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This article was originally published in Edition (6) of Prayer Magazine, Apr-Jun 2006. Gloucester - Prayers from the Gloucester Cathedral Tower - On a warm evening in May thirty intrepid souls from a mixture of traditions, climbed the 269 steps to the top of the Cathedral Tower to pray God’s blessing on the city of Gloucester, the County and the Nation. ‘It was good to welcome friends from other churches and I pray this will be part of an exciting journey of Christians coming together in Gloucester more and more - opening their church doors and their hearts in new ways that God’s Holy Spirit may flow through this City and this nation flooding the lives of all people with the hope and love and peace of Christ’. We all released a balloon with a message in for the finder: ‘This balloon was released from the top of Gloucester Cathedral tower as part of a national week of prayer. May you know the love and peace of Christ in your heart and may God bless all the communities of this city.’ Merseyside - We started in Waterloo with the Prayer Leaders from the North West gathering with Godfrey Birtill. We even had time for a prayer meeting in the local Chinese restaurant. In the evening we had a full house as Godfrey led us in a very powerful rendition of "O For a Thousand Tongues". On Tuesday we prayed from Wirral and Waterloo across the mouth of the River Mersey before moving on to Southport. We prayer walked Churchtown before the North West Prayer School led the evening meeting. Wednesday we moved to Wirral and were joined and encouraged by Steve Houghton and Jonathan Benz. Thursday was a super day in St Helens with Arnold Mwonge - everyone was challenged, stretched and blessed. Friday and Saturday we held our ‘Hungry for God’ Conference in Huyton. We had Celia Collins, Lloyd Cooke and Arnold Mwonge; there was something for everyone as we held workshops for the men and the ladies. There were times of great breakthroughs for many people as they received fresh revelation and new touches from God. We are seeing major breakthroughs in our region as God is working and we continue to press in until we see full transformation. Brecon - In 2001 the foot and mouth crisis hit Great Britain with such a devastating effect that resulted in the closing down of the countryside and isolating the farmers. As we live in a rural part of Wales we sensed that we should have a walk once the paths were open to celebrate and praise God, and we decided to hold it during Prayer Week. May 2002 we gathered to worship and pray in a little rural church then walked the hills to another church, praising, praying and blessing the farms and villages. All ages came (youngest being 4 years old and eldest 80 years old.!!!!) all denominations traditional and charismatic. We enjoyed the fellowship, the walk in the beautiful hills, the picnic and praying for each other and the nation, realising that in Christ we have a common bond of faith and love with Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Lord and appreciated being able to share and pray with one another. This was such a success that we have done it each year since with other churches joining, including Welsh and English speaking chapels. We have gone from one valley to another standing in each others churches praying blessing on them. In 2005 we began the walk from Brecon Cathedral and the Dean sent us on our way encouraging us in an inspiring talk. We are a small community in rural Wales but we are Christians standing with Christians, Church with Church, Nation with Nation to see His Kingdom Come here on this earth. Seeking the Lord to bless our countryside and farming community in rural Wales. Anglesey - During the Prayer Week of 2003 Peter Cavasoz, a Pastor from Grand Saline in Texas, came to Anglesey in North Wales together with a team of six other men. When they left at the end of that week hearts from both sides of the Atlantic had been touched and joined together: “We have been blessed to be able to come to Wales and stand in prayer with you for this land. We are truly CHRISTIAN STANDING WITH CHRISTIAN, CHURCH STANDING WITH CHURCH, NATION STANDING WITH NATION and now friends standing with friends.” (Peter Cavasoz) One of the highlights of Peter’s visit in 2005 was an inter-church breakfast on the Saturday morning followed by a prayer walk to the top of Holyhead Mountain. A wooden cross was carried to the highest point and then lifted up as we together proclaimed the cross of Christ over the whole island. The Americans were also introduced to a new a prayer pattern – the prayer scrum (absolutely essential for huddling together as a group in the biting wind!) Once again this year Peter will sacrifice his time and his finances to travel thousands of miles from the USA to stand with us during Prayer Week. Why? Because he loves this land and he loves the people. Malvern - 2005 was the first year we in the town of Malvern actively participated in Prayer Week. Individuals commit to praying for Malvern for one hour each week through the year. As close to our heart prayer is, we are also looking for unity between churches and the PRAYER WATCH has helped achieve that, with members from 12 churches participating, It was hard work 'selling' the idea of Prayer Week but with Steve's help we stirred up God's people who had come together from Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire to join in. We opened a prayer room for continuous prayer all week. People from many traditions came. On the Saturday we had a prayer picnic at the Worcestershire Beacon on top of the Malvern Hills. We joined in praising God and then prayed for and into the cities and towns spread below us. There were no immediate answers to prayer but the sense of unity and expectancy as we prayed was wonderful. We prayed for THE BLESSING OF JESUS TO BE IN THOSE PLACES, THE LOVE OF JESUS TO BE ON THE PEOPLE IN THOSE PLACES AND THAT THE HOLY SPIRIT WOULD CHANGE THE ATMOSPHERE IN THE TOWNS & CITIES WE SAW BENEATH US. For many years I had dreamt and longed to see such a gathering of united Christians praying up there like that and my dream was realised on May 14th 2005 for which I thank God. I wonder what Prayer Week 2006 will bring forth?! By Gwen Plunkett Stoke on Trent (United Christian Broadcasters) - After a full 10 days of 24 hour live on air radio, Anne Henderson, one of the senior presenters at UCB Radio said this. We were so encouraged by the way every presenter has really got behind and ran with this whole 10 days, not only do presenters want to go on air and do a really good programme, they want to see God changing lives, they are really encouraged and excited with all the guests we have had in who have just shared their hearts and also led us all in prayer. There is just an expectancy that has been here since the first day last Friday and is still very much there one week on, there has been more prayers between presenters, and indeed the rest of the broadcast department. Off air you can see presenters praying with guests and for guests and vice versa. Jersey (St Helier) - Our Prayer Week drop-in cafe -'The Prayer Place' is open from 8am to 8pm daily for the week, in the main pedestrian precinct in our capital town, St Helier. It is being run in conjunction with 'Walk Jersey' - an Island-wide mission with trained teams working with many of our local churches in evangelistic outreach, with many events, street and house-to house visitation, healing services etc. Many are coming to Christ.
A steady trickle of people are dropping in for prayer and help, and many valuable conversations are happening. There is a strong possibility that some of the church congregations in the town could join forces to make this kind of place a permanent fixture. Please pray for us as we work on this.
Newcastle - Prayer Cruise on Tyneside - over 25 churches represented: ‘The Quayside was crowded with people watching the raising of the 'blinking eye' Millennium Bridge and the opening of the Swing Bridge 400 yards further up river to allow the passage of the boat. We sang 'Come , now is the time' and our voices echoed as we passed under the Tyne bridge, the High Level Bridge and the Redheugh Bridge.We turned and passed under them a second time and the voice of Pastor Eddie Nichols echoed to the banks of the Tyne as he lead us in prayer for Tyneside. We made prayers of proclamation together as we made our way to the mouth of the Tyne. We had over 20 children on board and they had a time of leading us in prayer for their schools, and churches and youth leaders. They also had a good chance to let of steam with a lively time of worship music - 'Our God is a Great Big God'.
Belfast - About 250 people from different parts of Northern Ireland and a small group from the South gathered in Christian Fellowship Church, Belfast for the prayer concert with Godfrey Birtill. There was very good representation from many different denominations and it was a real encouragement to see the distance people had travelled to be there. It was an amazing evening and there was a great sense of unity among us. After introductions, Godfrey led off in his own style of leading worship. There was a great sense of calling on the Lord for our city. Although this was a prayer event we did not break into smaller groups to pray specifically over issues. Instead, the focus was on the Lord and on a corporate expression of praise and acknowledging His greatness. The cross was central to the worship. After an extended period of praise where Godfrey used a number of his new songs, as well as a very old Moravian hymn, folks moved to a time of personal response. It was inspiring to realise we were joining in prayer with 49 other nations. We finished up standing together, acknowledging that we need to stand together in unity in this city, in this nation and across the nations.
London (Woolwich) - 17 of us from Ichthus Woolwich Community Church each signed up to pray for an hour, either daily for 10 days or for an hour on certain days. I was a bit slow organising it (our first time of doing it) but plan to be much more proactive and involved next time. UPDATE - Since then a small team from Woolwich have been to the Prayer Week Preparation conference and plans are afoot for much more this year. Prayer Week is what you make it! Christian standing with Christian, Church standing with Church, Nation standing with Nation
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