Roger Marsh: Well, welcome back to Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk. I'm Roger Marsh, and Family Talk is the broadcast division of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute. We're so glad you've joined us today as we continue our Back-to-School week programming here on Family Talk. Now, yesterday we shared the first half of Dr. Dobson's classic interview with Fern Nichols and Sally Burke. Fern is the founder of Moms in Prayer International, and Sally has served as president of the ministry since 2015. In fact, when this interview was recorded, Fern had just stepped down as president, and Sally was taking up the mantle. If you missed part one of their conversation, by the way, remember, you can listen to it when you visit drjamesdobson.org/family talk.
Today, Sally Burke will share more of how Moms in Prayer ministry groups work and some of the incredible stories of how God has answered the prayers of faithful moms. Now, before Sally became president of Moms in Prayer, she served as a group leader, then area coordinator for her hometown of Temecula, California. She was later the regional coordinator for Riverside County, California. Then in 2008, she became the director of field ministry at Moms in Prayer headquarters. Her work with Moms in Prayer became a priority soon after she found the Lord as an adult. But Sally actually began her career as a space-shuttle engineer with a master of science degree in management. She and her husband, Ed, have four grown children and four grandchildren.
Fern Nichols is an author, former elementary school teacher, and the founder of Moms in Prayer International. Fern and her husband, Rle, have four grown children and 10 grandchildren. Now, when today's recording took place, 25 moms from Moms in Prayer groups all over the country also joined Dr. Dobson, Fern Nichols, and Sally Burke in the studio. So we'll get to hear from a few of those women today as well. Now, let's join Dr. Dobson as he asks Sally Burke about the steps of prayer that Moms in Prayer uses as they come before God to intercede for students and schools all around the world.
Dr. James Dobson: Okay, Sally, welcome.
Sally Burke: Thank you.
Dr. James Dobson: The question that begs to be asked is what are those four steps?
Sally Burke: Oh my goodness. Well, we begin with praise.
Dr. James Dobson: Is that the right question?
Sally Burke: Yes, that is the right question because these four steps are powerful. We begin with praise. We take our eyes off of our situation, off of ourself, onto the mighty God. And God enters the praises of His people. And pretty soon you watch these women with all this fear and all this worry, and all courage is is fear bathed in prayer. So pretty soon, they're saying who their God is. There's nothing too hard, nothing impossible for Him, and it's His word. It's who He is. So, they begin to just praise Him left and right, and so they begin to be transformed. They think they're going in for their child, but God is doing a work within them. They never leave the same.
Dr. James Dobson: Okay. That's one.
Sally Burke: It's amazing. Then there's silent confession. And I like that it's silent because I'm not going to tell everybody my sins. It's between me and God. So I want to make sure my heart is just cleansed, and I want you to think about that as a hose. You can turn on the major source of it, but if there's a kink, the fullness can't come out. And the Holy Spirit wants to pray through us. We know not how we ought to pray. And I want to make sure everything within me is emptied out, so Christ can fill me to overflowing. So, we silently confess our sins, and He tells us if you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive you of all your sins and cleanse you of all unrighteousness. So, we're ready to thank Him. We're ready to come in. We're entering His gates with praise and thanksgiving.
And thanksgiving is an amazing time. To me, it's a Holy Spirit party, because my sister over here will thank God for answering her prayer. Well, I got to pray with her last week. I'm so excited. Or this one over here shares an answer to prayer, and I'm thinking, "Well, if God answered that prayer, He's going to answer this prayer." And we just celebrate for one another. We fall in love with each other's kids. We're for each other's kids. It's an amazing, amazing sisterhood. Some of the women I've been praying with, I've been praying with for over 20 years together. Every week, we meet. Every week, we pray for one another.
Dr. James Dobson: Do you sometimes pray for spouses?
Sally Burke: No, no. Our focus is clear: the children and the schools.
Dr. James Dobson: Yeah.
Sally Burke: It's very, very clear. And then there's the intercession. And how do you know God's going to answer your prayer? If you pray according to His will, and His will's the mighty word of God, and it never comes back void. It always fulfills His purpose and His plan. So every time we put our child's name in scripture, another mommy agrees, we know somehow, some way God's going to answer that prayer. And it's so far greater than anything we could imagine. Our imaginations are so small compared to God's greatness and what He wants to do in our children's lives.
Dr. James Dobson: Is that the fourth?
Sally Burke: That's the fourth. But in the fourth, we get to pray not only for our children and then my sister's child, who we pray. We break off. But we get to pray for the teachers. And I've gotten to see, in this one elementary school, 12 or 13 teachers receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
Dr. James Dobson: Really?
Sally Burke: In a public school campus. It was so amazing. One of the teachers we were praying for, one of the moms came in, and she was like, "Oh, this teacher!" And I said, "Ah, we get to pray for her. We get to pray, 'May her eyes be opened. May she turn from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to the power of God, so she could be forgiven of her sins and have a place among those who are sanctified by faith.'" So every week, we would pray for her. We would love on her. She came to know the Lord Jesus Christ. And my two youngest got to be in her kindergarten class, so I got to place their hands into her hands. And she was a brand-new believer, and we got to talk about prayer. We got to talk about the Lord. It's just been amazing to watch and see.
Dr. James Dobson: Oh, my goodness.
Sally Burke: Yeah.
Dr. James Dobson: Fern, it's obvious why you made the selection that you did.
Fern Nichols: Hey, you've got to get those shuttle women. No, it was God's choice. That's what was so sweet to me, that God would be that good to me. When I would pass that baton, I said, "Oh Lord, that it would be like Elijah and Elisha, that there would be a double portion of blessing on the next one, that doors would be opened like never before because of the one that you've called." And the board saw this as well, and the board made the decision. And then I shared with them that was my choice.
Dr. James Dobson: Do you have any idea how many children are being prayed for?
Fern Nichols: I don't know that, but I asked Siri. You know who Siri is?
Dr. James Dobson: I can imagine Siri trying to answer that.
Fern Nichols: Well, I asked Siri how many students were in the United States.
Dr. James Dobson: We better explain who Siri is.
Fern Nichols: Okay. Well, Siri is this wonderful, little lady that's on my iPhone. And I just click her on and say, "Siri, how many students are there in the United States of America?" And she said 49.7 million. That's a lot of kids that need to be prayed for, a lot of lives that need to be changed, a lot of lost that needs to be found. And I think it was 1.3 million teachers that need to be prayed for, as Sally was just sharing with us.
Dr. Dobson, we are exploding all over the world, and we are struggling here in the United States. I don't know if it's moms are so busy or what. Our prayer is that this program with you, with Family Talk, will be the next launch of the 20,000 responses we will get from the women, the moms, the grandmas of this generation to say, "Yes, I will gather together and pray," because there's a lot of praying that needs to go on.
Dr. James Dobson: Well, my heart aches for what's happening to kids.
Fern Nichols: Yeah, I know.
Dr. James Dobson: When I was young, when I was a little boy, the whole neighborhood looked out for the welfare of children. If I did anything wrong, my daddy would know about it very quickly. And now it seems like there's a tug of war for the hearts and minds of kids, and a lot of it's going on in school.
Sally Burke: Prayer can transform a school. Not only does it transform the mommies who are praying and their children. It transforms that classroom. It transforms the whole school. My youngest daughter, in her high school, we began to pray that our children would be revived, that they would love Jesus so much that they would impact their campus.
Well, my daughter and her few friends and their moms, who happened to be Moms in Prayer moms, came together and they did a Bible study. They started inviting 25 of their fellow students, and they got so revived that they started praying on Friday morning. And they had a week away on this mountain, and the gospel was shared there. 91 children received Jesus. My daughter says they were falling on their faces. They were weeping, and this is a high school, crying. And so the power of prayer. We're touching Heaven on behalf here. We're unleashing God's power to transform lives. So that's why we're calling mommies to pray. That's why our heart's desire is two or more moms for every school, so every child can be prayed for. We know. We've seen it, how a school can be transformed, and so that's why we're calling out. That's why we appreciate you.
Dr. James Dobson: God is spirit, and the Holy Spirit is spirit. So, it's hard to visualize what He looks like. There's never been a depiction of Him. But I can imagine the face of Jesus showing His joy at you guys coming forth. I can see Him smiling when you pray. Do you also sometimes feel like you've put a smile on His face?
Sally Burke: Oh, that is very nice. I pray we do. It brings us so much joy, so I can just imagine that He's joy filled. So it does. When we leave there... A lot of the moms come with very heavy burdens, and sometimes I think God allows them to be so heavy burdened so they'll take it to Him. They leave. They're so filled with joy, so filled with expectations and a hope, a hope in God. Not a hope in the circumstances, not a hope in themselves, not a hope in their children, but a hope in God that He will answer their prayer.
Dr. James Dobson: Well, we have a microphone here. There's no way that we can put a microphone in front of all these ladies, but let's pass this around. Daniel, one of our producers, would you find the ladies that like to talk, and whoever would like to share your experience in this regard. And tell us why you're involved in it, and let our listeners know what's on your heart.
Speaker 5: Hi, my name's Kathy Kramer, and I know this story will please Dr. Dobson's heart because we adopted two boys from foster care. We got them at three and four, and they come with a lot of baggage, one with a lot of mental health/abuse issues, the other one out of a drug-addicted kind of situation. And I tell you, when you adopt kids that are the throwaway kids that nobody else wants, the first thing you do is you find people around you to start praying for you and for those kids because you start kind of three steps back of where regular parents start.
But we moved from California to Colorado nine years ago, and I had never heard of Moms in Prayer. I said, "Where did that ministry come from?" "California." "Oh, like me? I've never heard of it." I heard about it at a church, and it was an introduction to the community, like everything from where the grocery store is to this to, by the way, we also have this ministry called Moms in Prayer.
So, I started praying seven years ago and started leading a group. Became an area coordinator, and now I'm going to help with what's called "Sweet Peas," which are our moms praying alone, because some moms put in a request to the national online, and they may want to join a group, but there's not one near them. So we put a P after their name, and now we're calling them Sweet Peas. So I have a whole bunch of flower seeds at my house, and I'm going to be spreading sweet-pea flower seeds all over the state, and we are going to mentor those moms and bring them in fellowship with other moms and just grow this ministry.
Dr. James Dobson: Bless you. Come on, that requires a response. Okay.
Speaker 6: I just wanted to say, I live out in Kiowa, Colorado, and it's a very small town. So I just want to say to moms out there, you don't need a big group of moms. There's myself and one other mom that prays for our schools, and we see the Lord do amazing things. I have more moms in my adult group, but you only need one other mom. So don't think that you need to get your whole neighborhood. Just find that one other person.
Dr. James Dobson: Fern, this must absolutely thrill your heart to hear these stories. You've heard them for all these years now, but-
Fern Nichols: Each one is so touched by God and so beautiful. And so thank you, Jesus. And I want every Christian mom to be a part of this ministry.
Dr. James Dobson: And if they're not a Christian mom, there's an answer to that too.
Fern Nichols: There's an answer to that. We pray that they become one. Yeah.
Dr. James Dobson: Okay.
Speaker 7: My name is Carol Birch, and I think it's the best thing that I've ever done for my kids, is pray for them. And they're grown. So I've been in the ministry since 1996. And when moms come to me and say, "I don't have time to pray for my kids," I say, "You don't have time not to pray for your kids, because in this generation coming up, it's tough." And so I've loved the ministry.
Speaker 8: My name is Mary Inger, and I just want to share that there was a mom in my Moms in Prayer group whose son died. And when she came back to our group, she says it's the character of God that helped her walk through her grief, and praying a different character trait of God every week is what gave her strength. And the first time that she came back to our group, the character of God that was on our sheet was that He is our protector. And this young man was killed in a bicycle accident, and she prayed in her heart, and she said, "Lord, you didn't protect my son. How can I be in this prayer group? You didn't protect my son." And the Holy Spirit came to her in that moment and said, "You do not know what I protected him from." So the presence of the power of the Holy Spirit speaking to that mom is what brought her through her grief and the comfort of the Holy Spirit and every week being reminded who is God, even in the midst of very difficult situations.
Dr. James Dobson: Oh, I'm so glad you shared that with us. Who else?
Speaker 9: My son died at Columbine High School in 1999, and I was a part of Moms in Touch at that time, and it got me through. It got me through the pain and the suffering, and God just brought so much good out of John's death. And as Fern Nichols knows, I just hung onto all those characteristics of God that we prayed for week after week after week. And I clung onto those characteristics of God, and I'm thankful to Fern for... She stood by me with it. I had Moms in Touch people praying all across the United States, and just God gave us the strength, and God did amazing things. His best friend accepted Christ. The girl under the table that he was with at Columbine became a Christian. And I really have lots of stories that I could share about that, but God is good.
Dr. James Dobson: It ought to be obvious to everyone why I believe in this ministry and have for all these years. Thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 10: I have told many moms that Moms in Prayer was always the favorite hour of my week. And as I look back, it's been a golden thread in the tapestry of my life. I thought I was done with Moms in Prayer after our children graduated from high school and moved on to college. I didn't realize that now there are college-aged college groups and military groups and prodigal groups, grandmother groups. And the ministry has grown and changed.
So, years later, my children are now in their 20s, God called me back as an area coordinator, and I wasn't even expecting that. And the words Moms in Prayer came back into my mind, and I was a little stunned. I said, "I thought I was done with that ministry. That's for when my children were in school." And I've learned otherwise. There's never a time to stop, and there's so many prayers. And now I too have grand-babies, and we've got to get a grandmas' group going. But I'm just so grateful.
Dr. James Dobson: So, you do have grandmothers groups?
Speaker 10: Grandmother groups, yes.
Dr. James Dobson: Do you have prodigal groups?
Speaker 10: Yes.
Dr. James Dobson: That's-
Fern Nichols: And military.
Dr. James Dobson: Yeah, military.
Fern Nichols: Special needs.
Speaker 10: There's a wonderful list... On the website, you can find out so much information, and there's a list of all the types of groups. It looked to me like there are about 15 different types of groups. So moms of all sorts, be encouraged.
Sally Burke: Yes, yes. Please do contact us. Go to our website. You'll either hear from a state coordinator, an area coordinator, or us from headquarters. Somebody will make a personal contact with you. We will help you get started, and we'll help you continue on.
Dr. James Dobson: It sounds like you care.
Sally Burke: Oh, my goodness. Each mom is so precious to us. We love them dearly. As you can see around this room, we're an incredible sisterhood. We're bound together by Christ and bound together by prayer.
Dr. James Dobson: Do you know... And of course, you do, more than anybody else. How many women out there are lonely?
Sally Burke: Oh, my goodness.
Dr. James Dobson: How many women feel overwhelmed by the children they're trying to raise?
Sally Burke: Yes.
Dr. James Dobson: And there are just so many obstacles before them. And praying alone is a wonderful thing, but praying with others is a different experience.
Sally Burke: And in that face-to-face, that touching the other mommy, that when you can just barely make it to that group, all you have is tears, that other mommy prays over your child. It's a gift from God. And you don't ever want to miss that gift. So in this day and age where people text or they do a quick phone message, it's so much different. You get to sit, and the hour does go by fast, but it's impactful, and it's life changing, and it's eternal. Yet, everything that's prayed there stays there. You can trust that other mommy. It's not going to go anywhere else.
Fern Nichols: Dr. Dobson, I was going to give you this new little book, Mom's Little Book of Powerful Prayers. It's a gift book. So if there's a mom whose son is being bullied, we have a prayer for that and a scripture to go with it. If there's a mom whose child is having special-needs issues, we have a prayer for that. There are over 170 prayers, kind of starter prayers for them, but using the word of God.
And then at the end... This was my heart because, yeah, it's just so important that we bless our children. So I put 31 blessings using the word of God at the end of the book so that if they leave for school, you can just place your little hand on their head and take that first blessing or whatever blessing you want to take, and then you can just repeat them or find your own blessings. But every day to bless your child at dinner, before school, or at bedtime. And that is also in this little book. It's now being translated in or has been translated into French and Portuguese.
Sally Burke: And we have updated our Igniting a Passion to Pray that will be taught in the different churches. It can be taught in your home, and it's incredible. It teaches them and walks them through six weeks of our four steps of prayer.
Dr. James Dobson: Give us all the information needed to make this work.
Fern Nichols: Come to our website.
Dr. James Dobson: Your website or mine?
Sally Burke: Yes, Moms in Prayer. They come to momsinprayer.org. They can come there. We will help them. We'll do whatever it takes to get them going in a group.
Fern Nichols: Yeah.
Dr. James Dobson: Yeah. Well, we'll put it on our website, and that will direct them to yours.
Sally Burke: Oh, thank you. Thank you.
Fern Nichols: Thank you.
Dr. James Dobson: Okay?
Fern Nichols: Yes.
Dr. James Dobson: Oh, I'm so excited about what you're doing, Fern. It's great to get this update.
Fern Nichols: Oh, thank you so much.
Dr. James Dobson: I have followed your work for a long, long time. And every time you come, it's uplifting to me. It is exciting to me to see the good things that are happening out there. There's just so much bad.
Fern Nichols: I know.
Dr. James Dobson: You can really just get discouraged when you see the direction that the country is going, but you guys are making a difference. And does it excite you to think that there will be a lot of people in Heaven because of what you've done?
Fern Nichols: Boy, that does really excite me because it's like our schools. Jerusalem, when Jesus saw Jerusalem, He said... Oh, He had such compassion for their people, and He said, "They're like sheep without a shepherd. They're harassed and helpless." And that's the way we see the kids in our school. And why would we not want to pray for them to come to know the God that loves them, that Jesus that died for them and gave them eternal life, to give them destiny and hope and eternal life? What a privilege for us to pray, not only for our children and our grandchildren and others. My own grandchildren, the 10-
Dr. James Dobson: You've got 10 of them.
Fern Nichols: Eight out of 10 have asked Jesus into their heart.
Dr. James Dobson: Is that right?
Fern Nichols: Now, the other two will, but they're only one year old. But we're praying now for them.
Sally Burke: And do you know, her daughter had us over. And her kids and my kids joined... Her children... The grandchildren prayed over us.
Fern Nichols: Oh, it was precious.
Sally Burke: Prayed blessings over us as we went through the transition. I mean, that is a legacy.
Dr. James Dobson: Sally, you have got ahold of something here, and it's sure going to be interesting to see how the years unfold. And this is a very big job. How can we pray for you?
Sally Burke: Wisdom, always leaning on Christ, always for His glory, always for His purpose, that I'm a blessing to the women that I serve. And most important, I'm obedient to Christ and what He calls me to do and just take one day at a time.
Dr. James Dobson: Well, blessings to every one of you.
Fern Nichols: Oh, thank you, Dr. Dobson.
Dr. James Dobson: Thanks for coming to be with us today. I know that this has been a blessing to many, many of our listeners, and I hope that you get another 100,000 people involved as a result of this information. And will you come back to see us?
Fern Nichols: Would we come back to see... We're just going to have to have a bigger studio because we're all going to bring a friend.
Dr. James Dobson: Well, it's amazing we've gotten this number in. I thank you. And the Lord, I know, is going to continue to bless you and-
Fern Nichols: Bless you.
Dr. James Dobson: Do stay in touch with us, Sally.
Sally Burke: I will. I will. It's been an honor.
Dr. James Dobson: Thank you, everybody.
Fern Nichols: Thank you, Dr. Dobson.
Roger Marsh: In Matthew, chapter 28, verse 18, Jesus said, "Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am with them also." You've been listening to Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk, and that was the conclusion of Dr. Dobson's two-day conversation with Fern Nichols and Sally Burke, as well as a few more praying moms from Moms in Prayer International. Fern, Sally, and thousands of mothers all around the globe meet together weekly in local Moms in Prayer groups to pray for their children and their children's schools. What an incredible ministry and one that is much needed in today's confusing anti-God culture.
Now, if you'd like to learn more about Moms in Prayer International, just visit drjamesdobson.org/family talk. We have links to information there on how you can find a Moms in Prayer group near you, and if there isn't one in your area, you can find information about how to start one. There is nothing that we can do that's more impactful for our kids than to pray for them. So, visit drjamesdobson.org/family talk for more information on Moms in Prayer, or give us a call today at (877)732-6825.
Well, thank you again so much for listening to Family Talk today. We are right in the middle of Back-to-School week here on the program. So please join us again tomorrow to hear an encouraging interview on the topic of Christ-centered higher education. No matter who you are, here at the JDFI, we want to encourage you and to walk alongside you as you transition from summer to fall and, hopefully, into some cooler weather too. And now for Dr. Dobson, Dr. Clinton, and all of us here at Family Talk, I'm Roger Marsh, thanking you for making us a part of your day.
Announcer: This has been a presentation of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.