TRANSFORMATIONS.
In our last issue under the heading TRANSFORMATIONS
Niall and Gerry Griffin told us of their plans to be a part of the Pentecost
Global Day of Prayer. Their
venue in Northern Ireland was to be the grounds of Stormont Castle.
Here is a part of the email they sent us after the event.
We
received permission from the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to hold the
event on the grounds of Stormont. We approached the heads of the main religious
denominations to ask them to endorse the event. All of them did so and wrote to
encourage us. With permission
we sent out more than 1,000 copies of the Transformations
Africa video on CD Rom. We faced difficulties, as with
an article in a daily newspaper which said that nobody with any working brain
cells would attend the event. Despite
this things seemed to be going well until we heard the long range weather
forecast which said it would rain during the week preceding the GDP and that on
the day of the event itself (Pentecost Sunday) there would be 11 centimetres of
rain. As the event was planned for outside this was
very bad news.
Being
in charge of the Intercession for the event I asked the thirty plus
intercessors to start praying for fine weather as well as the many other details
included in our prayers. For our final group intercession we
met on the Saturday before the week leading up to Pentecost Sunday. We prayed on the site of the event itself (the
grass was very wet and soft) that the following week would be dry and that
Pentecost Sunday itself would be fine.
As we walked down the long avenue to the main gates, the heavens
opened and we all got soaked to the skin.
But that was the last rain we saw until late on Pentecost Sunday night.
All
week a strong wind blew and with the good weather dried up the grass. The wind died down on Saturday and Sunday was a
glorious warm and sunny day.
A
letter appeared in one of the Saturday newspapers from the Secretary of the
Evangelical Protestant Society calling the event a sham and saying that the Holy
Spirit wouldn't be present and that the Evangelical Protestant Society (who are
connected with the Rev. Ian Paisley) was holding an alternative meeting in
another part of Belfast.
The
Police estimated that there were 12,000 present at Stormont and everyone
knew that the Holy Spirit was there also. The event, consisting of Praise and
Worship, deep Repentance and Prayer, Celebration and Dance, called out to God
not only for Belfast but for the whole island that He would break the power of
the paramilitaries and heal our land. We prayed also for other
countries especially those in the Continent of Africa.
The
next day the event was reported in the national newspapers and a large
photograph appeared on the front page of one of them of people worshipping God
in front of Stormont buildings.
The
Lord had heard our prayer and our cry had come before Him.
Niall & Gerry.