Prayer Garden
The Esther Russell Memorial Prayer Garden
A beautiful and exciting project has been taking place on the Wild Hope land over the last year, under the able direction of Skyler and Justine Russell. Skyler and Justine have been pouring their creative energy into creating a place of beauty for solitude, reflection, and prayer. This vision was inspired by the life of Peter Russell’s mother and Skyler’s grandmother, Esther Russell, who loved Africa, loved people, loved the beauty of God’s creation, and above all, loved Jesus.
The Prayer Garden is also an integral part of the vision of Wild Hope to empower leaders by bringing them to a place of beauty, retreat, and refreshment where spirits can be restored and vision renewed.
The garden incorporates botanical, architectural, and aquatic elements to inspire awe, wonder, worship, and rest: a place where God’s voice is easily heard.
Initial construction included a water feature and natural bolder wall. Then foundations were poured before beginning to build the prayer rooms. On one especially memorable day, massive eucalyptus beams were raised. Manase, the team carpenter, did some beautiful mortise-and-tenon joint work to anchor them together, and it took the whole team to raise them.
Once the walls were up, the staff was invited to write scriptures on the walls, so that God’s truth is embedded in the very structures, with prayers that this will be a place where God’s Spirit is close, where the broken-hearted find healing, where the sorrowful find joy, where the anxious find peace, where the rejected find love, where the imperfect find grace.
After almost a full year of construction, the Prayer Garden was brought to a joyful completion and inaugurated with a special celebration in December. This event was a joyous multicultural evening to share the history and vision of the garden, to dedicate the space to prayer and worship to the glory of God, and to honor Esther Russell, the many donors who made construction possible, and the construction workers who gave of their talents.
More events have followed including a Carols by Candlelight service, and the hope is that many will come and enjoy this beautiful sanctuary.
