Essex Prayerwalk

Prayerwalking through Essex

I live in the London Borough of Havering. Havering is a gateway area between London and Essex. I moved to London as a teenager, living in London's north, south, west and finally east, settling here in Romford, not ten miles from my childhood home on The Green in Epping. When I was nine, I asked the Lord if I could return home and he said to me "You will come back." Never for one minute did I think I would return to my home like this!



My calling to the Body of Christ is as watchman intercessor and so the Lord has me stationed on the ramparts in this gateway, watching what he is doing both here and in the nations.


The Lord promised Joshua "I will give you every place where you set your foot." (Josh 1.3) What a wonderful promise! He was then told "Be strong and courageous..." (Josh 1.6) As we left the car park in Waltham Abbey on Monday 11th February, my friend Colette and I felt anything but strong and courageous. But we knew the Lord was with us - the other half of the promise to Joshua was "I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Josh 1.5)


Following much prompting from the Lord, I had finally made a start on walking the borders of Essex. It's a large county and an intimidating prospect but I know the Lord will be with me as I go - and hopefully, will call others out of the Essex body to walk with me - I would so love to have company as I walk this land.


Why am I doing it? Partly because of the Lord's promise that he'll give us the places where he sets our feet (Joshua 1.3). Partly also because it's the place where Jesus has put me and I want to engage with it on a deep level - deeper than I have yet experienced and I know from previous prayerwalks that I make that connection best when walking. I am not a great walker - yet! I walk slowly and sometimes painfully but persistently and with a real sense of joy.


I love the 'place where I dwell' and I want to see the hand of the Lord in the land of the living. I know too that things get both broken and mended when I walk and pray - that's enough...



A little history...and the importance of neighbourliness


The County of Essex is part of the former Land of the East Saxons and the three swords on the county logo are seaxes. Seax is an Anglo-Saxon word that means sword-companion. A seax is a thin knife (see below), although it seems to have developed a little(!) since Anglo Saxon times.










For 1500 years, since Saxon times, the Liberty of Havering was both in Essex and yet not of it. At that time, Essex stretched from the Channel coast as far as the Lea Valley. I n 1965, an Act of Parliament changed the Essex boundary, extending London out to the borders of Brentwood and Havering became a London Borough. So, Havering is now border country.



Martin Scott (http://www.3generations.eu/) has said

"In the border regions, it's important to speak, pray and worship in the languages of our neighbours"

I want to speak the language of my neighbours in Essex. It's a key to good relationships.


In 2001, Sue Mitchell (http://www.passion.org/) prophesied that Havering was a gateway area - a 'swing door' from London to Essex and Essex to London. However, recently, at an Essex Prayer Day I was given the word that

"the door had not fully opened and there had only

been a cat flap, but now the door would be fully open".

In 2005, during her Distinct Sound County Tour of the UK, Sharon Stone (http://www.cieurope.net/) suggested prophetically that Essex carried the following redemptive characteristics:

1. It is a command centre and garrison

2. Has a militant edge with an apostolic thrust

3. It could release a breaker anointing

4. Has an apostolic anointing for all of England

If these prophetic insights are not to fall to the ground, the Essex intercessors must pray them through and into being. It is also part of my purpose to pray encouragement over the Essex intercessors.


Day 1 (4.2.08) Waltham Abbey to the A406 junction


Day 1 started with myself, Ray (my husband and faithful support driver) and Colette Nelson from Harlow, meeting at Waltham Abbey at 12 o'clock. Ray and I had already done a reconnoitre of the day’s route. Ray took a photo of Colette and I to record the beginning.




We set out immediately but as you can see,
Ray finished his cup of coffee before starting out!
Coffee is, of course, important...

Early that first morning, the Lord had given Colette an image of a thread and the eye of a needle. She felt that on the first part of the walk, we needed to double back so "the thread could go through the eye of the needle anchoring it into the land.The thread would be shown through Essex as we walk."


When we walked from the Meridian Garden around Waltham Abbey and on into the High Street, we found a shop called "Thread It" which we felt was a confirmation of this. So, we faithfully doubled back to the Abbey, where Colette had to leave. I continued walking from the doubleback point on down through Sewardstone and into the London Borough of Waltham Forest.





As I progressed, I was becoming more and more excited about the walk and felt the Lord was showing me what he wanted from the walk. We often say we walk in the steps of Jesus but how often do we walk in the 'stops' of Jesus? I wanted to do that - to sense what he did in the 'stops' he made - to listen to the Father as he did. I trudged through the Essex countryside on the A112 to Sewardstone - a gateway town in itself.



I walked along the road enjoying the solitude and sunshine and breasted the brow of a hill to see the Lea Valley spread out below me - the four funnels of high rise flats rising out of what looked like a ship on a silver sea. What a view! My feet didn't hurt yet and I found myself laying before the Lord all the situations I and my friends faced in our lives and knowing I was heard. What a privilege to be walking and talking with the Lord as I tramped through!

Meandering down the hill, the A112 moves from countryside through the borders of Essex and the London Borough of Waltham Forest to the Thames - but I'm getting ahead of myself...suburbia ahead!


Long lines of semis with gardens and wheelie bins greeted me as I rounded the corner and plugged up the slow slope of the hill into Sewardstone, down past the golfing range and bizarrely, sheep grazing behind the back gardens on the edge of King George's reservoir. I nipped into McDonalds and then - my worst nightmare – found myself walking hot and bothered into a facing line of drivers queuing at the lights. Feeling incredibly exposed, I kept my head down under my cap and sunglasses, ploughing on into the sun.

With some relief, I reached the end of that dead straight road and rounded a corner, surprised to see my husband, smiling, holding a cup of tea – one of the best I ever tasted…