Written by Driadonna Roland

Samme Palermo was especially disheartened by news reports of the economic downturn in Rochester.

“There was a while there where I just kept hearing about people moving out of New York, jobs being lost, layoffs and layoffs. There was no hope. The legislators were trying to come up with solutions. They had none,” Palermo says.
As the pastor of Oasis Christian Fellowship in Penfield, he decided to rely upon a tried and true convention.

“I just said, ‘Why don’t we pray?'” says Palermo, 62.
What started as a small prayer group consisting of Palermo and the church’s board of directors evolved about a year ago into the Rochester Prayer Force. This non-denominational gathering is held the third Monday of every other month in the Performing Arts Center of the Charles Finney School, 2070 Five Mile Line Road.
As the Facebook page of the Rochester Prayer Force https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Rochester-Prayer-Force/235828396446211 puts it, the group is centered on “prayer for business and the business of prayer.”

Mike Friedler, an elder at Oasis, says the group prays for those who need a job or a better job and for businesses to come to the area and be profitable. Local politicians have shown up to pray for their municipalities, as well.
They write down their prayer requests, and while light jazz music plays in the background, they silently pray for each request that is projected on the screen in front of the room.
“We’re not proselytizing. We don’t put the church name on it,” Palermo says. “There’s no politics, no religion, no agendas other than the solace of prayer; that’s it.”
He believes their prayers are working. He shares the story of a contractor whose business was so slow that he was considering laying his whole staff off when he first started coming to the meetings. Now he is booked through the rest of the year.
Excitement is a feature of Palermo’s persona, says Friedler, 50.

“He’s very motivated, very outgoing and he’s very, very caring,” says Friedler, president of Integrity Tool.
“He has a contagious personality.”

The charismatic Palermo is a former disco DJ whose tale of living the fast life and abusing drugs and alcohol was recently featured on The Christian Broadcasting Network show The 700 Club.
But Palermo is a testament to turning things around, which may be why he prays so fervently for an economic restoration as well.

“I’m not taking credit for it, but why is it happening in Rochester and it’s not happening in Buffalo, Syracuse, Albany or the others?” Palermo says.
“I’m going to give credit where credit is due, and I’m going to thank God for it.”

Driadonna Roland is a freelance writer from Greece.
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20111121/NEWS01/111210334/Prayer-group-focuses-jobs-businesses