Every now and then you encounter a person who is like a soul connection. A sister separated at birth. Whose family was as crazy as yours, who can make you laugh when you feel like crying and who you know you can trust with your heart and your secrets. That is what River Jordan is to me. We don’t get to see each other enough that is certain. But when I do it is like a cold coke on a hot day…

Her new book has captured me. I have started using it as my devotional for this year. And it is because of this gifted story teller’s ability to reach into our deep places, that I knew I had to share it with you. I hope you enjoy this time with my sweet friend River Jordan, talking about her knew book, Praying for Strangers: An Adventure of the Human Spirit.

River, I want to thank you for your new book “Praying with Strangers”. As you know I am not completely finished for two reasons. One, I left my first copy on a plane recently. Which made me sick because I had written so many “profound” questions in that book for you. But hoping it got in some needy hands.  And secondly, I am reading a Chapter a day as a devotional. It is wonderful that way so I am taking my time with it. But would you share with our readers how this book came about?

River: I had this sort of spark of inspiration – “New Year’s Resolution – Pray for a Strangers Every Day. ” Just like that. I was standing in my kitchen packing for this trip we were having to be with ‘the boys’ as I call them before they were both deployed at the beginning of the year. Two things happened at the precise moment. I remembered a homeless woman named Ester that I had prayed with a few years ago that left me remembering her forever. And I also thought – Great idea. But not me. Not this year. My prayers looked more like, ‘my boys, my boys, my boys . . . ‘ not too much beyond that.

-How difficult was it to get past your fear and actually tell people they were your stranger for the day?

River: That FIRST person I seemed compelled to tell in a Bus Stop was me sneaking up slowly, then kinda introducing myself and my resolution very, very quietly. Her amazing response which is in the book is what carried me forward into telling others. My hesitation or concern about what people thought of me that first year is significantly different than it is now considering I tried to ‘give up the resolution’ a the end of the year and discovered I could not. Now, Pshaw, I’d tell the President. No matter what party he or she was with.

-One of the stories you share is titled “The Perfect Girl” and how our prejudgements of people can cause us to miss there real need. What did this encounter teach you?

River: It has been one of my greatest lessons from this. The Perfect people aren’t anymore perfect than the rest of us, the lady dripping in diamonds has her own problems, that woman humming in a rest stop is heart broken. I don’t assume anything anymore. About anyone.

– You tell of so many different ways that people responded to you as you would share your resolution with them. One was a rather cynical response from a lady at a Mexican restaurant. How do we get past praying for people we don’t want to?

River: That woman was the only person now in almost two and half years of doing this that ever gave a negative response. Isn’t that crazy? Wouldn’t you have thought at best it would be 50/50? She didn’t like me the moment she saw me for some reason. It never affected how I prayed for her. Those snarky comments rolled right off my back and when I went home I prayed for her with just as much compassion as someone who had hugged me and thanked me tearfully. That’s God. I’m not that good.

– You encountered a nurse in a hospital in “In sickness and in health”. She was your stranger that day. Not the patient…the nurse. You ask yourself What difference do my prayers make? So, what difference do they make?

River: I believe in the enormous power of prayer. I don’t think it gives us power to always get what we want, I don’t think the outcomes are always what we expect or pray for, but the actual power of prayer – for one stranger compassionately praying for another. I may think that’s even a whole different ballpark.

-One of the most powerful stories in your book is in the chapter “Simple Prayers.” An oxymoron if you ask me since her situation was so dire. What did that encounter do to your own faith?

River: That chapter includes two stories. The one from the present of the woman that looked so tired and beat down in the grocery isle and the one from the flashback of a woman who had been suicidal actually and I showed up by Divine grace to listen to her story and that turned things around. Thankfully! The woman in the grocery store had one of the most profound prayer requests I had ever heard. She just asked me that she’d have “a good life.” And I know at that moment precisely what she meant. A little shelter, a little food, a little love. She happened to be one of my strangers I ran in again about six months later and she was beaming, had a friend with her, showed me pictures of her kitchen being remodeled. It was a great moment for me.

– Is this something you still practice now? Or was it just something that you felt was a clear directive for that year?

River: It is still something I practice. I don’t think I will ever have the option of going back into my shell in my life. If I happen to be at a writers retreat, I’ll just pray for all those I’ve encountered before. I didn’t know that was going to happen. I really thought – one year and I am OUTTAHERE!

-How can we, most who are strangers to you, pray for you?

River: Please pray for the strangers of the world. That we won’t remain strangers but will find ways to have meaningful exchanges even if they are only for a moment.