The power of prayer
Five years ago Pamela Barit Nolan was a novice at prayer.
Today she’s the author of a soon-to-be-released book, Bermuda Blessings. She’s selling it as a fundraiser for St Paul’s Church in Paget.
“I never imagined any of this would happen,” Mrs Barit Nolan said. “Five years ago Anthony Pettit, the minister at St Paul’s, was new to our parish and needed help filling some of the leadership roles in our church.
“I had done finance all of my life and figured I could help in that way, but when I went into Anthony’s office he told me someone else was doing that and suggested I could help with the intercession prayers instead.
“I looked at him and kind of laughed. I said, ‘Anthony I’m not sure I know how to pray and I certainly wouldn’t be able to get up in front of the congregation and read my prayers. That was in January 2011 and we left it at that, but later on I wrote him an e-mail and said, ‘If you want me to do it, what are the rules, what is the template?’”
She started that spring. Initially her prayers followed a prescribed formula, but over time the Holy Spirit began to intervene.
“I would sit at the table in our small cottage and hear the water and I’d listen to the ocean and it was an invitation to have a conversation with God,” Mrs Barit Nolan said. “I would sit down and pray and say, ‘God what do you need me to pray today?’ He didn’t speak to me every time. Sometimes I’d think, ‘What am I doing? I don’t know what to say or write’ but most of the time I sat down and it just happened.”
Today, Mrs Barit Nolan has hundreds of prayers about everything from peace and forgiveness to current events here and overseas.
“Praying now is a very different experience for me,” she said. “I’ve had to really listen and allow the Holy Spirit to work through me and through my hands as I type.
“I was amazed as I let go of the structure and just started writing and reading how much positive feedback I’d get from the congregation. Eventually I got a request from people to somehow make the prayers more accessible to the public.”
In the beginning, Mrs Barit Nolan was thinking small.
She put the prayers on the church’s Facebook page. She then considered publishing a few hundred copies to sell at the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity’s bookstore in Hamilton.
God eventually changed her mind.
“On a whim I got in touch with Rose Jones from local publishing company Brimstone Media to see what she thought about me publishing my prayers. And she said, ‘Why don’t you send us some of your material?’
“I didn’t want to make a big deal of it or take up her time. I just wanted to know how I could follow up on the request from the ladies from my church. Rose got back to me and said, ‘I actually think this has commercial viability and you should make this into a bigger thing’. I was a little intimidated by that.
“This project has never been about me. It’s about God’s call and the church,” she continued. “There was never a time I was going to sell this for my own profit. It’s a fundraising effort for St Paul’s.”
Mrs Barit Nolan soon learnt it would take a “substantial amount” of money to get her book published.
“Paul Shapiro from Brimstone Media did up a budget for me, and people I spoke with who had published materials in the past warned me that it always ended up being more,” she said.
“I had no idea how I would get this money, but in ten to 15 days I had managed to raise 80 per cent of the funds I needed, which was another sign for me that this was meant to happen.”
The rest of the funds poured in over time from friends and supporters.
Artist April Branco illustrated the book. It’s currently at the printers in Hong Kong and expected to go on sale in October.
Mrs Barit Nolan said she’s felt God’s hand on the project the entire time.
Her goal is to use the book as a tool to help readers develop a thriving prayer life of their own.
“We want it to draw people in, which is why we ended up with a sunrise on the cover,” she said. “People might not initially know it’s a book of prayers, so our desire was to make the front inviting enough for people to pick it up and be welcomed in and for it to pique their curiosity.
“Then once they are inside they will read the prayers. If for any reason they are not religious or a Christian, we still want them to get started reading before they make a judgment about the book.
“We want them to see how you can have this conversation with God and put aside any formal structure and just pray to God and learn how to have a relationship with Him. Through the development of an open prayer life we want them to become more curious about their relationship with God and hopefully be touched by the amazing art work by April Branco as well.
“None of this project was an accident. Even how all the parties got together — April and Paul and all the people who have supported me — it’s been really amazing. I love April’s willingness to step into this space and what she created from reading the words is very special.”
The overall message of the book is that God loves us all.
Mrs Barit Nolan wants readers to know that, as God’s children, we’re perfect just the way we are.
“Sometimes as a church we get in our own way but we are all here to serve and God has provided us with everything we need to do that.”
• To order a copy of Bermuda Blessings for $35, e-mail pamela@transformbda.com
Pamela Barit Nolan was born into an Anglican family.
She was confirmed, and then for the following decade or so, was part of what some fondly call “the Christmas and Easter crowd”.
“Life was busy — between going to university and getting my first job and working through a career. But eventually God just started making me curious and then putting people in my path again,” she said.
“I think the first calling came while stepping out of my first big career at an investment management firm in the US and feeling there was more to life than making a lot of money and helping other people make a lot of money.
“My husband and I decided to step out of our pretty high-powered careers. We were 40 and had been married for ten years. We ended up travelling for two years and that was the time I decided I wanted to be of more service, although I wasn’t sure how that would happen. I also became aware during this time that something else, something bigger than me, was moving me.”
She began to see it as God’s hand on her life. “Before I jumped out of that job some of my neighbours had invited me to church,” she said. “Then after our travels we came back to Boston and I wanted to use my past experience and be of service by moving into the non-profit world. “One day I went for a work lunch with a woman and our whole conversation ended up being about our relationship with church, instead of business. I was clearly searching at that point and the next day a Bible showed up in my mailbox from her.
“God was showing up everywhere and different people were encouraging me in different ways.”
She returned to the island in 2005 and settled at St Paul’s the following year. In 2011 she started with prayer writing, which caused her to question whether full-time ministry might be the appropriate path for her. She’s still considering.
For the time being she serves as a licensed lay administrant, leading Holy Communion and reading scripture and the intercession on Sundays. She’s also preached a handful of times at the invitation of her minister.
