Project 614 puts God in the frame with new prayer wall
BY LERISSE SMITH
It all began with a treasure trove of thrifted frames tucked away in a huge storage trunk.
When The Salvation Army’s National Secretary for Spiritual Life, Auxiliary-Lieutenant Rosy Keane, started collecting a cache of beautiful second-hand frames in her homeland of New Zealand many years ago, little did she know the collection would eventually become the catalyst and focal point for the exciting new prayer initiative for Melbourne’s Project 614 – the ‘Prayer Exchange’ wall.
“God clearly drew my attention to the trunk,” she reflected.
“Major Sandra Nottle had wanted to create a special prayer room at Project 614 and wasn’t too sure how it was going to look. I embarked upon praying for the space and God gave me the words, the process and drew my mind to the huge trunk of thrifted frames I’d brought over from New Zealand.”
Rosy’s choice resulted in the new prayer initiative, which encompasses the large assortment of frames hung on a huge wall space at Project 614, with hand-painted clouds forming the backdrop.
The concept for the Prayer Exchange wall was simple: an inviting place where people could walk off the street, take a handwritten blessing/prayer from inside a frame, and then be invited to write a prayer in return if they so desired.
“It’s a non-threatening way to essentially start to talk to God or to hear from God,” Rosy said. “Project 614 Melbourne is doing prayer differently and in a way that inspires and encourages us all, too.”
The collection of the special frames began more than 15 years ago for Rosy and holds a significant meaning in her life. They have long formed a special part of her ministry and were hand-painted in the same colour.
The large ones were bought together at a Salvation Army Family Store (thrift store), where she worked to support herself while studying at university. The small ones were collected over many years later in New Zealand while Rosy was managing The Salvation Army’s youth services boutique family store.
The small frames were placed around the entire border of that family store. The other ones were used in prayer rooms and multiple events over the years. At one prayer event, she asked people to write down and describe a portrait of God and his characteristics, which were then placed inside the frames.
When Rosy moved to Australia with her husband, Scott, she organised for the treasured frames to be shipped over in a huge steamer trunk. She had no definite plans for them until she met with Sandra and her husband, Brendan, Corps Officers at Project 614, who discussed wanting to do something with the big blank wall at the premises and creating a special prayer room.
The corps officers spoke about the local businesspeople and people needing health services who regularly visited the centre in Bourke St requiring assistance. It was then that Rosy embarked on praying, and the vision for the Prayer Exchange became clear.
The prayer wall started to take shape a few months ago, with Rosy, Scott and the Nottles working tirelessly for the vision to become a reality.
A backdrop theme of hand-painted clouds was important. The aim was for people viewing the prayer wall to lift their eyes to the clouds and gain a sense of God being with them, especially as the idea of prayer for some people seemed so abstract.
With the wall of frames now complete, Rosy is appealing to all associated with The Salvation Army to get behind the project and support Project 614, from THQ work teams to Salvos Stores to church life groups. She said prayers of blessings could be directly sent to Project 614 so the frames could start to be filled.
Furthermore, a special online chapel will be held on Wednesday 14 August, where Rosy will invite people to write their own prayers of blessing in the chat to display on the Prayer Exchange, which she will then hand deliver to Project 614.
When reflecting on the importance of prayer and the concept of praying, Rosy thought of her own community, both Christian and non-Christian alike, commenting how she noticed prayer was really difficult for them. She also recalled some people being anxious and shy about praying during The Salvation Army’s 22 days of prayer in 2022 and not feeling comfortable saying prayers out loud.
“I really got a sense that there was a fear of being judged or fear of praying wrong,” she said. “That was concerning for me – and a big wake-up call.”
“I’m passionate about people breaking free of fear and stepping into what the Holy Spirit is calling for them to do.”
So, the following year, when Rosy and The Salvation Army team ran the prayer space, they tried to mitigate this by providing different ways to pray.
Different officers and Salvos ran the devotions with new approaches, including different tactile practices, using a devotional field guide (like seeing birds in the wild), and looking into a burning candle flame to create a new space for prayer. There was also the option to go into breakout rooms to pray together or to pray silently.
Gathering people together and going through spoken-word practices where they wrote prayers together in a supportive and encouraging environment was also an absolute joy for Rosy.
“It helps people pray,” she said. “What comes out of this coming together is a renewed sense of ‘I didn’t know what I was capable of’ and being honest to who they are and what God says to them. I’m passionate about people breaking free of fear and stepping into what the Holy Spirit is calling for them to do.”
Her passion for the Prayer Exchange has also come from her own spiritual walk and experiencing firsthand how the power of prayer and speaking the Scripture has impacted her life.
“I love poetry. I love scripture. I love the intersection of Psalmistry and inspiration of the Holy Spirit and prayer ministry’” she reflected. “But the most simple prayers are the ones that have changed my life. Simply praying Scripture over myself.”
And the power of prayer and speaking Scriptures over her life have been especially evident in recent times when Rosy was diagnosed in surgery with stage four Endometriosis – a condition she has suffered her entire life, causing extreme pain and suffering but which remained undiagnosed for so long due to the medical profession telling her it was normal.
It was only when she had surgery that her medical specialists informed her how bad her condition had been, resulting in much relief for Rosy, knowing she was not crazy.
“There is a grief process of why me, why this? But then there was me crying out to God, “Speak to me through this; tell me it has been a quarter of a century of really extreme pain ... what is going on?” she said.
“I said to God, ‘I need to know a little bit of where you were in all of this?’ And God just said really clearly it has taught you to hope. God did not cause me to suffer. But in the world that we live in, where disease and pain and medical gaslighting and everything else is a part of life, especially for women’s health, that actually God was able to make sense of something for me. That my enduring, my persevering, my pushing and pushing for 24 years to get a diagnosis and surgery, that it has taught me to hope.
“And so, the prayer in Lamentations 3 that I didn’t even really realise I was praying every single day over myself, especially when the pain was at its worst. I would speak it over myself ... this I have called to my mind that I have hope because of the Lord’s great love. I am not consumed as his mercies are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. Sometimes, I would say to myself I am not consumed, I am not consumed by the pain, even when I couldn’t think straight because of the pain. Looking back, Christ in me is my bastion of hope. There is nothing that I don’t believe God can do. Hope is the pillar of faith, hope and love. Hope is so strong in my life. I realised every single day I called out hope, that every single day it was a choice. Hope was revealed to me.”
Rosy added that she believed prayer did not exist in a vacuum of just ‘wishing.’
“It’s actually that guttural cry of our heart, and often scripture is the best prayer we have,” she said. “One of the beautiful aspects is testifying who God is and the power of prayer through sharing my story.”
Looking to the future, Rosy is excited about how the Prayer Exchange will positively impact people’s lives. She hopes The Salvation Army will embrace the new prayer initiative and its social services at Project 614 through prayer and practical support, such as the physical act of writing prayers for the Prayer Exchange. Her other great hope is for the vulnerable people and businesspeople who walk into the premises that might be at the end of their rope or never talk to God to be blessed.
“My hope is that in reading these words of blessing, they hear God, start listening to God, and once they read the prayer of blessing and see it written, that they know it’s not mass-produced, it’s not an advertisement. It’s thoughtful. It’s genuinely saying to them, ‘I see you; God sees you,” she said.
“And in return, maybe through this, you can see God.”
