Metropolitan Ministries' chapel a source of solace

She got the call from the hospital while standing in line for a food box from Metropolitan Ministries.

We're so sorry, the voice said. Your baby has died.

It was Nov. 23. Thanksgiving was days away. Baby Noah had spent six months - his entire life - in the pediatric unit of the hospital. He and his twin sister, Noel, born prematurely at 23 weeks, had struggled with health issues since their May 5 births.

Deshele Durrah, 26, broke down. Although she knew her son's condition was touch-and-go, she believed he would be coming home one day. She even had his outfit picked out for the occasion.

Overcome with grief, she asked a Metropolitan Ministries staff member if there was someone she could talk to, someplace private she could go so she could collect herself.

"I needed a place to calm down and get my thoughts together. If I had gone to the hospital right then, I would have been ballistic," she recalls.

That's when she saw the Chapel of Hope Prayer Center.

For the past three years, Metropolitan Ministries has set up a makeshift room inside Tampa's Holiday Tent, where donated food and toys are distributed to needy families in November and December. It's a small place with chairs, a few Bibles and a Nativity scene on a table. Hundreds of handwritten prayer request cards are posted on the walls, left behind by visitors who've stopped in for spiritual comfort. On Sundays, services are held.

The strength to go on

A counselor brought Durrah to the solitude of the chapel and held her hand, listened to her and prayed with her.

That small gesture gave the grieving mother the strength she needed to help her get through the next few days.

"That chapel was there at the right place, right when I needed it," she says. "And the people who helped me were there at the right time, too."

She's doing better now. She's got baby Noel at home, along with her two other children. Durrah has the support of her family and her boyfriend of 10 years, who is the children's father. With Christmas coming, they are concentrating on what they have, instead of what they lost.

"I have three other beautiful children who need me," she says. "I look at them and say, 'Thank you for these three and thank you for those six months with Noah.' I know he's up there in heaven, smiling with God."

In these uncertain times, there are so many stories of loss, desperation, fear and concern. Even the staff at Metropolitan Ministries is worried: The nonprofit agency is 100,000 pounds behind its 2008 donation numbers, yet 3,000 more families have signed up for help. And they don't just need a boost for the holidays. Unless economic conditions in the Tampa Bay area make a dramatic shift, those fears will continue well into 2010 or longer.

There are now four chapels of hope - the original site in Tampa, and others based at the holiday tents in Pinellas Park, Plant City and Holiday. The number of prayer requests left behind grows every day, a testimony to what is in people's hearts when they turn their attention away from all the holiday merriment.

"Pray for me to stop drinking, smoking ... pray that the Lord will come into my life."

"Bless my family. We need it. Make my kids not need."

"My prayer is to be able to keep my newborn and be able to pay the bills."

"To have a close relationship with Jesus Christ, be financially stable, raise my son better."

"That God gives me the wisdom in raising my daughter."

"My sister has terminal cancer. She has two very young children that are handicapped. Please pray that she finds peace and comfort in the Good Lord and that her two children are taken care of ... "

"I want to pray for my dad to get better on his heart condition. My mom to enjoy life more. She is always trying to take care of me and my little sisters, so I wish and pray that she enjoys life more."

People pray for their families

Last year, a marketing firm compiled the cards and entered the messages in a computer. The idea was to create a "prayer cloud" highlighting the words that came up most frequently. God and family clearly dominated. Now that image is part of Metropolitan Ministries' Compassion in Action campaign.

"It wasn't about hitting the Lotto, it wasn't about having a pot of gold come their way," says Tim Marks, chief operating officer. "(Those prayers) were about their families. That's what people care about the most. And we're seeing the same thing this year."

Marks says the chapel reflects the nonprofit group's mission of not just providing commodities such as food and toys, but also meeting the spiritual needs of the people who come for assistance. It's about establishing relationships with those adults and children, and letting them know they are in a safe place, where people care about them.

For Durrah, the chapel was a welcome refuge at a time of grief and crisis. She doesn't believe in coincidences. It was right there in her hour of need.

And for all those who leave behind heartfelt prayer requests, it's a little oasis where faith and hope exist. That's something we can all use these days.