03/10/2026
I used to think prayer walking was reserved for the spiritually elite.
You know, the type. People who quote Scripture to grocery store clerks. People who end common statements with “if it’s God’s will.” People who own a well-worn, highlighted, and color-coded Bible. People not like me.
But then my daughter was diagnosed with a lung disease, and we moved across the state to a rural mountain community. In this community, activities and invites proved sparse, and the only person outside of my family whom I spoke to regularly was the guy who delivered oxygen to our daughter.
No moms group. No toddler music classes. No book clubs. No gym. No friends.
Life was painfully quiet, so I decided to pass time by walking. Twice a day, I put our daughter in a stroller and walked our neighborhood. There were very few people at home during the day, so I didn’t meet many neighbors on these walks, but by walking and observing, I began to piece together details about my neighbors’ lives and get to know them from a distance.
Simple surface level clues that I once sped by, I now noticed. A heap of boxes which once contained baby gear at the end of a driveway, a welcome banner attached to a front porch, an accessibility ramp built on the side entrance of a house, toys and bikes strewn across a front yard. These objects whispered details about the people who lived close to me.
As I walked my neighborhood, I started to wonder and as I wondered, I started to pray. I prayed for people I didn’t know and may never know, but people who were my neighbors, and by praying in this way, the Holy Spirit began to grow and guide my heart for that small rural community and the people who lived there. I didn’t know it then, but in those painfully quiet moments, God eliminated distractions and showed me the importance of prayer walking.
Fast-forward twenty years and if you approach me about starting an apartment ministry, the first thing I ask you to do is prayer walk. Prayer walking is not an add-on. It’s an imperative initial step.
There is a site where an apartment community is being developed in Denver. Over the past year and a half, I’ve walked this site in prayer alongside others. We pray for future residents, for the community as a whole, and for timelines and deadlines related to construction.
Currently, the site where the apartments will be built is just a lot, and to some, it may seem silly to prayer walk an empty lot. However, similar to what happened to me while prayer walking my neighborhood years ago, God has grown my heart for the community where this apartment building will be built. Not only is the Holy Spirit aligning me with God and showing me how He is already at work in this place, but I am getting to know the people who live in this part of town.
After a recent prayer walk, I went to a restaurant in the neighborhood. As I walked in, I saw three leaders I knew, planning and dreaming about ways to improve the lives of people in Denver.
Then by the counter, I saw a man I met once at a church which gathers right next to the site we prayer walk. This man lives in the neighborhood, and his way of engaging doesn’t follow social expectations. His response to all conversation comes out in shouts, unfiltered, and immediate; it’s as if volume is the bridge he uses to communicate with the world, and even though communicating is difficult for him, the man proceeded to introduce me to those who surrounded us.
“Josh!” he shouted pointing to a cook.
“Amy!” he shouted again pointing to me.
As the man’s introductions of me to restaurant patrons and workers continued, I realized the man knew this community in intimate ways I did not. He knew names. He knew rhythms. He belonged. And standing there, I wasn’t the one offering connection, I was being invited into it.
And in that small moment over shouted greetings and shared names, I understood something I hadn’t years earlier during my neighborhood walks.
Prayer walking is about allowing God to tune your heart to the frequency of a place and its people. Long before I started prayer walking the site where these apartments would be built, God was already at work, connecting, inviting, and building community.
Prayer walking simply placed me in the posture to notice and to join Him.
—Amy Sullivan
Executive Director, Mission 98: Multi-Housing Ministry Network
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If you’d like to read more stories and see the impact happening in apartment communities across the country, take a look at the Annual Impact Report from Community Growth Foundation:https://communitygrowthfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Community-Growth-Foundation-Annual-Report-2025.pdf
