I imagine that your Christmas and New Year celebrations are little more than a distant memory now?" writes 24-7's Phil Togwell (left).  "It's hard to believe, but we're already over half way through January 2005. But this means at least one good thing... it's nearly time for IAM5!
 
In less than four weeks, about 1200 of us will be gathering in St Mary's, Marylebone in Central London, to celebrate five years of unbroken, global 24-7prayer - and this really is something worth celebrating! The doors will open at about 12.30pm, and then from 1pm we launch into our packed programme. We'll be taking some time to interview a bunch of people who've been involved in mission teams and Boiler Rooms and other 24-7prayer projects, and also to hear one another's stories.  We want to pray for the nations we represent (and the many we don't yet), to marvel at the adventure we've been on and worship our God who's brought us this far together (...oh, and to play some party games.  Did I mention that this really is going to be a party - party bags, pass the parcel, balloons, a birthday cake?). 

 

As the day progresses, we'll also be giving time to hear and pray about the journey ahead, as well as some of the extraordinary things that are definitely 'coming soon'.  We've invited some special friends to help us do that so look forward to hearing about mission, community and what on earth Pete Greig was thinking when he wrote The Vision & The Vow (he he).
 
In another hall, we'll have a cafe, a small 24-7prayer room, and a large marketplace area, with all kinds of information about Boiler Rooms and mission teams, 24-7's 'Transmission' festival this summer and the recently launched Order of the Mustard Seed, the Make Poverty History campaign, new books such as Pete Grieg's 'Vision & Vow', and this year's unprecedented Pentecost project, which we're working on with Faithworks, as well as information from our partner organisations...  phew!
 
We really hope you'll be there. In fact we want you to be there, if at all possible. If you've been part of this crazy Adventure, then IAM5 really wouldn't be the same without you! To our surprise, we've already sold far more tickets than we did for last year's UK gathering, and that's part of the reason for this article. Just to say this - if you're planning to come, please book in as soon as you can. Here's the link if you want to do it right now - http://www.24-7prayer.com/iam5 - tickets are £5. (We've said that they'll be £8 on the door, but I honestly don't think that we'll have any to sell on the door!) (...which reminds me, I need to get mine!)
 
I think that's about everything... we'd love to see you there!