Wonderful Mercy is an ARC church in Gilbert, AZ (the Phoenix area) led by Pastor Graeme Sellers, and for the sake of full disclosure Debi’s and my home congregation. We love being part of a church that seeks to embody the mission and core values of the ARC. The atmosphere Wonderful Mercy seeks to create and sustain certainly is a safe place for the dangerous kind.

The mission God has given us here is to “Raise up ordinary people to be extraordinary followers of Jesus by loving them, training them in the Word of God, and equipping them to do the ministry of Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit.” In order to carry out this mission we have identified a set of core values that guide and influence all that we do. One of our core values is being a House of Prayer. Our core value statement puts it this way: “We are committed to prayer saturating every part of the individual and corporate life in our church, consumed with passion for intimacy with Christ and a habitation for His glory.”

This core value has taken on physical form in the building of a prayer garden at Wonderful Mercy that is open to the public. The project was envisioned years ago, was bathed in prayer, withstood numerous obstacles, and now, has become a reality. Wonderful Mercy members, leaders from other churches, and civic and state leaders gathered for the dedication in October. I asked Graeme Sellers to share with us about the prayer garden and the dedication. He writes:

“We at Wonderful Mercy Church are rejoicing! After years of faithful, sacrificial giving by members of our faith community, we have completed construction of our Prayer Garden. This project includes the Prayer Garden itself, landscaping the remainder of our property, additional parking on the west wide, and creating a new west side entrance to our building.

Some may ask, ‘Why a Prayer Garden?’ In Isaiah, when God announces the new thing He is doing, He describes it this way: ‘I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.’ The Lord’s declaration is unmistakable: I’m taking what’s barren and making it fruitful. I’m bringing rivers of My life to dry, dusty places.

We believe the Prayer Garden aligns precisely with this expression of God’s heart. Specifically, we believe that what is at stake is the spiritual irrigation of Gilbert, and beyond. Through the prayer and worship that rises up like a fragrant offering from the Prayer Garden, God will release rivers of His life—into our community and into the world. Moreover, the Prayer Garden goes to the heart of our identity as a church. We know God has called us to be a house of prayer, a people who are experiencing God deeply and personally as we seek His heart, cry out to Him, and see transformation as we unite in fervent intercession. Once we know our identity we must walk in it; the Prayer Garden is one way that we will consistently and faithfully walk in the identity God has given us.”

You can catch a glimpse of the Prayer Garden in the accompanying photos. Pictured in one of the photos is Arizona Congressman Matt Salmon from the U.S. House of Representatives, District 5 who was one of the speakers for the Prayer Garden dedication, along with the mayor of Gilbert, and Cheryl and Hal Sacks, directors for Bridge Builders International.