FAIRHOPE — Deirdra Barnes said she believes prayer changes things.

It was through her personal prayer life that she felt led to open the Prayer Room in downtown Fairhope, Barnes acknowledged with a gentle laugh.

Barnes said that the Prayer Room, which has been open since March 13, is “a gathering place for Christians of any denomination.”

The Prayer Room focuses on prayer through several different avenues. First, they have a prayer box outside of the building in which passers-by can insert a prayer request, which Barnes and others will collect and pray over.

Barnes said she is pleased the prayer box has never been moved or vandalized.

The Prayer Room also has a phone line for prayer requests.

“We get a lot of phone calls and prayer requests,” Barnes said.

Terri Frazier, a volunteer at the Prayer Room, said a lot of their prayer requests come from children.

Barnes said she spends a lot of time praying over the prayer requests and for the youth in Baldwin County.

“I’m praying for the next revival in Baldwin County,” Barnes said.

Monday nights, the Prayer Room welcomes people to enjoy the prayer and healing room from 6 to 9.

Praise and worship music takes place Thursdays from 6 to 9 p.m. where people can come and praise the Lord through music.

The Prayer Room’s regular hours of operation are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., but Barnes hopes to offer the Prayer Room 24 hours a day so that someone can always be there for those in need of prayer.

She hopes to reach this goal “as people are moved to volunteer to be a part (of the Prayer Room.)”

“We need a couple of volunteers to come once a month, once a week because they love God and they love their fellow man,” Barnes said.

The Prayer Room is divided into three sections, Barnes explained. The first room, the entrance, consists of couches and chairs where visitors can sit and talk or browse through one of the many Bibles set out on tables.

“We pray a blessing for everyone that comes in,” Barnes said.

The middle room is for private, individual prayer, and the back room is called the threshing floor.

“The threshing floor is mentioned several times in the Bible as a place where the wheat is separated from the chaff,” Barnes said. “I think that’s what we’re doing when we bring the prayers back there.”

Chaff is a reference to something worthless whereas the wheat is valuable. Psalm 1 states those who are wicked are like chaff blown away by the wind.

“We’re lifting prayers as a priority,” Barnes said. “We take it very seriously.”

So far, Barnes said they are seeing visitors from all denominations and age groups.

She doesn’t consider the Prayer Room to have a congregation, but rather people are free to come and go as they please, without any pressure.

She stressed that the Prayer Room is just a place of prayer.

“This is not a place of preaching, teaching,” Barnes said. “We’re taking the Bible and applying it to prayer.”

Above anything else, Barnes wants to bring glory to the Kingdom of God.

“We want people to know that their prayers are handled by the love of the Lord Jesus Christ,” Barnes said.