Exciting Previews and News from the MovementScot Bower - 13 Oct 2011

The opportunity to write a short overview of the comings and goings of 24-7 gives me the chance to pause and reflect on the last month; to take stock of what God's done with us, what we're spending our energy on now and what's in store for us in  the coming weeks.

There are so many exciting initiatives and stories it's difficult to know where to begin..

Pray HIV is a month long call to prayer for the causalities and the causes of HIV and AIDS. We're praying for healing, we're praying for justice and we're praying for a cure. Just 24-7 [hyperlink] have produced an awesome downloadable prayer guide [hyperlink] and will be blogging regularly this month to help encourage and guide our prayers  in the run up to world AIDS day on 1st November. Andy Freeman writes:

"HIV is a very human problem.  It‚Äôs shaping our world. Nearly all the major development agencies see HIV as a core issue.  You could argue that poverty is a key factor in the spread of the virus.  Low income could drive women into sex-work, increasing the likelyhood of infection.  A lack of education means information about the disease is hard to come by.  Not being able to eat well or have access to clean water increase the chances of contracting AIDS.  Lack of income to pay for necessary Anti-retroviral drugs (which are often not made available by Governments or drug companies) means many with HIV are not treated. Conflict makes poverty worse in a region, but also spreads HIV.  In many countries, rape is used as a weapon of war and led to an increased infection rate.  Poverty spreads HIV‚Ķ It's time to take responsibility."

November is also a month of frantic activity as a small team work intensely on a series of videos to help us pray in the run up to Christmas. 24-7 Spaces for Advent follow on from our Lent season (which were downloaded by over 6000 people per day) and are produced as daily podcasts to simply help us fix our eyes on the coming of Jesus. Our prayer throughout the season is 'Maranatha - O Lord Come'. Please pray especially for Zac and Andrea as they get to grips with the editing process and watch out for more news of the podcasts in the next week or 2.

This month we are tremendously excited to be launching a new short video. It's been a year in the making and is stunning! It focuses on the Boiler Room community in Kansas City and we believe this will be a key resource as 24-7 Prayer plant and nurture praying communities all over the world. As a key part of the 24-7 Network we'd love to share the video with you before it gets released generally. Please have a look and tell us what you think.

Finally I'd love to share an image with you. It's a top-secret screen shot of an animation 24-7 are producing which will be called 'Why Pray'. The project gently explains what prayer is and how to connect with God. This image got the project team really excited. This is what it's all about, encouraging that life-giving, electrical connection between man and maker - Prayer! Next week we're decorating the office and this image will be painted as a huge mural over 1 wall as a constant reminder of the power of prayer.