God is at work in Greater Ontario, CanadaJill Weber - 22 Sep 2012

All around, life is springing up from this old ground...

I am reminded of these words from Gungor as I look around at what we are experiencing here in Greater Ontario. God is at work in our midst.

GOHOP (Greater Ontario House of Prayer) was established in 2001 and over the last six years we have been mining the wonderful DNA of the 24-7 Prayer movement. In the fall of last year we hosted by the Canadian 24-7 Gathering and were formally adopted as a 24-7 community.

The explosion of prayer in the city has been incredible. A prayer facility in the heart of Hamilton sees 64 hours of prayer weekly. Last year we helped to mobilize the church in the city to three weeks of 24-7 prayer and this summer we were delighted to open the “Prayer Truck” (a U-Haul truck converted into a prayer room) which was parked in a back alley in our city for three weeks of 6am-midnight prayer.

Scattered around the city we have “prayer cells” which we use as training labs to train people in prayer, hearing God’s voice, and very soon will be adding one that focuses on justice issues.

We have just launched our first internship we calling “Studies in New Monasticism” with 17 interns participating. The first book on the agenda is Punk Monk and over the course they will be studying themes of community, prayer, hospitality, mission and justice – the DNA of 24-7 Prayer.

There is such a passion in the city. Over 50 people participate regularly and several hundred join in with the larger prayer events. We have a staff of six full and part time missionaries devoted to the development of the Urban Monastery.

God is at work in our midst. Please keep up us in your prayers as we continue to pursue a life of prayer, mission and justice!