TRANSFORMATIONS.
Niall & Geraldine Griffin.
For
most of us life goes on in an undramatic way.
Every so often something may happen that makes us perk up for a moment
before we settle back into our familiar routine.
However, occasionally something happens that makes us sit up, causes our
hearts to beat faster and stirs our imaginations. Such an occurrence took place
in 1998. A group of us,
all National Directors of an Anglican-based Mission Agency who were attending a
retreat in Virginia, USA., heard an audio tape about Community Transformation.
The tape described what was happening in communities that were
‘anointed’ by the power of the Holy Spirit as a result of the spiritual
leaders within that community working and praying in unity backed up by
persistent and ardent prayer on the part of intercessors.
These communities were starting to appear in different countries. Some of
the results were growth within the different churches, decrease in the crime
rate, leaders becoming strong Christians and in one rural area the land becoming
measurably more fertile and productive.
The
tape was, among other places, taken to Cape Town in South Africa, where it began
to have an effect.
Two
years later, SOMA, which is the name of the Anglican-based Mission Agency which
encourages clergy and others to work in the power of the Holy Spirit, held a
Consultation in Cape Town on Community Transformation.
This time they had a video instead of an audio tape.
As part of this a public Prayer Gathering was held in a stadium which was
attended by some 4,000 people.
We repented and called out to God to bless the city.
A business man caught the vision of what God was doing. He sensed that the Lord was going to begin to
move throughout Africa in stages.
In
2001 he organized a Day of Prayer, in the stadium, for the city.
45,000 people including many of the clergy of the different denominations
met to pray.
In
2002, people met to pray in stadiums in eight different cities in South Africa.
The
following year most of the countries in the southern half of the continent met
on the same day to pray.
In
May 2004 every country and island group in the entire continent of Africa met on
the same day to pray for Africa. More
than 20,000,000 people, from Cape Town to Cairo, cried out for their countries
and for their continent. In Egypt,
for example, Christians from 17 different denominations including Orthodox,
Roman Catholic and Protestant prayed together.
This
year, 2005, on Sunday 15th May (Pentecost Sunday), Christians in
Africa have invited Christians throughout the whole world to join with them to
pray. This means that this
Global Day of Prayer would start at the most easterly point of the globe and
move westwards for 24 hours until the whole world is covered in prayer.
It will be the largest Prayer Gathering in the history of this earth.
In our Transformations
Committee, which
is made
up of people of
the different denominations
mainly from the Belfast area in N. Ireland, we have been praying for several
years for God to work in our land. We
prayed about how we might be part of this Global Day of Prayer.
We considered using a stadium but then we felt that the Lord wanted us to
meet in the grounds of Stormont which is where our politicians, Members of the
Assembly, meet.
This
meant writing to the Secretary of State for permission to hold the meeting in
the grounds. The letter
was endorsed by the heads of all the main denominations.
The
Secretary of State has graciously given permission.
As
well as the considerable work involved in organizing such an event, our
intercessors are praying that 17,000 people will attend.
That would be 1% of the population of N.Ireland.
Please
pray that God will move the hearts of the people, irrespective of denomination,
irrespective of political affiliations and irrespective of divisions, to come
before Him in repentance and call on Him to change our people, change our
situation, change our attitudes and change our hearts.