The night before she left home for Vanderbilt University in 1976, Walter’s mother took her across the den where she had been packing and sat her down on the couch. She put her hands on her shoulders and began to pray.

The next day, on campus, Walter met the man who would become her husband, Frank.

"I didn’t know what she was doing, but now I understand it," Walter said of her praying mother.

As a mother of a Montclair Kimberley Academy student and two college-age sons, Walter, 50, was prompted to find a way to pray more intensely for her own children, particularly after she put her son Joe on a school bus to Nishuane Elementary School. He came home crying because one kid paid another kid $1 to sock him in the stomach.

"I realized then that there was no way I could protect him on the bus, and I realized I needed to pray," said Walter, who is now the New Jersey state coordinator for Moms In Touch International, a worldwide Christian-based organization that gathers mothers together in their towns so they can pray for their children and schools.

The organization’s Web site, www.momsintouch.org, will provide a link to a newly created Web page of the New Jersey branch beginning tomorrow, Friday, Aug. 1. It will include events, accept submissions for prayer requests, Walter’s monthly newsletter and provide contact information, she said.

"What women can do is unload some of the burden unto God, and find comfort so they can continue to parent their children with confidence and with joy," Walter told The Times.

The New Jersey branch of the organization, which has been growing in participation, was mostly formed in Montclair in 2002, stemming from the international organization that has been in existence since 1984.

The organization’s founder, Fern Nichols, started the group after sending her sons off to junior high school, apprehensive of outside influences and the people who would guide her children.

Today, mothers in more than 120 countries gather, usually once a week, in private homes to pray in a Moms In Touch group. There are Moms In Touch booklets available in 38 languages that help bring Christian moms together, even in countries where missionaries are not allowed.

In Montclair, 42 women participate in Moms In Touch groups that are set up to pray for specific schools, but the schools have no affiliation with them and the mothers do not advocate prayer in school, Walter said.

"We simply serve the schools by praying," she said. "We put prayer back in by praying, not by changing the law."

Though mothers "pray in the name of Jesus," the group is open to any mother, regardless of religious affiliation, who wants to pray for their children with other mothers.

About 1,000 New Jersey mothers participate in Moms In Touch. The mothers pray on behalf of 384 of the state’s approximately 3,800 public and private schools, colleges and universities, Walter said.

"You can pray by yourself, but it’s easier when women come by your side and partner with you to do it," Walter said. "It builds deep bonds of friendship," she added, noting that confidentiality is a main building block of the group. Prayer topics can range from praying for teachers and sports events to resolving drug-related problems.

For about one hour, prayers are conducted in four phases: Praise to God as good; silent confessions; thanksgiving to remember what God has given; and intercession to pray for someone else.

Walter said she recites a familiar prayer regularly for her children, so they are always reminded of God’s goodness, from a Bible verse, Philippians 2:13: "For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose."

For more information about Moms In Touch International, visit the Web site or call Walter at 973-783-5765.

Contact Tanya Drobness at drobness@montclairtimes.com.