Displaying items by tag: Candy Marballi

Tom Victor of ‘Great Commission Coalition’ and Candy Marballi of ‘The Children’s Prayer Covenant’ (both are members of the IPC’s Leadership Team) have put together a special selection of stories about how children around the world are and will be involved with Go 2020 Kids.  We trust you will be encouraged to pray for and get involved with these initiatives!

It may be the largest united evangelistic outreach in history as churches, denominations, ministries, networks and even movements have united together with the goal of mobilizing 100 million believers to pray for and to reach out to 1 billion others during the month of May 2020.

The theme has been, “Every Believer A Witness!” And children have been invited to join us.

But why children? What can they do? How will they be involved? Great questions!

Remember when parents wanted to bring their children to meet Jesus and his disciples tried to stop them? When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” Mark 10:14

Jesus was really angry with his disciples. He wanted the children to come to him so he could bless them. He said the kingdom of God belongs to them.

In another place his disciples wanted to know who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. What did Jesus do? He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:2-3

Children are a top priority to Jesus.

• He wants them to come to him
• He tells us the kingdom belongs to them
• He tells us that we need to become like them in order to enter the kingdom of heaven

We’ve put together some stories about how children around the world are and will be involved with Go 2020 Kids. But first we want to share briefly how God has used kids throughout history. And we want to share how you can be involved in helping to empower the children you love to become Go 2020 Kids.

But before we go further, there are a couple of rules we want you to follow.

Rule #1:  You should only read these stories if you are a kid or were a kid sometime in your life. (Otherwise you probably won’t understand them at all!)

Rule #2:  You should pray and ask God if he wants you to know about Go 2020 Kids. (That way, if he says “Yes,” you can ask him to help you see the children the way he does and you can plan time to read the stories or watch the videos later if you are too busy right now.)

Rule #3:  Ask God to show you if there is someone he wants you to share about Go 2020 Kids

OK, let’s get started with The Historical Testimony - how God used Children throughout history. Here’s a little 3-minute animated video to share that story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-_qCB2pAAI&t=7s

Go 2020 Kids and Children in Prayer: More recently, beginning 25 years ago, 40 children were invited to be delegates at a Global Mission Conference. God moved and the Children In Prayer Movement was launched. Here’s the story of their part with Go 2020 Kids. 
**(#2 World Shapers Club)

The 4 to 14 Window Movement launched in 2009, calling on the Global Church to focus on Children, ages 4 to 14. In a few short years it spread to almost every nation on the planet. While calling the Church to reach these who were the most responsive to the gospel, it also challenged us to release them to be “full partners” in God’s mission. There is no Junior Holy Spirit. Here’s a 3 minute animated video introduction:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7AS24VlydM&t=27s

Go 2020 and the Prayer Covenant for Children. Prayer, of course, is our First Action. World Shapers and the Royal Kids have been praying faithfully for Go 2020 Kids, as have others. The Prayer Covenant for Children, our first “official” partner, was the one that provided the key Prayer Resource for Go 2020 Kids.

In less than six years God has used the Prayer Covenant for Children to disciple more than 5 million children in 50+ nations into a “life-style” of prayer. As you read further, you will hear reports from Go 2020 Kids Team members in Africa, Asia and around the world sharing about the power of the Prayer Covenant for Children. You well also meet some of them through these two Prayer Covenant for Children equipping videos produced for a 4 to 14 Window Global Forum. I’m sure they will inspire you to consider how this key Go 2020 Kids Prayer Resource could impact you children, grandchildren, church or ministry. It’s all downloadable for free!

Prayer Covenant for Children - Part 1

Prayer Covenant for Children - Part 2

Download the Best News Ever e-book pdf which explains the Gospel message to children.

Download the Prayer Covenant e-booklet

Download the Prayer Covenant bookmark

Asia holds ½ of the world’s children - 1 billion of the 2 billion children on the planet under the age of 15. And because of the deep entrenchment of religious and political systems that resist the message of Christ, it is also the region of the world least reached by the gospel. How could Go 2020 Kids help to change that?

Go 2020 Kids Southeast Asia and Campus Crusade for Christ - The 11 nations of Southeast Asia are amazingly in the diversity of their peoples, religions and cultures. But there is a vision to see their children discover their common identity in Christ.
**(#3 Go 2020 Kids: Cru Southeast Asia)

Go 2020 Kids Northeast Asia and YWAM Kings Kids - Go 2020 represents the largest united prayer and evangelistic thrust in history. Asia represents ½ of the world’s children. What could happen if God continued to unite the whole Church to be “on mission” with him, including the children. Let’s be the answer to the prayer of Jesus!
**(#4 Go 2020 Kids: Kings Kids International - Taiwan)

Africa is by far the youngest continent with 41% of the population under 15 years of age. They had major plans to mobilize one million Prayer Covenant Children to reach 20 million other children with the gospel for Go 2020 Kids. Covid-19 altered the plans but not the passion. You can hear how God is using 9-year old Gifty from Togo to mobilize and lead other children to Christ as well as from Elias, the Continental Director and Apollos, the Nigerian Director on Part 2 of the Prayer Covenant for Children Video above. Here’s the Go 2020 Kids update from Elias for Africa and from Fidele in Burkina Faso.
**(#5 Go 2020 Kids: Prayer and Outreach – Africa)

Hadassah is a 13-year old missionary with a passion for God and for lost people. She became a missionary at age 8. She knows the power of fasting and prayer and how God can use anyone, even children. She recently shared a challenge on the World Prayer Together call with leaders from around the world. Now she wants to help other children find their calling as Go 2020 Kids. She’s written up a bit of her story for you here.
**(#6 Hadassah Lawson’s Inspiring Testimony)

Children by Nations helps us see what we sometimes miss. There are more than 2 billion children under the age of 15, almost 26% of the world’s population. India has the most with more than 376 million. It is a major focus for Go 2020 Kids. More than 41% of Africa is under 15. Only 3% are over 65. You can download the document Children by Nation to see where the children live. Many have found it helpful to focus their prayers.
**(#7Children by Nations)

From the very beginning of Go 2020 Kids many on our team felt this was more about a “life-style” than it was about a “campaign month.” COVID-19 has certainly shifted many of the planned events and caused everyone to think differently. Go 2020 has now become a call for all of us to Go – for the whole year – and beyond. But for the Children we are seeing new opportunities, something we are calling the Go 2020 Kids ‘Good News’ Super Challenge.

• It’s a call for children everywhere to step up and take the Greatest Super-Power ever, God’s love, to someone that needs it most.
• It’s a call for us “older kids” to step up and become “coaches” and “encouragers,” to help the children learn to hear from the Super Coach. He wants them fully active on his team - but there are many others seeking to distract them.
• And it’s also a call for us “older kids” to find our “inner child” because Jesus himself told us that, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3)

Here’s our Working Draft of the Go 2020 Kids “Good News” Super Challenge. It is a Working Draft because it will need to be contextualized for every culture and every family and every child.  
(#8 Go 2020 Kids “Good News” Super Challenge)

Pray for Go 2020 Kids:

• Pray that God would visit and pour out His Spirit on children around the world during this Pentecost season - in fulfillment of Joel 2:28
• Pray that God would help us all to see the 2+ billion children in the world as “full partners” in God’s mission - in fulfillment of Matthew 19:14
• Pray that God would help us “older children” to discover our true Kingdom identity as children - in fulfillment of Matthew 18:1-5

More info on most of the resources on GO2020 Kids can be found here: http://www.prayercovenant.org/go2020-kids.html  

See the GO2020 Resources page here: https://go2020usa.com/resources/

Luke 11 opens with the disciples’ simple request, Lord teach us to pray. Since its first publication in 2014, when Tom Victor invited us to launch this book at the 4/14 Best Practices Conference in NYC, God has used The Prayer Covenant for Children to share the gospel message and disciple the hearts of children while teaching them to pray. As children experience the power of answered prayer, they are excited, their faith is strengthened, and they want to pray more.

Prayer is one of the most important spiritual disciplines we can teach our children because prayer nurtures their relationship with Jesus and produces faith that will last a lifetime. The more time they spend with Jesus, the more they become like Jesus—full of his grace, love, compassion and forgiveness. In becoming more like Jesus, they begin to see the world through his eyes and are burdened for those around them. Daily they are praying, “Use me for your glory and to invite others to follow you.” And Jesus is answering their prayers. It is why we have partnered with Go2020 and are excited to see this untapped harvest force being used by God to reach the world for Christ.

God is using The Prayer Covenant to facilitate a movement of prayer and evangelism among children and youth worldwide.  As children embark on this prayer journey, they are experiencing God in powerful ways. They are learning how to obey him and respond to the promptings of his Holy Spirit.

Learning to listen is something children are discovering as they grow in a lifestyle of prayer. Our listening to God is as important as our prayers. He speaks through his Word, and often through the gentle promptings of his Holy Spirit. Young Samuel in the Bible learned to discern his voice and God was able to use him to lead a nation.

The mission of The Prayer Covenant is our passion: leading children and adults to follow Jesus through the power of the Prayer Covenant. As we are equipping children with this tool, God is miraculously working in and through them in powerful ways. We have reached over 4 million children in 53 countries worldwide— 4 million children following Jesus together! 4 million children learning to hear and obey his voice!

The Prayer Covenant is not just about establishing a lifestyle of prayer, but about raising life-long disciples of Jesus Christ. It is not just a prayer to pray for the sake of praying, it is an active prayer, seeking results in our lives. 

Dear heavenly Father,
Thank you for loving me and making me one of your children.
Help me love and obey you.
Help me love others the way you love me.
I am sorry for my sins. Wash me clean.
I will praise you with my whole heart!
Jesus, I want to follow you as my Lord. Change me any way you want.
Fill me with your Holy Spirit. I want to know your plans for me.
Make me a messenger of your grace, truth and justice.
Use me for your glory and to invite others to follow you.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Manjeet Kaur, from North India, is fruit of the Sunday school where she learned about Jesus Christ through The Power of the Prayer Covenant for Children.  Our leader there shared:

“Manjeet was born and brought up in a Hindu family. Being Hindu they used to worship idols and believing all rituals. Her father used to drink and always fought with her mother and beat her. Once our coach visited her house and invited her to Sunday school. For one year Manjeet attended regularly and learned about Jesus and received him into her life. She invited her teacher to come to her house and talk with her father. He prayed for her father and said, ‘Jesus will give you living water if you will believe in Him.’ After listening, her Father responded positively and showed interest to know more about Jesus. A few days later her father left his drinking habit and believed in Jesus Christ. His life has changed and is experiencing the true peace only Jesus can give. Their entire family has become Christ followers.”

One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts. They will speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty…. Psalm 145:4,5

Together let us seize the eternally purposed opportunity to lead our hearts and the hearts of our children directly to all that is true and good: to Christ Himself. 

Candy Marballi – IPC Leadership Team
www.theprayercovenant.org/children/index.html