Orlando is fighting crime with prayer. Last Wednesday, police chaplain Andrew Wade launched Operation Armor All – 40 days of prayer for a drop in crime. Over a hundred people attended, including the mayor, the chief of police, two city commissioners, a circuit judge and members from 37 local churches.

“There is a fight in the supernatural that is affecting us here in the physical world,” Wade told WoW.“Let’s ask God to change the hearts and minds of men.”



The event began in the Parramore neighborhood, one of the city’s 25 crime “hot spots” and the first African-American neighborhood. “It’s a neighborhood that has bred crime,” Wade said. They chose Parramore Heritage Park to gather each night because it’s “a new landmark, and it represents new life and change.”

Wade hopes to host 25 events total, one in each of the city’s crime hot spots. He started a similar event in the Carver Court area four years ago and saw results: “One church went for a whole year. (Now) they tore down the projects, and drug trafficking is almost all dried up.”

While that event included evangelism, Operation Armor All focuses entirely on intercessory prayer and worship. Churches across denominational lines are participating.

Some people oppose the efforts because they believe the police department is wasting resources. One woman called to say they should be in Washington working on changing laws instead of praying.

Wade, however, is unfazed: “Everything’s going to have opposition, but that’s not our concern and not our focus. . . Tragedy is not ordained by God but permitted by him to call us to the place where we first knew him — and that is on our knees.”