A Year to Change the World by 24-7 Prayer

A year to change the world - How to catalyse a year of 24-7 Prayer

Contents

What’s the big idea?

Turning Vision into reality

Working with others How 24-7 Prayer can support you Partnerships

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Resourcing your year of prayer

Case Studies from Years of Prayer

a. Why pray? b. What is 24-7 Prayer? c. Why pray for a year: 24-7-365?

Listening to God – knowing why you’re praying Building a good team Prayer support for your team The six month countdown Spreading the word

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Example resources from other years of prayer Key resources 24-7 Prayer can offer

A year to change the world - How to catalyse a year of 24-7 Prayer

What’s the big idea?

a. Why Pray? Conversation is the heartbeat of relationship and prayer is the place we catch a glimpse of the unfathomable God we love. The bible plants the seed of understanding, the Holy Spirit waters and tends to it, but it’s prayer – that continual connection to life’s source – that deepens the roots and brings growth.

“Our Father… your Kingdom come, your will be done…” Matthew 6:9-10 We pray because God wants to spend time with us; and we pray because He is our only hope in this beautiful but broken world. To engage God through prayer, as an individual, a community or even a nation, is undoubtedly one of the most dynamic things we can do. There isn’t just one reason why we should pray. Our lives are supposed to be spent discovering one after another, after another. Will you join us?

b. What is 24-7 Prayer? 24-7 Prayer is an international, interdenominational movement of prayer, mission and justice that began in England with a creative, student-led prayer vigil in 1999. The idea is simple: find a place to pray, fill it with creative ways to talk to God, and get your community to sign up for an hour at a time to create a chain of prayer that continues unbroken for a week or more. This night and day prayer model has facilitated unity amongst generations and most streams of the Christian Church. 24-7 Prayer Rooms have spread into over 100 nations, in nearly every continent on earth.

“We had 4 teenagers become Christians a few days ago - they came down to the prayer room and the team asked if they wanted to feel the presence of God and we prayed over them and they felt God's presence and said yes to beginning the journey with him!” From a 24-7 Prayer Room in Iceland

For more than a decade the 24-7 Prayer movement has continued unbroken, impacting locations as diverse as the US Naval Academy, a German punk festival, war-zones and underground churches, the slums of Delhi, the jungles of Papua New Guinea, ancient English cathedrals and even a brewery in Missouri. Along the way, this unusual prayer meeting has given rise to numerous new initiatives, communities and ministries and many have focused on the poor, the marginalised, students and young people.

“Launching 24-7 Prayer in one of our inner-city church properties has probably been the most important thing we have done to date” Dr. Timothy M. Johns, Kansas City, USA Most communities pray 24-7 for a week or two, but soon after it’s inception, the idea of creating a chain of 24-7 Prayer Rooms to fill a year with focused prayer was born. Different denominations, countries, states, ministries and church communities have felt called to take on the challenge of praying 24-7-365. Often a year of prayer is not held in one location but in multiple places uniting a country, city or denomination in the common purpose of mission-minded prayer. As a praying movement we’re learning to go where the Spirit is leading, and it seems a 'Year of Prayer’ is one of those places.

c. Why pray for a year: 24-7-365?

“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14 A year of prayer has a great impact on the people taking part. Here are just a few things we’ve seen God do through this challenge to seek Him:

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A year to change the world - How to catalyse a year of 24-7 Prayer

Unity - 24-7 Prayer is a concept which appeals to all ages, and which brings very different people together. In the realm of prayer, this is a very powerful concept. Almost without exception, churches/groups have experienced this ‘togetherness’ in prayer as they’ve risked running 24-7 Prayer Rooms. But a year of 24-7 Prayer Rooms, across a network, connects these individual churches/groups together and fuses the ‘local’ 24-7 Prayer Room activity with a greater initiative and identity. Unity in prayer, for the sake of mission, is a very powerful concept. Commitment - There is something powerful

about a whole movement committing to a long period of prayer. Many people shared with us their concerns that we would never find enough churches to sign up, and that those who did sign up would not be able to sustain 168 hours of non-stop prayer. Many of the amazing stories we have heard have started: ‘I never thought I could pray for that long, but once I’d decided to do it…’ We are living proof that God honours serious commitment in prayer. Whether each church/group commits themselves to one 24-hour period of prayer, a whole week or more, there will be a cost, but these sacrifices of prayer and praise are worth something immeasurable.

Breakthrough - When we hear God and respond to his call to prayer, these sustained periods of costly prayer often bring about surprising ‘breakthroughs’. It may be a turning point in the lives of individuals, a new focus and commitment to where God is asking us to go, a fresh vision or a renewed faith from answered prayer. New priorities

– Prayer is a priority for the global church. Scripture emphasizes the need to intercede and communicate continually with our Father in Heaven. As we lay aside our priorities and agendas and take time to wait on God and seek Him, He meets with us and begins to transform our hearts, minds and even our prayers. There is no magic formula to prayer. There is no guarantee that our circumstances will drastically and immediately change if we spend a few hours or a few days in prayer. But God calls us to pray nonetheless. God promises to hear our prayers, to be with us and to advance His Kingdom.

"Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up." Luke 18:1 If you’re sensing God calling you and your friends, network, denomination, city or nation to a year of prayer then the 24-7 team can help. Throughout this resource you will find advice distilled from years of experience on how to plan and catalyse a year of 24-7-365 prayer.

Turning vision into reality

Listening to God – knowing why you’re praying Where better to start anything than by hearing God?! Leading a year of prayer is a BIG task so having God in the center, and His direction as your focus will certainly make things run much smoother. The most important way to start your year of prayer is to hear God on the vision and purpose for the year. If you’re not sure timing or focus, we encourage you to pray and ask God to show you. Years of prayer have been called to galvanise the church to intercede for a place, an issue or for the presence of God. You may be reading this resource because God has already spoken and now you are ready to act, if not here are a few questions to help you consider: 1. Who are you calling to pray? Is your year of 24-7 Prayer for a generation, denomination, city, state/province or nation? 2. Is there a key bible verse or theme that you will be focusing on? 3. Look at the people around you and the places where you live. What needs or problems can you see? 4. What change do you want to see? 5. How could a praying, loving community greater affect your context? Once you know why you’re praying, consider how you will motivate prayer for your vision throughout the year. Could the theme be broken down into monthly or weekly focuses? How can you take the greater vision and refine it into smaller, measurable prayer points?

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A year to change the world - How to catalyse a year of 24-7 Prayer How could people take part in creatively praying for these issues in a 24-7 Prayer Room, with their church or on their own? The answers to these questions will be vital when you come to communicate the vision and produce resources.

Building a Good Team Organising a Year of Prayer (YOP) takes more time than you would imagine! Planning the year alone is not recommended. It is essential that the lead co-ordinator and any others who are taking a leading role in the year of 24-7 Prayer, have a strong faith in Jesus, a personal commitment to prayer and have experienced a 24-7 Prayer Room for themselves. This might mean that people need to go and visit one, spend some time in one and even discuss the practicalities with someone who has already run one first. They also need to have a fairly good grasp of what resources and materials are available on the 24-7 Prayer website that can be ordered or adapted for their context. Practical tasks related to a year of prayer covered by the planning team would include: • Spreading the vision • Recruiting groups/churches to fill the slots for the week

• Communicating regularly with 24-7 Prayer internationally or in your nation to let us know how it's going and to ask us for advice and support With many of these tasks, the lead co-ordinator may simply be making sure that they are fulfilled, rather than actually doing them all herself/himself. That’s why team is so important! If the co-ordinator can delegate tasks well and cover everything that needs to get done, things will run much smoother. The support of a team is also really important to the person leading a Year of Prayer even if the leader takes the lion’s share of the work. When forming a year of prayer team, we suggest that there are three skill sets that effectively catalyse and support a vision this ambitious. We’ve affectionately nicknamed these skills sets as: a Salesman (someone who can communicate the vision and stir up passion and excitement), a Secretary (someone who can maintain the administration and is gifted at organization) and a Specialist (someone who can respond to questions and concerns about prayer and guide groups on how they might use the Prayer Room to develop the wider prayer life of the church). These roles (and the names we’ve just given them) are only suggestions. Please take from them what is useful to your context. These are some of the tasks each role could fulfill…

• Providing or directing people to information and resources (i.e. the 24-7 Prayer Manual, Red Moon Rising) to help groups prepare to pray • Being available (on the phone) to answer questions, field enquiries and deal with all the complicated practical questions, such as child-protection, security issues, etc. • Maintaining contact with the prayer rooms, phoning them before, during and after their allotted 24-7 Prayer weeks to encourage and support them (we can help you!) • Gathering stories, feedback and the sense of what God is saying/doing in and through the prayer rooms • Maintaining a website, facebook group, twitter feed, youtube channel or contributing to news outlets (if these exist) to keep the vision alive

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A year to change the world - How to catalyse a year of 24-7 Prayer Sales People: Sales people can sell the con-

cept of a year of a 24-7 Year of Prayer to anyone. They tend to be gifted communicators who can not only explain the vision but relate it to the audience they’re addressing. It helps if they are equipped with the latest stories to share, facts, figures and resources to communicate 24-7. They also need time and opportunities (online or in person) to do their task. Sales people often drum up a lot of interest but aren’t great at equipping people practically.

Secretary: Secretaries need to be good

administrators. Administratively gifted people are vital for resourcing and supporting the people praying. A secretary would usually be a faithful and consistent person who is confident corresponding and speaking with a wide variety of people and able to monitor Prayer Rooms and respond to their needs. They are often the person who sends out resources and contacts participants throughout the process, gathering testimonies after people have prayed. They are good at reassuring and encouraging and staying on top of the organisation behind supporting multiple groups.

Specialist: Specialists have a passion for prayer and experience, knowledge and enthusiasm wider than just Prayer Rooms. They should have a grasp of the wider prayer movement and be aware of the people and further resources we have available. The role of a Specialist is that of a conduit – they don’t need to have all the answers but they do need to know what direction to point someone in. Specialists would be in regular touch with groups who are exploring prayer after praying 24-7. They may have a bank of resources at their disposal or have a list of recommended reading or organisations they can equip churches with. Ultimately they are responsible for asking two questions: 1) What has God said to you? And 2) How are you going to respond? Sometimes the job is done in the asking, other times the response may be accompanied by requests for advice. A specialist enjoys encouraging people further in prayer. Most people are one if not two of the above. Which of these do you think you relate to most? Do any of them seem challenging to you? Answering those questions immediately gives you an idea of what strengths you might be looking for in other team members. It’s natural for people to recruit

or attract someone similar to them; by looking at the three S's you can see where you may need someone different to your strengths to solidify your year of prayer.

Prayer support for your team Nothing catalyses prayer like prayer! If God has called your nation, denomination or network to pray then He will work with you to make it happen. We highly recommend that you have a rhythm of prayer within you team and recruit people to be praying for you as you prepare and embark on your Year of Prayer. Generally, when we start doing awesome things for God, the enemy isn’t happy. 24-7 Prayer encourages all team and leaders to have people praying for them to invest in what they’re doing and to protect them. What better way to catalyze prayer than to ask people to start praying for it and the people involved? If you’re not sure how to go about organising prayer support then just ask three friends to pray for you on a regular basis and send them weekly or monthly prayer updates with strategic requests.

"Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail." Luke 22:31-32 The six-month count down Planning well ahead will help your year of prayer run smoothly. There have been times when God has spoken and just a month later prayer has begun. If you feel clearly that God has called you to dive in then go for it, but if God’s call is to pray, and there is no direction to start immediately then take some time to prepare. We recommend planning six months ahead. If you have this time then we would recommend you:

6 months before: Pray about the vision and start sharing it with people. Start asking people if they would be interested in being involved. Get a team together.

4 months before: Have a theme for the year. Start intentionally meeting with people to share the vision. Launch the vision to your networks. Have a website set up with resources available.

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A year to change the world - How to catalyse a year of 24-7 Prayer Set up social media (like Twitter) and Facebook events/pages. Make sure your team has assigned tasks and roles.

3 months before: Have all your resources avail-

able to be sent out. Make the online sign up available and communicate it to all your networks. Plan your launch and invite people.

2 months before: As the beginning soon approaches, start planning meetings with your team to make sure all the tasks are being accomplished. Consider running training days for those organising prayer rooms. Send out resource packs. Work on the launch details. Continue to champion the vision at all opportunities and through all media and mediums available. 1 month before: By this point, you should have

at least your first month and hopefully the first third of your year filled. The month before you start and the month after will be very important to really start creating momentum. Follow up with everyone you’ve invited to the launch, talk about it everywhere you go and continue to encourage as much partnership as possible. Are there creative ways to connect the year of prayer or for people to express their involvement?

Spreading the word & Maintaining Momentum Social media

Facebook groups / fan pages / events, twitter feeds, youtube channels, podcasting, Google+ circles and any other social networking and media you could think of is a great way to communicate what you’re doing and telling stories. Consider who you want to communicate with and target the medium they are most likely to interact with. Use these tools to keep the focus for prayer fresh in the minds of your network.

Building a good database

communication group and how and when you want to talk with them.

The power of a well-told story

Communicating what God is doing through prayer really helps people understand the vision, encourages faith and will motivate them to join in. Contact groups after their time of prayer to find out what happened, have them send you pictures and tell you their stories. News from the ground of answered prayer and changed lives is one of the biggest momentum builders! Plan how you will capture what God is doing throughout the year and how you’ll spread the word to others.

Gathering points

Many of the most successful years of 24-7 Prayer have had some kind of tour within them to constantly call people to pray. Coming together at least once, but if possible three to four times in the year will give all the people involved a great opportunity to connect in person, pray together and hear stories of what’s happening throughout your year of prayer. This may be difficult if your year of prayer is in a large country, in which case organize regional gatherings.

Working with others

How 24-7 Prayer can support you The 24-7 International Prayer team can connect you with experienced 24-7 leaders in your nation or continent (where available). Our experience and resources are designed to bless movements of prayer and to be adapted for different contexts. Email yearsofprayer@24-7prayer.com to connect and discover the tools (like online resourcing, sign up applications for prayer rooms and more) are available to help make your year of prayer happen.

We strongly recommend putting all your email contacts in a group to easily send out regular updates and stories in the approach to and throughout your Year of Prayer. Regular dynamic communication strengthens vision, focus and maintains momentum. Consider who should be part of this

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A year to change the world - How to catalyse a year of 24-7 Prayer

Partnerships Get as many people involved in prayer as possible! Weather you’re facilitating your year of prayer in your city, denomination or nation, try to share the vision with as many people as you can. Spend focused time on developing partners to join in the year of prayer. Jesus’ prayer in John 17 is a great reminder of His heart for unity and partnership in the gospel. Many people who have led years of prayer in the past, when looking back, wish they had spent more time developing partnerships and gotten more people involved. When considering partners, a few questions you could ask are: a. Why are you praying? b. Who shares the same vision for prayer? c. What mission or justice organizations share the same passion for the change you want your prayers to make? d. What church streams would be open to this idea? Writing out your vision, mission and goals will be important when it comes time to partner with others. The clearer you can be about why you’re praying the better. In some nations there is a national expression of the 24-7 Prayer movement. If you would like to investigate partnering with national 24-7 Prayer teams then contact yearsofprayer@24-7prayer.com.

Malaysia 2012: A Year of 24-7 Prayer for Justice

This fantastic resource not only clearly outlines the vision of the year of prayer, it breaks the vision down into creative prayer room ideas, a time line throughout the year and prayer points.

Kingdom Come 2012: UK & Ireland

This resource is an example of how the international ‘How to host a 24-7 Prayer Room’ resource can be adapted to represent the vision of your year.

Campus America 2010

This year of prayer across the University and College Campuses of the USA tailored 24-7 Prayer to a specific generation and culture.

Key resources 24-7 Prayer can offer 24-7 Prayer has created many resources to resource your year of prayer.

The 24-7 Prayer Manual by Pete Greig & Carla Harding The 24-7 Prayer Manual is a book written by Pete Greig that is a must have resource as you plan your year of prayer and individual 24-7 Prayer Rooms. It’s full of vision, great tips, ideas and reflections on leading prayer. It’s a must read!

Resourcing your year of prayer

We strongly recommend developing tailored resources for your year of prayer. Take the work you did on the vision and the resources 24-7 Prayer can offer and consider what resource will best equip those praying. For inspiration see the examples below.

Example resources from previous years of 24-7 Prayer There have been many years of prayer around the world since the turn of the Millenium. Here are a few examples of how nations or networks have resourced their people to pray:

How to Host a 24-7 Prayer Room, a free PDF: This is a condensed, free, downloadable guide to running a 24-7 Prayer Room and can be adapted to use for your year of prayer. Contact yearsofprayer@24-7prayer.com to find out how. Red Moon Rising by Pete Greig & Dave Roberts:

This is the first book ever written about the 24-7 Prayer movement which is also full of vision and amazing stories from around the world about what God is doing through lives as they pray. This is an incredibly effective resource for stirring up a hunger for prayer.

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A year to change the world - How to catalyse a year of 24-7 Prayer www.24-7prayer.com: For a minimal cost 24-7 Prayer can host a Year of Prayer page on the international website. This page could include: your vision, a calendar for the year, links to register, further links to other websites and resources. Please contact us if you’re interested in exploring this.

CASE STUDIES FROM YEARS OF PRAYER

Over the past ten years the ‘Year of Prayer’ vision has grown and multiplied. Countries, denominations, cities, states and even University campuses have united to pray like never before. It is amazing what God has done through prayer! These are just a few of the stories.

Praying as a State: Arizona

A Registration System: When you register your

year of prayer with 24-7, an option is included within the international prayer room sign up system to be part of your year of prayer. This is a really great tool to help people manage and keep track of all the weeks/days that are being filled. When the group registers their room they will also be sent an online sign up sheet.

The vision of Torch, what they call this Year of Prayer initiative, was initially to organize and equip fifty-two local prayer teams who would each cover one week of non-stop prayer in 2008. The response to the vision, along with the obvious favor of the Lord upon it, has compelled them to continue non-stop prayer in Arizona. Similar to the passing of the baton in a relay race, the “prayer torch” will be passed to a new prayer team each week. For each prayer team’s assigned week, they will cover all-day, all-night prayer from some predetermined location. People from all over the state of Arizona, USA have been involved.. To date the Torch has been in over 150 churches of all different denominations. The Torch has also been hosted in schools, businesses, hospital chapels, jails, hotels and even a casino!

Online sign up sheets: Each registered 24-7

“Since having unbroken prayer in the State of

Further 24-7 Prayer Room Resources: Many supplementary resources have been written for prayer rooms including 60-minute prayer guides, creative prayer ideas, videos, animations, teaching and more. Many are free and available for you to use. If you would like to have them customized, for minimal cost it could be done. Again contact yearsofprayer@24-7prayer.com for more information

Deb Fritch.

Prayer Room receives a link to a userfriendly online sign up page for their room.

Arizona for almost four years we have seen the level of prayer increase greatly. We hear of new houses of prayer opening, churches opening prayer rooms and many new corporate meetings starting. The hunger for the Presence of God is rising! We have seen crime rates drop, a 120 year record snow fall and rivers start to run that were dry. We have seen laws made that secure the rights of the unborn, family and marriage. Churches are coming together for the sake of the Kingdom of God and a harvest of souls coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. We are seeing the very spiritual atmosphere over our State start to change… we know we still have a long way to go, but we also haven’t stopped praying!”

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A year to change the world - How to catalyse a year of 24-7 Prayer

Praying as a Denomination: The Salvation Army, UK

tian communities. They are also part of the world-wide Salvation Army year of 24-7 Prayer.

From May 2001 – May 2002 the Salvation Army in the UK led the first ever YoP. The vision was to see the Salvation Army in the UK re-awakened in prayer, saturated in the Spirit of God and set on fire for mission again. Approximately 200 churches and groups participated. The Salvation Army entirely administrated this year of prayer but adapted and used all of 24-7 Prayer’s resources for their own audience. They had prayer rooms all over the nation, in churches, homeless hostels, administrative offices, summer camps and many other places.

“24-7 Prayer has been our life blood, our fuel for hearing from the Lord and rising up against the plans and schemes of the evil one in our midst. Prayer has formed us as a people, knit us close together, inspired us to acts of love, justice and mercy, humbled us in the presence of God and reminded us that we are his beloved children.” Aaron White

“By the end of the 20th century, The Salva-

tion Army in the UK had got to the place where we knew the importance of prayer but we also knew we weren’t living it. A year of 24-7 prayer broke something for us – we suddenly found that we could pray for hours, and we wanted to! We suddenly found that everyone could get involved in prayer in a way that suited their personality. We found that we could really become fruitful again if we put mission at the heart of our prayer and prayer at the heart of our mission.” Lyndall Bywater

Praying in Poverty: Canadian’s Poorest Postal Code, Vancouver BC The Salvation Army 614 community in the downtown east side (DTES) of Vancouver prayed from 2004-2008 in a slum hotel right on the corner of the main intersection of their community. In the four square blocks surrounding this intersection live around 10,000 addicts, many homeless and is known to be the poorest postal code in Canada. They had many people involved, mostly people from from their own faith community and the War College, a discipleship training school they lead. There were also people who came on mission trips, from other surrounding churches and staff at the hotel that took regular shifts in the prayer room. The vision was simply to keep the flame of prayer burning in their community, to intercede for one another and their neighborhood, and to acknowledge the Lordship of Christ and their obedience to Yahweh at all times. 614 Vancouver now prays in 24-7 Prayer seasons, and joins with many other groups in the DTES to host prayer in the different incarnational Chris-

Praying as a Nation: What IF Ireland (in partnership with Alpha) What if Ireland? That is the question on their lips as they entered 2011. “What if a nation prayed? What if the Church united? What if you gave one hour? What if we really believed God when He said: ‘if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land?’ 24-7 Prayer Ireland, in partnership with Alpha, facilitated a year of prayer for 2011. They have people right across the nation of Ireland (north and south) praying for a whole year night and day!! They have sensed God leading them strategically to focus prayer on a particular town/city/ county each month and to couple this with a gathering in that particular area each month. These gatherings will allow people to share and celebrate stories, and pray and worship God together.

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A year to change the world - How to catalyse a year of 24-7 Prayer The goal of facilitating the year of prayer is two-fold. First, that this will lead to intentional prayer in each area, uniting the local church provincially and seeing significant changes in the communities represented. Secondly and more nationally, that this will catch the imagination of people all over the land as they call all of Ireland to prayer and that through this an increasing movement of kingdom people will be connected and mobilised. "The year of prayer in Ireland has been an

amazing adventure. We stepped into 2011 wondering how we could ever see a nation praying for a whole year and God has simply amazed us - from significant encounters with God of old and young in prayer rooms right across the country, to church leaders kneeling in prayer together in specific locations, to the significant national events that suggest a shift in the spiritual atmosphere of our nation - God is hearing and responding to our prayers. As Martin Luther once said, 'prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance but laying hold of His willingness.' Our heavenly Father is more willing to heal our nation than we can comprehend and we are learning to 'lay hold' of that awesome willingness!! C'mon" Tash Creaney

together that never worked together before, students engaged with God's heart for their peers and campus and got the bigger picture, and they got an intimate word or touch from the Father that reminded them Whose they are. Students that asked for the impossible, like muslims coming into the knowledge of Jesus, or atheist leaders denying atheism, saw those things happen often, and the students that didn't see immediate results were still filled with faith enough to keep praying. God has always had His eye on campuses in America, and it seems that He still does for this generation.” Dana Hernandez

Praying as a nation wide Campus: Campus America, USA In 2005, God spoke to them to “call Campus America to pray” and they have sought out obedience to that call. Since then over 400 campuses have registered at least one season of prayer. During the 2010 Year of Prayer alone, over 26,000 hours of prayer were logged as students around the nation prayed. Garages were transformed into sacred places. Tents, dorm rooms and church basements became holy spaces where students from all denominations and walks of life were welcomed to seek the Lord together. Professors, faculty, students and alumni alike cried out for a new move of God on their campus. As the 2010 Year of Prayer has come to a close, they're convinced that the movement of God in this generation is only just beginning. “The move of God on campuses never ceases

to amaze me. It seems that almost every student that has shared stories about their season of prayer shared most of the following: the prayer room brought campus ministries

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