As students enter Mrs. Gina Wilson’s high school classroom, they can’t help but see the display of colorful cards arranged like a Christmas tree on the wall. But the display will not go down after Christmas because the tree is actually a Prayer Tree — and hanging on the tree are cards with the names of the students in Mrs. Wilson’s classes.

Mrs. Wilson started her first prayer tree in August 2019, soon after she was hired to teach high school math, including Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Honors Algebra 2, Geometry, and Honors Geometry.

“God put it on my heart last year to make a prayer wall with all of my students’ names so I would be reminded to pray for them constantly,” Mrs. Wilson said. “As I arranged the cards on the wall, it became clear that it was taking the shape of a Christmas tree.” She created a new prayer tree for this school year in early December, and there are 71 names on the tree.

“I realized that there was a greater purpose for me here than just teaching math,” Wilson said. “Part of my job is to pray for my students and to let them know that they are special and that I love and care about them.”

After putting up this year’s prayer tree display, Mrs. Wilson took time during her classes to briefly explain the purpose of the tree.  “There has been a lot of positive feedback from my students about the tree and they really appreciate knowing that we as teachers are taking time out to pray for each of them,” Mrs. Wilson said.

Each week, Mrs. Wilson pulls five or six cards off the tree and takes them home. She and her husband, Pastor John Wilson of North Harbor Church in Northfield, enjoy spending time together in prayer and will pray specifically for the students named on her cards.  Mrs. Wilson said sometimes students have removed their card from the tree and asked her to specifically pray for them.

“Sometimes I will pull a card because I know a student is going through a difficult time, but others are pulled randomly,” Mrs. Wilson said. “It’s been interesting to see how many times the students who needed the most prayer were the ones whose cards had been pulled for specific and fervent prayer.”