Non-stop Prayer in UgandaAlain Emerson - 6 Feb 2012

God is busy establishing prayer in all sorts of everyday spaces; office buildings, tents, prisons, gardens, bedrooms, caravans and boats are all examples of locations that have been given over to prayer. Most excitingly over the last year there has been a huge surge in the number of prayer spaces held in schools with classrooms becoming Prayer Rooms for a week. Encouragingly this is not limited to the UK, Alain Emerson from 24-7 Ireland has just returned from Uganda with encouraging stories of a passion for prayer being ignited in the hearts of children there. Check out the post below from Alain who shares about his incredible trip to a country known as the “Pearl of Africa” … significant name, significant place, and clearly God is on the move. 

I had flown out to Uganda to share the vision of 24-7 Prayer at the head teachers conference of the Fields of Life schools.  At the conference there were teachers and pastors representing 70-80 schools.  I decided to make the vision practical and set up some prayer stations for the delegates to try out, honestly I felt a little unsure about whether they would engage with the experience, but returning from my first coffee break I was delighted to see many of them interacting with the stations. Below is one of the more powerful prayers I caught a glimpse of.

More encouragingly I got to catch up with a handful of schools that piloted 24-7 Prayer last year, the testimonies were so positive that I wanted to share them with you. Three hours North of the meeting location a school had built a wooden shack to be used as a prayer space for the children. Many of the children pray from 3 in the morning, go to school, then return to ‘sacred shack’ to continue praying. As expected, this dedication to prayer has begun transforming that community, friends and families of the children have come to know the Lord. Apparently a family in that community are said to be involved in witchcraft and therefore is feared by many in the village. Now, through prayer, 6 members of that family have given their lives to Jesus! Amen!

Inspired by the positive feedback I was receiving at the conference I decided to propose the idea of a year of prayer between the schools. We opened up a flip chart and divided up the year, the response was amazing, the year has now been covered by an unbroken prayer chain with many of weeks double booked.

I also got to make some exciting new connections at the conference meeting a woman who is in charge of over 100 schools and is very interested in running with the 24-7 Prayer vision. Another with a lady who works closely with children infected with HIV. I plan to follow up these connections to see if we can mobilise prayer in both these places. 

I want to end by saying thank you for your prayers 24-7 Community, I was so inspired by the signs of Gods kingdom being established in Uganda through the prayers of the saints. God is on the move, especially with the children here, for we know “the kingdom belongs to such as these”.