The idea of prayer kneelers for the home started when I was running my own church restoration business.  Often we would install kneelers in churches for special occasions.  Every time I did that, the Lord would speak to me and say, “This should be the most important piece of furniture in people homes, but no one has them.”  He would show me how life changing these could be—a place to pray, set aside in the home.  In the church restoration business, by doing surveys, we would find that the most unmet need and ignored discipline in the life of a Christian were personal bible study, and prayer.  Those two items are fairly obviously necessary for Christian growth.

The Lord showed me that the kneelers were a tool to accomplish growth in both areas.  Spiritual growth is based on discipline and the kneelers are a tool and a catalyst to accomplish that growth.  I began to see what a change they could make in a person’s life, in family life, and in the lives of children, if the commitment was made to use them on a daily basis.  Dramatic positive changes move easily within reach.

Before I could make a change or begin a secondary business making and selling these kneelers, I had to close my church restoration company for health reasons, but the concept for this prayer tool has been ringing in my mind ever since, and God has worked over the years to encourage me to do this, and has put people in my path who have been encouraging and necessary to this process.

A friend who was praying for me told me that I needed to seek out a retired wood worker to help me create the prototype.  That suggestion triggered my memory of a person who I used to go to church with who would be perfect, but I didn’t know where to find him or if he was even still alive.  So I started to pray about it, not knowing how I would find someone.  One day, soon after that, I was talking to my oldest daughter.  I mentioned his name, and she told me that he went to her church and was doing very well.

When I talked to him, he told me he would pray about it and let me know.  It seemed that God was encouraging me, and him, because he consented to help me create the prototype.  It was a blessing to know that first, this man, who was very fussy about what he made was even willing to pray about helping me, and then that God would put it into his heart to actually do the work.

The Lord has sent people to me, one by one, to put together the pieces of this business.  In a casual conversation with some friends, while volunteering at my church’s food bank, someone suggested Steve Kayner to build a web site.  I met with him and his wife… At the end of my telling him the story, he requested some time, a couple of days, to pray about it.  However, he called me the next day to say that he was in.  The end result of that is a working web site in progress. 

          Another friend suggested that I should find Amish craftsmen to build these.  My search took more than a prayer-filled year, but eventually I was able to locate and contract the right people.  The process started and stopped several times, but God was faithful to lead us to the right people.  I did find a group of Amish craftsmen to make them, knowing their craftsmanship and quality are unbeatable, and they would also understand the spiritual element of these tools.

Again, the kneelers are just a tool to bring about the result of helping people to pray.  By surveys, I have also discovered that family devotions were not a high priority, and that statistically,  85% of evangelical families don’t pray together.  I also believe that so many of our youth leave church by age 18, because they don’t see fruit in their families of their faith.

People cry about prayer being taken out of schools, but God has commissioned the family to be the center of faith life, not the schools.  We believe that if families were more disciplined to pray together, there would be no way that the Government could take prayer out of schools.  They can stop people from praying together, but no one can stop praying people from praying.

          Every piece of getting this business up and running has been brought about very slowly and with a lot of opposition, but God has been faithful, so that through prayer and the support of many prayer warriors the public beginnings are in sight as of the Summer of 2009.

Our mission is to provide the tools and some teaching to help individuals and families become consistent practitioners of personal bible study and prayer.  The Christian life is a battle, and a race.  You cannot finish well without the spiritual disciplines of bible study and prayer.

Most Sincerely,

Dave Long

Founder/Owner- Anchored In Prayer