Chapel provides a place of comfort

ANAHUAC— In the heart of town sits a small chapel that first opened its doors in the early 2000s, allowing anyone and everyone to have a place to find God anytime they need.

Matt and Linda Stewart opened the Lord’s Prayer Chapel in 2002, and since then, it has been used by many as a place to reflect through faith.

“As much as I love the little Prayer Chapel and want to claim it as my special place, I am always reminded, ‘For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples,” Stewart said, referencing Isaiah 56:7. “It’s an honor to serve the Lord.”

In the spring of 2001, Stewart went to the International House of Prayer in Missouri with a group of ladies. There, God gave her several visions of a building and told her He wanted a prayer chapel in Anahuac.

Stewart said God told her to always keep the doors unlocked and to always have music playing until He returned.

While the speakers were stolen, the doors remain unlocked through every hurricane and every holiday.

She told her husband about the chapel when she got home from the Missouri trip. Her husband told her he already knew and that God had told him two months prior that He had a project for Stewart.

The building itself was built in the 1960s by Romane Sherman and his son Chipper to display carpets at their lumber yard. Irene Clore later bought it and then Ed Lieck.

At the time the Stewarts were interested, Lieck had the building up for sale. Stewart contacted him, but Lieck said the building already had a buyer.

“I told him the sale would fall through because the Lord wanted it for a prayer chapel,” Stewart said. “I...told him to call me when the sale failed. A week later, Ed called us, and we purchased the building.”

The Stewarts had already purchased additional property from Mamie Hawkins to expand their yard. Hawkins asked Stewart to keep the seven sisters rose bush where it stands as she and her husband planted it there in the 1940s beside their first home.

When choosing the space for the chapel, there were some challenges. Moving the building around the rose bush was difficult, but Stewart ensured it was done, and the roses bloom each spring right outside the chapel’s doors.

The beautiful handmade stained-glass windows display roses similar to those found outside.

Unintentionally, the chapel pulls from several Christian religions, creating a welcoming space for all who seek God.

Even the Stewarts’ home has a religious background, as it was the original parsonage of the First United Methodist Church.

The chapel’s prayer altar was designed after the altar at the Methodist church, the chapel’s name was inspired by an Episcopal chapel in the Mitford Years book series, and the curved pews were from a Catholic church.

In 1965, when Stewart was nine, God reached out to her while she and her mother were visiting the pastor’s wife.

Stewart explained that as soon as she stepped into the doors, she heard God say, “I will give this to you someday.”

In 1976, the church put the building up for sale and Stewart’s father purchased it. In April 2026, Stewart will have lived in the home for 50 years.

“When my husband Matt Stewart and I married in 1983, I began calling the property Stewhaven because the Lord has given me a piece of heaven on earth,” Stewart said.

Her property truly is a piece of Heaven on Earth as she has an abundance of animals and plants, including herbs and flowers, and a chapel she can walk to anytime.

Minor renovations are being done to the chapel, but it remains open.

The chapel is at 505 Willcox St. for those interested. There are Bibles on a table for anyone who wishes to take one, with versions in English and Spanish. There is also a prayer box for those seeking God’s wisdom.