is the author of Victory Update, a training program that promotes “adopting a precinct” in prayer to identify, connect, inform and activate Christian believers for civic engagement.
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