Guatemalan Youth Pray Peace in Violent CityAnna Perkins - 9 Feb 2011
What do you do when your city has the 3rd highest murder rate in the world? Anna Perkins from Guatemala shares the moving testimony of young people crying out in prayer…
I am a short term missionary working in Guatemala city. I've worked with street children and more recently alongside my church, CEFEMI. I want to share with you a bit of my story and how we came to be doing 24-7 Prayer in Guatemala city.
Guatemala is a turbulent and violent country. BBC news recently listed it as having the 3rd highest murder rate in the world for a country not at war. In this city alone, around 4 bus drivers are murdered each week by extortion gangs. Many more citizens are murdered in acts of violent crime. It is a country gripped by fear.
When first arriving in Guatemala I began praying for the city and God showed me a picture of a river running through some dark and dirty streets. As it went it cleaned the streets and began healing all those in its path. I also felt God take me to the passage in Revelation 22v 1-5...
"Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever."
I felt that this was God's heart for the city of Guatemala, so far from it's current reality. I began asking him what the keys to this transformation were… How could a nation be changed? As I prayed he spoke just two words...
I began sharing this with my church here in Guatemala and an increasing passion for doing 24-7 Prayer grew within me. A few months ago I began speaking to one of my friends in the church who thought the idea was all a bit weird and not like anything that is normally done within Guatemalan churches, but after a few months of me persisting with the idea he came to me and said he was ready to give it a go. He felt like it would really focus the young people in our community on prayer.
Neither of us really know how successful it would be. We brought the idea to the church and were given the green light to do a trial weekend of 24-2 Prayer. We chose a room and I began planning prayer stations and translating resources into Spanish. The day arrived to set up the prayer room and I approached the pastors wife for the room key. She asked which room we were going to use and when I told her she started to cry. A number of years ago she had been given a vision during a church prayer meeting of all of the young people praying with zeal and crying for the country. The room in her vision was the room we were going to use!
Before we began the weekend every prayer slot was filled and people (especially the young people) were getting excited. I received a couple of stories from that short prayer weekend. The same pastors wife said that she had entered the room looking for her young son and found him lying prostrate on the floor praying and sobbing to God.
Another friend had accidentally slept through his designated prayer slot and when he awoke was worried that the prayer room may have been empty. When he entered he realised that many of the young people had not finished when their hours had ended but had continued to pray through the night.
We are excited about our week of 24-7 Prayer that is coming up this month. We realise that Guatemala is a country full of problems but we are praying for a passion for prayer, a passion for unity and for dreams and visions to be birthed in the hearts of the young people. I this generation in Guatemala who can rise up and make a difference.