A SMALL charity in Scotland is running an advertising campaign in the UK, the United States, and Australia to encourage people to “try praying”, using the strapline “It’s easier than you think.”

The try-praying initiative was set up eight years ago by David Hill, founder of the charity There is Hope, and has been running ever since, in churches and through bus advertising, to prompt people to pray. Last year, analysis for the charity by a market-research agency, suggested that 32 per cent of those who saw the adverts began to pray afterwards.

This year, the charity is trying to raise £100,000 to expand bus advertising across the whole of Scotland in April. A $60,000 donation is paying for the campaign to be launched in parts of the US.

The charity also produces short seven-day prayer guides, which are aimed at non-churchgoers, and are available as a booklet or through an app. Day one suggested that people pray: “God if you are really there — and I’m not sure you are — but if you are, I want to know you.”

Churches have signed up across the UK,  and dioceses are in talks about getting involved, with some hoping to run the bus campaign in their area.

Emma Weaver, one of three part-time staff who run the charity, said: “We’ve seen that it works because it is just so simple. There is no Bible-bashing. We just want to say: try praying for seven days, and see what happens. If we plant the seed, God will do the rest. We hear stories daily of how people’s lives have changed because of it.”