HAMMOND, La. – Les Fogleman turned 82 earlier this November, and the decision to set up a prayer station at the busy intersection by his church has yielded some of the greatest fruit in his years of ministry.
“I’ve done a lot of door-to-door and prayer walking over the years,” said Fogleman, pastor of New Beulah Baptist Church in Hammond. “One day, I was standing out by the corner of the church I pastor now, and it’s probably in the top two or three busiest intersections in our parish.”
The church had struggled to reach people, but when Fogleman realized that dozens if not hundreds of cars drove through the intersection each day, the idea of a prayer station came to him.
So, he created signs, built a tall, wooden cross and sat or walked near the road for a couple hours a day, for three days out of the week. Fogleman sometimes twirls a red umbrella to capture the attention of passersby.
He had more than 440 people stop and ask for prayer, and his focus on sharing the gospel resulted in 11 baptisms since last June. Eventually, a few volunteers helped to build a prayer pavilion with benches where people could sit out of the hot, Louisiana sun.
“It’s just something the Lord gave me,” Fogleman said. “It’s the best ministry I’ve ever had in my life.”
When Fogleman came to the church, the congregation had endured a difficult church split, and only ten to twelve people attended. Now, 35 to 40 people attend, and while only a few have joined the church directly as a result of his prayer ministry, news of his care and concern for his community has spread because of his consistent presence in Hammond.
“I have people who honk at me and wave at me,” he said. “I bump into people all the time who tell me they’ve seen me out there. It’s a solid witness to a lot of people.”
Many of those who stop have been enduring an extremely difficult season — their children are addicted to drugs, their family members are sick, or they are themselves homeless — and he attempts to share the gospel with everyone who stops by.
“I never know what I’m going to be praying for when somebody turns in,” Fogleman said. “So, I think it’s a great privilege just to be able to do it.”
Sarah Biggs was saved at the cross, and she wanted to be baptized. Fogleman and Biggs were able to go to a nearby river where he baptized her in the shallows on a boat ramp. Recently, she joined the church and attends regularly.
“A boat was pulling in, and I asked them to wait so we could baptize her,” said Fogleman. “When I did that the people on the boat started hollering and saying, ‘Praise the Lord!’”
One young lady stopped by and responded to the gospel. A few days later, she was baptized. Fogleman had the opportunity to share the gospel with her boyfriend; he came to Christ; and Fogleman officiated their wedding ceremony on a weekday morning.
A pair of high school girls were on their way to a prom. Fogleman said they asked the mom to turn around so they could receive prayer. They wound up receiving Christ as well.
“At my age and the Lord still giving me the strength to do what I do is an immense blessing,” Fogleman said. “I’m a third generation Baptist preacher, and my grandfather started nine churches, I think it was, and he was bivocational. My dad was also bivocational, and he pastored smaller churches.”
While Fogleman’s church sits near a busy intersection, he imagines other churches could set up similar prayer stations to engage their communities.
“You could use this as an opportunity to let people know about your church,” he said. “Any place where people could turn in would work.”
Fogleman attended a North American Mission Board (NAMB) training event in Mississippi where he shared his story with NAMB’s national director of personal evangelism, J.J. Washington.
“Churches need to engage their communities, and Les’s out-of-the-box thinking has yielded great dividends,” Washington said. “I think his story is a great encouragement for pastors and congregations in similar situations to find ways to step out of their comfort zones to engage in gospel conversations.”