Displaying items by tag: Children in Prayer

As schools across the UK reopen, teachers could face an influx of children facing an emotional and mental health crisis. Pray for teachers, parents, churches, and agencies who will be working to alleviate an expected emotional health crisis. Pray for the teachers, who will already be aware of the specific challenges that their community faces. May God anoint each one as they draw on their skills to provide emotional and academic guidance. Some children may not have held a pen or got up at 7am since March; consequently different pupils in the same class will have had different experiences of the lockdown period. They will also have varying levels of coping skills and resilience in dealing with those experiences. Teachers attempting to help these children may feel overwhelmed themselves. Pray that they are wisely supported by outside agencies and community groups. Pray for children displaying challenging behaviour to receive appropriate extra mental health support.

Thankful to God for the Past, Anticipating His Wonders for the Future

Some history

The International Prayer Council (leadership team) and eventually International Prayer Connect (network of prayer leaders, ministries and networks) came into being shortly after 9/11 in 2001 – when a simultaneous terrorist attack took place on the twin towers in New York and on the Pentagon in Washington – an horrific day which we all knew would go down in history. A few weeks later the IPC was formed in New York (close to what became known as Ground Zero), with prayer leaders from around the world pledging to work and pray together on a global level, over global issues.

Before that year many of us had begun to discover each other through fresh global initiatives, like the Lausanne Movement (formed in 1974), the first International Prayer Assembly in South Korea (1984) and through involvement in the AD2000 and Beyond Movement in the 1990’s. The IPC as a prayer entity was to be both the successor to these initiatives and involve many of the key prayer leaders from within those structures.   It was important for us to stay connected, find out more about what was happening in our world, and to pray more strategically about some of the pressing needs facing the world.  

Our focus was to be the transformation of our world, encapsulated in our motto “Globalising Prayer, Transforming our World” and this was adopted at our first international consultation in South Africa in 2002. (Please see this video about its founding and early history IPC Prayer Globalizing Prayer Transforming Our World  https://youtu.be/5ZYVFLML1sU). 

Much of the experience of the church around the world was about praying for its work – its daily activities, including mission and evangelism.   For many of us, however, transformational prayer became our work.  Praying for mission in all its aspects was included, along with issues of international and national importance.  

Networking with prayer leaders and their ministries both internationally and regionally was a priority.  To that end global and regional consultations were held in many nations, including South Africa, Egypt, United States, Canada, England, Germany, Switzerland, UAE, Thailand, Hong Kong, South Korea, Kenya, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Cyprus. 

The World Prayer Assembly envisioned and arranged by the IPC in partnership with the powerful Indonesian prayer movement (involving up to three million Indonesians in 380 cities as well as many others worldwide through satellite TV and internet) was in a sense the culmination of such networking and resulted in a further explosion of prayer ministry around the world that continues to grow, thanks be to God!

“God by His Spirit was working so many agendas in the lives of those who took part that it is impossible to recount all that happened or was reported. So many said their lives and ministries would never be the same. We have received encouraging reports from a number of nations as participants have begun to implement strategies of prayer mobilization and other actions that they were inspired to undertake during the WPA. Praise God for all He did and continues to do through this gathering!”

Here is an inspiring video report about this great gathering that God used and continues to use so wonderfully to ignite so many other things: World Prayer Assembly https://youtu.be/qmDeuokTQ7I

Prayer initiatives, with teams of intercessors, have been undertaken over strategic issues in many nations, especially those caught up in awful wars and ethnic conflicts.  By the grace and goodness of the Lord, several hopeless wars have so far been ended, soon after national prayer initiatives (sometimes within a day or few days) that IPC teams were able to facilitate with local Christian leaders. In addition, three international initiatives were held within and for the United Nations with ambassadors, hundreds of prayer leaders and praying children from around the world as well as another arranged for Hollywood (the home of the film industry).  

Children in Prayer has been an important part of IPC initiatives, with leadership being given from the United States, Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia, and more recently India, but including CiP coordinators from 70-80 nations.  Consultations and leadership gatherings have been held in many nations along with three global CiP events that brought adults and children from scores of nations to pray, learn, and plan for the future of this movement. 

The recent Youth-focused prayer movement called the UPRising (United Prayer Rising) developed out of the World Prayer Assembly in Indonesia in 2012 and has seen further prayer and worship events in many nations since 2016.  Both of these key initiatives (Children and Youth) have produced another tier of leadership. The Global UPR called “World Generation” being held in Jakarta (January 23-26, 2019) is challenging the participants to find and engage in the unique missions the Lord has for each one, especially reaching the unreached with His Gospel in order to fulfil the Great Commission. 

The Global Issachar Group developed out of an initial consultation in Cyprus, with its focus on the dark places and powers, and it too has held gatherings in several nations in N. America, Europe & Asia.  

Each of these various above initiatives has developed out of or come under the umbrella of the IPC. But separately, and also strategic, have been a number of initiatives that others have spear-headed, and which have been incorporated into or led by those with close association with the IPC. Among these would be the emphasis on the 4/14 Window (led by Luis Bush) on mission to the generation included in that age range. This has focussed the minds of missiologists the world over.

The Global Day of Prayer ran annually out of a vision stemming from South Africa, and was led by Graham Power and Dawie and Isebel Spangenberg for great blessing to the international prayer movement and the many nations touched by it.

Praying through the 10/40 Window (led by Beverly Pegues) which originally emerged in the 1990’s has continued to be featured in our communications.

The IPC has sought to reflect the importance of praying for the Persecuted Church, for Muslim nations, for Governments, for war zones, and on issues concerning historic sins and brokenness with the need for identificational repentance and reconciliation.

In short, the IPC started off as a networking structure, but it has developed into taking many initiatives as well.  National Prayer initiatives have been undertaken in over 50 countries over the last 20 years, many in the really difficult nations on the planet. Generally, these initiatives have consisted of three days of prayer by local ministry leaders of all denominations in the spirit of 2 Chron. 7:14 led by John Robb with IPC colleagues on the ministry teams. It was discovered over and over again that as His people focused on repentance for corporate sins and reconciliation, God would bring about stunning breakthroughs, such as unexpected peace agreements ending wars, governments of national unity being formed, and spiritual revival happening among participating church and political leaders. Glory to the Lord!

The IPC has always sought to connect with and support other global initiatives - like Ethne - who are focused on Unreached People Groups and now we are focusing on the Go 2020 initiative to see a billion unreached people reached with the Gospel by May 2020 and the raising up of hundreds of millions of additional intercessors to engage for the fulfillment of Christ’s Great Commission, even as early as 2025- http://go2020.world. We are interested to maintain a close connection between prayer and mission in the spirit of the Moravians as we describe in this video: “The Spirit of the Moravians” (9-min & 3-min).

Links have also been maintained with the International Reconciliation Coalition, Global Church Planting Network, and prayer for the Persecuted church etc.

Our emphasis has always been on prayer for socio-political transformation and mission. We continue to be open to Spiritual Warfare, Spiritual Mapping, understanding the Spiritual Powers, Identificational Repentance and Reconciliation, on-site prayer, and governmental connections. We continue to have a deep desire for the unity of the Body of Christ and Word-based prayer.

Remaining challenges - unfinished business for the IPC and the international prayer movement

• Identifying and developing prayer in and for the “global gates” (major international institutions like the U.N., World Economic Forum, etc.) and international cities.
• Seeking God’s strategy and deliverance for the ‘dark places’ on planet earth.
• Developing technology and language translation in support of global prayer.
• Finance - raising more substantial support through the Transformation Prayer Foundation to meet ongoing costs of all we do and hope to do for the future.
• More effectively connecting prayer leaders, their ministries and networks in an ongoing way so that we can flow together, coordinating and supporting one another.
• Integrating more fully with the rising youth and children’s prayer movements and co-working with the Lord to raise up the next generation of mighty men and women of God to lead His people and reach our world with the Gospel

Important questions to consider for the future

1. Are we to be just a “network” of prayer movements, or are we called to do things together? Or both?
2. What else are we being called to be and do? What priorities should we focus on for the next 5-10 years?
3. How can we best steward the “New Wave” of transformational prayer and mission engagement coming out of the World Prayer Assembly and all that the Lord has done through the last couple of decades of various prayer initiatives seeking to unite Christ’s global prayer movement and see His breakthroughs?
4. Finding a new wineskin for the global prayer movement. How can we best reflect the inter-generational nature of what God is doing in global prayer at the current time?

If you have any suggestions in this great task of transforming our world through united prayer, we welcome your getting in touch with us. Please write to us at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Please also pray with us as our leadership meets to consider future directions and new leadership for the IPC just before the Global UPR youth prayer and mission event in Jakarta, January 23-26.

Brian Mills and John Robb

God is raising up prayer all around the world - and He is clearly using children in prayer to make an impact on a scale never seen before.

The Operation World team have released a new prayer resource for the world aimed at informing and mobilizing families and children - Window on the World. Although it's full of colourful photos and interesting facts, the purpose of this resource is to nurture in kids a spirit of prayer and a missional vision for God's world.

There are over 100 two-page spreads sharing stories and prayer needs of various countries, people groups, and religions around the world. It rests on Operation World's foundations of solid research, relational networks with Christian leaders all over the world, and a Biblical worldview in step with the Spirit.

This new edition (the previous one being published in 2001) includes a number of new entries in keeping with the needs of our world in 2018 - nations like Syria and South Sudan, peoples like the Rohingya and Somalis, and issues like Third Culture Kids. But beware: using with children might lead to them becoming intercessors, missionaries, or both!

If you have any specific ideas about movements and countries that might be interesting in larger scale purchases, I would expect that we might be able to negotiate special prices, or possibly even local print runs in other countries. One of the design elements was the ability to publish in full colour or in black and white if necessary. We're very keen to see it translated into other languages and printed and distributed where those other languages are spoken, for prices in keeping with those local economies.

Window on the World was Edited by Jason Mandryk and Molly Wall.

Order Window on the World: https://www.ivpress.com/window-on-the-world

Contact Jason Mandryk / Operation World: http://www.operationworld.org/jasonow-team

Warm greetings to you in the name of Christ our Lord!

These are exciting times for the Stop Child Witch Accusation coalition. The movement is gathering momentum, and more and more people are becoming aware of witchcraft accusations against children and committing to take action on the issue. 'The Heart of the Matter', our new training resource to help church leaders address witchcraft accusations is nearly ready, following a set of pilot events which exceeded all our expectations. And later this month, Pastor Ngolo of EPED and BCT's Carolyn Gent will represent SCWA at a United Nations workshop on witchcraft accusations, in Geneva.

With so many exciting and significant events happening around SCWA, and so much potential to scale-up what the coalition is doing, we need the support of our prayer partners more than ever. So we are inviting you to join us in a short prayer campaign in which we will lift to God our praise and petition and ask him to make possible what others say is impossible – bringing an end to this form of abuse against children. The campaign, ‘Standing in the Gap’, will run from now until January 2018. In this period, we will send you two bulletins a month, highlighting new points for prayer.

You will find the first batch of prayer points at: http://stop-cwa.org/posts/prayer-bulletin-no1-2017

We have seen on many occasions that God does amazing things when we pray. Thank you for standing with us in this new prayer initiative. I would be so grateful John if you would circulate this to others in your prayer networks, so that they too can join with us in praying for God to stir and equip his people to bring an end to this form of child suffering and abuse.

Grace and peace.

Susie Howe - Director
The Bethany Children’s Trust
http://www.bethanychildrenstrust.org.uk

On Oct 7th, there will be a children's intercession prayer conference with 1000 children.

All the children come from different orphanages and different churches too.

In this conference, the children participate in praising, worshiping, preaching and praying together for all the nations.

Please pray for our children’s prayer conference.

And please pray for our country too.

We believe that by our children's prayers God will do a great thing and a new thing in our country again.

Thanks and with much blessing,

Nandar