Children have always played a role in the prayer movement and revival of Christ’s Church since the beginning. In more recent times, such as before and during the Silesian, Moravian and Wesleyan revivals in the 18^th century Europe, their prayers were used by God to usher in and sustain powerful revivals that transformed those regions and His people.

During the last couple of decades, there has been a resurgence of children discovering the power of prayer to bring spiritual revival and transformation to their own lives, families, communities and nations. In May 1995, 40 children, aged 6-15 years from eight countries, attended the Global Consultation on World Evangelization in Seoul, Korea, as praying delegates. This was possibly the first time in modern, recorded Church history that children were a part of a world conference of such significance. The conference - organised by the AD2000 & Beyond Movement - was attended by 2,500 world church leaders.

The Esther Network International - a worldwide network of intercessors headed by Esther Ilnisky and based in Florida, USA - had been asked by Dr. Luis Bush and Dr. Peter Wagner to select the children to attend the conference. Esther led a multi-national Helps Team, which included Jane Mackie of Australia, to work with the children while in Korea.

Multiple “children in prayer” movements and networks were part of the outflow from GCOWE, for instance:

• Esther Network International began its Children’s Global Prayer Movement which is now known as World Shapers Club. World Shapers Club is joining together praying children from many nations. Their vision is to have World Shaper Club Junior Ambassadors in every nation of the world
• Shortly after returning from Korea, Jane was requested by AD2000 Australia to co-ordinate a Children's Prayer Network. Children’s Prayer Network Australia was subsequently launched at the National AD2000 Conference held in New South Wales in July 1995. Jane has since travelled world-wide promoting praying children, very often with a team of children and youth.

The International Prayer Council (IPC) brought children’s ministry leaders together from many nations to Malaysia for the first Children in Prayer Global Consultation in 2006. From that gathering the CiP international team was born.

They in turn organized in 2008 an International Children in Prayer Gathering in Chennai, India. The gathering was attended by humanitarian organizations and church-based ministries helping children as well as children’s workers and led by the CiP team.

The goal then as now was to further spread the vision of CiP across the nations to those who saw the importance of raising up praying children as Christ’s agents of transformation for our world.

After Chennai, a CiP website was set up to gather and make available resources. It functioned for some years and now is being upgraded to serve this movement. We welcome your contributing any resources and information to it and using it to advance the CiP movement in your own nation and region. Please get connected with us here.

The Children in Prayer movement as it is now called developed from these early gatherings in Korea, Malaysia, and India as well as through special training events carried out by CiP facilitators. The movement has spread so far to perhaps 70-80 nations. Much of the movement has been encouraged by the efforts of the IPC – International Prayer Council that is a “network of networks” of 5000 + Christian ministry leaders, prayer networks and organisations who mobilize prayer around the globe.

In 2007 and 2009, the IPC brought child and adult intercessors from many nations to pray at the UN headquarters in New York. During the summit, they prayed with ambassadors and prayer leaders from around the world. 

Anotherinternational CIP consultation was held in Cape Town in May 2010 as part of the Lausanne and IPC organized event. In 2013, when the IPC arrangedanother international prayer initiative for the UN in New York, it was also the global day for Children’s Rights and so once again children were praying at the UN headquarters alongside the adults for the issues affecting the children of our world.

The CiP core team has also had a small gathering to plan the work and pray in January 2017 in Jakarta. In May 2017, many of the team and other leaders of children in prayer ministries met again during the Prayer and Mission conference in Herrnhut, Germany.

In the last few years, the CIP International Team had regular Internet calls to pray, share and connect with one another. There was also a gathering of a number of CiP coordinators who met in Jakarta, Indonesia in January 2019 before the Global UPRISING youth prayer assembly where they discussed the future of the CiP movement.

At that gathering, they decided to form a working team to help develop the network. At the moment the team consist of one from Asia, one from Europe and one from the US. This team will continue to work under the covering of the International Prayer Connect and we all look forward to all that the Lord will do in and through the expanding children’s prayer movement to impact our world and raise up the next generation of men and women of God to serve Jesus Christ and His global purposes. Please partner with us!

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