Pray Without Ceasing

Just got back from our 24 hour prayer chain that started at 5 pm yesterday and ended at 5 pm today. This was decided just this last Saturday night at our leadership meeting. Even being put together at the last minute, I counted 29 people who came to participate. 10 came just for the last 1/2 hour to close the time. I can't count all the people who got prayed for. Only HE knows that.

This is how it worked...

• A sign up sheet was made with 24 - 1 hour blocks.
• People signed up for the hour that worked best for them. Several slots had more than one person praying.
• Designated prayer place: Mom and Dad's little guest house.
• When the new hour started and the new person showed up at the "prayer" place, the people already there praying would pray for the new one coming in.
• People wrote requests on the white board that they wanted others to pray for, left pictures, scribbled messages and notes, etc.
• There was a missionary corner with a copy of Operation World (in Portuguese), a world map, picture of our church's missionary and missionary letter.
• Another table had members of our church on pieces of paper that would get rotated so everyone would get prayed for.
• The method was up to the prayer: sit, stand or kneel.
• Coffee, water and hard candies helped keep the late night/early morning prayers awake.

A tiny little church out in the bush has helped inspire this event. They started with a 24 hour prayer chain like this and then took the plunge to pray from 5 am Palm Sunday to 5 am Easter Sunday (a full week around the clock) this year. Ken and I participated in one hour of that. That one hour went by so fast I could hardly believe it.

Now that I think back, there were several other times I have participated in something similar. In Bible college we had an all night prayer vigil. Several years ago a few of us did 24 hours of prayer and fasting.

I am praying that each person who participate will be changed...at least enough to realize that in spending time with Jesus Christ, it isn't enough to say, "Hey, God, just checking in with you to let you know that I am awake for the day and headed out the door again to everything that is so terribly important and demanding in my life. So keep me safe and my family, too, and I'll check in with you again tomorrow, amen."